Her words hurt far worse than the Neck Lift.
Shinji: How much did you actually tell my father, anyway?
Rei: Few details. Only that everything he had worked towards and everything he had put myself and his only son through had been for nothing, and that he would die alone and unmourned, rejected by the only person he had ever truly loved.
Rei: Few details. Only that everything he had worked towards and everything he had put myself and his only son through had been for nothing, and that he would die alone and unmourned, rejected by the only person he had ever truly loved.
When one character gives a talk to another that does or is meant to somehow break down the recipient or gain a psychological advantage over them by claiming uncomfortable things that they cannot deny.
Also known as a Breaking Speech or Breaking Lecture.note
This is often achieved by a kind of "The Reason You Suck" Speech, telling the other character how pathetic they are or perhaps how guilty of something terrible, perhaps a "Not So Different" Remark from someone unpalatable, but there are other ways of breaking someone down by talking. You could for example instead deconstruct the world, other characters, or their relationship with the victim. The important part is that they can't deny your words, at least not in the heat of the moment, and you gain a psychological advantage over them. Uncomfortable truths (or at least half-truths) and logical arguments are effective for making claims hard to deny, but hitting emotional weak spots is also important and can work even if your statements are not truly reasonable.
Results, when successful, range from the mere chance of getting to smirk in a satisfied way for rattling someone in an otherwise superior position; through distracting or demoralizing an opponent to make them easier to beat; to bringing about Break the Cutie, Heroic BSoD, Villainous Breakdown or even Face–Heel Turn, More than Mind Control, or Driven to Suicide. The most extreme form would be Mind Rape by just talking, but be wary of automatically calling every instance of Breaking Them by Talking that.
Obviously, this is easier to pull off from a relative position of power, such as when you have just defeated someone, or when interrogating a prisoner, but it goes both ways. It's even more impressive when someone manages to turn the tables on someone who was in a superior position. When this is done by one being interrogated — and only then — it's the Hannibal Lecture. Naturally, in between these cases, there is the one where both parties start out on an equal footing.
Note that a lot of this hinges on the victim actually caring about what you have to say, or otherwise respecting you enough to take your opinion seriously. If the victim is Too Dumb to Fool, or simply doesn't care about your opinion, then all you're likely to get for your trouble is laughter or a blank stare.
Some good tropes to use in the Breaking Speech include Brutal Honesty, Cowardice Callout, "Not So Different" Remark, Tomato in the Mirror, and They Died Because of You — and most things under Personal Horror. A Civilized Threat may also come into play.
As stated above, there is frequent overlap with "The Reason You Suck" Speech, but the concepts are not the same. "The Reason You Suck" Speech is about what you say, this is about what you do by saying it. You can tell someone they suck without breaking them down or even intending to do so, particularly if you're just annoyed, and you can break someone down without telling them why they suck.
The distilled version of this is the Armor-Piercing Question. If the declarations used as a weapon come from simple clues, this is a form of Sherlock Scan. Some characters have the ability to do this as a superpower, which may be an example of Awesome by Analysis. Can be done as part of Evil Gloating. Shut Up, Hannibal! is a way of countering this trope. The opposite effect is done by a "No More Holding Back" Speech, when the hero tells about his own flaws and how they don't matter now. The reverse or "good counterpart" is the Kirk Summation or Talking the Monster to Death. Hannibal Lecture is a specific subtrope.
See also Break Them With Lies. For examples of literally breaking someone by talking, see Weapons-Grade Vocabulary or Super-Scream. Works using this trope may discuss The Power of Language.
See also: To the Pain, Talking Your Way Out, Just Between You and Me, And Then What?, Verbal Judo.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
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Music
- Proto Man attempts this twice, unsuccessfully, in The Megas' History Repeating double album. It earns him a Shut Up, Hannibal! the first time, in "History Repeating, Part 2 (One More Time)", and Mega Man (probablynote ) goes so far as to throw the same move back at him after the second attempt in "Make Your Choice".
