Aggressive Negotiations

"Anakin: When I got to them, we got into aggressive negotiations.

Padme: Aggressive negotiations? What's that?

Anakin: Ah, well, it's negotiations with a lightsaber."

- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

The Big Bad and the Hero meet in peace. Whether the intent is malicious or benign, both sides seem willing to talk it out, at least for now. And anyways, you can't just lop off somebody's head during parley, right? Eh... right?

Apparently not, considering the fact that somebody involved in the parley has just busted out swords, guns, or a Humongous Mecha. Both sides can pull one of these, though it usually happens when a Mook from one side of the conflict goes to negotiate with the other sides. There are exceptions, however, where many members from both sides participate. In this case, somebody pulling this trope can spark an all-out Battle Royale With Cheese, resulting in a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero if the hero was aiming for peace. Villains (or Anti Heroes) invoking this trope tend to be Magnificent Bastards.

In a series on the cynical end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, a character that does this is either being Badass for silencing the enemy, or is just being really stupid. Seeing as pulling this trope tends to cause war to break out, there aren't many idealist series with this in them, but characters that do invoke this trope tend to be just incredibly stupid.

Note that, in the long term, regardless of who initiates this trope or why, the main accomplishment will be that the other side simply won't trust them to negotiate in good faith. Which might be good (albeit horrifically immoral) if you can completely wipe out the enemy in this one attack, but will absolutely come back to bite you in the butt later if the enemy has the upper hand.

Contrast and compare with Shoot the Messenger, in which a messenger, who comes in peace, but only to deliver a message, is killed. The two tropes can overlap, as well: if the victim of the invoker of this trope delivers a message and is negotiating, it is both tropes at once.

See Also: I Surrender, Suckers, Gunboat Diplomacy.

Anime & Manga

 * In Code Geass,
 * In Mahou Sensei Negima!, Negi and Fate almost invoke this, over whether or not tea or coffee is better.
 * was going to do this in Naruto, but was interrupted by
 * was going to do this in Naruto, but was interrupted by

Comics

 * The title characters in the Knights of the Dinner Table have had their PCs do this at least once, while parleying with some orcs. Both Sara and B.A. Felton were not pleased by this.
 * In The Order of the Stick prequel book Start of Darkness, we see that this is how The Dark One ultimately met his end: he was murdered while attempting to negotiate a peace settlement with the human, dwarven, and elven kings. Rather than ending the war, it made things far worse, as the goblins swarmed upon their enemies, inflicting huge losses in vengeance for their fallen warlord.
 * In the Sinister Dexter story "The Why-Shaped Cut", leaders of the global criminal syndicates meet in The Reef to discuss how to divide up Downlode after the war between Senor Apellido and The Mover ends. When John Crash discovers that Carrie Hosanna is planning on betraying the rest of them and seizing Downloder for the Mangapore Yakuza, he starts firing, and all Hell breaks loose.
 * Hagar the Horrible. "Where are you going?", "To make peace with the English." "If you are making peace why do you need all the weapons" "Well we have to negotiate first."

Films -- Live Action
"Messenger: This is blasphemy! This is madness!
 * In At World's End, this is played with. One pirate shoots another for questioning the pirate code. However, nothing really major happens -- the dead pirate was a nobody, and none of the assembled pirates really want a fight to break out at their meeting. A fight breaks out anyway. As Captain Jack Sparrow explains, "This is politics."
 * In the movie 300, in the famous This is Sparta scene, Leonidas is essentially doing this. The Athenians reportedly did it as well. Everybody now:

Leonidas: Madness? This! Is! Sparta! *punts messenger into pit*"

"Dallas: Anyone else want to negotiate?
 * Based on a Real Life example, where when Xerxes' father Darius' messenger demands earth and water as tributes, the Spartans tell them to "dig them out themselves." Athenians did the same. Sparta shoved them into a well, Athens off a cliff.
 * Later in the movie, Leonidas mentions that he hopes Xerxes is dumb enough to try this, saying that if they assassinate him during parley, all of Greece will go to war. Regicide during parley would prove to all Greeks that the Persians can't be trusted.
 * In The Fifth Element, Korben Dallas negotiates by shooting the leader of the Mangalores, knowing that the rest of them will give in.

First Mate: Where did he learn to negotiate like that?

President: I wonder. (glares at General Munro, who looks uncomfortable)"

""You were right about one thing, master: The negotiations were short.''"
 * Inferred to have happened in Gladiator, as the Roman negotiator is returned headless by the barbarians.
 * In the extended Lord of the Rings films, Aragorn answers the Mouth of Sauron's demands and insinuations by beheading him with Anduril. In the books, he is merely sent off in a rage; in the theatrical cut, the negotiation does not appear at all.
 * In The Phantom Menace, the Trade Federation does this to the Jedi. They escape, however.


