Speeches and Monologues - TV Tropes
- ️Fri Aug 29 2008
Tropes about one character talking a lot, with little or no interruption.
Tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: A character is reprimanded for the things they've done wrong, then commended for the one thing they did right.
- After-Action Villain Analysis: A third party explains the villain's actions and motive to others.
- Author Filibuster: The story grinds to a halt for the author(s) to preach about their beliefs.
- Balcony Speech: A high-grounded orator talks from a balcony to an audience below.
- Bastardly Speech: A monologue that's nothing but Blatant Lies.
- The "Be Careful!" Speech: A person takes their time to remind others to take cautions before engaging in a risky endeavor.
- Bitter Wedding Speech: A speech at a friend's wedding doesn't come off so friendly.
- Break Them by Talking: Breaking someone down just by talking to them.
- Broken Dialect, Impactful Speech: A character who has a broken speech pattern can still deliver an important or impactful speech.
- But I Digress: A character goes off on a tangent and then gets back to their original point.
- Caught Monologuing: Taking action while your opponent is busy talking.
- Character Filibuster: A character just can't stop talking.
- Holding the Floor: A character filibusters to stall for time.
- Motor Mouth: A Character Filibuster in high-gear.
- Check and Mate: The victor of the battle/match/war goes to explain how the loser lost, and/or how they won.
- Circling Monologue: A character walks circles around the person they are talking to.
- Contemplate Our Navels: Charactering spend a while lost in thought.
- Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: As psychiatrist is driven mad by their patient.
- Cue Card: A character holds up cue cards for another to read.
- Dare to Be Badass: Daring someone to do something awesome and insinuating their inferiority if they don't do it.
- Despair Speech: A speech delivered by a character who has lost all hope.
- Disorganized Outline Speech: An explanation whose structure is flawed, but the point is sound.
- Do Not Go Gentle: A speech on how the remaining days of your life should be enjoyed rather than wasted by despair.
- Dropped-in Speech Clip: Use of excerpts from often historical speeches; arguably an auditory counterpart to Stock Footage.
- Emergency Presidential Address: Leaders address the public during emergency situations, for better or worse.
- Evil Gloating: The Villain boasts about how their evil scheme is succeeding.
- Final Speech: A weakened or terminally ill character gives out one last bit of dialogue before croaking, vanishing from existence, or other things.
- Long-Lasting Last Words: A character's Final Speech goes on for an improbably —if not impossibly— long time; usually Played for Laughs.
- From the Latin "Intro Ducere": Etymology used to introduce a subject.
- Grand Inquisitor Scene: A high-ranking official of a society speaks directly with a dissident on their philosophies.
- Hannibal Lecture: Turning the tables on your interrogator via psychologically clever speech.
- Heroic Heelization Speech: The Hero admits that they don’t care that they lived to become The Villain.
- Heroism Motive Speech: The Hero makes a speech about why they became the hero and/or what being a hero means to them.
- Imagine the Audience Naked: Nervous public speaker tries to calm down by imagining the audience naked.
- I'm Not Afraid of You
- Inner Monologue: A character's thoughts are presented as speech.
- Inner Monologue Conversation: Plural characters talk through their Inner Monologues; not due to psychic powers, either due to Rule of Funny or visual tells on one's behalf.
- Inverse Dialogue/Death Rule: A dying, important character gets several lines of dialogue before kicking it.
- Just Between You and Me: Speech detailing the Big Bad's Evil Plan.
- Kirk Summation: The Hero makes one last attempt to reason with The Villain by pointing out the flawed logic of their plans or motives.
- Last Chance to Quit: A villain gives The Hero a chance to back away or cease interfering with their plans.
- List-of-Experiences Speech: A character gives a speech listing all their experiences/accomplishments, often as a Badass Boast.
- Laugh with Me!: A villain performs an Evil Laugh and demands others laugh with them.
- Let Me Tell You a Story: A character opts to explain something to another in the form of an Allegory.
- ...And That Little Girl Was Me: The storyteller reveals their allegorical story to be about themselves.
- Literal Soapbox Speech: Someone gets atop something to make a speech.
- Long Speech Tea Time: A monologue is long enough for a recipient to become impatient and start doing something to ease their boredom.
- Mic Drop: Someone finishing a speech drops their microphone (or mimes doing it if they don't have one) to emphasize the end, often issuing an unspoken challenge for any rebuttal.
