History Main / IGaveMyWord

** In ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan''. Hook accuses Peter of being a coward because he always flies away instead of fighting him fair and square. Pan gives his word to fight Hook without flying, despite Wendy begging him not to.
*** Captain Hook himself uses this, albeit in a sneaky, loophole-abusive way. "I have given me word not to lay a finger, or a hook, on Peter Pan. And Captain Hook never breaks a promise..." He says this as he's lowering a bomb into Peter's hideout.

*** In the sequel, Hook convinces Wendy's daughter Jane to tell him where to find Pan, but Jane makes him promise not to hurt Pan. Hook signs a contract promising he wouldn't hurt a hair on Pan's head. Then he goes ahead and captures Pan, plucks a single hair, gives it to Jane, and explains that's the hair he won't hurt.

** ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'': Ultimately, Wilbur Robinson. He makes a promise under duress to take Lewis [[spoiler:(really his father's younger self)]] back to see his [[MissingMom biological mom]], and despite assorted happenings that make it clear that said course of action could potentially be dangerous, not to mention the fact that it seemed likely that he never intended to follow through on the promise... he follows through on the promise.

*** Gene gives Ralph [[spoiler:the penthouse key, though it's a moot point because their game was at risk of being unplugged at the time]].

* Eris in ''WesternAnimation/SinbadLegendOfTheSevenSeas'' states that "when a goddess gives her word, she's bound for all eternity". Sure enough, when Sinbad passes her test at the end, he invokes this on her and she begrudgingly hands over the MacGuffin she framed him for stealing.

* Lady Tremaine in ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'' gives her word that Cinderella can go to the ball if she "gets all her work done and finds something suitable to wear." She does both. Lady Tremaine says, "I never go back on my word." Unfortunately, [[LoopholeAbuse she never promised that she wouldn't let her daughters tear the suitable dress to bits.]]
* From ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'': "No... I promised I'd never let anything happen to him..."
* In ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan''. Hook accuses Peter of being a coward because he always flies away instead of fighting him fair and square. Pan gives his word to fight Hook without flying, despite Wendy begging him not to.
** Captain Hook himself uses this, albeit in a sneaky, loophole-abusive way. "I have given me word not to lay a finger, or a hook, on Peter Pan. And Captain Hook never breaks a promise..." He says this as he's lowering a bomb into Peter's hideout.

** In the sequel, Hook convinces Wendy's daughter Jane to tell him where to find Pan, but Jane makes him promise not to hurt Pan. Hook signs a contract promising he wouldn't hurt a hair on Pan's head. Then he goes ahead and captures Pan, plucks a single hair, gives it to Jane, and explains that's the hair he won't hurt.
* Rapunzel in ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}''. When she makes a promise, no matter how it might hurt her, she ''will'' keep it. From returning Flynn the tiara he stole (even if he would leave her, despite her growing feelings for him) to [[spoiler:promising Gothel she would stay with her and never run away again, as long as she heals Flynn]] (even if it means never seeing Flynn again and giving up her freedom).
** Though earlier, she promises never to ''ask'' to leave the tower again, so she's free to actually leave without asking (although she does feel guilty about it).
* ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'': Ultimately, Wilbur Robinson. He makes a promise under duress to take Lewis [[spoiler:(really his father's younger self)]] back to see his [[MissingMom biological mom]], and despite assorted happenings that make it clear that said course of action could potentially be dangerous, not to mention the fact that it seemed likely that he never intended to follow through on the promise... he follows through on the promise.

* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'':
** Vanellope inverts it, reminding Ralph that he promised, but he carries through.
** Gene gives Ralph [[spoiler:the penthouse key, though it's a moot point because their game was at risk of being unplugged at the time]].
--->'''Gene:''' Let it never be said that I am not a man of my word.

