[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/badcomic2.jpg http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cit_talking_is_a_free_action.jpg]]
[[caption-width:200:"Lacking in survival skills" indeed. Seriously, ''twelve seconds'' of dialogue, and she can't ''dodge?'']]

-> ''"When your martial arts skills are developed to the Chuck Norris level, you can spit out gigantic chunks of expository dialog in mere seconds without breaking a sweat."''
->-- '''[[http://misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics102.html Mister Kitty]]''' on ''Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos''

Time in comics is flexible. Each panel shows a single event, which is usually accompanied by a length of dialog, which must take ''some time'' to say. This disparity is usually accepted if it isn't taken to extremes.

But often, characters will [[{{Exposition}} exposit]] when it's most needed: at the story's climax, when both the intricacies of the plot and the intensity of action hit their highest.

While the {{Heroes}} OutrunTheFireball, MrExposition might explain why the EvilOverlord's death [[LoadBearingBoss caused the explosion]]. The ActionGirl can deliver impressive lectures on why the monster's AchillesHeel will work, while still engaging in WaifFu. The SuperHero can [[YouFightLikeACow quip]] to his heart's content and [[LuckilyMyPowersWillProtectMe explain his abilities]] while dueling one insignificant mobster, or deliver a KirkSummation during the course of a single FinishingMove. Sometimes even apparent mere mortals can give a lecture on what is happening when it would be a much better idea to simply ''run like hell''.

Without stopping to breathe, apparently.

This has become less common in the era of {{Decompressed Comic}}s, possibly because it was taken to silly degrees at times, but has [[UndeadHorseTrope never really gone away]].

This is mostly found in comics and WebComics, as it compares time to talk with time to do. If a comic is translated to a medium where time is a factor, [[InactionSequence then this can become obvious]].

Anime versions of Manga, for example, sometimes end up having [[InactionSequence Midstrike Monologues]], where it almost seems like TimeStandsStill for the purpose of attacks, but not for the hero to deliver an {{In the Name of the Moon}} speech.

Another variant can occur in roleplaying Video games, where battle can stop for dialogue scenes, either for CharacterDevelopment or [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHits rules description]]. Sometimes this is with enemies present, but refusing to attack. Maybe they're caught up in the romance or wonder of the moment. Or maybe they realise they're [[{{Mooks}} doomed cannon fodder]] and think it best to savour their last moments of life.

Compare InactionSequence, ComicBookTime, WebcomicTime, {{Expolabel}}, WallOfText. Compare ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction for the apparel equivalent. TalkToTheFist is this trope's feared enemy, and KilledMidSentence is the biggest subversion/aversion. Contrast DistractingDisambiguation, where there is some amount of cooperation on the enemies' part that enables this. See also ExpositionBeam, which bypasses this. And see MagicCountdown, which can be an example of this if the characters are talking during an artificially slow countdown.
----
!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: General ]]

* As a rule, this trope will usually apply in any situation where a protagonist's close friend, relative, or lover falls in battle. A character will essentially never be at a disadvantage for taking a moment (or several) to mourn or exchange a few touching last words, even if surrounded by angry {{Mooks}}. In cases where this trope isn't used, [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy the bad guys' miraculously poor aim]] will usually fill the role.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* Abused in ''TransformersSuperGodMasterforce'' when Ranger is introduced -- Ginrai is able to give him a tutorial on transformation while Ranger is falling from a cliff.
* Frequent in {{Naruto}}. The worst offender is Lee, who can kick his opponent into the air, jump after him and deliver a 30 seconds exposition before performing a finisher.
** Naruto is a rather bad offender of this as well. He'll somehow manage to spout of a speech while dodging/delivering attacks. When he finishes his speech, he'll usually use clones or Rasengan to finish off his opponent (or both).
** Then there is the wonderful fight between Sakura and Sasori, where the former injects herself with an antidote that will protect her from poison for the next three minutes. The characters then proceed to spend five minutes talking before they resume fighting(another half hour), all before the three minutes manages to expire.
** While fighting [[spoiler:Kisame]], [[spoiler:Killer Bee and Sabu]] manage to easily talk to each other even when they ''are underwater''.
*In volume 7 of the the Hellsing manga, a Vampire manages to explain how he can tell the difference between bloodtypes by taste all the while a shell from Harkonen II floats onimously over his shoulder before impact in the next pannel.
* The final volume of the ''DeathNote'' manga features an entire chapter of infodumping which supposedly takes less than 30 seconds. Even more blatant in the anime, in which the monologuing takes a good nine minutes of screentime to deliver but still is portrayed to be confined to a less than 30 second timeframe. In one case, time even appears to stop while said infodumping takes place.
** To be fair, a good part of it happens while Light is thinking about all the plans he made over the past few months, which would take no in-universe time.
* Happens all the time in ''{{Kinnikuman}}'' and ''{{Ultimate Muscle}}''. One of the most blatant examples is the match between [[spoiler: the newly-returned Ramenman]] and Motorman in the Throne arc. Although one of the shorter fights in the arc, it still goes on for a solid 9 or so minutes during the anime... even though they clearly state in the next episode that the fight only last 37 seconds.
* Taken to ridiculous extremes in ''JoJosBizarreAdventure''. The lengthy situational analyses in the manga (often spoken out loud, often in the time it takes a bullet to travel less than a dozen feet) are egregious enough, but the anime managed to extend nine seconds (the canonical duration of [[spoiler:Dio's time-freezing ability]], as explicitly stated in both manga and anime) into nearly a minute of gloating.
