Talking the Monster to Death: Difference between revisions

[[File:hug.png|link=Earthbound|frame|Suddenly, the good feeling went away...]]

 

 

 

The hero has cornered the vicious monster. It's taken out everyone who has confronted it thus far, and the hero seems like no exception.

This is, in a way, using the [[Kirk Summation]] as a weapon. Compare [[Break Them by Talking]], [[Verbal Judo]], [[Contemplate Our Navels]] and the [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]]. When doing this, the hero might ask [[And Then What?]] will the villain do if he wins. Related to [[Shaming the Mob]]. For a different sort of talking someone to death, see [[Logic Bomb]] and [[Brown Note]]. For an alternative to death, see [[Talking Your Way Out]]. See also [[I'm Not Afraid of You]] for times a monster is ''disbelieved'' to death. See [[Holding the Floor]] for when our hero talks to the monster long enough for [[The Cavalry]] to arrive.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Usagi talks down Black Lady, who reverts to ChibiUsa in ''[[Sailor Moon]] R''. Then she does it again with Nehellenia, and finally Galaxia in ''Stars''. The anime also had her talking down lesser villains on a pretty regular basis.

* ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'''s [[Mind Rape]]-powered [[Big Bad]] is [[Nigh Invulnerable]] (without the "nigh") and has been kicking our heroes' butts and spreading a sinister black cloud over the world that ''can't'' be good. The ultimate battle to save two worlds ensues... no, wait, it doesn't. Instead, the heroes get the kids whose fear he's using to think about their [[Care Bear Stare|hopes and dreams]], resulting in one of the most humiliating villain deaths ever: Various parts of his body disappear as kids say "I want to be a teacher!" "I want to be an artist!" etc. until nothing remains. Then Malo gets blasted and well whining saves the day. The villain in question, Malo Myotismon, got nicknamed [[Memetic Mutation|"Marsh Malo Myotismon"]] on numerous boards for this.

** The part that made this painful was that the future aspirations of the character seemingly had ''nothing'' to do with what had come before in the series. The guy who's currently in a wildly popular (for a) garage band? Yeah, he wants to be an ''astronaut''.

** And the thing is, in the previous season, he actually managed to suffer a semi-respectable villain death; surviving some attacks that would one-hit kill later villains.

* Played with in ''[[The Slayers|Slayers]]'': Since mazoku feed on negative emotions, [[Love Freak|Amelia]]'s justice speeches tend to leave Xellos feeling rather queasy.

** Played straight {{spoiler|with Naruto's own dark side. Justified, though because it was during a [[Journey to the Center of the Mind]], and [[Futurama|perfectly symmetrical violence]] had proven to be pointless.}}

* In ''[[Infinite Ryvius]]'', {{spoiler|the ''Grey Geshpenst'' completely outpowers the ''Ryvius'' and is only stopped when a badly-battered Neya begs Captain Viscuess to stop, and he realizes he can't go through with murdering 500 children.}} Combined with the events occurring on the Lift Ship at the same time, this is part of an [[Aesop]] that words can solve problems that violence can't.

* Played with in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''; after Kotaro [[Defeat Means Friendship|joins Negi's side]], he starts and keeps bothering Negi about the proper way to fight (fighting for the sake of fighting), prompting [[Emotionless Girl|Y]][[The Philosopher|u]][[The Stoic|e]] to flatten him with a speech.

* Mr. Satan (Hercule in the dub) does this to Majin Buu in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. Unfortunately two hunters cause Buu to transform into a more evil form.

** In general, this is usually Nanoha's first course of action when faced with a new villain. They never listen: cue [[Beam Spam]], [[Out of the Inferno]], etc.

* Subverted in ''[[Souten Kouro]]''. Cao Cao has a whole debate with Li Lie and defeats him with rhetoric... which buys Xu Chu enough time to come and blow his brains out.

