Basic Trope: The villain is defeated with discussion, not fighting.
- Straight: Peter "Pro" Tagganist is facing the Stormy Knight in his fortress. Instead of doing his usual hack-and-slash, Pro gives a moving speech about how the Knight has strayed from his roots and taken the wrong path, and how he can redeem himself. The Knight is moved to tears, and discards his sword.
- Exaggerated: Dark Emperor Kill-All, infamous for slaughtering millions in just one night, suddenly gives up his evil ways and becomes the good emperor solely because of a fifteen minute chat with Pro.
- Downplayed:
- Pro fast-talks the Obstructive Bureaucrat into delaying bulldozing the orphanage.
- Pro roughs up the Knight a bit at first, then drops the speech once he's sure the Knight is too busy nursing his injuries to try and shut him up with violence.
- Justified:
- Pro is a Guile Hero.
- Pro has a (literally) hypnotic voice.
- Pro's speech manages to distract the Knight long enough for something to happen that got rid of him, structured with good points of conversation because otherwise the Knight would just have cleaved him out of boredom.
- Inverted: The Knight gives Pro a Hannibal Lecture on how he's taken the right path and Pro is just misguidedly trying to lead him astray. The speech severely depletes Pro's will and he finds he can't fight.
- Subverted: After Pro finishes his speech, the Knight pauses for a moment... and then offers a one-sentence rebuttal that shows he wasn't moved at all before drawing his sword for battle.
- Double Subverted: ...and then lets the sword slip from his hands as the true meaning of the speech strikes home.
- Parodied:
- The Knight is incredibly bored by Pro's speech and surrenders just so he doesn't to have to listen to his droning any more.
- The Knight was so enraptured by the speech that he forgot everything else and starved to death. question
- Zig Zagged:
- Pro manages to convince the Knight to surrender, the knight goes near him for a hug... and stabs him after revealing that he has no emotions.
- Pro tries to convince the Knight to surrender, but the Knight is unmoved due to believing it's merely proof Pro can't defeat him in a straight fight and thus has to resort to words he doesn't actually mean. After they clash for a bit and Pro manages to get the upper hand, he tries to convince him again in order to avoid having to kill him, and this time due to realizing his foe isn't all talk the Knight actually takes the time to listen and accept defeat.
- Averted:
- Pro and the Knight go straight into battle without saying a word.
- The Knight is Too Dumb to Fool (or some other Techno Babble explanation like having too much of The Power of Hate rushing through him for his mind to be rational, or he's a zombie running on pure eating/killer instinct (all of which are essentially the same), or just plain can't understand what Pro is saying), so he's completely immune to Pro's attempt to talk him down.
- Enforced: Pro takes advantage of the Knight's emotional conflict in order to save the kingdom.
- Lampshaded: "...You're going to TALK to him, Pro? Really? Are you a swordsman or a politician?"
- Invoked: Pro obtains a magic spell that gives him a Compelling Voice.
- Exploited: The Knight orders his lackeys to skewer Pro with arrows while he's busy yakking.
- Defied:
- The Knight attacks Pro before he can get a word in edgewise.
- The Greater-Scope Villain makes sure that the Knight is immune to being talked into stopping. Either you have to get the Restraining Bolt controls and order him to stand down or kill him.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "You think you can change me with a sappy speech? Ha!! I'd like to see you try!"
- Deconstructed: Instead of being moved to tears, Knight is offended as he interprets it as nothing more than Condescending Compassion. As a result, he just became angrier at Pro and tries harder to kill him.
- Implied: Pro mentions he defeated the Stormy Knight without any weapons. When asked how, he says, "When you've got nothing but your mouth, you use that."
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