Just Between You and Me: Difference between revisions

== Comics ==

* Subverted and lampshaded in chapter 11 of the graphic novel ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]''.

** {{spoiler|Also, the people he's talking to aren't really his enemies but former comrades, and he believes that he can convince them that he's right. He partially succeeds}}.

* In ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Mighty Avengers]] #11'', Doctor Doom monologues in thought bubbles while calmly threatening the heroes, and finishes the thought with "...but I'll be '''damned''' if I'm going to stand here and explain myself to '''you'''!!!"

** Both [[Subverted]] and played straight in ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]''.

*** You think Blofeld is going to explain his plan, but...

'''Blofeld:''' An excellent question. And one which will be hanging on the lips of the world quite soon. If I were to break the news to anyone, it would be to you first. You know that. But it's late, I'm tired, and there's so much left to do. Good night, Mr Bond. }}

*** Later on when Bond arrives at the oil rig base Blofeld gives him the grand tour and explains his plans fully. Justified since the plan is to hold the world hostage with a [[Kill Sat]] for money- and he's already made his demands and threat known, and is only telling Bond what targets he might choose. Bond has already figured out how to stop it as well.

** Mild inversion in ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies]]''- the [[Evil Plan]] turns out to be ''less'' heinous (though still heinous) than what the heroes thought it was (they thought Carver was trying to start [[World War III]] [[For the Evulz]] and for rating; he's ''actually'' in a [[Big Bad Duumvirate]] ([[Offstage Villainy|of sorts]]) aimed at installing a new Chinese government via nuking the old one and blaming it on the British, with his ally emerging as a [[Villain with Good Publicity]] when he takes over the country and negotiates a truce (Carver is still after ratings). Also a perfect example of how Bond movies subvert this trope- they were ''already'' trying to foil his plan before he even explained it.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]] in the film ''[[The Incredibles]]'', where the villain's penchant to elaborately explain their nefarious plans is dubbed "monologuing" by the heroes. Syndrome falls for it anyway -- which is entirely plausible; he wants Mr. Incredible to ''know'' how great he is.

* In ''[[Dogma]]'', the villain taunts the heroes in this way, but then [[Defied Trope|defies it]].

* Possible first subversion was in the film ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]'': Tuco is surprised while in the tub by an old rival, who starts talking about how his revenge is at hand. Tuco, unimpressed, shoots the rival, then notes "When you have to shoot: ''shoot'', don't talk," before finishing him off [[Gangsta Style]].

* A slightly over-wordy homage to this moment appears in ''[[Van Helsing]]'':

'''Anna Valerious:''' ''(Drives a stake through her chest)'' I think if you're going to kill somebody, kill them! Don't stand around talking about it! }}

* Subverted in ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]''. One of the villains' allies decides to tell Kirk and McCoy the master plan, but they are beamed to safety by Spock before they get to hear a word of it.

'''McCoy:''' ''Absolutely not!'' }}

* In ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'', {{spoiler|Obadiah Stane gets to do this with Tony Stark. He paralyzes Tony with a sonic device which has effects lasting 15 minutes, and proceeds to remove the arc generator from his chest, gloating all the way. The flaw in this plan is that Stane doesn't know there is an old generator Tony can use, but due to the temporary paralysis, it comes much closer to working than similar gloating plans.}} This is also an interesting variation in that the gloating didn't actually harm the villain's plans... He had to tip his hand {{spoiler|to get the generator, which was after all ''attached'' to our hero}}, anyway. If anything, gloating ''longer'' would probably have {{spoiler|kept his eye on Tony long enough for his heart to finish failing}}!

** In ''[[Discworld/Men At Arms|Men At Arms]]'', Commander Vimes muses about how it's better to be at the mercy of an evil man: "The evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to ''know'' you're going to die. So they'll talk. [[Evil Gloating|They'll gloat.]] ... A good man will kill you with hardly a word."

