History Main / RiskingTheKing

Not to be confused with [[ChallengingTheChief challenging the chief]] in which, to preserve their honor, the boss agrees to fight one on one in spite of an existing tactical advantage.

* This actually can be done in chess, once one or more rooks, one or more bishops, and both knights are out of the way (why knights? Because in order to get close enough to the queen take take her out of check, and even then she has to put you in check, you have to be something like two over and one up, and she has to be otherwise threatened by your pieces.
** Needless to say, if you actually pull this off, it's immensely satisfying, since your opponent is probably then completely demoralized, and you can wipe the board through cheap moves).

->''"There is an unknown threat on that unstable derelict ship, capable of wiping out an entire starfleet crew. I could send a fully armed squad of trained security personel, but instead I will send a team comprised of my chief science officer, my only physician and myself, the captain of the ship." ''

* Lampshaded in BelisariusSeries. The Persian [[TheEmperor emperor]] makes Belisarius' bodyguards promise to keep him alive even if it requires arresting him. This is necessary because TheEmperor feels he needs a Roman he can personally trust during a diplomatically sensitive joint military operation and Belisarius has an eccentric habit of getting to close to the fighting.

* Lampshaded in the third ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' movie in which {{Magneto}} plans to send lesser powered mutants into the fray first as a diversion and uses his most powerful henchmen last.

Subtrope of AcceptableBreaksFromReality. This is sometimes a Sister Trope to AuthorityEqualsAsskicking. And arguably the opposite of OrcusOnHisThrone.

* StargateSG1 had a bad case of this, regularly sending the main cast to do jobs even when, logically, the larger organization should have had people who were ''better'' at that particular job than they were (e.g. sending O'Neill to do a diplomat's job). Even General Hammond himself once went away to help rescue the team.

* In DawnOfWar, the Tau AI always sends their Ethereal out to fight. The Ethereal provides damage, health and morale boosts to every units while alive, but induces total morale loss in all units if killed. Guess which unit is targeted with all priority?

Sometimes a story-teller has [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything the main characters do everything]]; sometimes the writer simply wants to hurry up and bring about a climactic fight. Regardless of the reason, story-tellers will often have crucial characters run pell-mell into dangerous situations when more qualified (or, at least, more appropriate) people are perfectly available. This is akin to sending your king out to capture pieces in chess.

Sometimes a story-teller has [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything the main characters do everything]]; sometimes the writer simply wants to hurry up and bring about a climactic fight. Regardless of the reason, story-tellers will often have crucial characters run pèle-mèle into dangerous situations when more qualified (or, at least, more appropriate) people are perfectly available. This is akin to sending your king out to capture pieces in chess.

* Used towards the end of ''{{Dollhouse}}, when the viewer learns that [[spoiler: Rossum's chief executive officer has been HiddenInPlainSight as Boyd the entire time]], despite this nearly getting [[spoiler: him]] killed repeatedly and despite having thousands of people around the world capable of acting on [[spoiler: his]] orders.

----
NeedsAnIndex

* ''Film/IndependenceDay''. The U.S. President, an ex-fighter pilot, decides to participate in the final aerial attack against an alien ship even though his top military adviser doesn't want him to. {{Justified}} because if the mission fails, the human race will be wiped out and he'll have no one left to lead.

* MarvelComics superspy NickFury was nominally the ''director'' of a covert agency called S.H.I.E.L.D., but from the SilverAge to the DarkAgeOfComicBooks he behaved more like the main field agent. Despite S.H.I.E.L.D. having dozens or hundreds of agents DependingOnTheWriter, Fury was typically depicted working solo on commando missions, infiltrations, and so forth. This has become an AvertedTrope in recent years, especially with his UltimateUniverse incarnation.

** But not himself necessarily, making this debatable.

-->--Liberally paraphrased from '''Captain Kirk''', ''StarTrek''

* On the original StarTrek series the "Captain in distress" plots were criticized, so GeneRoddenberry decided to make a "new Star Fleet protocol" that barred the Captain from going on away-missions.