Proto Man: Why do we fight? How can you say you know what's right? So what if we win? What if we fall? Does any choice that we make matter at all? ("History Repeating, Part 2")
Mega Man: And what of you? The shadows can't hide the rage in your steel. You say you don't care at all, but if he died, tell me, would you feel? You wait for the choice to be made; you're afraid your purpose has been taken away. If you come with me, I can show you the way...
Pro Wrestling
- Shawn Michaels:
- He was a regular recipient of these speeches, particularly in the later parts of his career once he turned perma-face, but he usually interrupted them with Sweet Chin Music.
- Occasionally, after knocking his lecturer out cold, he'd deliver his own over their unconscious (or at least stunned) body. (If it's done to someone unconscious, it can't really qualify for the trope.) He was particularly fond of doing this to Chris Jericho.
- Back in his heel days, he used to hand them out himself like party favors. Even as a face, he'd break them out occasionally, and he's the one guy ever who could get away with throwing them at The Undertaker.
- Triple H has also done this a fair few times in keeping with him being the "Cerebral Assassin." Just ask Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton.
- Vin Gerard performed a number of these on Shane Storm — playing off Storm's betrayal of the technicos by selling out the counter to the Chikara Special (a Chikara Moral Event Horizon if there ever was one) and then twisting his world on its axis as Vin thanked him for it. Ended with Storm 'transforming' into the rudo STIGMA, dropping the color from his outfits, the bright mullet becoming a black mohawk and joining with Vin Gerard and Colin Delaney to become the UnStable.
- Then inverted when Vin tries the same thing on Jigsaw, who had removed his mask elsewhere and hadn't been seen in Chikara for a year. Vin said that he'd never seen the boys in the back as angry at anyone as they were at Jigsaw ("No matter what I did, I never had to buy a ticket!") and there was no way to get back on their good side — Jigsaw might as well join the UnStable. Jigsaw responded with superkicks.
- Chris Jericho. Back in 2008 and early 2009 when everyone took his heel character completely seriously, Jericho would do this weekly. They rarely worked, but they were awesome.
- CM Punk in his Straight Edge persona. He is so awesome that he can actually give these while he's in the middle of a match.
- Punk also delivered brilliant ones to John Cena and Vince McMahon after his infamous pipebomb. So much that Cena responded with a punch and Vince responded to his demands in vigor.
Vince: I apologize, you son of a bitch!
Radio
- Brilliantly used in That Mitchell and Webb Sound, a radio programme. In multiple segments, Webb's character insults a woman's dress sense, weight or intelligence, eventually turning into a full-blown Breaking Speech. When the woman has been reduced to a wreck, Webb asks for a date, to cheer the woman up.
Tabletop Games
- Chronicles of Darkness sourcebook Slasher (which deals with exactly what you think it does) has this as a talent of the Genius Undertaking and its natural progression, the Maniac. The Genius has the ability to instinctively profile anyone and learn what facts they'd hate to have revealed. The Maniac uses this knowledge to always have advantage over a certain target, and, with time, to convert the target to his point of view (a la Jigsaw).
- Since Mythender runs on Rule of Cool and has very abstract fighting rules, it's perfectly possible to launch attacks that consist of berating and condemning an enemy and have them suffer injury because of it. In other words, you might actually talk the very gods to death.
- On the (very) few occasions when the Dark Powers of Ravenloft have apparently communicated directly to anyone, it's been to do this to a potential darklord, delivered in familiar voices. Strahd heard the voices of Tatyana and Sergei taunting him, while Azalin heard the voices of his son and his mentor in wizardry.
- Sith Lords in the Star Wars d20 game have a power that lets them do this more effectively.
Theatre
- 1776: Rutledge breaks them by singing. "Molasses to Rum" has him vividly act out the process of the slave trade from Boston to Africa to the Caribbean and plantations, highlighting both the horrors of it and the hypocrisy of the Northern states in decrying it when their own citizens profit considerably. When he leaves (with all the Southern states), the independence faction is devastated and have no choice but to accept the deletion of the anti-slavery clause despite Adams' prediction that it would come back to haunt them.