** This is also evident in the {{PS2}} game ''Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Whirlwhind''. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZRfkQZk4M Here]] we see Bucciarati, who has no time-slowing powers, thinking really, ''really'' fast.
** The video example is because Bucciarati has just been hit with Giorno's power which normally is to give life to nonliving things. When it is used on someone living in causes an overflow of life meaning it really does speed up the brains thinking powers greatly. As a side note the reason it becomes Giorno's advantage is because the brain cannot handle the sudden speedup and causes the affected person in real life to not function correctly
* ''MobileSuitGundam'' saga just loves doing this, especially [[WarriorTherapist during epic battles]].
* Inui of ''PrinceOfTennis'' defeats his opponents by memorizing the percent chances of any particular action occuring during a game. This can end in him rattling off a list of percentages in the middle of his through-swing.
**Heck, in almost every game in the series and certainly during every training exercise, someone will either manage to shout the name of a move about to be used, describe exactly how a certain move works, point out a forgotten fact, or generally manage to get in a good three minutes of talking, all before the ball manages to get to the other side of the net.
***Somewhat Lampshaded when just as much(or less) talking can cover up to five games being won/lost.
* ''{{Gantz}}''. To excess. Then again, ''everything'' in ''Gantz'' is a free action, and nothing happens unless directly caused by such a free action, in what can only be described as the anime equivalent of event-driven programming. This is vitally necessary, as the show's protagonists are perhaps the single most hesitant gaggle of mooks in all of anime.
** It's probably the only show where even *sex* is a free action.
** The aliens [[spoiler: OR ARE THEY?]] seem to be getting about as tired of this as us, with Inaba being [[spoiler: stomped to paste after his triumphant return]] and the [[spoiler: Hiroshima team member having and arm and part of his head taken off mid-conversation.]]
* ''TheLawOfUeki'' does this quite often, both with the standard talking and occasionally with flashbacks. Apparently it takes less time to revisit all your motivations for becoming a fighter (taking five minutes of screen time) than it does for a fist to cross a foot or two. At one point Ueki pole vaults onto someone, and they manage a four line dialogue explaining his move before he even gets close to landing.
* ''HunterXHunter'' has fun with this trope. In one of the more recent chapters, one of the character thinks several paragraphs worth of stuff, then realizes that he's thought entirely too much in so short a timeframe. He then realizes that the reason this is happening is because one's perception of time slows greatly in the seconds before one is about to die. Zoom out to reveal the guy he's fighting, all set to beat the shit outta the first guy.
* Mocked in ''RealBoutHighSchool''. After Ryoko effortlessly takes out a powerful hood, his friends get angry. The leader is calmed by his [[TheDragon Dragon]], who wishes to test his sword skills against hers. Well, that's the sentiment he was ''trying'' to express. He got as far as "She's good. I'll g-" before she smashed his face in with her wooden sword.
* Averted in ''BlackLagoon'' where anyone stupid enough to try to hold a speech in the middle of a fight is shot by [[HeroicSociopath Revy]]. If they survive the first shot, then they're often [[LampshadeHanging taunted for their stupidity]].
** Best proven during the Nazi [[strike:fight]] slaughter, with the big guy bragging about his special made [[HandCannon pistol]] which only he could wield and is she scared, well she should b*POW*
*** She even looked disgusted at him and took the time to reload in front of him.
*Happens ''all the time'' in ''{{Eyeshield 21}}''. Football players and spectators can have entire conversations in the middle of plays that last five seconds.
* Poked fun at in manga ''Kotaro Makari Tooru,'' where in a martial arts tournament one of the contenders launches a mid air attack, whereupon the surprised announcer proceeds to exclaim his shock, admiration, expectations, exposition of the move, and prediction in the same panel. A little pop-up head in the corner of the panel quips, "How much time does he have to say this much anyway?"
* Averted often and brutally in ''{{Blame}}!'', where most characters jump straight into the action without so much as a grunt.
* Subverted in the final episode ''FullMetalPanic? Fumoffu'', where Tsubaki's [[PreAssKickingOneLiner Pre-Ass Kicking]] [[strike: [[PreAssKickingOneLiner One Liner]]]] ''[[PreAssKickingOneLiner Speech]]'' is long enough for Sousuke to calmly find his bag, take out his gun, load it with rubber bullets, carefully aim for his head, and shoot him.
* ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex''. Probably a side effect of having been adapted from light novels, but that does nothing to excuse the fact that several minutes of conversation happen while a character is running across a room no more than twenty feet wide. To it's credit, this sort of thing becomes less common as it goes along, though.
* In Ichigo's second fight with Grimmjow in ''{{Bleach}}'', his hollow mask stays active for around 11 seconds, but the fight lasts for five minutes in the anime. Even if you do assume that the characters are moving at superhuman speed and can take more actions in 11 seconds than most people can, the dialogue that both characters say would easily take longer than 11 seconds combined.
** Subversions are fairly common in ''{{Bleach}}''- near the end of the Soul Society arc, the just-revealed BigBad is attacked in the middle of the twenty-minute explanation of his XanatosRoulette. Being a BadAss, he just shrugs it off, sends his attacker reeling, and goes on talking. In a later episode, D-Roy attacks Rukia in the middle of some exposition, and then again in the middle of her introductory speech. Given the result, maybe [[MonsterOfTheWeek D-Roy]] should have just let her talk...
