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Megatron: Oh well, come on, let's have it! The usual "destiny and honor" speech! —Beast Wars, "Nemesis, Part 2"
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So you're finally facing the villain. He's being all smug and trying to break you with his words, deconstructing your motives for fighting him and reminding you of how similar you are to him, making you uncomfortable with his too-close-to-truths, offering you the opportunity to join him, etcetera etcetera... and what should your response be? Tell him the error of his ways, and offer him a chance to join the good guys? A measured, reasonable response, indicating your disagreement? Let the villainous argument throw you and make you wonder if you and him are Not So Different?
No.
Shut up, Hannibal.
He's a villain. A bad guy. He has tried to kill you and your friends a dozen times over. He dangled your Sidekick and your Love Interest over a cliff, taunting you to pick one of them. He treats other people, including his own underlings, like dirt. He doesn't care about people, order, or whatever he's using to justify his actions — he just wants power. And he ran over your daughter's puppy. You're nothing like him. He's wrong. So you tell it to him, spell it out if necessary, then beat the crap out of him in a manner most righteous.
This happens a lot. Heroes usually use the 'fist to face' variant of this, though a hero giving a villain a verbal beatdown is not unheard of. Often done by the more practical Anti-Hero, who doesn't really care about philosophy, and just prefers to beat up anyone who has messed with the them or their stuff.
More heroes will often at least listen before coming up with a counterargument. When that fails due to the fact that the villain has rationalized their villainy with something truly depraved, the hero will often call the bad guy insane before delivering the smackdown.
Doing this to another villain is even dumber, as they're likely to either not be big on listening, or have an outright conflicting ideology. But it still happens every now and then.
Sometimes, The Hero needs to be told "You Are Not Alone" to come up with this reply.
Combining it with the World of Cardboard Speech will just make it that much more badass.
Conversely, when the hero is on the ropes, he may interrupt the villain by saying Get It Over With. It tends to shock the villain that anyone would prefer death to listening to him.
As these occur at the conclusion of most stories, feel free to use spoiler marks if you think it gives away too much.
The name is a reference to this being a response to a Hannibal Lecture, but it would be more accurate to refer to the trope Break Them by Talking, since Hannibal Lecture only concerns certain interrogation scenes.
Compare Book'Em Danno, Shut Up, Kirk, You Keep Telling Yourself That, Verb This, and whichever variations of I Will Show You X are said specifically to a villain. For the more... forceful version, see Talk to the Fist.
Inverse of Kirk Summation, where the hero delivers a devastating rhetorical rebuttal to the villain's Motive Rant.
Anime & Manga[]
- Neji gets two of these after his rants about fate and destiny. One from Hinata, and another from Naruto.
- Also, after Kabuto gives Naruto a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and tries to kill him Naruto's response is to tell him that he refuses to die until he becomes Hokage and drives a Rasengan into Kabuto's stomach.
- Chapter 495 has the Shut UP, Hannibal to beat almost everything else: what Naruto's autograph would have looked like, reading "No. 1 Hokage Candidate: Naruto" and said he has faith in himself the man who his village has faith in which defeated Naruto's Evil Twin (actually, his manifested hatred) who reminded Naruto how horribly the village treated them and maintained he was the only one who could understand good!Naruto.
- And Naruto gave two of these to Pain right at the beginning of their fight. "Didn't I tell you to SHUT THE HELL UP?!" He then proceeds to throw a Rasen-Shuriken at the group.
- The titular character is practically this trope personified. If any villain tries a Break Them by Talking odds are his response will be to attempt to hit them with something that will hurt.
- Kin gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Sakura as she's keeping her restrained by the hair. "My my, what soft and shiny hair. But you know what? If you spent a little less time shampooing, and a little more time practicing your jutsu, you might not be in this fix! Hey Zaku, I know what would be fun. Let's make Ms. Beauty Queen watch while you finish off that Sasuke guy!" Sakura's Shut UP, Hannibal moment shortly thereafter, where she cuts her own hair off to free herself, is thereby made much more awesome.
- Chapter 538: Its revealed that the Nine-Tails has almost gotten its full form back from feeding from Naruto's chakra and begins Break Them by Talking to show how gullible and foolish Naruto is becoming about the War and Sasuke. However, Naruto retaliates, after the flashback he asks "Are you done yet?" walks right into the seal and slams Nine-Tails down by the Torii so they could talk face to face. He then tells the fox that he's the fool, and that he'd find something to do about the war and Sasuke.
- Chapter 576: After multiple pages of Madara insulting her skills as a Senju, medic-nin, and kunoichi, Tsunade gives him a Shut Up Hannibal by telling him that even if she can't use the Wood Release or heal herself without medical ninjutsu, if he thinks she's just a weak kunoichi, he's got another thing coming.
- Chapter 577: Madara gets another Shut UP, Hannibal from Tsunade. She smashes through his Susanoo on her own and Onoki and A hit the other side. Even Madara said her Super Strength is greater than A's.
- In chapter 581 Kabuto says he and Sasuke are not so different because they both wish for the destruction of the Leaf Village and says that he should join him. In response, Sasuke says he's doing it for himself alone. When Kabuto tries a sympathetic angle about his life as a spy discarded by Konoha, Itachi points out all that means is that Kabuto's a superb liar.
- Kouji Kabuto is a Hot-Blooded, impulsive hero is more liable to punch the villain than explain to him why he or she sucks, but he got some good throughout the years.
- In the original manga:
Count Brocken: Damn you! How dare the righteous protagonist do something so dirty! You sure about this? The fans will cry, you know. |
- In Mazinkaiser, after Big Bad Dr. Hell tried talking him into joining him:
Kouji: Are you stupid? I would never join you! |
Scirocco: By averting that Colony Drop, you wasted a good chance of getting rid of all those fools whose souls are bound by gravity. |
Char Aznable: But, if things continue this way, people's hatred will consume the very Earth itself. That's why I'm cutting through to the source of the problem. |
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: What do you tell the god-like Anti-Spiral King who has been revealed to only be doing it to prevent the universe from imploding? "You suck, and we aren't going to blow up the universe". The final conclusion to the debate after his defeat? "Seriously, dude, don't blow up the universe." "Of course we won't; Who the hell do you think were are, a bunch of idiots?" Then explosions happen.
- Code Geass: In the first season finale, Suzaku gives one of these to Lelouch, who is in his Zero persona, after Zero!Lelouch calls out Suzaku for standing by Euphemia, who had been implicated in the SAZ massacre.
Suzaku: Your Geass power is quite convenient, isn't it? You get to hide in the shadows while others take all the blame for doing your dirty work. You're just an arrogant coward. That's your true nature, the real you. |
- Lelouch also delivered a fairly epic one in episode 16 of season one, against Mao, telling him to "Never speak again!" via Geass after he messed with Suzaku.
- Again in episode 21 of R2, when he rejects his parents' plan to remake the world as a utopia without lies.
- In Nightmare of Nunnally, after Mao claims to be saving people by allowing them to die happily with her "The Refrain" Geass, and wants to take control of Nemo from Nunnally in order to prevent herself from being consumed by C.C.'s cells. Alice responds "I have no idea what you're talking about. From my point of view, you're nothing more than a murderer who tried to take Nunnally's life."
- Kira Yamato of Gundam Seed sucks at this. "No! You are wrong!" does not convey the proper machismo. To be fair though he was kind of meant to be like this: despite being The Messiah he was never much of a talker. And he somewhat makes up for this by making his opponents' defeats look easy.
- To be honest, he did get sightly better in Gundam SEED Destiny, during the last episode when he threw Durandal's argument for the Destiny Plan back in his face.
- There's also this scene in which Kira and Mu confront Rau. Rau won't shut up, even if Mu yells him to do while shooting at him. And the Awful Truth Rau revealed turned Kira into Heroic BSOD.
Durandal: But between your world and the world I've been describing, which one do you think people will prefer? Say you shoot me now. What will you do when the world is thrown into chaos again? |
- Domon Kasshu from G Gundam has a habit of doing this. Mostly because, as a Hot-Blooded Determinator, he has no interest in talking to his enemies when he can fight. The final villain didn't get further than a single line into his rant before Domon just said "Shut it."
- In Gundam Wing, Heero does this to both the Big Bad of the TV series (Zechs Merquise) and The Dragon in Endless Waltz (Chang Wu Fei). In both cases, his opponent is arguing that Humans Are Bastards and/or Sheep who need to be guided down the right path, while Heero argues that all humans, including himself and his opponent, are just as weak, and that they need to have faith that people will be able to make a worthy future on their own. In particular, he gets a suitably epic line in EW:
"Even if the world goes mad, I can fight on by believing in myself!" |
- Garrod Ran absolutely excels at this trope, in fact this is his most common response to a Motive Rant.
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00 returns to long speeches; Setsuna makes three in the season 1 finale. And in the second season, when Bring Stability tells his fellow Innovator Tieria Erde that he can't kill him in battle because they're both Innovators, Tieria screams "I'M A HUMAN!" and kills him.
- Crossbone Gundam even gets in on it, having Tobia Arronax deliver the following rebuttal to Social Darwinist Karas:
Tobia: "That... is... BULLSHIT!" *proceeds to destroy Karas' entire Newtype squad* |
- Death Note: When Light Yagami delivers his Motive Rant at the end of the anime about how his actions have reduced the crime rate and stopped all wars, how does his nemesis respond?
Near: No. You're just a murderer, Light Yagami. And this notebook is the deadliest weapon in the history of mankind. If you had been a normal person and had used this notebook once out of curiosity, you would have been surprised and scared of what had happened, regretted what you had done, and never used this notebook again. To speak of extremes, I can actually understand those who would use this notebook for their personal interests and kill a couple of people, and even think that they're normal. But you yielded to the power of the notebook and the Shinigami and have confused yourself with a god. In the end, you're nothing more than a crazy serial killer. That's all you are. Nothing more and nothing less. |
- In the same episode, Matsuda's response to the same rant was to shoot Light five times. Okay, that was actually his response to Light's last-ditch attempt to kill Near, but considering that Matsuda was the closest person on the task force to supporting Kira, not to mention someone who genuinely seemed to like and admire Light, it was pretty impressive. In retrospect, it probably was a bad idea for Light to refer to his late father Soichirou, who was Matsuda's mentor and idol, as a fool during the rant.
- The Grand Finale to Vandread has the lead characters do this to the Evil Counterpart of the sentient Applied Phlebotinum the crew has befriended.
- A Certain Magical Index: Touma Kamijo does this. A lot. At the climax of almost every arc he plays a major role in. He always comes up with an idealistic, heartfelt, understandable, and awesome response to every villain's Evil Speechof Evil and Motive Rant. Keep in mind that whenever he isn't up against an Omnicidal Maniac, Magnificent Bastard, or something of the like, he's up against a Well-Intentioned Extremist, Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, Anti-Hero, or someone with a backstory that makes their actions at least somewhat understandable and sympathetic. And Touma always manages to sound like the one that's right. ALWAYS. For a perfect example, here's the conversation between him and Vento of the Front after she reveals that her revolt against Science is vengeance for the death of her brother, after doctors saved her over him after the two were fatally injured in an accident.
Vento: You look so surprised. You don't think a member of the Right Seat of God should be fighting for a reason like revenge? Don't you see? That's how much I hate Science. I'm willing to do anything to bring its practitioners to their knees. Science not only blinds its followers to that which is right, it tries to coarse the faithful into doing wrong. It takes what is pure and overwrites it with blasphemy. Don't you get it? That is the very essence of science. It defiles all it touches and that's why I will fight against it even with my dying breath. Your Science is soulless, devoid of all spirituality. Those who I fight beside seek to replace it with laws that can warm the heart and bolster faith. That's my duty. I owe it to the world for having ended my brother's future! |
- The ever-stoic Sousuke Sagara does this in reverse order in the first season of Full Metal Panic: he first hands Gauron's ass right back to him and then proceeds to use some... uncharacteristically strong language to tell the world what he thinks of him and his views.
- Mahou Sensei Negima has Fate taunting Negi about his weakness, how he's unable to protect his friends, how his newly acquired powers won't help him at all, and how he'll never be powerful to put up a real fight... Negi's response is to sock Fate in the gut, and toss off a one-liner:
Negi: Are you sure it's not you who needs to train a little harder? |
- And Negi does it again in Chapter 272, calling Godel on his Fantastic Racism and basically telling Godel that he's full of crap.
- And quite a while later, it turns out the SUH has more or less worked, since Godel pulls a Heel Face Turn and joins Negi's case.
- And Negi does it again in Chapter 272, calling Godel on his Fantastic Racism and basically telling Godel that he's full of crap.
- Dragon Quest: Dai's AdventureDai No Daibouken Dai No Daibouken, chapter 108, Dai's decisive battle against Dragon Army Captain Baran, who also happened to be his father and the original Dragon Knight as he unleashes all his power:
Baran: ALLOW ME TO DEMONSTRATE THIS BODY'S FULL POTENTIAL! ONCE THIS CREST IS FULLY RELEASED, I'LL BE STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE EVEN MOUNTAINS CRUMBLE! |
- Fate/stay night: How does Shiro respond to the end of the Big Bad Kotomine's long Motive Rant? "Oh I get it now, you're just insane."
- Well, at first Shiro thought he might have some weird reason for the terrible things he did to all those people, but in the end it was just him explaining through a convoluted, wordy speech that he likes to see people suffer. It was pretty funny, actually.
- In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, the villain (Miyo Takano) might have had a gun pointed at Rena as she explained to her about how she's going to kill the entire village and become "God" but that didn't stop Rena from laughing at her and replying "No, you can't become God, because GOD EXISTS!".
- In One Piece Luffy makes it pretty clear that he does shit because he wants to, and for no other reason. In response to Crocodile's list of reasons why he was fighting a losing battle, and being naive for trying to save everyone, Luffy subverts this trope slightly by agreeing with him. Having effectively shocked Hannibal into shutting up, he proceeds to beat the shit out of him while explaining that Vivi was his friend, and since if he didn't help she was gonna kill herself trying to save the country, he would try to render that unnecessary.
- Then there's the instance when the Straw Hats face the leader of a secret government agency. His attempt to intimidate them fail miserably:
Spandam: "Look at that symbol, pirates! *point to the flag of the world government* That mark represents the unity of over 170 nations! This is the world! Do you understand how insignificant you are to stand against us!!?" |
- In Houshin Engi, this was done rather brilliantly by Taikoubou (when he changed back to being Fukki) after his fight with Jyoka. Jyoka started giving him the the breaking speech about how the reason he revealed to the humans that they were being manipulated by her wasn't because he didn't like the idea of her being in power — it was because he wanted them to have "free will", and his response? "No. You're wrong idiot, die." It doesn't get more blunt than that.
- During the final showdown with Dr. Scalietti in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Fate is overwhelmed by his Break Them by Talking (and a couple of painful reveals). Then her adopted kids interfere and tell her just how awesome she actually is. Her next action? Take down the Doctor's superpowered bodyguards, smash himself into a wall, and calmly declare "You are under arrest".
- Played with in Gate Keepers. After Big Bad Kageyama makes his big speech about humanity being full of maggots and what has to be done to properly cleanse the world, Ukiya skips past his use of "sophisticated arguments" and says he's going overboard. This actually seems to throw him a little off-balance. Then the end of the episode happens. Kageyama personally meets with Megumi, who sees through the rhetoric and denounces his claims as the words of a big, fat liar... then sticks around to finalize her Face Heel Turn anyway.
- Used again in the last episode, with more of an outright "shut up" feel. Kageyama sets a new personal record for nihilism with a rant about how all of humanity's hopes for peace never had a chance, to which Ukiya responds, "Is that all you have to say?!" while throwing a monster of a roundhouse punch. Then the punch misses...
- Envy of Fullmetal Alchemist keeps trying to lecture Mustang, but...
Envy: Pathetic? Lemme ask you something. Don't you humans enjoy watching others suffer, watching fools dance around like puppets? That's why you start wars isn't it? |
- And Mustang keeps on shutting him up all through the battle with him while kicking his ass.
- Mustang had two crowning moments when it came to this trope. The first was when he incinerated Envy's tongue mid-speech and the second was when Envy tried to go One-Winged Angel and, as Envy mockingly claimed he couldn't hold back, Mustang incinerated his eyes.
- And the one who put nail on his coffin? Ed, of all people, by giving a heartwarming talk about Envy's motive.
- A little later on, as Ed fights Pride, the latter breaks out into a rant about how Ed isn't prepared to fight an enemy like himself. Ed's response? He headbutts him and precedes to curb stomp him.
- When Edward confronts Shou Tucker over his use of his wife and daughter as subjects in his experiments, Tucker says Edward is just like him, because Edward used alchemy to try to bring his mother back. Edward proceeds to beat Tucker repeatedly while upset and screaming "I'M NOT LIKE YOU! I'M NOT! I'M NOT!"
- When they first fight Scar notes that both he and Edward use their arms for destruction. Edward answers "Don't you start! We're nothing alike!"
- And Mustang keeps on shutting him up all through the battle with him while kicking his ass.
- D.Gray-man: Cross has a rather hilarious and extremely awesome Shut UP, Hannibal moment, here.
- Chapter 193; paraphrased:
Alma: This torment will never end, and I want us to die together as friends. |
- Also chapter 204 (complete with a genuine Slasher Smile delivered by Allen himself:
Allen: I'm Cross Marian's pupil. It makes me wanna puke, the very thought of uniting with you!!! |
- Twentieth Century Boys has a particularly epic one when Kenji is confronted by a Card-Carrying Villain laughing about all the murders he's carried out. After he's done ranting, Kenji spends two whole issues deconstructing the man's entire worldview, and leaves him weeping and suicidal.