- The Boys in the Band. Harold destroys Michael with a thorough undressing "The Reason You Suck" Speech at the end.
- In Man of La Mancha the Knight of the Mirrors does this to Don Quixote, explaining to him in unpleasant terms how the world sees him and using a number of minions carrying full length mirrors to prove it. (It is worth noting that he does not do this in the book, which is why this entry appears in the theater section)
- In J.B., Nickles/Satan's last attempt to corrupt Job is to paint the bit at the end — where J.B. gets all his fortunes back — as actually the cruelest torment of all; that God could ruin his life, and then just put it all back together again because the whole "Take away your fortunes, kill your children, and cover you in boils" thing was just a bit of a lark. When J.B. points out that his children are dead, Satan dismissively says, "You'll have better ones!", mocking the notion that everything could really be put right just like that.
- The Mrs. Hawking play series: In part V: Mrs. Frost, what the titular character tries to do after she's captured Nathaniel. She has done enough research to probe all his fears and insecurities.
Visual Novels
- Miu Iruma in Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp is on the receiving end of two, courtesy of "hard head" (Kiyotaka Ishimaru). For example, if she addresses him when saying that she would rather make an invention that brushes teeth while the user is asleep than think of ideas to unlock new potential for her talent, Taka will scold her to tears.
Miu: Fuckin' plebs think they can mock me? New potential my shapely genius girl ass! I'd rather develop an invention that brushes your teeth while you sleep! You got a problem, hard head!?
Taka: Hard head... A-Are you addressing me?
Miu: Who else do you think? I just know you're getting hard from head to toe with me standing here!
Taka: For the love of... I won't tolerate this! As a member of the morals committee, I have a bone to pick with you! Your behavior has gone too far!
Miu: Oh, I *bet* you have a bone to pick. You're just dying to spank this naughty ass, aren't you? Stop making things so hard! Your head's hard enough. Both of 'em. Fuckin' virgin.
Taka: Enough, I say! Besides, an invention to use while you're asleep? Your ideas are the epitome of lazy!
Miu: B-But that's my greatest invention to date...
Taka: And you tried to ignore the camp's assignment! Why would you waste such a valuable opportunity!?
Miu: Because nobody understands my talent...
Taka: All you do is rely on your talents. Don't you find that pathetic!? You should reflect on that!
Miu: *sob* Y-You don't have to shout... - Something like this is implied to have happened offscreen in Doki Doki Literature Club!, though the details are never explained. When Sayori's depression is reaching its climax, shortly before she's Driven to Suicide, and she talks about how it would be better if she just disappeared, she says "Monika was right. I should just..." but refuses to explain further. Additionally her last poem, which is practically a suicide note, contains the line "Get out of my head before I listen to everything she said to me."
- This is made even Harsher in Hindsight (even though it would certainly seem to be as bad as it can get already) in DDLC+ when a prequel side story, which has a lot of potential to be a Tear Jerker and Crowning Moment of Heartwarming by itself, shows that before Monika had her mind shattered, she was the first person Sayori trusted enough to open up about her depressive feelings.
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, Mia Fey delivers one of these to the possessing spirit of Dahlia Hawthorne, pointing out that every single Evil Plan she's made has resulted in failure and shame, including the one that she made from beyond the grave. The Fey/Wright clan has always been there to stop her and as a ghost she's doomed to eternal failure. This revelation horrifies her so much that it winds up exorcising Dahlia from Maya's body completely.
Webcomics
- Cuanta Vida, page 136
. Rojo attempted to backstab Bleu, and for his efforts he received a broken nose and a vicious beating from Jeremy's crutch. While lying defenceless on the ground, Rojo attempts to appeal to Bleu's pacifistic nature: "Put down the gun...How many people have you killed today? Too many, right? Why add another?" Too bad it didn't work.
- A "good" version appears in this Darths & Droids, though it is used by one protagonist convincing another to destroy the Trade Federation ship.
