Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!

Friends are important.

"With daddy as the Pope, I could do as I pleased, was ace!
I'd kill a man who'd dare to, like, invade my personal space."

— Cesare Borgia, Horrible Histories ("The Borgia Family")

A character is able to Screw the Rules, simply because their friends or family are very influential, powerful or wealthy people. Can be Truth in Television, especially with The Mafia and similar criminal organizations.

A favored technique of the son of the villain and those who realize they are Not on the List.

Wives of powerful men often do this, as do their children. And their brothers. And their nephews. And their sisters. And their mothers. And their...oh, you already get it by now.

Often phrased as: "Do you know who my dad is?" or "You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With!"

See also Coattail-Riding Relative, Daddy's Little Villain, Diplomatic Impunity, Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy, Nepotism, Single-Target Law, No Fame, No Wealth, No Service, Screw the Rules, I Have Money!, and Screw the Rules, I Make Them!.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Akame ga Kill!, the depraved group Wild Hunt often excuse their actions by pointing out that they are sanctioned by the government, and their leader Syura is the son of Prime Minister Honest. After, Wild Hunt rapes and kills Bols's wife and daughter and then Syura attempts to rape Kurome, Wave says he doesn't care and kicks Syura's ass.
• Every single target of Akumetsu, being filthy-rich megalomaniacs, Corrupt Corporate Executives, and/or Sleazy Politicians, in any combination. Not that this stops him.
• In Asteroid in Love, when the rest of the Earth Sciences Club learn that Mira is the sister of the Student Council President, Monroe attempts to invoke this by asking Mira if she could lobby for more funding for their club. This is never followed through, so it's assumed to be averted.
• Attack on Titan: Edward "Dimo" Reeves blocks off an emergency exit during a Titan attack with his merchandise, declaring that the Survey Corps exist solely to die so people like him can live. When Mikasa threatens him, he tries to pull this, stating that he's known her boss for a long time and can "decide [her] fate with a single word." Mikasa is undeterred, casually knocking out his bodyguards and retorting "how is a corpse going to talk?", after which Dimo gives in and gets out of the way.
• A woman who gets into an altercation with Bamboo Blade's teacher, Toraji-sensei, uses her position as the superintendent's next-door neighbor to get him fired.
• The Leagans in Candy♡Candy; when Candy is working at Joseph Hospital in New York City, Eliza frequently uses her family's connections to hospital to interfere with Candy's work life and Eliza's mother, Mrs. Leagan, gets Candy fired from her job by threatening to withdraw her family's funding if Candy remains employed there, simply because she disapproves of her son Neil having fallen in love with her.
• Death Note: Though Light Yagami is one of the suspects of the Kira case from the very beginning, his father's status as the Chief of Police is what protects him from being seriously considered as such by the normal police and he knows it.
• In Eyeshield 21, There's Donald "Mr. Don" Oberman who was able to expel a talented player in Notre Dame and have all his affiliations and achievements in the school erased simply because Mr. Don didn't feel said player was worthy of being Notre Dame's ace running back. How influential are his connections? He's just the son of the President of the United States.
• Dr. Chrome Ballanche was able to dabble in the forbidden arts only because he was a lifetime friend of the God-Emperor of the most powerful nation around, even if his intentions were noble.
• Fruits Basket: Akito's status as both God of the Zodiac and head of the Sohma family effectively makes her exempt from scorn or punishment for any of her actions; the Zodiac members are compelled to forgive and honor her no matter what due to the curse, and the maids just allow her to do whatever she wants on the grounds that a God can do as they please.
• Used by both the heroes and the villains in the various iterations of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. Quite memorably, in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series, a perp managed to avoid conviction partially thanks to this trope, and in response Chief Aramaki quietly arranged his "accidental" death in a car accident and hushed up any investigation that might follow, neatly demonstrating that the trope goes both ways. In another incident, some college kids were running an amateur organ black market, under the impression that their influential parents would get them out of any trouble. The Major literally scares the piss out of them instead, though her motivations were more personal than getting around their connections.
• Haganai: During Season 2 of the anime and Volume 8 of the novels, there have been attempts to destroy the Neighbor's Club via RulesLawyering. The issue this time was that it turns out that Maria wasn't actually a teacher or a nun at the school, and Kate was just letting her think that to make her go to the school and behave. This means that the club didn't have a supervisor as is required in the school rules. Sena proceeds to get her daddy(the chairman) to fix the problem by having him appoint Maria as a temporary part-time instructor meaning she could now be their supervisor. Aoi (the Rules Lawyer in question) then tries to get them shut down for not having an instructor when the club was formed, meaning their club shouldn't exist in the first place but Sena then proceeds to tell her that if she does not cease and desist she will have her reputation ruined and expelled. Needless to say, Sena won that round.
• High School D×D: Diodora Astaroth is a sadistic Hope Crusher who's favorite pastime is getting nuns branded as heretics and driving them to despair before raping and/or murdering them; as Issei himself realizes, the only reason anyone even puts up with Diodora, much less hasn't just killed him, is because he's related to Ajuka Beelzebub, one of the Four Great Satans, and doing so would risk provoking the Old Satan faction and triggering a civil war. Once he joins the Khaos Brigade and participates in a plot that would have killed a lot of high-ranking people, he loses that protection, and nobody gives a shit when Issei beats him senseless and Shalba offs him. Ultimately deconstructed, as the Astaroth clan soon finds its reputation in tatters as a direct result of Diodora's actions. Ajuka himself has this trope inverted being briefly Mistaken for Terrorist because of his relation to Diodora.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stardust Crusaders: Polnareff is briefly arrested for being the prime suspect in Devo the Cursed's sudden murder (which he did indeed commit, but Devo was an Ax-Crazy Serial Killer that was trying to kill him, so it evens out), but luckily manages to avoid jail time thanks to lawyers from the Speedwagon Foundation.
  • The JoJoLands: A Dirty Cop Jodio encounters doesn't follow any ethical practices needed of a police officer, but to him, it doesn't matter, since he has other cops to back him up while he's committing his heinous acts.
• In Judge, the reason the drunk truck driver that ran over the protagonist's brother didn't get the full sentence he deserved was that he was well-acquainted with the judge, and had everyone on the jury being bribed.
• Miyano from Maga-Tsuki is able to get so much stuff done via this method that it borders on Reality Warping.
• One Piece:
  • In the first few episodes, Helmeppo can do whatever he likes because his father, Axe-Hand Morgan, runs the town. Morgan actually hates his son but lets him use his name and authority as long as it doesn't put a dent in his ego.
  • The World Nobles are an even more extreme example. If there's someone they can't shoot and is openly defying them, an Admiral gets involved immediately. Arguably, the only people in the world who could get away with defying the World Nobles are the Four Emperors — not even the Seven Warlords of the Sea (who have a notorious amount of Ultimate Job Security) can get away with that. Though this is because one of the Emperors alone is enough to challenge the World Government and the Marines with sheer manpower rather than any kind of strong influence beyond that of pirates. Another exception is another World Noble, such as when Saint Mjosgard strikes Saint Charlos with a spiked club. No admiral is summoned because it would create a paradox, with the admiral being unable to enforce the law without the admiral themselves harming a World Noble. Ultimately however, Mjosgard is judged and sentenced to death by Saint Figarland Garling — the only World Noble with the authority to judge the others — for using his privileges to do good.
  • Caesar Clown attempts to invoke this trope at the tail end of the Punk Hazard arc, citing all of the people who rely on his factory, the weapons he makes from it, and even all the children who suffer under him. Luffy promptly responds that he doesn't care.
  • Doflamingo is able to fake quitting the Seven Warlords because he is a former World Noble. According to him, he isn't considered one anymore by the others, but he still holds clout as a descendant of one of the World Government's founding families, and apparently knows something that allows him to blackmail the World Government.
  • Orochi is only able to get away with his tyrannical rule of Wano Country because he has Kaido of the Four Emperors and the Beast Pirates backing him up. That is, until Kaido decides he doesn't need Orochi anymore.
• Oz from PandoraHearts frequently exploits his connection to Jack, the "Hero of Sablier," as well as his own standing as a member of one of the four dukedoms. On one occasion, he threatens to use Jack's influence to turn Pandora against Duke Barma when the latter attempts to arrest Alice and Break. Another time, he pretends to have accessed his connection with Jack in order to deceive Isla Yura. Unfortunately for Oz, this connection backfires when it's revealed that Jack isn't the shining hero of Sablier everyone thought he was, but rather the villain who caused the whole tragedy in the first place. Oz does not take this revelation well at all.
• ST☆R: Strike it Rich: Ichika used her position as a member of the gang unit to help Hana to fly under the radar. Naturally, her being reassigned put a stop to it.
• Vampire Hunter D film. Greco, the mayor's son who sexually harasses Doris Rumm. This happens in the novel and is not the only example in the series.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Shingo Sawatari often name-drops his father, the Mayor, when things don't go his way. Played for Laughs later when he's in the Synchro Dimension and he doesn't seem to understand the concept that this won't work because nobody there has ever heard of him or his father.

Comic Books

• Agent Graves in 100 Bullets. He spends the first half of the series giving out cases with a gun and well... you know. Graves is so connected that if a bullet from his cases is found at a crime scene, the investigation stops altogether. Any friend of Graves' is flat out allowed to get away with murder.
• In Batman #424 we have Felipe Garzonas the son of a wealthy diplomat, he's an obnoxious jerk who is very abusive to his girlfriend and is also involved in a drug-smuggling ring, he is arrested twice for his crimes but quickly released and it is later arranged that he won't serve any jail time because of his father's diplomatic immunity, after his second release he harasses his girlfriend to the point where she commits suicide and Batman can't do anything about it, Jason Todd the second Robin is furious so he takes manners into his own hands, when Batman arrives on the scene Felipe has fallen to his death from his apartment, he asks if he pushed him but Jason claimed he slipped.
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Subverted in a Donald Duck comic where Donald works at a theatre. The son of a mob boss basically threatens his way to being the leading man, despite being an incredibly bad actor. The subversion occurs when Donald breaks and becomes as angry as only Donald Duck can be, telling the guy just how bad he is. The offended young man calls upon his father... who turns up and thanks Donald for finally standing up to his obnoxious son, who is always using his connections to get away with stupid stuff.
• In the She-Hulk graphic novel, Jennifer is captured by SHIELD and forced to be strip-searched in public in front of male personnel and in violation of all established procedure. Dum-Dum Dugan, acting director, comes in and is furious at this abuse, and orders the agent responsible confined to quarters pending a formal reprimand. The agent threatens to use his connections, and Dugan gets a harsh phone call by those connections ordering him to let the agent go. He didn't get away with it; he was the first casualty of a sentient swarm of cockroaches who invaded the craft, who used him as host. More than likely, his last few moments weren't pleasant. On top of that, this led to the Helicarrier being destroyed, one of SHIELD's biggest disasters; in all likelihood, those powerful connections he called didn't retain whatever authority they had much longer...
• That Yellow Bastard and Kevin in Sin City have heavy ties to the O'Rourke family. Fortunately, Hartigan and Marv don't care.
• Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra: Trey gets away with everything he does (from bullying to attempted murder) because his father is a powerful politician.

Fan Works

Crossovers

• Bridges Burned (Mama always told me that I should play nice. But she never met you) makes this a central element of Marinette's revenge against her Fair-Weather Friends. Since they turned on her in favor of Lila, who lies about knowing various celebrities, Marinette calls in favors from famous figures like Lois Lane and Tony Hawk, who proceed to pull various strings on behalf of the people she points them towards — all friends who didn't betray Marinette's trust. It's explictly stated that many of the opportunities they're giving her friends would typically go to older candidates, but all of the celebrities she contacts are so pissed off by how she was betrayed that they're willing to bend the rules in order to send a message to those who hurt her.
• The Confectionary Chronicles: When Hermione becomes the high priestess to the pagan god Loki (really the archangel Gabriel), he essentially does this on her behalf. Realising that the magic used by Hermione's type of witch and wizard is because of a blessing from the pagan goddess Hecate, Gabriel is able to replace Hermione's specific blessing from Hecate with an aspect of his own power as he doesn't want to share his most interesting worshipper for centuries with another god. As a result, Gabriel has also removed the Trace, which means that Hermione will never be bothered with warnings of underage magic use simply because of her worship of Loki.
• Exitium Eternal: Saren uses his status as a Spectre to shorten his commute times.
• An Extraordinary Journey: Giles basically attempts this after the new Council attempt to interrogate Willow about what she's doing in her new job, but unfortunately for him the SGC have better connections.
• The Faith Chronicles: Quentin Travers, head of the Watcher's Council, tries this several times but it becomes increasingly useless as Faith's mother Sam Carter is fully prepared to use all her connections to keep her daughter in her life.
• Essentially deconstructed in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Harry Potter crossover The Key to Marauding, which features Dawn Summers arriving at Hogwarts during the Marauders' fifth year. After Lucius Malfoy (currently a seventh year) tries to rape Dawn, his father Abraxas attempts to cover up the incident while also trying to get James and Sirius expelled for attacking Lucius (as they jumped in to defend her). While Dumbledore can't make the rape charges stick without putting Dawn in an uncomfortable position, he and Professor McGonagall do their best to punish Lucius for his actions, including restricting his movements through Hogwarts for the rest of the year, forcing him to hand his wand in whenever he's not in class, and making it clear that he will be expelled if he gets into any further trouble before graduating.
• Metal Gear: Green: This is very common throughout the fic.
  • Many villains and villain groups have ties to the HPSC and are often released around the time Madam President wants a problem removed. She springs Magnetic out of prison to kill Sainz, only for it to be foiled by Snake.
  • Numerous corrupt heroes follow the HPSC's marching orders, with the Elementals executing the entire Midoriya bloodline sans Izuku because the HPSC needs the kid alive to be used for dimensional exploration.
  • Fudaki outright claims that his father is a powerful pro hero and tells Ochako she will either drop out, or else. Unfortunately for him, the USJ Nomu kills him when he tries to fight it alone.
• In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Alexis Lois "Lexi" Luthor is able to wield her family's vast network of connections to get her hands on information that should be restricted to the Japanese government, police, and the Top Ten Heroes. She makes full use of this to track down Izuku to satisfy her interest in talking to an alien.
• Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K: The Skywatch are a homebrew Ultramarines Successor Chapter (in)famous for being extremely Codex-Deviant, which would normally invite intense scrutiny from the Inquisition. However, the Skywatch also has strong ties to the Ordo Xenos (the branch of the Inquisition responsible for handling alien threats) with multiple Skywatch members (including their current Chapter Master) having served in the Inquisition's Deathwatch in the past. Out of gratitude, the Ordo Xenos shields the Skywatch from any investigations with independent Inquisitors who try to prosecute the Skywatch often finding themselves Unpersoned.

