History Main / SpeechCentricWork

** ''Film/{{Memento}}''. At its core a PsychologicalThriller, it is nevertheless driven forward primarily by dialogue. Roughly half of the film, for example, consists of the protagonist sitting in a hotel room providing an unidentified character with {{Backstory}} over the phone.

* ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' can have entire episodes with nothing but dialogue, with visual focus split between the characters themselves and vaguely-related still shots. In fact, the show can fairly be described as a series of very pretty conversations. While other things do ''happen'', characters in conflict will nearly always settle it with words instead of violence - and even then, the winner isn't the one who decides the fight but the one who dominates the conversation.
* ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'', from the same author as ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'', above, is extremely speech-centric for what is supposedly an action show. Characters will meet, talk, decide to fight, talk, draw their swords, talk, have a brief skirmish, talk, there'll be some stunning action scene, then the winner will explain why he won. And ''then'' the loser will monologue while dying...

* ''Manga/LuckyStar'' is ''very'' dialog-heavy; most scenes consist of the characters just sitting or standing around and [[SeinfeldianConversation talking about mundane subjects]]. The anime adds more {{Shout Out}}s, courtesy of [[OtakuSurrogate Konata]], but there's still a lot of talking.

* ''Literature/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' mostly alternates between battle and speech (mostly the latter) episodes. And even the battle episodes tend to mostly be characters in universe reacting and talking about the military strategies being used.

* Most works by Anton Chekov. Most of his plays center on awkward family meals, with little to no actual action occurring. The characters simply talk. Much of their dialogue is purposely banal, with the tension coming from what is ''not'' said. The point of this of course, is so that when action does happen it is always a massive shock.

* The ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails]]'' series conveys much of the plot and background through extensive conversations between the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters sprawling cast of characters both playable and not]], with extensive WorldBuilding through the standard RPG textboxes and portraits. It's fully possible to spend an hour of real time with characters talking about their friends, families, catching each other up on exactly what they've been doing, and if you're lucky, some plot. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools It's what gives the series its identity]]. That said, the series can occasionally surprise you with dynamic camerawork and moments of unusually smooth animation.

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'''s signature dark wit and depressing observations on personal unhappiness come through the monologues of it's anthro cast. As the show marched on, flash assets improved, characters gained more subtle and expressive animation, and more action-based visual gags became the norm. An episode in season 3 was made to highlight the change as Bojack explores an underwater city with a baby seahorse to reunite him with his family. Since they're using airtight suits, any dialogue that is heard is muffled and brief, conveying the emotions with an abnormally ambient score and animation.

** ''Film/WakingLife

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls''. Many scenes on this relationship-focused show were just characters discussing things that have happened/may happen at another point in the episode/season. Not only were these conversations frequent, they were relentlessly fast-paced and quirky (earning the show comparisons to Aaron Sorkin, above), a style parodied in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgb7DcP6k30 MAD TV sketch.]]

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'''s episode ''Moaning Lisa'' with an arcade game based on ''Film/MyDinnerWithAndre''. The only options available to the player are "Tell Me More", "Trenchant Insight" and "Bon Mot". Released in 1990, the gag becomes [[HilariousInHindsight even more hilarious]] with both the modern popularity of VisualNovels and the prevalence of [[DialogueTree Dialogue Trees]] in RolePlayingGames.

* ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'', from the same author as ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'', above, is extremely speech-centric for what is supposedly an action show. Characters will meet, talk, decide to fight, talk, draw their swords, talk, have a brief skirmish, talk, there'll be some stunning action scene, then the winner will explain why he won. And ''then'' the loser will monologue while dying...

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* ''Webcomic/{{Subnormality}}'', as seen in the picture above, uses this as part of intentional WallOfText style. Unlike ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', it is considerably better received. (Despite ''Subnormality'' having ''way'' more words than even ''Ctrl-Alt-Del'' could hope to have.)

* ''Mindwalk'', three people [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin walking about]] and having a SeinfeldianConversation.

Note that, as with all tropes, this is [[TropesAreNotBad not a bad thing]]. Works which place a premium on dialogue can often have a much more naturalistic vibe than works in which dialogue is secondary, and end up with better developed characters. On the other hand, when executed poorly these works can end up feeling slow and draggy. The more dialogue, the higher the probability of unintentionally silly situations like TalkingIsAFreeAction or NarratingTheObvious. In film, it's sometimes seen as a ''faux pas'' for the plot to be driven forward almost entirely by [[{{Expospeak}} spoken]] [[InfoDump exposition]] (as the page quote can attest)--see ShowDontTell. In visual media with text (such as comic books or webcomics), writers may run the risk of creating a WallOfText, as in the page image.