- At the end of Inuyasha, Big Bad Naraku explains how his crumbling body is over Kaede's village, and if they cut him down, he will fall onto the village destroying it. Sesshoumaru's response? He charges right up to Naraku, says "So what?" then proceeds to go straight through him with his Bakusaiga, causing the entire body to start falling towards the ground. That is pure freaking ownage.
- Also, Kagome deals one to Akago (the infamous demon baby) that's combined with an Anguished Declaration of Love to Inuyasha. Suits well, since Akago's recent Hannibal Lectures were centered on how her feelings for Inuyasha would never be reciprocated, how she only was second to Kikyou in Inuyasha's mind according to Akago himself, etc. And then, Kagome gathers her act and tell him: "Yes, maybe I am. Maybe I'm jealous of Kikyou, and I know Inuyasha will never forget her. But you know, jealousy is just an emotion, and even when I'm jealous... I still love Inuyasha, and my feelings for him are not YOUR business! SO SHUT UP!" Definitely a huge Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- Shinichi-Conan of Detective Conan has little patience for Motive Rants. He rejects each and every Motive Rant — even ones the audience might find sympathetic.
- He's even once shut up a suspect into surrendering to the police with his own Break Them by Talking (in Gratuitous English, even!)
- Kogoro Mouri/Richard Moore settled one himself, too, as a corollary to his Crowning Moment of Awesome. When the murderer of the case, a professional judo fighter and policeman as well as a huge 180 cms hulking pile of muscle, rushes at the detective, an amateur who purposely avoided all tournaments because of stage fright, he casually flips him over his shoulder and to the ground. The murderer thinks he's gotten stronger over the years. Nope, in Kogoro's words, the murderer just got weaker.
- The Kindaichi Case Files is a tad more sympathetic towards a Motive Rant (unless the suspect was a Jerkass), but Kindaichi's response to many a subsequent suicide attempt has been pretty blunt.
- In the second OVA of Hellsing , Jan Valentine has spent an hour of screentime basically massacring people and insulting the survivors, insulting the Roundtable Conference in general and Integra in particular over the radio. At the end of the episode, Jan has finally been cornered, when Integra walks up, leading to this classic exchange:
Jan: What up, bitch! |
- While that's going on, Alucard has just stomped Jan's brother Luke, and is berating him over how weak and pathetic he is, prompting Luke to angrily shout him down, and try to tell Alucard why he sucks. It doesn't go well.
Luke: Shut up! You're just the Hellsing family's toy, a dog not even fit to call himself a vampire, a- |
- It happens in Pokémon, too. Just before the big fight towards the end of the first movie, Mewtwo is giving his big Motive Rant about how he and his genetically engineered Pokémon are going to exterminate all other life on the planet. Up comes Ash Ketchum, with a horde of "normal" Pokémon and spitefully declares, "You can't do this. I won't let you." He then tries to punch out Mewtwo. It doesn't go too well for Ash, and he actually dies. But the tears and love from the Pokémon he led against Mewtwo revive him, and Mewtwo himself has a change of heart.
- Another example of this trope happens during episode 35 (never shown outside of Japan). While Team Rocket is in the middle of their motto, Kaiser starts shooting at them repeatedly , leading to a Bullet Dance performed by the trio.
- In one Diamond and Pearl episode, Paul cuts Team Rocket off mid-motto (to their outrage).
- In the Duelist Kingdom arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Anzu comforts Yugi, who has just entered a Heroic BSOD after having just stopped Atemu from calling a game-winning attack that would have led to Kaiba to make good on a suicide threat if he were to lose, leading to the latter winning instead. She tells him that his grandfather would not have wanted to be saved that way. Kaiba then interjects saying that Yugi should have went through with the attack. (In the manga, Kaiba even says that had the roles been reversed, Kaiba would have made the attack). Anzu retorts by saying that he showed him compassion by sparing his life. From here, it becomes a case of Alternative Character Interpretation, when Anzu goes into friendship rant mode, and you also consider that Kaiba has been doing this to save his little brother Mokuba. Naturally, given Anzu's reputation, some people have sided with Kaiba. Objectively though, it can be agreed that instead of taunting Yugi/Yami, Kaiba shouldn't have been so secretive there and that berating Yugi for sparing his life was a dick move. To be fair, at that point Anzu did NOT know about Mokuba being a hostage, and neither did the rest. They only came to know that quite a while later, and Yugi even cries when he sees this.
- When Rex Raptor joins the side of the Orichalcos and gives a Motive Rant about why he did and why he's trying to kill Joey, Joey basically retorts, "You sold out the Human race just because I beat you at a CHILDREN'S CARD GAME. FUCK YOU."
- In Kaiba's second duel with Alister, Alister boasts that Kaiba couldn't possibly win in time to stop the plane from crashing, even if he ended his turn right now. Kaiba's simple reply: "Then end it already!"
- During the final battle in Dancougar Nova, the Big Bad Moon Will seemingly has Aoi at his mercy, and is explaining that, having acknowledged humans as a dangerous species, he has decided to wipe them out for the good of all and for maintaining the balance of the universe. Despite having taken grievous injuries earlier in the episode, Aoi stands up again and boldly challenges the evil computer. "So what? You think we're gonna keel over and die just because you said so?". And then she literally punches out the godlike computer, killing him on the spot.
- In the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga version, the Angel Armisael attempts to defeat Rei by demotivating her. It speaks to Rei in a vision using her body and voice, telling her that her heart is evil and that she wants to keep Shinji for herself and hates the currently comatosed Asuka for diverting Shinji's attention away. In Rei's form, Armisael goes to "be with Shinji", as is Rei's selfish desire (in this case, "being with him" would kill him.) But, after a moment of crying, Rei snaps out of it and reverses her Eva's AT field, pulling the screaming Rei-Armisael away from Shinji. Then, as a way of saying "You are not me and you do not control my heart!", Rei self-destructs, taking Armisael with her.
- Hey, what about End Of Evangelion? She shows her disagreement with Gendo's plan by freakin' cutting off his right hand at the wrist!
- And in the manga version, she tears Adam's eye out of Gendo's hand, sending blood spraying everywhere.
- Hey, what about End Of Evangelion? She shows her disagreement with Gendo's plan by freakin' cutting off his right hand at the wrist!
- When Bleach's Ulquiorra is going to explain to Orihime why she hesitated in protecting Ichigo, Ichigo stops him with a simple "Shut up, it doesn't matter."
- Then in the Fake Karakura Town battle, as Barragan gave an epic Break Them by Talking about how everything ages and dies, how his power is absolute, and the folly of challenging God, specifically "The God of Hueco Mundo" (himself). Then when vizard Ushoda Hachigen severs his own decaying right hand and placed it in his "stomach" with his kidou. As Barragan rots from his own attack, Hachigen gives this line:
Hachigen: In Soul Society, there are no gods except us shinigami, the gods of death. As such, it is difficult to take the seriousness of your claim. So, forgive us for our disbelief, "God of Hueco Mundo". |
- Ichigo gives one to Grimmjow after Orihime tells him tearfully not to get hurt anymore.
Grimmjow attacks him, while Ichigo's back is turned, after a Reason You Suck Speech and Ichigo catches the Grimmjow's blade while still looking at Orihime, turning to Grimmjow to effectively say "You heard Inoue. I'm not supposed to get hurt anymore!" |
- Aizen tries quite a few Hannibal Lectures in Fake Karakura Town. None of them seem to work.
- Komomura indirectly gives a Shut UP, Hannibal to Aizen after he lectured Ichigo.
- Aizen tries quite a few Hannibal Lectures in Fake Karakura Town. None of them seem to work.
Komamura: Don't let him get to you. Provocation is his speciality ... If you lose yourself, you'll lose your life. Rest easy. I know why the captains sent you straight down here from Hueco Mundo. You have not seen Aizen's shikai. We will fight to protect you. |
- Paraphrasing his brief conversation with Hitsugaya:
Hitsugaya: Anyone who raises their sword in violence doesn't deserve to be called a captain of the Gotei 13. Aizen: Didn't you just say a captain shouldn't raise his sword in violence? |
- Yamamoto gives us a very succinct one.
Yamamoto: I have no interest in your foolish arguments. |
- Isshin joins the fray with a simple
"Aizen...You talk too much." |
- After 300 chapters of being Smug and curbstomping everyone, Aizen recieves a really awesome one in chapter 417 at the hands of Ichigo. What did Ichigo say? Nothing. He grabbed his face and knocked him outside of the city.
- Ichigo continues to Shut UP, Hannibal Aizen completely throughout the fight while owning the shit out of him and then nails him with a Final Getsuga Tenshou to attempt to take this trope to it's logical conclusion. After Aizen survives that, and proceeds to start going on another "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Urahara of all people takes this one Up to Eleven by shutting up Aizen with a sealing kidou and explaining to Aizen that the Hougyoku no longer sees him as it's master.
- Kyoraku does this to Aizen a couple times by trying to slash him from behind while he's talking.
- Renji delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Ichigo during their first encounter. At one point during the speech, Renji closes his eyes as he mentions that Ichigo couldn't hope to put a scratch on a real Soul Reaper. Ichigo takes the opportunity to place a small scratch on Renji's chin.
- Kubo makes a comeback with two specific versions of this in the latest chapter. In the first one Ginjo is explaining how even with the help of Rukia, there's no way Ichigo could have gained his Shinigami powers back, and it's clearly obvious he's about to continue when he's interrupted by none other than KENPACHI, BYAKUYA, HITSUGAYA, IKKAKU, AND RENJI. In the second one, Ginjo proceeds to explain how Ichigo still sucks and that his Getsuga Tenshou is a miniscule increase at best, and he could never hope to defeat him with only that level of power, until Ichigo appears behind him, tells him he's an idiot and that he just used a practice swing, and proceeds to bust out the actual Getsuga Tenshou. Needless to say, Kubo still has this down pat.
- Giriko boasts that he controls time and has supreme Super Strength, and is thus invincible. Kenpachi says "Boring!" and slices him in half.
- Ichigo seems to collect these moments. In chapter 474, Ginjo starts mocking Ichigo about how substitute shinigami are just pawns of the Gotei 13, and that he's being used like a puppet. Ichigo's response?: "BANKAI!!"
- And he lampshades how the villains always give these kind of speeches.
- After 300 chapters of being Smug and curbstomping everyone, Aizen recieves a really awesome one in chapter 417 at the hands of Ichigo. What did Ichigo say? Nothing. He grabbed his face and knocked him outside of the city.
Ichigo: Screw you. I'm tried of you idiots trying to shake my resolve like this. |
- In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Kurogane earns a Crowning Moment of Awesome by telling Fei Wang Reed to "shut your freaking trap." He and Fai then happily argue over who gets first dibs to fight him. Sadly subverted in that It wasn't FWR after all, but Dr. Kyle, and it's R!Syaoran who kills him. Then reinvoked in Chapter 230 when it looks like Fei Wang Reed died from both Fai's and Kurogane's repeated attacks. Then again, this being TRC, it might not be that easy after all...
- In Digimon Season 3, the D-Reaper has built itself up into an Eldritch Abomination hell-bent on wiping out humanity on the grounds that Humans Are Bastards. It has been swatting down every attempt to stop or even harm it with minimal effort, mind-raping Juri for some time, and, in an incredible Tear Jerker, has struck down Beelzemon after he went all-out in an attempt to rescue her. Takato and Guilmon, fused into Gallantmon, are one of the last lines of defense keeping the thing contained and holding it off from annihilating humanity while the other heroes try a last-ditch plan to stop it. The D-Reaper howls at them "YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO EXIST!". Stuck in the void, Guilmon asks his partner whether they do or not, to which Takato replies that they do "AND IT'S ABOUT TIME WE PROVED IT!" after which Gallantmon responds to the Break Them by Talking by ramming his fist into an area roughly equivalent to the D-reaper's throat and yelling back "WE DO DESERVE TO EXIST! YOU DON'T."
- In the earlier parts of the first Captain Tsubasa series, then-Jerkass Hyuuga harshly bitches Tsubasa out and tells him that he's a Spoiled Brat who's got no business into soccer. What is Tsubasa's reply?
Tsubasa: You're wrong, Hyuuga-kun! Because soccer is MY DREAM! |
- Tsubasa's girlfriend Sanae pulls one on her Hopeless Suitor Kanda. When he tells her that Tsubasa doesn't care about her and that's why he hasn't come to talk to both of them upon Kanda's own request, she immediately says "That's a lie, so shut it!" And right after that, Tsubasa shows up.
- Umineko no Naku Koro ni, third arc: Kyrie's counter-speech to Leviathan of Envy. To summarize: "I see your envious childhood and raise you being cheated on by my husband, who had a now-18-year-old son with the woman who replaced me!" Then while Leviathan is shocked at the one-upping of her envy, a sin that she's supposed to be the embodiment of, Kyrie shoots her dead. When Beatrice didn't understand why Battler wasn't enjoying watching the murders.While she's talking, Battler slaps her, and calls her a monster.Beatrice counters it, however, by lying to Battler saying that she had turned good.
- Black Lagoon's Balalaika gives three words and a sound effect to deal with one of the creepiest Ax Crazy little psychos you'll ever meet.
Balalaika: I said KNEEL! * BANG* |
- Ghost Sweeper Mikami's Ashtaroth has been scheming not only to conquer the cosmos and eradicate the gods, but reset everything and rebuild it according to his much-preferable will. Mikami found that out while in the galaxy egg. As a result, she's able to Shut Up Hannibal him just before his Motive Rant.
Mikami: You're no different from an immature child who hates school and thus decides to burn down his school! |
- Happens in Dragon Ball Z when Goku hits Jeice/Jeese right in the face just before he launches into his taunting speech.
- Happens several times in a row in the same scene in Dragonball Z Abridged. Including while Jeice is trying to remember what to do when someone is punching you in the face.
- Future Trunks and his Curb Stomp Battle with Frieza and his father, King Cold. He had the latter, who, naturally, was even stronger than Frieza, begging him for mercy when he did this.
- Joker became quite fond of Hannibal Lectures during ROD the TV, and since most of his opponents are such sweet women who always want to see the best in everybody, he always seems to make a lot of headway. Then, Anita makes a pretty clever realization: "Don't be tricked, you idiot! He's the bad guy!"
- Haru does this in Rave Master when Lucia points out that, technically, they're both kings, and goes on to say they need no friends, only men with the mental capacity to kneel.
- In Muhyo and Roji, as Teeki, confident in having won after Julio puts the heroes under a curse that will kill them if they move, goes on about how people are unable to go against their fate and how Enchu learned that for himself when his mother died. Roji declares that it is a lie, states that Enchu couldn't bear his grief, and then dispels the curse.
- In Berserk the man who tortures Griffith locks the door on Guts and company, then rants about how much he'll enjoy torturing them. Guts responds by stabbing him through the door, causing it to explode. He then falls down a bottomless pit.
- Guts also does this to the Godhand during the Eclipse. "I said shut up!"
- Utena does this several times per arc.
- Texhnolyze: Ichise sharply disagrees with Kano's nihilism. This is expressed by punching Kano's head clean off.
- Monster: Lunge's response to Roberto's speech about Johan's plan is to shove his gun right into Roberto's mouth.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, the Big Bad of Season 1 briefly tries to persuade JACK ATLAS to join him. Jack replies that he will never join him because he caused the death of his girlfriend.
- In Pokémon Special, N says that he can't be beaten because he can hear the voices of Pokemon, and that the Pokedex is evil because many Pokemon were captured for the sake of its research. Black tells him to shut up, saying that the Pokedex is a tool to better understand the Pokemon he loves and that he's damn proud to own one. Not to mention that he declares that even if he can't hear his Pokemon's "voices", he still knows what they want.
- Cure Marine delivers a good one to Kumojacky. "Let me have some fun! Cure Marine!" *gets punched*
- In chapter 46 of Freezing, Kazuya delivers one to Louise for claiming his sister was his personal property.
- In Fairy Tail, Natsu gives one to Jellal by punching him after he mocked Simon's Heroic Sacrifice.
- Jellal starts boasting that Natsu cannot possibly defeat him, and soon the Tower of Heaven will activate. Natsu responds by punching the tower and shattering it.
- Brain grabs a weakened Natsu and boasts that he will turn him into his servant, then Natsu bites his arm.
- Erza Knightwalker justifies murdering countless people just to get magic by explaining that everything needs magic, and her world will die without it. Erza Scarlet dismantles Knightwalker's argument by pointing out that in their battle, they've both used up so much magic that they've both been Brought Down to Normal, and they are still alive.
- And later Gray gives one to Ultear by punching her in the middle of her speech.
- In Fruits Basket, Tohru's stuck-up relatives get two of these for slutshaming Tohru after they find out she was living with Shigure, Yuki and Tohru. First the grandfather slaps a male cousin when he and others call Tohru a whore, and then Yuki and Kyo arrive and Yuki hears said cousin refer to them as "the guys the little tramp was shacking up with"...
Yuki: Don't you ever talk that way to Honda-san, you lowlife. |
- A villainous version happens in Transformers Cybertron; when Starscream attempts to take the Omega Lock from Galvatron, Galvatron starts up with a speech about how weak Starscream is, only for Starscream to interrupt with a lecture of his own.
- Persona 4: The Animation has a brilliant one in the fight against Shadow Mitsuo. Earlier on, the villain had trapped protagonist Yu Narukami in a Lotus Eater Machine, taunting him by saying that Yu is "empty" and that he has no true bonds of friendship with other people. Fortunately for Yu, his oldest friend on the team physically pulls him out of the illusion, and as the rest of the team creates an opening, Yu defiantly states "I... am not empty!" before he systematically breaks down the Shadow's defenses and pulls a No Sell on each and every one of its attacks. Even better, he accomplishes this with each of the various Persona he had obtained so far, all of them being from a different arcana of the tarot representing a bond he had made with another person, then finishing the battle with Izanagi, his own Persona, proving that unlike the truly empty Mitsuo, he does have friends and they are the source of his strength.
