Just Between You and Me: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{quote|"''Gentlemen! Since you are about to die anyway, I may as well tell you the entire plot.''"|'''Benedict''', ''[[Last Action Hero]]''}}

 

 

Even those who plan to [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|simply shoot their enemy]] may stop by to share details of their plans first. It sometimes seems that heroes get more information out of being interrogated than their interrogators do. Thanks to the [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee]], this removes any chance the villain had at success... unless [[You Are Too Late|it already happened]].

When the villain falsely thinks it's Just Between You And Me, you have an [[Engineered Public Confession]].

 

 

[[Truth in Television]]: As any prankster knows. Though not quite so much in the case of criminal or truly despicable behaviour, as guilt and/or fear of consequence usually overshadows the sadistic joy of mischief, and certainly any urge to reveal it.

** There's also an example in the manga where Ed shows [[Genre Savvy]]. After Father reveals several of his plans, Ed comments something "since you've told us your plans, I assume you intended to kill us".

** A similar incident in the manga and Brotherhood anime, where Lust shows that her core is actually a Philosopher's Stone, and Mustang points out that the only reason she's telling them this is that she has no intention of letting them live.

* Parodied ''twice'' in ''[[Black Lagoon]]'', when two separate villains get the drop on our [[Anti-Hero|AntiHeroes]], only to spend so much time talking about how they've won that they don't get an actual shot off before Revy guns them down <s> wordlessly</s> while saying "Shut the fuck up!" ''as'' she pulls the trigger. Of course, one of them had the foresight to wear a bulletproof vest...

* ''[[One Piece]]'' often goes a bit crazy with this trope, considering the number of [[Card-Carrying Villain|Card Carrying Villains]] around.

** Lampshade Hung for laughs with broadaxe wielder Sentoumaru, who refuses to tell anything about himself saying he's the most tight-lipped person, then promptly revealing the exact information he just said he wouldn't reveal... And excusing himself that he wanted to reveal that when called out on his slip.

* The big bad delivers a monologue to the heroes in ''[[S-Cry-ed]]'' via a remote video feed that serves to keep them in place long enough for his [[Kill Sat]] to get in firing position.

* Used in ''[[Trigun]]'' by [[The Dragon|Legato Bluesummers]]. Not only does he [[Hannibal Lecture|explain his plan]], he forces it to come to fruition as well. His plan? {{spoiler|Force Vash [[Mind Rape|to kill him]].}} However Vash was given the choice to either kill Legato or let his friends die, he obviously went with the lesser of two evils since he had no choice.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' screws around with this idea. {{spoiler|Chao}} was smart enough not to gloat about the completion of her plan until [[You Are Too Late|a week after she already did it]], sending the protagonists [[Time Travel|forward in time]] to when she already won. Unfortunately for her, Negi has his own [[Time Machine]], so he and his squad decide to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]...

** Among others, Barragan, Shinji, and Shunsui have all completely described their powers to their respective opponents.

** Shunsui {{spoiler|doesn't suffer too badly from doing this.}}

** {{spoiler|[[What an Idiot!|Shinji]] is beaten by [[Boring Invincible Villain|Aizen]] [[Villain Sue|Sosuke]].}} Though to be fair, {{spoiler|Aizen figured out most of it himself}}.

** {{spoiler|Aizen}} ''loves'' this trope. He has routinely spent as many pages as he possibly could when given the opportunity to monologue about his plans, intentions, and knowledge. If you consider {{spoiler|Aizen is a Magnificent Bastard whose plans have been going on for, at least, a century, he must have been holding his gloating for one HECK of a long time. Since he has endured Gotei 13 for so much time}}, it's only fair to assume he wants payback and talk their ears out on how weak, immature or otherwise flawed they are. Not to mention his gloatings are supposed to make people enraged and throw them out of focus so they can be defeated, cue to {{spoiler|Hiyori getting cut in half by Gin.}} Case in point: during the original [[The Reveal|reveal]] at the end of the Sould Society arc, Aizen spends nearly two episodes explaining his plan, and even getting interrupted by a giant punch from Komamura can't stop him.

