Line #30 PlayingWith/HannibalLecture


1	'''Basic Trope''': A captured or cornered character delivers a speech psychologically breaking down the hero and undermining the hero's confidence, sense of identity and purpose.
2	* '''Straight''': SerialKiller Bob, who has been captured by police officer Alice, accuses Alice of being a weak, pathetic inadequate who is like Bob and who arrests people to give herself a false sense of purpose and power. Alice is shaken and disconcerted by Bob's insights and understanding of her.
3	* '''Exaggerated''': Bob delivers a speech that has resulted in {{mind rap\|e}}ing Alice from being a relatively confident and well-adjusted person to being DrivenToSuicide within a minute and a half.
4	* '''Downplayed''': Bob's speech is annoying and puts Alice into a bad mood for a while but otherwise doesn't bother her.
5	* '''Justified''': Bob is a psychological mastermind with a deep understanding of human nature who has studied and profiled his target.
6	* '''Inverted''': Alice arrests Bob and, while interrogating him, he tells her what a wonderful person she is for stopping killers like himself and Alice leaves with a renewed sense of self-confidence and purpose.
7	* '''Subverted''':
8	** Bob delivers his speech. Alice appears to be upset about it, but she was only pretending to be so in order to lull Bob into a false sense of security. She laughs at Bob's attempts to undermine her.
9	** Bob delivers his speech. [[KirkSummation Alice bluntly and calmly points out that Bob is completely wrong and doesn't know what he's talking about then moves on.]]
10	** Alice doesn't respond to Bob's attempts to provoke her and keeps on topic.
11	** Bob's understanding of human nature and psychological warfare isn't as good as he thinks it is and so his lecture fails to do more than waste his time.
12	** Alice is TooDumbToFool and her only response to Bob's lecture is blank incomprehension.
13	** Alice strikes right back with a "BreakThemByTalking" of her own.
14	* '''Doubly Subverted''': Bob wasn't entirely wrong, and some of his observations still cut a nerve; Alice doesn't reveal so to him, but reveals it later.
15	* '''Parodied''':
16	** Bob's observations are ridiculously trite, feeble and simplistic, bordering on petty insults, but they nevertheless reduce Alice to an emotional cripple.
17	** SerialKiller Bob, who has been captured by police officer Alice, accuses Alice of being a weak, pathetic inadequate who is like Bob and who arrests people to give herself a false sense of purpose and power. It turns out that Alice REALLY wanted to arrest Bob for fame, to his horror.
18	** Bob's lawyer is present during the lecture and frantically tries to shut him up as he's [[NotHelpingYourCase making himself look bad]].
19	* '''Zig Zagged''': Both Alice and Bob go back and forth with deconstructing each other, with the result that that it's not clear who is most affected.
20	* '''Averted''':
21	** Bob doesn't say anything during Alice's interrogation.
22	** Bob answers in a way that is not meant to harm Alice psychologically, and does not.
23	* '''Enforced''': "We want our villain to be a dark, creepy badass with a deep understanding of human nature, and our cop to be flawed. What better way to show this than have the villain turn the tables on the cop in the interrogation room?"
24	* '''Lampshaded''': "Is the part where you tell me what how inadequate I am?"
25	* '''Implied''': Detective Reeson tells Alice a warning along the lines of "Bob will fill your head with lies, Alice" while standing outside of the interrogation room.
26	* '''Invoked''': "Walk away, Detective. If you continue this line of inquiry, I will take your psyche apart piece by piece until there's nothing left of you."
27	* '''Exploited''':
28	** Alice anticipates the coming lecture and catches it on film for later use at the trial. When the jury hears it they become less sympathetic to him.
29	** Bob tries to break Alice's confidence by pointing out all of her flaws; Alice responds by admitting her flaws and since she has him as a captive audience she goes ahead and vents all of her frustrations and fears to him. By the end of it she ends up feeling ''better'' for finally getting all of that off her chest.
30	* '''Defied''':
31	** ShutUpHannibal
32	** [[TalkToTheFist Punch to the face]].
33	** "This is the part where you expect me to give some kind of HannibalLecture, right? Well, no thanks, I just want a lawyer."
34	** "You will answer the questions we give you and nothing more. If you utter a single syllable to deviate from this... well... WeHaveWaysOfMakingYouTalk!"
35	** Alice walks away from the room, hangs up on, breaks the jaw of, or otherwise successfully shuts up Bob every time he tries to lecture her.
36	** Alice provides Bob an extensive "'[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech The Reason]] ''[[InvertedTrope I]]'' Suck' Speech", with every single little flaw he could have exploited, and adds "...and yet, I caught you, you fuck. [[WhosLaughingNow So how "flawed" do you think I am now?]]"