*** D-Roy's case is rather odd, in that he interrupts Rukia by attacking (and this is commented upon), but only after letting her talk for nearly 5 minutes straight.
*** But the original and by far the most widespread example is [[FunctionalMagic Kido]]. The incantations for these spells are so wordy, one is left wondering how they could ever realistically be used in a combat situation. Here's an example of one of the more basic bindings:
---> "Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"
*** And that's the incantation for what is basically a basic fireball spell. Is it any wonder the more powerful Soul Reapers have taken to learning how to cast without the incantations?
* Like the ''{{Bleach}}'' example above, in the climax of ''OnePiece'''s Arabasta arc, the Straw Hats are able to call out to each other while executing an improvised plan over the course of less than a minute, which lasts three minutes in the anime, and their dialogue also would have taken up the entire alloted time.
* ''{{Parasyte}}!'' uses this to highlight an increase in the main character's reaction time. We see a punch fly at his head, he pauses to muse on the source of his newfound strength for a couple of paragraphs, and then parries the attack without difficulty.
* ''DragonBall'' of course, where every villain has the urgent need to talk a lot. It usually is necessary to talk about evil plans or the like.
**Taken to insanity during Goku's fight with Freeza. Freeza destroys the core and gives the planet five minutes until implosion. Twenty episodes (approximately three hours of screentime for each of the scenes that are playing out simultaneously), and over three hundred lines of dialog for the two fighters later the planet finally collapses.
*** Lampshaded snarkily in the dub. With ten episodes to go, Frieza has a line to the effect that the planet s "a tough one... it'll probably last another two minutes."
* Not exactly talking but, in {{Pokemon}} anime, flashing your Pokedex at an unknown pokemon causes all other activities to cease. Even if said pokemon is hellbent on the protagonist's destruction, it will politely wait until said protagonists know exactly what they're facing up against.
** The Team Rocket motto is usually a free action. For some reason, Ash & co will wait for them to finish before defeating them, and they drop anything else to introduce themselves. However, on occasion people will interrupt Team Rocket, especially Barry (who has never actually heard the entire motto for this reason).
* Averted in a later chapter of ''{{Hayate the Combat Butler}}''. During a {{Flashback}} chapter that explained the first meeting between Nagi and Tama (in [[DarkestAfrica the African jungle]], by the way), Nagi had to save the then-baby Tama from a group of wild animals ready to pounce on and eat it... and also Nagi and Jenny, as well. Her resolution to protect Tama, complete with her saying as much, was interrupted by said animals closing the distance with them. Jenny even [[LampshadeHanging pointed out]] that they caught up while she was talking.
* ''CodeGeass'' often abuses this, especially with pilots talking during supposedly-fast-paced Knightmare battles (taken to a ridiculous extreme with Urabe's sacrifice in R2 episode 2), and with Lelouch making his dramatic fauxlosophic speeches as his opponents just stand there pointing guns at him.
* Current state of the plot in TsubasaReservoirChronicle. They've been in the middle of the final battle with the BigBad for a dozen chapters now, each of which seems to cover about two seconds and eight pages of exposition.
* Especially evident in the Rain Guardian battle in ''KatekyoHitmanReborn'', where the fight stops every minute for CombatCommentator Reborn to explain what Yamamoto just did.
* {{Claymore}} abuses this to hell and back. In one instance two Claymores jump up into the air for an attack and have a minute long conversation about how they wish they had a slightly different job while the bad guy does absolutely nothing.
* Lampshaded early in ''ElementalGelade''. The Eden Raids (living weapons) transform and can be commanded to perform various actions only after singing short songs. Coud begins going into an extended piece to unlock Ren's power against a foe, when the enemy moves to attack him in mid-song. [[SmallGirlBigGun Cisqa]] keeps the enemy back with a warning shot, saying, "When someone sings, listening until the end is good manners."
* Happens twice in {{Great Teacher Onizuka}} when Onizuka accidentally knocks people off ledges on top of high buildings. Somehow there's enough time in midair for several paragraphs of internal monologue, lots of screaming from astonished bystanders, and for him to finally reach a decision and run down the side of the wall to catch them.
* Used fairly frequently in GenesisOfAquarion. Basically, any time the focus is in the Vector cockpit, you can rest assured that the MonsterOfTheWeek will wait patiently for the pilots to finish whatever strategic discussion, CharacterDevelopment, or general exposition may be going on.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* ChrisClaremont. [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/badcomic2.jpg 'Nuff Said]]
** Oddly enough, though this wasn't written by Chris Claremont, it does accurately reflect his style.
*''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'' has a reputation for having panels over half-full of him talking.
** In fact, some gamers even refer to this phenomenon as "Marvelling", referencing ol' Web-Head himself. One of the reasons Spider-Man came off as more emo in [[{{Film/Spider-Man}} the films]] is because they couldn't logically work any of his usual in-battle joking into live-action fight scenes.
*** Bah! They clearly didn't try hard enough! The cartoons managed it pretty well.
*** Given that they managed to give him a smart mouth in his fight with bonesaw, they likely dropped it for reasons of drama rather than probability. Still cripples a big aspect of his character though.
* Spoofed/lampshaded in an issue of Keith Giffen's ''JusticeLeague'', where General Glory is falling from a height and spends several paragraphs describing the improbable maneuver he is performing as he performs it. It prompts one of the other characters to ponder how he can say so much so quickly.