 

== Comics ==

{{quote| "{{spoiler|'''Veidt:''' I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I would explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it [[You Are Too Late|thirty-five minutes ago]].}}"}}

** {{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'''!!!"

* Lampshaded in [[Normalman]], as the Ultra Conservative tells Normalman "I'm going to make you listen to my insidious Master Plan!" (while unrolling a Ko-Ko style "little list".) Because it's in the contract: "On capture by the Party of the First Part, the Party of the Second Part must listen to a) [[Origin Story]] or b) Master Plan." However, before we can find out what it is, Captain Everything and Sergeant Fluffy burst in shouting "You aren't going to bore the audience to death with your insipid Master Plan!"

* In ''[[Transformers]]: Maximum Dinobots,'' Scorponok keeps Hot Rod alive for the sole purpose of giving one of these to stroke his ego. In fact, when Hot Rod tries to goad Scorponok into giving more information, Scorponok recognizes the attempt and then declares that ''[[Genre Blind|he's going to tell Hot Rod his entire plan in great detail anyway]].''

* During his second meeting with [[People Puppets|Miasma]], ''Magog'' is captured and comments on how much he hates this trope. He tunes out the villain and the text is replaced with scribbles and gibberish until he starts listening again.

* Senator Roark gives one to John Hartigan in ''[[Sin City]]''. Unlike most versions of this trope, the Senator is getting away with it and they both know it.

 

== Fan Works ==

 

 

== Film ==

* The page quote is spoken with just a sprinkling of sarcasm. It's a [[Genre Savvy]] nod to the trope, which has been lampshaded in the film twice by then as a 'Classic Movie Mistake'; the second in an [[Ironic Echo]].

** [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]] in the [[Tabletop Games|card game]] ''Before I Kill You, Mister Bond'' (which became ''James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game'' after legal threats).

*** 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.

* [[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.

{{quote| '''Syndrome:''' "You sly dog, you got me monologuing."}}

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

{{quote| "I've seen enough Bond movies to know that you never give away '''all''' your secret plans, no matter how close you are to success."}}

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

{{quote| '''Aleera:''' Anna, my love. It is your blood that shall keep me beautiful. What do you think of that?<br />

'''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! }}

{{quote| '''Kirk:''' ''No! No! Of all the -- son of a -- Couldn't you have waited two seconds? They were just about to tell us the whole thing!''<br />

'''Chekov:''' ''You want to go back?''<br />

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

** Well, gloating longer would probably have resulted in Tony's death, but then SHIELD agents would already have been at the factory waiting for him.

* Happens between Lewis and the Bowler Hat Guy in ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]'' in {{spoiler|the orphanage}}: Lewis demands "What did I ever do to you?", at which point BHG tells him the story of his long and ridiculously pathetic life, and also that {{spoiler|Lewis is Cornelius Robinson}}.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'':

** In ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', Palpatine gleefully explains his trap to Luke... But there ''isn't'' anything Luke can do and the Rebels fall into it. And not only that, Palpatine's gloating is not just for fun, he needs to get Luke angry, upset, and hating him for the Dark Side to kick in.

** In ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'', Dooku has Obi-Wan imprisoned and tells him the truth. Darth Sidious is in control of the Republic. Not only does this ''not'' backfire, it actually ''helps''. By telling the Jedi this, they start investigating Republic senators and Sidious latches on to this to create tension between the Jedi and Republic, ultimately allowing him to declare them traitors. [[Xanatos Gambit|If they did nothing, Sidious continues his plan unbothered so he wins wither way.]]

* Spoofed in ''[[Sky High]]''. {{spoiler|Gwen, after outlining her [[Evil Plan]] to turn all of the superheroes into infants and then raise them again as villains, then tells The Commander (who has been turned into an infant, and who she is cradling in her arms) that this is the best villainous speech she's ever given, and it's too bad that he can't understand a word she's saying.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Damnatus]]'' in that G'guor {{spoiler|''does'' kill Nira half way through his [[Evil Gloating]]. Not to be put off, he continues monologuing to the [[Soul Jar|spirit stone]] she was carrying.}}

* Inverted in the 1994 ''[[Street Fighter]]'' film where it's the heroes who scupper their plans by revealing it to the villains. Chun Li, Honda and Balrog have M Bison and Sagat in a tent together which they plan to blow up with a lorry loaded with dynamite. However, they leave a video behind to gloat to the villains which of course gives Bison and Sagat time to escape.

* Played straight and subverted in ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]''. The main villain Gallaxhar does decide to exposit why he essentially committed genocide against his own people and at the same time wanted to repopulate the Earth with clones of him, but he was telling her while he was hooked up to the cloning machine, which had him being sporadically muted when the machine lowers down, causing a lot of his speech to be skipped over and thus his full reasons being unknown. When the machine stops and says that he'll kill her since he told her all she needs to know, she gives a blank confused stare.