* Subverted in ''[[Paranoia Agent]]'': {{spoiler|Mrs. Ikari sits Li'l Slugger down, discusses her life up to this point, and proceeds to divine his true nature and weaknesses... but unfortunately, she's not the one who has to come to terms with him. All her speech does is freak him out and start the destruction of Tokyo.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

'''Swift:''' And this is how we'll deal with you. }}

** Done again with one of the Doc's soldiers, Tank Man. Midnighter realized his adversary had a similar origin story to him and talked him into giving up and going away. They exchanged letters afterwards.

** Prometheus from the Justice League comic also practices this skill. Backed up by technological gimcrackery.

* ''[[Wild CATS]]'' fought TAO, who had a whole range of mysterious powers. Anyone simply talking to him risked going catatonic.

* ''[[Fables]]''. Playing off '1001 Arabian Nights', Snow White manages to talk her way out of a murder-happy rape-marriage with tales of her friends.

* ''Angel'', the canonical comics. Angel tries {{spoiler|telepathic spams of Happy Fred Memories to calm down Illyria, who had become depressed over trying to be like Fred and was squashing people. Doesn't quite work and things get much worse}}.

* In ''The Thessaliad'', Thessaly talks her way past a Sphinx and an axe-murderer, distracting the former long enough to escape on a train and distracting the latter long enough to cast a shrinking spell on him and then cleave his head in two.

* In ''[[Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers]]'', it's [[Played for Laughs]] when Kup tells a story about how Prowl once spent two and a half straight days lecturing to a captured Decepticon every single chapter and verse of the Tyrest Accord that the 'Con had violated, until the 'Con finally committed suicide out of sheer intolerable boredom.

 

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' was originally supposed to end like this, but the speech was thrown out in favor of a giant battle. Nobody complained, except the guys that made the giant talking cockroach puppet that never got used.

* In the 2004 ''[[Peter Pan]]'' film, Captain Hook {{spoiler|gains the ability to fly using Tinker Bell's pixie dust. Since it operates on happy thoughts, the Lost Boys manage to cause him to sink by convincing him that he is old and alone.}}

** Kirk's actually pretty good at doing this to evil computers: it happened four times. In one instance, though, it almost comes back to bite him: deciding it should die, the computer that's taken over the Enterprise shuts down the ship's defenses to allow the fleet to kill it. Fortunately, the commander of the fleet decided to investigate its apparent surrender instead of coming in phasers blazing.

* The animated movie ''[[Flight of Dragons]]'' ends its epic fantasy quest with {{spoiler|an ''epic debate'' between twentieth-century writer Peter and evil wizard Omadon. Just when it seems like all is lost and nobody's left to oppose Omadon, Peter discovers he can cancel magic by contemplating the logical rules it breaks. As Omadon boasts, threatens, and finally attacks, Peter counters by explaining in detail how Omadon's magic is literally impossible... rendering Omadon helpless and in agony, and eventually withering away into nothingness. In denying magic, however, Peter ends up banishing himself back to the twentieth century.}} It's [[Better Than It Sounds/Western Animation|better than it sounds.]]

* Subverted in ''[[The Muppet Movie]].'' Kermit the Frog tries to do this to Doc Hopper, appealing to Doc's better nature, but it turns out Doc doesn't have one.

* Subject of a throw-away joke in the ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]''-knockoff ''[[Alligator]]'', when the heroes are brainstorming a way to kill the eponymous reptile:

{{quote|"We could introduce him to my mother. She could talk him to death."}}

 

 

== Game Books ==

* The ''[[Marvel Super Heroes]]'' CYOA ''Spider-Man: City In Darkness'' featured a rather [[Anvilicious]] version. Doctor Octopus has embarked on a scheme that will destroy New York. If you (as [[Spider-Man]]) try to actually fight Ock, he goes down in less than a paragraph, only for his psychiatrist to chew you out over saving millions of lives. The ''proper'' solution is to simply tell one of web-head's greatest enemies that he's hurting people; he immediately stops his evil schemes and breaks down crying.

