History Main / TalkingisaFreeAction

*** In ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', the Rangers finish morphing only to discover their opponents have vanished, and then have to track them back down.

If a comic is translated into a medium where time is a factor, [[InactionSequence the trope can become obvious]]. This is particularly common with {{anime}} adaptations of {{manga}}, where the action -- or even [[TimeStandsStill time itself]] -- might stop in the middle of the action just so that the hero can deliver a speech of some sort.

Compare InactionSequence, ComicBookTime, WebcomicTime, {{Expolabel}}, WallOfText, ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction, and TransformationIsAFreeAction. TalkToTheFist is this trope's feared enemy, KilledMidSentence is its biggest subversion, and ExpositionBeam can bypass it. Where it's exaggerated, the audience may tend to start wondering WhyDontYouJustShootHim Contrast DistractingDisambiguation, where there is some amount of cooperation on the enemies' part that enables this, and HoldingTheFloor, where a character talks to deliberately buy time. See also YearInsideHourOutside, LuckilyMyPowersWillProtectMe, PlotTime, AcousticLicense, and MagicCountdown.

** Freeza destroys Namek's core during the fight with Goku and gives the planet five minutes before it blows up. Infamously, it took ten episodes, about 3 hours of screentime, and over 300 lines of dialogue for those "five minutes" to happen. This made ''Dragon Ball Z'' a by-word for the InactionSequence. ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' mocks this by having Goku ask Freeza if he's even sure what a minute ''is''.

* ''Manga/RamenFighterMiki'', being a deconstruction of the FightingSeries PlayedForLaughs, plays this trope so straight it could be a parody in episode 2B. Kankuro and Miki are less than ten meters apart before their fight. Kankuro begins to run towards Miki to attack her, and [[CallingYourAttacks he manages to imitate the sound of a local train]]. Miki stays immobile while [[ToThePain she begins to imitate the sound of a bullet train]] and adopts an AssKickingPose. Then she begins to run towards Kankuro. [[CombatCommentator Akihiko desperately cries to Kankuro to stop]]. Kankuro manages to answer that he will increase the power. [[InactionSequence Miki and Kankuro take one minute and ten seconds running into themselves]] a distance of less than ten meters. [[RuleOfCool And it's epic]].

** Parodied/subverted in one scene: While you're fleeing from Undyne, you get a phone call from Papyrus, who talks about how he thinks you and Undyne would be great friends and should hang out sometime. Somehow, you manage to do this without being attacked. After befriending Undyne and calling her from the same place you received the phone call, you find out that Undyne ''saw you were on the phone and waited for you to finish''.

* In the manga ''Manga/Area88'' moreso than in the anime adaptation. In the fight against the Wolfpack, one of the Wolfpack members is actually explaining the "bloody screw" attack while carrying it out. Keeping in mind that aerial combat with jet fighters takes place in the realm of seconds. The mercenaries do a lot of exposition while actually engaging in high speed aerial combat. Mainly it's an excuse for Kaoru Shintani to [[ShownTheirWork show how much of an aviation otaku he is]]. Sometimes, the air combat will be filled with Shin's existential thoughts about how much he hates what he has to do, as if a real combat pilot would be thinking about anything other than what's on his heads up display. Conversations while just flying tend to get a pass, however. The anime keeps this to a minimum but in the English dub of the 2004 TV series, they add a lot of CallingYourAttacks to Shin's dialogue, presmuably as an homage to ''Film/TopGun'', even though ''Area 88'' is in every way antithesis to ''Top Gun''.

* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'s lung capacity cannot be matched. It has been acknowledged that his endless, inane banter is actually his most dangerous ability, since most opponents are too distracted to pay attention to his moves.
** Parodied in issue #27 of Vol. 3. Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} gives a long speech during a single leap, making Deadpool's friend Ilaney wonder how that's even possible. Former supervillain (and current therapist) Doctor Bong then posits that lengthy mid-air speeches are some kind of mutant power.
->'''Ilaney:''' [Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}}] says much during one leap, no?\\

->'''Ilaney:''' [ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}] says much during one leap, no?\\

*** Super Buu gets sick of Gotenks' conversations with Piccolo and responds by [[StuffBlowingUp blowing stuff up]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDickTracyShow'' zig-zags this as much it abuses it. During a confrontation with the episode's villain, the officer of the episode will stop the action ("Hold everything!") and report via wrist radio to Tracy on the case's progress. The report usually gets embellished with an IncrediblyLamePun.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'' plays with this:

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Spider-Man has a reputation for panels mostly dedicated to the protagonist talking. Sometimes it's done artistically -- Spidey will be drawn in several places in the same panel to showcase his agility, so presumably he has more time to say all that. Other times it's really an InnerMonologue. But one way or another, that's a ''lot'' of talking. Fortunately, it works for the character; Spider-Man [[YouFightLikeACow is known for using witty banter]] to annoy the hell out of his enemies (and hide his own insecurities) during battle. In fact, he came off as more "emo" in [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy the movies]] because it's hard to work this battle tactic into a live-action fight scene.

* Myth/IrishMythology: Averted during the Battle of Ventry. One of The King of the World's generals, Caisle of the Plumes, has been decimating The Fianna's troops with his [[FireBreathingWeapon flaming sword and shield]] then in the middle of all this, he stops and begins [[EvilLaugh laughing over the destruction he caused]] which gives one of the Fianna the chance to [[throw a spear into his open mouth]], the one spot [[AttackItsWeakPoint not covered in armor]], and kill him.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' has a reputation for panels mostly dedicated to the protagonist talking. Sometimes it's done artistically -- Spidey will be drawn in several places in the same panel to showcase his agility, so presumably he has more time to say all that. Other times it's really an InnerMonologue. But one way or another, that's a ''lot'' of talking. Fortunately, it works for the character; Spider-Man [[YouFightLikeACow is known for using witty banter]] to annoy the hell out of his enemies (and hide his own insecurities) during battle. In fact, he came off as more "emo" in [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy the movies]] because it's hard to work this battle tactic into a live-action fight scene.

** ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' embraces the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' version of this trope fully. Almost all the fights in the series are filled to the brim with snarky dialogue, LampshadeHanging, and YouFightLikeACow.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' recommends the Game Master limit players to somewhere around 25 words in a round (though, as [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Nale]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0337.html demonstrates]], that can be a bit restrictive) and no more than one gesture as a free action.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''[[WebComic/TheChosenFour EarthBound: The Chosen Four]]'', Frank nearly trounces [[VideoGame/EarthBound Ness]], but takes the time to give a BadassBoast, complete with his backstory. While he's doing this, Ness beats up some of his goons for EXP, granting him another level and allowing him to fight Frank on more even grounds.

*** V is rather long-winded. In "On the Origin of [=PCs=]" they spend most of their hour to prepare for the "Iron Mage" competition rambling about their power and only stops at the "one minute" warning.

*** In ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'', all the talking between Goku and the BigBad actually lasts long enough to [[spoiler:run out the time limit on the Super Saiyan God transformation]].

---->'''Buu:''' ALL YOU PEOPLE DO IS '''TAAAAAAAALLLK!'''