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Please Shoot the Messenger
- 230 statements
- 43 feature instances
- 25 referencing feature instances
| Please Shoot the Messenger | type |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger | page |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger | comment |
The plucky, eager young messenger has been ordered to deliver a message to the queen. The messenger, desperately wanting to please his superiors, runs along as fast as he can and hands over the envelope before the wax has even cooled. He watches, nervously, as the queen reads it and... wait, why is she pointing a gun at him? What do you mean, the message told her to?! This trope is when a character sends another — usually an Unwitting Pawn — to deliver a message containing the single instruction to harm the person delivering the message. While the instructions are usually fatal, that is not a requirement for the trope. This method of disposing of the Unwitting Pawn is usually a Kick the Dog moment for the person sending the message. Sometimes the message refers to the messenger, but not by name. This message often gets handed to a different messenger for delivery. Alternately, the messenger or another person intercepts and modifies the message. Not to be confused with Shoot the Messenger, Spare a Messenger or Don't Shoot the Message. It's related, however, to Shoot the Dangerous Minion. Can be combined with the related Uriah Gambit, when the message tells the recipient to send the messenger on a deadly errand. If you're playing a video game and your Player Character gets hit with this, you've just encountered one variety of Treacherous Quest Giver. Spoilers ahoy! |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger | fetched |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger | parsed |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger | processingComment |
Dropped link to LuckBasedMission: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger | processingComment |
Dropped link to OlderThanDirt: Not an Item - CAT | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger | processingComment |
Dropped link to PlayedForLaughs: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to PlayedWith: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger | processingComment |
Dropped link to SnipeHunt: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheFourthProtocol: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger | processingComment |
Dropped link to UrbanLegends: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger | processingUnknown |
TheFourthProtocol | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_10c71f4 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_10c71f4 | comment |
Downplayed in Wizard101: After giving you a menial task for failure, Professor Cyrus Drake sends you with a letter to the headmaster. The headmaster reads it and exclaims that he will not expel you, no matter what Cyrus thinks of you. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_10c71f4 | featureApplicability |
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| Wizard101 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Please Shoot the Messenger / int_10c71f4 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1ac6ad40 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1ac6ad40 | comment |
In Hitman: Blood Money, the agency has some sort of code that instructs their agents to kill postmen who bring them a letter marked with it. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1ac6ad40 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1ac6ad40 | featureConfidence |
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| Hitman: Blood Money (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1ac6ad40 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1e8dcfa | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1e8dcfa | comment |
Dr. Bledsoe pulls a non-fatal version on the Narrator in Invisible Man with a supposed letter of recommendation that actually says something along the lines of "Do not hire this man under any circumstances." | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1e8dcfa | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1e8dcfa | featureConfidence |
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| Invisible Man | hasFeature |
Please Shoot the Messenger / int_1e8dcfa | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_219ac903 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_219ac903 | comment |
Address Unknown: While Max's letters to Martin don't explicitly state anything threatening, he has been weaponizing Spy Speak, penning his letters in such an odd way that they look like coded messages. He does this intentionally in order to get Martin accused of espionage by the Nazi regime. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_219ac903 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_219ac903 | featureConfidence |
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| Address Unknown | hasFeature |
Please Shoot the Messenger / int_219ac903 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_22fb2175 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_22fb2175 | comment |
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead parodies this. They read the letter after it's been tampered with, but since this play has No Fourth Wall, they have to acknowledge that they can't do a thing about the plot. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_22fb2175 | featureApplicability |
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Please Shoot the Messenger / int_22fb2175 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_261c8d3f | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_261c8d3f | comment |
In The Simpsons, Bart campaigns for class president. Mrs. Krabbappel gives Bart a note that she wants brought to Principal Skinner. The note reads "Keep Bart distracted for a few minutes". | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_261c8d3f | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_261c8d3f | featureConfidence |
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| The Simpsons | hasFeature |