** First [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]], then [[Inverted Trope]] in ''[[Discworld/The Fifth Elephant|The Fifth Elephant]]'':

'''Wolfgang:''' You ''are'' going to die anyway. Why don't ''you'' tell ''me''? }}

* Used slightly oddly in the novel ''[[The City of Dreaming Books]]''. The villain just seems to enjoy giving this speech, even when it's completely unwarranted. In fact, many of his victims point out that they never would have known he even ''had'' an [[Evil Plan]], had he not told them about it in great detail before disposing of them.

* In ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'', Doctor Impossible repeatedly struggles against this urge, remembering his last defeat:

* Subverted in James P. Hogan's story ''The Assassin''. The title character is sent to liquidate a scientist who had defected from his side, succeeds, but is then captured. {{spoiler|His interrogators then introduce him to his "deceased" target, who has developed technology to duplicate people. Since they can duplicate the prisoner as many times as necessary, they can simply try ''every'' interrogation strategy... including honest explanation and persuasion.}}

* Played straight and lampshaded in the ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''' novel ''Duty Calls'', where Cain meets with the Inquistor that's been trying to kill him through the whole book. The Inquisitor waits until he thinks Cain is on his side before revealing the whole plan. The [[Lampshade Hanging]] comes from the villain's name, Ernst Savros Killian, which bears a striking resemblance to a certain [[James Bond]] villain.

* During the fifth ''[[Dresden Files]]'' book, Harry tries to bait Nicodemus into doing this, [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|to no avail]]. Later, he remarks to Susan that he must've read the [[Evil Overlord List]].

* Completely inverted in ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' novel ''Silverfall'', when one [[Affably Evil]] foe inadvertently convinced [[Lady of War|Storm Silverhand]] to spare his life ''after'' his [[Graceful Loser|surrender]] was answered [[The Slow Walk|only by one raised eyebrow]]. By asking one right question. Well, by asking and then clarifying it:

Know about ''what''? }}

* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'': {{spoiler|Hawkfrost}} does this at the end of ''Sunset''. His plan wasn't particularly complicated, but before trying the strike the killing blow, he felt the need to tell Brambleclaw that he was just testing him. And of course, after {{spoiler|Brambleclaw impales him}}, he remembers something else important and says a little extra as he bleeds to death.

** Lampshaded by Alex when he says that one of the downsides of being a criminal is that you can't tell people about your crimes

* Lampshaded near the end of Emma Bull's ''[[Border Town|Finder]]'':

* Lampshaded in [[The First Law|Best Served Cold]] where Cosca asks Victus why men with a crossbow tend to gloat instead of simply firing.

* In [[Aaron Allston]]'s ''[[Galatea in 2-D]]'', Kevin -- after numerous attempts to kill Roger and his friends -- demands that Roger explain something he did in his counterattack, becase [[It's All About Me|Roger owes him after all the damage he did to him]].

* In [[Artemis Fowl|Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident]], Foaly manages to record this on [[Chekhov's Gun|Artemis's laptop]], saving the day.

* [[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]: Subverted because Nemo never shares the evil part of his [[Evil Plan]] with Aronnax, [[Anti-Villain|just because he is ashamed of it]]. However, Nemo is constantly sharing all the information about the Nautilus and his scientific investigations about the Sea with [[The Professor]] Aronnax, not because he will kill him, but because Nemo pretends that [[Gilded Cage|Aronnax will never abandon the Nautilus]].

''I ignored this innuendo and waited for Captain Nemo's explanation.'' }}

* Partially averted in [[L Neil Smith]]'s THE VENUS BELT, where the protagonist notes "I had already had the cliche interview with the head villain, and I still didn't know what was going on."

** He goes and does exactly that with {{spoiler|the Time Lords}} in "The End of Time Part 2". He definitely knew by that point that it's a bad idea to tell your {{spoiler|nemesis}} your plan, and yet he tells it to {{spoiler|the President of the Time Lords}}, a man with near godlike technology at his disposal.