Amphibia

• Living in a Frog World: Maggie is the daughter of the school district's superintendent, who uses his influence to prevent Frank from being able to reenter school after he was unjustly convicted of a crime that was committed by Sasha, claiming he was too dangerous to be allowed around "normal kids".

Arrowverse

• Arrow: Rebirth:
  • As a benign example, Laurel has no problems using the fact that her boyfriend is the Green Arrow to threaten private investigators into doing their jobs at their actual rates instead of letting them hike it up for a profit.
  • Tommy planned to do this after exposing Oliver to get his best friend into a psychiatric facility, believing that his talk of "Tempest" as a conspiracy is just a delusion caused by Oliver suffering a psychotic breakdown. What he completely failed to realize is that those "connections" are the same people Oliver has been targeting as the Green Arrow, meaning they'd be more inclined to kill Oliver rather than help him.
• Oliver basically uses this in Happy Accident when circumstances lead to Laurel Lance of Earth-1 being brought back to life in the body of her Earth-2 counterpart. To deal with the issues involved in how he disclosed Black Canary's identity after Laurel's death, he contacts the current President, reasoning that the government owes the heroes a favour for stopping the Dominators recently, and suggests that Laurel's current status as a publicly known hero makes her qualified to basically act as the government liaison and public face of other active vigilantes.
• In What It Takes, once Laurel's identity is exposed, Diggle is forced to sign up with A.R.G.U.S. for protection. When Quentin arrives to arrest him, this is enough to force him to back off.

Buffyverse

• Taaroko's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9:
  • When a government agency attempts to take the Slayers prisoner in the belief that they are super-soldiers funded by the now-defunct Wolfram & Hart, the lieutenant who authorised the operation is quickly shut down when his superior shows up, as the man is Captain Graham Miller, formerly of the Initiative, who notes that people don't get far when Buffy Summers sees them as the bad guy; as Buffy puts it, "They called in the cavalry, who happened to like me better than them."
  • On the other hand, Cole, a member of Oz's new band and boyfriend to new Slayer Alex (Cole plays the keyboards while Alex is the drummer), applies to become a Watcher so he can be there for Alex, but makes it clear that he wants the full Watcher-training experience rather than just using his close friendship with the original gang to 'fast-track' through the training.

Castle (2009)

• Invoked to a point in Solid Ground, when Castle and Beckett are marooned on a desert island after a plane crash. Back in New York, while Alexis doesn’t ignore the rules, she does use her father’s contacts to ensure that more attention is paid to the search than might have been if anyone else had gone missing. Esposito also calls in some favours from his old military contacts to help with the search effort.

Danganronpa

• In the Role Swap AU Danganronpa The PARALLEL, Taka accuses Kyoko and Ryota of exploiting their relationships with Jin Kirigiri and Kazuo Tengan, the current and former Headmasters of Hope's Peak. Koichi tries to convince him that this is most certainly not the case, to little avail.

Death Note

• The AU Those Who Stand for Nothing Fall for Anything has a Running Gag where L goes around introducing all of his coworkers and his rivals and his enemies to his "good friend" the prime minister.

Disgaea

• Wolf in the Streets, Sardine in the Sheets:
  • Despite growing up as The Dreaded 'Street Tyrant', Valvatorez is able to set up a children's shelter thanks to his familiarity with Axel, along with other connections he's hinted to have with the city council. This infuriates Carter, who'd planned to abuse his own connections to block his path only to find himself unable to.
  • This is also how Killia and Christo were released into Valvatorez's care; the latter being the son of the Police Chief has its perks.

Emergency!

• Roy Desoto basically used this in this fic, but for good rather than bad reasons. John Gage is sick and hospitalized, and Roy is the only one who can usually keep him calm-John usually gets upset in this author's fics without his friend around when he's sick. Roy was on vacation, and Dr. Brackett cleared him to go into Johnny's room upon knowing he was heading back home. A nurse fails to get the message and tries to turn Roy and his wife away, and Roy tells her to call Dr. Brackett, who's one of the head doctors on staff. Brackett isn't happy to find out about the whole thing, especially since she was mistreating Johnny as well.

Fire Emblem

• A Brighter Dark: After pushing one too many of her buttons, Corrin punches Niles in the face and tells him that as a member of the Nohrian royal family, she could easily get away with killing him, and even convince her brother Leo to look the other way at her murdering one of his subordinates due to their close relationship.

Frozen

• Basically invoked in Lady In White, which features an immortal Elsa meeting a woman who appears to be Anna's reincarnation. At one point Anna is captured by Remington, the head of a group that has been hunting Elsa for some time, with Remington using her authority to subject Anna to an interrogation device known as "the Chair", violating a range of medical protocols such as running the Chair at a very high level without a supervising nurse.

Harry Potter

• The Chosen Six:
  • Defied for Draco in particular:
    • After he destroys Neville's Remembrall, he is banned from subsequent Quidditch tryouts and given a particularly unpleasant Punishment Detail. He had expected his parents to take his side, but they instead tell him the incident was his own fault, with his father adding he expected more subtlety.
    • Draco attempts to invoke this trope again by namedropping his father to intimidate Moody, who responds by making it clear he isn't afraid of Lucius one bit.
  • By contrast, Harry and his friends reject the idea that they should get special treatment, to the extent that Harry insists on taking part in actual Quidditch tryouts rather than just getting a position because he shows some talent for the game.
  • Played straight when Sirius uses his influence to expedite the process of removing Harry's warning for illegal use of underage magic from the latter's files. It's a rather justified example, though, seeing as the Ministry is stated to be extremely corrupt, and their incompetence resulted in Harry receiving a warning for something he didn't do without even getting a chance to explain himself first.
• Defied with a vengeance in Effects and Side Effects. Draco tries to blatantly ignore the fact that he was the cause of Harry's invoked change in legal status in order to steal the Potter title from him, convinced that his connections would ignore any rulings by 'inferior' goblins. The goblins are not impressed by his posturing, especially considering Draco is relying on his father's connections, not any connections he would have. Considering his father is currently in Azkaban at this point, the goblins proceed to strip Draco of his titles and grant them to Harry. It only gets worse when Draco panics at the loss of status and attempts to kill Harry. By casting a killing curse near a ranking goblin. In their own bank. When Draco continues to try to play the connection card, the goblins proceed to drag him off for execution. This sublime state of suicidal foolishness becomes a Running Gag throughout the story when people ask Harry what happened to Draco.

Love Hina

• Contract Labor: The Urashima clan's connections are widespread enough that Keitaro is able to arrange for a police motorcycle escort for a speeding taxi van in less than five minutes with just one call to the local police watch commander.
• For His Own Sake: Kagura's rich father and his influential lawyers ensured she didn't get so much as a slap on the wrist for murdering Takeru.

Miraculous Ladybug

• Chloé's Lament:
  • Chloé's overreliance upon this screws her over after she makes a Wish to swap places with Marinette. Since her father is now a 'mere' baker rather than the Mayor of Paris, she's no longer able to fall back upon this tactic.
  • She also assumes that Marinette will abuse her position just like SHE did, only to find that's not the case. Though she continues to insist otherwise despite all evidence to the contrary.
  • This triggers a Villainous Breakdown on Chloé's end when she learns that Marinette abstained from competing in Gabriel's hat-making contest because she didn't want anyone to think the Agrestes were giving her special treatment due to her friendship with Adrien. It's so completely at odds with her belief that connections are meant to be abused that she accuses Marinette of being lazy.
• CONSEQUENCES: In WORLD BEYOND: PART II, Félix presumes that he's completely untouchable because the Graham de Vanily are British nobility, with plenty of old money and connections. He doesn't consider that said connections might not want to be associated with somebody who aided an international terrorist, especially since he was the one who stole the Miracle Box and handed it over to Shadow Moth, enabling all the horror that followed. His mother is just as bad and ends up having a Villainous Breakdown when they're stripped of their titles and status.
• Dad Villain AU:
  • Zig-Zagged with Chloé. While she's always banked on her father's status keeping her safe, Tom was able to give the Bourgeois a run for their money by exploiting the fact that she'd created an extensive record of her own bullying campaign against Marinette online. André was ultimately able to prevent his daughter from winding up in juvie but has been forced to crack down on her bad behavior.
  • Zoé's father initially didn't bother with seeking any child support from Audrey, as he figured she'd use her connections to bury the case and screw them over. It took Tom stepping in, along with some discreet support from Viceroy's Blackmail network, in order for them to get a fair trial.
  • Tom plays with this himself. In the public eye, the Dupain-Cheng bakery has grown well-connected in the time since his wife's passing due to him working at several high-profile events, making a lot of powerful acquaintances. What's actually happening behind the scenes is that he's been using the information he's gathered as Viceroy to blackmail his way up the social ladder.
• Feralnette AU: After proposing to Marinette that they should work together in order to discover Hawk Moth's identity, Chloé uses her connections to ensure that Lila can't attempt to get Marinette kicked out of school again: she claims that Marinette is tutoring her, and if Principal Damocles attempts to expel her again, she'll bring her father's wrath down upon the school.
• Jerk in Sheep's Clothing: While Chloé is used to using her father's position this way, Henri possesses even more powerful connections in the form of having a parental relationship with the head of a very powerful tech company... one that happens to be tied to her father's campaign. This gives him the pull to potentially ruin her father.
• The Karma of Lies:
  • Lila cons her classmates by leading them to believe that she's got high-tier connections and is more than happy to use them to help her dear friends. For instance, she convinces Nathaniel that she knows somebody at Marvel Comics and can ensure that his entry for a contest is seen by 'the right people'.
  • After he's been robbed, Adrien expects that his case will receive immediate attention because he's an Agreste. He also pressures Marinette, trying to get her to put in a good word for him since it's now widely known that she's Ladybug; however, she refuses to use her influence like that.
• LadyBugOut: After Marinette reveals that she "helped" Ladybug set up the titular blog, pretending to be friends with her alter ego, she's ambushed outside her school by a Media Scrum. Nadja shoves her way through the crowd, declaring that since she's friends with the Dupain-Chengs, she's got "dibs" on this big scoop.
• Chloé heavily relies upon this in Leave for Mendeleiev, using her father's connections and money to pull as many strings as she can. Ms. Mendeleiev shocks her by completely refusing to bend to her will, countering her demands with a Badass Boast:
  Chloé: Do you know who I am?
  Mendeleiev: Do you know who I am? I am the meanest teacher in this school, and if I find you disrupting my class again, I'm going to see to it that you get suspended. Now, out!
  • Chloé proceeds to try and get to Marinette and her newfound friends in other ways, such as rigging the Weather Girl contest just to spite Aurore and convincing Mme Bustier to harass Marinette on her behalf, trying to pressure her into transferring back or agreeing to tutor Chloé.
• Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots: In "Being A Good Example Isn't So Easy, Is It?", Chloé uses this on Ms. Bustier when the latter tries to foist all responsibility onto the new Class Representative:
  Chloé: Look, I'm not like Dupain-Cheng, I'm not a pushover. And I'm not stupid either. I'm a student, you're a teacher. These are things that teachers are supposed to do. Planning field trips? That's a teacher's job. Sure a class representative can give their input, but that's it. All this other stuff is your job, not mine. I could have my daddy fire you anytime with a little tears. You're fortunate that you're even teaching right now. If you come to me one more time talking about Class representative's duties, I'll have you fired. Remember that, Caline.
• Raise Yourselves Up (We're Done): Lila and Alya attempt to exploit this by having Principal Damocles disband the World Travellers' Club. However, Marinette and the club members outmanuever them by getting the school board involved, forcing Damocles to back down.
• Tales of Karmic Lies Aftermath: When Ms. Bustier has to deal with divorce court, she tries taking advantage of how Marinette and several other members of Team Miraculous used to be her students by calling them in as Character Witnesses, hoping that she'll be lauded by association and land full custody of her unborn child. Marinette and the rest make clear that they aren't impressed by her attempt to ride their coattails, and that they won't shill for her on the stand.
• Weight Off Your Shoulder has this cause a cascading effect when Chloé's Karma Houdini Warranty finally runs out. Since said warranty relied upon her father's status as the Mayor, once it expires, public opinion turns against him as well for constantly enabling her by blatantly abusing his position. Same goes for Miss Bustier and Principal Damocles, who face harsh reviews and potentially losing their jobs as a result.
• What Goes Around Comes Around:
  • Chloé honestly believes that she can use her status as the Mayor's daughter to force the recently unmasked Marinette to hand over the Miracle Box, threatening to have the Dupain-Chengs' business shut down if she refuses. Much to her shock, Marinette stands up to her...and she also finds that the local law enforcement is no longer willing to bow to her father's whims.
  • Mayor Bourgeois learns the hard way that his Karma Houdini Warranty has expired when he attempts to threaten the police into releasing his daughter from custody, only to get arrested himself for obstruction of justice...on orders of the President.
  • Ms. Bustier attempts to invoke this by pressuring Marinette to publicly forgive Chloé and Lila despite how both not only bullied her constantly but are being investigated for aiding and abetting Hawkmoth's terrorism. Since Marinette is Ladybug, she expects her model student's word to have extra weight, and for her to continue 'leading by example'. Again, Marinette refuses to cooperate.