* In ''[[True Lies]]'' Harry does this while bound to a chair, and under the effect of truth serum, just as Samir prepares to inject him with him poison. So they don't take him seriously until he demonstrates his abillity to do what he promised.

 

* During the climaxes to the first 6 books, ''[[Harry Potter]]'''s main strategy was to make the villains talk, as a way to buy some time and think of a way to get the hell out. In the final book, his plan is to keep talking himself, to both try and get the big bad to step down after realising he is well and truly screwed either way, and to tell everyone why the big bad is screwed, and if he is killed they can just mass kill him.

** Dumbledore gets {{spoiler|Malfoy}} to explain how he {{spoiler|got Death Eaters into the school}} at the end of book six. He then points out how this just proves {{spoiler|Malfoy}} isn't actually going to go through with it - if he wanted Dumbledore dead, he wouldn't stop to chat.

{{quote| '''Wolfgang:''' What ''is'' it you want me to say, Your Grace? Something like "you are going to die anyway so I might as well tell you", perhaps?<br />

'''Vimes:''' Well, it'd be a help.<br />

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

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

{{quote| Last time I told them everything, giving it away like a fool, how I was going to do it, how escape was impossible. And they just listened, smirking.}}

{{quote| There's just one thing I'd like to know before I die. How did you know?<br />

Know about ''what''? }}

* ''The Berlin Memorandum'' by [[Adam Hall]]. The neo-Nazi [[Big Bad]] not only explains his master plan to British spy [[Quiller]], he is so confident in its success that he ''lets Quiller go''. Subverted however in that a) the master plan is bogus anyway, and b) it's actually a [[Nice Job Guiding Us Hero]] gambit -- the Nazis hope Quiller will contact his base in an attempt to avert the plan, thereby exposing its location to them.

** 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]]'':

{{quote| '''Orient:''' This is--this is the part of the movie where the villain tells the hero everything, because he's going to kill him anyway. Except that I can't think of any more questions.}}

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

* Spoofed in ''[[The Laundry Series|The Jennifer Morgue]]'' by [[Charles Stross]], in which the [[Big Bad]] (who's deliberately following supervillain tropes) explains his evil plan to the hero via PowerPoint! The Horror!

* [[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]].

{{quote| ''Is it indiscreet to ask how you discovered this tunnel?"''<br />

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

{{quote| '''Chuck''' (the '''good guy''' to the main villain): "I'm sorry, are you asking me to make the classic villain mistake of explaining my dastardly plot to you? You know what, I'd love to."}}

* 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.]]}}

* In Heroes, Sylar tells Alejandro that he plans on using Maya as a toy after he gets her to harness her plague power. It's justified in this case, as he is perfectly aware that Alejandro won't understand a thing he says anyways, as Alejandro does not speak nor understand English.

 

'''Nebulous:''' To... satisfy my curiosity?<br />

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

{{quote| '''Mr Gently Benevolent''': I'm not falling for that old "You ask me, I tell you, you foil my plan" trick again.<br />

'''Pip Bin''': Just give me a hint?<br />

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* In the ''Marvel Super-Heroes'' RPG, the section on villains actually outlines this in game terms: villains get a karma bonus for telling the heroes their plans.

* In ''[[Exalted]]'', an [[Dark Messiah|Infernal Exalt]] who has offended his or her demonic masters can atone by behaving like a [[Card-Carrying Villain]]. One method is called "Infernal Genius Declaration," and involves showing off to a captured and helpless enemy by delivering a monologue describing his or her evil plan in great detail. The Infernal will receive this atonement, incidentally, whether this monologue leads to their plans being thwarted or not.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Portal 2

** A very similar moment occurs in ''[[Advance Wars]]: Dual Strike'' (which was made by Intelligent Systems, the same people who made ''Thousand Year Door''). When questioned about Black Hole's recovery, [[Teen Genius]] Lash responds: "Duh! Like I'd tell you that!"

** One of the Big Bad's hirelings even muses, "No doubt he feels a villain is always undone in the exposition. [[Genre Savvy|I cannot say I blame him.]] I have many a dead friend that boasted when silence would have served."

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series

** Subverted in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', where the heroes, while sneaking through the Magitek Factory, overhear Kefka rambling about his desire to awaken the Warring Triad statues, but Kefka still seems to succeed in that plan, even though the heroes overheard him.