* In the book trilogy "His Dark Materials", the ruler of the multiverse, Metatron, identifies Mrs. Coulter as a woman whose entire life is based on betrayal, yet he willingly goes alone with her to ambush Lord Asriel instead of sending a legion of mooks. Lord Asriel, meanwhile, plans this elaborate setup to catch and kill Metatron but decides to spring the trap on one of the most powerful beings alive with only himself instead of with a platoon of heavies. To top it off, they both decide to go unarmed (although there is probably a different trope for this).

* ''{{Merlin}}:'' Prince Arthur is often sent on all sorts of dangerous but relatively unimportant missions. Season five, however, subverts this since ''King'' Arthur is forced to spend most of his time inside the castle while the knights go on missions without him.

* Lampshaded in the third ''Film/{{X-Men}}'' movie in which {{Magneto}} plans to send lesser powered mutants into the fray first as a diversion and uses his most powerful henchmen last.

* ''IndependenceDay''. The U.S. President, an ex-fighter pilot, decides to participate in the final aerial attack against an alien ship even though his top military adviser doesn't want him to. {{Justified}} because if the mission fails, the human race will be wiped out and he'll have no one left to lead.

* Commander Root in ArtemisFowl doesn't do this... at first. Given the exceptional situation, he judges that there is none better to deal with it in the field than the LEP's commanding officer. Normally sending an officer into the field takes several months and lots of red tape, but the book notes "[[CaptainObvious Root had a lot of influence on the commanding officer]]".

----

-->"There is an unknown threat on that unstable derelict ship, capable of wiping out an entire starfleet crew. I could send a fully armed squad of trained security personel, but instead I will send a team comprised of my chief science officer, my only physician and myself, the captain of the ship."
---> liberally paraphrased from [[StarTrek Captain Kirk]]

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]
* Used towards the end of ''{{Dollhouse}}, when the viewer learns that [[spoiler: Rossum's chief executive officer has been HidingInPlainSight as Boyd the entire time]], despite this nearly getting [[spoiler: him]] killed repeatedly and despite having thousands of people around the world capable of acting on [[spoiler: his]] orders.

Sometimes a story-teller has [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything the main characters do everything]]; sometimes the writer simply wants to hurry up and bring about a climactic fight. Regardless of the reason, story-tellers will often have crucial characters run pelmell into dangerous situations when more qualified (or, at least, more appropriate) people are perfectly available. This is akin to sending your king out to capture pieces in chess.

In the book trilogy "His Dark Materials", the ruler of the multiverse, Metatron, identifies Mrs. Coulter as a woman whose entire life is based on betrayal, yet he willingly goes alone with her to ambush Lord Asriel instead of sending a legion of mooks. Lord Asriel, meanwhile, plans this elaborate setup to catch and kill Metatron but decides to spring the trap on one of the most powerful beings alive with only himself instead of with a platoon of heavies. To top it off, they both decide to go unarmed (although there is probably a different trope for this).

* A common theme in ''CodeGeass'' - nearly every leader in that show will risk themselves to do something when subordinates are available. Lelouch and Cornelia in particular believe in the trope very strongly.

* MarvelComics superspy NickFury was nominally the ''director'' of a covert agency called S.H.I.E.L.D., but from the SilverAge to the DarkAgeOfComicBooks he behaved more like the main field agent. Despite S.H.I.E.L.D. having dozens or hudnreds of agents DependingOnTheWriter, Fury was typically depicted working solo on commando missions, infiltrations, and so forth. This has become an AvertedTrope in recent years, especially with his UltimateUniverse incarnation.

* ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' villain [[ConquerorFromTheFuture Kang the Conqueror]] has untold legions from across all time at his disposal, but he's enough of a BloodKnight that he often turns up alone to take on entire teams of superheroes.His older, more ccautious counterpart Immortus, on the other hand, has learned to hide behind minions.

* StargateSG1 had a bad case of this, regularly sending the main cast to do jobs even when, logically, the larger organization should have had people who were ''better'' at that particular job than they were (e.g. sending O'Neill to do a diplomat's job).

!!Examples

[[folder: Western Animation]]


[[/folder]]