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and justified in a scene in the DCComics mini-series ''DC One Million'' where a BadassNormal hero from [[TheFuture the far future]] delivers, in the space of a single flying kick, an implausibly large infodump ''about'' the fact that he's delivering an implausibly large infodump in the space of a single flying kick:
-->"You see... this is a martial arts move developed by a telepathic octopus species inhabiting the oceans of Durla; the attack's telepathic as well as physical, and by the time you realize this sentence seems way too long..."\\
"...it'll all be over."
* Parodied in an issue of ''{{Deadpool}}''. Wolverine gives a long speech during a single leap, making Kitty Pryde wonder how that's even possible. Evil scientist Doctor Bong then puts forward the hypothesis that time stretches during fight scenes as a side effect of whatever temporal anomaly is behind the [[ComicBookTime sliding timescale]].
* Mostly averted in ''TheAuthority'' with a clever plot device: the main characters communicate via telepathy in combat, not speech.
*Averted by Max Allan Collins in ''Wild Dog''. When an editor called his scripts "lean" he asked for clarification, and the editor responded that he did not have people talk during fight scenes. Collins reports this anecdote in an interview in Amazing Heroes#119.
* Occurs in Watchmen, most notably in the first page, where Rorschach's journal is read while the "camera" zooms out from the smiley-face badge. This is made more obvious in the Motion Comic, which is made up of animated panels of the book, where the zoom-out is down rather slowly, even though barely half of the dialog in that scene is shown.
* Parodied in a ''[[TheSimpsons Radioactive Man]]'' comic, during which a character is standing next to a huge mainframe when it topples toward him. His reaction: "No time to leap out of the way! Only time to '''talk''' about it!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]
*At the climax of the film ''PointBreak'', Keanu Reeves's and Patrick Swayze's characters fall out of an airplane at four-thousand feet and have a ninety-second shouting match which, as ''MythBusters'' demonstrated, is about three times as long as it would take to actually fall that distance. And that's not getting into the problems with being able to ''hear'' someone in free fall.
* ''Crank'' takes the above shouting match and cubes it by having a character fall out of a helicopter (at what looked like a relatively low altitude), have a fight to the death, and still have time to pull out his phone, connect to an answering machine, ''wait through the message'', leave one of his own, and '''hang up.'''
* Quentin Tarantino's speech in the final act of ''FourRooms'' was to be ''one minute''. He even has a buddy time it. It's actually one minute and twenty-eight seconds of talking.
* In ''FerrisBuellersDayOff'', [[NoFourthWall narrating]] is a free action for Ferris.
* Subverted in TheIncredibles. During the initial encounter between Mr. Incredible and Syndrome, Mr. Incredible attempts to catch Syndrome off guard by attacking him while he's explaining the source of his powers.
** [[GenreSavvy "You sly dog, you caught me monologuing!"]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]
* ''TheEyeOfArgon'':
-->"All that you hear is less than I hear! I heard footsteps coming towards us. Silence yourself that we may find out whom we are being brought into contact with. I doubt that any would have thought as yet of searching this passage for us. The advantage of surprize will be upon our side." Grignr warned.
* In Orson Scott Card's novel ''Empire,'' the main characters, while fighting for their lives during surprise-attacks-in-peacetime with never-before-seen giant mecha, basically have a full conversation, complete with sarcastic political commentary.
* Terry Pratchett's ''[[{{Discworld}} Maskerade]]'' ([[MyNaymeIs sic]]) parodies the use of [[TalkingIsAFreeAction Singing is a Free Action]] common in opera, when the villain [[spoiler: with a stage sword between his arm and chest]] takes five minutes to die, while repeatedly jumping up and delivering yet another InfoDump each time.
** "...and [[LampshadeHanging I hate the way]] everyone takes...so long to...aaargh..."
* HarryPotter, with his wand in his hand, failed to stop Lockhart from using the Memory Charm, despite Lockhart gloating for 4 lines before activating that Memory Charm. Luckily for that DeusExMachina then.
** even though he had just used Expelliarmus on Lockhart in Myrtle's bathroom. Somebody isn't GenreSavvy enough.
*** Actually, he used Expelliarmus in Lockhart's office. Lockhart [[TaughtByExperience learned from his mistakes]] and raised his wand before threatening. Think of it like he was drawing his gun in his office when Harry drew his faster and shot him. This time, he's got his gun trained already, meaning he beat the quick draw.
* ''Lampshaded'' in, of all places, ''The Iliad.'' Played straight in that Patroclos stopped to give the lampshade in the middle of battle.
--> '''Patroclos''': My good man, why do you bandy words like this? You are wasting time. Taunts and jibes will not drive the Trojans away from that dead body. Many a man will fall before that! Words are potent in debate, deeds in war decide your fate. Then don't go on piling up the words, but fight!
* [[YourMileageMayVary Hilariously]] subverted in ''[[SwordofTruth Confessor]]'', when Snakeface tries to make a Heroic speech when facing down the main character. Five words in, [[spoiler:he loses his head.]] Apparently, he [[WrongGenreSavvy forgot he was in an objectivist series]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* The Doctor from ''DoctorWho'' often lapses into long mocking speeches that get his enemies stunned by his sheer audacity. Subverted in "The Idiot's Lantern", when he starts: "Hold on a minute! There are three important, brilliant, and complicated reasons why you should listen to me. One of them is--" and is promptly [[{{TalkToTheFist}} KO'd with a punch to the face]].
