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Scheherezade Gambit

 Scheherezade Gambit
type
FeatureClass
 Scheherezade Gambit
label
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit
page
ScheherezadeGambit
 Scheherezade Gambit
comment
Someone has you at their mercy. They could snuff you out without breaking a sweat, and there's nothing you can do to save yourself. Or is there?
If you can convince your captor that you're more entertaining alive than dead, then you might be able to persuade them to stay your execution just a little longer. The classic example is, you can't die until you finish the story/song/art project you've just embarked upon. If the villain kills you now, they'll never hear the conclusion. And you're just now starting to get to the good part...
Anyone who attempts to stave off death by being too interesting to kill is pulling the Scheherezade Gambit.
This trope is named for the legendary Persian queen and origin of One Thousand and One Nights, who beguiled her captor into hearing a thousand Cliffhangers in order to buy time. By the end of it, when she had finally run out of stories, the king who held her life in his hands had fallen in love with her and couldn't bear the thought of destroying her.
This trope can run several ways. In the most tragic versions, "Scheherezade" wins only a few more minutes of life — or her request is ignored entirely and she is killed on the spot. Other times, as in the original, her captor decides she is worth sparing and releases her (a bit a la Lima Syndrome). A third option is that Scheherezade stalls for time long enough to escape, turn the tables on her enemy, or be rescued by The Cavalry.
Compare Holding the Floor, Talking Your Way Out, Plea of Personal Necessity, Perilous Play. Contrast Get It Over With. Can be related to or involve the tropes Forgot to Gag Him, Can't Kill You, Still Need You, Sparing the Aces, and You Will Be Spared.
 Scheherezade Gambit
fetched
2024-03-19T17:32:14Z
 Scheherezade Gambit
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2024-03-19T17:32:14Z
 Scheherezade Gambit
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 Scheherezade Gambit
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DBTropes
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_13ee3b8
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Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_13ee3b8
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The miniseries Arabian Nights makes use of this, unsurprisingly.
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1.0
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the final movie in the Ghost Eraser Series has the protagonist go up against Majin, where it won't use offensive moves as long as the player answers the correct questions and keep it entertained.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_196b618d
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 Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 (Video Game)
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Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_1b021fcb
comment
Chie Hori from Tokyo Ghoul uses this as her primary method of dealing with people. A freelancer Camera Fiend and Information Broker, she's a human that has managed to survive dealing with Ghouls for nearly a decade through sheer Nerves of Steel and keeping people guessing. She managed to keep Tsukiyama guessing about her intentions long enough for them to become friends, and years later she avoids being arrested through pointing out that doing so will cause her to only reveal the necessary information... as opposed to offering her services to help their case.
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Another variation of the joke ends with "This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends..."
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 Lamb Chop's Play-Along
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In the Tom and Jerry version of The Nutcracker Suite, the Sugar Plum Fairy gets locked in a cage and manages to steal the keys. The head cat catches her with them, but he thinks she wants to play with him, so she goes along with this misunderstanding; this leads to her being in possession of the right key later.
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Scheherezade Gambit
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The very first Redwall book has Matthias pull this on the King of the Sparra (the sparrows in Redwall's roof) so that he won't have him killed.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_22d74b2e
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Scheherezade Gambit
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The Hobbit
Bilbo in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey keeps Gollum from eating him by proposing a game of riddles, as in the book.
In the next film, he tries this on Smaug. Doesn't work nearly as well, though.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_23d67c89
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The Simpsons:
In the episode "Cape Feare", Bart pulls one on Sideshow Bob. When Bob has him cornered on the adrift houseboat and asks if he has any Last Requests, Bart plays on his ego, telling him he has such a lovely singing voice ("Guilty as charged!" exclaims Bob) and asks him to sing the entire score of H.M.S. Pinafore, Bob complies (mostly to prove he can do it, probably) oblivious to the fact that the boat is drifting towards Springfield as he does, and as he finishes, he's noticed by Chief Wiggum and a squad of armed police, who tell him to raise 'em.
One short-story had Lisa in the role of Sheherazade, with Nelson as the sultan she was entertaining with her stories. The sultan keeps demanding one story after another, until she snaps and tells him to at least take some time to let the previous story have some impact on him. Nelson prepares to have her beheaded for standing up to him, but while Lisa was entertaining him with stories, the other concubines had overpowered his guards and left him defenseless.
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Donovan Deegan does it with cheesy jokes.
