Ambadassador

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

I'm the damn bassador of I'll fuckin' kick your assador

—The Vandels, Euro-Barge

Basically, a character whose primary role is some sort of ambassador/diplomat, but when the peace talks fail whips out a can of badassery. May be a Hidden Badass. Contrast Ass in Ambassador.

Examples of Ambadassador include:

Comic Books

  • Marvel comics character M/Monet is the daughter of an ambassador, but is also very adept at ass-kicking. Being a Nigh Invulnerable Flying Brick helps quite a bit.
  • Wonder Woman is a borderline example, as her Badass work as a superhero is her primary focus, with her work as an ambassador to "Man's world" as a secondary focus.
  • In X-Men: The End, that reality's version of Kitty Pryde becomes mayor of Chicago and then President of the United States.

Film

  • The Jedi from Star Wars are extremely adept warriors, but they are first and foremost diplomats and peacekeepers.
    • Princess (and former Imperial Senator) Leia Organa & General Luke Skywalker.
      • Like mother, like daughter and son. Padme Amidala was in the thick of it at the Battle of Theed, the Battle of Geonosis, and several engagements of the Clone Wars. Leia's adopted father, Bail Organa, also wasn't a slouch in the butt-kicking department. Given how pathetically incompetent security details seem to be in the Star Wars galaxy, it's probably one of the unwritten qualifications for being a senator.
  • Raiden from the Mortal Kombat films serves as a mediator between mortals and the elder deities, eventually fighting alongside mortals.
  • In Fort Apache Kirby York(US Cavalry) and Cochise(Apache) are each other's "contact in the enemy camp". Both are honorable fighters, both respect one another, and both are vainly trying to prevent more violence from taking place.

Literature

  • In Star Trek novels, Worf was one of these for quite awhile, and Spock continued being one of these from his TNG era days. See the Star Trek examples in Live-Action TV below.
  • In Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series, Kel's mother displays this by fighting off pirates after the Yamani's valuable treasures, which is what sparks actual diplomatic progress among the Yamanis. She trained her daughter well.
  • In The Fifth Elephant, Vimes is given a diplomatic mission to Uberwald. He also takes Detritus with him as cultural attache.
  • Sten is a former special forces covert operative assassin type-guy, turned ambassador. So Yeah.
  • In Keith Laumer's Retief stories, Jaime Retief is a very effective, badass Guile Hero. Technically, Retief is not an actual ambassador, merely a junior member of the embassy staff, because his unorthodox methods—like actually doing something—tend to keep him from getting promoted in the hidebound Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne.
  • In H. Beam Piper's A Planet for Texans (aka Lone Star Planet), Ambassador Stephen Silk seems like a fairly average diplomat (albeit an armed one) until near the end of the story when he goes Guns Akimbo on the three mooks that assassinated his predecessor.
    • Of course, it had been mentioned early on that Ambassador Silk was born and raised on a planet where the wildlife is troublesome enough that kids aren't allowed out of the house until they're good shots.
  • Arya from Inheritance Cycle is ambassador to the elves, in addition to being a warrior princess.
  • Starfighters of Adumar has Wedge Antilles made into an ambassador and sent to Adumar to try and convince their government to throw in with the New Republic. The Adumari hat is a near-worshipful attitude towards very good pilots, and that's why Wedge was sent - he had no training in diplomacy, but he was the best pilot of his age. In the end, even his traitorous diplomatic liaison underestimated just how good he was.
  • Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings is the Ambassador of the Valar, essentially. Not to mention that Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir are all basically ambassadors to the Council of Elrond.
  • The Codex Alera skips the "Hidden Badass" part by having Ambassador Varg be a 300-year-old, coal-black, heavily scarred, 8-foot-tall Wolf Man. There is absolutely no doubt that this is one big Badass. Even by Canim standards.
    • And Kitai is technically the Marat Ambassador.
  • The Gunslingers of Gilead in Stephen King's Dark Tower series function as ambassadors as well as police, soldiers, etc. Needless to say, total badassery is a basic job requirement.
  • A prevalent theme in James H. Schmitz's works is that Authority = Magnificent Bastardry + Badassery.
  • In Thomas Kyd's Hieronimo Part One, the prequel to his good play The Spanish Tragedy, the character Don Andrea is shown to be this trope in Portugal.
  • In David Weber's Mission Of Honor, Honor gets to play peace ambassador to the Republic of Haven. Of course, she is also the single highest-ranking currently-serving officer in the RMN and the commander of the only fleet with the longest-possible-range Manticoran Missile Massacre (read: unstoppable superweapon). Not to mention a eighth-dan in the hardest martial art in the galaxy. And an expert sword fighter. And gunfighter. And conducts the peace talks with said fleet hanging over the Havenite homeworld.
    • Mind you, the Havenites are led by Eloise Pritchart, who before the war was a revolutionary against the Legislaturalists, and her right-hand-man is Admiral Thomas Theisman, who personally removed Haven's previous dictatorial regime from power. You don't stay on top in Havenite politics for very long unless you are very hard to kill.
    • Manticore likes to use former officers as diplomats. All the way back in The Honor of the Queen, their ambassador to Grayson is a retired Marine, and the head of their treaty delegation, while technically wearing a business suit, is referred to by everyone—on both sides—as "Admiral".
  • In the Hell's Gate series, also by David Weber, we have a pair of Sharonan diplomats. One is a psychic cop who can tell when you are lying. The other is a only an ambassador part-time; his day-job is Imperial Marine!
  • The UN Envoys in the Takeshi Kovacs series by Richard Morgan are a subversion, of some kind. While Takeshi Kovacs is undoubtably a badass, his function as envoy seems to be mostly name only.
  • Horatio Hornblower was this on occasion, notably when he visited the Czar's court.
  • As of the last two books of the Time Scout series, Skeeter Jackson is the ambassador from the downtimers trapped on TT-86 to the uptime world. He also kicks ass during riots, fights off downtime bandits, and captures trained uptime assassins. And takes a girl on a date.
  • Miles Vorkosigan in several of the stories in the series, including Cetaganda, and Diplomatic Imunity.
  • In The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, Leslie Slote is at first a timid man who is reduced to a state of idiocy under shell fire when Warsaw is besieged. However when he is dealing with something within his parameters like contacting partisans, or battling SS Guards in a contest of wills. Or in general things that involve dealing with people rather then explosives, he shows himself heroic. And he ends the book by becoming a commando and dying in battle.