- In chapter 8 of Pandora Hearts, the Will of the Abyss angrily demands to know why Oz cares about Alice and wants to save her, even though he doesn't really know her, and also demands that he love her [Will of the Abyss] instead. Oz laughs, says he doesn't know why he cares about Alice, he just does, and shoots Will of the Abyss in the head.
- In episode 4 of Togainu no Chi Shiki attacks Akira and tries to strangle him to death while telling him that he should bark like the dog that he is and beg for his life. In response Akira knocks him away and says "As if I'd be a dog" while pointing his knife at Shiki.
- In Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, The Dragon is explaining to the heroines how their defeat will help her gaining rank among the Big Bad servants. The heroines end yelling in perfect synchronization how much they don't give a shit (yes, the language was pretty rude compared to the rest of the manga at this point) about her life.
- Reborn and Tsuna do this to Bermuda in Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
- In the final episode of the Synchro arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, the Big Bad Roget tells everyone present that Reiji is the son of Leo Akaba, the head of the destructive and villainous Academia dimension, and claims he and his father were both responsible for starting the inter-dimensional war. Without even flinching, Reiji immediately shuts him down with this short but awesome rebuttal:
Let’s assume that I’m working with Leo Akaba, for argument’s sake. If that’s the case, why would you take Yuzu Hiragi back to the Fusion Dimension? You’re just trying to hide behind Leo Akaba’s back, aren’t you? |
- Several episodes earlier, Yuzu does this to Roget several times when he gives her his Motive Rant. While his downfall was already in the works, this is what makes him really start to lose it.
Comics[]
- Lampshaded in Peanuts, when Charlie Brown is being attacked by Lucy, and he begins to explain to her how violence is never the answer to anything. Lucy just slugs him and says "I had to hit him quick-- he was starting to make sense!"
- A staple of comic books, of course. Superman does it a lot.
- One of the best was in the first story arc of the 90's JLA. The Justice League are finally able to fight back against the Hyperclan, a group of White Martians who have dominated the entire world by mind control and the JLA themselves with their powers. Superman has a slugfest with Protex, the leader of the Martians, and we have this little exchange between the two very different aliens:
Protex: How STUPID are you? You let those cringing human sheep do what they want when YOU could rule the world! Stunted slaves! They look at YOU and see what they COULD have become... They FEAR you and they HATE you and you don't even have the guts to admit you DESPISE them in return! You know in your heart they're INFERIOR! |
- One story had Batman reluctantly team up with a vampire to deal with an evil wizard. Superman arrives halfway through the story, but the vampire incessantly mocks him, saying he is nothing but a liability, since Supes is weak against magic. Superman tells him to shut up or else he will fly him into the sun. He shuts up.
- General Zod is beating on Supes and claiming that it was all Jor-El's fault that Krypton and their people were destroyed. If Jor-El hadn't arrested him and sentenced him to the Phantom Zone, Zod would have saved Krypton.
Superman: Oh? Tell me, Great General, how would you have saved our world? |
- Done comically in Young Justice. Robin, Superboy and Impulse have all been sent into manifestations of their greatest fears. Robin's is a direct spoof of The Silence of the Lambs, with the Joker parodying Lecter ("I can smell you, runt.") and lecturing Robin. The heroes discover that the best way to deal with these fears is for them to switch places. After Superboy and Impulse's fears have been dealt with, Robin realizes with horror that they left Impulse alone with the Joker. When they get there they find that Impulse has nearly driven Joker to (even more) madness by simply asking "Why?" over and over again.
- In Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, the twins Minette and Mallorie are yelling at King Caesar that they will return to have their revenge... and get squashed under his claw mid-sentence.
- Averted during the Mark Waid Flash run, there was a really epic storyline called "The Return of Barry Allen". It involved the Reverse Flash, Professor Zoom, being a lot faster than Wally. Zoom gives a Break Them by Talking , and Wally keeps trying to do this, but Zoom's so much faster he dodges/beats the crap out of Wally each time without breaking his lecture.
- This happened a lot during the Green Lantern Arc "Sinestro Corps War". Primarily between Hal Jordan and his Evil Counterpart Sinestro.
- Most recently during the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" Arc. After killing Green Lantern Laira, previously converted to the eponymous Red Lantern Corps, Sinestro barely finishes taunting GL Hal Jordan — 'Look at that Jordan, another broken promise.' — when the hero grabs Sinestro by the collar, flies them both to the top of the Red Lantern Power Battery, and using the ring straps him into an 'electric chair.' This act unsuprisingly leads to his initiation into the Red Lanterns. Less than 3 pages afterwards, he pulls the switch.
- Blackest Night is practically made of these. The zombie villains are all twisted evil versions of deceased friends and family of the heroes, saying whatever they can to manipulate the emotions of their prey before feeding on their hearts. Not that delivering a Shut Up, Hannibal does much good. In a particularly brilliant moment of Genre Savvy, the Black Lanterns can feed off Heroic Willpower just as easily as fear or anger.
- At the end of The Authority Revolution the Big Bad of the Arc is bragging that his control over the world has made it a better place. The Midnighter tears off his head, ripping out his spine in the process, in a manner that would make Mortal Kombat envious, with the words:
The Midnighter: Well then, I guess I just don't give a shit. |
- In The Killing Joke, as Batman tracks him through a carnival house of mirrors, the Joker claims to have driven Commissioner Gordon mad, thus proving his point that "one bad day" can drive anyone insane as it did to him. He then tries to convince Batman that life is all a "monstrous, demented gag. So why can't you see the funny side? Why aren't you laughing?" Batman crashes through a mirror and says, "Because I've heard it before... and it wasn't funny the first time!" and punches the Joker. He then tells him that Gordon is perfectly sane, thus disproving the Joker's point. "Maybe it was just you all the time."
- Another Batman example:
Captured Serial Killer: Admit it, you live for the hunt as much as I do. Going after the freaks adds excitement to the game, but not as much as you need. Every time you put on that mask the craving comes back, the primal course, the push at the back of your mind. It's only a matter of time before it takes over and you-- |
- Hellboy has a habit of doing this. SCREW YOU!
- A particularly shining example has to be when Hecate attempts to seduce Hellboy to ruling by her side:
Hecate: Accept the truth of your existence or be destroyed! You cannot escape your destiny! |
- Subverted during the story "The Island". Hellboy repeatedly tells Hannibal to shut up, but since he's not really in a position to enforce that command, Because he's been stabbed through the chest by a giant monster and is bleeding to death Hannibal keeps talking.
- In a Fantastic Four comic, Dr. Doom gives Reed a Not So Different speech concerning his actions during Marvel Civil War, which causes the Thing to give him a savage beating.
- Susan Richards gave Doom an epic Shut Up in the Grant Morrison-written 1234 after the Fantastic Four defeated his plans:
Susan: Shut up. Stop trying to hurt us, you stupid, lonely, ignorant man! |
- The Hack Slash one-shot Girls Gone Dead has villain Laura Lochs giving a long Break Them by Talking about God, her origin, her motives and other such things. Cassie's reply is "Keep clucking, bitch" and a punch to the face. Subverted in the sequel Hack/Slash vs. Chucky where Laura was expecting Cassie to try something during her Break Them by Talking and kicks her in the face when she tries to attack.
- Subverted again in Something's Fishy. As Mary Shelley Lovecraft is talking, Cassie starts sneaking up behind her, baseball bat in hand. Without even turning around or ceasing to talk, Mary ensnares Cassie in her tentacles.
- The one-off graphic novel Joker features a classic example of this, in which Batman not only brushes off the Joker's attempt to break him by talking , but turns it into a devastating Lecture of his own which sends the Joker into a berserk rage — in only three words:
Joker: Uhh, God you disgust me. You have no charm at all, just... obviousness. Dumb, dull. Disappointing. Obvious. Shame on you. Obvious... and everybody knows. You wear your shame like a badge, because you don't have the balls to actually pin one on. Yes, just look at you. Desperate to be feared, you want to be perceived as a monster, dressed in black. And yet... you leave that little window. A glimpse at the perfection underneath. Obvious — the chiseled good looks, not the jaw, the mouth of a monster... why do you let it be seen? Tell me why. |
- Atomic Robo was once captured by a Soviet mad scientist and forced to endure a lecture that took up an entire page of the comic, explaining why this scientist wanted to destroy the human race in agonizingly trivial detail. Robo's summary hit all the major points.
Atomic Robo: So you're building a big dumb bomb to show everyone who the greatest scientist blah, blah, blah. |
- When The Incredible Hulk fought Maestro, his Evil Counterpart from a Bad Future, and started losing, Maestro started a speech about how he knew his every move. Hulk's response? "Sing soprano, Motor Mouth" and punching Maestro in the groin.
- In Garth Ennis' recent Dan Dare mini-series, he gives the eponymous space hero a pretty good one; Dare is captured by his arch-nemesis The Mekon, who has Dare dragged before him in chains and begins a lengthy "The Reason You Suck" Speech about why resistance to his glorious new army and regime is pathetic and futile before Dare calmly interrupts him with "We alway fight squalid little men like you. There's really nothing more to say." And promptly ignores him in favour of chewing out The Dragon, the quisling Prime Minister, instead.
- Supergirl was savagely beaten up and kidnapped by Powerboy. He says a big speech about how much he loves her, that he knows best, and that the beating was her fault for making him angry. Supergirl blasts him with heat vision, calls him out that he's an asshole and that no one should ever hit someone that they love, then drops his house on him. He tries to escape, while still ranting, but Supergirl catches up to him and kicks him in the groin.
- In Shotgun Opera, main character Sterling has a good response to a "you don't deserve her" speech: "F** K YOU. I'm not about to roll over and die!"
- Spider-Man gave a more literal Shut UP, Hannibal to Norman Osborn in The Siege storyline. It's since become something of a Meme in Comic Book Forums.
- In the last issue of The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank, Punisher kills the Big Bad's Dragon, scaring off her remaining henchmen, and starts pouring gasoline through her house. Even then, she tries to demoralize him about hypocritical his "war on crime" is, how he's no better than her, etc. As Punisher starts leaving, she tells him he's damned. His response:
"Tell me something I don't know." * chucks a grenade inside* |
- Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour has this:
Gideon: Getting rid of me... won't save you. You're your own worst enemies! Both of you! |
- A hero-to-reporter example: Tony Stark delivers this to John Pillinger, a man who is interviewing him in regard to the weapons Tony designed for the military over a decade ago, when Tony was nineteen. Over the course of the inverview, Pillinger is clearly determined to make Tony out to be as unsympathetic as possible; he interrupts Tony at every turn, gives Tony no chance to expand on his answers, and more or less dismisses incredibly significant medical breakthroughs as meaningless just because they aren't available in third-world countries. He also brushes aside the fact that Tony hasn't designed weaponry for the military in over ten years, and has in fact put his efforts and resources into venues that could improve the world.
The real kicker comes when Tony, rather than attempt to make excuses for the damage the weapons he once designed have done, flat-out admits that he knows that no matter what he does, he will always have blood on his hands — and Pillinger reacts as if Tony has given some long, rambling explanation to excuse himself from responsibility. Tony ends his statement by saying, with obvious sincerity, that he's trying to be a part of making the world a better place regardless. Pillinger responds with a caustic "...I see."
However, at the end of the session, Pillinger asks Tony why he agreed to the interview. Tony responds beautifully.
Tony: I wanted to meet you. You've been making your investigative films for what, twenty years now? I wanted to ask: Have you changed anything? You've been uncovering disturbing things all over the world for twenty years now. Have you changed anything? You've worked very hard. Most people have no idea of the kind of work you've done. Intellectuals, critics, and activists follow your films closely, but culturally you're almost invisible, Mr. Pillinger. Have you changed anything? |
- In issue 74 of Archie Sonic comics, after the freedom fighters find Robotnik on the walkway of some outer space facility, (note that up until that point they thought he was dead) there are at least two varieties (or maybe three) of Shut UP, Hannibal in a row:
Sonic: You're toast if you don't tell me what happened to my family and the other roboticized mobians, Ro"butt"nik! |
- Sonic's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Eggman in issue 200 is essentially a retort to a similar speech Eggman himself gave Sonic twenty-five issues earlier.
- Deadpool is riddled with these.
- First there is Deathtrap, lecturing Wade about the virtue of silence, having strapped Wade to a table with a giant teddy bear above that will smother/crush him to death. If The Merc with the Mouth doesn't shutup, he will die. What does he do? He doesn't shutup.
Deathtrap: "Fascinating! Teddy has approached ramming speed." |
- Next there is Deadpool's encounter with Batroc. You can't expect to use Popinjay in a sentence and not have Deadpool mock you. Subverted in that Batroc proceeds to kick Wade's ass for this. He makes the mistake in pushing Deadpool's cripple/friend out of a window, followed by another Shut UP, Hannibal moment, and Deadpool wiping the floor with Batroc.
- In the same series, Deadpool delivers a Shut UP, Hannibal to the Messiah, the bringer of peace to the world. Why? Because the peace the Messiah brings is Peace through lack of free will. Coincides with kicking Captain America in the nuts. All Canon.
- In the finale of the first arc of Spawn spin-off Sam & Twitch, Twitch has caught criminal responsible for all murders in that story. She gives him very good Hannibal Lecture about how she will go free thanks to her connections and, at worst case, will have to keep low profile for few months. And how she will then come back and slowly, for years, destroy his life and kill everybody he loves. At first it looks it worked as Twitch puts his gun down, but he immediately points it at her again and starts telling her her laws. When she continues to lecturing him Twitch shoots her.
- In Birds of Prey, the villain Mortis has been mind-raping Black Canary with visions of all the people she has regrets about, only to have this happen:
Mortis: "Your friends have dumped you again, haven't they? Haven't they?" |
- Superman's only line in Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. After the more benevolent Perspective Flipped Villain Protagonist we've seen of Luthor throughout the series, it hammers home the fact that Lex's justifications for committing atrocities in the name of "exposing" Superman as a threat are really twisted, and that he really is the bad guy.
Superman: You're wrong. I can see your soul. |
- The Captain Britain & MI 13 tie in with the Secret Invasion storyline of Marvel comics revealed that the global invasion force was just a cover for pretty much every Super-Skrull they had to invade Britain and steal all the Earth's magic straight from the source. After succeeding at killing Captain Britain and taking control over Earth's source of magic, the Super-Skrull Sorcerer Supreme stands over a woman who is, at the time, a civilian. A simple Muslim Doctor standing in the way. The Super-Skrull describes how Britain will be erased from existence, so that it had never been. When the Skrull empire takes us as slaves, then we would know true pride and glory. Cue the return with Excalibur.
Captain Britain: I think you'll find, we already do. We just don't like to make a fuss. |
- Her-to-hero example — in 200th issue of X Factor Guido gets into a fight with The Thing, who tries to provoke him by mocking his superhero carrier. Guido just tells Ben that he played in better football team. It worked a little to well, because enraged Ben had beaten the tar out of him.
Fan Works[]
- I'm a Marvel... and I'm a DC gives everyone a turn or two to monologue about something, but whenever the villains lecture someone, a rebuttal isn't far behind. Respectively, Superman responds to Lex Luthor's monologue with one clear-cut statement, and Spider-Man draws on his own experiences to show that Joker doesn't have a leg to stand on. However, it's ultimately Green Goblin who utterly destroys him verbally.
- The scene in question comes later, but the way Gobby brushes off his standard death threat also warrants mention.
The Joker: Tell me something, my friend — ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight? |
- In the Homestuck fanfic We're All Doomed, a future Gamzee is able to shut down his murderous past self's tirade with one word: HoNk.
- The Digimon Tamers fanfic Digital Prey has Renamon do this a couple times to Stalkermon, though the first time doesn't work out too well for her.
Stalkermon: I must say I am impressed; very few Digimon have managed to evade my Sniper Shot attack, much less several times in a row. You may well prove to be worthy prey yet. |
- In the Portal 2 fanfic Test Of Humanity has Wheatley of all people doing this to G La DOS by literally telling them to "shut up" and then punching them in the eye.
"Shut up." |
- My Little Avengers: During the Final Battle, each of the Avengers does this to their Dark Avenger counterpart — Captain Equestria breaks through the Ghost Flyer's attempted Mind Rape via sheer willpower and delivers a brief World of Cardboard Speech before beating the Flyer unconscious; Firebird and Iron Pony both point out the hypocrisy of Iron Monger and Red Skull's own Hannibal Lectures (with Iron Pony giving his own WOC speech in the process); and when Loki (in the middle of a Villainous Breakdown) is screaming at Thor for defying him, Thor retorts that after everything Loki's done, he has no right to be upset about Thor fighting back.
- At one point during Queen of All Oni, Ikazuki gives a captive Tohru a Hannibal Lecture about how weak humans are, only for Tohru to point out that it was humans who defeated the Oni in the first place, and that even now, they need human bodies to do anything. Ikazuki doesn't take that well.
Film[]
- The Exorcist III. Kinderman interrupts The Gemini Killer's Break Them by Talking by wordlessly interrupting him with a punch to the face that breaks his nose. The Gemini is unperturbed ("Ooooh, a few boos from the peanut gallery.")
- Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in Commando confronts an unusually confident bad guy sitting in a chair moments after his associates have kidnapped Arnie's daughter. "Moments" being the key word here-- Arnie just shoots the guy and chases after the kidnappers in his truck. Oops.
- Most of Arnie's have this. For example:
- Conan the Destroyer.