My Hero Academia

• Apex Predator features a benevolent version: All Might takes advantage of his status as the Number 1 Hero in Japan to protect people from being taken in and exploited by the Hero Commission.
• Defied in Collector Hero: Synthesis: Aizawa notices and calls out Shouto on his refusal to use half of his Quirk, threatening to kick him out of the Hero Course if he doesn't train with his fire half as well.
• Crimson and Emerald:
  • Hawks warns Monoma to be careful about taunting Pro Heroes, as many of them are willing to punch civilians... and powerful enough to get away with it. Monoma responds by pointing out that his mother's an ambassador while his father is an MEP. Any hero who hurt him would have to explain themselves to the Japanese Prime Minister.
  • Inko attempted to blow the whistle on Endeavor's abuse, only for the Heroics Commission to cover it up and discredit her.
  • Hawks was trained inside facilities that were supposedly shut down on the Prime Minister's orders twenty years before; the Heroics Commission completely ignored this command.
• Death Daggers: Ochako is attacked by a Smug Snake with an emotional manipulation Quirk and a father who happens to be a powerful executive. He threatens to ruin the lives of not only her and the three who came to help her, but their families as well, gloating about how he'll destroy their futures purely because he can.
• In It's Over, Isn't It (it's only just begun), Endeavor has become the Number One Hero in the wake of All-Might's world-changing Heroic Sacrifice. One way he's taken advantage of his new status is to turn the whole block around his agency into a dead zone. No internet; no phone; minimal electricity. Why? So he wouldn't have to deal with the press camping on his doorstep.
  Shouta: Aren't there other businesses on that block?
  Tensei: Uh... I mean. There were.
• Love, doubt and super cute babies!:
  • Yaomomo doesn't like taking advantage of her wealthy and privileged background. However, she's more than happy to do so for her friends, such as helping Mei and Izuku get a summer internship with one of her family's companies. She's also ready to use her family's legal teams to help fight against the HPSC.
  • Her parents make clear to Mei and Izuku that they despise the very concept of Nepotism; friends are not, they'll have to prove themselves during their internships and be hired on their own merits, if at all.
  • Aldera Middle School is secretly meant to help groom future members of the MLA. Though they're supposed to be subtle about this, the cell leader is being anything but discreet, certain that his family connections will keep him safe.
• Mastermind: Rise of Anarchy: Principal Nedzu uses his position to order a contact to ensure that Uravity gets any and all news about the vigilante King directed to her.
• One for All and Eight for the Ninth reveals that Mineta has managed to avoid any charges of sexual harassment making it onto his records because several of his family members hold positions on various school boards, including at U.A. Eventually, Nedzu turns this against him by arranging a match between Momo and Mineta in order to test the latter's self-control. None of Mineta's connections are powerful enough to match those of the extremely wealthy and influential Yaoyorozu family.
• What it Means to Be a Hero: In addition to being the #2 Hero, Endeavor comes from a wealthy background, giving him access to highly influential lawyers. Due to this, Shouto believes that it's impossible to make any kind of dent in his social standing, no matter how much evidence they have of his abuse.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• Bad Future Crusaders: Babs Seed is able to get away with much more than other members of the guard simply because she is Captain Rumble's ex and a lot of characters are afraid to mess with her purely out of fear of what he'll do to them if they do. Also at one point, Dinky makes it perfectly clear Babs would have been punished severely for attacking Featherweight but is lenient because of her own friendship with Rumble.
• In Diaries of a Madman, Navarone's unusual friendship with Celestia keeps him out of prison and gives him a lot of leeway in what he does, though it's also because she finds him too useful to imprison, and resorts to non-standard punishments instead.
• In Waking Nightmares, a rare heroic version of this is used when the Flim Flam brothers come to claim Sweet Apple Acres, which they did actually win in the series. Trixie promptly points out the multitude of ways that the heroes could use their own connections to make their victory decidedly meaningless.

Naruto

• Accidental Companions: Naruto's landlady Syne uses her connections to ensure that Naruto has no way of escaping the power she holds over him.
• Androgyninja's A Dose of Venom: After working incredibly hard to prove herself throughout A Drop of Poison, Sakura learns that she's made enemies who aren't happy with how a mere 'civilian-born' shinobi is challenging the status quo. These people use their connections to sabotage her, considering that more important than focusing on rebuilding Konoha in the wake of disaster... and outright want her DEAD.
• Destiny is a Hazy Thing: Tsunade attempts to use her position as the Shodaime's daughter to get her way. Shikaku bluntly informs her that if she abandons the village in its hour of need, she'll be labeled a missing-nin and blacklisted.
• Escape From The Hokage's Hat:
  • The Council uses their position to threaten Tsunade with banishing Naruto. Later on, she notes that Naruto is placing himself in a better position to turn the tables, by virtue of earning the trust of various Daimyo around the Elemental Countries.
  • Jiraiya suggests telling Naruto about his parentage so that he could use the leverage that offers to appeal to the Daimyo of Fire Country directly.
• In Hurricane Suite, Naruto is the Sole Survivor of his team after a mission to Kusa goes disastrously wrong, and drops off the grid for a while. Normally, this would get him labeled a missing-nin, seen as a deserter and condemned to death. But since he's the son of the Fourth Hokage, he's able to return home without facing any serious consequences aside from having others keeping an eye on him.
• Lampshaded in I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again!. Shikamaru says that under normal circumstances, using forbidden time travel jutsu could qualify as high treason, but since the perpetrators are the Hokage's son and preferred successor respectively he can't actually give them a harsh punishment. So he just makes them wear signs saying ''WE WILL NOT MESS AROUND WITH FORBIDDEN JUTSU'' until the problem is fixed.
• your move, instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue):
  • Inverted with the Harunos; Sakura's parents don't have enough political clout to prevent their daughter from being drafted as a Child Soldier at the tender age of five. Her mother tried to get help from the other members of the Allied Mothers Force, only to be booted out.
  • Danzo pulls rank in order to send Kizashi on a ROOT-sponsored mission, as part of a scheme to get them out of the way.
  • Orochimaru uses their influence to help Tenten land an apprenticeship with the blacksmith guild.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• The Gospel Of Malachel: When an assassination squad that has hit the Eva pilots' classroom gets captured by Nerv's security, Gendo expects to treat his prisoners however he sees fit and get away with it because Seele controls the U.N.
  Gendo Ikari: Out of twelve attackers, eleven were killed. The one that was taken alive, who, incidentally, was also the force's commander, is currently undergoing interrogation. Should he survive, he shall be turned over to the U.N. for trial and sentencing. They have been tentatively identified as American in nationality, although as of yet there is no evidence linking their actions the United States government of military.
  Seele 12: (icy) 'Should he survive?' There are rules for the treatment of prisoners that the U.N. abides by.
  Gendo Ikari: (grinning) NERV security does not have to answer to U.N. protocols. Treatment of prisoners is whatever NERV deems fit.

The Omen

• Always Visible: As a police inspector, Galbraith takes advantage of his position sometimes even without any reason - the first chapter of the first act is the most striking example of this. It is ironic that in the third act he no longer has power, because the American policeman in England can no longer rule like he does at home.

Pokémon

• The Pokémon: The Series fic Ash's Adventure: Girls' Hunter Edition is set in a world where humans can also train PokeGirls- female trainers defeated in battle can be 'captured' with human balls and gain a Pokemon type- a chain of events leads to Ash being unable to receive a licence from Professor Oak, but he acquires a set of human balls that he uses to save Misty's life when they meet during a thunderstorm and a Spearow attack. As part of Misty's efforts to help Ash, she is able to call Bill (the inventor of the Pokemon storage system) and arrange for him to provide Ash with a trainer's licence that deliberately ignores any PokeGirls Ash might catch so that they don't register as part of his full team. As a result, Ash could theoretically catch a full team of six Pokemon and as many PokeGirls as he wants so long as he doesn't keep them in their human balls full-time, although when informed about this he was planning to release his only PokeGirl captures as soon as was practical.
• A Kanto politician in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines forces Professor Oak to give his children starter Pokémon (despite not getting high enough scores in his official test) on threats of cutting his research budget.
• A Professor and a Student: Professor Kukui does this accidentally. While struggling to coordinate the legalities of organizing a class trip to Kanto, he calls Delia to explain the situation. In addition to immediately securing aid from Professor Oak, Gym Leaders like Brock and Misty get involved to help their friend Ash. Even the Kanto Champion Lance gets involved...!

RWBY

• AQUA: The First Step: According to Dr. Polendina, the only reason Commander Vasilyevich still had a job in the Atlesian army despite his General Ripper tendencies is that Jacques Schnee backed him up, bribing people and pulling strings to keep him employed.
• Linked in Life and Love: Despite knowing that Jacques attempted to kidnap Weiss while she was recovering, Team RWBY can't do anything to challenge him due to his being the richest man in Remnant and holding a monopoly on Dust.
• Lampshaded in Raise: After Blake Belladonna helps murder Weiss Schnee (temporarily), Jaune asks Ironwood outright if the only reason why they're discussing what to do about the incident is because the former is the daughter of a powerful family. Ironwood ultimately admits that yes; if it were anyone else, there wouldn't be any discussion at all.

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong

• Another Time, Another Place, Another Story: Chen Baozhai tries to use her boyfriends — she's a Gold Digger who dates several young men coming from very wealthy and influential families — to try and ruin Liu Qingge's life and reputation, by framing him as a domestic abuser and pressuring his boss to fire him. Unfortunately for her, Liu Qingge is friends with Shen Yuan who belongs to THE most wealthy family in China and is rather eager to retaliate in his name.
  • Shang Lei bitterly confesses he's unable to find a job in spite of his very prestigious credentials because he has no backup ready to vouch for his reliability. Shen Yuan fixes this by introducing him to his brother Shen Jiu, thus playing it straight.

Sonic the Hedgehog

• In Sonic X: Dark Chaos, Tsali is able to get away with genocide and mass murder without Demon government interference because of his personal connections with Maledict himself. He also has near-limitless access to money from the Demon treasury for the same reason.

Spiderman

• Gwen Stacy in The Real Queen of Midtown once got arrested for destruction of public property during a protest. Her father, a police captain, managed to get the arrest dismissed and was able to hide it so that anyone not doing a thorough investigation wouldn't be able to find it.

Spyro the Dragon

• Destiny Intertwined: Dragons that are part of noble clans are given preferential treatment under the law, to the point of being able to get away with murder even if there's evidence. Clanless dragons are treated a great deal more harshly.

Star Trek

• Didn't Expect That: A Cardassian ambassador gets assassinated due to the Yoyodyne Division having connections to Section 31.
• Discussed in The Headhunt. A conversation between the nonhuman members of the USS Bajor's command crew has them basically decide that the Federation law banning Augments from Starfleet or public office (see DS9: "Dr. Bashir, I Presume") not only runs counter to Federation values but is actually unconstitutional under the Articles of Federation. However, the humans are terrified of Augments thanks to the Eugenics Wars, and because they have so much political mojo in the Federation, nobody's had the balls to mount a legal challenge and get it struck down.
• Heis'he Ri'nanovai: The Federation ambassador is willing to let Jethro Wisniewski be tried under Romulan law as long as the death penalty is taken off the table. Praetor Velal initially refuses, but then Ambassador Rama offers to help Velal get sanctions relief past the Federation Council.

Worm

• A Cloudy Path: Taylor sees the Unwritten Rules as a prime example of this, noting how they seem to favor those who are already in power:
  Taylor: I've never cared for the unwritten rules. Ever since I first heard of them, they rubbed me the wrong way. Too easy to manipulate, and they always seemed to favor villains way more than they did heroes. If you tried to rely on them, they failed you the moment somebody with too much power decided to fuck you over. Because it would have been too difficult to call them to account. It always favored the people in power, and if you weren't with them, then you got nothing. A system for the strong to stay strong, and say 'fuck you' to everyone else.
• Mauling Snarks:
  • Taylor's relationship with Jacob makes her life a fair bit easier, as he's able to get her a phone with enhanced features and security clearance, helps her brand as an Anti-Hero, and encourages her to use her kinetic projection powers on a wrecking ball.
  • Later, her relationship with Dragon as the AI's new mother grants her SL10 security access.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: Mokuba Kaiba: "My brother is Seto Kaiba; I can decide who lives and who dies."

Films — Live-Action

• In The A-Team, Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck is able to turn his stay in prison for the last six months into a Luxury Prison Suite to the bafflement of one of the guards due to his top-notch people skills and extensive contacts both military and civilian. As Face puts it, "It isn't who you know, it's how you know them."
• Batman Begins: Bruce Wayne became Batman because nearly all the public officials of Gotham were in the pocket of the crime lord Carmine Falcone, preventing Falcone from facing justice.
• Jackie Treehorn from The Big Lebowski, according to the Malibu Police Chief.
  Police Chief: Mr. Treehorn draws a lot of water in this town. You don't draw shit, Lebowski.
• The Boondock Saints: Yakavetta. Not that it helped him.
• Averted in Burnt by the Sun. After being arrested by the NKVD, Colonel Kotov rattles off Joseph Stalin's personal phone number. The secret policemen squirm in their seats, but when he goes to leave the car they inflict a brutal beating. Kotov has no idea that Stalin is the one ordering his arrest in the first place.
• Casino: Subverted. The cowboy who puts his feet on the table at Ace's casino protests that he has "important friends" when he's escorted off the premises kicking and screaming for being a jerkoff. He does turn out to be a friend of Nicky's, although unfortunately for the cowboy, so is Ace, and he's a much more valuable friend to Nicky. Nicky is ready to lay the smackdown on the cowboy himself and forces him to apologize.
• The 1948 Soviet adaptation of Cinderella is most frequently remembered for the stepmother who boasted of having better connections than the king himself.
  Fairy Godmother: I would have turned her [the stepmother] into a frog long ago... but, unfortunately, the old woman has lots of connections!
• Death Note Series: In this incarnation, this is Light's primary motivation to become Kira; he holds the legal system on a Broken Pedestal because he's sick of those with connections abusing the law and getting off scot-free.
• DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story: The Purple Cobras are able to enter the big Las Vegas dodgeball tournament without a regional qualifying match because the dodgeball chancellor is a friend of White's.
• Dumb Money: Gabe Plotkin gets bailed out of the failing short by Ken Griffin's firm (for the moment), and the duo go to work on putting down the retail investor uprising: Reddit is made to lock r/Wallstreetbets, Robinhood is forced to turn off the "Buy" button on GME, and it's strongly implied they squeezed MassMutual to make them fire Keith Gill for accidentally starting the whole thing.
• Another positive example in Hussar Ballad: while having a lower rank than Field Marshal Kutuzov, General Balmashov is a personal assistant to the Russian Tsar, and demonstrate willingness to throw all his weight to overrule Kutuzov's unjust decision.
• Lord of War: When the Hero Antagonist captures the Arms Dealer Villain Protagonist Yuri, Yuri sympathetically explains that he'll be set free because he's a deniable middleman for the American military and government to supply weapons to the enemies of their enemies. He's released immediately afterwards.
• Mean Girls: I don't think my father, the inventor of Toaster Struedel, would like that I'm not on this list.
• In Nobody Hutch kills dozens of Russian mafiosos, burns down his house, steals a multi-million dollar piece of art, turns his construction company into a battlefield, and hotwires his neighbor's car. While sitting in an interrogation room, his two captors get a phone call each and he's let go as nobody in the US government wants to mess with the "Auditor".
• When Willy Bank, the antagonist of Ocean's Thirteen, tries to use this as a threat against Danny Ocean, Danny replies he has all the same connections and they like him better.
• Peppermint: The judge and lawyer of the murderers are in the pocket of the cartel, leading to the dismissal of the case against them.
• In the Police Academy movies, a politician pulls this stunt on Hooks to get out of a parking ticket, thinking he can easily intimidate the squeaky-voiced policewoman. He discovers that Beware the Quiet Ones applies instead when she hits him with a bunch of additional charges.
• Schindler's List: A rare positive example: Oskar Schindler's membership of the Nazi party and friendship with senior Nazi officials are the reason he can save the lives of his eponymous List (well, that and a certain amount of outright bribery).
• After the grotto is closed in The Songof Bernadette there’s a group arrested with a vial of water from the grotto. The woman with the vial is told it’s being seized but she tells them she got it for the Empress Eugenie who requested it for the young prince, who’s sick. She happens to be the boy’s governess. It’s enough to get her and the vial released.
• Sorority Row:
  Kyle: Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what my father is capable of?
  Jessica: Oh yeah? Well, maybe I'm fuckin' the wrong guy!
• Top Gun: Maverick: Apparently, Maverick has gotten away with decades of shenanigans, because of the protection he gets from his old buddy Iceman (or, as he is now known, Admiral Tom Kazansky).
• Trapped: The Alex Cooper Story: The Simms repeatedly tell teenage lesbian Alex there's nothing that she can do to stop them from holding her in their brutal conversion therapy camp, as they're both connected with everybody in town and well-respected counselors. At first it's true, but thankfully she connects with a teacher, crisis counselor and lawyer to free herself.
• Winter Kills: When Nick and Yvette are refused seating at the restaurant, and Yvette takes off her trousers (see Dress Code above), the maitre'd is ready to have them thrown out until Nick reveals his father owns the restaurant, at which point the maitre'd apologizes and lets Nick and Yvette sit where they want.

