Basic Trope: The hero is in a situation where the villains are about to kill them, but convinces them not to/to hold off on doing so for one reason or another.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz has Bob captured. Bob, however, tells Evulz part of a story, and Evulz holds off on executing him, wanting to hear more. By the time Evulz has heard the entire story, he's decided not to execute Bob.
- Exaggerated: Evulz not only decides against executing Bob, he even sets Bob up to marry his daughter Alice, believing it'll stop Bob's quest against Evulz.
- Downplayed: Evulz reschedules Bob's execution, having been convinced that Bob should at least have a few more days left to live by something Bob did.
- Justified: Evulz is easily entertained, and greatly rewards servants of his who manage to entertain him.
- Inverted:
- Evulz decides that Bob's life would be interesting if he was killed now, and prefers that Bob be thought of as boring.
- Evulz kills Bob now because he's interesting, meaning that the last memory he'll have of Bob will be an interesting one.
- Subverted: Evulz executes Bob, finding the latter's attempt to convince him interesting, but not enough to make him decide against executing Bob.
- Double Subverted: However, Bob pleading for his life right before being executed makes Evulz change his mind.
- Parodied:
- Averted: Evulz decides against executing Bob for reasons that have nothing to do with how interesting he finds Bob.
- Enforced: The writer wrote the scene where Evulz was about to kill Bob so that the next episode preview would have something to entice viewers to tune in next time; however, he doesn't/can't actually kill Bob off.
- Lampshaded: One of Evulz's subordinates mentions that it's not even the first time that someone has done this.
- Invoked: Evulz tells Bob he will get to live if Bob tells him a good story.
- Exploited: Bob knows that Evulz is very easily entertained, so he does his best to make himself entertaining to Evulz whenever given a chance.
- Defied: Evulz kills Bob on the spot before Bob gets a chance to try and make himself seem interesting to Evulz.
- Discussed: Bob and his fellow prisoner, Charlie, mention that Adam was able to avoid jail by making himself interesting to Evulz.
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs: Bob tells Evulz a So Bad, It's Good story. Evulz holds off on executing him because he just has to know how hilariously awful it'll get.
Back to Scheherezade Gambit