* In a similar vein, ''PowerRangers'' and ''SuperSentai'' all have lengthy morphing, zord summoning and weapon invocation scenes. The giant-sized monsters never seem able to step on the Rangers in the minute or so it takes them to summon and assemble their Megazord.
** Double subverted in an episode of ''MahouSentaiMagiranger'', where an enemy monster attempts to fire on the heroic mecha as it's going through the motions invoking its final attack. We discover that the graphics superimposed over the motions actually function as an energy shield, and divert the attack.
** Subverted in the first ''Power Rangers'' movie, where the Rangers finish morphing only to discover their opponents have vanished, and then have to track them back down.
*** And again in ''Power Rangers Dino Thunder'', when the Red Ranger is attacked by the MOTW while he's doing all the action poses that normally accompany transformation.
**** And in Lord Zedd's first appearance, when his monster used that time to attack and take control of the Zords before the Rangers could get into them and actually start foiling him, something my 10 year old self had been yelling at the bad guys to do since the 2nd episode.
* In ''{{Charmed}}'' whenever using the ''Power of Three'' the demons always remain motionless or nearly so, awaiting their destruction for no obvious reason, during sometimes-long rhymes.
** Though if you notice, a lot of the time the Demons are kind of vibrating/shuddering while the spell is being recited, which indicates that a Power of Three spell is not one that instantly blows the demon up once it has finished being said, but proceeds to destory the Demon throughout the duration of the spell being spoken, climaxing at the end.
** Averted when they first defeated The Source, where the destruction chant was so ridiculously long that they did have to find a way to bind it while they spoke.
* In ''PrettyGuardianSailorMoon'', Ami invokes her first [[TransformationSequence transformation into Sailor Mercury]] during a 20-foot-fall -- and she does it by reciting a trigger phrase that takes about three or four times longer to say than she should have taken to fall.
* Inverted in the Season 7 opener of {{NCIS}}, where Tony babbles on for several minutes to the terrorist villain, even stopping him from shooting McGee so he could explain his plan for escaping (borrowed from the movie True Lies). The point of his monologue was actually to spend as much time as possible talking [[spoiler: to give Gibbs enough time to set up a sniper's nest and shoot the terrorist through the window.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
*The [[TropeNamer trope name]] comes from ''DungeonsAndDragons'', in which most talking requires neither time nor effort, so requests to "[[ShutUpAndSaveMe stop talking and get fighting]]" weren't necessary...in the game world. In the real world...
** To be fair, ''DungeonsAndDragons'' actually ''does'' place guidelines and limitations on just how much talking you can do without time or effort... but these are usually ignored by players and [=DMs=] in all but the most drastic cases, and sometimes even then; it's [[RuleOfFun generally more fun that way]].
** ''D&D'' Webcomic the ''{{Order of the Stick}}'' has parodied this on several occasions, as it has most aspects of D&D's rules. See [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0166.html this strip]]. On the other hand, it has itself been [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0408.html guilty]] of this.
*** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0186.html Averted once]], when Vaarsuvius being "particularly verbose" in discussing a dragon actually caused the time they had before the dragon attacked to go from two rounds to one, while in that time learning the spell necessary to defeat it.
** And who could forget [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0010.html This]]
** Among the other things listed as "free actions" in D&D is [[UnfortunateImplications "touching yourself"]]...
* The SuperHero roleplaying game ''VillainsAndVigilantes'', first published in the early 1980s, explicitly defines speech as a "free action" and allows characters unlimited dialogue in combat because it is appropriate to the genre.
** The better-known ''{{Champions}}'' game that followed it, and its generic outgrowth ''HEROSystem'' after that, followed suit and is the most explicit example of encouraging people to use this trope for genre reasons in the present day.
* ''Mutants and Masterminds'' has a mechanic called "Monologuing" in which you trick the villain into talking on and on for several rounds, thereby giving your characters a chance to escape. Beyond using this trick however, the villain can monologue as much as he wants as talking is a free action, and Monologuing is a full round action.
* Talking is technically ''not'' a free action in {{GURPS}}, but Basic Set points out that unless you're going for hyper-realism it's usually best to use this trope.
* The [[BloodOfHeroes Mayfair Exponential Game System]] allows one or two free {{Bond One Liner}}s per phase of combat; however, if the dialog takes more than four or five seconds to deliver, it costs the player an Action.
* In rogue trader where talking is a free action you can even play an Astropath and have mindtalk as a free action.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* AdvancedWars plays this straight, although given that its a turn-based strategy game the player has as much time as they need.
* Excuse me, does anyone remember ''MetalGearSolid 2''?! The codec conversations, even if they ''are'' purely an act of thought on the part of Raiden, are pretty unbelievable. Particularly infamous is the ''three-minute'' argument over ''weapon naming conventions'' with [[spoiler:the AI construct the Patriots built to rule the world]] that occurs ''[[spoiler:during the final boss battle]]''. And this is just after a ''twelve-minute long'' {{Infodump}} from the same guys, while [[spoiler:Solidus Snake just stands there, waiting to deliver his shocking revelation]].
** Considering the fact that Solidus had established a well-known proclivity for every person that he faces knowing exactly what's going on...hmm. Actually, still pretty ridiculous.
