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Protocol Peril

149 statements
27 feature instances
11 referencing feature instances

Protocol Peril	type	FeatureClass
Protocol Peril	label	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril	page	ProtocolPeril
Protocol Peril	comment	When visiting alien or foreign cultures, some amount of Culture Clash is inevitable. In fiction, writers are able to take this to almost ridiculous extremes and milk the resulting dramatic tension. Here's the basic formula: take a society. Give them, as one of their hats, a rigid and/or complex code of manners or tradition they adhere to. Make the consequence of breaking that code dire: death, slavery, imprisonment, declaration of war, loss of a desperately needed supply or alliance they have. Insert the protagonists, usually well meaning but likely to have difficulty complying. If they can get away with asking why the punishment is so severe, the response will often be "What Do You Mean, It's Not Heinous?" Or if the custom is particularly lacking in good sense from the outside point of view, well, "Nobody Ever Complained Before." Shake well and watch your protagonists squirm. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })If the members of the culture in question are hip to the fact that outsiders are prone to stumbling on the rules, they may be nice enough to give a warning or two before bringing the hammer down. Probable good ending: both cultures learn to understand each other better and An Aesop is learned about respecting other's differences. Probable bad ending: the crew has to rescue one of their own and make a break for it with the angry mob on their heels. A Sub-Trope of Culture Clash. Super-Trope to Fumbling the Gauntlet, where the character's innocent action is taken as a challenge to fight. See also: Planet of Hats, Sacred Hospitality and Peace Pipe. Likely to involve invoking the Alien Non-Interference Clause. Not to be confused with Prestige Peril.
Protocol Peril	fetched	2022-07-24T23:13:18Z
Protocol Peril	parsed	2022-07-24T23:13:18Z
Protocol Peril	processingComment	Dropped link to AscendedExtra: Not an Item - FEATURE
Protocol Peril	processingComment	Dropped link to DontCallMeSir: Not an Item - FEATURE
Protocol Peril	processingComment	Dropped link to FirstContact: Not an Item - FEATURE
Protocol Peril	processingComment	Dropped link to Gate: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Protocol Peril	processingComment	Dropped link to PlanetOfHats: Not an Item - FEATURE
Protocol Peril	processingComment	Dropped link to UrineTrouble: Not an Item - FEATURE
Protocol Peril	processingUnknown	Gate
Protocol Peril	isPartOf	DBTropes
Protocol Peril / int_135f4195	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_135f4195	comment	In Dune, this almost happens when Duke Leto's entourage meets with Stilgar, a Fremen leader, for the first time. As Stilgar walks out, he spits on their table. Some of the men react with anger, but fortunately Duncan Idaho, who is familiar with Fremen customs, is on hand to explain: water is so precious a resource on Arrakis that every drop is counted and precious, and the Fremen wear suits that recycle 100% of a body's waste water. To share one's bodily water (as with the spit) with someone else is therefore a gesture of great respect.
Protocol Peril / int_135f4195	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_135f4195	featureConfidence	1.0
Dune	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_135f4195
Protocol Peril / int_2250e67e	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_2250e67e	comment	Star Trek: Enterprise: The crew of Enterprise once manages to anger alien dignitaries by having a dinner in their honor. This is highly offensive to the visitors (whose hat is already "easily offended") because on their planet you eat alone. "You eat like you mate!" Then there is the one where Captain Archer brings his dog along to a meeting with those same aliens because they have some critical parts for Enterprise. Porthos promptly marks a sacred tree and angers the aliens. Archer starts raging about this once he's back on the ship and says he'll piss on their tree himself. This is the episode that also establishes that Archer is a trained diplomat.
Protocol Peril / int_2250e67e	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_2250e67e	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Enterprise	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_2250e67e
Protocol Peril / int_27b6ca57	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_27b6ca57	comment	To the humans in the Foreigner (1994) 'verse, The War of Landing was caused by this — everything was going wonderfully until suddenly the atevi attacked them. To the atevi, they spent years trying to negotiate their way out of the war before finally being pushed too far.
Protocol Peril / int_27b6ca57	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_27b6ca57	featureConfidence	1.0
Foreigner (1994)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_27b6ca57
Protocol Peril / int_29a5124d	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_29a5124d	comment	Sunless Skies: Less what you do, and more who you are (paperwork-wise at least), but in the Blue Kingdom your status in terms of mortality is of utmost importance, as it defines everything you can and can't have done and how the locals interact with you. Some may be hostile to one set and entirely neutral or friendly to another; the trick is to do the paperwork to change your status/caste as you go in order to get what you want done. And you better get started quick, because upon arrival you have a status that amounts to "this person does not exist", which is the worst to have because the friendly sorts ignore you and everything that could try to kill you (including the very laws of the land) will take a shot.
