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alt title(s): My Brilliant Evil Plan "Gentlemen! Since you are about to die anyway, I may as well tell you the entire plot." — Benedict, Last Action Hero
Villains have an urge to gloat. Rather than simply start the needlessly complicated Death Trap, they will pause to outline their plan to the hero, often including information on how to stop it.
It sometimes seems that heroes get more information out of being interrogated than their interrogators do.
Villains will do this even if they are going to just shoot them. There's something irresistible about twisting the knife that last little bit before finishing things. This can give the hero the time they need to escape, but just as often the hero will simply sit there and wait. It's rude to interrupt someone even when they're trying to kill you.
Many anime use this as a technique to drag out the fights.
Dates at least as far back as the movie serials of the 1940s (especially those made by Republic), making it Older Than Television.
Item #7 on the Evil Overlord List advises the prospective overlord to simply shoot the hero when in this position. (Rather than risk that he will talk his way out.)
When the villain falsely thinks it's Just Between You And Me, you have an Engineered Public Confession.
When the villain takes advantage of their solitude to tempt The Hero, it's What You Are In The Dark.
Examples:
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Film
Anime & Manga
- In Full Metal Alchemist, Edward is chained up in a cell as the villain comes in to kill him. Ed baits the villain into spilling the beans on his Corrupt Church. Then Edward reveals that he was sitting in front of a live public address microphone, and that he had broken the chains.
- In the manga, Ed lures Cornello into his broadcast room and tricks him into gloating about manipulating the townspeople with the microphone on.
- There's also an example in the manga where Ed shows Genre Savvy. After Father reveals several of his plans, Ed comments something "since you've told us your plans, I assume you intended to kill us".
- Used intelligently in Death Note: Light likes to gloat in front of his victims, but he does it discreetly and only when they are in their absolutely final moments. Ray Penbar sees a train's sliding doors close on Light, who mouths him a farewell just before Ray's heart attack kills him, Naomi Misora has Light's identity revealed to her one second before the Death Note takes over her mind, and the last thing Ryuzaki sees in this world is Light, standing over him and wearing a Slasher Smile no-one else can see. However, this pattern, though not the trope, is itself subverted when Light's final plan goes horribly wrong; the evidence against him may have been excusable if he hadn't shouted that this was his win.
- In Samurai Seven, Ukyo tells Kanbei, right before his planned execution, that he's planning to destroy Kanna Village and take over the world.
- Parodied twice in Black Lagoon, when two separate villains get the drop on our AntiHeroes, only to spend so much time talking about how they've won that they don't get an actual shot off before Revy guns them down wordlessly. Of course, one of them had the foresight to wear a bulletproof vest...
- In One Piece, Crocodile reveals the bomb that is set to go off in Alubarna when facing Vivi in the palace, as a way of mocking her desire to save everyone. While he does try to finish her off, Luffy and Pell manage to save her, and she uses the knowledge about the bomb to find and disable the cannon, although it takes Pell's near-self-sacrifice to stop it completely.
- One Piece often goes a bit crazy with this trope, considering the number of Card Carrying Villains around. Particularly notable is that nearly every villain helpfully explains their powers for the heroes' benefit - this is eventually given a Lampshade Hanging and Double Subversion when Calipha refuses to disclose her Devil Fruit's name and properties...and Nami guesses them perfectly.
- Lampshade Hung for laughs with broadaxe wielder Sentoumaru, who refuses to tell anything about himself saying he's the most tight-lipped person, then promptly revealing the exact information he just said he wouldn't reveal... And excusing himself that he wanted to reveal that when called out on his slip.
- The big bad delivers a monologue to the heroes in S-CRY-ed via a remote video feed that serves to keep them in place long enough for his Kill Sat to get in firing position.
- Used in Trigun by Legato Bluesummers. Not only does he explain his plan, he forces it to come to fruition as well. His plan? Force Vash to kill him.
- However Vash was given the choice to either kill Legato or let his friends die, he obviously went with the lesser of two evils since he had no choice.
- Mahou Sensei Negima screws around with this idea. Chao was smart enough not to gloat about the completion of her plan until a week after she already did it, sending the protagonists forward in time to when she already won. Unfortunately for her, Negi has his own Time Machine, so he and his squad decide to Set Right What Once Went Wrong...
- Pain tells Jiraiya his plan on the justification that "you're going to die anyway". At least he's a bit vague on the details.
- Then very harshly subverted by the fact that Jiraiya does in fact die before he can tell anyone Pain's plan.
- Played straight with Naruto. Pain seemingly has Naruto pinned down with spikes that disrupt the flow of his chakra and tells him about his plan, but then Hinata arrives, tells Naruto she loves him and gets kknocked down and stabbed, resulting in him going into his six-tailed mode and breaking free. Naruto gets out with help from his father, and then defeats Pain.
Comic Books
Literature
- During the first 6 books, Harry Potter's main strategy was to make the villains talk, as a way to buy some time and think of a way to get the hell out.
- In the Terry Pratchett Discworld novel Men At Arms, Commander Vimes muses about how it's better to be at the mercy of an evil man: "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. ...A good man will kill you with hardly a word."