** Used again in ''[=MGS4=]'' (naturally) when, [[spoiler: during the final cutscene ''after'' the credits have already started to roll, Snake meets up with the supposedly deceased Big Boss, who isn't quite dead yet. About five or so minutes into the cutscene, Big Boss reveals that Snake has just infected him with a new variant of FOXDIE, which, it has been established, kills people in about five minutes or so as they suffer a fatal heart attack. Big Boss then explains ''everything, while suffering a heart attack'', for about 20 or 30 ''minutes''. Granted, he's super-tough, considering he's Big ''freaking'' Boss, but still...]]
*** Sir, I do believe you're neglecting to take into account his extremely plot-sensitive {{Nanomachines}}.
*** That, along with the MediumAwareness and NoFourthWall. It's MetalGear, what did you expect when it knows you're playing it?
** Don't forget the original ''Metal Gear Solid'' (or ''MGS'' as a whole), wherein several codec conversations are allowed to take place right in the middle of combat. Mostly forgivable, except for when Snake is fighting Psycho Mantis, [[spoiler: The codec call being made to tell Snake to use controller slot 2 takes well beyond enough time for Psycho Mantis to slaughter Snake mercilessly...though this IS fourth-wall breaking anyway, so...]]
*** Subverted in ''[[SuperSmashBros SSB Brawl]]'', where Snake's codec transmissions on Shadow Moses Island have absolutely no effect on the fight...quite the opposite, in fact: If he's killed mid-convo, the character on the other line notices immediately. "SNAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!"
** But overall, let' just say that the MGS series has an implicit MST3K mantra.
* In many, many {{Fighting Game}}s with "super" special attacks, when a character executes one the battle will freeze for a split-second while they give a battle cry.
* ''FireEmblem'' sometimes has dialogue or monologue delivered before attacking particularly important characters.
** It also has Support conversations, in which two compatible characters can start gabbing in the middle of battle to raise their stats using ThePowerOfFriendship... but this eats a turn, at least in some of the games.
* In ''No More Heroes'', in the rank 10 fight against Death Metal, Travis begins to monologue on what it would be like to live in his opponent's mansion, talking about what his servants would do and how he would spend his days in leasure. Clearly for Travis, swinging a Beam Katana around for close to five minutes straight doesn't even make him breathe that hard.
**It's unclear if this is internal monologue or even fourth wall breaking expository monologue, like the opening "You there with the Wii remote" speech.
* For the sake of [[RuleOfCool flavour]], virtually all of the ''SuperRobotWars'' games have the characters, whether hero or villain, delivering a couple of lines of dialogue (well, actually monologue) with ''every attack''. This is especially amusing in the case of unmanned drone enemies, who actually go "beep beep beep" in place of their dialogue. Sometimes the characters will chat ''before'' they attack, and then they get the "combat chatter" on top of that.
** Using the actual ''Talk'' command, however, uses that units' turn.
** And in the case of important dialogue, the villain really is stopping to chat with the protagonist. Throwaway chatter is along the lines of "Villain X! What you've done can't be forgiven! Let's go!", and as for attack animations... it wouldn't be SuperRobot without liberal CallingYourAttacks and {{Invocation}}.
* ''SakuraTaisen'' displays a similar behavior to ''Super Robot Wars''. In ''Sakura Taisen 4'', there are even occasions where several minute long cut scenes occur between turns.
* In ''FinalFantasyTactics'', story fights are often interrupted with dialogue -- sometimes including extraordinarily long and detailed monologues.
** In fact, several ''FinalFantasy'' games have dialogue scenes for character development or rules description during battle screens, with enemies present, but refusing to attack.
*** And in another Square product, ''Chrono Cross'', the enemies are refusing to attack since they're the ones giving the rules and game information; apparently the ''heroes'' just stand there and listen.
**** [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHits Because it's ''helpful''!]]
** Sometimes averted ''FinalFantasyX'': some battles have "Special Commands" available, including "Talk" -- which use up a turn.
***But you DO get a nice battle-specific stat boost when you use the "TALK" commands, so it's usually worth it.
** Both averted -- in the same way as above -- and played straight in ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2''; Sometimes main characters go into lengthy monologues mid-battle, and other times you have to use your turn to talk. It seems mostly dependant on if you're talking to yourself or not.
** Perhaps played most notably straight in ''FinalFantasyVI'', in which the first time you have Terra use magic in battle with Locke and Edgar in the party, the Active Time Battle(!) system will pause for a looooooong conversation in which they freak out, break off to the side to whisper among themselves, FAINT, recover, and finally get back to fighting. Naturally, the enemies (usually a pair of Magitek Armours) wait patiently throughout this entire exchange.
* In the same vein, ''{{Disgaea}} 2'' has a truly remarkable example of this; the party bursts into the middle of a fight, where the brother of one of the main characters is in the middle of a suicidal assault on the BigBad's bodyguard. Apparently, however, MookChivalry prevents them from attacking while brother and sister share a lengthy retrospect, debate the value of life, make plans for the future, and learn new super-moves from their combined powers. Of course, it IS a turn-based game, and the characters are almost universally GenreSavvy, so maybe they were just aware that the enemy ''couldn't'' move untill someone hit the "End Turn" button...
