Circling Monologue: Difference between revisions

* Grendel's mother in the 2007 movie of ''[[Beowulf (Filmfilm)|Beowulf]]'' does this to the eponymous hero. She promises the trifecta of Sex, Money, and Power, strumming every chord of this flawed hero's heart and pride as she circled him. Too bad the original version is a much more straightforward, violent, bloody and gory physical battle. ([[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]], say some.)

* Done in the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' movie.

* Wormtongue does this to Eowyn in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|The Two Towers]]'', during his "Who knows what you've spoken to the darkness..." speech.

* When the titular ''[[Corpse Bride (Animation)|Corpse Bride]]'' finally confronts her murderer {{spoiler|and former fiancee}}.

* In ''[[The Princess and Thethe Frog]]'', Dr. Facilier does this to {{spoiler|Tiana near the end, when he offers to make her dreams come true in exchange for his talisman. He shows her illusions of her restaurant while circling her and making his offer in a VERY seductive tone. (The fact that he's voiced by [[Keith David]] certainly helps.)}} This scene also doubles as [[Fetish Fuel]].

* In the climax of ''[[Labyrinth (Film)|Labyrinth]]'', Jareth circles Sarah in this manner as he explains how, while he is capable of cruelty, he has been "generous" to her all along. Her response is the heroine's speech from the play that inspired her adventure in the first place, and a battle of wills ensues.

* Jim does the heroic version in ''[[Treasure Planet]],'' but it's mainly to tell Silver that he won't be fooled a second time, [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|condemning him]] for what Jim thought was a [[Bastardly Speech|bastardly speech]], and letting him know that he won't let Silver ever get ahold of the treasure which serves as both characters' motivation.

* Frollo in the Disney version of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' offers {{spoiler|Esmeralda a way out when she's about to be burned at the stake. He tells her, 'I can save you from the flames of this world and the next. Choose me, or the fire,' and Esmeralda promtly [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|spits at his face]] before giving him an epic [[Kubrick Stare]].}}

* This is Mother Gothel's favorite choreography in ''[[Tangled (Disney)|Tangled]]''. She circles Rapunzel semi-affectionately at the start of her [[Villain Song]], "Mother Knows Best." However, in the ''reprise'' of this song, she takes it [[Up to Eleven]], not only circling Rapunzel affectionately, but with mockery, derision, and she even does a semi-circle that has a ''seductive'' twist. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a9yJMItIJ8 Just watch for yourself.]

* ''[[Rock -a -Doodle]]'' has the scene where the evil owl and his henchowls are shown threatening the farm animals as the barn starts to fill up with water by singing [[Villain Song|"No Batteries!"]] (which for some reason contained the lyrics "Twiddly-dee, twiddly-dee") while marching around them in a circle.

* The Singing Cat Gang actually do this to [[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]] during the [[Big LippedNon AlligatorSequitur MomentScene]] from ''[[Tom and Jerry: The Movie]]''.

* Parodied in ''[[Cloudy Withwith a Chance of Meatballs]]'': The mayor is trying to convince Flint to make more food fall from the sky, and uses [[Offscreen Teleportation]] to great and hilarious effect. First he whispers in one ear, then the other, then somehow from ''above.'' While driving a Rascal scooter.

{{quote| '''Syndrome''': You sly dog, [[Lampshade Hanging|you had me monologuing]]!}}

* Harry and Voldemort's final battle in ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Deathly Hallows (novel)|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]]'' starts with them circling each other, debating who will triumph. Harry is level-headed, assured that he has the upper hand, while Voldemort is arrogant and dismissive, refusing to believe he can be beaten.

* In ''[[Whos Afraid of Beowulf|Who's Afraid of Beowulf?]]'' by [[Tom Holt]], the last viking king, Hrolf Earthstar circles the evil Sorcerer King before battle, determined to break his attempt to rule the world. Unusually, the mighty but doomed villain ''accepts'' the [[Last Second Chance]] given by the hero. After all, someone could have got ''killed''.

* This happens at least twice in [[Madeleine L 'Engle]]'s books -- ''[[A Wind in Thethe Door]]'' and ''[[Many Waters]]'', to be precise (although this is more of forcible-possession than monologuing, in both cases). In the latter, it's called the [[Circle of Extinction]], giving this trope its [[Renamed Tropes|former name]].

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has an excellent example in the first episode of the seventh season when the [[Big Bad]] delivers a [[Hannibal Lecture]] to Spike while circling him... and while shifting forms between the [[Big Bad]] of each earlier season and, at the end, Buffy herself.

* A different use of circling than usual, but Dr Cox from ''[[Scrubs (TV)|Scrubs]]'' has a tendency to circle people during his rants. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB1F86_U96M In one memorable scene] he and J.D. actually take turns on who is playing what role.

* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'', in the climatic three-way showdown between [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Vorlons, Shadows]] and the Army of Light each one of the former two pick a general of the Army and try to reason him/her into following them. Shadows do this with Delenn by having impersonations of her friends and even of herself circle around her while setting forth the Shadows' doctrines. Meanwhile, the Vorlon representative manifests as a woman frozen inside a block of ice, and Sheridan circles ''her'' while she argues the Vorlon point of view.

* In a Season Three episode of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', [[Mc Kenas]]McKenas Cole pulls this on Sark. However, Sark makes it a point to keep shifting so Cole is never given the opportunity to stab him in the back.

* Ditto in ''[[Planescape: Torment]]''.

* Used by a race of [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]] in [[Homeworld (Video Game)|Homeworld]]. With a spaceship. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eL7scjcj6A&feature=player_detailpage#t=51s Circling another spaceship.]

* Used in [[Batman: Arkham City]] during the battle with {{spoiler|Ra's al-Ghul. As Batman holds a sword to Ra's' throat, Talia circles around them both, urging him to kill Ra's and take his place as leader of the League Of Assassins.}}

* The ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' do this to Terra after she betrays them for the last time. Not to give her another chance, but to clarify that they will not be giving her any more chances.

* Played with in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', as Ozai circles Zuko while extolling his accomplishments in Ba Sing Se. Zuko still seems very nervous to be there, especially when he finds out that {{spoiler|Azula gave him all the credit for Aang's supposed death.}}

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