Live Action TV

  • Firefly: Inara often functions as the ship's ambassador. She's also fairly adept at swordfighting and archery.
  • Worf becomes an Ambassador at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. You don't get much more badass than Worf. Especially given that he's long since overcome his TNG-era jobbing streak.
    • Also, from what we've heard anyway, Curzon Dax would probably qualify. There has to be a reason that three of his closest friends were legendary Klingon warriors Kor, Koloth and Kang. And that said warriors allowed him to join their Blood Oath of revenge against the Albino.
    • Ambassador Spock from TOS is pretty handy in a fight, too. Just because he doesn't like fighting doesn't mean he's not good at it.
      • And his father is the formidable, nigh-legendary Sarek of Vulcan.
    • Ambassador Robert Fox is a cut above most of TOS' useless bureaucrats and diplomats. He confronts both Kirk and Scotty head-on, manages to get himself beamed down over the latter's objections, and once the true nature of the situation on Eminiar becomes apparent, he picks up a disruptor and joins the fight. And when it's all over, he manages to negotiate a successful peace treaty between two planets that have been at war for centuries.

Fox: I've never been a soldier, Mr. Spock. But I learn very quickly.

    • Coming from the other side, Starfleet captains and Starfleet officers in general are taught to be this in the absence of an actual diplomat, as able to negotiate an alliance with The Federation as they are to win a space battle or chart unknown territory.
  • Most of the regular cast in Babylon 5 who are not station personnel (it is a diplomatic station, after all). Notably Delenn, G'Kar, Londo and their respective seconds-in-command, Kosh, the Rangers... the list goes on.
  • Collectively, the role of the titular team on Stargate SG-1, as they specialize in first-contact and other tricky situations. As per their different roles on the team, some members (ie, Daniel) are far more diplomatic while others are more ready to break out the big guns, but all are capable of both talking to and taking out potential allies/enemies.
    • O'Neill is rather laconic, preferring to talk things out. But when someone threatens him and his planet, look out.
  • Ambassador Duvat in the Buck Rogers episode "Journey to Oasis". (Played by Mark Lenard, aka Sarek.)
  • Puck on Glee uses this phrase when he's asked to recruit a new member of the glee club, but... well, he's not as badass that day compared to his usual.
  • Van, one of Hells Kitchen muscular contestants took this to the next level