** Then again, the trope is subverted in the first ''{{Disgaea}}'', in which Etna takes out two out of three Power Ranger knockoffs in the middle of their intro speech, before [[AllYourColorsCombined all their colors combine]]. This does earn her a stern lecture, though. Later, Laharl gets a scolding from Flonne too when he suggests that they should attack while TheRival is busy monologuing
*** It's also subverted by the prinnies at the beginning of ''Disgaea 2'', where they're A-OK with scoring a cheap critical hit while Rozalin is busy with an InternalMonologue
*** It's also lampshaded in the tutorial, where Etna notices that the monsters apparently have the courtesy to wait for their asses to be beat.
* Assassination targets in ''AssassinsCreed'' have the uncanny ability to freeze gameplay in order to deliver cryptic, rambling speeches. This despite their having invariably been stabbed through the neck by a two-foot spike immediately prior.
** This clearly takes place outside normal time, as the scenes are invariably set in the white "memory-space". Just how they figure to what actually happened is never explained, though.
*** "Memory space" is no excuse; for the monologues to even be in Altair's memory for the Animus to access, he must have ''actually heard the exposition'' during the actual killing in the past.
*** Imperfect technology is though; if you 'glitch' the sequence (ie press a button to see the scene from an alternate view point), it shows the various targets walking around while talking to Altair. One interpretation is that the Animus is combining known events it can get from memory with the expectations of the main character; the glitch being a glimpse at something that may have occurred but falling outside of expectations. That is, Altair may really have talked to the targets under no pressure at all but the expectation of his descendant was that he's just a gung ho assassin.
*** Just how is Altair able to talk to his targets under no pressure? The normal reaction of most people when face to face with an assassin is either to shout for the guards or fight to the death. Besides, the speech of the targets shows that they know the person they are talking to is an assassin sent after them so no excuse that they don't know who Altair is.
* ''Body Harvest'' actually says that when you get blurbs from the [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection girl in your lander]], your receiver [[LampshadeHanging injects a drug into you that speeds up your perception hundredsfold for a fraction of a second, gives you the transmission, and then dispenses another drug to bring you back down to normal speed]].
* In ''{{Achaea}}'', talking is one of the few actions that doesn't require balance (which is lost when most actions are used, and takes a few seconds to come back). Even emoting requires balance, which can result in the rather odd circumstance of the character apparently having the composure to recite entire paragraphs, but not being able to blink. Talking is also instant, although this effect is limited by the time the player spends typing it out.
* In ''CallOfJuarez'', characters you've just duelled with get last words, despite having just been shot in the head at extremely short range.
* Gawn, from ''{{Wild ARMs 4}}'', having already defied physics to [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome shoot down 11 missiles in mid-air]] and ''punching the last one with his bare hands'', decides to twist up the flow of time too. In the one second or less it takes for the last missile ''that he had just punched'' to explode, Gawn manages to give the protagonists an [[FinalSpeech entire speech]] on reaching for the future. Of course, everyone else has to move in slow motion while it happens. You don't believe me, do you? There is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9KFOJzn3u4 proof]].
* Spoofed in ''[[NintendoWars Days Of Ruin]],'' despite the rapidly dropping altitude of the plane the scene is set on no one except an unnamed IDS agent (who is panicking at her oncoming doom, and even asks if anyone else cares) cares, every other character is casually talking to the [[BigBad Big Bads]] TykeBomb [[spoiler:convincing her to HeelFaceTurn and allow them to make it out alive]]
** Played straight in the separately translated EU version Dark Conflict, where the IDS agent does nothing but read the altitude.
* The ''TalesSeries'' of [=RPGs=] loves this; typically there will be cutscene exposition before a plot-important fight and then the characters will banter ''during'' it, apparently not even needing to breathe.
** ''TalesOfVesperia'' takes a jab at this trope when Yuri and Flynn work together to defend a village of refugees from monsters. Yuri can't concentrate if he isn't talking and Flynn can't concentrate when someone is talking.
*** And then [[spoiler:they fight each other and trash-talk each other while they're kicking each other's ass]].
* In ''DragonQuestVII'', you can talk to your party members before each round of combat by just choosing 'Talk' instead of picking everyone's next actions. However, if you try talking [[RuleOfThree three times]], the enemy stops waiting and gets a free round of hits. (Surprisingly, [[{{Tsundere}} Maribel]] does not chew you out if you choose to start the ''next'' round by 'Talk'ing again...)
* In ''{{Fallout}} 3'', if you manage to Mezmerize an enemy during combat, you can run right up and talk to them, rifle their pockets, take their weapons, and slap a slave collar on, all while their allies patiently wait for your conversation to end.
* All ''TheElderScrolls'' games will pause indefinitely whenever the PlayerCharacter enters dialogue, even in combat (though to be fair, very few non-scripted NPCs will engage in dialog while fighting). This leads to such oddities as a soldier filling you in on the next stage of an attack plan while a fireball sent from the walls is patiently hovering mid-air not far from his head.
**Not to mention the spot where they lampshade it in Oblivion: when you return to Weynon Priory and find it under attack, you are informed by an NPC after a reasonably long conversation that he's fairly sure a Mythic Dawn agent is right behind him. Sure enough, when you finish the dialogue, there he is.
**Averted rather annoyingly in the ElderScrolls Adventures: Redguard, where opening dialogue with an NPC leaves you open to attack from any nearby enemies.
*''{{Diablo}} II'': In the cinematic between Act II and Act III, Tyrael somehow finds the time to deliver a ten-second monologue to Marius while ostensibly in battle with two Prime Evils.