Please Shoot the Messenger / int_261c8d3f | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2625bfd5 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2625bfd5 | comment |
In Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, Maria tries to get rid of Jesse by giving him an envelope she says contains a prescription for Hank, and sending him to Prescott to get it filled. However, the envelope actually contains a note telling the druggist the bearer is the outlaw Jesse James, and telling to summon the authorities. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2625bfd5 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2625bfd5 | featureConfidence |
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| Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter | hasFeature |
Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2625bfd5 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2bbcacd9 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2bbcacd9 | comment |
Looney Tunes: In "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!", Bugs Bunny tricks Elmer Fudd into thinking he needed a special license to shoot a "fricasseeing rabbit." Daffy Duck writes up the license but Bugs tricks Daffy into making it a "fricasseeing duck" license. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2bbcacd9 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2bbcacd9 | featureConfidence |
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Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2bbcacd9 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2e16cd09 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2e16cd09 | comment |
In "The Luck Child", an episode of The Storyteller, an evil king finds a young man who's been prophesied to be king after him. He offers him a position at court and sends him to the castle with a letter instructing the Queen to have the boy cut into a thousand pieces. The letter doesn't make it into the Queen's hands, thanks to the intervention of a helpful forger who replaces it with instructions to have the bearer marry the princess instead. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2e16cd09 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2e16cd09 | featureConfidence |
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Please Shoot the Messenger / int_2e16cd09 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_35bceb50 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_35bceb50 | comment |
Hamlet: The courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern travel to England with Hamlet to deliver a letter by King Claudius which orders Hamlet's execution (of which the two are probably unaware). To their misfortune, Hamlet secretly reads the letter and alters the message so that it orders the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead. They deliver the letter, and are executed. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_35bceb50 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_35bceb50 | featureConfidence |
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Please Shoot the Messenger / int_35bceb50 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_383c39a5 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_383c39a5 | comment |
With This Ring: Paul combines getting revenge for a minor prank, with giving Artemis a Christmas present, by sending her to knock on a stranger's door and present a package he's given her, then wait for a response. The package contains letters and photographs about Artemis' family. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_383c39a5 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_383c39a5 | featureConfidence |
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Please Shoot the Messenger / int_383c39a5 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_3f3abe9 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_3f3abe9 | comment |
Rick and Morty once met a Floop-Floopian who asked them, via note, to kill him. Rick explains that Floop-floopians, if killed by a great warrior, achieve an "eternal orgasmic afterlife". | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_3f3abe9 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_3f3abe9 | featureConfidence |
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Please Shoot the Messenger / int_3f3abe9 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_43e07277 | type |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_43e07277 | comment |
Gesta Danorum: After the usurper Fengi has murdered his brother and married the latter's wife, he senses that his nephew Amleth is dangerous, but does not dare to kill him himself because he fears the reaction of his wife (Amleth's mother) and her family. He contrives to send Amleth to Britain with two courtiers carrying a message (carved into a piece of wood) instructing the King of Britain to put Amleth to death. While his companions are sleeping, Amleth reads the message and alters it so that it orders the death of the courtiers and moreover demands the king to give Amleth his daughter in marriage. The king complies on both counts. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_49ad83ee | type |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_49ad83ee | comment |
A subversion in World of Warcraft : Wrath of The Lich King. You are instructed (by an Ebon Blade officer) to read the message aloud in front of a Vrykul warlord. The message itself is an order to submit and ceasing allegiance to the Lich King with surrender or die threat attached. At the end of the message, it is said that the messenger will also be the deliverer of said threat should he refused to submit (which he definitely won't). | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_49ad83ee | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_49ad83ee | featureConfidence |
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Please Shoot the Messenger / int_49ad83ee | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_4a9ecddc | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_4a9ecddc | comment |