* Subtle but important point, a verbal contract is any contract which is expressed in words (written or spoken). An oral contract is one that is spoken. This is often confused. And yes, ''non''verbal contracts can be recognized and enforceable in law.[[note]]Consider: A non-American who speaks no English is somewhere in the US and needs food. He comes across an American farmer selling apples at a stand by the side of the road; for whatever reason, her sign says "Fresh Apples For Sale" but doesn't have a price posted. He attracts the farmer's attention, points at an apple, and gestures to his mouth. The farmer shakes her head. The foreigner pulls out his wallet and flashes a dollar with a questioning expression on his face. The American smiles and nods, gives him the apple, and takes the dollar. If the apple makes the foreigner sick, he will have a cause of action against the farmer for breach of the implied warranty of merchantability under Section 2-314(2) of the Uniform Commercial Code (unless this transaction happened in Louisiana, which has not adopted UCC Article 2): Because the foreigner offered (by pointing and flashing) to pay one dollar for one apple and the farmer accepted this offer (by giving him the apple and taking the dollar), and there was consideration (an exchange of a dollar for an apple), there was a valid contract of sale between them. Since the farmer has a stand, she is a merchant and therefore impliedly warrants that the apple is fit for the general purpose for which apples are used (i.e. eating), and breached that warranty when it turned out not to be (as it made him sick). Of course, the foreigner would be better off trying to get the farmer on a strict product liability theory in tort rather than a contract claim, but that's another story.[[/note]]

** Finally, some jurisdictions do place limits on what kind of contracts can be made orally. In common-law jurisdictions, this is usually regulated by the Statute of Frauds, which require six types of contracts to be written down. These are: (1) Contracts in consideration of marriage (i.e. prenups); (2) contracts that cannot be executed one year or less (the exact meaning of which leads to all kinds of charming LoopholeAbuse); (3) contracts transferring an interest in land; (4) contracts requiring the executor of a dead person's estate to pay the estate's debts with his/her own money; (5) contracts for the sale of goods valued above a certain amount (it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction -- $500.00 is common in the U.S.) and (6) contracts making one party a surety (i.e. guarantor) for the other's debts.

* ''ComicBook/{{Lobo}}'': [[Characters/DCComicsLobo Lobo]] always keeps his promises. He'll merrily violate the spirit of a contract, but never the word of it. If he's promised not to kill you, he won't, no matter how much he may hate you. (Do note, however, that under the right circumstances, it's quite possible to survive multiple cases of dismemberment.)

* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', this is the reason Dalinar [[spoiler:gives up his Shardblade]].

*** Averted when Elrond reminds the Fellowship of the Ring that ''nobody'' swore anything, so they are free to abandon the mission if they don't want or cannot go on.

---> "Not if I found it on the highway would I take it, I said. Even if I were such a man as to desire this thing, and even though I knew not clearly what this thing was when I spoke, still I should take these words as a vow, and be held by them."
** In the same sequence, Frodo responds to Faramir's attempt to persuade him not to let Gollum be his guide into Mordor by saying he has already given his word to Gollum:
---> "You would not ask me to break faith with him?"

* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'':
** Vanellope inverts it, reminding Ralph that he promised, but he carries through.
** Gene gives Ralph [[spoiler:the penthouse key, though it's a moot point because their game was at risk of being unplugged at the time]].
--->'''Gene:''' Let it never be said that I am not a man of my word.

* In a Dutch novel by Thea Beckman, set in the middle ages, (noble) prisoners of war are allowed to walk around freely, because they gave their word that they would not try to escape, and abide by it. One of the prisoners however is not of noble birth, and when he finds out something that would help his side, if only they knew about it, he does not hesitate to break his word (arguing that he is not noble, therefore his honor is not important to him). Despite his information, the nobleman he tells it to is angry with him, because now the other prisoners will not be believed anymore and probably put in chains to prevent their escaping as well.
* Rajputs in the ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'' are absolutely fanatical about their word even when(by implication at least) taken under duress and even when it compels them to serve a monstrous regime. They do however manage to [[ExactWords lawyer their way]] out of it. Other groups have a lot of respect for promises as well. But no one takes it as far as Rajputs.
* A ballad by Adelbert von Chamisso puts into verse the German folktale of the women of Weinsberg. In 1140, the town of Weinsberg in Württemberg was besieged by the forces of German king Conrad III, who was in a mind to set an example of the rebellious inhabitants. However he said he would spare the women and told them they could leave with as much as they could carry on their backs. So the next morning the women came through the gate, each one of the carrying her husband on her back. The chancellor tried to stop them saying: "That is not what the king meant!" But Conrad said: "A king's word must hold and must not be twisted."