Tabletop Games

  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The Envoy Prestige Class in the second edition of ' was specifically a diplomat, who nevertheless enjoyed all the bonuses of its base Paladin class.
    • Every drow diplomat is a Dark Action Girl, as for them, the two roles are invariably intertwined. The word for "ambassador" in their language is the same as their word for "assassin".
    • In the original Dungeon Masters Guide for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax advised against this for low-level players (high level players becoming this or starting as exiled royalty was acceptable). His reasoning was, aristocrats tended to have more money, which gave PCs both an advantage and little incentive to go dungeon delving at.
  • The Eclipse Caste from Exalted (and their corrupted equivalents, the Moonshadows and Fiends) are meant to serve as diplomats, ambassadors, and envoys, and have Charm sets aimed towards managing bureaucracies, engaging the court, and composing perfect letters. They are just as capable of learning nigh-godly fighting styles as any other Caste, and are capable of writing a Strongly Worded Letter that can kill you.
  • Lorette Strider in the Traveller volume Interstellar Wars. She was a great explorer, and worked to build an understanding between Terrans and Vilani. Sadly, she failed; however, the Third Imperium could be considered the eventual realization of her dream.
  • The Crane and Scorpion Clans in Legend of the Five Rings . Particularly the crane, who are all poise and diplomacy until a Kakita Dueling Academy graduate is cutting you from hip to shoulder.
  • The Pornomancer concept in Shadowrun has skills in diplomacy and negotiation so high he can convince the guards shooting you to be his bodyguards in the middle of combat.

Video Games

  • The diplomats in Evil Genius, while useless in combat, can use their diplomatic skills to make even the most elite of heavily armed soldiers defect, and when placed in the field can engage in everything from heists to assassinations.
  • Arguably, the "Mediator" Job Class of Final Fantasy Tactics—their attacks consist of Talking the Monster to Death, and they are the only class (besides Chemists and special character Mustadio) who can wield guns. Granted, guns aren't the strongest weapons, but they're easily the most versatile, allowing the wielder to shoot anywhere in a large area around themselves.
  • Sacrifice has Ambassador Buta, the rotund emissary of Pyroborea. Buta is a powerful wizard in service of Pyro, god of fire, and thus doubles as one of Pyro's generals.
  • In the Civilization series, the diplomat/spy is capable of all sorts of nasty things from sabotage and stealing technology, to outright bribery of enemy towns to join your empire.
  • All Krogan ambassadors are expected to be this, since Krogan society is based around Asskicking Equals Authority, so what better way to get other clans to respect you than by sending the most badass warrior you have to represent you?
  • In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, House Telvanni is a strongly feudal magocracy, and its mage-lords do not bother to gather themselves when they need to negotiate with each other (like the other Houses do). Instead, they send ambassadors called Mouths. If you join this house and advance to the rank of Master, you get yourself an Ambadassador who undertakes dangerous missions for you in addition to his usual work.
  • Mike Haggar in Final Fight. The mayor of Metro City, when his daughter Jessica gets kidnapped by the Mad Gear gang, he doesn't submit to the gang's demands, but instead decides to take up his pro-wrestling skills once more to assist Cody and Guy in kicking the gang's ass.
  • Beatrice Wankmeister in Space Quest V. Demands answers from Star Con as to who is dumping sludge on the planets she's representing, evades capture when The Corruption has taken over the Goliath and escapes, crippling their warp drive in the process. She also isn't bad at an ambush, either.
  • The unnamed main character of The Meteor, the Stone and a Long Glass of Sherbet.
  • Quercus Alba of Ace Attorney Investigations, while certainly putting the Ass in Ambassador, manages to kill a man half his age in a fight while barely getting scratched while said man came at him with a knife longer than Alba's. Also, being able to fend off Edgeworth's arguments for so long has to count for something, right?
  • S'taass in Star Trek Online, who takes on Jem'hadar with his bare hands and claws.
  • Mayor Pauline in Super Mario Odyssey can't exactly fight, but man, she can certainly sing!

Web Comics

  • In Schlock Mercenary, ex-Admiral Breya Andreyasn functions as the United Nations of Sol's ambassador to the Fleetmind. Definitely Badass, both for her accomplishments prior to appointment, and for some of the things she did AS ambassador.
  • Ambassador Ichiro of Tsuiraku, seen here, complete with commentary here.
  • Prince Tramennis of Jetstone, in Erfworld. As a diplomat, his father dispatched him to a relatively useless area... and Tramennis returned with a powerful alliance and peace offerings. As a Chief Warlord, he's been able to match wits with Charlie and keep up with Parson's unconventional strategies.
  • This essentially seems to be the function of the Imperial Overseers in Drowtales, an all female group of women who serve the Chelian Empress and visit clans on her behalf, as well as breaking out a can of whoopass when necessary.