Cheesy RACIST jokes...against his own race. Guy knows his audience.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_267cbfa
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1.0
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 Dominic Deegan (Webcomic)
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 Scheherezade Gambit / int_268681e9
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In The One Hundred Nights of Hero, this is the main plot - a woman named Cherry has to stall Manfred, who her husband Jerome has bet that he can't seduce her, for a hundred days. Her maid/lover Hero decides to solve the problem by telling Manfred a hundred nights' worth of stories.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_268681e9
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1.0
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency, Joseph pulls this on the super-vampires Wamuu and Esidisi, appealing to their Proud Warrior Race Guy nature by convincing them that it would be more fun to let him live for a month so he can perfect his Hamon and become a Worthy Opponent. They oblige... by making the future encounter mandatory by the way of a Poison and Cure Gambit. Joseph later laments that had he known that it would work (he was trying to buy time for Caesar and Speedwagon to get away) he would have asked for a full year instead.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_29984214
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 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency (Manga)
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In an episode of Magnum, P.I., Higgins tells of once when he was in the British Army, a soldier did this so the rest of his unit (including Higgins) could slip away.
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In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne manages not to be thrown off the prison roof by a furious Captain Byron T. Hadley by convincing Hadley that he can help him dodge the taxman.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_355f992
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1.0
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 The Shawshank Redemption
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Used by Cyclops in Astonishing X-Men. Knowing that the Breakworld has his ship bugged, he deliberately makes some vague reference to a mysterious superweapon, and then throws himself into suicidal danger, banking that the Breakworlders will value intelligence on the superweapon more than his death. He's right.
He ALSO lied about not having his powers back...
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_382ee557
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Hero (2002): Wu Ming ("Nameless"), a minor official who claims to have vanquished three assassins out to kill the King (Broken Sword, Long Sky and Flying Snow) before he has a chance to declare himself Emperor, is given a extremely rare audience with the King to tell him the story. The story is only an excuse to be given an audience with the King so Wu Ming could assassinate him.
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Dragon Ball:
Cell is easily beaten by Vegeta, but Vegeta is convinced to spare him until he can achieve his Perfect Form and become more of a challenge. He does so and and becomes so strong Vegeta is no longer able to hurt him.
Perfect Cell, being partially made from Vegeta's DNA, agrees to spare the heroes and Earth until the conclusion of his "Cell Games" tournament, letting the heroes train and prepare to fight him.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_3aeb1c75
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 Dragon Ball (Franchise)
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Spider and Web puts the player in the position of doing this.
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1.0
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We Will Rock You, based on the music of Queen, has an opening scrawl where Brian May was about to be executed, but was allowed to play one last solo first. Two days later, they executed him.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_3ce6a231
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 We Will Rock You (Theatre)
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Parodied by Bob the Angry Flower when Bob persuades the Daleks to interrogate him inside an exclusive members-only club that he had been trying to get into for some time.
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 Bob the Angry Flower (Webcomic)
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Scheherezade Gambit
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I, Claudius takes the popular position that Claudius used Obfuscating Stupidity to appear as a bumbling, stuttering clown to keep himself alive during the reign of The Caligula. It worked. After Caligula and his family was assassinated, The Praetorians found Claudius hiding behind a curtain and crowned him Emperor. To everybody's surprise, Claudius was actually a good ruler. He even had the ringleaders of the conspiracy executed. (They did it once, so they could do it again; furthermore, they wanted to kill Claudius as well.)
