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Buy Them Off

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An insincere Atoner attempts by his good deeds to stifle any guilt he feels, or buy off his victims so they will not seek Revenge when they learn he has wronged them. He often resorts to material assistance, because personal help prods his conscience and makes him feel worse.
Generally, he regards his evil deeds as not so much offset by his good deeds as obliterated by them — at least, he professes to believe it, though some hints may seep through that he knows that it was wrong. On the other hand, may slide into It's All About Me; the problem is not what he did, but what he feels about it, or the chance of Revenge.
Often his evil deeds are discovered long after the fact, to cast a respective light on his good deeds.
Phony Psychic uses this as a common ploy.
May be a form of Screw the Rules, I Have Money!, but the character does not have to be richer than others. Compare Every Man Has His Price for "bribery" in a more generic sense. See Must Make Amends or Apology Gift for when the efforts are sincere. See also "Begone" Bribe.

Examples
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Divinity: Original Sin II: Players can improve an NPC's attitude with gifts of money and items through the trading system. If they've offended the NPC badly enough, such as through attacking them or an ally, the NPC will refuse to speak at all until they're sufficiently paid off.
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After accomplishing a mission in Hitman: Blood Money, not getting the Silent Assassin rank means shelling out some of your hard-earned reward money to pay off any witnesses that saw the hit you committed.
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 Hitman: Blood Money (Video Game)
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The Silmarillion: After the defeat of Morgoth, his lieutenant Sauron begs clemency from the emissary of the Valar and offers his services in fixing the damage done by his master. The narration states that he was not entirely insincere in such offers (even if only driven by fear), and certain other writings imply that Sauron ultimately contrived his decision to remain in Middle-Earth against the instructions to return to Valinor for judgment as an opportunity to do good works (even if jealousy of the Elves and Númenórëans helped his true nature reassert itself).
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Angel: Throughout the episode "Disharmony," Angel, having returned to Angel Investigations after an extended Knight Templar, spends most of the episode trying to get on Cordelia's good side through other means. By the end, he's able to win back her friendship by simply buying her an entirely new wardrobe as an Apology Gift; ironically, this is after Wesley told him he couldn't just buy back Cordelia's affection. Of course, Cordelia herself admits that the primary reason she was so upset with Angel is that he sold all her old clothes:
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Medici: People think Cosimo is this after Reynaldo dies but it's unclear if he was involved. For added irony, Cosimo is wracked with guilt over it, and various things he definitely did do.
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In Community episode Basic Genealogy, Pierce's solution to getting a family involves mass e-mails to his former step-children and writing checks.
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In The Boys (2019), after Hughie's girlfriend is accidentally killed by A-Train (a member of The Seven) when he smashed into her at Super-Speed, he reluctantly agrees to have a talk with some lawyers of the Vought Corporation, the company that funds The Seven, about what they claim was a tragic accident. Billy Butcher, who's on a mission to take down The Seven, tracks Hughie down and tells him that in reality, The Seven and all other superheroes actually kill a lot more people than anyone knows about because the Vought Corporation is very good at covering up all the horrible acts that superheroes commit but will allow the occasional misdeed to be made public, and happily compensate the victims or their loved ones as a way to keep up appearances.
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A last-season episode of Highlander played with this. Immortal Willie Kingsley would allow himself to be hit by a car (usually a very expensive model with a rich person driving). His mortal wife, Molly, would then come running in playing the grieving widow, the expectation being that the car owner would buy her off for a large sum of money.
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Alpha Protocol: In some endings, Leland tries. Thorton / Scarlet shoot him in the face.
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Subverted in Peace Talks: Harry suggests a weregild as a resolution for a rather sticky situation involving a killing, only to be told, in the tone normally used to explain things to particularly stupid children, that a weregild is what you trot out when both sides want to avoid a blood feud but neither side can afford to lose face. This time, the other side doesn't care about losing face, is all but baying for blood, and their side has no leverage to obligate or compel the other side to accept a weregild.
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In The Dresden Files, the magical beings frequently pay weregild. Mentioned many times in passing.
At the end of White Night, Harry demands it from Lara for the dead women.