 

== Literature ==

{{quote|'''Stephenie Meyer:''' [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character|Alice]] tore a page from ''[[Shakespeare|The Merchant of Venice]]'' because the end of ''Breaking Dawn'' was going to be somewhat similar: bloodshed appears inevitable, doom approaches, and then the power is reversed and the game is won by some clever verbal strategies; no blood is shed, and the romantic pairings all have a happily ever after.}}

* Any ''[[Discworld]]'' book aimed at younger readers (marked "A Tale of Discworld") will likely end like this. ''A Hat Full of Sky'' contains a particularly notable example, as Tiffany ''literally'' talks the Hiver through to the death it wants.

** Let's not forget pig boring. Doesn't really count since pigs aren't monsters, but literally talking it to death has to be mentioned.

* In Robert Lynn Asprin's ''[[Myth Adventures|Myth-Ing Persons]]'', Aahz is being held in a prison which is a magically-animated monster-head. Skeeve frees him by prompting him to tell a string of his old drinking stories, which are so infamously boring the prison-head yawns, allowing Aahz to jump to freedom.

** Similarly, the robots of [[Isaac Asimov]] can be coerced into shutting down, the method of which depends on how advanced they are. The early robots in 'I, Robot' could be shut down simply by giving them a decision whose end results, including those caused by inaction, would result in some sort of harm to humans(mental included), a violation of the first law of robotics. Later robots were programmed to choose the lesser harm and could avoid destruction this way, though a sufficiently advanced roboticist could still cause their destruction through a very deliberate and specific conversation. Lastly, (most) robots of all time periods could theoretically be ordered directly to destroy themselves, as the 2nd law, which dictates that robots must obey the commands of humans, supersedes the 3rd, which dictates that robots must enforce self-preservation. However, the robot would need to understand the reasons for its destruction as the difference between the two laws is not terribly considerable.

** The best example is "Liar!". US Robots accidentally makes a robot that can read minds, and no one knows how they did it. The three main characters (Susan Calvin, Pete Bogert and Alfred Lanning) are amazed by this. Susan Calvin gets told that a man she likes also likes her back, and Pete Bogert gets told that Alfred Lanning has resigned and left his position for Pete. However, soon they discover it was a lie (the man Susan liked is going to marry to other woman he had brought to work a few days before, and Lanning hasn't resigned), and Susan makes the connection: the robot is still bound by the Three Laws, and thus it lied to them so that it didn't hurt them. Susan confronts the robot and provokes a [[Logic Bomb]] to it, making it realise that both doing something and not doing something will hurt some people.

* Eddie literally does this to Blaine the Mono in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Dark Tower|Wizard And Glass]]''.

** More accurately, Eddie kills Blaine with an unstoppable barrage of really bad jokes. And it is awesome.

** Well, Harry ''tries'' to talk Voldemort into not throwing the curse and repenting his crimes. Instead, Voldemort refuses to listen and casts the Killing Curse at Harry {{spoiler|not knowing that Harry had become the master of the Elder Wand, which caused said curse to backfire and kill Voldemort instead.}}

* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Anansi Boys]]'', the protagonist scares a dragon away by the nothing he is carrying in his pocket. The dragon happens to be afraid of nothing. Absolutely terrified, in fact.

* In the novel ''Far Away From Us''' by Michael Uspensky. King Solomon convinces some brigands that "life is futile and is full of sorrows and is pointless to carry on", whereupon they (the brigands, that is) wholeheartedly agree and stab each other. The Hero then inquires if the trick could be repeated with a whole army. The king is uncertain.

* In ''[[Narnia|The Silver Chair]]'', Puddleglum manages to break the Green Witch's spell by a combination of burnt-marshwiggle odor and this trope. Ironically, he does so by ''conceding to everything she's said'' in her own [[Hannibal Lecture]], then declaring that even so, he'd rather go on living ''as if'' her accusations are baseless than embrace her overly-bleak perspective.