*** The book In the Darkness of Shadow Moses implies that the above part about Liquid was actually a subversion, as they were actually fully aware that they were being listened in on, but deliberately continued talking about their "plans" in order to keep the mission control fooled.

** In Portable Ops, Lt. Cunningham, after Snake boarded the elevator, explained that he was actually working for the Department of Defense and not for either Gene or for the CIA, and explained that the DOD planned on having Gene launch a nuke at the Soviet Union in order to tarnish the CIA's reputation as an efficient intelligence group, and later nuke the San Hieronymo Peninsula to eliminate any involvement from America, even using a Soviet-made Davy Crockett just for good measure, and exposits the fact that Snake was also being used by the DOD. Justified in that he did actually think Snake would side with Cunningham (hence why he told him), which Snake proved him wrong by attacking him.

*** Ocelot's loyalty was actually subverted in the first game's [[The Stinger|post-credits dialogue]], when it's revealed he was reporting to {{spoiler|the President of the United States}}.

* ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' had a particularly bad example. Saddler's plan revolves around kidnapping The [[Presidents Daughter]], infecting her with the Virus, having her rescued, and then have her take control of the United States from within. And he goes and tells her rescuer the entire plan as she's being rescued. Smart move, villain.

** [[Let's Play|The Dark Id]] had a field day with that one.

* At the end of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] III: Tribunal'', {{spoiler|the [[Physical God]] Almalexia explains to the [[Player Character]] how she convinced him/her that another god, Sotha Sil had gone insane and tried to attack the capital city of Mournhold, while it was all in fact orchestrated by her so that she could kill the other two gods of the Tribunal, turn the player into an unwilling martyr, and rule as the sole remaining god herself.}}

** {{spoiler|Her}} reasons for doing so seems to be twofold: one, {{spoiler|she used to be the possibly loyal, possibly not wife of Nerevar, and is convinced you are his reincarnation}}, and two, {{spoiler|her grip on reality is not the best anymore}}.

 

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* 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.

{{quote| '''Helen:''' There is no one on the side of Evil this tactic doesn't work on.}}

{{quote| '''Nale:''' Whew, OK. Hopefully that got my natural urge to digress into a complete explanation of my evil plan out of my system. I don't want to go all "Bond villain" and forget to finish the job.}}

** [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.

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Tsuriko:'''}} That... that doesn't help Xykon at all.<br />

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

* 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.

== Web Original ==

* Item #7 on the [[Evil Overlord List]] advises to act as a [[No-Nonsense Nemesis]] and [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him|simply shoot]] one's adversary when in position to do so, rather than take unnecessary risks.

** Not to mention that Captain Hammer gloated to Horrible an act earlier that he was going to sleep with Penny just to piss Horrible off.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jao77MSC1ck This] review of [[Genetos]] ends with a subversion, or rather, [[The Reveal|reveals]] that the entire review was a subversion. One review actually reviews the game while the other [[Cloudcuckoolander|spouts nonsense]] the entire time, at the end it's discovered that his nonsense dialogue was being scrambled, and that actually he was revealing a master plan.

* ''[[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:

{{quote| '''Starscream:''' ''You interrupted my '''SPEECH'''!''}}

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

* Dr. Zin to Dr. Quest in ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' TOS episodes "The Robot Spy" and "The Fraudulent Volcano". Justified in the former when Dr. Zin notes that he thinks showing off his robot does no harm considering that his enemies will not be able to stop it leaving. When the Robot makes a break for it, Quest, Race Bannon and staff of the military base learn that their enemy wasn't bluffing as they are stymied for a way to bring the machine down.

* Constantly parodied [[Subverted Trope]], [[Inverted Trope]] and [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] [[Once an Episode]] in ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' when Perry the Platypus is captured by Dr. Doofenshmirtz in his lair. Sometimes Perry and Dr. Doofenshmirtz act as good friends, though Perry never fails to thwart the villain anyway. The whole [[Evil Gloating]] thing seems to be part of the Secret Agent/Evil Scientist contract. Doofensmirtz even says that since Perry's his nemesis, he has to tell him everything. Sometimes with visual presentations, pop-up books or musical numbers [[Summon Backup Dancers|complete with backing dancers]].

{{quote| '''Chairface Chippendale:''' Ah, [[This Is the Part Where|this must be the part where]] I reveal my sinister plot!}}

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