- Boneclaw Mother in Digger is very old, has lived with her tribe for all her years and knows every last one of their closeted skeletons and how to flash them using the best possible words. She's so good at it most of her tribe thinks she's telepathic. When egged on to try it on Jhalm in the climax she wisely points out it doesn't work on people you hardly know — but nonetheless manages to wing it sufficiently to make Jhalm step off.
- A lampshaded version in Fans! since seemingly every single prisoner that Rikk ever dealt with has attempted to do this on him
- Goblins:
- Dellyn figures out that Thaco has taken levels as though he were a Player Character, he calls it the 'most perverse thing he's ever heard of', and points out that by doing so, Thaco has admitted that goblins will always be inferior to humans.
- Thaco then gives as good as he gets by disabling and then refusing to kill Dellyn, rightly realizing that the sadistic bastard is more than a little obsessed with revenge on the one goblin ever to escape him, and dismissing the fight as "Just a random encounter at the start of my adventuring career".
- Bob Smithson of The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! usually excels at Talking the Monster to Death, but the second time he tries it on arch-criminal Fructose Riboflavin, calmly and even sympathetically deconstructing Riboflavin's Jerk Justifications, it backfires when Riboflavin responds with a Villainous Breakdown and Freak Out that makes him even more dangerous than before.
- This strip of It's Walky!, in which the main villain — who has a tendency to do this to certain heroes and play on their insecurities and the secrets he's learnt about them — finds his ability hampered when faced with members of the team that he knows next-to-nothing about, and what little he does know doesn't bother them in the slightest when he tries to throw it back at them. Frustrated, he curses himself for 'playing favourites'.
- The Order of the Stick:
- Vaarsuvius does it to Elan accidentally. Sure, they were giving him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how stupid his attempt at being a wizard was, but they were quite shocked and shamed when he broke down crying, especially when he went on to say he just wanted to be powerful and smart like they are.
- Redcloak telling Miko how she's just as unnatural as an undead creature here. It doesn't work, though, since almost nothing can get through her conviction that she's always in the right. Plus, Redcloak's being a hypocrite in that speech; contrary to his claims to be a "100% all-natural goblin", his own god has granted him an indefinitely extended lifespan.
- Xykon, often, just after having handed his opponents their asses. Also to Roy in trying to make Roy accept a mulligan, but Roy throws it right back in his face. Xykon kills him for it.
- Right-Eye gives one to Redcloak in Start of Darkness when the latter claims to have spent his life on The Plan.
Redcloak: Look, i've spent my whole life...
Right-Eye: Your life? Your life?! Brother, you may have had a lifetime, but you haven't had a life since the day you put on that cloak. Life is about growing — growing older, growing wiser, growing closer to your loved ones. But you, you're frozen in time. You're the same angry kid who took that artifact off of your master's corpse that day.
Redcloak: Oh, so now you've gained some insight on the universe by letting your body and mind deteriorate?
Right-Eye: Yes! When you're faced with your own mortality, you have no choice but to consider what's best for the next generation. And this deal with Xykon is killing our spirit as fast as it's killing our bodies. You don't know what it is you're trying to better, because you don't know what it's like not to serve an undead overlord, or a petty spiteful god.
Redcloak: ...What did you just say to me?
Right-Eye: Come on. You have to realize that the Dark One doesn't care about us. Why else would he let you throw goblin lives away on this plan?
Redcloak: Throw away lives? How dare you?! Every goblin that has died since I've been high priest has been to further The Plan! Their deaths were a necessary sacrifice! They were not my fault!
Right-Eye: Wait... that's it, isn't it? It's all about whose fault it is... If I kill Xykon now, then it was all a waste. You ordered goblins to their deaths believing in the Plan - so if we abandon it now, then you were wrong. You let them die for nothing. You're willing to throw good lives after bad so that you don't have to admit that we were wrong to work with Xykon in the first place, much less help him cheat death. - Redcloak receives another one shortly after this from Xykon, saying that he let Redcloak kill his brother so he would never betray Xykon. If he did, he would have killed his brother for nothing. And as his brother pointed out, it would mean everything he's done has not just been in vain, but wrong.
