Basic Trope: Trying to quietly get rid of people under your command by deliberately ordering them into dangerous situations.
- Straight: The king sends the hero off to fight a hopeless battle.
- Exaggerated: The king starts a war just so he can send the hero - and a whole army besides - off to die in it.
- Downplayed: The king has a Suicide Mission planned, and someone needs to command it, so he naturally sends his least favorite general.
- Justified:
- The king hates the hero but knows that he's too popular to get rid of any other way.
- Lots of people die in battles, and who's going to pay attention to one more death among millions?
- Inverted:
- The hero uses his public popularity and cleverness to corner the king into leading the fight personally, while the hero stays behind in safety "so as not to deprive you of the glory".
- The mad king decides there's nothing more honourable than a martyr's death, so sends his dearly-beloved only son and heir to lead the charge, so the boy's name will go down in history.
- Subverted: The king sends the hero off to fight what looks like a hopeless battle, but the hero wins the battle so convincingly that he's more of a threat to the king than ever.
- Double Subverted: However, the hero's victory causes the enemy nation he was fighting to recognise him as a threat, and he is killed by one of their assassins — just as the king planned all along.
- Parodied:
- Before the hero goes off to battle, the king gives him a brand new suit of armor — with a big red target painted on the front.
- The King went crazy and declared war on the scallops. Tied the army to a boulder and pushed them into the sea.
- Zig Zagged: The king, in a moment of jealousy, sends his greatest champion on a suicide mission. Almost as soon as he's left, the king rethinks things - the guy is the cornerstone of his army, after all. Just as he prepares to recall the hero, he receives the news that the battle is lost. He's overcome with remorse, but cheers up when he sees his chance to romance the widow. Then he discovers that the hero actually won the battle, but realised he'd been set up and sent the message as a decoy while he prepared his assault on the king...
- Averted: The king puts business before personal disputes, and sends the hero wherever he'd be most tactically useful. If he wants him dead, he'll send an assassin to kill him in his sleep.
- Enforced: The writers want the hero on a Suicide Mission on the front lines for dramatic effect, but he's too valuable to be risked. Unless of course the king wanted him dead...
- Lampshaded: "Ooh, look - I'm in the front row again. Surprise, surprise."
- Invoked:
- One of the hero's rivals keeps dropping hints to the king about how dangerous these battles can be, and how you never know who could end up tragically dying...
- The Death Seeker hero mentions how risky the mission is as reverse psychology, knowing the king would rather deprive him of the glory of command.
- Exploited: The king's enemies spread rumors about the king's betrayal of the hero, building the hero up as a martyr.
- Defied: The king, despite hating the hero, is too conscious of his responsibilities to betray one of his subordinates, and puts the notion aside.
- Discussed: "Try to keep on the king's good side, or you'll find that you've been volunteered for a heroic death in the next battle."
- Conversed: "It's amazing kings try that tactic all the time. Don't they know the hero's going to succeed and be more popular than ever?"
- Deconstructed: No-one is fooled by the ruse. The king's other champions take note of what happens to you if you get too successful, and keep their heads down as much as possible, causing the war to take a turn for the worse. Their mistrust of him as a leader cause them to conspire against him in favor of his most promising rival, thus making the (miraculously surviving) hero's ascension a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
- Reconstructed: The king is keenly aware of his subordinates' backstabbing tendencies and uses this tactic to avert Klingon Promotion. As they have to raise and equip their own armies, even a success will leave them militarily weakened in future. In cases where the hero's death is particularly necessary, he arranges for Unfriendly Fire to ensure it happens.
- Played For Laughs: The hero parlays with the enemy general, and they realize they've both been sent to die by their own leaders. They get drunk together and spend hours moaning about how their kings don't appreciate them.
- Played For Drama: The hero sets off and dies. The entire kingdom is devastated... except for the king. Eventually, though, the king realizes how stupid he's been when he's told that the hero was one of the most important members of the kingdom.
- Implied: The hero is sent on a very dangerous, seemingly impossible mission that's much harder than he was told. It's never explained just why this happened, but deliberate sabotage seems entirely possible.
If you come back from the front lines, then you can return to The Uriah Gambit.
