Basic Trope: The story being told takes a backseat to the author's personal views.
- Straight: Alice and Bob discover that a clue to stop Emperor Evulz might be hidden in a specific film, as that fits Evulz's pop culture-based M.O. The problem is, said film is out of print. Alice suggests downloading it, but Bob explodes into a sudden tirade about that being illegal and disrespectful to the original creators — a topic author Charlie feels very strongly about.
- Exaggerated: Filibuster Freefall
- Downplayed: Bob takes a moment to express how he doesn't feel right downloading the film.
- Justified:
- Bob is himself a work creator in-universe, so his views on film piracy are colored by this.
- Self-righteousness is an established Character Flaw of Bob's, allowing him to go onto soapboxes for Charlie's views without dropping character.
- Inverted:
- Bob's first thought is to seek out a physical copy of the film, when Alice plays Devil's Advocate against Charlie's views by pointing out how following relatively inconsequential principles like that in a dire situation like this would just be needlessly wasting time, allowing Evulz to commit more atrocities, and even if Bob did find a copy, since it's out of print none of the money he spends buying it would go to the creators anyway. Bob reluctantly agrees that Strawman Has a Point.
- The Adventures of Alice and Bob was created for the explicit purpose of giving a Digital Piracy Is Evil moral, but that is lost when Charlie begins to have more fun writing the story.
- Subverted: It turns out there's another reason Bob insists on a physical copy — he believes the clue is in the DVD case, not the film itself.
- Double Subverted: He then goes onto explain how even if that wasn't the case, downloading it would still be wrong.
- Parodied:
- Bob accidentally calls himself "Charlie" while delivering his speech.
- Talking is NOT a free action, and Bob can't give any speeches without being either interrupted or ignored while everyone else does other things.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: The story does not attempt to deliver a message, or it's prevalent throughout without being intrusive.
- Enforced: The views are the producer's, not Charlie's, and Charlie can't find a place to organically weave in the message he's been ordered to.
- Lampshaded: "...who the hell possessed you for a moment there?"
- Invoked: Evulz bases his clues on out-of-print media because he knows it drives Bob nuts, which culminates in a rant-inducing slight.
- Exploited: Bob delivering the Author Filibuster to Evulz is a literal filibuster to Break Them by Talking.
- Defied: Bob is visibly uncomfortable at the suggestion, but swallows his pride for the sake of the mission.
- Discussed: "I can just imagine some Saturday-morning cartoon character popping up and blabbering about how that would be wrong right now."
- Conversed: "I had to put that book down. It got way too preachy. I know it gets better later, but that guy just won't shut up."
- Deconstructed: Alice in the inversion is proven right when Evulz, using the days Alice and Bob waste by tracking down a copy, furthers his plans when he otherwise wouldn't have had a chance.
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