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_4a9ecddc
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An episode of Justice League Action has the Toyman rig up a facsimile of a Fighting Game and devices that let him control whoever they are affixed to as puppets, the idea being to force Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg to fight for his amusement. Cyborg (who happens to be a fan of the game it's based on) reminds him that it's a two-player game, offering some "friendly competition". Toyman seems Genre Savvy at first ("Oh sure! I let you play, and you take advantage of the situation to free your friends. How stupid do you think I am?" ) but Cyborg plays on the villain's competitive nature (seeing that Toyman's goal is to not just defeat them, but humiliate them and have fun in the process), and he agrees to it. Naturally, Toyman's first hunch was the one he should have listened to. After two "rounds" of the "game", one of his own robotic action figures (who Cyborg had hacked) sabotages the system and disables it.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_4b084b98
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is a kid reading three stories from a modern-day cannibal's favorite book from childhood, to stall for time before she cooks him.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_4d46ade0
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 Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In the film The Usual Suspects, the police have captured one member of a criminal gang. They interrogate him, and the Suspect tells the story of the gang's exploits, leading up to the Suspect's capture.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_4d5b6107
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In an episode of The Twilight Zone (1985), a teacher is told that one of her students must be allowed to take books home, though why he must is not specified. When the student falls during recess and must be taken to the hospital overnight, she finds out that the boy's grandfather is home and waiting for the concluding half of the last night's story. She offers to fill in for the student. Many years later she sees the now-grown man hurrying home and follows him, wondering if the grandfather is still alive. Just as she is about to open the door to the room where they are, she stops telling the narrative to her mother, who must now wait until the next day to hear the conclusion. It's revealed that this method grants the listener immortality—they can't die until the story is completed.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_53a0bd8b
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 The Twilight Zone (1985)
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In The Order of the Stick Nale, having just been caught spying on Tarquin, avoids being killed by Malack by saying he has information on the gates.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_5755b96a
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Persona 5's Framing Device is Joker explaining to Sae- a hostile prosecutor with no knowledge of magic- how he learned about "stealing hearts" and why his team don't deserve to be punished. By the end he's not only convinced her to believe him, but changed her heart as well, no magic required.
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James Bond saves himself from laser-based castration by convincing Goldfinger (in the movie of the same name) that he's more valuable alive as a prisoner.
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A variant in The Summer You Were There. Kaori realizes that her schoolmate Shizuku is planning on killing herself once she disposes of her novel's manuscript, so after taking and reading it, she convinces Shizuku to write another story about their romance. She later states that she was fully counting on Shizuku not quitting a project midway through.
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 The Summer You Were There (Manga)
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The American Dad! multi-parter "Stan of Arabia" sees Roger get bought as a bride for an oil baron. In order to get out of having sex with the baron, he tells the man the plots of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place. Subverted when Roger runs out of episodes; the oil baron strips down and apparently has such unimpressive equipment that Roger decides having sex is no problem.
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Black Lagoon: After Rock asks Balalaika not to destroy the Washamine group, Balalaika holds him at gunpoint and threatens to kill him saying that this trope is the only way he's going to get out of this alive. He manages to pull it off and walks away relatively unharmed.
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 Black Lagoon (Manga)
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In an episode of The Beatles ("The Word"), The Beatles accidentally see a sheik's harem unveiled and get sentenced to death. They delay their execution by playing a song, obviously.
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The Princess Bride, this happens when Westley is captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Westley keeps coming up with ways to make himself useful, like advising on seasoning food. Roberts says he'll probably kill him tomorrow. This goes on for two years, to the point Roberts saying "I'll probably kill you tomorrow" is akin to "Good night".
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 The Princess Bride
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A Pirates of the Caribbean game has Jack Sparrow's allies betray him the second the tutorial level is beaten. The majority of the game is his story of what really happened, which he's telling the executioners as he is about to be hanged. (It is, of course, Blatant Lies.)
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_726c00ca
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 Pirates of the Caribbean (Video Game)
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The Golden Hamster Saga: In Freddy's Final Quest, the guinea pigs Enrico and Caruso are captured by starving Crusaders who want to eat them. Luckily for them, one of the monks Speaks Fluent Animal and forces them to spend hours putting on skits for himself and one of the soldiers, planning to eat them as soon as they run out of ideas.
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 The Golden Hamster Saga
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How I Killed Your Master - "It is simple, Chan Sen. You can kill me and avenge your master, or you can listen to me and surpass him."