 * The Trope Namer is from Attack Of The Clones, as mentioned above. Incidentally, this scene was improvised by Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman, which explains why the dialogue is less stilted than in the other love scenes. The Call Back to the scene during the arena battle ("You call this a diplomatic solution?", "No, I call it aggressive negotiations.") was written afterwards.
 * Braveheart: William Wallace kind of does this when he angers the English generals when they are parleying to start the first battle.
 * Only fitting, since the English had hanged William's father and some of his compatriots after pulling this stunt when William was a boy.
 * Men in Black: This is how the Arquellians negotiate. First step is to deliver an ultimatum. Next, they fire a heat beam at the ice caps as a "warning shot". Finally, if the demands are not met within a galactic standard week (one hour), you can say goodbye to Planet Earth.
 * Do they skip step 2 if your planet lacks an ice cap?

Literature

 * In Contact Harvest, a nervous Grunt attacks a marine during a diplomatic meeting and The "negotiations" involved the Brutes demanding the humans hand over the planet with everything on it. There was not way this was going to end well.
 * In one of the Myth Adventures books, Skeeve is parleying with the head of the opposing army when suddenly he realises the opposing army has been moving into position to attack him while he's distracted by the peace talk. He complains that this is a breach of protocol, and is informed that yes, it is, but it also works extremely well.
 * In Mission of Honor, Honor Harrington  Although that's really Gunboat Diplomacy rather than Aggressive Negotiations.
 * There are actually a few examples in the Bridge Trilogy by William Gibson, most noticably in the second book between Eddie, Maryalice, Chia, and Masahiko. It doesn't help when Zona Rosa gets involved.
 * Obligatory Discworld example: The First Battle of Koom Valley.
 * Parodied in Jingo, where Vimes' army charges while waving a white flag.
 * The main character of The Dresden Files does this from time to time, most notably at the end of "Grave Peril" when
 * This is also a trait of the Order of the Blackened Denarius, to the point where Dresden only agrees to a meeting with them because he knows it isn't in their best interest to attack him just yet. He arranges to have backup nearby in case he's wrong.
 * Invoked but ultimately subverted in A Song of Ice and Fire by Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish. He meets with the Lords Declarant, lords of the Vale who want to remove him from his position of Lord Protector. He deliberately angers them until one of them draws a sword, which gives Littlefinger a good enough reason to send them away.

Live Action TV

 * The beginning of the new Battlestar Galactica. There's no actual negotiations at all: the Cylons, after years of not showing up the annual diplomatic meeting, show up and kill everyone with barely a word.
 * This also happened in the beginning of the original (1970's) Battlestar Galactica. Count Baltar arranged a peace treaty between the 12 Colonies and the Cylons. The Colonies sent all 12 Battlestars to the conference, leaving the Colonies completely undefended. The Cylons carried out a massive attack on both the Battlestars and the colonies, almost completely wiping out both.
 * The battlestars would have had a chance, if Baltar hadn't sabotaged most of the ships and insisted on keeping the Vipers in the hangar bays.
 * In one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation a mediator beams down to a planet which has been at war for hundreds of years with his interpreters (he's a deaf-mute). One of the Mooks on one side is against peace talks and kills the interpreters. You have to question the intelligence of this move.
 * One episode of MacGyver features the very careful aversion of this trope: Mac acts as a go-between for two groups who recognize the need for peace, but can't be together for more than a few minutes without hurling insults, at the very least. He keeps them apart by putting them in comfortable suites at opposite ends of a skytram, and relays only written materials.

Myths & Religion

 * In the King Arthur myth, his final battle with Mordred started this way. Neither side trusted the other, and brought plenty of heavily armed soldiers along to the negotiations. The fighting started when one soldier, bitten by an asp, drew his sword to kill it. Both sides had been warned to expect treachery, and responded immediately. Due to the confusion and disorganization, both sides were essentially wiped out.

Tabletop Games

 * Can be pretty common in Rogue Trader games.
 * Quite likely to happen whenever the player characters in any tabletop RPG attempt diplomacy, because there's almost always at least one player who thinks negotiation is boring and would rather have a big fight.