Literature

• In Are You In The House Alone, Phil Lawver is the son of a very wealthy and/or influential man. When he rapes the narrator, the police chief refuses to even open an investigation on him due to his family connections.
• This is the stock in trade of the "looters" in Atlas Shrugged, who essentially make themselves into an "Aristocracy of Pull".
• Subverted in Babylon Berlin. When the vice squad do a raid on a pornographic theatre quite a few of those arrested insist they have powerful friends, but it's mentioned that even if that were true, they'll likely accept whatever minor punishment they get rather than admit to their friends what they were arrested for.
• This trope is directly responsible for the entire Archer Christifori arc in BattleTech. A Smug Snake of a junior officer with heavy political leanings towards the increasingly oppressive Archon Katherine Steiner-Davion killed Archer's sister when he was supposed to be picking her up for an interview then tried to weasel out of it with some Blatant Lies. When all he got was a slap on the wrist as punishment (he was demoted a couple ranks but spent no time in the brig and was never even charged with murder) thanks to his family's political connections, it was the final straw for Archer, who started a rebellion on his planet with his entire militia company before becoming one of the major players in the FedCom Civil War.
• Carrie: Overlapping with Screw the Rules, I Have Money!, Chris Hargensen's father is a rich Amoral Attorney who regularly employs Loophole Abuse to ensure she never faces the consequences of her bullying actions. He got her into Oberlin despite her poor grades, and when she's banned from attending the prom for taunting Carrie over her first period in the shower, he threatens to sue the school unless they let Chris attend; he's forced to back off when the principal shows him Chris' long record of violations, declaring that they could easily have Chris locked up for them.
• In Chance And Choices Adventures this is the reason the Butterfield Gang are able to operate with impunity in northern Arkansas. Their leader Hank Butterfield is related to the local Circuit Judge, who can always be counted on to cut him some slack.
• Subverted throughout the Codex Alera series. Several times, egotistical figures with connections attempt to invoke their connections or just pull rank on their own authority, only to be outmaneuvered or simply punched out. The one time saying "Screw the rules, I have connections" works in the series, it's a bluff. One Hilarious in Hindsight moment in the second book has a character saying "I have connections" to defuse a tense moment between some guards and an enemy nation's ambassador, but it's only a bluff because he's really just a page boy and student acting on no authority but his own. The Hilarious in Hindsight part is, he actually is the legitimate prince, but no one knows it except for the enemy he's trying to bluff.
• Clive Cussler: Many of the villains have massive influence and wealth; the Vigilante Man only stops them.
• Discworld:
  • This used to be the case in Ankh-Morpork; an ongoing theme is the way Sam Vimes and Lord Vetinari have made it harder and harder to pull this off, providing an almost endless source of plot conflict as the city's Blue Blood population fight for their privilege.
  • There's a beautiful moment in Feet of Clay where an Upper-Class Twit tries to pull the "I'm a friend of your Commander" line on some badly-shaved watchman in battered armour. This does not go well for him.
  • Subverted in Snuff when the obnoxious Upper-Class Twit Gravid Rust escapes capital punishment for trafficking goblin slaves and troll drugs by accepting exile to Fourecks instead, since Ankh-Morpork nobility wouldn't accept one of their own being sentenced by non-humans. However, Vetinari also has connections, including a clerk in Fourecks with a singular interest in venomous spiders...
• In Dora Wilk Series, one of Thorn Councilmen tries to force Dora to free his nephew from prison and rape charges, basing himself on this trope. She has none of this, though.
• Forest Kingdom: In the Hawk & Fisher spinoff series, many, many criminals in Haven use or try to use this to get away with their crimes, including the villain of book 1, an influential person who got Hawk and Fisher pulled off a case involving a child prostitution ring he was a patron for. It's also why he killed William Blackstone, who'd also figured out his involvement and was building a case against him.
• Percy Wetmore from The Green Mile. His catchphrase practically is "I KNOW people!!!" whenever anyone starts thinking of doing anything to him. He even got his job as a Death Row prison guard through his connections (his aunt is married to the state governor). Edgecombe couldn't figure out why he'd want a job like that, especially since there are far more prestigious government jobs that someone like Percy could get (including an offer for a high paying administration job at the Briar Ridge mental institution), but seeing how Percy treats the inmates like trash, it's pretty obvious he likes feeling he has power over someone and it's implied that he likes watching them be executed. Subverted when the others show that they too know people.
• Judge Dee: A fact of life in Imperial China, and several of the judge's cases have him resort to Justice by Other Legal Means (or nowhere near legal, like leaving a rapist and murderer alone in a room with a temperamental bear as a Trial by Ordeal) to ensure the criminal doesn't get away with it.
  • At the end of The Chinese Bell Murders, some higher-ups in the government are discussing the case and the difficulties in getting a trial, and generally agree Dee did the right thing in both cases: a temple of corrupt Buddhist priests who rape the women staying there to pray for fertility (relying on the social stigma to keep them silent) who will be protected by the Buddhist clique in the capital; and a white-collar criminal who arranged for the murder of a rival family and bought off multiple politicians.
    • The false Buddhists are dealt with when the judge holds the trial in the temple and orders the guilty ones held in a stockade outside the yamen instead of in the cells. By the time the prisoners arrive, a furious mob has heard the news and tears the monks apart (the guards tried to send for help, but the local garrison was absent on maneuvers, as the judge knew full well.
    • The other is tricked into confessing that he smuggles salt (a lesser crime that will let him bring his connections to bear) and that he did trap the judge and his lieutenants under the titular bell as a "prank". The judge accepts this... then reveals the law states an attack on a magistrate is an attack on the State itself, meaning the criminal is going straight to the capital with none of his connections able or willing to intercede for him. His various crimes ensure he's torn apart by wild buffalo.
• Harry Potter:
  • Draco Malfoy is the biggest example. He uses the threat "When my father hears about this..." at least once a conversation, at least in the earlier books. It's not particularly effective. In the first book, when he says he's going to tell his father about how he has to go into the Forbidden Forest for punishment, Hagrid dismisses the threat, saying that Lucius Malfoy would tell him that's how things are done at Hogwarts. In Book 4, bringing up Lucius Malfoy practically makes Mad-Eye Moody née Barty Crouch Jr. salivate at the thought of an excuse to talk to a former Death Eater. Particularly one he hates for his lack of fealty to Voldemort. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Draco incites a new wave of panic in the students studying for their OWLs by loudly declaring that his father has history with Griselda Marchbanks (head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority). However, Neville says he's almost certainly bluffing, as his grandmother actually is friends with Marchbanks (and she's never mentioned the Malfoys) and he doubts he'll get a leg up because of this relationship.
  • Similarly, Umbridge's connections in the Ministry allow her to literally get away with (attempted) murder in Book 5, as she's still around in Books 6 and 7.
  • Snape's connection to Dumbledore allows him to get away with blatantly unprofessional conduct that would get him banned from teaching in a Muggle school.
  • James Potter. You'd think the fact that a Prefect like Remus Lupin hanging around him most of the time would hamper his ability to bully people... except, Lupin was also one of his closest friends (because James didn't ostracize him when he learned that he was a werewolf before the werewolf became school prefect) who preferred to simply look the other way in regards to James' bullying. Though, to James's credit, he outgrew the bullying behavior by the time he became Head Boy.
• Hive Mind (2016): Telepaths are rare and valuable enough to be effectively above the law. Many of them realize this and undergo 'distancing', where they do whatever they want. Most develop a moral code eventually; Keith is still distant. Amber is considered unlikely to become distant due to being The Empath.
• Honor Harrington: Pavel Young lived and breathed this trope, abusing the heck out of the North Hollow family's position as one of the more powerful noble houses in the Star Kingdom to satisfy his basest desires and avoid any responsibility for his actions.
• The Hunger Games: A different interpretation of the word "connections" in this case, but the reason Katniss hasn't been tossed in a cell for illegally hunting the District 12 wildlife isn't because of any particular skill at evading the Peacemakers. It's because the Peacemakers are also her customers.
• The Hunt for Red October: A Soviet doctor who was drunk on duty botched what should have been a simple appendix removal. Being the son of a senior party official, he remained unpunished for the violation of the rules and the death resulting from it. This is part of what drove Ramius to defect, as the victim was his wife.
• Occurs in a brief exchange in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. A man trying to get Mannie to get the government to buy patriotic buttons for members of La Résistance gets the brush-off. The man takes umbrage, threatening to go directly to Party Chairman Adam Selene, a close friend of his. Mannie is unimpressed by this statement, since Adam Selene is an alter ego of Mike. Since only Mannie and two others know that Mike is secretly a sentient computer, it's pretty obvious that the man is bluffing.
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!:
  • Played with in the second novel. At Wizarding School, Katarina has permission to come and go as she pleases from the student council room despite not being on it. However, it's because her friends on the council get the school faculty to agree to it by threatening to deny them the use of the room. Katarina herself didn't ask for it and has no clue as to why she's given the privilege of using the room.
  • In the sixth novel, Katarina is surprised to see both Mary and Sophia in the Department of Magic's onboarding. It turns out both requested—in different ways—their fathers to pull strings to get a place so that they can stick close to Katarina.
• A rare good example in Oblomov. Tarantyev's buddy thinks he can pull off robbing Oblomov blind, but his friend Stolz happens to be on first-name base with the general, who gets Mukhoyarov (said buddy) fired.
• Lightly used in Paladin of Shadows novel A Deeper Blue. When an admiral objects to Adams pulling a cigar, the former is asked to check whose authority is behind him.^note The US President's. The man quickly gives in.
• In the backstory of PartnerShip, several teens got into trouble that should have led to severe consequences, but as they were all Royal Brats from very powerful families they were instead assigned to positions in the remote Nyota system. Alpha, for testing Ganglicide on humans, was denied her impending doctorate but still assigned to work in a clinic, for example. On the trip there they all certainly carped as if they'd recieved real punishments, but each of them managed to exploit the situation to their own gain, and it took investigators who were themselves from powerful families to take them in after five years of free rein.
• Deconstructed in The Phantom of the Opera: The original book by Gaston Leroux shows the consequences of a society that embraces this principle: The opera managers know how to play politics better than to manage, and who the opera singer knows is more important to being The Prima Donna than to sing better. This means that everyone is a Stupid Boss who doesn’t know how to do his job. Every employee knows that, so the bosses are Properly Paranoid about being pranked by them because nobody respects them. They also are the ideal victims for a BlackMailer, and that’s how Erik (the titular phantom) could convince them to let him do whatever he pleases.
• In The Priory of the Orange Tree, Truyde ett Zeedeur is a high-ranking Mentish noblewoman serving in the Inysh court as a handmaid of Queen Sabran for diplomatic reasons. As such, she feels free to throw her weight around with Ead, and concocts a fake assassination in order to convince Sabran that she needs to do something about the world-ending dragon's imminent return. She is actually justified in thinking that harming her would have an enormous diplomatic fallout. Unfortunately, Igrain Crest decides it's a risk worth taking, turns the fake assassination into a real one, and has Truyde beheaded anyway.
• In the fourth book of Protector of the Small, Neal puts a spell on an abusive innkeeper that will prevent him from beating his servants by reflecting the pain back on himself. When the innkeeper says that it's illegal to force a magic on a person, Neal says that nobody's going to believe the innkeeper over Duke Baird of Queenscove's son. (To be fair, the innkeeper himself implied that he was buddies with the local magistrate and they're in a border town with an impending war, preventing a by-the-book resolution.)
• Reference material for The Railway Series reveals that the first Sir Topham Hatt, Baronet, had this. He was an engineer in his own right, before becoming director of the entire North Western region. He knew Sir William Stanier and Sir Nigel Gresley, both among the most famous locomotive engineers the world had ever seen. His good standing with them ensured Gordon was purchased, and Henry was rebuilt, to give his railway the powerhouses it needed.
• Another rare heroic example in The Raven Cycle: Richard Campbell Gansey III lives among psychics, spirits, and magicians. His super power? Calling in favors. He uses this power for good, either to help a friend in trouble (such as when Ronan faces expulsion or Adam presses charges against his father) or to further his search for Glendower
• Sam the Cat: Detective: Prior to The Great Catsby, a local woman shot her rich husband and got away with claiming she’d mistaken him for a burglar because her sister was married to the sheriff.
• The Scholomance: Todd breaks one of the biggest taboos of the magical community by killing another student for his room, but he avoids any major punishment due to his father being a prominent member of the New York enclave.
• Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels: The Vigilantes definitely use this trope to accomplish their missions and with style! In fact, it seems that Washington, D.C. pretty much requires everyone to make use of this trope. A number of the bad guys use this, and John Chai from Vendetta happens to be very explicit, considering how he was promising the Vigilantes that his father would make them pay (The Vigilantes were not intimidated by this, for the record).
• A Song of Ice and Fire
  • Has Janos Slynt attempt to do this at the Wall, despite the fact that at the Wall you're essentially a dead man and no one will care what happens to you.
  • Jaime Lannister got away with his killing of Aerys and stayed in part in part thanks to his father's power and reputation, as Robert didn't want to risk offending or punishing Tywin after the sack of King's Landing, and of him being the queen's brother. Him being a Lannister and the son of the mighty Tywin made him feel that he was above the laws, and could always get away with anything in the end. Deconstructed when he faces the Brave Companions, finding out the hard way that Ax-Crazy Psycho for Hire who kill, pillage, torture and rape just for the sake of it aren't going to care much about who your father and family name are.
• Sugawara Akitada: Even though he's a lowly clerk, being on a mission for the Emperor is empowering enough that Akitada is able to hire a wanted criminal^*(Turns out to be a case of mistaken identity but that's not the point) as a servant and walk around with him in the very region he was wanted. Akitada also has influential friends among the government willing to help him, too.
• Under Heaven: Shen Tai is able to unintentionally pull this off. A servent to the Beloved Consort (the Emperor's favorite) ends up informing Tai that his horse was moved without his permission, in preparation for a meeting. During the heated discussion that follows, Shen Tai uses a gesture that means "be quiet"; but wonders why he isn't being reprimanded for excessive rudeness - as far as he knows, he's just an army officer, with the rank being an appointment to support actions he might need to take claiming a gift from another country. Then he realizes: since his sister was "promoted" to princess to justify using her in an arranged marriage, his entire family can be treated as royalty... including him.
• The Unteachables: In the Back Story, Jake avoided being expelled after being caught selling test answers because two school board members were former fraternity brothers of Jake's dad.
• Vorkosigan Saga:
  • Miles Vorkosigan, the Barrayaran Prime Minister's son and Emperor's foster brother, occasionally does this; he considers it a last resort. He still gets in a lot of trouble, and the time he does try to use connections to keep from losing his secret covert ops identity after injuring an officer during a seizure, then falsifying the report of the incident, it doesn't work, though he still gets a medical discharge instead of dishonorable discharge and a further sentence. Really, his usual philosophy is more "Screw the Rules, My Results Will Justify It" or "Screw The Rules, I'll Deal With the Consequences Later". It's probably ironic that in the aftermath of the above incident, not only did his connections prove as valuable as he could possibly have wanted, they were taking care of and protecting him to a degree neither her nor they were aware of at the time.
  • Similar to the Discworld example above, this used to be the case for the aristocracy in general, and the efforts toward reforming the government to stop this are frequently mentioned.
• Falcone, closest thing to a Big Bad in the Warchild Series, has been arrested once before and sent to prison. His connections either broke him out or saw fit to release him early (the books are rather vague on that). When he gets arrested a second time, he tells our heroes it's a waste of time and brags about how he'll be out again. Indeed, he doesn't even make it to the prison when a group of his loyalists arrive to free him from the custody of the Space Marines. But in a fitting turn, he is murdered on the docks because one of our gray heroes can't bear to see him get away unpunished.
• Warformed Stormweaver: According to an epigraph, the MIND's influence means that wealth is far less important than it used to be; now what matters is social capital and family connections. Even then, it's limited. Notably, while Aria and Viv both come from well-off families, their actual money is never mentioned, just their connections.
• The Wayfarer Redemption: Hagen gets away with burning his wife alive and brutally maiming and torturing his adoptive daughter for years because he's the mayor and part of the Seneschal, claiming to have a connection to the god Artor himself. It's finally averted when Azhure murders him herself.
• Wolf Hall:
  • Thomas Cromwell is a member of a covert reading group of John Tyndale's English translation of the Bible, who face death by burning if discovered (as indeed several of them are). Cromwell is a little safer than people like Little Bilney because he's the right hand of Cardinal Wolsey, and it's an unspoken understanding between the two of them that he's allowed his little bit of heresy because of their friendship. (Cromwell also pays close attention to when Wolsey mentions names from the group and warns them of forthcoming raids. Later, when he's Master Secretary and thus becomes the Connection, he tries to arrange an escape for John Frith, but Frith refuses to take it.)
  • Cromwell later does this from the other end in an example of "screw the rules for my connections." When he's put in charge of bringing down Anne Boleyn, he's reminded by his accomplices of Thomas Wyatt, a poet with a well-known crush on Anne. Henry Wyatt is a family friend who once asked Cromwell to look after his wayward son, so when Mark Smeaton names Thomas Wyatt as one of Anne's partners, Cromwell refuses to add him to the list and refuses his accomplices' advice to arrest him until Wyatt arrives in London and Cromwell has no choice but to take him in. Even then he puts Wyatt in the Tower of London only for protective custody and doesn't even start a case in the hopes that the well-publicized executions of Anne and her five accused lovers will take the heat off. It does, and he releases Wyatt unharmed a little while later.