37	** "So tell me, Detective Alice... what about your family?" "Bob, you are currently being held in custody as a primary suspect of being [[SerialKiller the Chesapeake Reaper]], you have waived your right for legal counsel, and you have made clear that you wish to confess. What would you like to say in your defense?" "I assume that your daughter is very lonely tonight..." "For the record, Suspect Bob has decided to show hostile intent and threatened the family of a police officer."
38	* '''Discussed''': "When did all of these serial killers and psychopaths get psychology degrees?"
39	* '''Conversed''': "Oh come on! He's a psychopath -- why are these characters taking him seriously?"
40	* '''Deconstructed''':
41	** 1. Bob's understanding of human nature only goes so far, and is limited by his own sociopathy and FreudianExcuse, which has poisoned and corrupted his view of the world. Not everyone and everything can be so easily compartmentalized into his limited view of the world, and once he comes across something which challenges this understanding his psychological attacks completely fall apart, as does Bob himself.
42	** 2. Bob's little speech is shown to be worthless, regardless of whatever he successfully picks Alice apart psychologically. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome All that evidence and those expert witnesses won't go away just because he mocked Alice's bad relationship with her mother.]] Bob is convicted for his crimes and survives three months in a high security prison before a more impulsive inmate shanks him to death.
43	** 3. Bob's little speech, whilst insightful, ends up getting him into deeper trouble; he's so confident and smug about his ability to unpick Alice that he doesn't realize that in doing so, he's giving away vital information that can be used to convict him. Alice does realizes this, and regardless of the pain it causes her allows him to continue in order to let him dig his own grave. Once Alice reveals what Bob has done, Bob realizes that he probably should [[MirandaRights have kept his mouth shut]].
44	** 4. Bob is so consumed with self-loathing that he projects his own hate of himself onto others.
45	** 5. Alice shuts Bob up before he starts delivering his speech. Depending on the setting he's rendered unconscious or killed on the spot.
46	** 6. Alice doesn't pay attention to Bob's speech and takes him down anyway.
47	* '''Reconstructed''':
48	** 2. Bob's speech doesn't get him off the hook and he's taken down, but he knew that. [[TakingYouWithMe He decided to take Alice down with him by wrecking her psychologically]]...and succeeds.
49	** 3. Bob gave up that information because he ''wanted'' to be arrested [[ThePlan to fulfill a plan of some sort]]: [[ForTheEvulz psychologically hurting Alice was a fun way to kill time]].
50	** 5. Alice shuts Bob up, but her doing so lets him press charges on her and gets her arrested as well.
51	** Bob has already been convicted and imprisoned, but there are still many unsolved crimes that he is suspected of. Bob uses this as an opportunity to lecture the police, and slips in confessions to ensure they keep listening carefully.
52	* '''Intended Audience Reaction''': Somebody had to point out that Alice is a {{Workaholic}} InspectorJavert and not really as heroic as the plot tried to paint her so far. Bob's entire lecture is intercut with [[OnceMoreWithClarity previous scenes showcasing Alice's bad behavior in further detail]].
53	* '''Played for Laughs''':
54	** Bob's lecture, for all that he tries to sound like a SatanicArchetype, is incredibly incompetent.
55	** Alice disregards Bob's lecture because she's [[MusicalWorldHypotheses imagining she's in a music video]] for Miley Cirus' "Wrecking Ball".
56	** Bob's lecture is composed entirely of [[BigStupidDoodooHead childish insults]] and a mention that Alice's dad never taught her how to ride a bike. [[FauxHorrific Alice reacts like Bob had told her]] the deepest and darkest secrets of her existence.
57	* '''Played for Drama''':
58	** Bob's lecture competely breaks Alice's psyche and she eventually has to spend some time getting therapy.
59	** Alice retaliates at Bob's insults in a fashion that facilitates Bob's plan (either to demolish Alice's standing amongst law enforcement or to facilitate his escape).
60	* '''Played for Horror''':
61	** Bob's lecture brainwashes Alice into becoming his minion.
62	** Bob's lecture [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy turns Alice into a misanthropic psycho]] and the rest of her story arc revolves around her friends discovering this [[SerialKiller the hard way]].
63	** Bob's lecture [[DrivenToSuicide makes Alice commit suicide]] and the way she decides to check out [[CruelAndUnusualDeath pushes the boundaries of censorship]].
64	----
65	Back to HannibalLecture. No, on second thought, stay here. After all, you're here to have other people hold your hand through this entire trope, aren't you?
66	----
67	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
68	%%
69	%%* '''Implied''': ???
70	%%* '''Intended Audience Reaction''': ???
71	%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???

Context PlayingWith / HannibalLecture