At the end of Turn Coat, when the money put in a bank account under Morgan's name is traced back to the White Court, Lara sends the White Council the heads of the culprits, and tells them they can keep the money. Harry comments on how the money assuages everything. Additionally, unlike most examples, this is actually codified in law, with the amount of the bribe dependent on what happened and to who. Once someone is paid an appropriate weregild, they no longer have the standing to enact retribution, and would be considered in the wrong should they attempt to exact revenge.
In Skin Game, HARRY pays a weregild, as he caused the death of a security guard. (He tried to prevent it, but failed.) The gild is paid to Marcone, in a bag full of diamonds.
Subverted in Peace Talks: Harry suggests a weregild as a resolution for a rather sticky situation involving a killing, only to be told, in the tone normally used to explain things to particularly stupid children, that a weregild is what you trot out when both sides want to avoid a blood feud but neither side can afford to lose face. This time, the other side doesn't care about losing face, is all but baying for blood, and their side has no leverage to obligate or compel the other side to accept a weregild.
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Played for humor at the end of Small Soldiers. The CEO of the company that made the self-aware, murderous toys just shows up and hands out checks that convince everyone to happily keep quiet about the incident. When one family states that even he doesn't have enough money to cover this up, they take a look at the check they were handed and say "Maybe you do".
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Oblivion: The fine for murder is a fixed 1000 gold (plus the paltry 400 to 600 gold for assault). This is a game where it's common to have 10 to 20 times that amount by the late game, allowing you to murder someone in plain daylight, yield to the guards, pay off the fine and be on your merry way without spending more than a minute in jail.
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Tome of Corruption, the Norscans (being daemon-worshipping vikings) use a wergild similar to the cultures of northern Europe in older times. Everything runs on "an eye for an eye", and each class of person in society commands their own blood-price if they are killed, except for Thralls (who have no worth) and Seers or Vitki (who have no wergild because it is completely forbidden to do them harm - reprisals from the Gods settle all debts).
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In Xena: Warrior Princess, Autolycus the thief (played by Bruce Campbell) is about to kill the man who murdered his older brother years ago. When the man tries to buy him off by offering money, Autolycus gives him a Hope Spot by asking him how much he's willing to offer. When the man responds "All I've got!", Autolycus says that's not enough and prepares to kill him. Xena stops Autolycus from crossing the line between thief and killer by asking him if this is really what his brother would have wanted.
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The In Death series: Haunted in Death reveals that Hopkins bought off the police investigating his wife or lover's death. Eve Dallas makes it clear in that story that no one buys her off. Seduction in Death and Kindred in Death had the people responsible for murder try to buy off Eve. She makes them wish they didn't try that.
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 In Death
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Dead Man's Gun: In "Death Warrant" Pike twice offers money to other bounty hunters who've come to kill him if they'll give up on it. Griff and Brody plan to take his money and kill him anyway (which ends badly for them), while Joe Rule agrees to this deal (albeit partially because Pike is holding him at gunpoint, and is only holding back from killing him because it would cause a legitimate bounty to be placed on his head if he did shoot the unarmed Rule).
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Skyrim lowers the assault fine to 40 gold. Nords... fight a lot. Especially against the Thalmor; you will NEVER get a murder fine from the cities if you murder a Thalmor in public. Everyone hates those fascists that much. In fact, the holds that are aligned with the Stormcloak faction will help you murder them, and then try to buy YOU off by bribing you with a "Let's sweep this assault fine under the rug, and you keep butchering Thalmor" deal. If you're in good standing with the Thieves' Guild, you can bribe away murder for a tenth of the cost, though subsequent bribes cost more.
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 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Video Game)
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At one point in My Name Is Earl, Earl tries to teach someone else to do their own list. They end up just sending fruit baskets to everyone.
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 My Name Is Earl
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In Alex Bledsoe's Burn Me Deadly, when surrounded by Black River Hill people and one recognizes him as having punched him, Eddie offers money. Doesn't work, not surprising Eddie.
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 Eddie LaCrosse
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In the Farsala Trilogy, an arrogant deghan scars Kavi's hand so badly that he can no longer practice his trade. About a year later, he returns and pays Kavi "for his trouble." It doesn't help.
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Similar to the wergild example below, Fallout 3's Karma Meter is designed in a way that human life is worth less than an assault rifle. So, want to kill someone without losing your good reputation? Just go down to the church in Megaton, and donate 100 caps! All is forgiven.