** In ''Literature/MakingMoney'', the financiers save Ankh-Morpork with a verbal agreement, bound by a handshake. They know this is quite binding. It is implied that the financiers are quite willing to hire the Guild of Assassins to punish anyone who threatens people's faith in this system.
** ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' and ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' both mention that if you want to make it as a criminal in Ankh-Morpork, you need to have a reputation for honesty.

** In many Harry Potter {{Fan Fic}}s, characters swear on their magic, with the less drastic consequence of losing their magic instead of their life if they break it.
** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', Harry and Hermione are quick to assent when Hagrid asks for their help. Said help turns out to involve looking after a violent, 16-foot-tall giant. The two of them are understandably averse to the idea, but they're even more averse to going back on their word.
** For all of Snape's flaws, if he promises something, he'll stick to it.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals this trope as the reason why Dumbledore refused to reveal why he was so willing to trust Snape despite his past. [[spoiler:Snape made him promise that he wouldn't tell anyone that his reason to switch sides was because of his love for Lily, Harry's mother]]. And true to form, he took that secret to the grave with him.

* ''Literature/JamesBond'': [[http://jamesbond.wikia.com/wiki/Ernst_Stavro_Blofeld Blofeld]] will not violate a business agreement. He wants S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to be known as a trustworthy organization that is superior to the other crime syndicates. This is demonstrated in a tale of a ransom case where the organization captured a girl and promised to return her unharmed if her father paid a ransom; when Blofeld learned that the girl had been raped by one of her guards after the ransom was paid, he killed the guard and returned some of the ransom as compensation.

** Jaime fulfills this trope himself to a fair degree. [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten He broke one oath]], and you'd be hard pressed to find a character who hasn't; admittedly it was kind of a big one, but then you find out why he really did it. In the later part of the series, his increasingly desperate attempts to toe the razor blade between his strong loyalty to his family and keeping his word only get him disliked even more, by people (on both sides) who don't understand why he's doing it or simply refuse to believe that the Kingslayer would ever consider keeping an oath.

* In the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' novel "Forever Young", Vanessa Fisk asked Peter Parker to contact Spider-Man (unaware that the two are the same man) to help her find a tablet with supposed healing properties so that Vanessa can use its power to help her currently-catatonic husband, Wilson Fisk, AKA the Kingpin, offering in turn to pay the medical bills for Peter's Aunt May, who has just been diagnosed with a rare disease. While Spider-Man is unable to retrieve the tablet, and learns that it wouldn't have been able to heal the Kingpin anyway, Vanessa still pays May's medical bills as she recognises that Peter and Spider-Man did their best and it's not the fault of either that the tablet couldn't do what she hoped it would.

* ''Franchise/{{Tarzan}}'': Deconstructed in the first two novels, ''[[Literature/{{Tarzan}} Tarzan of the Apes]]'' and ''Return of Tarzan''. In the first book, Jane, afraid she's falling for the wild Ape-Man and rationally calculating the gentleman William Clayton would be a better match for her, accepts Clayton's proposal of marriage. When she later gives into her feelings for Tarzan, she insists it's too late, that even though she loves Tarzan, she gave Clayton her word and is bound to keep it. The result? Jane spends two years constantly finding excuses to delay the wedding until she and Clayton are shipwrecked on a (seemingly) deserted African coast, and she finally tells him it's ridiculous for anyone to expect her to marry a man she doesn't love just because she promised she would, that her forcing herself to keep her promise has only made them both miserable, and she's retracting her earlier, "Yes."

