History Main / ContemplateOurNavels

* [[InactionSequence Duels]] in ''Anime/YuGiOh'' and ''[[Anime/YuGiOhGX GX]]'' have a tendency to drift into this, as emotional issues from [[FreudianExcuse traumatic childhoods]] to tragic romances rise to the surface for whoever's the bad guy, turning duels more into intense mental therapy sessions. The ''GX'' [[GagDub dub]] frequently [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this: "Is he gonna duel or stand there and ponder his purpose in life?"

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* The entire film ''WesternAnimation/WakingLife''.
[[/folder]]

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' series usually feature several battles where opposing mobile suit pilots debate about the nature of truth, honor, war, peace and just about every philosophy topic in existence while blasting each other with laser cannons and giant lightsabers. And when they're not fighting what do they do? They continue debating. All the time, over and over, IT NEVER STOPS. To the point that viewers will wonder if screaming at each other about the nature of reality is really the unseen power source of their gundams...
** Treize Khushrenada of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' is the grand champion of this trope, rambling about the meaning of combat and his life purpose on and off the battlefield (he even gets an entire RecapEpisode in which to contemplate endlessly). This frustrates his subordinate/lover(?), Lady Une, who just wants him to conquer the universe already.
*** Nearly everyone in ''Gundam Wing'' does this A LOT. Whether it be the Gundam pilots themselves, everyday run-of-the-mill soldiers, rebels, or just politics. Zechs Marquise tends to do it the most, after Treize.
** Gundam 00 is heavy on this in the same way as ''Gundam Wing''. In fact, in ''Gundam 00'', it appears that all the most awesome battles are the ones with most dialogue. The more epic the battle is, the more dialogue there is. Especially the final battle in Season 1 between Setsuna and Graham, where they argue about quite a lot of serious subjects in less than three minutes, and actually manage to get over ''every single detail'' about Graham and Setsuna's relationship, as well as a few other things! All while chopping each other's mobile suit to pieces.

* Negi of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' does this on occasion, primarily during the Mahora festival arc, where he contemplates whether or not maintaining TheMasquerade is the right thing to do. It's subverted as he never really finds an answer, and decides to maintain it simply because the BigBad can't prove that breaking the Masquerade is worth screwing over some of the mages.
** It's also {{lampshade|Hanging}}d like crazy as several characters tell Negi to knock off the contemplation because he's [[AdorablyPrecociousChild only ten years old]] and should spend his time having fun and being a kid, not debating the moral implications of his actions.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' has Hohenheim contemplating the nature of humanity in Episode 27 of the ''Brotherhood'' anime with the standard ClipShow format.

** In fact, the key question would seem to be "What is/makes a monster?" Given the BlackAndGrayMorality that Hellsing operates on, it's rather appropriate.

** And that ''[[Creator/YukariTamura voice]]'' would make ''anything'' sound dramatic. Especially when you find out who is speaking.

* The ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}} Trilogy'' is made of this, with long dialogues about how the human mind thinks, the significance of religion, why anarchy and chaos are better than order and authoritarianism, and the respective positions of the Illuminati, the Justified Ancients of Mummu, the Legion of Dynamic Discord, and Erisian Liberation Front on what people should be doing. It is remarkably unpretentious and often even fun to read, though.
** Notably, chaos eventually isn't decided to be better than order, after all, even though that appears to be the initial premise; the idea is that there simply has been an overflow of order recently, and some extra chaos is needed to balance things out.
*** In the ''Principia Discordia'', from which many of the ideas of Illuminatus! are drawn, the opposition is not between order and Chaos, but between order and disorder, and Chaos is the principle into which both transcend.

* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'': Every episode opens and closes with Mary Alice's voice-from-beyond-the-grave yattering off some inane blablablabla about life, happiness and whatnot.
** Subverted once and ''only once'', when [[spoiler:Edie]] dies at the beginning of an episode, and does the opening narration (again from beyond the grave, though) instead of Mary-Alice - but this time the entire monologue is a rant on how she was happy to die at the center of everyone's attention, just the way she had lived.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' does this from time to time, usually at the worst possible moments. Towards the end of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', the BigBad actually tied the hero up and spent a good 15 minutes lecturing him on the troubling implications of genetic engineering while nuclear bombers made their approach.
** Also the excruciatingly long codec conversation with the [[spoiler: Patriot AI]] in the sequel, where Solidus patiently waits not 10 feet away until it's over to try and kill you.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' loves this. While presumably during an ongoing battle, Snake finds time to listen to repeated philosophical discussion of the war economy and nanomachines that one person could do in a two minute summation.
** [[spoiler:Big Boss]] proves he really was a Patriot at the end of the game, by blathering on for almost as long as the AI's did. Bonus points for [[spoiler:dying and hanging on long enough to finish his speech.]]

* Kreia, from ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords KOTOR II]]''. Kreia is an excellent example of this, as nearly everything she says argues a [[{{Ubermensch}} Nietzsche-like philosophy]], but her grandmotherly tone renders it profound, not mere filler. Gamespy says [[http://goty.gamespy.com/2005/pc/index23.html "Kreia can teach a player more about basic moral philosophy and the flaws of Nietzsche in one game than a full semester in college -- and make a trip full of heavy-duty thought a whole lot of fun."]].
** In a nastier example, the Jedi Order (and Jedi Council in particular) were doing a lot of this; contemplating a ''possible'' external threat rather than deal with the Mandalorians trying to conquer the galaxy. Their inaction ultimately led to a SelfFulfillingProphecy when Revan said, "[[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight Screw this]]" and went out to fight, getting DrunkOnTheDarkSide in the process.
*** Interestingly, their suspicions are revealed to be correct in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' and its associated media, which shows that there indeed was a threat manipulating the Mandalorians. Whether their course of action was correct is still up for debate.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', a lot of N's dialogue is like this.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Robopon}}'', Dr. Zero does this in the second game after you beat him, listing off every positive virtue in the book as he wonders how Cody was able to defeat him. Then he declares that it doesn't mean anything when you have money and power.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' gets into this a lot in the later seasons, in sharp contrast with the zany humor of the earlier ones. Episodes like "The Mountain", "Hall of Egress", "The Comet" and others all revolve around themes of making peace with one's place in the universe and letting go of one's earthly ties (or voluntarily choosing not to), often accompanied by appropriately [[RuleOfSymbolism symbolic]] visuals and the occasional {{Koan}}.
** The early-season episode, "Astral Beast", parodied this concept in a sillier way, though it does introduce Finn's spirit animal (butterflies) which are often used for symbolic purposes in the later navel-gazing episodes.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheMidnightGospel'' runs on this trope. Much of the dialogue comes from interviews on "The Duncan Trussell Family Hour" podcast. Clancy and his friends discuss mindfulness, meditation, Buddhism, Jesus, psychedelics, and the search for enlightenment while having bizarre and fast-paced adventures inside a multiverse simulator.
** Deconstructed as the series goes on, as it is clear that Clancy uses these sessions of enlightenment to avoid deal with much more real and grounded situations of his personal life, like [[spoiler:the grief of losing his mother and his complicated relationship with his sister in the aftermath of her death]].