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 Scheherezade Gambit / int_7afbbdc2
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1.0
 How I Killed Your Master (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_7afbbdc2
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type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_7d1c83da
comment
In Better Call Saul, after a contrived plan, Lalo finally manages to get Gus at gunpoint. Gus starts monologuing until he reaches his hidden gun.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_7d1c83da
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_7d1c83da
featureConfidence
1.0
 Better Call Saul
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_7d1c83da
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type
Scheherezade Gambit
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comment
After Dagur kidnaps him in Dragons, Butterflies, And Who Knows What Else?, Bruno manages to buy himself time by making various requests (untying him, feeding him, etc.), knowing that they don't actually know how his gift works and thus making up various arbitrary parameters for it.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_816a997c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_816a997c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Dragons, Butterflies, And Who Knows What Else? (Fanfic)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_816a997c
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type
Scheherezade Gambit
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comment
Snow White uses the tactic in the Fables graphic novel 1001 Nights of Snowfall. The title is a clear allusion to One Thousand and One Nights. The ending reveals this is actually a prequel to One Thousand and One Nights when Snow meets Scheherezade herself and tells her how to avoid being executed.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_817acecf
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_817acecf
featureConfidence
1.0
 Fables (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_817acecf
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type
Scheherezade Gambit
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In Gargoyles, Xanatos has admitted this is why he doesn't just send a Psycho for Hire with a sledgehammer at daybreak. Whether or not they foil his plans doesn't matter he always benefits anyways even if its just a fun fight in his Powered Armor.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_83d41855
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
 Gargoyles
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_83d41855
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type
Scheherezade Gambit
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comment
Later, in Licence to Kill after Bond has dismantled Franz Sanchez's drug empire, Sanchez has Bond at his mercy. Bond asks, "Wouldn't you like to know why?" This makes Sanchez hesitate, giving Bond the opportunity he needs to kill him.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_883bd0f0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_883bd0f0
featureConfidence
1.0
 Licence to Kill
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_883bd0f0
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type
Scheherezade Gambit
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In We're the Millers, Rose does this when Pablo Chacon first catches up to the Millers after tracking down where their RV was being fixed at. She ends up stripping for him, though they also use this opportunity to escape.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_884cd474
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_884cd474
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1.0
 We're the Millers
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_884cd474
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In Red Hood: The Lost Days Talia starts off seeking out mentors for Jason all over the world as a stalling tactic since she loves Bruce and doesn't actually want Jason to kill him. By the end of the comic she's also seeking revenge on Bruce and she convinces Jason to punish him for the both of them without killing him.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_88f238db
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_88f238db
featureConfidence
1.0
 Red Hood: The Lost Days (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_88f238db
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type
Scheherezade Gambit
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Death Note: Subverted by Ryuk and Light Yagami. Sure Light could get out alive if he forfeited ownership of the Death Note, but he would never do that unless he knew he could get it back. Ryuk only dropped the Death Note on earth cause he was bored and wanted some entertainment, as such the first time they meet Ryuk tells Light that he will be the one to write Light's name in his Death Note one day. And after six years, he does.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_8ba4613a
featureApplicability
-0.3
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1.0
 Death Note (Manga)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_8ba4613a
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Scheherezade Gambit
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One episode of NCIS revolves around one when DiNozzo and McGee go after Ziva after she leaves NCIS for her job back with Mossad. When being interrogated, DiNozzo goes through every detail regarding Gibbs' team and the process by which the team had found his captors, including the part where he and McGee go rogue in order to find Ziva. The ploy is not to make himself seem more interesting alive rather than dead. DiNozzo is stalling so that Gibbs can get into place in order to take out their captor.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_8d81bb26
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_8d81bb26
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1.0
 NCIS
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_8d81bb26
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type
Scheherezade Gambit
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Batman: The Animated Series, "The Man Who Killed Batman": After humble mook Sid the Squid explains to The Don Rupert Thorne he is a Badass on Paper, Thorne replies him that Sid is just using Obfuscating Stupidity and invokes this trope as the excuse Sid needed to muscle in on Thorn's drug racket.
In another episode, Red Claw kidnaps Alfred, who knows a secret password that will allow her to seize control of an army of missiles that could wipe out the whole United Kingdom. She injects Alfred with a powerful truth serum to make him reveal the password. The moment the butler is injected, he begins shouting random lines from British poetry non-stop. It's eventually revealed that "The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown" is the code; by reciting other poems, he's making it impossible for Red Claw to figure out which verse is the important one, forcing her to keep listening and thus delay her plan (a ploy that works).
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_90b916ba
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1.0
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1.0
 Batman: The Animated Series
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_90b916ba
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Scheherezade Gambit
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The Drew Carey Show displays this in "Two Drews and the Queen of Poland..." A crazy stalker named Earl has Drew at gunpoint, but his friend Oswald (of all people) stops him. He claims that he can "mathematically prove" that Earl can't kill Drew. The math geek Earl is so fascinated by Oswald's rhetoric that the gang are able to subdue him.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_974f7efb
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
 The Drew Carey Show
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_974f7efb
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Star Trek:
In "The Squire of Gothos", Kirk convinces Trelane to spare him because it would be more fun to Hunt The Most Dangerous Game. In this case, however, Kirk's actual intent is to buy time to radio The Enterprise to tell them to flee while Trelane is distracted.