**The background clearly shows that time has stopped while he does this. Also, he's an angel. And furthermore, the moment his time-stop ends, Baal catches him off-guard and disarms him. Triple [[JustifiedTrope justified]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Webcomics}}]]
*Shown in [[http://achewood.com/index.php?date=06232005 this]] ''{{Achewood}}'' comic.
**And again [[http://achewood.com/index.php?date=12122005 here]], where Ray demonstrates Writing Is A Free Action, by writing 19+ words (we don't see the other side) on a board during a pause in a conversation.
*In ''DarthsAndDroids'' the players have a long, complex discussion, ''[[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0006.html while insisting their characters are holding their breath]]''.
** Also {{Lampshaded}} ''[[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0167.html here]]''.
* Subverted in [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_899.php Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]].
** And [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_923.php again]]. Owch.
* Demonstrated greatly in [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/04/06/episode-013-the-dramatic-flashback/ this]] ''[[EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]'', where Fighter has a full flashback, gets an idea, and draws both swords before hitting opponents Black Mage [[FastballSpecial threw him at]] that were apparently at most fifteen feet away. In [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/79149 the flash version]] it's even more obvious, and even funnier.
** The comic for [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=081111 11/11/08]] is literally titled "Talking Is A Free Action".
* ''GirlGenius'' doesn't seem to be [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080305 immune to this either]]
** Lampshaded [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050720 at one point]]
** Subverted [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090513 at another]]
* ''VGCats'' subverted the trope with [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=159 this comic]] parodying frequent offender ''MetalGearSolid 2''.
* Lampshaded [[http://nowhereu.comicgenesis.com/d/20081112.html here]] in ''Nowhere University''
* Although [[{{Ptitlehpgydodt1jb7}} Dr. McNinja]] was busy running away from a horde of killer robots that were almost literally breathing at his neck, he still found enough time to read a note he discovered.
* Seen shortly after Ellen's creation in ElGoonishShive. Sure, she may not have said that much and got interupted at the end, but it was still ''a lot'' more then should have been possible during the time it takes [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-08-08 to fall from a second story window]].
* SuicideForHire does this a lot. [[http://suicideforhire.comicgenesis.com/d/20060312.html Lampshaded in the sidenote here]].
* Parodied once in StickManStickMan: [[http://qntm.org/files/stickmanstickman/comics.php?n=892 strip 892]].
* In ''SluggyFreelance'' this seems to hold true for [[http://pics.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060113 Blacksoul]] but not for [[http://pics.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060115 Bun-Bun]].
* Obviously, being a D&D comic, ''OrderOfTheStick'' not only averts this with Vaarsuvius after hir ''BalefulPolymorph'' (See the picture caption for ''SesquipedalianLoquaciousness'') but plays it straight after Haley makes a speech to Roy and then proceeds to say "Relax, talking is a free action".
** Not to mention that they talk a lot while fighting, even though they don't mention this trope explicitly.
*MSFHigh averts this and it is referenced by the [[http://www.msfhigh.com/?date=2009-01-22 creators]]
* Averted in Sailor Ranko, when Ranko interrupts Sailor Moon's "In the Name of the Moon" speech.
-->Sailor Moon: "I'm Sailor Moon! I right wrongs and..."
-->Sailor Ranko: "SHUT UP with that!"

[[/folder]]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in [[http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=JoeEe3tqeIQ this]] ''[[{{ptitlels44m36afkrs}} I'm A Marvel...And I'm A DC]] episode, in which Lex and Gobby are able to have a discussion over whether Ang Lee's version of TheIncredibleHulk is superior to the more recent version while the Hulk is shaking the car they're in.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* In ''DannyPhantom'', in the midst of heated battle, foes often seem to just stop and let Danny finish his superheroic, corny jokes.
** A subversion of this appears as well. Danny apparently has no qualms about attacking Technus during his usual lengthy monologues.
* In ''TheSimpsons'', this occurs whenever the family is watching a CoincidentalBroadcast: They all briefly stop to have a conversation regarding the report, spew pop culture reference jokes, bring up past adventures related to it, etc. then when they finally get back to watching, the report is exactly where they left off, almost as if the world stopped just for their conversation. Naturally, its been [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] a few times.
* ''TheSpectacularSpiderMan,'' though a very [[YouFightLikeACow talky]] series by nature, has a notable [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]. When a net is launched at Spider-Man from behind, he takes the time to say "Woah! My SpiderSense is tingli--!" only to be caught in the net before he can finish. Afterwards, his sense is shown, but never announced again.
* The all-time winner of this trope is the SoBadItsGood ''[[MarvelComics Marvel]] [[SuperHero Superheroes]]'' cartoon from 1966. These barely-animated six-minute gems were often directly adapted from '60s MarvelComics scripts -- in their full-blown long-winded StanLee glory. It often included such moments as CaptainAmerica giving an inspiring speech as he leaps across the screen -- with the leap dragged out to fill the full length of the speech. Watch a few of these, and you'll see just how damned silly this trope can ''get'' in a medium where time actually, you know, ''happens''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* This Troper managed to rant long and fast enough to cause this Troper's friend to ask, in all seriousness, "When do you breathe?". This Troper had to stop and think to answer that one.
[[/folder]]

----
<<|ComicBookTropes|>>
<<|{{Exposition}}|>>
<<|PlotTime|>>
<<|SpeechesAndMonologues|>>
<<|WebcomicTropes|>>

<<|UsefulNotes|>>