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A heroic example can be found in Errant Story. Sarine desperately needs to get a warp gate connected up to the elven network, so instead of threatening the two mages she's kidnapped, she shows them a priceless Lost Technology artifact, which they can have if they'll help.
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One of the funnier scenes in A Scotsman in Egypt is watching Scotland's best diplomat enter the Vatican (having accidentally caused the death of the previous two a few days apart, with the Pope savoring the groveling he's about to see) and plonk down a huge-ass sack of florins on the Pope's desk, and declare "Your Holiness. You have no problem with the Scottish Empire."
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The main characters try this in The Secret History, to prevent Bunny from telling the police about their accidental murder. It works for a while, but he starts talking regardless, telling Richard (who knew anyway) with the implication that he would tell others. The other four plus Richard kill him almost immediately.
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M*A*S*H had an early episode where the US Army shelled a South Korean village. They plan to rebuild the village just as good if not better, but will not publicly admit that they are at fault. The episode centers around Hawkeye and Trapper trying to get the Army to accept responsibility.
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Daredevil (2015): Wilson Fisk's go-to response when it comes to dealing with problems. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not.
The first season opens with Karen Page exposing a numbers racket that Fisk had been running at Union Allied Construction, after escaping an attempt to frame her for murder and two attempts on her life. With the information exposed, Fisk decides that all they need to do with Karen is bribe her into silence - the equivalent of six months pay at her former job. The payoff fails, instead motivating Karen to do her own digging to expose those who wronged her.
The third season sees Fisk throwing everything but the kitchen sink at an elderly Polish immigrant trying to buy back "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" from her, but she refuses to budge no matter how many incentives or monetary offers Fisk makes, as the painting belonged to her parents and was taken from them by Nazis during the invasion of Poland.
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The Elder Scrolls: Some games give you the option to pay a fine rather than go to jail for some crimes.
Morrowind: You can even get away with murder by paying the 1000-gold fine, though once your total bounty exceeds 5000 gold, City Guards start attacking you on sight instead. However, the game also features the Morag Tong, a state-sanctioned Murder, Inc. group that executes criminals whose victims think got off too scot-free, even if they paid their fine. Tellingly, the reward for successfully executing someone is one half of the fine for murder.
Oblivion: The fine for murder is a fixed 1000 gold (plus the paltry 400 to 600 gold for assault). This is a game where it's common to have 10 to 20 times that amount by the late game, allowing you to murder someone in plain daylight, yield to the guards, pay off the fine and be on your merry way without spending more than a minute in jail.
Skyrim lowers the assault fine to 40 gold. Nords... fight a lot. Especially against the Thalmor; you will NEVER get a murder fine from the cities if you murder a Thalmor in public. Everyone hates those fascists that much. In fact, the holds that are aligned with the Stormcloak faction will help you murder them, and then try to buy YOU off by bribing you with a "Let's sweep this assault fine under the rug, and you keep butchering Thalmor" deal. If you're in good standing with the Thieves' Guild, you can bribe away murder for a tenth of the cost, though subsequent bribes cost more.
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The Nobles of One Piece seem to believe this about everyone, and are completely shocked when the person would rather beat them than accept the bribe.
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In Batman Returns, Max Shreck starts pleading for his life with Catwoman, but she's quite determined to kill him.
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Haibane Renmei: Reki believes herself to be this until Rakka helps her realizes that she has become The Atoner for real.
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In No Name on the Bullet, mine owners Earl Stricker and Thad Pierce assume that their partner, Ben Chaffee, has hired Gant to kill them to take sole ownership of the mine. When they find Gant in the saloon and propose a counter-offer; offering him double whatever he is being paid to leave town. However, Gant observes that no innocent man would be afraid, and turns them away.
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Said word for word in the The West Wing episode "Lord John Marbury", where the titular character (in his debut appearance) convinces President Bartlet to avert a possible war between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region by bribing India into withdrawing its troops, providing them with the technical specs that they need to start their own computer industry. As historical precedent, Marbury tells Bartlet that the British regularly used this strategy to keep the British Raj in line, pacifying potentially rebellious Indians by offering to make them Maharajas, complete with an annual tribute from the Crown.