* In ''Series/TwentyFour'', Jack Bauer carries this on his back, to such an extent that he actually can't understand why Dana, who'd only met him a couple of hours earlier, could possibly doubt him. [[spoiler:He later breaks his word by killing her. Sucks to be her.]]
** His former mentor, turned TheDragon, at one point tells Jack he will only cooperate if Jack gives him his word that he will be released after it is over, as he knows how much Jack values his word. Jack does, but the Dragon knows that he has killed too many of Jack's friends, [[spoiler:David Palmer, Tony Almeida, and Michelle Dessler]], for him to keep his word and lays a trap for Jack. He is then OutGambitted.

** It seems to be a general rule for him -- he spends the following two seasons searching for [[spoiler:Blake]] because he promised to take him back to Earth. When Avon finally does break his word on something ([[spoiler:trying to kill Vila after promising to keep him safe in "Orbit"]]) it's a sign that the end is near.

** In the Season 6 finale, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Ned Stark promised his dying sister Lyanna that he would protect her baby son (who would become Jon Snow), offspring of her and Rhaegar Targaryen. Ned would lie to his friend King Robert and sully his own name to protect his sister's child.]]
** "I said I would take you to King's Landing, and that's what I'm going to do."

** All the gods (even the tricksters, even mighty Zeus) must follow their word when they swear by the Styx. If they don't, the punishment as described by the ''Literature/{{Theogony}}'' is one year of being conscious but unable to move, then 7-9 more of being barred from the presence of other gods and Olympus, and being barred from eating ambrosia/drinking nectar. [[WomanScorned Hera]] tricked Dionysus' mother Semele into making Zeus swear by the Styx to show her his true, divine, form -- which burned her to a crisp.

* Myth/ArthurianLegend: Sir Gawain kept his side of the bargain he made with the Green Knight and went to meet him, even though he was led to believe it would result in his death. As it turned out, the Green Knight [[SecretTestOfCharacter was trying to test Arthur's knights]]; Gawain passed the test and was spared. (He didn't get a perfect score, however, because there was more to the test; after the Green Knight disguises himself as a nobleman and gives him lodging, his wife tries to tempt him, and another deal Gawain makes is that he will give his host everything he got in exchange for everything his host got. Gawain would not surrender to the woman's charms and betray his host, but when she gives him a girdle which she claims will protect his life, ''that'' is too much of a temptation, and he doesn't give it to the Knight.)

* This is also true in Verdi's operatic adaptation, ''Ernani''.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Melanie, formerly Ten of the Royal Flush Gang, gives Batman a note for Terry [=McGinnis=] but makes Batman promise he will not read it. Batman agrees. What she doesn't know is Batman is Terry, so he tosses the note out without reading it because of his promise (and maybe a little because DatingCatwoman seemed like a serious mistake).

** In one episode, [[ExactWords Circe gave her word she would leave Hippolyta alone.]] [[FalseReassurance That meant she could turn her daughter]] Franchise/WonderWoman [[ForcedTransformation into a pig]]. She plays this straight later when she changes Wonder Woman back after Batman does as she requests [[ItAmusedMe (which is simply her idea of fun)]], despite her being clearly more powerful than Zatanna and Batman.
** In "A Better World", Luthor makes [[EnemyMine a deal]] with the Justice League to use one of his inventions to [[PowerNullifier depower]] the Justice Lords, in exchange for a presidential pardon for his crimes and giving the League the device afterwards. He gets the chance to backstab the League and depower them as well, but refrains:

* Germany's political scene went bullocks in 1999 about the contributions scandal of the Christian Democratic Union, the country's major conservative party, especially as then recently retired chancellor Helmut Kohl refused to admit the names of their contributors on the grounds that "I gave them my word of honor". It was a major blow for him and his party, and the "word of honor" became a meme on par with UsefulNotes/BillClinton allegedly not having had "[...]sexual relations with that woman[...]"