Parley

Parley (from French: parler – "to speak") is a discussion or conference, especially one between enemies over terms of a truce or other matters.

For the English village, see West Parley.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, attacking an enemy during a parley was considered one of the grossest breaches of the rules of war. The British Army was accused of multiple parley violations during the American Revolutionary War, specifically arresting Continental Army officers engaged in negotiations as traitors in addition to hanging uniformed despatch riders as spies.[1]

The term "congress" originally had a similar meaning.[2]

Below are some examples where a parley is a significant element of the plot.

  • In the Pirates of the Caribbean series, parley is a plot device introduced in the first film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). Captain Barbossa explained that the parley is not a rule, as Elizabeth (the leading lady of the film) naively assumed, but merely a "guideline" adhered to by pirates.
  • In the 2017 Fear the Walking Dead episode, "The Unveiling", Jake Otto and Chief Qaletaqa Walker agree to parley, in order to spare bloodshed in their escalating feud over land. However, Madison Clark goads Troy Otto to violate the parley rules of engagement by leading a surreptitious "rescue mission" to extract Alicia from the Black Hat reservation. The rescuers are discovered, blood is shed, and the temporary truce is broken.[3]
  • In the 2019 film John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the climax is a parley between the main characters on how to settle the plot's feud.

References
  1. Oller, John, The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution, Da Capo Press (October 2016).
  2. "congress". Oxford English Dictionry Online. Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
  3. PenzeyMoog, Caitlin (July 9, 2017). "Fear The Walking Dead highlights how awful white people are". AV Club.
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