Live-Action TV

• Abbott Elementary: Melissa is a heroic example. She's a schoolteacher whose family is all but stated to be connected to the Mob, and she "has a guy" for everything, but she exploits her connections in order to get things like new school supplies and rugs for the classrooms. The fact that it's quicker and much more effective for Melissa to get basic necessities via her criminal contacts than it is for her to rely on the official channels is presented more as an indictment of the school system and its administrative issues than anything else.
• As the World Turns loves this trope because of its legacy families. Many of the characters, even just with ties to super couples and their parents/children, tend to be able to get away with anything on connections alone.
• This almost has to be happening for Lee "Apollo" Adama in Battlestar Galactica (2003). Having your dad be the head of the Colonial Military can mean you get cut a lot of slack. At the end of Season 1, he commits mutiny and puts a gun to the head of Galactica's XO, but this doesn't seem to hurt his career much. Towards the end of Season 2, he's even promoted to commander (over a few higher-ranking and more-experienced officers, the aforementioned XO included — though events early in the season hint said XO wouldn't be the best commander) and put in charge of his own Battlestar. And is there any other explanation for in Season 4 when despite the pressing need for experienced pilots at all times, he is allowed to quit the military for good and gets shoehorned into a Quorum seat, which allows him to temporarily rise to be president when Roslin is missing, mostly because they needed a candidate his father would accept? Given what we have seen of the lack of options open to ordinary people of the fleet and the need for all those in essential positions to do their duty all the time, one can't help but feel Lee is lucky to have the opportunities he has. And, in fact, he lampshades this a bit. At Baltar's trial, specifically, he notes that he had done some ridiculous things that should have gotten him prosecuted at least... but he was forgiven.
• This epically backfired on an episode of Beyond Scared Straight where a bunch of female inmates, including a young one about to be sentenced for robbery, were scolding the preteens and teenagers who were acting up. A 12-year-old tried to pull this on the young inmate, saying her recently-released mother was once the head of a vicious gang, only for her to tell her she wasn't scared of the woman and became so angry and threatening to the girl and her mother that both the guards and other inmates had to hold her back. The girl herself was soon reduced to tears.
• Big Sky: Ronald gets away with kidnapping women for so long partly due to being in bed with a dirty cop who protected him.
• In Blue Bloods, the Reagan kids avert this trope in that they refuse to use their father's clout as Police Commissioner. In "Critical Condition," Sosa suggests that with Jamie's family connections, he could have made Detective by now. That said, other characters try to invoke the trope, to mixed results:
  • Inverted in "Parenthood," when Mayor Carter Poole's illegitimate daughter Ariel joins a protest and is caught up in the ensuring dragnet. Ariel doesn't demand special treatment, but her parents politely suggest, separately, that Frank had better let the matter drop.
  • In "Rush to Judgment," Jamie is accused of undue force (he was actually trying to knock someone out of the path of an oncoming biker), a D.A. makes it clear she thinks he's guilty and his father must be covering for him. When video proves Jamie innocent, the woman continues to snark about his family always getting their way.
    Jamie: If my family really threw their weight around like you say...how smart is it for you to be insulting us?
  • In "Men in Black," Jamie and Vinny arrest the previous mayor's daughter and her friend after catching them in the act of smoking pot on a park bench. When preparing to arrest them, said daughter tries to invoke this:
    Rebecca Levitt: Don't you guys have any real criminals to chase?
    Jamie Reagan: You might want to ease up on that attitude, Rebecca.
    Rebecca Levitt: You don't know who my father is.
    Jamie Reagan: [smirks] I don't really care.
  • Of course, after a discussion with Erin her dad tells the judge:
    Rebecca's father: I would like to tell the court that my daughter is a wonderful young woman... [Beat] ...who needs to learn to respect the law.
  • The bad guys don't have a monopoly on this. In "Warriors" the State Department refuses to grant political asylum to a Turkish cellist in danger of being the victim of an honor killing if she returns home (for having dated and slept with an American during the tour). Frank talks a contact into getting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to hire her, and his opposite number at State, the episode's Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist, expedites a work visa.
  • There's an implication that when Nicky is arrested with her friends in "Road to Hell" after drugs are found in the car during a traffic stop that Nicky was expecting the process to be easier for her on the basis of her last name.
  • In "In the Box," Garrett's stepson Sam has been arrested for scoring oxycodone during an observational buy. Garrett wants to have him released into rehab. However, Frank is suspicious of the circumstances and has his secretary Abigail Baker investigate, discovering that Garrett has used his pull at 1PP to keep Sam out of prison on several prior occasions. Frank confronts Garrett and gets him to see that he's enabling his stepson's drug habit and not helping him.
  • In "Dedications," Frank brings up having to use Henry's influence to squash a commendation when a botched attempt to arrest the head of a Westies gang faction led to the death of the guy's wife and grandson.
  • It's played almost ridiculously straight in one episode which features the Deputy Commissioner cheating on his wife during a marital spat with a woman in Atlantic City. He makes it clear that the affair was mutual, admits to lying about his position when he met the woman, and she has pictures of text messages they sent to each other. The DPC is ready to resign, as he doesn't want to bring a scandal down on the department...so Frank asks his father to call up his old buddies on the Atlantic City force to put some pressure on the woman to "disappear," specifically saying he wants Henry to do it off the record so it can't be traced back to him. What makes it particularly egregious is that the episode's A-plot features Danny going on a rant about how priests lie to cover up child molesters (which, while true, turns out to have nothing to do with the case at hand). And the show doesn't even mention the parallels. Maybe the producers thought no one would notice.
• In Bones, Brennan appears to have some fairly high connections of her own, as indicated in one episode in which a State Department agent was reviewing the Jeffersonian to maintain their security clearance:
  Pickering: When you were in Cuba, did you meet with a man named Juan Guzman?
  (Beat. Brennan holds a finger up, picks up the phone, and dials.)
  Brennan: Hello. It's Dr. Brennan from the Jeffersonian. You told me to call you if anyone asked about...you know. Him. (pauses) Someone from the state department named Samantha Pickering. (gives phone to Pickering)
  Pickering: Pickering. (pauses) Yes, sir. Yes, I'll wait-I'll wait here. (gives phone back to Brennan, who hangs up)
  Brennan: Any more questions?
  Pickering: No. Uh, no, in fact, the entire review is suspended. I'm to wait here until someone comes to destroy my notes.
• Bosch:
  • Part of the reason why George Irving is tapped to go undercover into the corrupt cop ring in season 2 is because Irvin being his father makes him valuable to the rest of the crew. They'll want to bring him into their circle because they think George can provide access to dirty secrets and intelligence.
  • Early in season 3, Phil Gentry, whose daughter Becca is a classmate of Maddie's on the volleyball team, approaches Harry asking for him to help quash a speeding ticket. Harry pretends to agree to look into it, but actually has no intention of doing so. He doesn't tell Phil about it until Phil gets a notice in the mail for failing to pay the ticket and confronts him. At this point, Harry non-apologetically lies and claims he's tied up by red tape and that quashing tickets (by reaching out to the ticketing officer and asking him to call in sick on the day the ticket is being contested in traffic court) is not doable anymore.
  • Bradley Walker, the president of the Police Commission in seasons 3 and 4. His father was a powerful city councilman, and used his influence to keep young Walker out of trouble when Walker began sleeping with prostitutes, and quashed Caffrey's investigation when Walker murdered Harry's mother. It turns out in the present day that Walker is still up to using his connections for his own gain, like using ICE to deport the welder he hired to kill Caffrey before he can testify to the RHD investigators looking for him, and being part of a scheme with Howard Elias to bilk the city out of taxpayers' money from police brutality settlements to fund his construction projects.
  • In 1996, Justin "Beto" Frank, a police cadet, went riding with some childhood friends who chose to commit a drive-by shooting. Ryan Rodgers, then a detective in Hollywood Division, interrogated Beto. Beto's police career would've been over before it even got started and he would've ended up in prison had Irving, then a lieutenant, not swooped in and shut down the interview as a favor to Beto's father, who was a Deputy Chief at the time. Irving got put on the command track soon after the interview, and Beto got to join the force. Rodgers kept a tape recording of the interview as insurance after the fact. It ends up in Barrel's hands after Rodgers dies midway through season 6 of a heart attack, and his daughter gives it to him. Barrel, well aware of the damage the tape could do to Irving's mayoral campaign, reluctantly returns it to Melissa. A copy of it, however, makes its way to Los Angeles Times reporter Scott Anderson, who tries to blackmail his way into becoming Irving's press secretary. Later, when Irving chooses to drop out of the race and endorse Susanna Lopez, his opponent Jack Killoran tries to blackmail him with the threat of releasing the tape, only for Irving to call his bluff by pointing out that Killoran will only expose himself to criminal charges.
• Breaking Bad:
  • After the failed attempt on Hank's life by the Salamanca twins which ends with both of them dead, Juan Bolsa calls Gus Fring to accuse him of having set it all up to put pressure from the authorities on the cartel and invokes this as part of his Badass Boast to downplay the threat.
    Juan Bolsa: I see things clear enough. One DEA gets shot, all of Washington starts barking. The DF suddenly has to put on a big show and I wind up with federales in my rosebushes. And just for a while, appearances, politics... Are you still there, Gustavo?
    Gus Fring: Yes, I'm here.
    Juan Bolsa: I'll weather this. I always do. My brother is a police chief. I got connections. They'll get me through. And when I get proof and the others find out what you've done, maybe we come pay you a visit. Maybe—
    [The federales raid Bolsa's hacienda and shoot him dead]
  • Gomez uses this to bluff the manager of Gus's laundromat when Hank sends him there to search for evidence of the meth lab that exists underneath the facility:
    Steven Gomez: So I bust this chef. Well, he says he's a chef, but just because you work at a restaurant that charges $14 for a burger, that don't make you a chef. That makes you a glorified burger flipper, at least in my book. Anyway, so we bust this chef for heroin possession. He says, "Well, just because you found heroin in my chef whites doesn't make it mine. Maybe it came from the place that launders my chef whites" — this place.
    Dennis Markowski: Oh, come on, man. I don't want to do this stuff with you.
    Steven Gomez: I—I know, I know. You don't have to say it. I'll say it for you: "His story is a big load of steaming horse shit." I mean, we're going to find heroin here like we're going to find Jimmy Hoffa. Right? The thing is, is that the chef's daddy is a United States Senator. I'm not going to tell you which one, but you probably know who he is, right? So now I've got to waste my time checking out this burger flipper's story, and if I don't, his old man's going to jam me up, my ASAC, my whole entire office. Politics, huh? So what do you think?
    Dennis Markowski: Listen, you know what? I have to check with my boss, and he's out of town, and I can't promise I'll reach him anytime soon either, you know?
    Steven Gomez: Well, yeah, that's probably the way to go, so I'll have to go get a warrant, and we'll do it official, but you're probably going to have to close down for the day.
• Deconstructed in Brooklyn Nine-Nine in an episode where the Deputy Commissioner's son is revealed to have been tagging police cars with graffiti, but whenever he gets arrested he calls his father, who puts pressure on the arresting detectives to drop the charges. While venting to Captain Holt, Detective Peralta enviously calls the kid lucky, which gets this response:
  Holt: I wouldn't say he was lucky. I feel bad for this kid. I mean, what kind of father cares so little for his son that he lets him get away with everything?
• In Burn Notice, one scumbag Abusive Parent uses his connections to protect his mobster brother. When Michael and company take out the scumbag by making him look like an unstable lunatic, it's mentioned in the epilogue that the brother will likely go down with him.
• Castle (2009):
  • Castle is a surprisingly benign version of this... while he uses his influence as a best-selling mystery author (and the fact that he has the mayor on speed dial) to be allowed to shadow Detective Beckett, he has proved quite useful, with his Genre Savvy providing breakthroughs in several cases, and on one occasion using his connections to rush evidence through the lab to close a case.
    [after making a bet on whether or not their Vic of the Week was a CIA agent]
    Beckett: All right, you're on!
    [Castle dials a number]
    Beckett: ...who are you calling?
    Castle: My guy in the CIA.
    Beckett: [disbelieving] You have a guy in the CIA???
    Castle: When will you learn? I've got a guy everywhere.
  • Captain Montgomery is good at subverting this. He later reveals to Beckett that he could have gotten rid of Castle at any time ("The mayor doesn't run this place, I do."), but only kept him around because he thought it would be good for her. Also, when a suspect threatens to call the police commissioner, he replies "Tell him I said hi. And that I could use a raise."
• This is the main reason why the Office of Disruptive Services team on Chaos is able to operate the way they do. They have connections going all the way to the White House. Their Obstructive Bureaucrat boss wants them fired, but as long as they do not screw up in a major way, their everyday misdeeds will go unpunished.
• City on a Hill: Sinclair Dryden is a former FBI agent with friends in not only the bureau but the Boston Police and he's also close with the Suffolk County District Attorney. As a result, he was able to intimidate young women whom he'd raped into not pressing charges, in one case by sending a Boston Police officer as his envoy. He also bribed them not to, but his connections had more pull. Finally it collapses as Jackie and Decourcy investigate.
• Class of '09: In 2025, Tayo starts investigating corrupt corporations with the new AI system, relating how the FBI's conviction rate on such charges fell steadily over the prior decade due to them having vast money to pay for good defense lawyers. With the AI's help, he gets evidence to nail a bank despite this. After that, he decides to go after corrupt politicians using it too. He is soon nearly murdered for this, and he's forced to accept having certain high-level people exempted as suspects who the AI would consider for it being used by the FBI at all.
• Crusade: The Pro Zeta Corporation uses its influence with its clients to avoid an investigation.
• Daredevil:
  • Part of the reason that Wilson Fisk is so hard to take down is that he's deeply connected, with corrupt cops and senators on his payroll.
  • Karen Page gets her job at the New York Bulletin because Mitchell Ellison feels bad about not having previously supported Ben Urich, who he knew had been close with Karen and had been mentoring her through her investigation of Wilson Fisk up until Fisk killed Ben. It's clear that Karen's connection to Ben and to Ellison is why she's getting a job with one of New York City's major newspapers and immediately getting a private office, despite not having any journalism degree or prior experience in the field. (Most reporters would be lucky to get a cubicle to start)