 

* [[Doctor Who|The Doctor]] would, in a perfect world, talk all his enemies down to a negotiation table and hammer out a ceasefire and trade agreement over tea and cookies. But if that fails, he has this.

** The [[Actual Pacifist]] Seventh Doctor especially made use of this, notably talking down a Black Dalek this way in "Remembrance of the Daleks"; bear in mind that he has already taken out Skaro and the whole Dalek fleet- he went after the survivor for ''completeness' sake.'''

** It is a little more complicated than that, but not by much.

** Another ''[[Babylon 5]]'' example—during the civil war between Sheridan's forces and Earth Force ships loyal to President Clark, Sheridan convinces one of the enemy ship captains that Clark's orders are illegal and that he should therefore disobey them. That decision is briefly reversed when the other ship's first officer takes over, and then re-reversed when the ship's crew takes the first officer into custody.

** In the first season, Sinclair talked one [[Monster of the Week]] into committing suicide (more or less).

* In one episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', the [[Monster of the Week]], a [[Card-Carrying Villain]], has Troi trapped behind an impenetrable force field. Picard {{spoiler|gives a speech about how the monster isn't actually evil. This upsets the monster enough that its concentration on maintaining its force field weakens to the point where the Enterprise's [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleporter]] can rescue Troi.}}

* Xander Harris saves the world from Season Six's Big Bad on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' this way. Said Big Bad was {{spoiler|Willow, with whom Xander had been friends since childhood and who had simply gone off the deep end [[Break the Cutie|after Tara died. All he did was explain to her in words of one syllable that she was his best friend forever and he'd always love her no matter what she did to him or the world. It worked]].}}

{{quote|'''Xander:''' I saved the world with talking from my mouth. My ''mouth'' saved the world.}}

* [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Hilariously played with]] in ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]''. One [[Monster of the Week]] resisted ''any'' single try to have him interrogated by the [[Five-Man Band]]... until [[The Smart Guy]] tries his luck on it. Said [[Smart Guy]] is a major [[Cloudcuckoolander]] ''and'' a telepath who channels everyone's thoughts. In few minutes, the monster is ''begging'' to have the guy off him otherwise he'll end up braindead.

** Not as sinister as it sounds. His ''rambling'' drove the bad guy up the wall to the point that he cracked, whereas both threats for if he didn't talk ''and'' promises of leniency if he did had failed before.

* In Day 3 of ''[[24]]'', Sherry Palmer does this to a wealthy billionaire who's trying to blackmail David Palmer. {{spoiler|The man is old and frail and upset about his wife's infidelity, and Sherry rips into him with an absolutely brutal monologue - so brutal the guy ''goes into a heart attack.'' She then holds his medicine out of reach while he dies.}} Evil? Yes. Contender for a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|CMoA]]? Hell, yes.

* On Madeline Kahn's appearance on ''[[The Muppet Show]]'', she appears in a skit where she is in a park marvelling at how beautiful everything is. Along comes a monster who starts destroying each beautiful thing she mentions. Then she turns to the monster and starts talking about how beautiful it is in its awfulness. The monster starts shrinking from embarrassment until it is small enough for Madeline to hit it away with her umbrella. "Sometimes it helps to talk your problems down to size."

* In ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' Myka does this with H.G Wells when H.G is trying to destroy the world. In the end Myka makes H.G put a gun to her head telling H.G to shoot her then since everyone was going to die anyway then H.G should just shoot her making H.G realise she can't kill Myka and has a breakdown.

 

== Mythology ==

* Mercifully free of any heroic platitudes, Roman writer [[Ovid]] brings his version of the [[Greek Mythology]] of Argos, a hundred-eyed and eternally vigilant watchman. The trickster god Hermes defeated Argos by telling him a series of long, sad, and boring stories until every last one of his hundred eyes shut and fell asleep—and then cutting his head off.