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In The Truth we have Mr. Pin, though he doesn't so much try to pay off the victims of his crimes, but tries to pay off Death himself. With a Potato. Further Details Mr. Tulip, his business associate, believed that 'everything would be ok if you have a potato' and if you 'feel sorry for what you've done'. Pin takes his potato before murdering him, and while he did have some level of guilt from Otto Chriek's Dark Light camera he ignored it and by the time of his death he was only pretending to be repentant
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The Magic: The Gathering flavor text for Reparations above was written by current Head Designer Mark Rosewater, who considered it his masterpiece. It was popular enough that in "Unglued", the first joke set, the card Clambassadors, has the flavor text, "Sorry we shelled your village - here's some gold."
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Game of Thrones:
Jorah explains to Daenerys this is standard policy amongst the cities in the East for dealing with Dothraki; it's far easier to offer a tribute of gold and slaves than start a fight with a horde of warriors who likely outnumber their defenders. It doesn't always work; sometimes a khal might feel insulted by the quality or quantity of slaves he's given, and some times, a khal just decides to sack the city because his men haven't had a decent fight in months and could use the practice.
Yunkai attempts to stave off Daenerys' Slave Liberation with chests of gold and ships to take her army to Westeros. Dany takes the gold but refuses to leave without freeing the slaves.
Tyrion offers to provide Shae with a Big Fancy House and an allowance as his mistress, but she refuses, fearing Tyrion will tire of her with age and any children they might have are likely to be murdered if their grandfather ever finds out.
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In The Princess Bride, Inigo Montoya tells Rugen to offer him money, power, anything he wants; Rugen agrees to them all, and Inigo tells him he wants his father back and kills him.
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Morrowind: You can even get away with murder by paying the 1000-gold fine, though once your total bounty exceeds 5000 gold, City Guards start attacking you on sight instead. However, the game also features the Morag Tong, a state-sanctioned Murder, Inc. group that executes criminals whose victims think got off too scot-free, even if they paid their fine. Tellingly, the reward for successfully executing someone is one half of the fine for murder.
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Grace and Frankie: In "The Horrible Family", the Hansons realize they fired their old housekeeper unfairly, briefly agonize over how to make amends, and settle for "a big fat check".
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In Blassreiter, after the bullies drive Malek's friend to suicide, the father of one of the bullies pays the boy's parents off to keep quiet. This leads directly into Malek's Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
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Subverted in Monster when it comes out that Schubert is so wracked with guilt over abandoning Margot Langer that he actually gives money to an impersonator using her name — he knows she's a fraud, but the symbolic act is the only way he knows how to apologize for his past sins.
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On Boardwalk Empire this is Nucky Thompson's standard way of trying to make up for the mistakes he made or bad blood he caused. In season 4 he ends a Mob War with Joe Masseria by giving him a Briefcase Full of Money to make amends for the killing of dozens of Masseria's men during a supposed truce. While Masseria took the money and left on supposedly good terms, later his lieutenant Lucky Luciano reveals that on the whole ride back to New York from Atlantic City, all Masseria would talk about was how he was still going to take revenge on Nucky. This supports a general theme in the show that Nucky's attempts to buy people off seldom actually solve any problems, especially in his personal relationships.
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Wergild is a mechanic in King of Dragon Pass. As per the game's economics, the price is in cows: five for a commoner, ten for a carl, twenty for a noble or thane. One event has the Ducks demand wergild in silver, because they live in the marshes and as such have no use for cows.
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Rebel Inc. has a Random Event if your armies are fighting Insurgents in Rural areas where the Insurgents launch ambushes from tall crops. You can burn the crops to gain a combat advantage by removing the Insurgents' ability to hide, angering the farmers who just lost their livelihood, fight on through and hope you win the fight, or, relevant to this trope, burn the crops 'BUT compensating said farmers for the damage to their farms, which only reduce the hostility caused by slashing and burning.
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Averted at the end of The Wild Geese. Corrupt Corporate Executive Sir Edward Matheson abandons the mercenaries in hostile territory, but they are able to escape though not without heavy casualties. Their leader turns up in Matheson's home with a gun and demands he hand over the agreed payment of $500,000. Matheson does so, then offers more money if his life is spared. It's not.