  • Rosalie Carbone, introduced in the last two episodes of Luke Cage Season 2 prior to showing up in Daredevil Season 3, has immense influence in organized crime. She has as much control over the underworld in Rikers as Fisk does.
• The Defenders:
  • After Danny Rand and Luke Cage get into a fight when Luke interrupts Danny's attempt to interrogate Cole, Luke gives Danny a dressing-down about how his crusade against the Hand has him going after bottom-feeders when his wealth and social status give him the ability to take his fight right to the top. After much discussion with Colleen, Danny decides to go to the Hand's headquarters at Midland Circle in his capacity as the CEO of Rand Enterprises. Unfortunately, it's a trap, and while he manages to fight off most of Alexandra's men, he's almost captured, until Luke, Jessica, and Matt show up to rescue him.
  • The pull Luke has with Misty Knight from their work on Cottonmouth and Diamondback is how he's able to convince her to stash Claire Temple, Colleen Wing, Malcolm Ducasse, Trish Walker, Foggy Nelson, and Karen Page in her precinct when the Hand begin targeting them.
  • The Hand have thrived for so long because of their use of connections. They use contacts in the mayor's office and Trish's radio station to shut down talk about the earthquake triggered by underground mining at Midland Circle. After Elektra kills Alexandra, the remaining fingers — Murakami, Bakuto and Madame Gao — try to reason with her by pointing out that the Hand's connections are what gives them power and has allowed them to survive, but Elektra flat-out tells them she doesn't care about them beyond using them as tools to get the substance.
• Part of a climactic scene in late Season 3 of Dexter. Dexter confronts a monster he's created by reminding him of the evidence he has. Miguel's reply? "You got what, a ring? I got fucking CITY HALL!" Of course, he never did learn exactly who or what Dexter really is...
• In Dollhouse, it's not a person but the title business. It largely survives because it has a lot of rich and powerful people, including at least one senator and the Governor of California, on its client list.
• Landry in Friday Night Lights is a cop's son, and therefore, when he confesses to murder, the police are visibly trying to find a way to avoid prosecuting him. Even in his interview, the detective almost desperately tries to coach him into setting up his defence, and when his dad arrives, they let him go and ultimately fail to file charges.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Ser Jaime and Tyrion of the wealthy and powerful House Lannister get by on Tywin's and Cersei's reputation as well as their family's gold. Subverted in "Walk of Punishment" when Jaime tries to bribe Locke into releasing him. Locke gives Jaime a well-deserved "The Reason You Suck" Speech, mocking him for acting as if he's better than others and in control, when in fact nearly all of his influence and power comes from his father, and that when separated from him Jaime is helpless and should talk more wisely. To emphasize his point, he then lops off Jaime's hand.
  • Tywin Lannister, probably the most powerful (and certainly the richest) person in Westeros, backs the Baratheons of King's Landing to the hilt, allowing them to pretty much do whatever they want, no matter the obstacles. Unfortunately, this has also extended to the borrowing of money, leading to the Baratheons of King's Landing acquiring astronomical amounts of debt which they are largely unable to service.
• In the Australian series Halifax f.p., a detective working an interstate case is threatened with damage to his career by a local politician. When the detective points out that he's not even from that state, the politician indicates the club they're standing in, and talks of how politicians from all over the country pass through the club when visiting his state, and how politics is all about working these connections...
• An episode of How I Met Your Mother has Ted try to break up with Jeannette, only for her to trash his apartment, behave incredibly violently, and refuse to leave. He tries calling the police, only to discover that Jeannette is a police officer, and she informs her coworkers over the radio that she'll "take care of it".
• Done humorously in the movie Ike: Countdown to D-Day. The film made a point of showing Montgomery's (historically true) prohibition on smoking in his headquarters or at meetings he's attending, even to the point that Eisenhower, his superior in the Allied chain of command, wasn't allowed to light up. During the briefing for Operation Overlord given to King George VI, the king pulls out a cigarette, much to the distress of Monty who clearly isn't willing to tell his monarch that smoking is banned in the building. Immediately almost all the other senior Allied commanders, including Eisenhower, start smiling and also light up.
• JAG: Meg Austin's father was a friend with Colonel Oliver North (of the Iran-Contra scandal fame). Meg calls in a favor from "Uncle Ollie" once or twice when they need info they can't get through official channels.
• Jessica Jones:
  • Jessica attempts to use the connections of her acquaintances when trying to acquire sufentanil that she can use to temporarily disable Kilgrave's powers. She tries to ask Trish if she has connections to any shady doctors who might be willing to slip her some, but Trish says that all the doctors she knows save small African villages and wouldn't be easy to persuade. Then she goes to Jeri Hogarth's ex-wife Wendy, who is a doctor. Wendy is not helpful either, because on top of not giving a damn about Jessica, she works in a clinic and sufentanil is surgical anesthesia. So Jessica just resorts to stealing some from a hospital, using Malcolm as a distraction.
  • After Jessica, Trish and Simpson find out that Kilgrave has hired private security to protect him in case Jessica disables his powers, Trish uses her own celebrity status to sweet talk the right people into revealing which security firm he hired.
    Trish Walker: I might have a lead.
    Will Simpson: So, you gonna tell me?
    [Trish walks past Simpson, gets an envelope on the table behind them, and passes to him. He opens it. Inside are the pictures of various people in black shirts]
    Will Simpson: Mmm, military.
    Trish Walker: Ex. They're bodyguards. Kilgrave's new bodyguards.
    Will Simpson: And how do you know?
    Trish Walker: I went to all the top New York security firms, told them an old stalker of mine was back, that I was in the market for a new protection detail. After that, it was just a matter of getting the right people to talk.
    Will Simpson: No way. The first rule of personal security is to keep your clients secret.
    Trish Walker: I give good talk.
  • Played for laughs in a later episode. When Jessica and Trish are searching the morgues looking for Kilgrave's father, Trish bribes Maury Tuttlebaum, the morgue attendant at Riverbank Medical Center, into letting them search the bodies by getting him the chef's table at Per Se.
    Jessica Jones: Dinner at the fancy restaurant is supposed to buy us quiet assistance.
  • In Season 2, Trish uses another favor with Maury to get him to fast-track the identification of a charred skull she and Jessica find in Dr. Hansen's incinerator.
  • In Episode 6 of Season 2, Trish and Jessica try to enter a private country club to talk to Dr. Karl Malus's donor Justis Ambrose. But because Trish is not a member there, the maitre'd refuses to let them through despite recognizing Trish. Ultimately, Jessica has to sneak in by hopping over a wall while Trish just launches a tirade at the maitre'd by calling him a sexist, which culminates in her eventually throwing up due to going through the withdrawal of being off Simpson's inhaler.
  • In episode four of Season 2, Trish's new boyfriend Griffin Sinclair offers to use his pull as a newscaster at ZCN to get Trish a job there. She politely declines, saying, "I love you for offering, but going to them as Griffin Sinclair's girlfriend won't get me taken seriously," and she would rather get the job by her own merits than her connections.
• Used frequently in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Though expect whoever just got off on that to get killed shortly after by a victim that couldn't care less.
• On Life, Russian gangster Roman Nevikov has a whole bunch of FBI agents in his pocket, which allows him to walk away from pretty much any criminal charges the LAPD cares to bring by claiming to be a federal informant providing information about terrorist networks.
• Luke Cage:
  • Mariah Dillard is a city councilwoman in bed with the criminal activities of her gangster cousin Cottonmouth, and these connections are how she and Diamondback are able to sell Judas bullets to the NYPD as part of their scheme to discredit and kill Luke Cage.
  • Cottonmouth, in turn, has managed to escape arrest and convictions because he's got cops on his payroll to interfere in investigations that might incriminate him or his underlings, one of whom is Misty Knight's partner.
  • Diamondback has connections that give him access to Hammer Industries weapons, such as the brand-new Judas bullet.
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: In Season 3, when Joel is opening up his own club in Chinatown, he finds that it's difficult to get things done. Fortunately, Mei comes along and is quick to use her family connections in Chinatown to make business easier for Joel, such as getting the liquor board to fasttracking the approval of the liquor license that Joel had had tied up for months.
• Attempted on The Mentalist by a Victim of the Week's wealthy husband, who demands that Agent Cho tell him the name of his murdered wife's lover.
  Walcott: Are you sure, Agent Cho? Because I can make one phone call and your career is toast.
  Cho: [completely unimpressed] That's impressive. The most I can get with one phone call is a pizza.
• Midsomer Murders: In "Painted in Blood", DI Gudgeon attempts to intimidate Barnaby by bringing up that he has a very good working relationship with Barnaby's chief constable.
• Scooter on The Muppet Show gets by (at least early in the show) mostly on the fact that his uncle owns the theater where the show takes place. He's not necessarily a brat about it, and he doesn't make that many demands, but just casually mentioning his uncle is enough for Kermit to cave in instantly. (Scooters uncle appeared in one episode, and it's easy to see why someone would be afraid of him. He's a nasty guy to work for.) This aspect slowly disappears over time.
• In the Murder, She Wrote episode "The Committee", when the eponymous committee of a Smoky Gentlemen's Club turns out to have randomly appointed an anonymous member to "punish" the murder victim in whatever way he sees fit, the police detective tells the senior member that he can't think of a reason not to charge the whole lot of them with conspiracy. The senior member responds by phoning the police commissioner.
• Murdoch Mysteries:
  • The murderer in the episode "Breaking Ranks" seems unconcerned about being caught dead to rights because "My father's name means something in this town." Murdoch replies "And now, so will yours."
  • In the two-parter "The Long Goodbye", the newly appointed Inspector Edwards goes on a moral crusade, sending the constables to arrest anyone whose activities offend his sensibilities, regardless of whether the law in question is normally enforced or even exists (patrons at a legal and licenced nightclub must be guilty of something, apparently), Crabtree and Higgins try Bothering by the Book by arresting the Board of Control (who appointed Edwards) for breaking the Sunday Observance Act. Edwards just throws the case out.
  • Later, they come up with the variant "Screw the Rules, You Have Connections", pointing out to the board member who recommended Edwards that he might think arresting and banishing anyone who attends a "den of iniquity" is cleaning up Toronto, but some of his friends probably own dens of iniquity, and will know who to blame for their lost profits. Edwards is gone the same day.
• In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 short film "Cheating", Johnny gets caught cheating on a test, and Tom Servo riffs, "Fortunately, your mob ties will get you off, Johnny."
• Subverted in the mini-series Nancy Wake. Wake's husband, industrialist Henri Fiocca, tells a Gestapo officer that he can be talking on the phone with Marshall Petain in half an hour. "Can you do the same with your Fuhrer?" Later on, he's arrested and the Gestapo officer tells him, "By the way, Marshall Petain has never heard of you."
• The Night Manager: Roper is unconcerned with being caught since he has some very high-level connections in the American and British governments (including a top member of MI6). His luck runs out eventually on that score though, since his business partners seek revenge and his MI6 connection is forced to drop him.
• Hailey Grimm from The Other Kingdom often feels like certain school rules don't apply to her due to the fact that she's the principal's niece.
• The Punisher (2017): William Rawlins has managed to escape prosecution for the war crimes he committed in Afghanistan thanks to his rise to being the Director of Covert Operations for the CIA. In turn, Billy Russo has managed to also escape persecution for his role in these war crimes thanks to his pretty face and good charisma when it comes to schmoozing politicians.
• On Queer as Folk (US), a police officer who frequently uses male prostitutes accidentally strangles one of them. Luckily (for him), his long-time friend and former partner on the force is now the chief of police and agrees to help him cover up the whole thing.
• Rake: A lot of people get away with their crimes due to having friends in high places, like Edgar Mitchell with his dirty cops.
• Al Rawabi School For Girls: Alpha Bitch Layan, which is most apparent when intimidating Sumayyah, the school caretaker.
  Layan: I'd hate to get you fired, since, as you said, you have a family to feed and everything.
• The Rookie (2018): A downplayed example, but Aaron Thorsen's affluent upbringing and his past legal problems has meant that he has numerous connections that an average patrol officer would not have.
  • In one case when Harper felt she needed a better divorce lawyer to deal with a custody dispute, he offered to put her in contact with his high-powered attorney that she would normally never be able to afford and get her a "Friends and family discount".
  • When someone turns in a Katana that was potentially used in a murder he happens to know the prop guy that makes all the Katanas for Hollywood movies and he gets the name of who he sold it to without even needing a warrant.
  • When Harper decides to marry James he and Lopez are able to throw together a last minute party because his mom's best friend is a party planner who owns a venue.
• In Scrubs, a medical student is annoying the shit out of Elliot, because his father is the CEO of the corporation that owns the hospital, so Elliot can't punish or treat him badly. After Kelso tells Elliot that it's his job to kiss his father's ass and that she should go out and kick his ass, she does so.
  • Cole, one of the medical students introduced in Season 9, is the son of a major donor to the hospital and pulls this to get away with screwing around in the hospital. While it does keep him from being expelled, it doesn't keep anyone from getting back at him for his general jackassery.
• Subverted in the Sharpe TV-adaption of "Sharpe's Eagle". When Upper-Class Twit and exemplary Neidermeyer Henry Simmerson gets rightfully chewed out for his disastrous incompetence by the Duke of Wellington, capped off with Lt. Sharpe being gazetted to Captain over Simmerson's own choice (and nephew) Lt. Gibbons to lead the now-disbanded South Essex's light company, he makes a poorly-veiled threat regarding his connections. Wellington immediately shuts him down by noting none of those "connections" will risk themselves to help a man who lost the King's Colours.^note Meaning that the Regiment's flags were abandoned or taken by the enemy, a supreme humiliation.
  Simmerson: I have a cousin at Horse Guards, sir... and I have friends at court.
  Wellesley: [With a cold Death Glare] The man who loses the King's Colours... loses the King's friendship.
• Southland: Cooper and Sherman stop a speeder, who tries to pull the "do you know who my father is?" card, leading to one of Cooper's more memorable comebacks.