Protocol Peril / int_29a5124d	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_29a5124d	featureConfidence	1.0
Sunless Skies (Video Game)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_29a5124d
Protocol Peril / int_3f445492	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_3f445492	comment	Arabian Nights: In Arabian cultures it is taboo to eat with your left hand; one man who tries it gets it cut off by his dinner guest. In another tale this becomes an issue for a man who lost his right hand...
Protocol Peril / int_3f445492	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_3f445492	featureConfidence	1.0
Arabian Nights	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_3f445492
Protocol Peril / int_46a4b34d	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_46a4b34d	comment	The Tamuli: The Atan Proud Warrior Race have such an unforgiving code of honour that they volunteered to be nominally "enslaved" to the Tamul Empire in order to Defy the trope. Ehlana's bodyguard Mirtai once explains that, had she not been "owned", she would have been honour-bound to kill every man who insulted her by letting his shadow fall on her, among many other incomprehensible offenses.
Protocol Peril / int_46a4b34d	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_46a4b34d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Elenium	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_46a4b34d
Protocol Peril / int_50bcf7a6	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_50bcf7a6	comment	Homestuck has the trolls who, due to differences in reproduction, results in buckets in the troll world being viewed the same way that pornography would be viewed by an individual from our world. Therefore, Hilarity Ensues whenever buckets come into play.
Protocol Peril / int_50bcf7a6	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_50bcf7a6	featureConfidence	1.0
Homestuck (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_50bcf7a6
Protocol Peril / int_70814599	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_70814599	comment	Stargate SG-1: In "Emancipation", Carter speaks to a man on a Mongol-influenced planet and is immediately sentenced to death. Fortunately, she has just saved a man's life, though, so she is spared. Vala is burned alive on an Ori planet for swearing. Well, that is only after they realize she has no idea how to perform the daily religious ceremony that the person she is currently inhabiting should have known. They take it as a refusal and thus brand her as a heretic.
Protocol Peril / int_70814599	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_70814599	featureConfidence	1.0
Stargate SG-1	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_70814599
Protocol Peril / int_7988cb68	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_7988cb68	comment	Mass Effect: Mentioned to be a bit of an issue with the hanar, whose culture places extraordinary importance on being polite. Hanar that travel off-world and expect to deal with people from other species routinely go through a form of special training, learning to not take offense as easily as they would on the homeworld because the other species are not going to be as polite. This marks the big problem the Citadel Council has with the culture of the yahg. The yahg have a strong pack mentality: if a group of yahg forms to work together, they will compete with one another until one of them arises as the dominant leader. When the Citadel sent a group of diplomats to facilitate first contact, the yahg were extremely insulted by the idea of the other species wanting to speak to them as equals, and slaughtered the group for their disrespect (the fact that the diplomats were politicians, and the yahg are extremely sensitive to body language and could sense duplicity on them, did not help either). The Council declared the yahg homeworld under quarantine and all further contact with the species was cut off.
Protocol Peril / int_7988cb68	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_7988cb68	featureConfidence	1.0
Mass Effect (Franchise)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_7988cb68
Protocol Peril / int_7dad8347	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_7dad8347	comment	This trope was the cause of the Terran-Vasudan War in FreeSpace. For clarification, the Vasudan language is ridiculously complex and changes depending on things like your relative status to the other person, the time of day, your spacial position relative to the Emperor, etc. The translator (no word on whether said translator was human, Vasudan, or machine) screwed up somewhere during first contact and it all went south from there.
Protocol Peril / int_7dad8347	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_7dad8347	featureConfidence	1.0
FreeSpace (Video Game)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_7dad8347
Protocol Peril / int_7de8951a	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_7de8951a	comment	The Traveller Adventure, segment "Pysadian Escapade". While their PC's are on the planet Pysadi, the players are railroaded by the referee into having the PC's take on a group of anolas (alien animals) as pets. When the Pysadians find out about this violation of their religious laws, they imprison one of the PC's as a companion for the anolas and expel the other PC's from the planet.
