Ambadassador: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''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 Conference|peace talks]] fail whips out a can of [[
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* In ''[[Discworld|The Fifth Elephant]]'', Vimes is given a diplomatic mission to Uberwald. He also takes Detritus with him as [[Refuge in Audacity|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
* 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 {{spoiler|[[Guns Akimbo]] on the three mooks that assassinated his predecessor}}.
* Arya from ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' is ambassador to the elves, in addition to being a [[Canon Sue|warrior princess]].
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** And [[Action Girl|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 Equals Asskicking|Authority]] = [[Magnificent Bastard
* 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|David Weber's]] [[Honor Harrington|''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 [[Macross Missile Massacre|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 [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized|revolutionary]] against the Legislaturalists, and her right-hand-man is Admiral Thomas Theisman, who [[Boom! Headshot!|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
* 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 [[Altered Carbon|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.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The diplomats in ''[[Evil Genius (video game)|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]]
* ''[[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.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* Often [[Truth in Television]], ambassadors are often retired military, making them [[Retired Badass
** 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
** 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 [[Off with His Head|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 [[Stiff Upper Lip|coolness]] and their skill as [[Deadpan Snarker
* 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.
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