Basic Trope: One faction attempts achieving its goals by "peacefully" intimidating its opponents with military force.
- Straight: Elven Kingdom sends diplomatic envoys to Commonwealth of Man. At the border, elves are escorted to capital in friendly manner... by whole regiment of horsemen. Before negotiations can begin, representatives of Commonwealth invite them to just so happening military manoeuvres. Elves then witness well coordinated action of infantry, calvary, siegecraft and battle mages. Elves are certainly intimidated and think twice before demanding anything.
- Exaggerated: Commonwealth of Man just so happens to be centuries ahead in both arcane magic and conventional technology. Elven troops are terrified at sight of tamed beasts their homeland considers apex predators. Their siegecraft consists of archaic artillery that can ruin castles and cities. Every human soldier is equipped with advanced weaponry ranging from enchanced swords to fully automatic crossbows. As highlight of the show approaches, sun is covered by wave of flying constructs. Human audience and nobles cheer as hundreds of finest warriors jump out of the sky and deploy magical parachutes, gracefully gliding above them. All done in heavy armor. Multiple elves lost their composure, some even fainted. Diplomats couldn't speak for days. "Trade negotiations" quickly turned into pleas for protectorate.
- Downplayed: The Ambassador from Troperia arrives at the capital on a huge and modern battleship, with escorts. While the display is certainly impressive, no special attention is drawn to the forces assembled nearby.
- Justified: The Elven Kingdom believes Asskicking Leads to Leadership and Might Makes Right, and the Commonwealth's strength is considered not only formidable, but admirable.
- While the Commonwealth of Man is far more open to having an ally than an enemy, they also don't want their ally to betray them. Thus, they show their military might to show that making enemies with them is quite a risky maneuver.
- The Elves are isolationist and are not willing to treat with outsiders if they do not want to. The Commonwealth wants to change their minds in the most polite way possible.
- Inverted: The meeting between the Elven Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Man is overseen by a five-being retinue from the United Federation of Outer Planes, which demonstrates that they are all capable of wiping out both sides single-handedly so negotiations will remain peaceful.
- Subverted: The Commonwealth's diplomats discuss, in menacing terms, how they will give the Elven Kingdom representatives "a proper welcome". Turns out that this means a grand parade with marching bands cheerfully playing the Elven national anthem.
- Double Subverted: The welcome parade is technically peaceful and showing cultural deference but any military or intelligence officer would immediately have a startled reaction from what they let slip of their population size, logistical and industrial capabilities.
- Parodied: The Commonwealth of Man's ambassadors are all oiled men in speedos constantly flexing their muscles while making veiled threats.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Negotiations are done without anybody trying to show off their military might.
- Enforced: The writers either want to write a "hell yeah!" military fiction where a gun and a kind word is what saves the day, or they are setting the seeds for a situation where the "gun" part is going to lead to things ending in tears.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: "Very well, send an envoy. But ensure that he is, shall we say, well-escorted? That should get their attention."
- Exploited: Field Marshal Stone persuades the leaders of the Commonwealth that the Elven delegation should witness a demonstration of the Commonwealth's military might... During said demonstration, the Commonwealth troops "accidentally" kill the Elves, giving Stone the excuse he finally needed to start an all-out war with those pointy-eared bastards.
- Defied:
- "You can aim as many guns as you want to our heads, but we will not be moved until we get what we feel is good enough to satisfy our demands, sir."
- "Just so we're perfectly clear before we start negotiations, we are as capable of destroying you are you are capable of destroying us. And we're okay with that."
- Discussed:Human ambassador: We want to build a peaceful relationship with you.Elf ambassador: You say that, and yet use thinly-veiled threats to get us to fall in line.
- Conversed: "I assume the writers are big fans of Robert Heinlein."
- Deconstructed: The Elven Kingdom sees this display, and agrees to the Commonwealth's terms, but decide they can't trust such a threatening party, and begin secretly building up their own military to one day deal with them.
- Reconstructed: The Commonwealth of Man realizes that while such a display may inspire fear, it won't inspire trust, and thus isn't an effective means of building peace. To that end, they just use this as a foundation to establish a more lasting peace through dialogue.
Back to Gunboat Diplomacy.