Protocol Peril / int_7de8951a	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_7de8951a	featureConfidence	1.0
Traveller (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_7de8951a
Protocol Peril / int_81692f99	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_81692f99	comment	Star Trek thrives on this trope: In The Next Generation first season episode "Justice", the crew beams down onto a seemingly pleasurable planet inhabited by the friendly Edo, where it is explained that no one breaks the rules because of random inspections and only one punishment: execution. Then Wesley, who was playing with other kids, accidentally breaks a greenhouse window and it just so happens that's where the moderators check at that moment... "The Big Goodbye" has Picard practicing the language of an alien race on the holodeck to prepare for upcoming delegations, because the slightest mispronunciation will be taken as a grave offense. There's an episode of Star Trek: Voyager where B'Elanna (part Klingon) gets arrested for having violent thoughts on a planet of telepaths. Janeway once nearly ruins relations with a species called the Tak Tak. Apparently to them, putting one's hands on one's hips is the greatest insult possible. Well, body language is a major part of their language. We can get by without it, but they can't. Star Trek: Enterprise: The crew of Enterprise once manages to anger alien dignitaries by having a dinner in their honor. This is highly offensive to the visitors (whose hat is already "easily offended") because on their planet you eat alone. "You eat like you mate!" Then there is the one where Captain Archer brings his dog along to a meeting with those same aliens because they have some critical parts for Enterprise. Porthos promptly marks a sacred tree and angers the aliens. Archer starts raging about this once he's back on the ship and says he'll piss on their tree himself. This is the episode that also establishes that Archer is a trained diplomat.
Protocol Peril / int_81692f99	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_81692f99	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek (Franchise)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_81692f99
Protocol Peril / int_8468078e	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_8468078e	comment	RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The main characters have a bad habit of mouthing off toward heads of state, or worse, when they meet them (like Lyra criticizing the head of an extremely paranoid nation for his country's very, very racist notions). Except, funnily enough, for Trixie, who's the only one of the six with prior knowledge of statesm-... err, statesponyship, who's usually trying to get everyone else to stop talking before they have someone else out for their blood.
Protocol Peril / int_8468078e	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_8468078e	featureConfidence	1.0
RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_8468078e
Protocol Peril / int_92390298	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_92390298	comment	The wretched beast-men of The Island of Doctor Moreau adhere to a rigid set of rules intended to prevent them from backsliding into animalistic behavior. Any of their number who violate these rules is harassed by the others and hauled back to Moreau's "House of Pain" for surgical re-modification, and the novel's human protagonist is expected to conform to the same rules.
Protocol Peril / int_92390298	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_92390298	featureConfidence	1.0
The Island of Doctor Moreau	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_92390298
Protocol Peril / int_a183d57f	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_a183d57f	comment	The "Where the Buggalo Roam" episode of Futurama features native Martians as Native American stereotypes. There is a misunderstanding, but it will all be OK as long as Kif doesn't cough while smoking the Peace Pipe. He does. The punishment is death.
Protocol Peril / int_a183d57f	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_a183d57f	featureConfidence	1.0
Futurama	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_a183d57f
Protocol Peril / int_a7c9f8e9	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_a7c9f8e9	comment	Fairly common in Legend of the Five Rings, being based in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of samurai-era Japan with a vast number of strict social protocols. (Depending on the circumstances, you can get gigged for following too strict of a protocol.) Players are encouraged to try to remember, but the Etiquette skill can be used to see if they remember the precise courtesy for their situation. It's also used as a "social defense" roll to prevent others from gaining an advantage in social conflicts.
Protocol Peril / int_a7c9f8e9	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_a7c9f8e9	featureConfidence	1.0
Legend of the Five Rings (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_a7c9f8e9
Protocol Peril / int_abfcff6a	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_abfcff6a	comment	Rocky and Bullwinkle: Mr. Peabody and Sherman visit a historic old west settler who cannot leave an Indian village because he does not know the Indian word for "goodbye." Mr. Peabody tells him what it is, but his poor memory has him screw it up and insult the Indians.
Protocol Peril / int_abfcff6a	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_abfcff6a	featureConfidence	1.0
Rocky and Bullwinkle	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_abfcff6a
Protocol Peril / int_b1058237	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_b1058237	comment	Temeraire: While visiting the Turkish palace, two of Captain Laurence's men sneak into the Royal Harem and cat-call some of the women there. Laurence has to manage some quick diplomacy to prevent them from being summarily executed for the offense.
Protocol Peril / int_b1058237	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_b1058237	featureConfidence	1.0
Temeraire	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_b1058237
Protocol Peril / int_b50b09ee	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_b50b09ee	comment	The Retrieval Artist series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch has the Earth Sphere Alliance bound by treaties with their alien trading partners to honor their laws and extradite people who break them, with judgements handed down by a Multicultural Tribunal. Many of the alien crimes, punishable by death or Fate Worse than Death, are acts that would be completely innocent in the eyes of humans - say, stepping on the wrong sort of plant. This is why there are agencies to Disappear people who run afoul of them, trackers that hunt them for the law and retrieval artists working outside the law who may bring them back for other reasons.