In "The Enterprise Incident", after Spock is exposed as a Fake Defector, he requests he be allowed the traditional Romulan right of statement before his conviction and eventual execution, which the Romulan Commander grants. In truth, Spock is stalling so that Scotty can adapt the stolen Romulan cloaking device to the Enterprise deflectors and then beam Spock onboard. It actually works better than they had planned. When the Commander realizes that Spock is escaping, she tries to grab him, only to be transported with him, and taken prisoner herself.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_9a7088bc
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
 Star Trek: The Original Series
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_9a7088bc
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In the first chapter of morphE Billy begs Amical for his life when put up against Tyler in the pit, assuring that he is a celebrity and he would be better alive then dead. Amical happens to be a fan and so shoots Tyler in the shoulder to make the fight more "fair".
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_9e1e1974
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_9e1e1974
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1.0
 morphE (Webcomic)
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_9e1e1974
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type
Scheherezade Gambit
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In Code Geass, Lelouch Lamperouge is cornered by Tyke Bomb Rolo but Lelouch manages to talk Rolo into letting him live by offering to give up C.C. and for Rolo to really becoming his brother setting up a Kansas City Shuffle. He agrees in hopes of killing both C.C. and Lelouch later giving Lelouch a chance to live another day. Which Lelouch takes full advantage of.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_a4a6b86a
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
 Code Geass
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_a4a6b86a
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Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_a825da3e
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Magic: The Gathering can do this with the eponymous (if misspelled) card Shahrazad, which forces both players to put their game of Magic on hold while they play another game of Magic, with the loser losing half his or her life points. You could stick up to four of these in your deck. Small wonder it got banned.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_a825da3e
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
 Magic: The Gathering (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_a825da3e
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In Halo: Uprising, Colonel Ackerson convinces the Covenant not to blast Cleveland from orbit by making up an artifact called the "Key of Osanalan" which he told them was hidden somewhere in the city.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_aa1b419
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
 Halo: Uprising (Comic Book)
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_aa1b419
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Oglaf shows how this might have backfired for the original Scheherezade.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_aa5b7cc2
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1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_aa5b7cc2
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1.0
 Oglaf (Webcomic)
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_aa5b7cc2
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In the next film, he tries this on Smaug. Doesn't work nearly as well, though.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ab863e74
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1.0
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1.0
 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_ab863e74
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Keturah Reeve of Keturah and Lord Death meets Death, come to claim her life, after she becomes lost in a forest. She persuades him to grant her a reprieve by putting her storytelling skills to use in the fashion of this trope, winning herself a number of extra days by drawing out the story (although it becomes clear that Death is already inclined to be generous; on one of the nights he comes for her, Keturah doesn't have a story prepared but is allowed another day anyhow).
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_aeb5c139
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
 Keturah and Lord Death
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_aeb5c139
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Bilbo in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey keeps Gollum from eating him by proposing a game of riddles, as in the book.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_b1d4639
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1.0
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1.0
 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_b1d4639
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In the Fairy Tail fic Arabian Nights, Lucy is the latest Virgin Sacrifice brought to Demon King END, and to avoid to her impending death she tells him stories that grab his interest and save her life. Though it soon turns out that END, or rather Natsu, is actually a pleasant guy compared to the other demons, and gets angry when he finds out that Lucy was Tartarus's prisoner. The virgin sacrifices were also the results of the demons maintaining an evil classic, with Natsu just letting them go without knowing why they were brought to him in the first place. And with him being bored as the demon king and falling for Lucy and her stories, he decides to leave with her so they can have their own adventures.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_b962c879
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1.0
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1.0
 Fairy Tail (Manga)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_b962c879
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Scheherezade Gambit
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The Emperor and the Assassin: Emperor Ying Zheng plans a Batman Gambit: trick Yan's rulers into sending an assassin to kill Ying to give him the excuse he needs to invade Yan. The assassin Jing Ke, realising his target is watching him like a hawk, pretends to collapse in fear and confesses he's been sent by the Yan to kill the Emperor. Ying Zheng is so overjoyed at being given the exact Pretext for War he wanted, that he lets his guard down.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ba043680
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1.0
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1.0
 The Emperor and the Assassin
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_ba043680
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In The Cuphead Show!'s episode "Sweater Luck Next Time", when Cuphead discovers that the Devil has caught him not wearing his protective sweater while his brother Mugman is out to get it, the former tries stalling for time waiting for Mugman to return by lying his way out of a desperate situation, and then backs away as the Devil is advancing on him until he is cornered against the wall, afraid that his gambit may not work. When the Devil then reaches into Cuphead by the tips of his fingernails and slowly starts yanking his soul out of his body, it takes long enough for Mugman to finally arrive with the sweater in the nick of time, not to put it on Cuphead however, but to distract the Devil from claiming his soul by shouting so that Mugman can put the sweater on the Devil and restore Cuphead's life by placing his soul back in his body.