Wolfgang: What is it you want me to say, Your Grace? Something like "you are going to die anyway so I might as well tell you", perhaps?
Vimes: Well, it'd be a help.
Wolfgang: You are going to die anyway. Why don't you tell me?
- Used slightly oddly in the novel The City Of Dreaming Books. The villain just seems to enjoy giving this speech, even when it's completely unwarranted. In fact, many of his victims point out that they never would have known he even had an Evil Plan, had he not told them about it in great detail before disposing of them.
- In Soon I Will Be Invincible, Doctor Impossible repeatedly struggles against this urge, remembering his last defeat:
Last time I told them everything, giving it away like a fool, how I was going to do it, how escape was impossible. And they just listened, smirking.
- Subverted in James P. Hogan's story "The Assassin." The title character is sent to liquidate a scientist who had defected from his side, succeeds, but is then captured. His interrogators then introduce him to his "deceased" target, who has developed technology to duplicate people. Since they can duplicate the prisoner as many times as necessary, they can simply try every interrogation strategy... including honest explanation and persuasion.
- Played straight and lampshaded in the Ciaphas Cain novel Duty Calls, where Cain meets with the Inquistor that's been trying to kill him through the whole book. The Inquisitor waits until he thinks Cain is on his side before revealing the whole plan. The Lampshade Hanging comes from the villain's name, Ernst Savros Killian, which bears a striking resemblance to a certain James Bond villain.
- Subverted in R. A. Salvatore's Homeland. Alton DeVir asks the Faceless Master why he is about to kill him. The Faceless Master refuses, because "You broke my mirror!"...even though Alton only broke it while running from the Faceless Master after the Faceless Master first attempts the assassination. Alton reflects that that doesn't make any sense before the Faceless Master's apprentice shoots him from behind.
- Double Subverted in Lois Mc Master Bujold's The Vor Game. The Big Bad decides to reveal her plan to Miles before sending him away to attend to some buisness for her. Some time later, Miles decides that she couldn't possibly have told him her actual plan for the moment and uses this (and the two other plans she's thought of, told to people, and discarded.) to deduce her current plan. Then he decided that plan is too obvious and goes with the second option. Yes, it dissolves in a Thirty Xanatos Pileup. How did you guess?
- During the fifth Dresden Files book, Harry tries to bait Nicodemus into doing this, to no avail. Later, he remarks to Susan that he must've read the Evil Overlord List.
- Completely inverted in Forgotten Realms novel Silverfall, when one Affably Evil foe inadvertently convinced Storm Silverhand to spare his life after his surrender was answered only by one raised eyebrow. By asking one right question. Well, by asking and then clarifying it:
There's just one thing I'd like to know before I die. How did you know?
Know about what?
- Warrior Cats: Hawkfrost does this at the end of Sunset. His plan wasn't particularly complicated, but before trying the strike the killing blow, he felt the need to tell Brambleclaw that he was just testing him. And of course, after Brambleclaw impales him, he remembers something else important and says a little extra as he bleeds to death.
Live Action TV
- Nicely Lampshaded in the Doctor Who episode "Utopia", where the newly regenerated Master says to The Doctor: "Why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me, I don't think!"
- The demons in Supernatural have a bad habit of doing this. Meg, Tammi, even Azazel (previously The Yellow-Eyed Demon) have given up easy victories this way. Other monsters' modus operandi tend to be exposited in other ways, from arcane research.
- Lampshaded by Dean in "Devil's Trap" with, "Listen, you mind just getting this over with, huh? Cause I really can’t stand the monologuing." This turns out to be a slight mistake when his organs start to, y'know, liquefy.
- Surprisingly averted when new Big Bad Lilith has both heroes helpless. Sam tries to bargain with her; she points out he has nothing she wants, and Dean tries to prompt a bit of monologuing. "So, is this your big plan, huh? Drag me to hell. Kill Sam. And then what? Become queen bitch?" Lilith simply replies "I don't have to answer to puppy chow," and sets the hellhounds on him, killing him before immediately attempting to kill Sam. It didn't work, but not for wont of trying at least, and it wasn't until the next season we actually found out what her plan is.
- Lampshade Hanging in Sledge Hammer: when an assassin has Sledge tied to a Death Trap, he tells him how he intends to kill the captain. Sledge responds by saying, "I'll never understand why you guys explain your whole plan before you kill somebody."
- Subverted in the Pushing Daisies episode "Dummy." The murderer makes a full confession while the heroes are wrapped in body bags and locked inside a car, so they can't actually hear a word of what he's saying.
Radio
Tabletop Games
- Feng Shui's Spy archetype has the unique schtick of spending a Fortune point to get a reluctant or hostile NPC to tell them something they shouldn't, and it's best used when captured to get a villain to engage in a Just Between You And Me speech. Also, Seed of the New Flesh, the Architects sourcebook, has a Criminal Mastermind archetype that has "Slave to the Cheese" as their unique weakness — which not only requires you to make this kind of speech to enemies you capture, but also precludes just shooting your foes in favor of elaborate deathtraps and other Bond villain-style ways of toying with your prey.