- Most of Arnie's have this. For example:
Conan: ENOUGH talk! (impales a baddie with a dagger) |
Mr. Drucker: We can cover this up. Kill Adam Gibson. No one needs to know that you're a clone. That I'm a clone. In a few years, I'll have influenced enough Senators to have the laws changed. And then we won't have to lose our brightest minds to death. |
- In the end of Conan the Barbarian, villain Thulsa Doom (played by James Earl Jones) proceeds to tell Conan (played by the afoementioned Arnold) that he is the most important person in the barbarian's life, and without all the things he did to Conan (killing his family, selling him into slavery), he would not have turned out as awesome as he is. Conan's rebuttal? He uses what's left of his father's sword to chop Doom's head off.
- 300: After the Persian messenger has delivered his threats, Leonidas bellows "Punctuated! For! Emphasis!!" and kicks him down a well. More of a Hot-Blooded challenge of "Bring it on!" than a argument, but what do you expect from Spartans?
- Also in the scene where when asked to "lay down your weapons" King Leonidas responds with "Come and get them!" which is allegedly what he laconically said in the historical battle.
- A more eloquent one is given during the Parley between Leonidas and Xerxes; Xerxes threatens to destroy Sparta entirely, and erase its history, saying "The world will never know you existed at all!". Leonidas calmly replies "The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, that even a God-King can bleed".
- The ending to The Dark Knight where the people trapped on two ferries refuse to play along with Prisoner's Dilemma, deciding to not to blow the other ferry up, even with the threat of the Joker blowing them both up at midnight, their decision proving the Joker's Humans Are Bastards viewpoint wrong. Even cooler is that one of the ferries has prisoners on it, and a stereotypical Scary Black Man just says no.
The Joker: We really should stop this fighting. Otherwise, we'll miss the fireworks! |
- Followed shortly by:
Joker: You can't rely on anyone these days, you've gotta do everything yourself, DON'T WE! Luckily I came prepared. [wips out a third, long-distance detonator] It's a funny world we live in. Speaking of which, do you know how I got these scars? |
- The Man with the Golden Gun: Scaramanga does a Not So Different speech to James Bond. Bond replies, "There's a useful four-letter word, and you're full of it."
- Another Bond example: The 2006 Casino Royale gives us this exchange as Dryden is lecturing Bond/mocking him for not having made the two kills necessary to be a 00 agent:
Dryden: "How did he die?" |
- I Robot has an awesome example.
V.I.K.I.: My logic is undeniable. |
- And there's a slightly friendlier example earlier in the movie given to Del Spooner;
Del Spooner: You are a clever imitation of life... can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot take a blank canvas and turn it into a masterpiece? |
- End of Days (1999). "The Man" (Gabriel Byrne) is giving Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger) his temptation speech (he is The Devil after all) and trying to convince him that a satanic apocalypse wouldn't be so bad after all.
The Man: Just tell me what you want. |
The Operative: Do you know what your sin is, Mal? |
- Also:
The Operative: I want to resolve this like civilized men, I am not threatening you, I'm unarmed-- |
- Shortly followed by:
The Operative: I am also wearing full body armor; I am not a moron. |
- A part cut from the final scene:
The Operative: Serenity. You lost everything in that battle. Everything you believed in, everything you fought for…how did you go on? |
- Equilibrium: Once he realises he's beaten, the Big Bad makes a desperate appeal to Preston's newfound emotions:
DuPont: Wait! Wait! Look at me. Look at me. I'm life. I live... I, I breathe... I feel. Now that you know it... can you really take it? Is it really worth the price? |
- Kind of odd to bring up Equilibrium and not reference the scene prior to this one, where after a big "Here's how I just beat you" speech from the big bad:
DuPont: And now you've given me yourself. Calmly. Cooly. Entirely without incident. |
- Star Trek VI: He doesn't actually say it to the villain, but during the Big Bad's Shakespeare-quoting speech, McCoy does seem unimpressed: "I'd give real money if he'd shut up."
- In Girl, Interrupted the antagonist Lisa, whom the others see as a something of a Badass, stalks the heroine Susanna through the labyrinth beneath the mental institution. She gives an increasingly unstable speech about how free she is and how easy it is to push people's buttons.
Lisa: You know, there are too many buttons in the world. There's too many and they're just... There's way too many just begging to be pressed. [....] And it makes me wonder. You know, it really makes me fuckin' wonder, why doesn't anybody ever press mine? Why am I so neglected? Why doesn't anybody reach in and rip out the truth and tell me that I'm a fuckin' whore, or that my parents wish I were dead? |
- And it doesn't stop there.
Susanna: I've wasted a year of my life. Maybe everyone out there's a liar, and maybe the whole world is stupid and ignorant, but I'd rather be in it. I'd rather be fucking in it than down here with you. |
- Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood:
The Leprechaun: (to Emily, who's dangling from a rooftop) For two-thousand years you filthy mortals have tried to steal my riches to satisfy your greedy urges... and it always ends the same, with you begging for your miserable lives. Was it all worth it in the end? One day your kind will learn that the treasure of the Leprechauns-- |
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A vengeful adversary, whose hand Tuco previously shot and permanently disabled, catches Tuco naked in a bathtub. He delivers a long speech about how he tracked the bandit down, and how he had lots of time to learn to shoot with his left hand, which is cut off when Tuco shoots him with a gun hidden under the bathtub bubbles.
Aleera: Anna, my love. It is your blood that shall keep me beautiful. What do you think of that? |
- Taken 's biggest Crowning Moment of Awesome is just that. At the end Bryan gets to the fat sheikh that has bought his kidnapped daughter as a sex slave. He puts a knife on the girl's neck and attempts to negotiate, but Bryan just shoots him in the head before he completes the third word.
- M has a villainous example, as Hans explains to his captors why they're no better than him and have no right to judge him, but they don't listen. This is, in fact, older than the Trope Namer himself.
- In the movie Breakdown, the Big Bad starts to threaten the hero and his wife (the latter having just been rescued from the chest freezer in which the villains left her to suffocate) only to be silenced nine words in when a severely stressed-out Kurt Russell screams "You FUCK!!!" and kicks him in the face.
- In the film-version of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the Mouth of Sauron shows the heroes Frodo's mail-shirt, and laughs and lectures them about how Frodo suffered before he died; in response, Aragorn just chops his head off, then declares to the others that he will not believe it.
- In what has to be one of the most epic demonstrations of this trope possible, the Lord Marshal in The Chronicles of Riddick puts down a naysayer by ripping out his soul and showing it to him before casting it aside. The guy drops dead on the spot and the entire assembly is cowed into submission.
- Also note that as this planet was a religious melting pot, his actions are particularly effective.
- Minority Report features one of these at its climax as the villain tells John Anderton his reason for setting him up to be arrested for murder:
Lamar Burgess: Think about all the lives that little girl (Agatha) has saved! Think about all the lives she will save! That little girl could have saved Sean! |
- Star Wars features one of these when Greedo encounters Han Solo in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Greedo's threat to take the Millennium Falcon over Han's dead body prompts Han to shoot and kill Greedo.
- HAN SHOT FIRST!
- Musn't forget Vader putting Admiral Motti in his place.
- HAN SHOT FIRST!
Motti: Don't try to frighten us with your sorceror's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen datatapes. Or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fortre- |
- In Return of the Jedi, when Luke is hiding and refusing to fight Vader
Vader: You cannot hide forever, Luke. |
- In the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, Grievous tries to intimidate Obi Wan by stating "I've been trained in the Jedi arts by Count Dooku himself", to which Obi Wan answers "good, because I trained the Jedi who killed Count Dooku".
- In Kate Bush's The Line, the Cross and the Curve, toward the end:
Miranda Richardson: We have a lot in common, you and I. It took me years to be rid of those shoes! You are so weak. So stupid. So... |
- John Frankenheimer's Seven Days in May; toward the end, when the conspiracy to overthrow the President is uncovered, General Scott (Burt Lancaster) accuses his former underling, Colonel "Jiggs" Casey (Kirk Douglas), who blew the whistle on him, of betrayal:
Gen. Scott I asked you a question — do you know who Judas was?!? |
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Harry interrupts Mr. Fire's "tough guy" speech with a few bullets to the chest.
- In the final confrontation of Scream 3 the killer rants at Sidney about how her mother brought her death on herself, and how none of this is his fault. She interrupts him in a CMOA, he doesn't take it well.
Sidney: God, why don't stop your whining and get on with it? I've heard all this shit before! |
- The Incredibles: Played somewhat straight when Mr. Incredible throws a wooden log at Syndrome when the latter is revealing his philosophy, motivation, and ultimate plan. Subverted in that Syndrome basically agrees with the sentiment, laughing at himself for falling into the cliché of monologuing.
- Done again at the end of the movie, when Mr. Incredible interrupts Syndrome's We Will Meet Again speech...by throwing a car at his jet.
- The Condemned features a scene where Sociopathic Soldier McStarley attempts to reason with Stone Cold Steve Austin's character Jack Conroy, telling him about the horrors of war he's been forced to endure as a soldier and how he was locked up in prison for a number of years.
Conroy: Sounds like you've had a hard life. |
- Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland: The Jabberwock is giving Alice the speech. She replies, "That's enough chatter," and chops off his tongue.
- Down Periscope has one conducted over underwater telephone.
Admiral Graham: You watch yourself, Dodge, you're addressing a superior officer! |
- Indiana Jones
- Raiders of the Lost Ark has a non-verbal version of this. Big Minion faces Indy, swords a swinging, all intimidating like. Indy shoots him.
- Later subverted in Temple of Doom, when he tries the same, but has lost his gun.
- Indy's father, Henry Sr., gives a brilliant one to a Nazi colonel during Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
Colonel Vogel: Tell me about this miserable little diary of yours. (slaps Henry Sr. with his glove) We have the map, the book is useless and yet you come all the way back to Berlin to get it. Why? (he slaps Henry again) What are you hiding? (he slaps him again) What does the diary tell you that it doesn't tell us? |
- Batman does the same thing. Instead of a gun, he just punches the guy out.
- Might as well provide an actual Hannibal Lecter example: in Red Dragon, Hannibal tries to pull a Hannibal Lecture on Will. Will simply wishes him goodnight and leaves the room.
- Which might be the only way to win (or at least have a draw) against the great Hannibal Lecter; he fancies himself being able to understand anyone, so simply ignoring him and his 'genius' is the best possible retort.
- Emma Russell gets a double helping of this in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The first comes when she is giving her reasons for setting loose King Ghidorah and trying to justify it. Mark simply tells her "You are out of you GODDAMN mind!" The next is when she's trying to justify it to Madison who asks her, "You said we were doing this for Andrew. Do you really think he would've wanted this!?"
- Late in the 2000 X-Men movie, for all of the complexity and uncertainties surrounding the situation, and Magneto's hopes that "Our cause will [become] theirs", Wolverine proves that his plan to use his machine on the UN summit (and the surrounding city of New York) using Rogue, killing her in his own place, still makes him the villain, and for once, old Lehnsherr can't come up with an eloquent speech on the matter.
Magneto: Why do none of you understand what I'm trying to do? Those people, down there — they control our fate, and the fate of every other mutant! [Beat] Well... soon, our fate will be theirs. |
- X-Men: First Class has one of the more unique examples of this. Magneto cuts off Sebastian Shaw's attempt at a Break Them by Talking ... by agreeing with him...but then explaining that his We Can Rule Together offer is never going to happen because "Unfortunately, you killed my mother. He then kills him. Brutally.
- Played with in Mystery Team; Robert interrupts Jason's speech about why they are all going to survive by SHOOTING HIM.
- In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Sam finds himself facing off against Dylan Gould, a human who has agreed to assist the Decepticons in their takeover of Earth, provided that he is unharmed after the takeover (and possibly gets a fair share of the spoils; such as being leader of the human slaves). Sam tries to reason with Dylan, who ignores his pleas and turns on the final Pillar for the Space Bridge, warping Cybertron into Earth's atmosphere. Dylan then kicks Sam to the ground, telling him "You chose a side? You chose wrong!" Moments later, Sam appears with a metal bar in his hands, leading to this final conversation:
Dylan: See that? (Points to Cybertron) I just saved a whole other world! You think you're a hero? You think you're a HERO!?" |
- On a related note, Optimus Prime's final exchange with Sentinel Prime — reproduced below — was widely agreed by fans to be made less impressive by how Optimus is shown punctuating his line by blowing the head off of his defeated enemy as he begs for mercy. Notably, in the novelization, they're described as exchanging pretty much the same words, but only as Sentinel succumbs to the wounds he sustained during the preceding battle.
Sentinel Prime: Optimus. All I ever wanted... was the survival of our race. You must see why I had to betray you... |
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has this:
Gideon Graves: Who do you think you are, Pilgrim? You think you're better than me? Well, I'll tell you want you are. A PAIN IN MY ASS!!! You have any idea how long it took me to get the evil exes' contact information so I could form this stupid league? Like two hours! TWO HOURS!!! (coughs up some quarters) You're not cool enough for Ramona. You're zero! You're nothing! Me? I'm what's hip! I'm what's happening! I'm blowing up right now! |
- From Pan's Labyrinth.
Captain Vidal: Tell my son the time his father died. Tell him. |
- Resident Evil Extinction has this:
Dr. Isaacs: (as the Tyrant) For so long, I thought you were the future; I was wrong, I am the future. |
- Coraline to the Other Mother.
- The 2009 remake of Night of the Demons has a literal example when the protagonist Maddie is cornered in a magically-protected room by Angela (who's possessed by the lead demon), who goes into a rant about how how Maddie and her friends are going to suffer horribly before they're possessed. Maddie's response?
"Shut up, bitch." (slams door in Angela's face) |
- During the Final Battle at the climax of The Matrix, Smith knocks Neo to the floor and proceeds to give a nihilistic rant that concludes with "Why, Mr. Anderson?! Why?! Why do you persist?!" Neo's response is a very simple Call Back to his last conversation with the Oracle that perfectly shoots Smith down.
Neo: Because I choose to. |
- At the climax of The Avengers, Loki is cornered by the Hulk, whose has just finished tearing through half of Loki's army. Loki, furious, seeths that he is a God and not someone to be bullied by some green simpleton who ...and it's about this point where Hulk proceeds to pick him up and smash him around the room like a rubber chicken, leaving Loki a crushed and bloody mess.
Hulk: Puny god. |
- That's actually the second time Loki's been told to shut up. The first time was drama rather than comedy, but still excellent.
Loki: "There are no men like me." |
- Natasha does even bother to tell him to shut up. When he gives a devastating Hannibal Lecture earlier in the film she is visibly shaken and horrified...but then she suddenly walks off in the middle of his speech to leave him spluttering and shouting after her in confusion — she was just playing along to get him to spill important information while gloating.
- In Con Air, Garland "The Marietta Mangler" Greene, consistently made out to be the worst criminal to end up on a plane full of the most dangerous criminals in America, really just sits there and says things for pretty much all of the movie... but he does give us this, when the hero (Nicolas Cage) kills one of the other convicts after a dispute involving not putting a toy bunny back in a box:
Greene: Most murders are crimes of necessity rather than desire. But the great ones, Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy... they did it because it excited them. |
- Greene summarily changes the subject.
- Late in the 2012 thriller The Raven, the killer who's been committing murders built around Edgar Allan Poe's grisly fiction considers it a "profound honor" to talk to him, adding that one outlier was "quite a subtle metaphor, I thought", having come up with that poetic kill on his own. Poe answers that "subtle" nothing, it was nonsense.
- Near the beginning of Speed, Howard Payne (for all his obvious faults, a former policeman himself) sounds not only unimpressed but genuinely disappointed when the cop he's holding hostage responds to his taunts about being ready to die with "Fuck you."
Literature[]
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Puddleglum does this to The Vamp, narrowly preventing her from brainwashing him and the rest of the heroes.
"Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia." |
- Bonus points for Puddleglum, because he managed to achieve a Shut UP, Hannibal epic win even after conceding to everything she'd said.
- Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files does this a lot, though mostly to the mobster Marcone. It should be noted, though, that Harry reacts this way even when Marcone is making a very reasonable offer and being very polite about it. Harry can be kind of a dick himself. Marcone's general response is to snark back and look amused. (Also, when the hero has called up the gangster on three occasions in the books (Death Masks, White Night and Changes) and asked the gangster for help — and received it, on both occasions — well, I'm not sure Marcone can be classed solely as a villain any longer.)
- Absolutely, Marcone is a bad guy. You failed to notice that in each case, Marcone got something HE wanted as well, even if it was only a bit of leverage on Harry. Marcone is criminal scum with style-- and that is all he is.
- One of the more dramatic ones is when Harry gives one of these to Queen Mab at the end of Ghost Story. When she brings him back to life, Harry says he will honor his word, but must do it his way, or else he becomes a mindless thug. In a partial subversion, the recipient is both furious and elated at this statement.
- Shows up from time to time in the Discworld books. Granny Weatherwax delivers one to the Queen of Fairies in Lords and Ladies, and even turns it around by lecturing the fairies themselves.
Go back. You call yourself some kind of goddess and you know nothing, madam, nothing! What don't die can't live. What don't live can't change. What don't change can't learn. The smallest creature that dies in the grass knows more than you. You're right. I'm older. You've lived longer than me but I'm older than you. And better'n you. And, madam, that ain't hard. |
- Carrot also steps on the Big Bad's Break Them by Talking quite beautifully in Men At Arms by just walking up to him and impaling him with a sword.
- This is one of Pratchett's Big Ideas: in the book, Vimes thinks: "If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because 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. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word."
- And how can we forget Death in Hogfather?
You can't do this, there are rules! |
- Nanny Ogg gets one near the end of Wyrd Sisters, when she smashes the Dutchess on the back of the head with a cauldron mid-speech.