- Belkar delivers a brutal one to Roy after they find out that Durkon has been turned into a vampire. It works.
- Tarquin does it quite by accident to Elan in #763. He explains happily what a great story their exploits will make by the force of Narrative Causality, but since this involves a seemingly incontrovertible and slightly mind-bending argument that evil will inevitably triumph on both personal and large scale even though good will "win" in the story, it sends Elan running away in terror.
- Vampire!Durkon attempts this on Roy after the 'reveal' of his supposed Face–Heel Turn (in fact, he's been Evil All Along, but is masquerading as the original Durkon to get under Roy's skin). Then he takes it a bit too far, pushing Roy to realize that this isn't the Durkon he knows in an epic Shut Up, Hannibal! moment.
- Vaarsuvius does it to Elan
- Questionable Content: After a rather notable blast of obnoxiousness from Pintsize, Bubbles (one half of the target of said obnoxiousness)note grabs Pintsize by the neck and calmly breaks down Pintsize's actions and the motivations behind them. She concludes with the fact that she pities Pintsize's self-esteem issues and that she's sorry said pity will probably just fuel said issues. Pintsize is reduced to weakly pleading "please make her stop."
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
- Lucy finally lets Charlie Brown kick the ball... and then tells him just what the implications are.
- "Motivation": A speaker at a motivation seminar accidentally makes one of the participants to go Laughing Mad by making a supposedly inspiring statement that leads to some serious Fridge Horror.
- "Citation Needed": An AI designed to find a citation for anything one wants to prove destroys humanity by giving every person well cited documentation proving each of their existence is meaningless, driving them to forget to eat, drink, or sleep.
- "Magic": Parents make sure their children believe in magical things like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy so that they can use the revelation that they're not real as a verbal weapon for petty reasons later on.
- "Psyops": An Alien Invasion resorts to dirty tactics by telling humans the one fact that will psychologically devastate them forever.
All affection from dogs is actually sarcasm. - Lucy finally lets Charlie Brown kick the ball... and then tells him just what the implications are.
- This is a power of Thrawn, demon of half-truths, from Shades –- whenever somebody gets caught in his tentacles, he can see victim's dearest ideals and describe them through dark, twisted point of view. The worst part? What he says is always at least partly true.
- Sluggy Freelance:
- In "Oceans Unmoving", Bun-bun does this to Calix while duelling (and beating) him, explaining to him how he doomed his own people by encouraging them to mutiny on a high-tech ship they were subsequently unable to steer. Also lampshaded:
Bun-bun: When we first shanghaied you, I thought I saw something in you that I liked. Now that I have the opportunity to crush your soul, I like you even more.- In "A Time for Healing", the zombie Jane gives Gwynn a "The Reason You Suck" Speech at least bordering on this about how annoying and shallow she finds her and how someone like her couldn't use real magic. Unfortunately for Jane, her last taunts makes Gwynn angry enough that she's finally able to show that yes, she does have access to about a hundred times more powerful magic than Jane does.
- In "bROKEN", Bun-bun traps Oasis in a sauna and, after berating her for stupidity, starts verbally tormenting her with images of her "beloved" with another woman. It ends up almost as badly for him as in Jane's case.
- In "The Immortal King", Bun-bun ends up in possession of a Talking Weapon that's been one of Torg's most prized possessions but has been sulking and complaining about not being treated respectfully enough... and it only makes it more insulting when Bun-bun doesn't even bother with a wordy lecture.
Chaz: I am not "needy", Master! I am a sword. You should choose your descriptions more carefully.Bun-bun: I'm its "master" for two seconds and it's already nagging. Pass. [throws away the God Slayer sword and wields his regular switchblade instead] - Something*Positive doesn't have it so much in-strip, but a sketch of Randy's real-life mother has the author proudly relate her ability to inflict these on others that will have them "shaking with horror and revulsion for days later", and all with a motherly smile.
- A particularly long version shows up in Soul Symphony here. So long in fact, that it takes up multiple pages, and so severe, that it causes the target to faint out of stress.
