Misused: Character Filibuster

When I clicked on Character Filibuster, I figured it was a writer using a character as a mouthpiece to preach their agenda. Makes sense. Generally a product of poor writing that interferes with the story. The page quote and the description on the Bad Writing page support this.

But then I read the description and laconic. They describe a Character Filibuster as a character who "just won't stop talking."

This needs work.

A character who is shilling for the author and a character who doesn't shut up are two completely different things, and although they often go hand-in-hand, they certainly aren't compelled to. Characters can shill for the author even if they speak relatively rarely, and characters can give long speeches that have nothing to do with an author's beliefs.

So which is it? If it's just a character who makes speeches, it needs to be taken off the bad writing index and given a name change, I think. It's too close to Author Filibuster. If it's a character who preaches for the author, it needs to be seriously rewritten and have lots of examples cleaned up.

edited 9th Jul '12 3:38:21 PM by David7204

What, what? I could have sworn this was... y'know.

DEFINITELY needs a fix.

Character speaking for the author is Author Filibuster, isn't it?

I remember trying to fix this before. Recommend going with the "character will not shut up" definition - we don't need another complaining trope.

Right, this should be about characters who talk at length. Message irrelevant. Needs a new name.

The character who won't shut up is Motor Mouth.

Character Filibuster is when characters talk for a long time. Not necessarily anything to do with an agenda—the point is that the story stops for a while so that this character can talk (hence "filibuster"). For example, it was a popular trope in Romantic-era literature like Coleridge's Rime Of The Ancient Mariner or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, where one character would tell a long story to another character. It's more commonly used as Exposition or as a Framing Device than as an author-mouthpiece (which is its own trope).

Motor Mouth is about characters who speaks fast, this one could be about character who loves long speeches. Both are about "just won't shut up" but in different manner.

"Won't shut up" was a flippant way of saying "character talks for a long time".

Well, I can't think of anything clever for a re-name.

Resident Monologuer?

Hang on, Let Me Get This Straight....

So a Motor Mouth chatters at high speed and won't shut up, but that's just them being annoying.

An Author Filibuster is when the plot stops so the author's mouthpiece character (or even the narrator) can go on at length about something.

This trope is when one character is talking for an inordinate amount of time, which MIGHT be an Author Filibuster, but could be a long Rousing Speech, a Nested Story, an Info Dump, or something else.

Okay, I agree it needs to not be called a fillibuster.

How about Long Winded Lecture? Long Winded Locution?

edited 12th Jul '12 8:19:53 AM by Escher

"Filibuster" is being used figuratively in the same sense as it is in Author Filibuster. The action stops while a character talks for a long time.

Improptu Speech? Is that too general?

edited 12th Jul '12 7:04:20 PM by abk0100

Unfortunately, I think the evidence makes it pretty clear that what most people are taking away from it is an association with Author Filibuster.

It would help an awful lot if it wasn't two entries down from Author Filibuster on the Bad Writing index, with an unhelpful description.

I know what a filibuster is and all, but yeah — it's just that Character Filibuster sounds like it ought to be related to Author Filibuster (the only difference is who's doing the talking, right? ....wrong.)

It doesn't help that the page quote for both pages is the SAME QUOTE. If this is a distinct trope, let's get a page quote that isn't an Author Filibuster example (though due to the nature of the trope, quoting one is inherently difficult).

edited 13th Jul '12 6:36:38 AM by Escher

A "Filibuster" is an overly-long speech, and is usually done in parliaments in Real Life (=Holding the Floor?)

Here we have the classical issue when trope names have a component that serves a different purpose in different names

Apart from the naming issue (and yes, I think we all know that filibuster is an appropriate term in the context but it causes confusion), I notice that a large percentage of the examples on Character Filibuster are also examples on Author Filibuster.

Not every CF is an AF — sometimes the character is just chattering on or being a Straw Critic that makes obviously flawed arguments or something else — and not every AF is a CF (most are, but you do have examples where it's the narrator that goes on at length... I guess...) But the overlap seems like it's so large that it drowns out the other examples.

Do we have a Missing Supertrope here? Maybe we should redefine Character Filibuster to exclude anything that's an Author Filibuster (making it a sister trope instead of a massive overlap)?

edited 13th Jul '12 7:30:43 AM by Escher

Overlap is expected as an Author Filibuster is almost always a Character Filibuster as well (exceptions exist, but are relatively uncommon).

Clocking due to lack of activity.

Rename to Absurdly Long Speech Scene?

I like Escher's suggestion of Long Winded Lecture. Captures the trope pretty well.

Stale for two months? Lock time.