Nanny: She does like to go on, doesn't she? |
- Vimes to Carcer Dun at the end of Night Watch:
"The machine ain't broken, Carcer. The machine is waiting for you. The city will kill you dead. The proper wheels'll turn. It'll be fair, I'll make sure of that. Afterward you won't be able to say you you didn't have a fair trial." |
- Played with in A Hat Full of Sky, where Tiffany mentally prepares a long and scathing retort to Anagramma chastising her for missing an opportunity to show up Granny Weatherwax, but decides the other girl just wouldn't get it. So Tiffany settles for giving Anagramma a meaningful smirk and telling her "Oh, shut up."
- Gandalf does this to Saruman in The Two Towers, and destroys Saruman's staff for good measure.
- Theoden does this to Saruman right before Gandalf does; Gandalf just has a bit more oomph to it.
- In The Return of the King Gandalf is being lectured by Sauron's messenger, who tells Gandalf "Those are the terms. Take them or leave them!" Gandalf, knowing that the messenger is lying, saying "These we will take!" and then zaps the messenger and takes Frodo's gear.
- Detailed further in this trope's quote page is the gem from the climax of Blade of Tyshalle.
- In Bones of the Hills, when the Mongols have razed the Assassins' fortress, the Old Man of the Mountains attempts to break Genghis Khan by telling him he doesn't understand anything, that he only knows destruction, and that nobody will remember him after he's gone. The gurkhan just laughs and orders Tsubodai to kill him.
- In Red Dragon, Will Graham comes about as close as anyone gets to giving Hannibal Lecter himself this treatment. Granted, he says it out loud to a written letter, but it shows exactly what he thinks about having the same motivations as a deranged serial killer.
- Earlier in the book, he calls one of Lecter's bluffs by walking away when he tries to get a lecture rolling.
- In Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card, Achilles has blackmailed Bean into coming onto Achilles' home turf unarmed. He proceeds to pontificate about his immeasurable genius and overall badassery until he realizes he's been betrayed by his 'compatriots'. Suddenly Bean has a gun and Achilles has a knife.
Achilles: You can't just kill a man in cold blood, no matter how much you hate him. It's not in you to do that. |
- Earlier, Achilles tries to ransom Bean's test tube babies, using one as a shield saying he wouldn't dare hurt it. Bean crushes it beneath his foot
- In "Felidae" by Akif Pirincci, Francis delivers this to Pascal/Claudandus shortly before their final battle.
Francis: 'Everyone wants to rule the world', I said, filled with sorrow. 'Really, absolutely everyone. That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's always about in the end. And every species believes that it's number one. Every individual is firmly convinced that he or she alone has the right to ascend to the throne and issue orders to get rid of others. And in reality everyone is fooling themselves, because up there on the throne it's lonely and cold. We don't have anyting more to say to one another, my friend. I understand the reasons why you unleashed this nightmare, and I don't want to conceal from you either that I harbour certain feelings of sympathy for your remorselessly cruel plans. But not at this price, no, not at this terrible price! I will fight you and do everything in my power to destroy your life's work. This I swear as sure as I am standing here. And I'm going to begin by deleting this unspeakable program. I'm sorry...' |
- In War of the Dreaming by John C. Wright, the heroes deliver a magnificent rebuttal against a Physical God insisting that Humans Are Bastards: Azrael revokes his power, and tells him to sit down and shut up.
- In one of the most surprising examples of this trope, Aibileen, of all people, interrupts Miss Hilly's attempts to threaten her at the end of The Help and then proceeds to blackmail her:
Miss Hilly: I won't tolerate liars. |
- In the novelisation of Iron Man 2, Tony throws Ivan's words about being a thief and murderer back in the latter's face by pointing out that the latter has himself taken lives.
- In the Honor Harrington novels:
- Michael Oversteegen gives an absolutely brilliant one to the Mesan Navy commander in Crown of Slaves.
"At least, Sir, the uniform of the Queen of Manticore has never been sold t' the service of whoremasters, murderers, pedophiles, sadists, and perverts. I suppose, however, that those of you who choose t' serve in the navy of Mesa feel comfortable amid such company." |
- Aivars Terekhov gets a similar one in The Shadow of Saganami.
"And honesty compels me to add that neither I nor any other Manticoran officer have conspired with genetic slavers, pirates, terrorists, and mass murderers to commit acts of war on the sovereign territories of at least two independent star nations. Your government has done precisely that. My responsibility to see to it that those unprovoked and murderous assaults end now overrides any responsibility I may have towards your personnel." |
- Mara Jade gives an awesome one in I Jedi, mockingly comparing the villain-of-the-week to Darth Vader and Palpatine.
- Barra the Pict pulls this trope on God Himself in Jericho Moon, shaking off the effects of a psychic "The Reason You Suck" Speech to axe the guy who's channeling Old-Testament Yahweh's energies from the Ark of the Covenant.
- Near the end of the Time Scout series, Kit Carson shuts up Senator Caddrick then goes back to bed.
- Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: In the book Under The Radar, the Prophet Harold Evanrod gives his followers of the pedophile polygamist sect Heaven On Earth a speech about how the outsiders who have invaded their homes are doomed to damnation and that the Heaven On Earth people are righteous and will prevail. Kathryn Lucas responds, "Cut the bullshit, you creep, and do what this guy tells you, or you'll be picking your brains off your upper lip." That makes him shut up.
- In the Dale Brown novel Shadows of Steel, Admiral Tufayli tries to call Madcap Magician killers and doesn't live to regret it. In Shadow Command, Leonid Zevitin tries to lecture Patrick McLanahan on becoming a killer because It's Personal. He doesn't live to get away with it.
- In the original novel of Dr. No, Bond responds to Dr. No's speech about how awesome it is to be The Unfettered by saying he's not surprised:
It's the old business of thinking you're the King of England, or the President of the United States, or God. The asylums are full of them. The only difference is that instead of being shut up, you've built your own asylum and shut yourself up in it. |
- Bond has a similar line in the movie adaptation — "World domination. The same old dream. Our asylums are full of people who think they're Napoleon... or God." — and there's what can only be a Shout-Out to both in the reboot movie Spectre, but without the unexpectedly detailed debate about the idea of a ruthless quest for personal power.
Live Action TV[]
- In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Prometheus", there is a wonderful exchange between Simmons and Conrad after they stole the Prometheus:
Simmons: Bridge to engine room, come in. |
- There's also this exchange between Heru'ur and O'Neill:
Heru'ur: You DARE DEFY ME? |
- In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Lie to Me", Buffy's old friend is going to hand her and a bunch of innocent people over to Spike in exchange for being made a vampire. He gives Buffy a long speech about how he's dying and in pain. Buffy listens, and tells him she feels sorry for him... but if he goes through with it, she'll kill him herself. Commence ass-kicking.
- This is something of a speciality of Buffy's. Buffy's sass has won out over even the most carefully constructed Break Them by Talking.
- Season Three, "Amends":
The First: I’m not a demon, little girl. I am something you cannot even conceive. The First Evil. Beyond sin, beyond death. I am the thing the darkness fears. You’ll never see me but I am everywhere. Every being, every thought, every drop of hate - |
- One of her boyfriends picks up on it too. Recurring human villain Ethan Rayne walks away while delivering a lecture on why Buffy can't kill him. He walks straight into Riley, who arrests him.
- Subverted in the scene where Willow cuts Warren's excuses with "bored now" and kills him. The subversion is that by doing so, she becomes a bigger villain than he.
"Looks good, doesn't it? They're trapped in here. Terrified, meat for the beast, and there's nothing they can do but wait. That's all they've been doing for days, waiting to be picked off, having nightmares about monsters that can't be killed. But I don't believe in that. I always find a way. I'm the thing that monsters have nightmares about. And right now, you and me are gonna show 'em why. |
- There are probably a lot of examples in Firefly, but this one from "The Train Job" stands out:
Crow: Keep the money. Use it to buy a funeral. It doesn't matter where you go or how far you fly. I will hunt you down, and the last thing you see will be my blade. |
- Also in "Train Job"
Lund: The In'e'pen'ents were a bunch of inbred, cowardly piss-pots. Should've been killed off of every world spinnin'. |
- Similarly, in "War Stories", when Zoe deprives Niska of his speech when she chooses to save Wash instead of Mal.
Zoe: Him. Oh, I'm sorry, you were going to ask me to choose, right? Do you want to finish? |
- Another in War Stories, where it is subverted; Mal has to invoke a Shut Up Hannibal from his crew:
Zoe, Wash, and Jayne come across Mal's struggle with his tormentor. Jayne raises his pistol, but Zoe stops him. |
- In the pilot, where Dobson is holding a gun to River's head, the Fed starts in on what he's going to do if anyone moves. Mal, who is just heading aboard the ship, ends the speech by shooting him in the head. Without even breaking stride.
- In Scrubs, Cox's therapist gave him a Break Them by Talking after Cox constantly made fun of him instead of listening. It went about something like why Cox is how he is and how pathetic and sad he really is behind his Jerkass Facade. Dr. Cox replied with crying like a baby in an overly sarcastic manner, saying "Give me a break" and leaving.
- Later Laverne gives Cox one, so it goes both ways.
- Doctor Who: in "Remembrance of the Daleks" the Doctor got what may be the greatest example of this yet.
Davros: I will transform Skaro's sun into a source of unimaginable power and with that power at my disposal the Daleks shall sweep away Gallifrey and its impotent quorum of Time Lords! The Daleks shall become lords of time! We shall become all- |
- Another one between the Doctor and Davros is in "Journey's End", the last episode of season four of the new series:
Davros: It is time we talked, Doctor, after so very long... |
- And earlier, after Davros tries another lecture:
The Doctor: After all this time, after everything we saw, everything we lost, I have only one thing to say to you... BYE! |
- "Planet of Fire" features this wonderful exchange when Peri first encounters the Master:
The Master: I am the Master! |
- Especially good as he was trying to hypnotize her at the time. It is also the only time The Master ever fails to hypnotize a human being straight out, and no reason for this is ever given. Apart from the fact that she can shout just as loud as he can.
- Another example is in the episode, "The Long Game", when the Ninth Doctor is captured by the Editor of an evil news channel, secretly controlling the thoughts of every single human.
The Editor: Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave, if he doesn't know he's enslaved? |
- There's a very good one in 'Dalek':
The Doctor: If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself. |
- A non-verbal villain-on-villain one occurs in "End of Time Part 2". The Master is gloating about how his Turn-Every-Human-Into-The-Master machine can now be used as a Transform-The-Returned-Time-Lords-Into-The-Master machine... and upon hearing this, the Time Lord President silently uses his Glowing Metal Gauntlet to undo the machine's effect, returning every human to their original state.
- In episode 6 of The Reign of Terror, Robespierre is arrested. He is about to make a speech when he is shot in the jaw.
- Let's not forget the first confrontation with the Dalek Emperor in The Parting of the Ways. The Daleks begin shouting at the Doctor after he 'blasphemes' to which he turns round, shouts 'SHUT UP!' and says 'Sorry about that, where were me?'
- The Headmaster delivers a good one to Son of Mine in Family of Blood. It ends the discussion and Son of Mine has to pull out his weapon.
Son of Mine: War is coming. In foreign fields, war of the whole wide world, with all your boys falling down in the mud. Do you think they will thank the man who taught them it was glorious? |
- Rory Williams gets A Shut Up Hitler moment. Then puts him in a cupboard.
- House: Cole finally earns House's respect when he counters House's mind games by punching him in the jaw.
- On Prison Break, after Mahone's Heel Face Turn his son is killed out of retribution. Mahone captures the man who did it, gets insanely brutal in torturing him until he calls Mahone's wife and apologizes, then leads him to a dock tied to a bunch of weights. The killer starts a speech to Mahone about how they aren't any different, only for Mahone to push him into the water after just a few words.
- In the Stargate Verse, the heroes are way too Genre Savvy to put up with the hammy villains. O'Neill is probably the exemplar here.
- A double Shut UP, Hannibal from the "Man in the Bear" episode of Bones involving, appropriately enough, a cannibal:
Cannibal: (to Booth) You don't understand; it's a spiritual right to share the life force... |
- Also Bones. In the episode The Man in the Morgue, set in New Orleans, the killer starts going into a harangue about the power of Voodoo. Bones shuts him up by poking him in the eye.
Bones: I've noticed that very few people are scary once they've been poked in the eye. |
- In The Man on Death Row while Bones and Booth face the revealed killer in prison, he begins a rant about how their actions have ensured the success of his plans and his continued life. When they turn to leave, he tries to stop them so he can continue his monologue... only for Brennan to break his arm on the table.
- In the third volume finale of Heroes, Sylar takes over the Company building in one long, drawn-out attempt to push its few remaining inhabitants over the edge and prove that they're all as bad as he is. It eventually reaches the point where makes an over-the-phone offer to let them go free if Claire will just be a dear and shoot Angela. Claire, enraged, threatens to kill him if she gets out alive.
Sylar: (feigning shock) From cheerleader to stone-cold killer! Who's the monster now? |
- An episode of CSI: Miami ended with a serial-killing sniper being arrested and asking if Caine wants to know why he did it. Caine declines, not wanting to know the intent because the man's a sick fuck, and orders the officers to take him away.
- Even better, he threw the guy's real motives back in his face with a Lecture To Hannibal:
Caine: Because you're evil, you enjoy death, I hope you enjoy your own. |
- In a crossover with CSI New York, a psychopath, after going on a killing spree in two states, thanks Mac for "looking after him" when no one else would. Mac tells him to shove it, saying that many people have had worse lives and didn't turn out evil.
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent: Det. Robert Goren's Arch Nemesis Nicole Wallace taunts Goren about his schizophrenic mother and his neglectful, philandering father on various occasions, only to have Goren turn the tables on her each time. In "Anti-Thesis" and "A Person of Interest", Goren switches the topic to Nicole's sexually abusive father. In "Great Barrier", the following exchange takes place when Goren accuses Nicole of murdering her own daughter:
Nicole: Who helped you concoct that theory, your mother? |
- Battlestar Galactica Reimagined: Lee is confronting Phelan, the head of the fleet's Black Market. The black market gets things such as food and medical supplies to people who need them. But Phelan has also pressured people into giving up their children to be child prostitutes as payment. Often for the medicines. Phelan gives Lee a Hannibal Lecture ("It's hard to see the high ground when we're all standing in the mud...") and Lee points a gun at him. Phelan is completely unfazed, convinced that Lee won't shoot as they are not alike... and Lee shoots him in the chest. He then tells Phelan's cronies that the child prostitution and the withholding of medicines stops NOW. If it doesn't, he'll know. And he'll be back.
- At the end of "Mr. Monk is on the Run", Monk confronts his arch-nemesis Dale the Whale, who is in prison due to Monk's actions. Dale gloats at Monk, telling him that while he (Dale) is in jail, it's Monk who is a prisoner, trapped by is own hang-ups and neurosis. Monk looks at Dale, then simply turns his back and walks away.
Dale: Hey! Come back here! I'm not finished! |
- Smallville: In the episode "Lara", Clark Kent gets exposed to kryptonite and falls on his face. A government agent approaches him with handcuffs and rants about how aliens are all dangers to national security, only for Clark to pop up and deck him.
- In the episode "Spell", the evil witch Isobel mocks Clark, ranting about how his powers are nothing compared to her reality-bending magic, only for Clark to incinerate her spellbook with a shot of heat vision.
- Lionel Luthor gets at least one too. In one Saw-like episode, called "Mercy", a crazy employee is forcing Lionel to go through an obstacle course to fight for his life while boasting over a loudspeaker about how Lionel will probably die instead of escaping. At one point, Lionel's captor asks "So have you learned anything yet?", to which Lionel sneers "Yeah. You talk too much. Shut up," right before successfully completing the task at hand and moving to the next stage of the obstacle course.
- Subverted in the episode "Supergirl". Gordon Godfrey is giving a villainous speech about how humans are frail and pathetic and that heroes cannot accomplish anything when Clark tells him to cut the crap and tell him where Lois Lane is being held prisoner. Godfrey ignores him and continues where he left off, causing Clark to lose his temper.
- In the final episode of Angel both hero and villain get a turn at this. First, in the midst of their climactic fight, Angel lectures Hamilton on how people who don't care about other people will never understand people like Angel, who do. Hamilton dismisses this in five brilliant words: "Yeah, but we won't care". Then, as the fight continues, and Hamilton gains the upper hand over the vampire, he begins to boast about his own awesomeness, ending with: "The power of the Senior Partners runs through my blood!" Angel picks himself up, and smiles almost pitying at him before saying "Can you pick out the one word you probably shouldn't have said?" and proceeding to drink from him, gaining a massive power boost. And then, with his Game Face still on, he gets another perfect one-liner after draining him. "Wow, you really are full of it." (licks his finger). There is one final one at the end of their fight, when Hamilton boasts: "We are legion. We are forever." Angel breaks Hamilton's grip, and proceeds to pound him saying "Then I guess forever, just got a hell of a lot shorter" ending it with one final punch that break's Hamilton's neck.
- In the final episode of The Wire, when Cheese is making a speech about how the Prop Joe and Marlo had had "their time" and now it is his time to take over. Well, he would have got to that part had Slim Charles not decided to make "his time" quite short.
- Done very bluntly in "Private Plane" from Blackadder Goes Forth — on being caught by Baron von Richthoven, Captain Flashheart appears to listen to the Baron's gloating speech for about a minute before suddenly shooting him dead mid-sentence with the observation "What a poof!"
- Possibly to the point of being a subversion, since the Baron's speech is more along the lines of "Wow, I finally get to meet the great Lord Flashheart! As men of honour, we'll surely have so much in common and will have a glorious and dignified duel with each other!" than a Break Them by Talking, thus making the Lord look like a bit of a dishonourable prick.