* Similarly, Oedipus talked the Sphinx into suicide simply by solving its infamous riddle.

** Wouldn't that be an inversion? Talking Yourself To Life?

* Subverted in a Japanese folktale: a monk meets in a ruin a wicked, cannibalistic hag who's crying because she can't reach Nirvana (being a cannibalistic hag and all). The monk tries to talk to her and make her repent her sins, but the old witch changes her mind and [[Downer Ending|devours the poor guy]].

 

== New Media ==

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Most [[RPG]]s that have a skill system (read: most RPGs) will usually have some sort of "diplomacy" skill. Judicious use of these skills can often allow victory with very few die rolls and even less conflict.

* There are several ways you can do this in ''[[Exalted]]'', to the point that most Social charms are built around this trope. A few of them even references the story of Zhuge Liang (see [[Real Life]] examples).

 

== Video Games ==

** Not quite. What happens is that you meet a group of Devils talking amongst themselves. The leader asks you if you know what he is. Depending on your character's intelligence and/or Knowledge (Arcane) skill, you can say "some kind of monster," give him a short description of what he is (basically what it says in the Monster Manual), or give him a several hours long speech about exactly what kind of Devil he is, what his role is in the 9 Hells, how he came to be promoted to his current station, and what he must do in order to be promoted to the next form of Devil. Doing the last impresses him so much ([[Memetic Mutation|Devils, of course, love details]]) that he gathers up his underlings and departs without a fight.

** You can also unnerve a Barghest and its brood (provided you didn't kill him earlier) from a fight by showing him the dead kitty you've been carrying around for no reason since the beginning of the game. If you also happen to be carrying a dead man and a dead woman (and have enough ranks in Intimidate), the Barghest will run off in fear because someone as deranged as you ''clearly'' isn't to be messed with.

'''Yquog:''' AAAAAAHHHHHH!!! }}

* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' allows the player to literally talk some NPCs to death, including the final boss, and avoid many other enemies or dangerous situations merely by virtue of having a high enough Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma. This is largely because its world is [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|shaped by belief]].

* In the first ''[[Fallout]]'' game (from the makers of the Planescape game above), the final boss could be beaten like this. If you can convince him that his plans are utterly futile, he'll initiate his base's [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]] and let you run to escape.

** The final boss of ''Fallout 2'' could not be directly talked to death, as no matter what you say he dismisses all your claims and will eventually attack. However, you ''can'' talk to his bodyguards and ask them to side with you against them, and you can also reprogram the automated turrets in his chamber to attack him.

** Fallout 3 again, in the add-on Operation Anchorage, the last boss in the simulation kills himself if you pass the speech challenge.

** [[Fallout: New Vegas]] lets you convince Legate Lanius to pull back his army and retreat....if you have a Speech skill of ''100''.

* ''[[Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' also from the ''Fallout'' designers, allows the player to have a philosophical debate with the [[Big Bad]]. The player can convince the villain to give up and let himself be killed peacefully.

* A variation occurs in the ''Hordes of the Underdark'' expansion for ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]''. If you managed to get Mephisto's [[I Know Your True Name|true name]] right before the final battle with him at the end of the game, you can use it to stop the fight before it even begins. This only works if you have his name, and with it you can do different things based on your [[Character Alignment]] and conversation options you choose, such as: order him to drop dead, order him to return to Hell, or even order him to give you command of Hell and become your either you partner or lackey. Your choices have major effects on the epilogue.

** Should have been a [[Lawful Evil|devil]] then, as demons are [[Chaotic Evil]].

* In ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'', the only way to defeat {{spoiler|Darth Sion}} is to talk to him in the breaks between combat. Eventually, you succeed in weakening his will to live, at which point he accepts death peacefully.

{{quote|'''Exile''': {{spoiler|Sion}}...your life...was it worth living?