  Speeder: Do you know who my father is?
  Cooper: Why, did your mom not tell you?

• S.W.A.T. (2017): Chris arrests a young man for drunk driving while off duty, but it turns out that his father is the deputy mayor and he makes the case disappear. He'd done so twice before too. She fights to bring him down, and eventually succeeds with Lynch's help, catching the guy on tape admitting his acts, which is used for making him resign (while they urge that his son get the help he needs).
• In the Japanese Tokusatsu Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, a group of villains are incredibly calm towards Sen-chan's questions, annoyances, and at one point death sentence because one of their fathers is a judge for the Space police. Unfortunately for them, Sen-chan just decides to kill them before they have time to tell their connections.
• Utopia Falls: Aliyah's father Gerald is on the Tribunal, New Babyl's ruling council. As a result, she's gotten a lot of strings pulled in her favor over the years, including release from the Authority's custody when she's detained for suspected subversion. Not that Aliyah's done anything bad, or even asked for this-her dad just does it anyway.
• Practically everyone on Veronica Mars is guilty of some version of this. Veronica herself constantly exploits any and all connections she has in law enforcement. Usually justifiable, considering she lives in Neptune.
• In The West Wing, an inversion of this got Charlie Young his job as personal assistant to President Bartlett. Deborah Fiderer was pressured to give Charlie's position to the son of a prominent Democratic supporter (read: donor), but she wouldn't do it and ended up getting fired as a result. Despite this, though, she refused to admit what had happened as she didn't want Charlie to feel obliged to her for doing what she knew was right. The President is so impressed by her loyalty (and amazing memory) that he hires her to become his new private secretary.
• Wild Bill: One of the reasons Russian mobster Oleg Kraznov gets away with his crimes is through having a close relationship with the local police and crime commissioner.
• One of the major themes on The Wire. Clay Davis and Ervin Burrell are two of the biggest offenders.
• Averted in the pilot of Without a Trace. Martin Fitzgerald tells Jack Malone he doesn't want any special treatment just because he's the FBI Director's son, to which Malone replies that he wasn't planning on giving him any.
• Zero (2021): Ricci is let out of police custody at the end as a result of his high connections in Milan.

Music

• "Bitchin' Camaro" by The Dead Milkmen gives us this gem:
  I ran over some old lady
  at the county fair.
  And I didn't get arrested
  because my dad's the mayor.
• Tom Lehrer: "My Home Town" from Songs by Tom Lehrer mentions Sam, who was the village idiot and a pyromaniac, but about whom "Nothing could be done / Because he was the mayor's son".

Myths & Religion

• It's been suggested that this is why Jesus Christ wasn't immediately arrested following the cleansing of the temple — Herod Antipas let it slide as part of a conspiracy with Sejanus to get himself installed as King of Judea and overthrow the conservative, corrupt High Priest Caiaphas.

Podcasts

• Invoked by one of the mayor's assistants in Welcome to Night Vale, she claims to have supernatural mayoral powers. She then urges to have Cecil's reporters look away, and then follows through before they do.

Pro Wrestling

• The McMahon kids don't fall into this too well... Shane's a fan favorite (the inversion of Vince in many ways, but he has broken out into one of his catchphrases once. Not the one you're thinking of though.), and while Stephanie is a bit of a bitch as well as a Daddy's Girl, she was a face in her General Manager days (and ironically, her reign came to an end when Vince beat her in an I Quit match).
• Being friends with a high-profile wrestler is a great way to guarantee a job. Brutus Beefcake owes his entire career to his friendship with Hulk Hogan. Kevin Nash was first brought into the WWF because of his friendship with Scott Hall, and then they became good friends with Shawn Michaels and former indy sensation the 1-2-3 Kid (Sean Waltman)^note It was actually Michaels who brought Nash in after seeing him as Vinnie Vegas on WCW TV and thinking he'd make a good bodyguard, Hall relayed this to Nash and Nash got his release from WCW to go up north. They would form The Kliq and amass all kinds of backstage power for themselves, with Triple H joining in 1995. Later in WCW, the top wrestlers would try to become friends with Eric Bischoff and would usually get a huge push from it. Just ask Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Diamond Dallas Page, among others.
• Carlito became this way in Ohio Valley Wrestling after joining Bolin Services, telling Jim Cornette he could do whatever he wanted when being yelled at him for arriving to a training session late. It also led, somewhat ironically, to Carly disowning his family and WWC, who'd you'd think would provide more connections than Kenny Bolin...
• Paul Heyman, the son of a lawyer, played this card on at least two occasions to get his job back after being fired by WCW^note The first time for cutting a Worked Shoot promo without permission from the booker and the second time for submitting falsified travel expenses.

Radio

• The early Adventures in Odyssey episode "Camp What-A-Nut" features a low-key version of this. Chas Wentworth, son of a wealthy businessman who (among other things) partially owns the camp itself, has a well-earned reputation as a troublemaker who figures his money will cover any trouble he might get into. For once, among other things, this doesn't come hand in hand with being popular. In fact, it eventually comes out that he is caught in a cycle of being a jerk to everyone because most people don't like him because he keeps flaunting his cash on the flawed assumption that people universally respect money.

Tabletop Games

• Hero System characters may have a "Contact" Perk, representing an NPC who is willing to do favors and pull strings.
• While it may not be potent enough to really count for this trope (barring GM Fiat, of course), the 2012 version of the Iron Kingdoms RPG introduced a Connections system. Mainly representing membership to certain organisations, like the Order of the Golden Crucible or the Greylord Covenant, or a specific nation's military and these connections can provide some material help at the GM's discretion. The section does mention that it can't be used to, say, have the party's Mage Hunter use his contacts in the Retribution of Scyrah to call in a couple of Mage Hunter Strike Teams to clear out an Orgoth ruin for them.
  • Played somewhat more straight with one of the Aristocrat career's starting abilities, Privilege. Short version is that he's immune to persecution for petty crimes and can only be tried by a court of his peers (meaning other nobles). A successful Etiquette roll can let the character demand hospitality and request aid from a noble not at war with his kingdom (so don't expect Cygnaran noble to get much help in Khador or the Protectorate) and gets a nice bonus so social skill rolls made against people of a lower station who recognise him as a noble. Drawback is that the punishments from a high court are typically quite severe.
• Rifts: Dr. Desmond Bradford grew up alongside Karl Prosek, the man who would become Emperor of the Coalition States. This has kept his more horrific work at the Lone Star Complex (Bradford is a geneticist who literally believes he is a god) under wraps, as Karl refuses to believe his friend would do anything as hideous as human experimentation. This fact makes Joseph Prosek II's life all the harder - he knows Dr. Bradford is up to things even the Coalition States would find unacceptable, but he also knows he needs absolute ironclad proof or else his father will never believe it... and Dr. Bradford is far too intelligent to leave that kind of proof.
• The Serenity Role Playing Game has two perks of this nature, "Friends in High Places" (for connections in society's elite) and "Friends in Low Places" (for criminal underworld connections). You can roll a die to get your contacts to help with problems, difficulty dependent on the magnitude of the request (e.g. a small loan is an easy roll, getting the Feds to back off is harder).
• Shadowrun characters can cultivate connections that vary in function, influence, and loyalty. Being a 'connection horse' is a popular way to make a socially-oriented character extra useful: having a ton of loyal friends in high places makes running the shadows fairly easy at times.
• This is what the various "Influence" backgrounds in The World of Darkness represent. Vampires, being immortal, are especially prone to cultivating these. Particularly the Ventrue.

Theater

• Roy Cohn in Angels in America.
• In the opera The Barber of Seville, Count Almaviva's connections keep him from being arrested by his romantic rival, Dr. Bartolo.
• Cyrano de Bergerac: At Act II Scene VII, De Guiche wants to Buy Them Off Cyrano, offering to say to his uncle, Cardinal Richelieu, whom Cyrano has already impressed, I'll gladly say a word to him for you. And at Act III Scene II, he lampshades how he will occult in a monastery:
  De Guiche: ...Hard by, in the Rue d'Orleans, is a convent founded by Father Athanasius, the syndic of the Capuchins. True that no layman may enter—but—I can settle that with the good Fathers! Their habit sleeves are wide enough to hide me in. 'Tis they who serve Richelieu's private chapel: and from respect to the uncle, fear the nephew. All will deem me gone...