Video Games

 * Radiata Stories was the scene of a trade dispute between the humans at Radiata and the dwarves at Earth Valley. Cross, the resident Complete Monster, suggested sending knights to 'improve their negiotating position' and its implied this trope was his plan all along.
 * The Renegade-unlock sidequest in Mass Effect has Shepard sent to negotiate with a self-styled warlord. Said warlord's negotiation style is to start by insulting Shepard, and then make several increasingly unreasonable demands, and becoming hostile if Shepard even questions the demands. At any point during the "negotiation," Shepard has the option of getting fed up and attacking the warlord.
 * Almost all ways of solving problems nonviolently using renegade options, especially in Mass Effect 2, such as getting past a guard, or having someone reveal information. Sometimes it crosses into Badass Boast territory.
 * Evoked for laughs in Sam and Max Freelance Police. Max, President Evil of the United States, uses his Peacemaker (gun) to ensure successful Peace Summits. In the end, Max
 * MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries has a mission where player is asked to stand honor guard during the peace talks. It doesn't take long for the enemy army to suddenly bust in with a large group of mechs, and the player is asked to help protect the peace delegates. Brought your most glamorous, but useless in combat mech with you? Too bad.
 * Suikoden III opens with uneasy peace negotiations between the Grassland clans and the Zexen Confederacy, with Hugo delivering a message to the capital, only to get jerked around, ignored, and ultimately attacked when the Jerkass Zexen Council decides he'd make a good hostage. Escaping that, he makes it home just in time to see his home.
 * Ratchet and Clank weapons sometimes imply this trope as a pun - notably, The Negotiator rocket launcher, and it's upgraded form, The Arbiter. Said to quickly conclude legal disputes across the galaxy!
 * Mech Commander has an "honor guard" scene similar to the Mercenaries example above. Blindingly obvious, since your tactical officer says that they don't expect any trouble.
 * In the Touhou series, any disagreement is settled with a danmaku duel - even such petty things as whether to use red or white miso for a hot pot. Yuyuko seems to like inserting an obligatory Boss Battle into a scene that would otherwise have ended peacefully.
 * In the the backstory of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the terms of the Treaty of Coruscant that ended (for now) the war between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire were essentially dictated to the Republic by the Sith in this manner. After taking control of much of the galaxy by force, the Sith asked for an armistice and a negotiated end to the fighting. The fighting did stop, but only temporarily; during the negotiations on Alderaan, the Sith launched a sneak attack on the Republic capitol of Coruscant and took control of it, forcing the delegation on Alderaan to accept a treaty whose terms were highly favorable to the Sith Empire. The plot for the Karraga's Palace operation involves this trope as well.
 * In Sacrifice, playing Persephone's campaign leads to this as all of her 'homeland assaults' on the other gods start out as diplomacy missions that go sour when the other party tries to kill you. So you have to kill them instead to leave.

Web Comics
"Aragorn: Yeah, let's speed this up. (Kills
 * In the DM of the Rings, the unnamed DM becomes rather upset at the heroes for

DM: What? You attack him? During parlay? This is the third time you've killed someone during negotiations!

Legolas: And they keep falling for it! It's hilarious!

DM: You're supposed to be a king! Can't you at least pretend to be one for a few seconds?

Aragorn: If I hadn't shot him Legolas would have.

Legolas: He's right, too. I was just about to announce my attack."


 * Darths and Droids: Naturally, Jim is fond of this trope. Although he claims to need a laser blaster to properly negotiate, because the lightsaber's reach isn't good enough.
 * Problem Sleuth - Spoofed - "Sleuth Diplomacy" is only an increasingly indefensible euphemism for canned whoop-ass. Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant, and the only time he actually has to negotiate he cheats.
 * In the backstory of The Order of the Stick, The Dark One, Dark Messiah of the Goblins was killed during "peace" negotiations with human rulers. The Goblins soon went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, with the bloodshed being intense enough to ascend The Dark One to godhood.
 * In Goblins, Thaco and Goblinslayer meet in a parley. Goblinslayer plans from the very beginning to kill Thaco instead of negotiating. However, Thaco uses Goblinslayer's pride to his own advantage by challenging him to a single combat, preferably somewhere everyone can see them, causing him to be removed from the place where the actual battle was going on.

Western Animation
"Optimus: "When Predacons talk peace, it just means they need time to reload their weapons."
 * Lampshaded in Beast Wars, when Megatron and Optimus meet to discuss a truce.

Megatron: "Under normal circumstances, yes.""

Real Life

 * Colonial powers throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries commonly used this ploy to draw native leaders out, only to capture or kill them.
 * Asking for negotiations as a ploy to draw them out and slaughter them is a very old tactic. For example, the Romans did it to Lusitania after the last Cartheginian war. The Romans promised them that if they would surrender peacefully and come hand in their weapons, they could be buddies. About 20,000 Lusitanians were slaughtered. This backfired horribly, because a guy named Viriathus survived it and proceeded to very successfully wage war against Rome until he got betrayed and murdered by some of his own people.
 * Another common historical tactic was to dictate a treaty, in the words of Steven Decatur, "from the mouths of our cannon".
 * Considering how often negotiations come at the end of a war, this is a very common trope in real life.
 * The Mongols were renown in ancient times for their aversion of this trope; they believed very strongly in Diplomatic Immunity for both sides of the equation, and if they called you out to negotiate that was all they were going to do (for today). The Mongol Empire ended up destroying one of its neighboring civilizations utterly for mistreating a messenger.
 * A commentary anecdote attached to The Art of War (Chapter III, verse 4) tells how one ruler made the mistake of sending his chief strategist as an envoy to the enemy who had them surrounded. It was a mistake two ways, because the strategist was so rude that he gave the enemy leader an excuse to execute him. Then the message came: "Your staff officer was without propriety. I have beheaded him. If you wish to submit, do so immediately. Otherwise defend yourself." The ruler surrendered, because he'd needed that strategist not just for plans but to stiffen his spine. The enemy leader had known this would happen.