History Main / CharacterFilibuster

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Izaya counts, but more so in the light novels. In the anime, when it's revealed Earthworm did indeed capture him, he goes on a monologue to taunt her. In the light novel, he spends almost the entire book without a single line, and once he finally starts speaking, he ''doesn't stop'' and goes off on random tangents. One of the reasons he hired Namie was to have someone to tell all his plans to.

->''"For twelve years, you have been asking: Who is John Galt? This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who — ''['''[[http://www.galtse.cx 63 pages]]''' of pure speech later]'' — will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."''
-->-- '''[[CaptainObvious John Galt]]''', ''Literature/AtlasShrugged''

This trope happens when a character has started talking and just... won't... stop. Discussing and ranting for far longer than any normal person who's not a college sophomore would, they launch into well thought-out and outlined philosophical essays, complete with introductions and supporting points. Something any normal person might take ''weeks'' to write, rewrite, and organize before presenting, this character seemingly makes it up off the top of his head.

* V from ''Film/VForVendetta''. For some, though, his monologues and speeches are often the highlight of the film.
-->"[[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness Verily, this vichyssoise]] of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OB6EsUP4tU verbiage]] [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal veers]] [[LampshadeHanging most verbose]]..."

* Perhaps the ultimate example of this comes from ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', as the page quote indicates. Though including a full quote would be impossible, because Galt's speech goes on for sixty-three pages. Nobody has ever managed to read the entire speech clearly and intelligibly in less than six hours.
* ''Literature/TheFountainhead'' shows remarkable restraint, at least by Ayn Rand's standards, in that you ''only'' have to listen to Howard Roark for nine pages.

* Plato's ''Literature/{{Symposium}}'' consists of many long speeches on the nature of love in between people getting happily drunk and [[{{Bishonen}} Alci]][[FourStarBadass biades]] explaining how [[CoolOldGuy Socrates]] broke his heart.

----
"[[SelfDemonstratingArticle And that's all there is to it.]]"
...[[TheStinger said Bob]].

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'': Victor Talbot often employs these when he has the chance, such as when he's PerpSweating, although his filibusters are less eloquent on-the-spot speeches than they are angry, [[SirSwearsALot profanity-laden]] rants.

* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in episode 12 of ''Anime/ExcelSaga''; Il Palazzo is about to rant about Christmas (and, by extension, Christianity), but Excel suggests he spare the audience his views and just move on. Il Palazzo agrees.
** Itsuki's long speeches usually add some context to a particular arc or story subplot. However: if you get a badly translated copy (Japan to english) of the light novels, you are, to put it delicately, completely screwed.
*** Lampshaded when Kyon slips into the theater to watch Itsuki's performance during the culture fair. Itsuki's droning monologue, punctuated with the [[CharacterTic usual hand gestures]], keeps Kyon's puzzled attention for a few minutes before he nods off.

* ''LightNovel/TheCaseFilesOfJewelerRichard'''s titular character delivers much of his dialouge in the form of a well-educated lecture.

* Itsuki Koizumi from ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''. He constantly, ''constantly'' explains complex philosophical/metaphysical (or sometimes physics or math) theories without any reason. Usually, this is made rather creepy, not only because of his [[DissonantSerenity smile]], but also because the stuff he talks makes you feel uneasy. But all in all this is actually awesome because the person he typically tells it to, Kyon, doesn't give a crap. And if Koizumi really ''does'' make Kyon feel uneasy about it, he will just say "Just kidding, that's not what I really think, at all." Even in their home-made movie he lapses into this, taking up almost a minute of screentime.

* There are long speeches explaining the Creator/MarquisDeSade's nihilism and justifications of selfishness and cruelty in almost all his works, the most famous being "Justine", "Juliette" and "Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man". Rarely does anyone interrupt or dispute their claims either.

* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' features a number of these from Andrew Ryan. They're intentionally meant to be provocative. Since you're hearing them over a radio or via audio tapes, you are free to do other things while they're going on, which helps make them palatable.
** Given [[Creator/AynRand whom]] the game is paying homage/parody too, that's not too surprising.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' contains a number of these due to its {{Doorstopper}} length. Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, as characters often use the time to explain motives that otherwise [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters might have gotten lost in the shuffle]] or express [[DeliberateValuesDissonance views that readers will probably sympathize with]] to help prevent the story from being [[TooBleakStoppedCaring too unbearably dark]]. Septon Meribald's 'Broken Man' speech (about military deserters) in ''A Feast for Crows'' is a notable example.

** RealityIsUnrealistic in this case in the USA at least. Rules are in place that with a sufficiently large minority, a party can just invoke the filibuster without ever having to actually stand up there and talk. Many people feel this completely defeats the point of the whole thing by writing a loophole into the rules to make it easier to simply obstruct passage or prevent any debate. Others believe it prevents a tyranny of the majority, preventing a small majority from enacting legislation nearly half the country (or their elected representatives at least) disagree with. Which side you're on usually depends on whether your party is currently the majority or the minority
** A Character Filibuster can take place in the Senate, however, when the Senator currently speaking simply does not stop, and no rule can make them, which is useful when those opposing a piece of legislation cannot muster the votes for the above method. Senator Strom Thurmond holds the record for the longest such filibuster at 24 hours and 18 minutes (Thurmond was filibustering in an attempt to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957, because Thurmond did not want black Americans to vote).