Video Games

• Ace Attorney:
  • In the second case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Redd White is a man who has connections with the judges, prosecutors, police force... He essentially has the entire legal system wrapped around his finger. He uses said connections to get Phoenix arrested and charged with the murder of Mia Fey, despite Maya Fey being the original defendant, because he knew Phoenix could prove his guilt... and then ended up being proven guilty by Phoenix anyway.
  • In Ace Attorney Investigations, these are the exact people the Yatagarasu tries to combat. It's also pulled by Alba in the final case. If he committed the murder on Allebahstian soil, then he only gets a trial in Allebahst, where he will surely get off lightly due to his war hero status. This is before Agent Lang shows Edgeworth's trump card to the Allebahst royal family; after that, Alba attempts to leave for parts unknown instead.
• In Discipline: A Record of a Crusade, this is the primary reason for Leona's Rich Bitch personality. When she's able to use a jet to blow up a portion of a school building, and NOT get punished for it, not even the O'Rourke family has that kind of clout.
• In Dragon Age: Origins, Bann Vaughan, son of the current Arl of Denerim, employs this trope throughout the City Elf Origin, first by responding to the Warden's threats with the stock phrase "Do you have any idea who I am?" He later claims the Alienage will be purged by his father should the Warden slay him.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • Throughout the series, the Order of the Black Worm, a secretive Magical Society/Necrocracy founded by the legendary/infamous Lich/Necromancer Mannimarco that is dedicated to the study of The Dark Arts, has long been able to forge connections with people in positions of power. Empress Clivia Tharn allowed the Order to practice freely in Cyrodiil during the Planemeld, and the Order forged connections with Lord K'avar and Princess Morgiah leading up to the Warp in the West. When this has failed, the Order has simply resorted to bribery or threats instead.
  • Skyrim:
    • Doing favors for the jarls can result in the Dragonborn becoming a Thane. It's mostly a ceremonial title, but one of the perks is the ability to force guards to overlook any bounty that you might have on your head. It only works if your crimes are minor, though.
    • Oddly enough, however, the bounty for assassinating the Emperor is low enough for you to do this. (1500, 150% of the bounty for normal murder.) Sure, it was a decoy, but you didn't know that and your intent was to kill the real Emperor. This might make sense if you've completed the Stormcloak questline and liberated Skyrim from the Empire, but if you have, that in itself presents Fridge Logic as to why the Penitus Oculatus is still in Skyrim in the first place.
    • The Thieves Guild questline also allows you to do this; when you reach a certain rank you can bribe guards for half the normal price for bounties.
    • Several quests in the game also allow you to bring up your title if you've become the faction leader of a certain faction (by completing the relevant questlines).
• In The Godfather 2, you can do favours for corrupt officials in exchange for getting their help later.
• Some of the bystanders in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City claim that they "know people".
• More than a few of the targets in Hitman have used their connections to get away with huge and heinous crimes. Too bad for them that other people have connections to the ICA, the employers of one Agent 47.
• League of Legends: Shyvana is a magical being, being half-dragon, and would normally be arrested, much less be allowed to be part of an elite task force for the prince. However, because she saved Jarvan IV's life, she is an exception to the rules. Called out in The Mageseeker, where Shyvana is very aware that even with Jarvan's protection, she is likely to end up on the wrong end of the Mageseekers the second Jarvan's attention is turned towards something else.
• One of the routes in Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! has a Sadist Teacher who is already jerk becoming even worse, which in many cases has him assaulting people, while bragging about his powerful family meaning he can do whatever wants and get away with it. This eventually causes one of the main characters to have enough and hit the teacher. When the principal is seen taking things over with the teacher's father, he does nothing because he doesn't approve of his son arrogantly tormenting others and thinking his family's power will let him get away with it.
• Mass Effect:
  • Spectres more or less have this privilege. They answer directly to the Citadel Council, and are explicitly "above the law", enabling them to do things that would otherwise be very illegal in the pursuit of greater threats. Some Spectres abuse this, others are more scrupulous, but as long as they get the job done, the Council will back them. Of course, if the Council decides a Spectre has gone too far, they can revoke this privilege, and then the ex-Spectre is on the hook for everything they've done.
  • In Mass Effect 3, Aria T'loak, a crimelord and former de-facto ruler of Omega, is capable of bypassing Citadel customs by calling up the Asari councilor and telling her to give her permission.
• In Max Payne 3, the paramilitary leader Neves says that he knows a lot of powerful people. Max tells him that they won't be able to help him now.
  • Victor Branco pulls the same thing, declaring that even if Max takes him in, he'll walk. Max responds "You'll walk with a limp" and shatters one of Branco's legs with a harsh stomp.
• Early on in NBA Ballers: Phenom's story mode, Hot Sauce pulls strings to ice your character out of the Beverly Hills tournaments for a decent stretch of the story. After building up enough goodwill with Ludacris, he makes it clear that Sauce doesn't have as much pull as he thinks, and lets you inside the Beverly Hills gates.
• In Persona 5, a drunk douchebag tries to sexually harass a woman. Fortunately for her, you happen to be passing by and stop him. Unfortunately for you, said douchebag has more pull with the police than you and promptly has you arrested for assault, expelled from your high school, and forced to move away to serve a year of probation. Many of the villains in the game are people who get away with misdeeds due to their connections, all the way up to Masayoshi Shido, a candidate for Prime Minister and the aforementioned drunken douchebag who gave your protagonist such grief in the first place. Luckily, the Phantom Thieves don't really give a damn about how famous or well-connected 'shitty adults' are. In fact, trying to invoke this trope and act above the law is a quick way to piss them off and get your heart stolen.
• In Spirit Hunter: NG, if security proves to be too much of a hassle for the characters to get past, then Seiji tugs on his Yakuza connections and has them 'taken care of', allowing the protagonists free reign. Later on, he's replaced by Cowboy Cop Ooe, who uses her status to the same effect.
• In Star Trek Online, there's Nog, the son of the Grand Nagus Rom and first Ferengi in Starfleet. Despite this humongous helping hand, Nog prefers to do things without his help. When you first meet him, yes, he's carrying around his father's staff, but he tells the Player Character that he's here on Starfleet duty and, besides, the staff was his father's second best.
• Tales Series:
  • Tales of Destiny 2: Loni suggests Kyle cut the line to see King Woodrow by bringing up that he's the Legendary Hero Stahn's son. While it works, it also gets Kyle chewed out by Woodrow for not respecting the system and Judas calls Kyle out on relying too much on his father's name rather than standing on his own as a person. Zigzagged as after the chewing out, Woodrow tells Kyle that he will always make time for him because Stahn was his dear friend.
  • In Tales of the Abyss, there's an unusual example in that it's actually useful to the player outside of cutscenes: equipping Jade with his "Emperor's Best Friend" title gets you a discount in shops.
  • Tales of Vesperia has 2 characters who due to their positions of power will probably be acquitted for their heinous crimes even after being arrested. Yuri murders both of them in cold blood before they're given the chance.
• Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader: As a holder of a Warrant of Trade issued by the God Emperor Himself, you have permission to operate outside of the spatial borders and legal scope of the Imperium and the Lex Imperialis.
• Having a high reputation with a government in the X-Universe series lets you get away with an absurd amount of murders. You can capture their flagship, murder the crew, then sell the fighter pilots into slavery, and you'll often take only a minor reputation hit unless you started slaughtering everything else in the sector.

Web Animation

• On The Edge: Shigeo's victims bring up their connections with powerful people before he tortures them. However, he doesn't care and tortures them anyway. What's more, he captures the powerful person connected with the criminal as well.
• Gossip City: Harumi could get away with bullying Mari and other girls because she was the Chairman's daughter. When the latter's mother Azusa came to the hospital to check on her, the former showed up and gloated about her connections and how he's good friends with the police, even when Azusa's husband is the police chief. However, she loses her connections after Mamoru bought Uwasa Middle School while Leon had the Chairman arrested.
• MoniRobo:
  • Spoiled son ran over me with his car and tried to pretend it never happened: Eri filed a lawsuit against Eiji for trying to run her over, but it didn't stick as his dad was a powerful congressman.
  • A spoiled brat beat me and my friend up and tried to use money to hide it...: Takakuni always thinks he could use his father's money and power to get out of trouble and force Mari to date him, but his luck runs out when his father's company turns out to be a client to her brother Masaki's company.
  • The new recruit is using her family's powers to threaten me!: Ikari was a lousy worker who was only accepted into the office because she was a Yakuza's daughter. Whenever Atsumu tried to take her to task, she always brings it up to silence him into submission by threatening his loved ones.
  • My sister's being bullied at school, but the principal wants to cover it up: Ai's bullying of Sayuu was never dealt with properly despite the latter's sister Miyuu presenting evidence her dad was friends with the principal and had him cover up said bullying.
• Refreshing Stories:
  • "I confronted the woman in the accounting department who was causing trouble": Ms. Tachibana brings up that she is the mistress of President Sakanoue and therefore with the same authority as him to silence Hiroshi for trying to call her out for unjustly accusing him and his coworkers of embezzlement for taking expensive services.
  • "The teacher tried to force my son to drink milk even though he's allergic to it, but I had a plan…": Mr. Takahashi became a teacher because of his connections, as he was the Principal's son. When Hiroshi tried to call out the principal for letting said teacher bully his son Ren for his dairy allergy, he didn't do anything.
  • "My idiot wife got into my taxi with her cheating partner to go to a hotel…": Miha used her status as the Refreshing Hotels CEO's daughter to not only cheat on Hiroshi with another man but also have the guy pass as Hiroshi and threaten the receptionists into not charging her the room services she abused under threat of firing them.
  • "My wife was cheating on my while secretly lying about being on maternity leave": Yumi seemed to defy this trope when she demanded her father, the CEO, to not give her special treatment since she wanted to be in the company through her hard work, even threatening him with a lawsuit for power harassment when he brought up her recent behavior. However, it turns out she has been forging numbers and documents to cover up her mistakes and Manato exposed her after Hiroshi caught her cheating. She then begs her dad for help only for the man to fire her for said crimes.
  • "A colleague stole my girlfriend, became the CEO, and then fired me…": Shota Temae always stole deals from Hiroshi to pass as his own to the higher-ups. Moreover, the latter couldn't do anything about it because the former was the CEO's son and got his job at the company through personal connections and put on a pleasant facade around other coworkers and higher-ups to make himself untouchable and eventually get Hiroshi.

Web Comics

• Subverted in Arthur, King of Time and Space: Morgan (before she's openly evil) expects that as the king's half-sister she can do whatever she wants, but egalitarian Arthur has instructed his people that anyone saying "Do you know who I am?" is to be ignored.
• This is the case for students at the military academy "The Roost" whose parents have high positions in government in The Croaking: for example, Del gets away with trying to murder another student (Scra) in plain view of his classmates and instructors — Scra nearly falling to his death is instead explained away with faulty equipment.
• Girl Genius: While this is not at all Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, his paper doll sports useful phrases such as "Do you know who I am?" and "My father will hear of this!".
• In Jupiter-Men, Rick picks a fight with Arrio, who defends himself and gives Rick a black eye. Arrio is given three weeks detention for the Crime of Self-Defense on account of it being his birthday (his principal says he would've expelled him any other day). Meanwhile, Rick gets to walk away scot-free on the condition that he doesn't breathe a word of this to his mother. This implies that Rick's mom is powerful and influential enough that Jupiter High's staff lets him get away with a lot of things out of fear of drawing her ire.
• Rare heroic example in Kubera: Asha has such good connections that she can literally get away with murder. 29 times.
• In Terra Kaleb Ceros is still alive at the start of the comic because of somebody else's connections. He was sentenced to death for beating one of his subordinates to death, but Solus Kalar had his father, the Sovereign of the Asurian Empire, overturn the execution so Solus could use him in the Shadow Cabal.
• In Weak Hero, the bullies in Gray's middle school got away with hospitalising his best friend because one of them had a city representative as a parent. At least, they got away with it until Gray took matters into his own hands.

Web Videos

• Siria and Gideon from Dina Marino are VERY fond of this trope whenever issues that can be solved by their connections arises.
• Hilariously, Randy tries to invoke this trope, saying that he "knows people now" who can put a horse head in Greg's sheets — after he's spent three days as a male prostitute in Manwhores, while threatening him ineffectually.
• Gaea from Noob has done plenty of ban-worthy stuff. Some of that stuff was cooperating with Tenshirock, who helped her get her avatar back when it was banned, then kept it from being kicked out a second time when she got framed by someone else in the webseries and novels.
• The Nostalgia Chick, as part justification for the high-grade (cameras in Nella's house across the country, stealing Todd's government pay records, that kinda thing) stalking she does.
• Text Theater: Liam disregarded his boss and had a bad attitude towards other employees and sales representatives just because he is the executive manager's son. Unfortunately for him, he lost his power when his father got fired for harassing the female employees and he was fired when it came out that he was helping his father look for the employees.

Western Animation

• The Boondocks: Ed Wuncler III's grandfather is the ultra-rich owner of... pretty much everything, so Ed gets away with... well, pretty much everything. Take, for example, his foray into bank robbery. It was bungled about as badly as it could have been, and when they get into the car, they start arguing and eventually ask the bank manager (who they had also kidnapped) for a second opinion. Later, back at Ed's house, a police officer shows up to return Ed's wallet, which he lost at the bank while in the process of robbing it. He even apologizes for having wasted Ed's time. It helps when your granddad owns both the police and the bank in question. Wuncler Sr. does this in the Season 3 finale by calling the President of the United States to get a renegade agent to stand down.
• Danny Phantom: As the star football player, the teachers often give Dash's bullying behavior a free pass. Best displayed in the pilot episode, where Mr. Lancer punishes Danny, Sam, and Tucker for a food fight Dash started while Dash gets off scot-free, declaring that his athletic status makes him "exempt from scorn."
• Futurama: Used with the Mayor's aide dating Leela. Parodied to some degree, since he likes to try and use his position even when it wouldn't make any difference (e.g. saying he's the mayor's aide and requesting a table even after the restraunteer in question cheerfully showed them to a table).
• Miraculous Ladybug: The only reason Chloé can get away with being such an insufferable Alpha Bitch to everyone is because her dad is the mayor, as well as a Doting Parent who will use the full extent of his authority to bring harsh punishment upon anyone who dares make his precious little angel displeased in any way. She is well aware of this and exploits this trope to its fullest potential. On the ludicrously rare occasion that her dad shows something resembling a spine and doesn't do what she says, she quickly puts him back in line by threatening to call the only person who has authority over him: her mom.
• Neo Yokio: The Magistocracy, the families of magic and psychic users, have "Magisticratic Immunity" from the law enforcement of Neo Yokio and will only answer to the Lord Mayor. Aunt Agatha uses this to save Kaz from the Remembrancer's interrogation.
• The Simpsons:
  • Subverted by Mayor Quimby's nephew, who is a Spoiled Brat, but didn't actually commit the crime he is thought to have. Also subverted in that in spite of Quimby's rampant bribery, his nephew still comes very close to being imprisoned for the crime. However, played straight in how he regularly behaves like a spoiled brat and mistreats everyone around him without facing any consequences.
  • Marge benefited from this in an episode when she had a nervous breakdown and blocked traffic on a bridge. She was arrested, but Mayor Quimby immediately pulled some strings to get her released without charge. Quimby did it because he knew that if Marge went to jail, he could kiss the "chick vote" goodbye, but the results were still beneficial.
  • Subverted in an episode where Lisa takes up soccer and Homer ends up refereeing one of her matches. Lisa tries getting him to bend the rules in her favour since she's his daughter, but Homer points out that he's "no one's father" when refereeing, and has Lisa sent off the match when she protests further.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Cupid's Errant Arrow", Docent is able to push through a transfer request because an admiral was his grandma's neighbour.
• Total Drama Action: Courtney and her gratuitous use of her lawyers, which has gotten her multiple immunities and preferential treatment by the producers. As the show goes on, though, they eventually start to tire of her attitude. Her lawyers stop returning her calls.

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