{{spoiler|'''Darth Sion'''}}: It was not. No matter how many Jedi I killed...no matter how many lay broken at my feet...the pain would not end. I am glad to be rid of this place. }}

* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', you can talk your way out of a few fights using the Charm and Intimidate skills. You can even convince the [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Saren [[Heel Realization|that siding with]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Sovereign]] will save nobody. {{spoiler|Though being convinced that Sovereign can regain control over his mind and body at any time, he pulls out his gun and shots himself in the head.}}

* Inverted in one chapter of ''[[Disgaea]]'', where the ''monsters'', knowing that [[Noble Demon|Laharl]] is [[Allergic to Love]], bombard him with happy and cheerful sayings, sapping his powers for the duration of that battle.

* The Mediator class in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' has the "Death Sentence" skill, which kills its target in three turns if successful.

** There is also the much milder skill "Mimic Darlavon" ("Daravon" in the previous localization,) which simply puts the enemy to sleep by droning on and on and on, like the tutorial-dispensing Professor.

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' has a Clan Trial where you need to chase off some monsters. Not with spells and swords, but picking the right interaction (stare down, threaten etc)..

** In fact, this is the main form of party recruitment in nearly all main series [[Mega Ten]] Games (The MMO Included), and it makes an appearance in the early Persona Games as well. Only recently has it been replaced with alternative methods of obtaining Demons and Personae.

** It doesn't work on bosses, though. In ''[[Persona]]'', you're told "They have no interest in discussion." More amusingly, ''[[Shin Megami Tensei I]]'' tells you "No time for talk, they're out for blood!"

*** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne|Nocturne]]'' had Jive Talk which allowed you to converse with certain demons that you normally couldn't.

*** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey|Strange Journey]]'' had Lunatic which allowed you to talk to Demons during the Full Moon. Their behavior is far different though (Much easier to enrage or recruit)

** Also played straight in one area where you can hurt the monsters by reading a dictionary to them.

* Because many creations instinctively obey anyone who can control essence, a PC in the ''[[Geneforge]]'' series with high leadership has the option to convince some creations to commit suicide.

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'' has the Rune-Keeper class. Because of the lore's restrictions on who gets full-on, fireball-tossing magic (namely, 5 angels and an Elf or two), many of the Rune-Keeper's skills are strings of words that just happen to do fire, frost, and lightning damage, with names like "Chilling Rhetoric" and "Fiery Ridicule." Although this sort of band-aid intended to make the class more acceptable to avid defenders of the lore, one wonders exactly what one has to say to kill a troll.

** [[Incredibly Lame Pun|"You're Banned" usually stops a troll in their tracks.]]

** ''[[MOTHER 1|Earthbound Zero/Mother]]'': In the final battle, Giygas cannot be physically harmed. In order to beat him, Ninten and his party must sing the lullaby once sung by Giygas' [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas|human mother]]. Unable to cope with his emotion, Giygas flees the planet.

** ''[[Mother 3]]'': Heartbreakingly subverted. The final boss of the game is {{spoiler|The Masked Man - formerly Lucas's brother, Claus. Lucas cannot bring himself to hurt his own brother, so he must guard and heal himself until his mother's voice tells them to stop fighting. Claus, no longer [[Brainwashed and Crazy]], commits suicide to stop Pokey's influence over him, and [[Tear Jerker|dies in his brother's arms.]]}}

** In the sequel, you eventually meet an Observer (a non-evil Beholder) who is magically bound to guard a box containing an item you need. The most obvious solution is to kill him, but with a high enough Wisdom you can point out to him that {{spoiler|the wizard bound him to guard the box, not the ''contents'' of the box. . .}}

* In ''Flight of the Amazon Queen'', you encounter a gorilla blocking your way; you can get rid of it by telling it that it doesn't exist. (And even if it existed, it has no business being in South America when gorillas only live in Africa.)

* Possible in a roundabout manner in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis]]'': {{spoiler|by exploiting Ubermann's lust for power so that he uses the ascension machine on himself}}.

* ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours]]''. Inverted. Become sufficiently awesome (Balls points) and you can talk women into joining your harem. Health benefits (resistance to damage, etc.) later follow.

* ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'' has a lot of situations where talking to the right people beforehand can make certain fights much easier (for instance, being friends with [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath|Steven Heck]] can make [[Disco Dan|Brayko]] a lot easier to fight), but the only boss fight you can outright talk your way out of is {{spoiler|the rematch with Conrad Marburg if you didn't kill him in Rome}}, which requires high reputation {{spoiler|or the piece of evidence that proves Parker was the one who cut him loose during his Deus Vult days.}}

* In ''[[Dragon Age]]'', wandering through Denerim's market may lead you to being confronted by a royal knight who fully believes {{spoiler|Loghain's lies that the Grey Wardens murdered the king (It was really Loghain leaving him to die)}} and demands that you face him in honorable combat. With a good persuasion skill, you can make him question why {{spoiler|the Wardens would want the king dead}}, and, unable to think of an answer, he agrees to back off.

* The final showdown with Tolwyn in ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] IV'' is this. You need to [[Engineered Public Confession|make the dialog choices to get Tolwyn to trip up and reveal all his dirty deeds]], so the Great Assembly will vote against his call for war, and he will hang himself in his cell during the final cutscenes.

 

** Astos? Mo' like yo' ass ''is'' toast!

** As [[Puff of Logic]] illustrates, Red Mage once defeated a T-Rex by telling him he couldn't exist.

'''Vaarsuvius:''' But ... I did not cast my spell yet ... }}

* One of Rumisiel's many [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moments of Awesome]] in ''[[Misfile]]'' is his [http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=337 talking down of vengance seeking ghost Angelica] moments after she just fried his (ostensibly) stronger brother.

* ''[[Chasing the Sunset]]'': [http://www.fantasycomic.com/index.php?p=c555 Nobody] keeps a dragon as a pet or prisoner.

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Bob does this very well, to the point that it can probably be considered his most effective weapon. It's how he stopped [[Big Bad|Fructose Riboflavin]] once, the [[Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti|Bigfoot Army,]] and [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Galatea.]] Though the second time he tried it in Riboflavin, it [[Berserk Button|backfired.]]

** Later it's revealed in a [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking]] (mini)arc that {{spoiler|his father got banished by his mother}} with the [http://asherhyder.deviantart.com/art/Roommates-133-Forsaken-184751515 very SAME monologue] and appearently it [http://asherhyder.deviantart.com/art/Roommates-22-Girls-Rock-71158866 also works] on [[The Lord of the Rings|Ringwraiths]].

* ''[[Vexxarr]]'' once he <s>was deranged enough</s> got the hang of it, managed to [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=010311 disable three crewmates in three pages] by talking to them.

* In ''[[Digger]]''. this is Boneclaw Mother's weapon of choice. {{spoiler|Eventually used to stop Jhalm. "Don't worry about him. We had a little chat and he decided to leave."}}

* In ''[[Captain SNES]]'', Frog, Palom and Porom defeated the Eater of Dreams during a conversation. He was giving his big speech about how the heroes have no chance and the heroes were saying how much of a cheating bastard he was or how he could not win, but the EOD ends up dying because he wasn't paying attention to his HP and ran out of hit points due to a previously cast Virus spell.

** Later, [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-04-26 Melissa tries this on the Taurcanis Draco] in the same style as ''The Flight of Dragons'' example above. It fails but she distracts it from causing trouble until [[Big Damn Heroes|more capable reinforcements arrive]].

** [[Mr. Exposition|Mr. Verres]], as the new [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-01-19 Head of Paranormal Diplomacy], had a meeting with some sort of half-a-ton troll ("[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2012-01-10 business stuff]") and somehow convinced him to apply elsewhere with that rampaging "deathless army of rage". He's just that good.