- Hunter Ravenwood of Suicide for Hire sometimes does this to people who annoy him. He can even drive others to suicide by doing it, at least provided he can find someone who's already totally suicidal as well as willing to listen to what amounts to an evil prank call for ten minutes.
- In Tower of God, "The Hidden Hidden Floor", the Snake Charmer tells Yu Hansung that he was really only trying to take everyone else with him when escaping from the quarantine area to "beat the game" more completely,note not because he cared about them. This hits close enough home that it makes Hansung really rethink whether it wasn't like that, even though it doesn't fit his self-image. This Hansung is a younger and nicer version of a character whose older self was previously shown as a heartless, somewhat sadistic manipulator. Besides, he's hiding from the fact that he feels that the Hidden Floor and its native people aren't really real.
- xkcd:
- During the first meeting of Black Hat Guy and his girlfriend. Here and here.
- And later, by the same character, when someone tries "negging: you belittle chicks to undermine their self-confidence so they'll be more vulnerable and seek your approval" on her. She gives a speech that's so generic it could apply to anyone but still effective. Alt Text: "Son, don't try to play 'make you feel bad' with the Michael Jordan of making you feel bad."
- Young Black Hat Guy manages to send some bullies running away screaming by verbally extrapolating "I am rubber, you are glue" into And I Must Scream for them.note
- During the first meeting of Black Hat Guy and his girlfriend. Here
Web Original
- The Auditor's favourite tactic in AJCO. She's only had the chance to use it on two people — A_J, repeatedly, and Egg — but she left both in tears. Until that point, A_J had never been seen weeping.
- In the Camp Camp Season 1 finale, it seems as though David's overly happy-go-lucky spirit has finally been shattered, to Max's absolute delight. As he desperately tries to light a symbolic bonfire that's important to him in the middle of a thunderstorm, Max goes in to lay the final blow:
Max: Do you really think a big campfire and some outdated, honestly kind of racist tradition is going to make anyone care about anything? No one gives a shit, David. Nobody want to be here! It's like you live in this stupid make-believe world where "everything's great!" The universe doesn't work that way, idiot! Just look around! It's what I've been trying to show you since day one! Life sucks. And we live in a world of desensitized, apathetic assholes. Why don't you just get with the program and stop giving a shit...
- To which David immediate turns the tables on Max by answering:
- Can You Spare a Quarter?: Graham drives a security guard who is after Jamie away by claiming that the boy is his son and by implying that he can get the security guard sacked. Jamie is impressed that a small man like Graham can scare away a large security guard without any violence or threat thereof.
- Dream Machine: In episode 1.04, The Opposite of People, Josie gets Leah to finally work on her character with her by refusing to shut up and leave her alone.
- This is how Elias Bouchard operates in The Magnus Archives. He peers into people's minds to find what would disturb and hurt them the most, then tortures them by speaking of it as cruelly as possible before directly planting feelings and images in their heads. His victims are often to the point of breaking before he ever plants anything in their mind.
- In The Penguins of Madagascar: Operation N-W.O.R.D., Skipper points out to Donald Trump that his Evil Plan of taking over Barack Obama's body in order to gain N-Word Privileges means that he's technically inside of another man, which makes him gay. Donald Trump reacts by having a seemingly-fatal Villainous Breakdown.
- In Saga of Soul, Downfall does it to Eriko. To put it mildly, it backfired.
- In Sword Art Online Abridged, Rosalia does this to Kirito as a pre-battle tactic. Unfortunately for her, it backfires spectacularly; while it indeed gets to him, it changes him from Jerkass Deadpan Snarker to a Laughing Mad Psychopathic Manchild... and he's a long time player of the videogame they're trapped in, so he's waaaaaay past her level in terms of sheer stats. It ends quickly after that.
