Basic Trope: Trying to get rid of people under your command quietly by deliberately ordering them into dangerous situations.
- Straight: King Charles sends Captain Chris, who he views as a potential rival, off to fight a hopeless battle.
- Exaggerated:
- King Charles starts a war just so he has a reason to send Chris — and a whole army besides — off to die in it.
- King Charles sends the hero out on a "mission", only to have his men disguise themselves as the enemy and kill him.
- Downplayed:
- King Charles has a Suicide Mission planned, and someone needs to command it, so he naturally sends his least favourite and/or worst general.
- King Charles removes Chris from his cushy office job and onto the battlefield.
- Justified:
- Charles hates the hero but knows that he's too popular to get rid of any other way.
- It's a good way to murder someone without murdering them; lots of people die in battles, and who's going to pay attention to one more death among millions?
- The Suicide Mission is actually somewhat important to the war effort; it's a win-win for Charles regardless of Chris' success.
- Inverted:
- Chris uses his public popularity and cleverness to corner King Charles into leading the fight personally, while staying behind in safety "so as not to deprive Your Majesty 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.
- Charles is too close to his elites to risk them, thus he keeps them out of harm's way despite their effectiveness.
- King Charles is overly willing to protect his underlings at all costs — including staking his own life to give them some time to escape the enemies, if needed.
- The hero hates the king, so he makes bad decisions during the battle to make him look like an incompetent leader.
- King Charles wants to prevent Chris from gaining any glory in the war so he has him Kicked Upstairs away from the battlefield.
- Subverted: King Charles 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 recognize him as a threat, and he is killed by one of their assassins -— just as Charles planned all along.
- The hero returns in triumph after accomplishing his Suicide Mission, the king just looks at him for a moment, then calmly tells his guards to kill him.
- Parodied:
- Before Chris goes off to battle, Charles gives him a brand new suit of armour — with a big red target painted on the front.
- Charles went crazy and declared war on the scallops. He tied the army to a boulder and pushed them into the sea.
- Zig-Zagged: King Charles, in a moment of jealousy, sends his greatest champion Chris 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. Charles' overcome with remorse, but cheers up when he sees his chance to romance the widow. Then he discovers that Chris 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: King Charles puts business before personal disputes, and sends Chris wherever he'd be most tactically useful. If he wants him dead, he'll send an assassin to kill him in his sleep and subsequently claim it to be an enemy sneak attack.
- 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:
- Dave, one of Chris' rivals, keeps dropping hints to King Charles 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: King Charles' enemies spread rumours 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.
- Captain Chris realizes that the king set him up to be killed. In response, he defects to the other side and leads a battle against his now-former king.
- Discussed: "Try to keep on Charles' 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?"
- Implied: Captain Chris was mentioned as worrying King Charles. He is listed amongst the dead generals at he end. No more detail is provided and it is far enough into the past that present-day people like Alice and Bob can't be sure if it was from Charles' machinations, a natural result of combat, or simply from natural causes such as disease.
- Deconstructed: Nobody falls for 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 favour of his most promising rival, thus making the (miraculously surviving) hero's ascension a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
- Reconstructed: However, King Charles 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, Charles arranges for Unfriendly Fire to ensure it happens.
- Played for Laughs: Chris parlays with the enemy general, and they realize their own leaders have sent them to die. They get drunk together and spend hours moaning about how their kings don't appreciate them.
- Played for Drama:
- Chris sets off and dies. The entire kingdom is devastated... except for King Charles. Eventually, though, the king realizes how stupid he's been when he's told that Chris was one of the most skilled commanders and one of the most important statesmen of the kingdom.
- King Charles deliberately sends Captain Chris into a battle where he's sure to die, just so he won't become a threat. Chris, however, wins the battle and realizes that he was set up. In response, he rebels and kills the king, thus becoming the next king — just as Charles feared.
If you come back from the front lines, then you can return to Uriah Gambit.
