Trope-a-Day: Exact Words

Exact Words: The Imperials are, of course, sophonts of their words.  It would be very bad form for one to chop logic so closely and obey the letter, and not the spirit, of an agreement.

Unless, of course, your counterparty is trying to do it to you first, or other such constrained circumstances apply (such as, say, certain kinds of diplomacy, in which a non-cooperative environment is essentially assumed), in which case, everyone’s an exquisite space-lawyer.