Before that, however, when Mugman discovers that the Devil is planning to get Cuphead's soul on the Obliterator ride, unaware that Cuphead had taken off the sweater, Mugman urges his brother to get back home for the sweater; and when that fails, Mugsy goes back for the sweater himself, leaving Cuphead to keep a social distance from the Devil and make the most of the time to tell jokes to the Devil and make him laugh, up until they both reach the top of the tower. Then the Devil gives him a pat on the shoulder, and that's where things are headed in the aforementioned paragraph...
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ba6e04f6
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1.0
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1.0
 The Cuphead Show!
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_ba6e04f6
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In Gail Carson Levine's The Two Princesses of Bamarre, the dragon Vollys deliberately invokes this - she keeps her human prisoners alive as long as they amuse her, with even a point system to measure how far they are from death. The catch is that she always gets bored eventually.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ba7ff9bc
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1.0
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1.0
 The Two Princesses of Bamarre
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_ba7ff9bc
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Scheherezade Gambit
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This trope is practically Captain Jack Sparrow's modus operandi in Pirates of the Caribbean. In the first movie, he successfully uses it twice on Captain Barbossa and crew, and he goes on to use it (still successfully) against Davy Jones, Beckett, and on his own crew in the sequels.
Made even more amusing by the fact that Captain Barbossa knows that Jack is using this on him. He closes his eyes and you can see him trying to will himself not to ask what Jack is babbling about this time. He fails, of course, by the very merit of this gambit.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_bc1dc95a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_bc1dc95a
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1.0
 Pirates of the Caribbean (Franchise)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_bc1dc95a
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Scheherezade Gambit
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comment
Attempted and failed in Robin of Sherwood
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_c3a5fa9
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1.0
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1.0
 Robin of Sherwood
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_c3a5fa9
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Doctor Who:
In too many episodes to list, the Doctor, with an enemy poised to kill them, starts thinking out loud about how to escape. The villain is so mesmerized by the process that the Doctor is allowed to keep going until they come up with an idea.
Another tactic is to make the villain want to interrogate the Doctor first. This occurred at least as long ago as "Genesis of the Daleks", where Davros had the Fourth Doctor at his mercy, in the middle of his base, disarmed, isolated from his companions, and on a torture rack. He COULD have killed him then, but wanted to get the information about the Dalek defeats the Doctor knew about. Earlier in the same adventure, the first activated Dalek tried to kill the Doctor when it detected he was an alien, and one of the Kaled scientists intervened because they hadn't finished questioning him yet.
Parodied by Bob the Angry Flower when Bob persuades the Daleks to interrogate him inside an exclusive members-only club that he had been trying to get into for some time.
Rose pulls this on the Daleks in "Doomsday", claiming knowledge of the Time War. Mickey and a scientist who's also in the room quickly follow her lead. Too bad the Daleks did need one of them (Either/Or) and the scientist quickly turned out to be a Mauve Shirt …
"The Sontaran Stratagem": The Doctor dissuades General Staal from immediately killing him during their first encounter by revealing he knows what the Sontarans are, without revealing his identity, giving him enough time to escape.