** This of course happens in a great deal of Doctor Who serials, both Classic & Nu-Who, but a notable subversion is in ''City of Death'':

'''Count Scarlioni''': Good. }}

** This gets brought up again in ''The Robots of Death'':

'''Taren Capel''': Oh no Doctor. I’m going to burn out your brain. Very very slowly. }}

::: Of course he spills the beans about his plan a few minutes later, but it's still a good line.

** The Doctor tries to deliberately - not to mention directly - invoke this in "The Vampires of Venice" when surrounded by said vampires:

'''Eleventh Doctor''': ''One'' day that'll work... }}

** Parodied in "The Lodger" when Craig, the ordinary guy the Doctor is lodging with, begins to tell the Doctor all his fairly modest ideas for how the call centre he works at can streamline effectively and what he wants to do with his life out of the blue, before realizing out loud that he's telling all of this to a complete stranger. Obviously referring to the countless maniacs who like to monologue at him, the Doctor assures him that he's not the first.

* The demons in ''[[Supernatural]]'' have a bad habit of doing this. Meg, Tammi, even Azazel have given up easy victories this way. Other monsters' modus operandi tend to be exposited in other ways, from arcane research.

** [[Lampshaded]] by Dean in "Devil's Trap" with, "Listen, you mind just getting this over with, huh? Cause I really can't stand the monologuing." This turns out to be a slight mistake {{spoiler|when his organs start to, y'know, liquefy}}.

* Subverted in the ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' episode "Dummy." The murderer makes a full confession while the heroes are wrapped in body bags and locked inside a car, so they can't actually hear a word of what he's saying.

* Lampshaded in a ''[[Dollhouse]]'' episode.

'''Cindy''': Because it's funny. And because you won't remember it. }}

* In both the miniseries and novel ''[[Neverwhere]]'' the villain {{spoiler|Islington}} explains his plan to the heroes. This partly justified, as he believes his plan cannot be stopped, and he genuinely wants to convince the heroes to join him. The page quote is from the DVD commentary.

* "[[Chuck]] Versus the Ring Part II:"

* In the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Little Green Men", ''[[Plucky Middie|Nog]]'' of all people unleashes a classic -- albeit [[Blatant Lies|entirely invented]] -- rant of this form in order to distract his [[Roswell That Ends Well|Korean War-era military interrogators]], complete with several instances of "I might as well tell you this because it won't matter anyway."

* In ''Loyalty'', one of the later [[Horatio Hornblower]] TV films, Hornblower and his men taken prisoner after a [[The Mole|traitor]] on their ship hands them over to the French. Hornblower is invited to [[No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine|dinner]], where the traitor reveals that he is neither the only traitor nor even the biggest traitor in Admiral Pellew's squadron. Hornblower notes that it would be cruel to send him to his death without even telling him who the traitor is. Of course, {{spoiler|[[The Mole]] is [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], and simply agrees that it would be cruel, before [[Subverted Trope|sending Hornblower back to his cell.]]}}

== Radio ==

* Parodied in ''[[Nebulous]]'', when the eponymous professor is captured by the evil Klench.

'''Dr. Klench:''' It's irrelevant. Any minute now you're going to be a dead body. }}

* And in ''[[Bleak Expectations]]''

'''Mr Gently Benevolent''': Oh, all right. }}

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

* Almost a description of the trope itself in the ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' [[Machinima]] movie ''[[Tales of the Past]] 3'', when {{spoiler|Arthas}} and {{spoiler|Blazer}} speak on top of dragon sculptures :

{{spoiler|'''Arthas:'''}} ''I [[Villains Never Lie|never lie]]. I'm simply telling you because there is no way you can defeat me... And I would love watching you die in agony, realizing that you failed them all... again.'' }}

* At the end of ''[[Broken Saints]]'', [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|Lear Dunham}} spells out, in detail, his motives and the origins of his big plan to the heroes. {{spoiler|The whole point of him telling them (and of their involvement in the plot at all) was so they would be inspired by his vision and join him as his chief apostles.}}

* Once more, ''[[Basic Instructions]]'' gives us simple step by step guidelines to this practice, including how to deal with the rude assassin when he's already escaped your trap and has a gun pointed at Kitty.