- Misfit Mobilization Moment: When the dysfunctional misfits stop being dysfunctional misfits, often at the whim of a Rousing Speech
- Motive Misidentification: The Big Bad points out what is wrong with the After-Action Villain Analysis, as their motive is not what someone else suspects.
- Motive Rant: A character rants on why they're doing what they're doing.
- New Era Speech: Villain talks about how amazing everything is going to be.
- "No More Holding Back" Speech: A character makes a speech about the problems they've experienced and how they overcame them.
- Opening Monologue: Only the first installment/episode includes an Opening Narration in its beginning.
- Patrick Stewart Speech: A speech about humanity's strengths.
- Plea of Personal Necessity: After his defeat and shortly before the hero finishes him off, the villain tells them they can't do this: They (and maybe the world) need him!
- Private Eye Monologue: A Private Detective Talks Like a Simile for their Inner Monologue or conversations.
- Rambling Old Man Monologue: An elderly character just sits there and tells irrelevant stories that go nowhere.
- "The Reason I Suck" Speech: Character admits their flaws and shortcomings.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Chewing out a person by listing the reasons they are terrible.
- Shaming the Mob: Chewing out a large amount of people.
- Revenge Reveal Story: A character seeking revenge tells the victim why they're being targeted.
- Rousing Speech: When a character delivers a speech so powerful that it emotionally moves the others to take action and not lose hope.
- Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: A broken attempt at a Rousing Speech which fails and backfires horribly.
- "Shaggy Frog" Story: A character starts telling a story that's intended to prove a point, but ends up spiraling into incomprehensible nonsense.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: The villain tries to discourage the hero from stopping them by claiming that the hero's efforts are worthless or that the hero is no different than the villain. The hero instead gives the rebuttal that the villain is still evil and must answer for what they've done.
- Sounds of Science: Scientists must vocalize while making their scientific progress.
- Speaking Up for Another: A third-party comes to the defense of someone who is being demeaned or insulted.
- Speech-Centric Work: Works which are composed primarily of speech (whether dialogue or monologue).
- Standing Between the Enemies: A third character stops a fight between two groups and gets them to resolve things peacefully.
- Sudden Morbid Monologue: A character monologues about a completely morbid subject without warning.
- The Summation: The Mystery Fiction is explained.
- Summation Gathering: The suspects and/or concerned parties are gathered for The Summation to be made.
- Talking Is a Free Action: When a character is in imminent peril, they somehow have enough time to talk about a bunch of stuff before they get out of harm's way or get harmed by whatever is endangering them.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Defeating the enemy just by talking to them.
- Technobabble: Technological-sounding terms that are actually complete gibberish.
- "They Still Belong to Us" Lecture: A villain disregards the Heel–Face Turn of a former ally or minion, arguing that their Resignation Is Not Accepted by their very nature.
- Thinking Out Loud: A character expresses their thought out loud, usually for the spectator's comprehension; a soliloquy.
- Mirror Monologue: A character talks to themselves while looking at their reflection in the mirror.
- Surrogate Soliloquy: Conversing to an inanimate object or something that can't respond/comprehend what its being told.
- Throwing Out the Script: Preparing a big speech for some sort of ceremony, but at the last minute tossing it aside and deciding to speak from the heart.
- To the Pain: A character is about to undergo torture and the one who will be torturing them passionately describes the kind of pain that they intend to inflict on the poor guy.
- Unaccustomed as I Am to Public Speaking...: A good orator claims to lack public speaking skills.
- Unseen Audience: The narrator turns out to have been telling the story to an in-universe character.
- Verbal Judo: Defusing an explosive situation via communication.
- Whoopi Epiphany Speech: A oppressed minority character delivers an extremely insightful, compelling speech.
- Windbag Politician: Politicians make very long but meaningless speeches.
- Would You Like to Hear How They Died?:
- You Are Better than You Think You Are: Telling a person with low self-esteem that they are not worthless.
- You Can Turn Back: The Hero offers allies the option to rescind a dangerous mission.
- You Keep Telling Yourself That: Someone gives a justification for their actions, and the person they're talking to challenges its sincerity.
- "You Used to Be Better" Speech: A "Reason You Suck" Speech built upon positive comparison to the recipient's past character.