- In the Marvel Super-Heroes RPG, the section on villains actually outlines this in game terms: villains get a karma bonus for telling the heroes their plans.
Video Games
- Lampshaded in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door when you confront Lord Crump. Instead of telling you his plans, he replies "Oh no, that's a novice villain mistake!"
- A very similar moment occurs in Advance Wars: Dual Strike (which was made by Intelligent Systems, the same people who made Thousand Year Door). When questioned about Black Hole's recovery, Teen Genius Lash responds: "Duh! Like I'd tell you that!"
- Subverted and lampshaded in Baldurs Gate 2: You have the option of asking the Big Bad what he's planning, and he flatly responds, "No, you warrant no villain's exposition from me." You have to go extra mile of asking one of his treacherous lieutenants.
- Parodied several times in the Monkey Island series. In LeChuck's Revenge, the titular villain explains his Deathtrap in minute detail, and then takes some time to allow Guybrush to ask questions in case he needed clarifications. In Curse of Monkey Island, after capturing the hero, LeChuck insists on explaining the plot. Eventually Guybrush had to hold his hands to his ears and tell LeChuck he was deliberately ignoring him in order to get him to stop.
- Don Corneo from Final Fantasy VII comes to mind. Is it because he's ready to die? Sure of victory? Or just clueless? Guess.
- This happens in zOMG twice, although both times it was just a distraction while the villain in question was preparing his method of attack. During the Big Bad's monologue, one of your crew members will hang a lampshade.
- Done by Liquid Ocelot to Old Snake before their final duel in Metal Gear Solid 4, though one could say that it's perfectly legitimate for him to do so because (1) he's Ocelot and (2) his true plan had already succeeded.
- Done all the time in the Metal Gear Series. Liquid and Solidus in particular seem to love doing this. It was toned down a few notches in part 3 and most of part 4, but it still takes up lots of time, especially considering Snake's tendency to ask for clarification.
- Parodied in one of the bonus scenes from Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, where the Big Bad, after reviewing his plans aloud with no one else in the room, comments "It's not much fun making speeches about my plans without an audience..." After a pause he followed this up with maniacal laughter (which he happens to end almost every sentence with).
- Resident Evil 4 had a particularly bad example. Saddler's plan revolves around kidnapping The Presidents Daughter, infecting her with the Virus, having her rescued, and then have her take control of the United States from within. And he goes and tells her rescuer the entire plan as she's being rescued. Smart move, villain.
Web Animation
- Almost a description of the trope itself in the World Of Warcraft machinima movie Tales Of The Past 3, when Arthas and Blazer speak on top of dragon sculptures :
Arthas: Let me tell you a little secret, Blazer. The sword you're wielding is a key — using it, you would be able to not only undo the summoning but you might also be able to release the soul of your dear friend, Yimo.
Blazer: (pauses) Why should I believe you?
Arthas: I never lie. I'm simply telling you because there is no way you can defeat me... And I would love watching you die in agony, realizing that you failed them all... again.
Web Comics
- Hilariously subverted in Schlock Mercenary, where gate-cloned captain Tagon and Brad are captured by the Gatekeepers, interrogated, and are about to be executed. Tagon tries to stall the Gatekeeper by asking him if he's going to reveal his nefarious plans, but the Gatekeeper points out how silly a mistake that would be, and then kills both of them. He even refuses to tell the narrator any details, saying he's under standing orders not to reveal any secrets to the narrator.
- Parodied
 in Narbonic, when Mad Scientist Helen gets another scientist's henchman to explain her own plan to her as a stalling tactic.
Helen: There is no one on the side of Evil this tactic doesn't work on.
- Nale from Order Of The Stick parodies this trope by explaining his EvilPlan to himself.
- In this strip of Adventurers! Khrima's Genre Blind stumbling right into this trope is lampshaded by the Genre Savvy Karn.
- General Gray in the Jump Leads issue Who Wants to Rule the World? averts this, despite being an otherwise textbook case of Contractual Genre Blindness. After all, "before I kill you, let me tell you my plan" only works if you have any actual intention of killing the person you're talking to.
- In Sluggy Freelance Torg plays on Dr. Steve's Contractual Genre Blindness to invoke this trope.
Dr. Steve: I've decided to just shoot you and get this over with.
Torg: But wait, don't you want to reveal your master plan to me?
Dr. Steve: No.
Torg: If you were a real villain, you'd tell me your master plan before killing me.
Dr. Steve: Hmmmm . . .
Torg: After you tell me your master plan, you can strap me to a table and cut me in half with a laser.
Dr. Steve: How about I tie you to a chair and blind you with a pen light?
Torg: Deal!
Dr. Steve: Let's do it!
Web Original
- Doctor Horrible taunts a frozen Captain Hammer, as well as his captive audience... in song!
- not to mention that Captain Hammer gloated to Horrible an act earlier that he was going to sleep with Penny just to piss Horrible off.
Western Animation
Web Animation
- At the end of Broken Saints, Big Bad Lear Dunham spells out, in detail, his motives and the origins of his big plan to the heroes. The whole point of him telling them (and of their involvement in the plot at all) was so they would be inspired by his vision and join him as his chief apostles.
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