- A hilarious example from Tumblr in the comments of a photo of someone drinking Diet Coke out of a bag:
totheinternetandbeyond: I lost the cap to a soda bottle
wecanbreatheinouterspace: Then you're fucking stupid. If you can't drink a soda without a cap, then you're fucking stupid.
totheinternetandbeyond: LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT. I COULDN'T FIND THE CAP TO AN ALMOST FULL 2 LITER BOTTLE OF DIET COKE. I WASN'T ABOUT TO DRINK THE WHOLE GOD DAMN THING ON THE SPOT. I DON'T EVEN LIKE DIET COKE THAT MUCH. IF I PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE IN THE BOTTLE IT WOULD HAVE GONE FLAT SO DON'T FUCKING CALL ME STUPID. I AM THE FUTURE. - In Worm, this is frequently aided by mental powers:
- Tattletale can do this due to her power. It doesn't matter who you are, if you can hear her, she will get to you. For this reason Armsmaster has some of his team wear earplugs when fighting her and she's frequently targeted first in fights.
- Jack Slash is a master at this, and it's his ability to get into people's heads and break them apart that is considered his most dangerous ability (his actual superpower, extending the cutting edge of blades, isn't much in comparison). It eventually turns out that his ability to break people IS actually a superpower, just an application of his power that's so subtle and non-obvious that nobody, not even he, is aware that it's a superpower.
- Contessa and Scion are even more capable at this. Contessa made Bonesaw perform a Heel–Face Turn with a short conversation.Scion made Eidolon depressed to the point where he let himself be killed with 4 words. In their case, it's not really any level of skill on their part: their power just told them exactly what they had to say to manipulate their targets.
- In X-Ray & Vav, The Mad King uses this to rattle the bonds between our heroes. While it seems that Vav isn't too bothered by it, X-Ray is frightened, thinking that Vav is going to focus everything on his reporter Love Interest.
- In Episode 81 of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Dartz calls Yami out for his callous treatment of his friends. It works as Yami almost succumbs to the Seal of Orichalcos.
Dartz: Look at youwself! Look at everything you've dooone! You got a second chance at wahf! Oh! And how do you choose to spend it? Beating people in games y'already good at, and telling them how much they soock.Yami: It's not my fault if they refuse to git gud.Dartz: I know you're wight, but what IS your fauwt is the way you take your fwends for gwanted or, oh, oh, do you even think of them as your fwewends?Yami: Of course I—Dartz: Oh, mayn, you can't even defend yoursewf! Not once have you taken the tahm to appweciate everything they've done for you, how patient dey' been. You're too busy calling Twistan stupaad, or Téa a slooot, or insulting the person whose body you now inhabit.Yami: Yugi...Dartz: Aww, that's the truth, though, Phawowoaoh. No Orichalcamalos magic, no bullsh*t powers. You're no hewo. You don't even deserve those fwends you surround yourself with. And you certainly don't deserve to keep wiving in Yugaay Muh-to's body. Just give it up. It's easier than fightin' the twuth.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- In "Imprisoned", Katara gives a rousing speech to the Earthbending prisoners about being strong people. However, the warden there nastily tells her that their spirits were broken long ago, and she failed in her mission. This is enough to make her feel sad... and for Haru and the Earthbenders to strike back.
- In "The Crossroads of Destiny", Princess Azula gives an unforgettable breaking speech to Long Feng when they both decide to betray each other, mentioning that he had to connive and scheme to rule, whereas she was born with the right to rule. It's so good that she doesn't even have to fight him to take control of the Dai Li from him. He knows he's lost and immediately surrenders to her.
Long Feng: You've beaten me at my own game.
Azula: Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player.
- Megatron tries this on Optimus Primal in their climactic battle in the final episode of Beast Wars. He even quotes scripture from the Covenant of Primus (a book of truthful prophecies) to prove that Optimus would fail. Then Optimus turns it against him in a Shut Up, Hannibal! moment.
Megatron: 'And there came a hero who said, "Hurt not the earth, nor the trees, nor the seas, nor the very fabric of time." But the hero would not prevail!'