* [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic/series.php?view=archive&chapter=10227 Parodied] in ''[[Narbonic]]'', when [[Mad Scientist]] Helen gets another scientist's henchman to explain ''her own plan'' to her as a stalling tactic.

* Nale from ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' parodies this trope by [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0383.html explaining his Evil Plan to himself].

** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0420.html Roy tells Belkar] how they plan to cheat the system by negotiating the latter's crime down from murder to manslaughter, then accepting a deal with would knock 5 years off the four year minimum sentence... right next to Hinjo (who's a nice guy, but also [[Lawful Good]]) who promptly hands down a stiffer sentence so Belkar can't weasel out of his punishment.

'''Hinjo''': Yeah, well you probably shouldn't have discussed how you plan to beat the system in front of the guy charged with upholding the system. }}

** The black dragon mother [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0628.html explains her plan for revenge upon Vaarsuvius]. Explaining the plan is, in fact, part of the plan.

** Elan's father later gives one to Elan, explaining every detail of how his plan is going to go, including his death. And explaining the plan actually gives him the better result.

** Redcloak gives it a shot {{spoiler|when Tsukiko figures out part of his plan. Then he takes control of her undead servants and has them kill and eat her, then each other. And that's why you don't mess with Redcloak.}}

'''Redcloak:''' [[I Lied|Yes, I know. That's why I've kept it from him for more than 30 years.]] }}

* [http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0205.html In this strip] of ''[[Adventurers]]'' Khrima's [[Genre Blind]] stumbling right into this trope is [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by the [[Genre Savvy]] Karn.

* General Gray in the ''[[Jump Leads]]'' issue ''Who Wants to Rule the World?'' averts this, despite being an otherwise textbook case of [[Contractual Genre Blindness]]. After all, "before I kill you, let me tell you my plan" only works if you have any actual intention of killing the person you're talking to.

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Torg [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=991001 plays on Dr. Steve's] [[Contractual Genre Blindness]] to invoke this trope.

'''Dr. Steve:''' Let's do it! }}

* Used and [[Lampshaded]] in [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0329.html this] ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' strip.

** Kim's high school rival Bonnie is [[Chained Heat|attached to her]] in "Bonding" and interrupts Professor Dementor's ranting to ask why he doesn't just get on with his plan. Annoyed, both Dementor and Kim tell her that that's the way these things are done.

* ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' has this happening between ''two villains''. Starscream has Megatron cornered and helpless, but being something of a [[Large Ham]], he of course takes time to gloat. Bumblebee then bursts in, scoring a direct hit on Starscream with his stingers... which does nothing. He then goes berserk, mostly concerned that, as he put it:

* ''[[Beast Wars]]'' also played with this in the episode "Dark Designs", where an attempt to brainwash [[Gentle Giant]] Rhinox into a Predacon goes off without a hitch... then [[It Got Worse|goes straight to the Pit]]. When the evil Rhinox has Megatron backed into a corner, he starts up with this, to which Megatron responds: "Sometimes Predacons '''gloat''' too much!"

* From an episode of ''[[Duckman]]'': "They never just kill ya. There's always a lecture."

* Actually [[Justified Trope]] in the ''[[Justice League]]'' crossover episode of ''[[Static Shock]]'', where Braniac explains his plans to Static and Gear to distract them until he can attack.

* Used repeatedly -- and lampshaded at least once -- in ''[[The Tick]]'':

* ''[[The New Adventures of Superman]]'' episode "The Saboteurs". The [[Villain]] "The Chief" tells Lois Lane and Clark Kent his plan after he captures them.

* In one episode of ''[[Storm Hawks]]'', a [[Mook]] comes up with a plan to become an [[Ascended Extra]]. When he captures the heroes by sheer luck, he decides to get back to his master plan. Upon seeing the Storm Hawks' eager faces, he adds, "Which I ''won't'' discuss in front of ''you''!"