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E10VincentAndTheDoctor "Vincent and the Doctor"]], art expert Dr. Black gives a speech about how awesome he finds Creator/VincentVanGogh and his work (while, thanks to the magic of TimeTravel, Vincent is ''actually in the room'').

* There are long speeches explaining the Creator/MarquisDeSade's nihilism and justifications of selfishness and cruelty in almost all his works, the most famous being "Justine", "Juliette" and "Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man."

* Whenever you die in ''VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight'', [[HaveANiceDeath the character who did you in will say a quick sentence or two to mock you.]] When Mr. Hippo kills you, he starts rambling on and on for at least four minutes, [[ApologeticAttacker apologizing for killing you]], explaining his philosophy on TheProblemWithFightingDeath, and then segueing into a barely-related anecdote about his friendship with Orville the Elephant. [[HypocriticalHumor He even says during one of these stories that nobody wants to listen to someone ramble on and on without ever getting to the point.]]

* Used painfully straight by the Mexican political cartoonists ''Creator/{{Rius}}'' and ''El Fisgon'', using the characters [[GaryStu Gumaro]] and [[MarySue La Beba Toloache]] in their respective works. Rius actually lampshades it in one strip: the [[BadCopIncompetentCop cops]] from [[CorruptBureaucrat Trastupijes]] go to Gumaro's house to ask him for help, [[TheAlcoholic Nopaltzin]] is the one who greets them and out of nowhere he starts talking about the "real" figure of Jesus, the cops puzzledly look each other and ask him why he is telling them that, Nopaltzin answers that it's because Gumaro made him memorize that, as a reprieve for getting drunk again.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Joey talks about the wonders of thongs in the ColdOpen of "TheOneWith All the Thanksgivings". He's still talking about it by the end of the opening credits.

* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' Zippobic the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon]] finally [[LampshadeHanging calls]] Voluptua out for her tendency to do this [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20100515.html here.]] He's a BeleagueredBureaucrat who works for her, as well as a giant fire-breathing dragon, and he is [[YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry ''dangerously'']] sick of listening to her pontificate.

* The ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' NonSerialMovie used both recurring LittleMissSnarker Ai and one-off WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds [[spoiler:Hiroki]] to filibuster over the hereditary nature of Japanese society. It is sometimes quite jarring to see [[spoiler:Hiroki]] filibustering at around 30-35 minutes into the movie, while for the rest of it he was an extreme {{woobie}}.

* Among the other examples in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', Vivianne delivers a major one against the mage rebellion, calling the lot of them terrorists who've declared war on everyone else. As Vivianne had landed a cushy position with an Orleasian noble early on and as a result never suffered any of the injustices or abuses that other mages did and makes it very clear that [[ItsAllAboutMe she doesn't care about how other mages were treated]], it comes across as more than a little self-serving and hypocritical.

* Berry Punch in ''FanFic/TheChase'' gives quite a long speech defending polygamy:

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' contains a number of these due to its {{Doorstopper}} length. Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, as characters often use the time to explain motives that otherwise [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters might have gotten lost in the shuffle]] or express [[DeliberateValuesDissonance views that readers will probably sympathize with]] to help prevent DarknessInducedAudienceApathy. Septon Meribald's 'Broken Man' speech (about military deserters) in ''A Feast for Crows'' is a notable example.

-->'''[[ManipulativeBastard Huey:]]''' Brash and one-sided as ever, I see.

* Itsuki Koizumi from ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''. He constantly, ''constantly'' explains complex philosophical/metaphysical (or sometimes physics or math) theories without any reason. Usually, this is made rather creepy, not only because of his [[DissonantSerenity smile]], but also because the stuff he talks makes you feel uneasy. But all in all this is actually awesome because the person he typically tells it to, Kyon, doesn't give a crap. And if Koizumi really ''does'' make Kyon feel uneasy about it, he will just say "Just kidding, that's not what I really think, at all." Even in their home-made movie he lapses into this, taking up almost a minute of screentime.
** Kyon himself also slips into this at times, though usually when he's the CharacterNarrator rather than in his actual actions.
*** Inverted by Kyon himself in one of the later novels where he wishes he could instantly come up with a massive speech to make Mikuru feel better about how useless she is, but he cannot think of a thing to say that will not spoil the future. She thanks him for the effort, though, and cheers up.
*** ''Defied'' at one point. Koizumi asks Kyon to relate the events of a particular day, and has to stop him when his paragraph about how cute Kyon's sister's classmate was started getting a bit too long.

* There's a reason that the episodes of ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'' are twice as long as usual -- it's so they have time to cram in all the lengthy speeches basically every single character makes, either about how they feel, what they're going to do next, or even just exposition.
* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'': Victor Talbot often employs these when he has the chance, such as when he's PerpSweating, although his filibusters are less eloquent on-the-spot speeches than they are angry, [[SirSwearsALot profanity-laden]] rants.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Izaya counts, but more so in the light novels. In the anime, when it's revealed Earthworm did indeed capture him, he goes on a monologue to taunt her. In the light novel, he spends almost the entire book without a single line, and once he finally starts speaking, he ''doesn't stop'' and goes off on random tangents. One of the reasons he hired Namie was to have someone to tell all his plans to.
** This also happens to run in the family. Online, Kururi often hits the word limit in the chat despite usually being silent in real life, and the opposite for Mairu, who is a complete chatterbox.