Western Animation

  • Zozo and Waldo from Galaxy Rangers were ostensibly "Two peaceful aliens [who] journeyed to Earth, seeking our help..." However, they could and often did accompany the Rangers on missions, and were capable brawlers. In the pilot episode alone, they single-handedly rescued Zachary from a shipful of pirates, making a daring escape with the wounded Zach in a stolen shuttle! Zozo, surprisingly, was much more apt to pick up a blaster and was at least an honorary (if not full-blown) Galaxy Ranger in his own right.
  • In Wakfu, Joris, the ambassador of Bonta is a tiny, hooded fellow who beats up Sadida guards, holds his own against Rubilax-powered Sadlygrove, and takes on Nox's death machines.
  • Briefly in Futurama. After a lot of brain-switching, the Professor, in Bender's body, while acting as a circus robot named Nonchalanto, ends up protecting Bender in a robot prince's body in a violent sword fight to the death on the floor of the United Nations (it Makes Sense in Context). A young boy watching proudly exclaims "When I grow up, I want to be a diplomat!"
  • Ex Fire Lord Zuko in The Legend of Korra.


Real Life

  • Often Truth in Television, ambassadors are often retired military, making them Retired Badasses.
    • And, sometimes, they're even chief diplomats. Right, former U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell?
  • Back in the days of monarchy, rulers were expected to oversee both military and diplomatic policy, which makes sense as the two have to work together (and one can be considered an extension of the other). In other words, they were supposed to be both an Ambadassador and a Warrior Prince.
    • It isn't much different today, except no U.S. President has commanded in battle personally since the Whiskey Rebellion, and it isn't much different in other republics.
      • True except for the date. The last POTUS to command in actual battle during his presidency is James Madison in the War of 1812. When the British reached the capital, he took command of a artillery battalion for a couple of hours.
    • And let's not forget the number of former U.S. Presidents who were former officers in the military, many of general rank.
  • Venetian diplomats could live in unusual places hosted by rulers who were prone to erratic behavior, sometimes with the foreign diplomats as a target for their wrath. Venetian diplomats were not only known for their cunning but for their coolness and their skill as Deadpan Snarkers. One example: Venetian Ambassador Giorgio Dolphin was in an audience with Pope Julius II who, in a fit of fury, declared his intent to reduce Venice to a humble fishing village. Giorgio replied that Venice would reduce him to "un curatello qualsiasi" (a humble country priest).
  • The first Japanese ambassadors were samurai. It helped that there wasn't much else for them to do during the Meiji Era; the feudal system had been abolished and the military thoroughly modernized, so the samurai factions that had allied with Emperor Meiji against the Tokugawa Shogunate had to find less combat-oriented ways to serve.
  • For a long time, when travel was constrained, being a diplomat required a long and dangerous journey, sometimes into unknown and uncivilized territory or even through a war zone. If an ultimatum was being carried, an ambassador often had to worry about the receiver's reacting harshly. In frontier regions inhabited by warlike peoples, some of the toughest diplomatic jobs were to be had.
    • Custer was a frontier diplomat himself as well as a soldier. His reputation at this was not memorable to say the least because of other aspects of his career but he did not ruin the job entirely.
    • General George Crook was a very distinguished frontier diplomat as well as a frontier general. He had the distinction of being praised by the Apache at his funeral.
    • One of the best compliments to be given Lewis and Clark is that their trip was so boring. They lost no men and left no feuds with Indians behind them(latter troubles sure as heck weren't their fault).
    • On the Afghan border the Indian Political Service was known for haggling with Pathans, some of the toughest critters on the planet.
  • In World War 2, the OSS was sent to contact the Dalai Lama in Tibet because the terrain was slightly awkward for traditional diplomats. The goal was to attain transit rights for the supply of China. There was the traditional exchange of polite potlatching, including an expensive timepiece. One request the Tibetans made was a radio which was finally sent. Unfortunately much of this was looked on with suspicion by the Nationalists who apparently considered their petty territorial claims more important than getting weapons to survive the Japanese and the Chicoms.
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