* The ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails]]'' series conveys much of the plot and background through extensive conversations between the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters sprawling cast of characters both playable and not]], with extensive WorldBuilding through the standard RPG textboxes and portraits. It's fully possible to spend an hour of real time with characters talking about their friends, families, catching each other up on exactly what they've been doing, and if you're lucky, some plot. [[TropesAreTools It's what gives the series its identity]]. That said, the series can occasionally surprise you with dynamic camerawork and moments of unusually smooth animation.

* All of Creator/ChrisClaremont's comics.

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' is usually a particularly talky show, focusing more on the case of the week, the MythArc or what it means to have a [[TitleDrop Ghost in the Shell]] ((including the SeasonFinale of the first season, though admittedly, it was more of a DenouementEpisode to the previous one's climax.) Note that much of the [[Franchise/GhostInTheShell franchise]] is pretty talky in general, with the [[Anime/GhostInTheShell movies]] being exceptions, and even then, the two are particularly packed with talk.

* Due to art-style limitations, (Highly detailed, low framerate) earlier seasons of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' relied on dialogue for the humor and plot, even during the action scenes. "Killing Utne" notably had a minute-long scene where the entire cast was off-screen staging two corpses to look like a Murder-Suicide. (It's worth noting that Adam Reed created both ''Archer'' and ''WesternAnimation/Sealab2021''), a series with the same style. ArtEvolution eventually allowed for better action scenes and more visual comedy.

See also all of the various {{Dialogue}} tropes. Closely related to TalkingHeads. See also CharacterFilibuster for when a single character talks for an extended period of time. Compare ScriptFic, LogFic and FeaturelessPlaneOfDisembodiedDialogue (a conversation taking place in an apparent vacuum), unusually dialogue-heavy sub-genres of FanFic. NarratingTheObvious and TalkingIsAFreeAction are examples of when too much dialogue break's a viewer's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief.

* ''Film/MyDinnerWithAndre''. Two men have dinner in a restaurant and have a conversation. That's it.
* ''Film/InTheCompanyOfMen''. The film centres on a sort-of LoveTriangle between Chad, Howard and Christine, which is developed almost entirely through dialogue. Most physical actions happen offscreen.

* ''Film/TheKingsSpeech''. To be expected really, considering the entire film revolves around speech therapy.

* ''Film/TheManFromEarth'' is a film entirely set in and around a cabin house, mainly the living room, with the various characters - all of whom are either college professors or grad students - doing nothing but conversing. The premise is that the retiring professor claims he's actually [[TheAgeless 14,000 years old]] and has survived from prehistoric times all the way to the modern day, and the others try to understand whether he's telling the truth or not.

* ''Film/GlengarryGlenRoss'' is a very dialogue-heavy adaptation of a stage play. There is very little action, or even use of props other than telephones.
* ''Film/DialMForMurder'' has one brief action scene; the rest of it is people talking.
* ''Film/{{Locke}}'' is an hour and a half of Creator/{{Tom Hardy}} driving and talking to various people to try to manage his life from inside his car. It comes across as essentially a one-man play set on a motorway.
* ''Film/ThroughAGlassDarkly'': Want to see 90 minutes of people talking? Well, that and a little dose of strongly implied incest? Karin, Martin, David, and Minus spend a day at a seaside cabin talking about how she's going mad from schizophrenia. This film might be the Platonic ideal of the European black-and-white art movie in which people sit around and talk about the nature of God and human existence.
* ''Film/{{Faces}}'': The whole movie is talking, as through a series of encounters people are forced to deal with the emptiness and loneliness of their lives in upper-class 1968 white suburbia.

* ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' can have entire episodes with nothing but dialogue.

* Given the series's predilection for numerous (and often very lengthy) cutscenes, it should come as little surprise that the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' franchise often falls into this trope. In addition to regular cutscenes (which are quite frequently action-oriented) there are generally numerous codec sequences as well, in which the PlayerCharacter talks to another character via radio.

* The ''Franchise/ProfessorLayton'' series consists primarily of dialogue. The gameplay shines in the puzzle parts, where you must draw lines, move objects, and do some math (even if the game tells you to find an alternate, more creative, harder way).