I, Claudius has a downplayed version which doubles up as a Snipe Hunt: Caligula punishes someone who's annoyed him by sending him with a letter to the King of Morocco. The letter says, "Kindly send bearer back to Rome." Was earlier played straight by Sejanus; he'd been given a letter from Tiberius to deliver to the Senate. Tiberius led Sejanus to believe it was a promotion, but in fact it accused him of numerous crimes and requested that the Senate put him to death. |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_4a9ecddc | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_4da11f30 | type |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_4da11f30 | comment |
The opening of Return of the Jedi doesn't quite match this to the letter, but the idea is the same: R2D2 and C3P0 are sent to Jabba's palace with a message that they are being traded to Jabba, much to the surprise of C3P0 (but not R2). This is subverted when it turns out to be all part of their plan to rescue Han. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_66ea3059 | type |
Please Shoot the Messenger | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_66ea3059 | comment |
In Kangaroo Jack: The main character is the fuck-up stepson to a mafia boss, who sends him and his friend to Australia to deliver the contract for a mob hit to his associates. It turns out that they're delivering the payment for their murder, rather than the contract. The kangaroo ends up inadvertently saving their life by running off with the money inside the red jacket. | |
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Please Shoot the Messenger / int_66ea3059 | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_6895f35f | type |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_6895f35f | comment |
This is how John Looney betrays Michael O'Sullivan in Road to Perdition. The message in question read "Kill O'Sullivan, and all sins are forgiven." Michael being Michael, however, the people that he sends this message to don't succeed in offing him. John Looney's son Connor, on the other hand, is a lot more successful in his part of the betrayal, though Connor ended up killing the wrong kid (he had intended to kill Michael Jr., who had witnessed a hit by Michael and Connor, and did not trust Michael's words that his son was a man of honor). | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_6895f35f | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_69de2e4d | comment |
In No Rest for the Wicked, the usual plot is inverted. King Gareth's message about his wife is turned into an order for her execution, but the queen mother sees through it. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_69de2e4d | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_6ada53b1 | comment |
In one episode of NUMB3RS, a gang leader uses his chess lessons with a teenage boy, Bishop, to pass coded messages to his gang. As the police start closing in on the scheme, the gang leader becomes concerned that Bishop is too much of a loose end, and his next "chess lesson" is an order to kill Bishop. Fortunately, the FBI team is able to decode the message in time to intervene. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_6c1d09b2 | comment |
Can happen to you in Fallout 2: if you don't agree with Moore's views (even though he's right) about Vault City being a bunch of selfish assholes or pressure him to give you more payment for delivering his briefcase to Bishop, he will put a notice into the briefcase that prompts Bishop to set his thugs after you. In fact, there's no way to tell whether the briefcase carries the notice or not since the game notes it's sealed up real good so that you can't open it. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_6c1d09b2 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_708ae58b | type |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_708ae58b | comment |
In Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, Dragon Lord Hizell believes that his son, Pyroduck has become soft after he was raised by Fa'Lina, so he sends a messenger with instructions to kill the messenger to prove his worth as a dragon. To up the ante, the messenger was told that if Pyroduck refused to kill her, to kill him instead. Mab rescues Pyroduck by disintegrating the hit-messenger. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_75c31694 | type |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_75c31694 | comment |
In The A-Team episode "Recipe for Heavy Bread", a former North Vietnamese soldier who helped the A-Team out was smuggled into the U.S. along with a note along these lines for the smuggler's accomplice. The (failed) murder attempt kick-starts the episode's plot. | |
| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_75c31694 | featureApplicability |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_7afbbdc2 | comment |
How I Killed Your Master has a non-lethal example. Liu Wong has recently graduated as "master" of Fei Xian's Five Mantis Fist style of martial arts, and moved on to study the Tiger Knuckle style from Fang Yun. After presenting an introductory letter to Fang Yun, he promptly gets his ass beaten by every single one of Fang's students, in descending order. It's implied that Fei Xian's letter asked Fang to kick the crap out of him so as to break his massive ego. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_852b1d26 | comment |
In "The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate", the princess herself makes the change. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_86558c1c | comment |
One of the Mouse Guard books had a story where this happened to one of the protagonists, as a ruse by the king of his own land in order to get the guy's wife while at the same time ending a war that the two kings had been engaged in. The dude actually lives through the attack and is able to return, and his wife ends up killing the king. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_86fa025f | comment |
The Transporter makes a living delivering packages no-questions-asked, so after he's done an assignment for them, the villains give him a suitcase to be delivered somewhere else. Fortunately he stops for a soda so the bomb explodes while he's out of the car. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_8d817ccb | comment |
In the flash-sideways reality of Lost, Jin and Sun travel to the United States to deliver a large sum of cash to a business associate of Sun's father. The associate, Keamy, reveals that the money is Keamy's fee for killing Jin. | |