Rory does it to House in "The Doctor's Wife", claiming that the entity will want them for its entertainment since it needs to be entertained. This results in some serious Mind Screw for him and Amy.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_c43df4d8
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1.0
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1.0
 Doctor Who
hasFeature
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Actually inverted in the animated film Magic Gift of the Snowman. At the start of the film, protagonist Landon learns that his younger sister Emery-Elizabeth is very ill and confined to her bed; although the doctor believes she'll recover if she can make it to Christmas, she seems to have lost the will to live and might not last that long. Determined to help his sister pull through, Landon begins telling her a story about a magical snowman named Snowden and his adventures with the two of them, ending it on a cliffhanger each night so that Emery-Elizabeth will have to hang on until the following day to hear what happens next. Not only does she make it to Christmas, come Christmas morning she's out of her wheelchair as well.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_c60fcb2e
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1.0
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1.0
 Magic Gift of the Snowman
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_c60fcb2e
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Hunter × Hunter: Komugi, the East Gorteau gungi champion, unwittingly pulls this on the Chimera Ant King, an ultra-powerful humanoid monstrosity who has slaughtered nearly everybody else in the castle. While he entertains himself before his massacre of the East Gorteau population, he learns various board games by playing with the national champions and kills them once he's mastered the game and beaten them. Despite his superior intellect however, he cannot seem to beat Komugi, who is blind (and thus cannot see his monstrous appearance), plays every game of gungi with her life on the line, and only seems to get sharper every time they play. The King becomes attached to her and starts enjoying her company, which throws a wrench in the Chimera Ants' plan of world domination...
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_cae652c
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1.0
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1.0
 Hunter × Hunter (Manga)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_cae652c
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Scheherezade Gambit
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In Last Res0rt, this is the relationship between Veled and Jigsaw in a nutshell. Veled even nicknames her "Punchline".
Later on, Jigsaw finds out (via Melody and Binary) that because she's already on the reality show, she's too high profile for them to let her die (since either her death will arouse suspicion, or won't be able to be covered up).
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_cbe9419f
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1.0
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1.0
 Last Res0rt (Webcomic)
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_cbe9419f
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Criminal Minds, "Damaged": Spencer Reid puts his well-honed capacity for statistical and psychological babble to life-saving use.
One of this character's more quietly badass moments.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ccf875f7
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1.0
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1.0
 Criminal Minds
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_ccf875f7
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Shaggy pulls this in Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights in order to avoid having to marry the Caliph (It Makes Sense in Context. Just). His actual plan is to bore the Caliph into falling asleep so he can sneak away, but it doesn't work out that way.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_d2523d49
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1.0
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1.0
 Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_d2523d49
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Defied in Battlestar Galactica (2003). During The Mutiny, Admiral Adama is subject to a Kangaroo Court over his command decisions. Romo Lampkin is roped in as his defense attorney. Aware that they're both going to be executed regardless, and knowing that loyalists are fighting the mutineers, Romo urges Adama to play along with the charade to stall for time. Adama refuses, such is his contempt for the mutineers for betraying him.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_d461f757
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1.0
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1.0
 Battlestar Galactica (2003)
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Scheherezade Gambit / int_d461f757
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Scheherezade Gambit
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Kayn from League of Legends uses a scythe contained a bound darkin named Rhaast as his weapon. Rhaast wants to take over Kayn and return to destroying the world, while Kayn wants to expel Rhaast and take his power for himself (as well as proving himself the chosen one). In some of their dialogue, it appears Rhaast is pulling this gambit on Kayn to stop him simply dropping the scythe and walking away.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_d616724d
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1.0
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1.0
 League of Legends (Video Game)
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Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_dc0c532e
comment
The Sandman: Endless Nights: To avenge the men who killed her husband and who are now certainly here to rape and kill her, Kara keeps them distracted all night with her beauty, skills, and flattery, until the men of her village return and slaughter them.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_dc0c532e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_dc0c532e
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Sandman: Endless Nights (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_dc0c532e
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ea4f62db
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ea4f62db
comment
Done in one Family Guy episode where Stewie was the king of England, and his entertainers simulated television. When you get canceled, you get canceled.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ea4f62db
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ea4f62db
featureConfidence
1.0
 Family Guy
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_ea4f62db
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_eb1a2ec5
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_eb1a2ec5
comment
In Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, Eliza does this to her traveling companion to make sure he doesn't abandon her: she tells him the story of her life, pausing at a suspenseful point right as they approach a town and not resuming until they've passed it. The victim takes a while to catch on, mostly because he was never intending to abandon her anyway. Since Eliza is an escaped harem slave, she presumably learned about this trick directly.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_eb1a2ec5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_eb1a2ec5
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Baroque Cycle
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_eb1a2ec5
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4b2f84b
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4b2f84b
comment