 

== Web Original ==

* Spoofed in ''[[The Salvation War]]''. A Russian politician makes a defeated demon ''beg to be killed'' by reciting some speeches of Russia's then-president Vladimir Putin to it.

* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]], in the climax of the 2011 "Entity" Arc, talks the Entity into killing itself by using an [[And Then What?|Omnicidal]] [[Logic Bomb]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* One episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' had Blossom and Buttercup arguing over whether to use tactics or brute force against a monster. Bubbles solves the problem by simply asking the monster to leave town, pretty please with sugar on top.

** On the other hand, Blossom and Buttercup keep trying to prove that their way works, even when it's obvious that they don't. This actually might explain why the monster finally left when Bubbles asked - when the argument leads to Blossom and Buttercup making one final attempt to prove that their way is the right one, [[media:annoyedmonster.jpg|the monster is]] annoyed that the girls are '''''still''''' trying to beat him, and was probably glad for the excuse to go.

{{quote|'''Marge''': Living with mutants... yeah, right.

'''Homer''': That's my wife! [[I Am Legend|Now, who wants a Ferrari?]] }}

{{quote|'''Lisa''': It chose to destroy itself rather than live with us. You can't help but feel a little rejected.}}

* In The ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'' episode "Daimar the Demon," the title character believes he is predestined to destroy Eternia. He-Man makes the giant monster realize that he has free will and doesn't have to be evil, and so Daimar chooses not to hurt anyone after all.

{{quote|'''Dib''': I've got some stuff to say to you Zim. (Fade out and fade back in hours later.) And that's all I have to say about that.

'''Zim''': Well, Dib, Your words have moved me. I'm done with evil. Gir, it's been a pleasure working with you, now self destruct.

'''Gir''': Finally! ([[Your Head Asplode|His head then explodes]].) }}

** {{spoiler|She does this again in "Stare Master" against a cockatrice ''as she's being turned to stone''.}}

** Rarity also had a moment in "A Dog and Pony Show", in which she freed herself from being abducted and pressed into hard labor by the jewel-hoarding Diamond Dogs by [[Pity the Kidnapper|driving them insane with her incessant whining and complaining.]]

* In the ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' episode "Patriot Act" a bunch of second-string [[Badass Normal]] heroes go up against a rogue general who shot himself up with [[Super Serum]] to prove that superheroes/metahumans are a threat to normal people. When the heroes go down, the civilian population intervenes, informing the general that ''he's'' the only one in the battle who actually has super powers. "All right, I've become what I hate, I'll give you that," the villain says, putting down the car he was about to throw, and departs.

** In "Flash and Substance," the Flash sits down at a bar with the Trickster, chides him for not taking his medication, and persuades him to both give away the other rogues and turn himself in by promising to play (soft) darts with him in the hospital.

{{quote|[[Internet Personality Vangelus|Transtech Shockwave]]: And don't even think about deactivating yourselves. You don't want to see the paperwork for ''that''.}}

* Terry gives an excellent example in ''[[Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker]]''. While Bruce much preferred to ignore the Joker's insane ramblings and [[The Stoic|stay silent]], Terry has no difficulty pushing Joker's buttons in a [[Ironic Echo|complete reversal]] of Joker's speech with the original Batman. Who knew laughing at the Joker would be his [[Berserk Button]]?

* In an old animated short on ''[[Sesame Street]]'', the Western town of Sniddlers Gulch is terrorized by Cowboy X, a huge bruiser who rides around town using an ink stamp to mark random things with a letter X. One small boy finally tries asking Cowboy X not to do that. Cowboy X actually agrees to stop. In a subversion, he immediately changes his name to Cowboy O, and rides around town stamping things with the letter O. In a double subversion, the people of Sniddlers Gulch are satisfied with this.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Psychological Combat]]

[[Category:Drama Tropes]]

[[Category:Speeches and Monologues]]