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After losing a decisive battle against Julius Caesar in Rome, Pompey the Great seeks sanctuary in Egypt, only to be murdered by a Roman mercenary employed by the Egyptian court. The Egyptians later present Pompey's head to Caesar (expecting Caesar to be thankful to them for killing his enemy), but Caesar is furious that a Roman Consul, even a former friend turned enemy, was butchered in such a fashion. Afraid of his wrath, the Egyptians send the mercenary to deliver a message to Caesar saying, "The man bearing this message is the murderer of Pompey Magnus". As you can probably guess, things don't end well for the unfortunate mercenary. | |
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In The Wheel of Time series: Mat carries one of these at one point. Being less than completely honorable, he decides to read it before he delivers it. Bayle Domon, too. He is smart enough to read it before delivering it, and makes the entirely sensible decision to flee far, far away. |
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Dishonored has a variation: Before the Boyle party mission your compatriot Lord Pendleton asks you to deliver a letter to one of the guests. Said letter designates you as Pendleton's stand-in for a Duel to the Death. Naturally you don't find this out until after the other man has read the letter. Unless you're a terrible shot, you'll win, but it's a hassle if you're doing a no-kill playthrough. You can just walk away after the letter's been delivered, though...or use a sleep dart, which counts as a victory. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_9e8e9ba3 | comment |
A variation in the Gaunt's Ghosts novel Blood Pact. Junior Commissar Ludd is given such a letter by his superior officer, with the caveat that he's only to deliver it (and thus be shot) if he feels he needs help earning the respect of the Ghosts, thereby failing in his role as morale officer. | |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_a04b0ca3 | comment |
In the Tintin comic Cigars of the Pharaoh, Tintin takes two patients to a mental hospital, and gives the doctor a letter which is supposed to explain their condition. Little does he know that letter was switched* Only in the album; the animated adaptation makes the sender himself a bad guy for one that describes Tintin himself as a dangerous lunatic, and instructs the doctor to lock him up. A milder example in The Blue Lotus: Thompson & Thomson are reluctantly sent to arrest Tinin in Manchuria, bearing a warrant in Chinese that neither of them can read. When they present the warrant to the local police superintendent, the man reads it, then roars with laughter and has the Thompsons thrown out of the station, and tells Tintin he is free to go. Outside, Tintin's friend Chang explains that he switched the warrant with a paper he wrote himself, reading, "In case you haven't noticed, we are lunatics and this proves it." |
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| Please Shoot the Messenger / int_a5549ed0 | comment |
The Bible: In the Second Book of Samuel King David has Uriah the Hittite carry a letter to Joab, his commanding officer: | |
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The Executioner. In "Panic in Philly", Mack Bolan pulls a nasty version of this when he kills a Black Ace (an elite Professional Killer, answerable only to The Mafia Commission), dresses the body in his trademark black body suit, and gives it to the idiot son of a Mafia boss to take to New York. When the Don finds out, he has a Villainous Breakdown at the thought of what will happen to his son for this cock-up. | |
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In The Destroyer series, if it ever becomes necessary to disband CURE via Killed to Uphold the Masquerade, Smith will commit suicide after sending Remo to deliver such a message to Chiun. | |
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In Drakensang II in order to win the trust of Captain Soorman you must deliver such a letter to one of his men. | |
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One Beetle Bailey strip had Sarge, tired of Beetle's antics, tell Beetle to deliver a letter to General Halftrack. Lt. Fuzz intercepted Beetle, declaring that if anyone was to deliver a message to the general, it should be him. The message? "Throw this idiot in the brig!" | |
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Road to Perdition combines this with a Uriah Gambit. When Sullivan goes out on his debt collecting rounds for Mr. Rooney, he is given a special note from him actually from Rooney's son for the first debtor he visits - an offer to forgive the debt if the debtor kills Sullivan. As Sullivan is The Dreaded the debtor breaks out in a cold sweat, tipping off Sullivan on what's about to happen. | |
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The Weirwood Queen: After Varys walks in on Jaime post-patricide, he and Illyrio ship him off to Meereen, ostensibly to serve Young Griff. However, the letter he takes with him declares that he has been remanded to the justice of House Targaryen. | |
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In the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon "Not So Quiet," Pegleg Pete, a general, does this to Oswald, a low-ranking soldier. | |
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A variant occurs in Nomads of Gor. Tarl is the only one who can speak with Elizabeth Cardwell, as she is newly arrived on Gor and can only speak English. She is also carrying a message bearing orders to find and kill the man who can speak with her. Kamchak treats this as a Secret Test of Character, pretends to be illiterate, and tells Tarl to read the message for him. | |
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Marcus Didius Falco: Lampshaded in In The Iron Hand of Mars. Falco is sent to deliver a message to a military camp in Germania. As Falco is a former soldier from a disgraced Legion they aren't very nice to him, maliciously joking that the message might read, "Please kill the messenger." As it happens the emperor's son (who gave him the assignment) has taken an interest in Falco's Love Interest, so he doesn't find that particularly funny. | |
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