In "Jack's Bean Problem" from Jon Scieszka's book The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, the Giant kidnaps Jack the Narrator and gives an ultimatum: "Tell me a better story or I'll grind your bones to bake my bread. And when you're done I'll grind your bones to bake my bread anyway!" Jack then tells the Giant a recursive story, repeats it until the Giant falls asleep, and sneaks away.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4b2f84b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4b2f84b
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Stinky Cheese Man
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4b2f84b
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4e799ee
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4e799ee
comment
A version is described in Burn Notice. Michael (in narration) says that someone who's trained in withstanding interrogation won't clam up. Instead, he'll talk incessantly, never revealing anything important, but always sounding like there will be a point at the end of the story. This supposedly interferes with any techniques the interrogators might use (since they don't want to interrupt a guy who might be about to confess) and frustrates the captors far more than the prisoner.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4e799ee
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4e799ee
featureConfidence
1.0
 Burn Notice
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_f4e799ee
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f6fe1bfc
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f6fe1bfc
comment
In a Season Three episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sabrina's zany cousin Zsa Zsa tricks Sabrina into buying a large amount of ambition-boosting products for Harvey by repeatedly insisting that they're not what she wants. Once Sabrina's made her purchases, Zsa Zsa lampshades the trope by remarking that she loves reverse psychology.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f6fe1bfc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_f6fe1bfc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sabrina the Teenage Witch
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_f6fe1bfc
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_fafabc68
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_fafabc68
comment
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen: Jimmy pulled this on an escaped murderer in "The Story of Superman's Souvenirs." The murderer cornered Jimmy and ordered him to provide some gizmo to help him escape the law. Jimmy had to tell him why some of them wouldn't work until he found a solution.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_fafabc68
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_fafabc68
featureConfidence
1.0
 Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_fafabc68
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_fd0b756
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_fd0b756
comment
In The Hobbit there's an inversion, as Bilbo realize that the way to keep Gollum from attacking him is to go along with his riddle-game and keep him distracted long enough to formulate an escape plan. In an interesting twist on the trope, the Scheherazade Gambit only succeeds thanks to luck; when stumped by a riddle, Bilbo can only stammer for more "time," which was the answer. In fact, after Bilbo wins, Gollum decides to go back on his word and get the Ring so he can ambush Bilbo while invisible.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_fd0b756
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_fd0b756
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Hobbit
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_fd0b756
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ff3237ac
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ff3237ac
comment
Sunshine: Inverted when the protagonist is trapped with a starving vampire who's trying to Resist the Beast. The vampire urges her to tell him about herself as a distraction, which briefly derails her fear with pure annoyance, but does help to keep her alive.
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ff3237ac
featureApplicability
1.0
 Scheherezade Gambit / int_ff3237ac
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sunshine
hasFeature
Scheherezade Gambit / int_ff3237ac

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

 Scheherezade Gambit
processingCategory2
Dialogue
 Scheherezade Gambit
processingCategory2
Gambit Index
 Scheherezade Gambit
processingCategory2
Narrative Devices
 Avatar: The Last Airbender – North and South (Comic Book) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen (Comic Book) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Sandman: Endless Nights (Comic Book) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Sandman Universe (Comic Book) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Red Hood: The Lost Days (Comic Book) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Go Not Gently / Fan Fic / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Nine Eleven Ten / Fan Fic / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Total Drama Switcheroo / Fan Fic
seeAlso
Scheherezade Gambit
 Be Careful (Fanfic) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Double Agent Vader (Fanfic) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Foggy Nights and Phantom Flights (Fanfic) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 My Little Denarians (Fanfic) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Legend of Total Drama Island (Fanfic) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Yesterday Upon The Stair (Fanfic) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Goldfinger / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Hero (2002) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Dark Knight / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Emperor and the Assassin / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Fall (2006) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Princess Bride / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Usual Suspects / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Three Thousand Years of Longing / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 We're the Millers / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 LordMinion777 (Lets Play) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Alfie the Werewolf / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Arabian Nights / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Don Quixote / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Graveyard School / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Keturah and Lord Death / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Misery / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Moscow - Petushki / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Nightfall (Series) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Oracle of Tao / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Star Wars: Phasma / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Golden Hamster Saga / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Princess Bride / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Two Princesses of Bamarre / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Time Enough for Love / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Black Lagoon (Manga) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Death Note (Manga) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency (Manga) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Level E (Manga) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Survivor / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Storyteller / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Oracle of Tao (Video Game) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Wildermyth (Video Game) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Oglaf (Webcomic) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Magic Gift of the Snowman / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Beatles / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 The Beatles (1965) / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Trolls: The Beat Goes On! / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit
 Irresponsible Captain Tylor / int_c9d80884
type
Scheherezade Gambit