Protocol Peril / int_b50b09ee	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_b50b09ee	featureConfidence	1.0
Retrieval Artist	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_b50b09ee
Protocol Peril / int_c4282b71	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_c4282b71	comment	My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Ember the dragon stumbles into a few cultural misunderstandings when visiting Ponyville in "Triple Threat". First, when unicorn trumpeters welcome her with a fanfare, she covers her ears in pain and gets into a hostile stance in response, clearly believing she's under attack, until Spike distracts her. Later, as part of a bombastic dragon-style greeting, she breathes fire toward the sky, which scares all the ponies around. She says that usually, when she does this, other dragons are eager to meet her.
Protocol Peril / int_c4282b71	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_c4282b71	featureConfidence	1.0
MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_c4282b71
Protocol Peril / int_c506565e	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_c506565e	comment	The Cascadians of Vatta's War put a huge emphasis on politeness over much else and the list of things that are considered impolite is vast. Visitors to the spaceport are given a sizable booklet explaining the rules and expected to learn them. The third book has Cpt. Kylara Vatta in a courtroom defending her identity against another Vatta starship captain claiming she is an imposter; being found in contempt of court is an offense that carries the death penalty. When DNA tests show the other captain was lying, he gets aggressive and insulting and having already been warned, is found in contempt. This does not sit well with Ky, even though he's been shown to be in league with the organization that murdered her family.
Protocol Peril / int_c506565e	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_c506565e	featureConfidence	1.0
Vatta's War	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_c506565e
Protocol Peril / int_cac20f89	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_cac20f89	comment	JAG: The main story in "Head to Toe" is about a female Naval Aviator who refuses to wear the abaya and show deference to the locals while stationed at a U.S. Air Force base in Saudi Arabia.
Protocol Peril / int_cac20f89	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_cac20f89	featureConfidence	1.0
JAG	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_cac20f89
Protocol Peril / int_e68decb8	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_e68decb8	comment	Subverted in Star Control II where it was previously thought that the war with the VUX was the result of the captain of the First Contact ship calling the VUX captain ugly. Turns out, they are the ones who think we're too ugly to be left alive and simply used the accidental insult as a pretext.
Protocol Peril / int_e68decb8	featureApplicability	-0.3
Protocol Peril / int_e68decb8	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Control (Video Game)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_e68decb8
Protocol Peril / int_ec28bf83	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_ec28bf83	comment	In the King episode "The Museum of Tomorrow", Russel has to find out a crime that he will commit. Turns out that he managed to anger aliens by messing up their meeting ritual which involves kicking each other in the shins causing them start destroying the kingdom.
Protocol Peril / int_ec28bf83	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_ec28bf83	featureConfidence	1.0
King	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_ec28bf83
Protocol Peril / int_ed8faece	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_ed8faece	comment	A Magical Roommate has an off-screen moment where Kuralla visits one of the fairy lands and accidentally performs the wrong bow. The king makes her and Sages leave in exchange for him doing nothing else.
Protocol Peril / int_ed8faece	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_ed8faece	featureConfidence	1.0
A Magical Roommate (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_ed8faece
Protocol Peril / int_ef076a36	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_ef076a36	comment	There's an episode of Star Trek: Voyager where B'Elanna (part Klingon) gets arrested for having violent thoughts on a planet of telepaths.
Protocol Peril / int_ef076a36	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_ef076a36	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Voyager	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_ef076a36
Protocol Peril / int_ff9ab17f	type	Protocol Peril
Protocol Peril / int_ff9ab17f	comment	In The Next Generation first season episode "Justice", the crew beams down onto a seemingly pleasurable planet inhabited by the friendly Edo, where it is explained that no one breaks the rules because of random inspections and only one punishment: execution. Then Wesley, who was playing with other kids, accidentally breaks a greenhouse window and it just so happens that's where the moderators check at that moment...
Protocol Peril / int_ff9ab17f	featureApplicability	1.0
Protocol Peril / int_ff9ab17f	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: The Next Generation	hasFeature	Protocol Peril / int_ff9ab17f

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Protocol Peril	processingCategory2	Alien Tropes
Protocol Peril	processingCategory2	Narrative Devices
Protocol Peril	processingCategory2	Speculative Fiction Tropes
Citizen of the Galaxy / int_2eeef583	type	Protocol Peril
In Conquest Born / int_2eeef583	type	Protocol Peril
Strikebreaker / int_2eeef583	type	Protocol Peril
The Age of Innocence / int_2eeef583	type	Protocol Peril
TheInhumans	seeAlso	Protocol Peril
JAG / int_2eeef583	type	Protocol Peril
FreeSpace (Video Game) / int_2eeef583	type	Protocol Peril
A Softer World (Webcomic) / int_2eeef583	type	Protocol Peril

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