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Dan Scott in One Tree Hill following his stint in prison for the murder of his brother Keith, up until his Heel Realization.
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Major Crimes: The finale reveals that Gwendolyn, the mother of recurring Serial Killer Phillip Stroh, started out doing this to people affected by his evil tendencies, then eventually evolved to outright bribing witnesses to let Phillip get away with murder.
When Phillip threw Hollywood Acid at his sixth-grade teacher, Gwendolyn paid the teacher's medical bills and gave him a lot of money as an apology, leaving him disinclined to press charges.
When Elizabeth Wellington, the sister of Phillip's first murder victim Mary (whose body was hidden under a construction site), kept searching for her sister, Gwendolyn paid her college tuition on the condition that Elizabeth give up her supposedly unhealthy fixation. There may have been some genuine consideration behind that act, but mainly she wanted to divert Elizabeth's investigation. She also paid for Elizabeth and her kids to go on European vacations over the years to keep diverting their attention from Mary.
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In Skin Game, HARRY pays a weregild, as he caused the death of a security guard. (He tried to prevent it, but failed.) The gild is paid to Marcone, in a bag full of diamonds.
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Changing Lanes: One rich lawyer guy gets into an accident with a not-rich not-lawyer guy and attempts to buy him off. Not-rich guy refuses, wanting to do the right thing of filing an insurance claim, but lawyer guy is in a hurry and blows him off. This seemingly random event culminates in an all-out war that almost kills both of them. In addition, the lawyer finds out that his firm was and is stealing from a senile dead man, and that they are attempting to assuage their guilt by doing good works, claiming that they "do more harm than good". The lawyer guy doesn't like that.
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Revenge (2011): This appears to be the standard Grayson family reaction. Conrad and Victoria Grayson endow a charity to help victims of terrorist attacks in order to soothe their own guilty consciences about laundering money for terrorists, Conrad buys Victoria a car to make up for cheating on her, and Victoria gives Charlotte the same car to apologize for wishing she'd never been born.
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In Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, you can donate money to any church and raise your reputation. So if you do something evil and your reputation suffered as a result, you can simply head to the nearest church and drop a couple thousand in individual donations of two or three hundred gold transactions and presto, you're the most heroic person anyone can imagine again.
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In Thank You for Smoking, Nick is sent to deliver a briefcase of cash to a former cigarette spokesman who now has terminal lung cancer and has begun speaking against his former employers. Nick explains that the money is a "gift" and has no conditional terms, so he is not legally required to stay silent if he accepts it, but Nick points out that ethically he can't denounce them publicly and keep any of the money. The only choices are to give it all away and denounce them, or take it and keep quiet. He later tells his son that only a crazy person would turn down that much money, so as soon as he saw that the guy was sane, he had nothing to worry about.
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Cyrano de Bergerac:
Used by Cyrano after he refuses to apologize to the Burgundy Theater's audience for interrupting The Clorise because "The Clorise" was a bad play and all the assistants are wrong because they wanted to see it, He pays Bellerose for all the entrance fees so they can give it back to the public. He also uses it to bribe the Duenna to invoke Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone with Roxane.
At Act II Scene VII, De Guiche plans to buy Cyrano off with an offering of patronage from his uncle, Cardenal Richelieu. The play notes indicate that Cyrano is tempted to accept.
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In The Critic episode "Eye on the Prize", Duke ends up firing Jay in a very humiliating fashion: Jay was naked in his office at the time (long story), and Duke took his clothes and threw them out the window. Later when Jay wins a second Pulitzer Prize, Duke decides to swallow his pride and take him back... but decides to go the half-assed route and write him a check.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Buy Them Off
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Morality Tropes
 Buy Them Off
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Revenge Tropes
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Buy Them Off
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Buy Them Off
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Buy Them Off
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Buy Them Off
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Buy Them Off
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 SAS: Rise of the Black Swan / int_e0222ff2
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 Spiral Arm / int_e0222ff2
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 The Cuckoo's Calling / int_e0222ff2
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 The Death of the Vazir Mukhtar / int_e0222ff2
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 The Icelandic Sagas / int_e0222ff2
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 The Princess Bride / int_e0222ff2
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