- Dean Winchester isn't about to fall for "that sympathy-for-the-devil crap," not even when the actual Devil tries it on him. But then, Dean is a simple man and figures that if someone unleashes a supernatural plague that turns people into monsters and thereby causes the complete collapse of civilisation as we know it, then no matter how much he tries to argue that Humans Are Bastards and that God was unfair to him, he's still what is commonly known as "the bad guy."
- Jessie, the anti-anti-christ tells the Demon who is possessing his mom to sit down and shut up, who was in the process of telling him that everyone he ever knew lied to him. This is after Sam tried telling the truth. After Sam tells him the truth, Jessie banishes the demon from his mother. Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the little guy too.
- The Mentalist: Watching Patrick Jane in action has made his colleagues less awed by others doing a Sherlock Scan.
Dr. Daniel: You're ambitious, more than you let anyone see. A girl from nowheresville, desperate to make it big, but you're worried that you'll always be smalltown, smalltime, you haven't got what it takes, and that's why you're so shut down to everything but this job. |
- Funny, because Daniel's speech closely mirrors the original Hannibal Lecture.
- Criminal Minds: At the end of "100", partway through the epic final fight between Hotch and George Foyet, they've reached the living room, and Foyet has Hotch dazed on the floor. He pulls out his knife, but then menaces, "When I'm finished with you, I'm going to find that little bastard son of yours, and show him both of his dead parents. And tell him it's all your fault, and-" That's Foyet's last conjunction, as Hotch leaps off the floor and tackles him, Morgan-style, mid-sentence. Which is a preamble to the show's ultimate What You Are in the Dark moment: Hotch beating Foyet to death with his bare hands.
- A rare (sort of) villain-to-hero example occures in Babylon 5, episode "Comes the inquisitor". After a lengthly questioning/torture/ Secret Test of Character by the titular inquisitor his inerviewee Delenn decides to feed him some of his own medicine and deconstruct his cruel and nihilistic performance. It doesn't come out too well (or perhaps it does come out too well, it's just that he is not inclined to allow it to pass).
Delenn: "You are a creature who has received pain and given pain, and taken too much joy in its application. You have aspired to dreams and been disappointed because you are not strong enough, or worthy enough, or righteous enough, so you lash out at anyone who believes they can make a difference, because it reminds you of your own failure. You have to prove they're just as bad, just as flawed as you are. Am I close, Mr. Sebastian?" |
- In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Skin of Evil", Picard gives an epic speech to Armus, the malicious being who murdered Tasha Yar and tortured Riker and gloated about it to a trapped Counselor Troi:
Picard: You say you are true evil? Shall I tell you what true evil is? It is to submit to you. It is when we surrender our freedom, our dignity, instead of defying you. |
- Star Trek: Voyager had an Evil vs. Evil variant with two Borg cubes hailing Species 8472 in one of the shortest (and possibly funniest) teaser openings ever.
Borg: "We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is fu--" —[Species 8472 promptly obliterates]] both cubes.]
|
- A recent storyline on Neighbours had Susan stalked by someone who turned out to be her University lecturer, who blamed her for failing him when he was a student teacher at Erinsborough High. Despite the hell he had put her in recent weeks, Susan refused to take any crap from him, telling him that he had no one to blame but himself for repeated failures to learn from his mistakes.
- Tsukasa from Kamen Rider Decade is a master of this, to the point it happens at least once per story arc, normally leading to his Catch Phrase "I'm just a passing through Kamen Rider, remember that!"
- NCIS delivered a very effective one to Abby's Stalker with a Crush without saying a word. As he's being interrogated at the end, the stalker keeps addressing the two-way mirror, taunting Abby with claims that they're drawn to each other — "Right now, you can't take your eyes off me, can you?" Gibbs responds to this by leaving the interrogation room, reaching into the other, and flipping on the lights, revealing that nobody's there watching. Loser stalker doesn't take it well.
- In The Nanny episode "Sunday in the Park with Fran", Maxwell Sheffield and C.C. Babcock, his business partner, try to curry favor with theatre critic Frank Bradley by having Maxwell's daughter Gracie go on a play-date with the critic's son, Frank Jr., even though Gracie insists she doesn't like him and Fran supports her. During the play-date, Fran hits Frank Jr. with a baguette because he was bullying Gracie, so Maxwell arranges for a meeting with Frank Sr. for Fran to apologize. But when he becomes incredibly hostile towards Fran, Maxwell decides enough is enough:
Maxwell: You know, Frank, I'm getting bloody tired of kissing up to you... |
- Glee: Will gets a moment after Sue bursts into the Glee club's room with a trophy in her hand, loudly talking about how she'll turn it into a trophy room. After she gives a little rant about how they have no chance at Regionals, Will walks up to her, grabs the trophy out of her hands, then throws it against the room's wall, smashing it to pieces. Shut UP, Hannibal! at its finest.
- On one episode of Blue Bloods, a serial rapist is holding Erin hostage at gunpoint and tells Frank to Put Down His Gun and Step Away. Frank shoots him in the head in mid-sentence.
- Max ("452") cuts short an opponent's pre-fight monologue in the series finale of Dark Angel.
Genetically Engineered Thug: 452... |
- On Justified the increasingly unstable mobster Quarles approaches Raylan in a bar and tells him that he is going to kill him sometime in the future when Raylan least expects him. Raylan's response is to pull out his gun and fire a shot into the ceiling.
Raylan: Why wait? |
Manhwa[]
- Ivan's reactions to Temozarela's fallen angels' mindraping speech in Priest are basically this with extreme prejudice.
Music[]
- Occurs in the title track of Oingo Boingo's Only A Lad, in response to Johnny's excuses for the crimes he commited in his life:
Hey there Johnny you really don't fool me |
Professional Wrestling[]
- Evil vs. Evil version, The Undertaker, involved in a feud with his his Kayfabe brother, Kane. Undertaker is considered one of the greatest at psychological warfare in wrestling, and in fourteen years of fueding on and off, Kane's never defeated him. Kane's finally started getting the upper hand on Taker, however, and countered his hannibal lecture.
Undertaker: You have never been worthy and you never will be. You are not worthy to carry that championship. You are not worthy of the power you steal with the fear you inspire. And most of all, you are unworthy of being my brother. Now you listen, and you listen good. I taught you everything you know about evil, but I didn't teach you everything I know. So when the mood strikes you, I'll be waiting. And when the fight starts, its always going to end the same way. |
- Obviously, there's a lot of Narm and Narm Charm involved, but still a borderline Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- As both a villain and a hero, the Rock did this over and over, baiting his victims into it. One example is of his epic feud with Hollywood Hogan. Rocky asks Hulk if he really believed the fans didn't deserve him, and while Hulk answers...
Rock: "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!" |
- Then to Chris Jericho, upon asking his name.
Jericho: "I already told you, my name is-" |
- Gave a really epic one to Michael Cole when he returned from retirement.
- Twice so far!
- Gave a really epic one to Michael Cole when he returned from retirement.
- Michael Cole, the night after the Elmination Chamber where Jerry lost to Miz, Michael crosses the Moral Event Horizon by telling Jerry he let his recently deceased mother down by losing. Jerry finally snaps and grabs Cole by the shirt and pulling him in close. He proceeds to tell Cole to never mention his mother again and then proceeds to challenge Cole to put his money where his mouth is and face him at Wrestlemania. Cole quickly shows his true colors and flees the arena.
- On May 16th, he starts again on Jerry after signing for a match with Lawler. Lawler replies with this trope...and masterfully turns it into a Batman Gambit to alienate Cole from his own Dragon.
- On Smack Down's Sept. 16, 2011 episode, Edge makes a guest appearance. Cody Rhodes comes out and does his usual mockery and speeches about ugliness and so forth, until Edge declares he doesn't have to take this and walks to the back, leaving Cody in the ring furiously ranting that he wasn't done.
- If you try to give Shawn Michaels a Break Them by Talking, he'll just get fed up and kick you in the face.
- During their 2010 feud, CM Punk asks Rey Mysterio, Jr. why Rey is opposing him when Punk is on a mission against drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Rey replies that it's simple: while Rey agrees that Drugs Are Bad, Punk is an obnoxious jerk who keeps forcing his message down people's throats, assaulting people from behind, and subjecting them to 3-on-1 beatdowns.
Real Life[]
- An interesting Real Life occurrance occurred on Indian reservations in The Thirties. The Nazis thought Indians had little loyalty to America and would help them. In addition, the Nazis saw Indians as lost Aryans. Further, they saw their plans for the Jews as little different than if Indians killed all the white people, which they figured Indians wanted to do. So a lot of Nazi propaganda was distributed on reservations by German anthropologists (also collecting intelligence in case Indian languages were used as codes; they were). The result? Possibly the most epic Shut UP, Hannibal ever: Tribes declared (or renewed declarations of war from the last time) war on Germany even before the United States did. Fascist and Nazi ideas were outlawed. And when the United States finally did declare war, Indians from their mid-teens all the way to their forties signed up, lying about their age when need be.
- "To the German Commander: NUTS!"
- During a speech in his presidential campaign in San Diego, Ronald Reagan was being interrupted by a heckler insulting him. Reagan simply said "Oh, shut up!" and the crowd gave a standing ovation.
- ¿Por qué no te callas? ("Why don't you shut up?") — King Juan Carlos of Spain to Hugo Chavez at the 2007 Ibero-American Summit
- During a Frank Zappa concert, a heckler shouted to a police officer "Take off that uniform before it's too late!", to which Zappa replies "Everyone in this room is wearing a uniform and don't kid yourself". When the heckler tries stirring things up again, Zappa simply tells him "You'll hurt your throat, stop that!" The conversation can be heard at the end of "The Little House I Used To Live In", off his Burnt Weenie Sandwich album.
Theatre[]
- The play Custer concludes with an example that Breaks The Fourth Wall. Set in Purgatory more than a century after the Battle of Little Big Horn, it mostly consists of the souls of George Armstrong Custer and his subordinates arguing over who was to blame for their utter defeat and annihilation at the hands of the Sioux. The characters have been fighting over relatively minor matters when, without skipping a beat, Custer looks out at the audience and declares that while it's easy to criticize him, the audience members are at that moment sitting on land that they have been able to safely inhabit thanks to the very "manifest destiny" doctrine that Custer died for. The implication is, if you don't like it, go live somewhere else, but otherwise, you have no right to criticize me.
Toys[]
- Matoro tells Makuta Teridax to shut up in Bionicle. He doesn't.
Makuta: Why so quiet? We have seen death and destruction today with the promise of much more to come. We have seen heroes behaving like villains. You yourself have done things even I would be reluctant to do. It is a time for celebration. |
Video Games[]
- Mega Man Zero: Zero gave Dr. Weil one of these. Dr. Weil is boasting how a heroic reploid like Zero wouldn't be able to harm a human. Zero responds by telling him he's actually not quite that noble and he's always only fought for the people he believed in and not some nebulous "defender of humanity" title, and as far as Zero's concerned, Dr. Weil's just another maniac that needs to be put down. What's particularly delicious is that Zero is not a Reploid, and that he was not necessarily constructed with the Three Laws to begin with — what with being built by Doctor Wily and all.
- There's also when Weil is gloating to Zero about how a reploid could never understand that joy he's experiencing of controlling all the Reploids in the world. Zero replies by saying that he doubts that most "sensible humans" could understand either.
- Axl interrupts the final boss speech of Mega Man X 8 with a bullet to the chest. "Don't forget, he's the enemy!" Perhaps his sole redeeming moment in the series.
- Devil May Cry 2 has one of the most epic Shut UP, Hannibal demonstrated here.
- While we're on Devil May Cry, who can forget Nero's verbal SUH to Sanctus: "Go blow yourself."
- The usual response of Yuri Hyuga to a Break Them by Talking can be summed up as "Oh, don't give me that crap." Then he beats the hell out of today's unholy abomination.
- In Covenant, Rasputin, facing down Yuri in his Amon fusion, simply calls him "Demon!", to which Yuri-as-Amon responds to by gathering energy and proceeding to punch Rasputin out.
- Even better was the scene just before the battle with Nicolai possessed by Astaroth. After Astaroth rants about his intention to destroy the world, Yuri asks him for a favour. When Astaroth asks him what it is, Yuri says "I wish you'd shove it. You know where." The ensuing silence is incredibly satisfying.
- In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, an optional piece of dialogue between Republic soldier Carth Onasi and Mandalorian Canderous Ordo starts with Canderous asking Carth what battles he had fought in during the Mandalorian Wars. Carth replies that he prefers not to dwell upon the horrors of war. Incredulous, Canderous replies that he would have thought that a fellow warrior would have understood the glory found in battle. This is apparently one of Carth's BerserkButtons, as he angrily snaps back he isn't a warrior, he's a soldier, in an awesome Take That: "Warriors conquer and enslave, they prey upon the weak. Soldiers defend the innocent, mostly from warriors." Canderous snarks that Carth must tell himself that every night so he can sleep. Carth responds by asking Canderous what that Mandalorian code means when they lose, "y'know, like you did against us". Canderous fires back that the Republic had the advantages of more ships, more troops and the Jedi, and that the clans still nearly won. Carth asks him if he tells himself that every night so he can sleep. It's a SUH tennis match.
- A rather amusing one in Knights of the Old Republic. Normally you cannot take Bastila with you on Korriban, however there are intact scenes and dialogues that can be activated with a mod. One of these has you learning of the Sith temples. Bastila begins to comment when she is sharply cut off.
- Done in Kingdom Hearts II when Xemnas tries a Break Them by Talking on the heroes about how he had no other choice than to commit the actions that he did, only for Sora to say "Give it a rest! You're Nobodies. You don't even exist. You're not sad about anything!" Xemnas then laughs and confirms this.
- Riku delivers another Shut UP, Hannibal in that scene when Xemnas asks the heroes why they considered Organization XIII to be an enemy: "That's simple. It's because you mess up our worlds."
- There's actually a better example with Riku in Chain of Memories, just before the final boss when Ansem tries to tell to him that he's irrational for accepting the Darkness in his heart but not Ansem... His response? (Foreshadowed by the fact that Riku has constantly shown an ability to actually smell people's auras).
- Riku delivers another Shut UP, Hannibal in that scene when Xemnas asks the heroes why they considered Organization XIII to be an enemy: "That's simple. It's because you mess up our worlds."
Riku: Wrong. The truth is... you just really stink. |
- Done in Kingdom Hearts II twice, when Sephiroth tells Cloud to give in to the dark side and Cloud literally tells him "Shut up."
- Don't forget the first game, there Sora for the first time fights Maleficent. Before the battle she begins to rant about how nothing can stop her now from conquering the universe. Sora responded by telling her "We'll stop it! After comming this far, there's no way we're gonna let that happen!". Maleficent didn't take the challenge well.
- In Assassin's Creed, Majd Uddin attempts to give Altair a Not So Different speech about how it feels to hold the life or death of someone else in your hands. Altair's response is to say he's learned what happens to those who elevate themselves above others, and then stabs him in the neck.
- However, it's horribly inverted in the game. You must listen to every target's speech in an Unskippable Cutscene — both before and after the assassination.
- From System Shock 2, delivered by the Soldier, the main character, to SHODAN, the villainous computer system:
SHODAN: I don't understand... how could you have done this? You weren't meant to be so important... and now you think to destroy me? How dare you, insect? How dare you interrupt my ascendance? You are nothing. A wretched bag of flesh... what are you, compared to my magnificence? But it is not to late... can you not see the value in our friendship? Imagine the powers I can give you, human. The cybernetic implants I gave you, were simply toys. If I desired, I could improve you... transform you into something more efficient. Join me, human, and we can rule... together. |
- It is worth noting that this is the only time the protagonist speaks in the entire game, to amplify the awesome.
- In Fable II, in the final confrontation with Lucien, when he launches into a tirade about why he became a villain, you can shut him up at any time by shooting and killing him. If you don't, eventually Reaver will get tired of Lucien's rant and kill him for you.
- In Oblivion, when the protagonist finally meets Big Bad Mankar Camoran, the villain launches into a gloating speech...which the protagonist can end at any time with an attack.
- In episode 2 of The Walking Dead: The Final Season, Clementine tells Lilly to never mention Lee's name again while having an arrow pointed at Lilly. Lilly says his name, but Clem immediately and angrily interrupts her.
- In Killer 7, after the stylish duel between Dan Smith and Curtis Blackburn, the latter tries to justify what he does with the empty bodies of the girls he sells to the organs' black market saying things like "Everyone should have a hobby after retirement" and "All I ever wanted was to shed a light in my life". Dan, his old partner and the one with the least moral issues in the Killer 7 syndicate, is visibly disgusted, and after saying "Trying to die in style? Gimme a break, you sick old man!" shoots a lever that gives Curtis the same treatment he gave to the girls whose bodies are hanging up in the corridor as trophies.
- In the Game Boy Color version of Rainbow Six, after John Brightling defends his plan to spread a virus across all of human civilization by introducing it at the Sydney Olympics by saying "At least my way, the animals would have survived," one of the members says "This way everyone survives," absent from the PC version.
- Happens a couple times in Tales of Symphonia: though the best one is probably right before the final boss, where the Big Bad is trying to give a Freudian Excuse for his actions.
Mithos: It's because we couldn't do that! That I... we... wanted a place of our own! |
- In Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World, the final boss does this to you while the heroes try to convert him if you let the battle conversations go on long enough. Though he's not exactly the villain of the piece. He actually does it about 5 times in the conversation, each time telling the heroes that he doesn't want to hear what they're saying, that he just wants to kill them, but the end of it has the most "SHUT UP!" about it:
Emil: I won't die. The courage you taught me spurred me on. We'll make sure that this world doesn't turn into a demonic realm! |
- In SD Snatcher, the master Snatcher is lecturing Gillian on how it's plan will succeed and snatchers will destroy the humans. Gillian's response? "No way, dickhead! Not when Gillian Seed is alive!!".
