Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2007 January 16

=January 16=

Empty gun, or not?
In Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor, Sergey Golovko tell's Jack Ryan that the gun he held to Ryan's head when Ryan helped the KGB chairman escape in The Cardinal of the Kremlin was empty. However, in The Bear and the Dragon, Golovko is thinking about how great a man Ryan is and it says he was glad he had the sensibility not to pull the trigger in the abovementioned incident. Therefore, when Golovko told Ryan that the gun was empty, was he lying, or did Clancy forget it had been previously revealed to be unloaded? Crisco 1492 09:11, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
 * knowing Clancy, he'd as soon forget his first-born child. Having Golovko fudging the truth would definitely add more intrigue to the plots of the novels, while still leaving the first novel relevant to its considerations. V-Man737 09:50, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Although saying you held an empty gun to someone's forehead isn't a fudge if its actually loaded. However, it would fit with Golovko's character, since he seems to enjoy yanking Ryan's chain a little when they are enemies, but is reasurring when they are friends. Thanks! Crisco 1492 07:51, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Heh... fudge. I didn't want to say "lie," because it's such a harsh term, and I rather like Golovko... ;-) V-Man737 08:50, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Didn't mean it to be a harsh term, cuz I personally think Golovko's pretty cool (though I would like to see Broderenko (s.p error, sorry, not sure) in more books). Sorry, just that I see fudging as a synonym for a white lie. Crisco 1492 09:14, 23 January 2007 (UTC)