- Happens quite often in Super Robot Wars:
- In episodes which feature Zeta Gundam, this is the heroes' usual answer to Paptimus Scirocco and his Utopia Justifies the Means mentality. An example from Super Robot Wars Compact:
Scirocco: By averting that Colony Drop, you wasted a good chance of getting rid of all those fools whose souls are bound by gravity. |
- And in Alpha 3, during the re-enactment of Gundam Seed's last battle, Rau Le Crueset proceeds to give the Alpha Numbers the same "The Reason You Suck" Speech that destabilized Kira in the canon series, telling them that Humans Are Bastards and that all their efforts are doomed to failure. In response, the heroes basically tell him that he's full of crap.
- In Advance, a similar exchange occurs between the Londo Bell and Evil Chancellor Haman Kahn during her attempted Axis drop. At the heroes' protests, Haman says that she's only doing what is best for mankind's future. Banjou Haran, the protagonist of Daitarn 3, retorts that she, and only she, decided it, and that nothing gives her the right to commit genocide for her supposed higher ideals.
- Alpha and OG timelines have probably the most memorable user of that trope:
"Shut up! And listen! My name is Sanger, Sanger Zonvolt! The sword that cleaves evil!" |
- In Skies of Arcadia, the Silvite Elders spend a good few minutes explaining how horrible, greedy, miserable, etc humanity is and uses it to justify unleashing the Rains of Destruction again. Although you are given a choice in how to respond, the one that increases your Swashbuckler Rating and is in-character for Vyse is the one where he tells them to shut up and exclaim loudly that they have no right to commit genocide just because the world doesn't live up to their standards, with double burn points for the fact that they've willingly isolated themselves from said world and could have chosen to do something more constructive about it all this time, but never did.
- The best part about this is it convinces them to take action, by ramming their whole base into the barrier around Soltis, shattering it.
- There are several of these in Sonic and The Black Knight when Sonic confronts Merlina, who explains that the only way to save Camelot from its tragic fate is to use the power of Excalibur's Scabbard and the Underworld to make it eternal, only to have Sonic reply "What good is a world that goes on forever!?" The conversation even ends with this great exchange between the two characters:
Merlina: My sorrow at its ruin runs deeper than the deapths of the underworld... do you not understand? |
- From an earlier game, after Black Doom has given Shadow a Break Them by Talking about how it's In the Blood and that Shadow must join him:
- In Resident Evil 4, resident dragon Ramon Salazar prepares to go into a speech about terrorism and how he has a "special" trap all set up for Leon... until Leon throws a knife across the room and sticks Salazar's hand to the wall.
- Another top example is from the climax of Resident Evil 5, where Chris Redfield shuts up series Big Bad Albert Wesker's latest hammy declaration with "I've had enough of your BULLSHIT!".
- Kingdom of Loathing, due to its parodic nature, does this repeatedly. From the fight with the hobo Mini Boss Oscus: "You figure the best way to stop this speech is to hit him."
- Persona 4 has this happen after the revelation of the killer. In a long-winded spiel, the killer explains that the TV world is the best thing to ever happen to anyone. The heroes' response?
Yosuke: Favored by the world, my ass. I'm just gonna say it flat out. You're just a worthless criminal! |
- Also Deconstructed — when your inner Shadow Archetype begins revealing facts about your inner character you'd rather not hear, despite being utterly true, denying it and asking it to Shut UP, Hannibal is a very, very, very poor idea. The thing that eventually defeats the shadows (after the inevitable Boss Battle) is to do exactly the opposite and own up to their claims, using the knowledge that you have a problem as a foundation for improving yourself. It also gives you superpowers.
- In the Mass Effect DLC mission "Bring Down The Sky" you're given the choice between saving the hostages and letting the terrorist escape or killing the terrorist and letting the hostages die. If you pick the latter, once you're done dispatching his mooks you come up to him. Picking the Renegade option leads to this exchange:
Balak: I gave you the chance to save them and you turned it down. Who's the real terrorist here? |
- Mass Effect 2 contains many of these thanks to the interrupt mechanic. A particularly awesome one involves an arrogant krogan and a gas line.
Shepard: You talk too much. [BANG!] |
- Another epic one occurs in the Kasumi DLC. You're in the villain's vault full of priceless artifacts to steal back something, and a giant hologram of his head appears to tell you that he knew you'd come and now he has everything he needs and blah blah blah. A Crowning Moment of Awesome invokes this trope when Shepard checks his pistol while Hock blathers on, levels it at a priceless vase and calmly blasts it to shards. "Do I have your attention now?"
- At the end of the second game, if you choose not to give Cerberus the Collector Base, you get to perform one on The Illusive Man as he rages on you for not "securing human dominance" as he puts it.
- Also brutally subverted in Lair of the Shadow Broker. After defeating Tela Vasir, she ekes out a devastating "The Reason You Suck" Speech with her dying breath about Shepard's hypocrisy in working for Cerberus and (depending on choices) remaining a Spectre, while calling out Vasir for working for the Shadow Broker. The lack of an interrupt to shut her up is made all the worse by the fact she's right. She also dies before Shepard can respond, giving her the last word.
- Speaking of Shadow Broker, Liara gets one later in the mission. Against the Shadow Broker himself, no less. The Broker is trying to scare Liara by telling her he knows her secrets. She responds by figuring out that since he's a yahg, he must have killed the original Shadow Broker and taken his place some 60 years ago, finally ending by calling him a slave and a pet — the most devastating insult in yahg culture. He doesn't take it very well.
- A truly epic one comes in Mass Effect 3 after you destroy the Reaper controlling the geth. It is giving the standard monologue about how organic civilization is totally outmatched, you will all die, their victory is inevitable, blah blah blah. Shepard retorts by directing an orbital strike from the Migrant Fleet directly into its face.
- Equally awesome is the Paragon interrupt during said rant: Shepard points out to the Reaper that whatever race it has been created from eons ago is long dead. The Reaper promptly shuts down.
- Grom Hellscream in Warcraft III gets quite possibly the most bad assed one ever. After the gigantic Pit Lord Mannoroth, who wields a double-ended pike that's as long as two men are tall, defeats Thrall effortlessly, he gives Grom a short version of a Not So Different speech. Grom responds by roaring, charging at Mannoroth, killing him in one hit, and then being mortally burnt in the ensuing firestorm. He goes with a smile on his face, pleased that he managed to free the Orcs from their corruption for good.
Grom: The blood haze has lifted... the demon's fire has burnt out in my veins... I have freed myself... |
- Immediately after killing Aeris in Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth starts to give his umpteenth villainous speech about how everyone will live again as part of him when he absorbs the lifestream and becomes a new god... and Cloud achieves a brief Crowning Moment of Awesome when his text box pops up and actually covers up most of Sephiroth's speech with the words "... Shut up."
- Even the Turks get one of this in on Don Corneo in Wutai, after Cloud And Friends and the Turks team up to release Yuffie and Elena from Corneo's clutches. Mostly they turn his Reason You Suck Speech against him. And it is awesome.
- A variant takes place in Wild Arms 1, when Zeikfried ensnares Rudy's arm with a cord to try and drag him into a black hole, and goes on about how the two of them are Not So Different, even calling him "brother" and saying that if he goes down, he'll take Rudy with him. Rudy's a Heroic Mime, of course, so his action speaks a thousand words — he shoots/cuts off his own arm, freeing himself and letting Zeikfried fall into the black hole. The variant, of course, being the fact that Rudy hurt himself instead of Zeikfried...
- In Silent Hill 3, what is Heather's reply to Leonard after the zealot claimed that a heretic like her only deserves a gruesome death? "Is every person here a mental case? [...] Well, I suppose you're not a person anyway." and then she proceeds to shoot him in the face with a shotgun.
- Heather has a talent for telling Hannibal to shut up. She repeatedly smacks down Claudia's elaborate speeches about how the world needs her rather twisted brand of salvation, with lines like "you self-righteous witch, nobody asked for your help!"
- Heather nails it near the end of the game when Claudia becomes elated by the birth of God and the coming Judgment Day: "Shut your STINKIN' mouth, bitch!"
- In Baten Kaitos Origins, after the Duel Boss battle, Baelheit tries to justify his attempts to blow up floating islands by stating that people's reliance on their powers of hearts will cause them to repeat the War of the Gods, the massive calamity that destroyed most of the world and caused islands to float in order for people to survive. Sagi's response? He states that Baelheit's reasoning is all self-righteous crap and that Baelheit can keep all the excuses. And then Sagi proceeds to knock Baelheit to the ground.
Go to hell, you son of a bitch! You hurt my mother! |
- Guillo gets a good one when facing down Verus:
Save your monologue for the next world. Sagi, let's finish him. |
- The Legacy of Kain series uses and averts this — both Raziel and Kain have about a 50/50 tendency of either listening to the tirades of Moebius and the Elder God or telling them where to stick it. The chances of doing the latter increase as soon as they find out how to neutralize Moebius' paralyzing staff or escape from the Elder God's realm.
- Len vs. White Len in Melty Blood gives us one of the very few times Len ever actually says anything. White Len is sneering about how she is the voice and mind of Len and how much Len sucks and should just go away and die or something. Len tells her to shut up, she has her own will. Since she's currently the PC, she obviously wins.
- Colonel Hakha in Killzone delivers one to General Lente with a shotgun shell after the latter reveals that he had the former's brother killed. Delivered later to General Adams if you play Hakha in the final level, when the former delivers a line about how they're Not So Different.
- In Tales of Vesperia, Phaeroh gives a speech saying how Estelle's death is necessary for preserving the world, and how finding an alternative way is pointless. Yuri cuts him off and states the fallacies of Phaeroh's logic in a true Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- While completely ignoring Yuri's use of the exact same logic for the killings of Ragou and Cumore.
- A better example happens later, when Alexei is explaining his motives at the Shrine of Zaude. The entire party, including his former henchman Raven, take turns telling him to shut up.
- After defeating Dracula in Castlevania Judgment, Maria will occasionally thank him for skipping the speech this time. Not everyone is fond of "What is a man?", it seems.
- In Neverwinter Nights 2, during the conversation after defeating Zeeaire, during her "The Reason You Suck" Speech (with a good helping of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero), one of the dialogue options is "Snap her neck." Doing so obviously cuts it short.
- Most of the boss battles in Final Fantasy Tactics consist of you shutting up the enemy via superior firepower, as they will at various points through the battle taunt you about their supposed superiority until you defeat them. One of the most satisfying deliveries of such a Shut Up Battle is against Algus/Algrath.
- Elmdor shuts up Barinten/Barringten by having his assassin toss him to his death when he confronts Rafa on the rooftops of Riovanes Castle.
- Dissidia Final Fantasy has several examples. Ultimecia in particular not only gets a good snarky one from the Warrior of Light ("Are you finished talking?" ... "If you have no business with me, you should leave now. The world's time runs short. There is not a moment to waste with the likes of you.", she also gets an even more badass one from Squall after he defeats her in Shade Impulse: he responds to her preaching about time by finishing her off with his gunblade, before she'd finished talking.
- Which of course is a reference to her original game where she gives a similar speech during the final battle and gets struck down mid-sentence.
- Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII does this to Orphan just before the final final boss fight.. He only manages a creepy laugh and three words before she gives him a lecture that lasts about a minute. But it is an awesome minute.
"You don't believe in anything. You gave up on life before you were even born. Sat poisoning Cocoon from the inside, waiting for someone to come and destroy you. Sure, you think the end of the world is salvation. All you care about is death's release. So take it, and leave the rest of us alone! We don't think like that. When we think there's no hope left, we keep looking until we find some. Maybe Cocoon is past saving, but it's our home, and we'll protect it or die trying! We live to make the impossible possible... that is our Focus!" |
- Clive Barker's Undying: "You know what Jeremiah? You talk too much." * slices off his head*
- Also:
Lizbeth: * Rants and raves on how she'll gut him and suck the marrow from his bones* |
- The Mark Of Kri ends on something of an anti-climax: as the Big Bad Necromancer makes his We Can Rule Together speech, Rau Utu politely listens for a moment, then reminds the speaker that he has An Axe to Grind.It's awesome.
- Charlie's ending in Street Fighter Alpha 3:
M. Bison: It's not over yet! I'll show you the path to eternal agony! |
- A good amount of Bowser's dialogue in any game in which he's not the Big Bad — especially in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story — with other villains usually ends with this, mostly out of the fact that Bowser doesn't care enough to listen to anyone ramble on about anything. He even gives a spectacular one to the Final Boss:
Bowser: GWAHAHA! Great dark hurricane! Seriously, perfect backdrop for an awesome final battle! You really sweat the details! Listen up! You're saying the kingdom will vanish? NOT TODAY! THIS KINGDOM IS ALL MINE! SO YOU VANISH! |
- It really figures that a Card-Carrying Villain wouldn't really be affected by the usual attempts at rationalisation.
- Luigi says this to Dimentio in Super Paper Mario:
Luigi: Hey! Stop messing around and fight us for real! |
- SWINE has an interesting version: Irontusk is about to escape in his zeppeling and he's raving about how he will return and crush the rabbits... until his zeppelin is blown in two by a Genre Savvy rocket tank. Shut Up, Irontusk indeed.
- The last chapter of Half-Life 2 begins with Gordon hearing the end of a speech Breen is making to Eli about the future of humanity and all the glorious things the Combine can show us. Eli responds with "What I've seen is also beyond words: Genocide! Indescribable evil!", and likely would have continued in that manner had he not seen Gordon was also a prisoner.
- A player-controlled version comes later when Gordon is fighting through the Citadel. Breen shows up on various screens and loudspeakers along the way, each time taunting Gordon, telling him how he was always a minor presence at Black Mesa, how everything Gordon's done since has caused more killing and destruction... if you as the player are so inclined, Gordon can simply destroy any of these screens or speakers along the way to shut Breen up mid-speech, all without Gordon ever saying a word.
- In The Godfather game, various enemies will try to give a Motive Rant if you interrogate them. In order to do so, you need to be grabbing them. As a result, after they finish speaking you can proceed to off them however you like.
- In Splinter Cell Conviction the evil Vice President claims he is "bulletproof" after Sam applies the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique; Sam responds by shooting out his knees.
Sam: You might wanna work on that "bulletproof" thing. |
- A number of games, such as Grand Theft Auto IV allow the player to kill enemies during gameplay, possibly in the middle of a Hannibal Lecture.
- Final Fantasy VI inverts this. Your heroes go on and on about why people will survive, no matter what Kefka does. And then Kefka says "You all sound like pages from a self-help book." Cue the battle.
- In Dragon Age:Origins you can scald Morrigan after her especially Stupid Evil attempt at being a Nietzsche Wannabe (sure! Let's abandon the Circle of Magi to death and corruption. It's not like we need their help to stop the Blight), call her a harpy and demand that she shuts up. Naturally, Morrigan disapproves.
- In a somewhat gentler example, one of your other options in that scene is to tell Morrigan severely that everyone deserves respect...even her.
- A Human Noble PC gets an even better one when facing down Arl Howe, the man responsible for betraying and killing your family in the beginning. At first, he mocks you about how he made your mother and father suffer before killing them and burned your sister-in-law and nephew's bodies on a trash heap, but then you get the chance to verbally tear him to shreds, basically calling him a coward and showing him that all he's done has only made you stronger and more determined. His reaction is priceless.
Arl Howe: "There it is, right there. That damned look in the eye that marked every Cousland success that held me back. It seems you have made something of yourself after all. Your father would be proud. I, on the other hand, want you dead more than ever..." |
- At the end of the Godlimations flash RPG Amea, The Master Eye claims that it stealing the people's eyesight and replacing it with the "True Light" has brought them happiness and peace, and points out that all of them, even Amea herself, had chosen to follow him. Amea simply responds that the "happiness" the Eye has brought to its followers is all a lie, and that its better to face the true state of the world, no matter how bad, then to hide yourself behind the lies of a false god.
- Fatman, one of the bosses in Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty, is convinced that he is a Mad Artist, who will be remembered through history as the greatest bomber and demoman in the world. Raiden interrupts his little speech, snapping "You're nothing but a common criminal, and that's the only way people will remember you!"
- Dissidia Final Fantasy provides its heroes with a lot of opportunities for these. One of the best examples comes from the Warrior of Light:
Ultimecia: "Why don't you just give up? The crystals are nothing more than the fabrication of a fallen goddess. To so willingly risk your life over such things is beyond ridiculous." |
- Squall also shuts Ultimecia up twice — the second time with his gunblade.
- In Portal 2, Wheatly is telling you to do yourself a favor and just commit suicide to avoid having him kill you. In response, you can make a portal network that chucks a mine at his monitor.
- At the end of Sly 3, Dr. M tries to convince Bentley that the cooper family are a bunch of self-centered greedy attention grubbers, and that he and Bentley are the same due to them both being the technical minded members of the team, Bentley responds saying that they are all brothers, and that's why he and Murray are going to stop him.
- The sci-fi submarine combat game Aquanox has a pretty funny one. Towards the end of the game, the hero Flint confronts the leader of the Crawlers, the setting's Usual Adversaries. The Crawler Leader gives a big, incredibly melodramatic speech about how he's going to wipe out human civilization and eat everybody. In response Flint simply quips "Soooo... you write your own material?".
- Before the penultimate story battle in Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice, Super Hero Aurum goes on about how a hero only exists when there is evil to fight, and is useless otherwise. Mao, having sat in the back and listened to the rebuttals of the others this whole time, has finally decided that he has had enough crap.
Mao: ...Hmph. I stay quiet and listen, and you continue to blab. It was only you alone that wanted any of this. Was a hero such a dinky existence that you couldn't shine without an enemy? Were you so pitiful that you had to watch out for what the people thought, and be afraid of being forgotten? Is it a hero's job to raise an enemy just to make yourself look greater? Did you want praise for your efforts? |
- In Ninja Gaiden 3: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Ryu Hayabusa gives one to Clancy after the latter offers him the chance to join him in the destruction of the human race, saying that he just wants to protect the Earth from the damage that human's cause. Ryu's response?
Ryu: No reason can ever excuse the destruction and slaughter of mankind. The only thing that's going to get destroyed is you and this dimensional warship! |
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has Zant claiming that he should have been the rightful ruler of the Twili instead of Midna and her "useless, do-nothing royal family". One ass kicking at the hands of Link later, Midna tells Zant that the reason the Twili didn't go along with him was because they knew he was a power hungry psychopath.
- Persona 3 saw Junpei cutting Takaya short, as he rants on about how death and the Fall are the light to guide humanity out of the darkness:
Junpei Iori: “I'm not dying so you can have a friggin' night-light!” |
- Nearing the end of Gears of War 3 after Marcus' father had committed a Heroic Sacrifice and died right in front of his son. Queen Myrrah, defeated, approached the gears and gloated to Marcus how all he had ever done is find ways to kill lots of people. Marcus simply stabbed her and said:
Marcus: This is for Dom and all the others you have killed, you bitch. |
- Done earlier in the boss fight if you keep it going long enough. As Myrrah tries to stop Adam's Locust killing machine, she goes on a rant that humans are inherently violent and genocidal, prompting her Locust to act the same way to defeat them. How does Marcus react to this insult to humanity? Does he deny it as not our nature?
Marcus: I can live with that. |
- On four separate occasions in Asura's Wrath you have the ability to do this by punching out the guy doing the Hannibal Lecture. For three of these occasions, you get an achievement for doing so.
- In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Eirika delivers one of these to the Demon King on the final map as he taunts her. Earlier, the Demon King had cruelly manipulated her into handing over the Sacred Stone of Renais via pretending it was the only way to save her friend Lyon whose body he'd been possessing since the start of the game, then mocking her as he crushed it with his bare hands. Eirika suffered an intense Heroic BSOD afterwards before a pep talk from L'Arachel made her realize she had to move forward. So when the Demon King begins to taunt her again, she tells him to "shut his mouth" and promises to destroy him.
Web Comics[]
- In Order of the Stick #595, Daimyo Kubota's discussion of how he plans to escape responsibility for yet another attack on the surviving Azurites is interrupted by Vaarsuvius: "Disintegrate. Gust of Wind. Now can we PLEASE resume saving the world?"
- Made somewhat disturbing though by the next comic, which reveals V didn't even know who Kubota was. V simply disintegrated him because Elan had him tied up, so V assumed (correctly) that he was a villain.
- "Disjunction. Quickened Disintegrate." Oh, crap.
- "Quickened Disintegrate" is always an epic choice of words, thus making that moment also a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- Elan gets his own Shut Up Hannibal back in #61, interrupting his evil twin's "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
Nale: I gave you a chance to join me. But you'd rather stay with these fools? Well, I can't very well allow you to continue breathing after an insult like that, now, can I? Because no one denies me, Elan. Not father, not you, no one. |
- In Fans, Rikk's response to a recently captured super-criminal who tries to Hannibal Lecture him is "I hate Silence of the Lambs." He goes on to say how sick he is of any two-bit nutcase who thinks they're a psychological mastermind trying to psych him out any time he treats them with a bit of respect, going on as a bonus to completely demolish her Freudian Excuse by pointing out that he has friends who have suffered in their lives much worse than her, only to not become a vindictive murderous psycho as a consequence.
- Later, he admits that she actually did get to him, as the entire reason he'd been picked to question her in the first place was because he had the best hand for interrogating without strife, and he'd let her provoke him into being a sarcastic ass instead of handling the situation calmly. Unfortunately, all this did was enrage her to the point of attacking him with the heel of her shoe instead of giving them what they needed, and he got bailed out by Shanna for screwing up the session.
- And of course, leave us not forget Rikk's earlier and more spot-on example of this trope, during his climactic confrontation with Keith Feddyg before the Time Skip.
- Rikk is good at these. During the Order arc at the end of book 6, he and Marc confronted Hus, one of the Order's mages, who was attempting to take over Egypt in the wake of spell that literally destroyed the concept of written communication. After Hus gave Rikk a Reason You Suck Speech, Rikk and Marc effectively shut him up:
Rikk: First off, I got sucker-punched by Captain America. That's like giving Michael Phelps a headstart. Secondly, I've spent the last five years with two remarkable women. One of them's one of the toughest, cleverest fighters I've ever seen anywhere. The other is Rumiko Tanaka Oberf. We work hard, but we do make time for each other. And when we're not vegging or sharing a bed...we like to spar. Marc and I aren't here to impress you, Hus. We're here to bring you to justice. |
- Subverted in Eight Bit Theater. Fighter thought he was giving one of these to a giant who was talking to his party members after squishing Black Mage. In actuality the giant was giving the Light Warriors a Glurge-filled speech about the Disproportionate Reward he was about to give. Red Mage and Thief were very upset at losing the opportunity to commandeer an army of loyal giants.
- Also played straight in the confrontation against Sarda, because Black Mage "never knew it was possible to care less about time travel."
- "Damn, but you goth freaks love to hear yourselves talk."
- Lightbringer: After Darkbringer defeated the main protagonist, before killing him, he showed him beaten to people on the street, and started a Break Them by Talking about how the only true way of good is by embracing darkness and despair and hope Lightbringer gave them is a lie. People responsed by throwing junk at him, while screaming examples of how Lightbringer make their city a better place.
- Karcharoth of Cry Havoc pulls one on Faustus by way of a burst of machine gun fire.
- Happens in Goblins when Thaco successfully defeats Goblinslayer. As the man lies slowly bleeding to death, his ear sliced off, he gloats. He thinks that, if nothing else, his legend will survive in the stories of the goblins as the great nemesis of Thaco, only to be told mid-rant...
Thaco: You're not my nemesis. |
- Bonus Points to Thaco because he also manages to turn Dellyn's previous Break Them by Talking against him. when Dellyn learned that Thaco had taken levels as an adventurer, he described it as 'the most perverted thing I've ever heard of'; Thaco responds by describing Dellyn as 'some random human I fought early in my adventuring career... a random encounter.'
- In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, Fructose Riboflavin stops himself when he realizes he's lost Galatea's interest. She then tells him why she's unimpressed.
- In Clockworks, "You have no words for me? No threats for the man who killed your father? Nothing to say to the man who abducted your lady friend's parents? No witty banter to exchange — " Enough! with a kick
- In Grim Tales from Down Below, Him delivers one to an angel. Because it's complicated like that.
- Bob and George Say it with lightning!
- Attempted and failed in Double-U Tea F between Former Big Bad Raike and Skreel:
Raike: Hey, hey. Let me handle this guy. I've dealt with the dark side before. Alright, so. I get where you're coming from, but you ain't taking Khran away from us. |
- In Dubious Company, Mary gives an In the Name of the Moon speech to the heroes as her boss, Izor, is about to Human Sacrifice Sal. Walter shoots her. She is more angry that he cut her off than that he shot at her. Walter is angry that he missed.
- In Narbonic, after Dave has recently gone mad and taken over the secret arctic mad scientist base from Professor Madblood (and managed to upload himself to Madblood's computer), the Professor steels himself for a desperate fight:
Madblood: HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, DAVENPORT! YOU'LL HAVE TO GO THROUGH LUPIN 'WOLF' MADBLOOD! MANO Y MANO, DAVENPORT! GIVE ME YOUR BEST SHOT! |
- And a few panels later:
Dave: Don't worry. I'll find room for you in the new Narbonics Labs. |
- In Endstone, she calmly says he's trying to make her angry.
- In the end of the Bad Behaviour series of Sinfest, Criminy shouted ENOUGH to Seymour while he was in the midst of a hateful sermon, essentially bragging about causing Fuschia to have a Despair Event Horizon. This starts a three week consecutive story arc (one of the longest in the strip's history) which becomes a giant Crowning Moment of Awesome for Criminy.
Web Original[]
- In The Angry Video Game Nerd episode about Nightmare On Elm Street, Freddy Krueger says that nobody is forcing the Nerd to play bad games but himself, making the Nerd Not So Different, but the Nerd just cuts Freddie off with a gut bustingly hilarious reply of "Go yank your cock through your ass ya fucking butt mongrel!" and showing off his Power Glove, which he uses to destroy Freddy. The nightmare is ended, but the real battle had just begun.
- Linkara does not use words to shut up any "Hannibals" out there. He punches 'em in the gut while screaming "I AM A MAN!!!".
- In episode 15 of the That Guy With The Glasses segment "Ask That Guy"... well, something like this happens. (For bonus points, this comes in the wake of a particularly lengthy and disturbing rant about starving a Furby to death.) That Guy responds to a question down the vein of "how do I know I'm real, and not a product of my own imagination?" with unusual vitriol, until it descends into a self-serving rant about himself and his own twisted villainy.
That Guy: ...I don't say this often, but you are wrong, and I am right. I mean, suppose I was the figment of someone else's dream and that the dreamer out there was actually a good, rational person with — eugh! — a conscience. I mean, wouldn't he have gotten rid of me a long time ago? I mean, wouldn't he have the decency to get rid of such concentrated evil like me? No! No! There is no dreamer, and evil. Always. Wins. Thus showing that there is no good in the world, and evil is always rewarded. That's the way it is, and that's the way I always (poof) |
- On the final episode of RoboGirl the villain is explaining the mind-screwing origin of The Host to the protagonist when she grabs her throat, saying, "You talk too much!"
- There Will Be Brawl: Luigi punches Ganondorf in the face after he tries to corrupt him with mind games.
Ganondorf: What possessed you in that ally way to deliver such a potent artifact to such a dangerous man? What did you..? |
- Unfortunately, the 'Dorf, was unfazed. And fought back.
- This comes immediately after giving shutting up "End of Days" (Olimar). "Cut the crazy."
- An awesome villain to villain example from The Randomverse's "Happy Hour" finale:
Lex Luthor: Say goodbye to the world you know! From this moment on, you are all at the mercy of Lex Luthor, the greatest criminal mind of our-- |
Western Animation[]
- South Park: The episode "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" (which is just what it sounds like) has the head of NAMBLA protesting that he's being discriminated against, and Stan and Kyle's replies is a lot like this.
Kyle: Dude, you have sex. With. Children. |
- Totally Spies!: Apparently abused by the characters against revenge-seeking antagonists, in the form of "You're only doing this for revenge!"
- This happens with Megatron and Optimus in the last episode of Beast Wars. See the page quote.
- In "Code of Hero", Megatron was speechifying about how Dinobot had no hope of defeating him (which, given that Dinobot just burned up all his reserves and taking massive quantities of damage fighting through Megatron's minions while Megatron had not yet done a thing, not to mention he's got massive upgrades which makes him even more resistant to damage, makes a pretty good point). Megatron asked "What can you possibly do?" Dinobot's response? "Improvise". As he takes his stick, creates a makeshift hammer, and smacks Megatron to the ground.
- In the second season finale of X-Men, Mr. Sinister gets plenty of self-righteous speechifying about the future out of the way while he has his audience chained to a wall. Eventually, the tables turn, punctuated by an optic blast from Cyclops. This doesn't stop him from weakly defying Scott's repeated request to leave his friends alone.
Sinister: I can't... I won't... the world needs-- (gets cut off by another blast) |
- He gets it again about two minutes later. Trying to pull himself together, Sinister grumbles that "the future" (his future) can't be destroyed so easily. Jean Grey responds with a calm "Yes, it can" and a well-placed shot of telekinesis. This is appropriate, since he was trying to effectively breed a new race from the two of them.
- Another episode had Bishop cutting short one of Apocalyps's rants by shooting him in the back. Bishop: "Someone had to shut him up!"
- In the Justice League Unlimited episode "Divided We Fall", The Flash got a most awesome Shut Up Hannibal against the robot Evil Knockoff created by the Big Bad.
Alternate Flash: Slacker! Child! Clown! We have no place here among the world's greatest heroes! |
- The Flash did it again later in the same episode when Braniac/Lex Luthor taunts him on the fact that he was all that was left between total destruction. Flash then begins to pound Luthor over, and over, AND OVER, stripping Braniacs tech from Luthors body with each blow.
- Made all the more awesome when you realize that Flash was doing this by running around the Earth at 25,000 miles PER SECOND as he hit Luthor time after time.
- The Flash did it again later in the same episode when Braniac/Lex Luthor taunts him on the fact that he was all that was left between total destruction. Flash then begins to pound Luthor over, and over, AND OVER, stripping Braniacs tech from Luthors body with each blow.
- In Batman: The Animated Series, Ra's al-Ghul explains his wonderful plan to save the world by wiping out most of humanity. Batman responds with a note of wonder in his voice. "Yes... I can see it all clearly now for the first time. You are completely out of your mind."
- In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the Joker takes rather badly to Terry's Break Them by Talking and gives a rather angry rebuttal by tossing grenades at him, which knocks the superhero out.
- Which is then subverted when he grabs Terry and starts to choke him, telling him to laugh it up now.
Terry: Ha...ha. (pulls out Joker's killer buzzer and proceed to shock him) |
- Another small one happens in the series when Kobra leader Xander tells Max of his plot to turn all his men into dinosaurs and drop a bomb that will incinerate the world so they have extra heat to live on. She responds accordingly:
Max: I think I finally get it now. |
- A fan favorite moment from Freakazoid, seen here:
Jeepers: You want to see something strange and mystical? |
- A variation combined with Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner occurs in Danny Phantom: Spectra is giving Danny a Break Them by Talking. It is succeeding. Then, there was Jazz.
Jazz: Excuse me. I don't know this kid, but I hope it's okay if he gets a second opinion. |
- Samurai Jack was likewise shut up by a bounty-hunter who tells him "I got bills to pay, and I already addressed the envelopes." Jack begins to respond with a clever phrase, saying "I hope you haven't you haven't yet stamped the parcels which you--" but is cut off as the bounty-hunter punches him out, saying "consider 'em stamped."
- Kim Possible's Crowning Moment of Awesome from So The Drama, when she interrupted Drakken's speech about how he cracked Kim's weakness; her own insecurities, especially regarding dating. Not quite a pure example, since he didn't know she was listening in, but she definitely had the "Shut up!" part down!
"You're right, Drakken. Boys, dating, that's hard. But this is easy. (Punches Drakken. Hard.) |
- The Powerpuff Girls have no time for any villain's shit.
- One that deserves special mention is their reply to Mojo Jojo's (who just seemingly beat them in his One-Winged Angel form) Break Them by Talking in the movie:
Mojo Jojo: Can't you see? None of them will ever understand you the way I can. For we are kindred spirits whose powers spring from the same source. So girls, do not make me destroy you! For we are smarter! We are stronger! We are invincible! We have the power! We are superior to them! And we shall rule! All we have to do is work together. Girls, join me. |
- A particularly epic example comes from Toy Story 3, where Woody exposes Lotso's lies to Big Baby.
Lotso: "Then she threw us out!" |
- Looney Tunes: From "Wild and Wooly Hare":
Yosemite Sam: "Any one of you lilly livered, bow legged varmints care to slap leather with me? In case any of ya get any idears, ya better know yer dealin with. I'm the hootinest, tootinest, shootinest, bobtail wildcat in the west! [fires guns raisng sam up] I'm the fastest gun North, South, East annnnnnnd West of the Pecos!....I'm the...." |
- From Superman: The Animated Series, after Darkseid has beaten up Superman and demanding the earth to surrender...
Darkseid: People of Earth, I am Darkseid, lord of Apokolips. Here is your savior, cowed and broken. I have crushed him as easily as I have crushed all who dared to oppose me throughout the cosmos. I am power unlike any you have ever known: absolute, infinite, and unrelenting. You have no choice but to prepare for a long dark future as my subjects and my slaves. |
- At the end of the three-part pilot "The Last Son of Krypton", Superman confronts Lex Luthor. Luthor gives a speech about how he owns Metropolis and that Superman should be working for him. Lex loses his cool when Superman responds with a simple "I'll be watching you Luthor."
- My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: As polite and self-effacing as she was Fluttershy completely shut down every attempt on Discord's part to arouse resentment against her friends during the season two opener, ensuring that she could not be turned against them without a proverbial sledgehammer of mind-altering magic. Unfortunately, Discord could and did use that sledgehammer.
- Twilight gets an epic one the next episode. She weaponizes her normal And Knowing Is Half the Battle speech into a combination of this and World of Cardboard Speech. Probably the most awesome manner of stating an Aesop in history.
- Princess Celestia actually fires off two Shut Up Hannibals in Part 1's Canterlot Tower scene. The first time, Discord tries to get a rise out of her with a Break Them by Talking; she shoots him down. The second time, Discord's in the middle of another one directed at the Mane Six; she butts in to order him to quit screwing around and answer her question. He tosses her a riddle and vacates. The blink-and-you-miss-it look on her face seconds later suggests she was indeed winding up a third Shut UP, Hannibal In case you needed her to validate her previous claim to being a Retired Badass.
Rainbow Dash: Alright, Princess! |
- In "Teen Titans" Raven delivers one of these to Trigon. She then delivers a Reason You Suck Speech while repeatedly blasting him with magic In this epic scene.