Optimus: Finish the quote, Megatron! 'NOR WOULD HE SURRENDER!' - Big City Greens: The thought-to-be-dead Chip Whistler gives this to Cricket in "No Escape" through the mechanical Croblin, telling him that his family now believes he abandoned them to their fates and plots to use his selfishness to get him to push the button next to his escape room door to escape and abandon them for real, because he would be better off by himself to do whatever he wants from then on. Cricket seemed to agree at first, but one particular statement causes Cricket to realize his family's "We can do anything" philosophy and Bill's song about it from before, motivating him to Take a Third Option and escape into the attic where he frees his family and reconciles with them. Not only that, they also break the escape room record with a single second to spare.
- Danny Phantom: Being a psychologist who secretly uses people's misery to keep herself young and beautiful, Spectra does this to almost every student in Danny's high school. Most of it is done offscreen, but she also pulls one on Danny when they fight:
"Look at you... What are you? A ghost trying to fit in with humans? Or some creepy little boy with creepy little powers? You're a freak! Not a ghost, not a boy! Who cares for a thing like you?"
- Family Guy:
- In "Barely Legal", when Connie D'Amico casually insults Meg at the prom in front of her (very intoxicated) date Brian Griffin:
Brian: Connie, I think I have a theory about why you're such a bitch. You see, Connie, you're popular because you developed early and started putting out when you were 12, but now, you can't stand to look at yourself in the mirror because all you see is a whore. So you pick on Meg to avoid the inevitable realization that once your body is used up by age 19, you're gonna be a worn-out, chalky skin, burlap sack that even your stepdad won't want. How's that? Am I in the ballpark? [Connie runs off in tears]
- In "Seahorse Seashell Party", Meg finally breaks down and points out all of her family's hypocritical acts of ganging up on her and putting her down making her feel awful, and how they raised her specifically for that purpose, only to cause her family turn on one another. She realizes that if the family didn't have someone to act as a lightning rod for their worst behavior, then they'd end up destroying each other and themselves.
- In "Barely Legal", when Connie D'Amico casually insults Meg at the prom in front of her (very intoxicated) date Brian Griffin:
- In the Futurama episode "Calculon 2.0", Leela does this to Calculon for his own good, giving him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that Bender himself calls "the meanest thing I ever saw," all to coax an authentic performance out of him and get him his old job back.
- Hazbin Hotel: After realizing Sir Pentious didn't even manage to last a day as The Mole in Hazbin without getting caught, Vox laughs incredulously at thinking he could trust him with such a simple task, and tells Pentious if he somehow gets out of it alive, to do him a favour and off himself for him. This cruel tirade leaves the poor snake in tears and huddled on the floor, ready to accept death from the hotel residents:
Vox: If they don't kill you, GO AHEAD AND DO IT YOURSELF! YOU MISERABLE FAILURE!
- Jackie Chan Adventures: In "Bullies", Valmont gets his hands on the dragon talisman, which provides the power of combustion, which he uses to rob Fort Knox. Jackie follows him, and remembering his own struggles his anger over Captain Black's injuries produced by Valmont throughout the episode, decides to press Valmont's Berserk Button by tossing gold overboard, while sarcastically asking things like "How much is this gold worth? A new Ferrari?" Valmont loses it, fires at Jackie in a rage, and proceeds to sink his own raft.
- Justice League:
- In the episode "A Better World", the Mirror Universe President Lex Luthor uses one of these on his version of Superman. It partially succeeds. Superman does indeed break down as a result... just not in the way Luthor wanted.
- In the same episode, Batman also pulls one of these on himself... and wins. When you think about it, Justice Lord Batman manages to win the first one ("And with that power, we've made a world where no eight-year-old boy will ever lose his parents...because of some punk with a gun.") and Batman does this later while driving in the Batmobile ("They'd love it here, Mom and Dad. They'd be so proud of you."). The commentary states that the first scene was created by one half of the production team debating the other from Batman's point of view. To actually keep the viewer in the dark, neither Batman nor Justice Lord Batman faces the audience while talking, thus allowing a one-sided conversation that either Batman could have been winning until the reveal.
- In the Unlimited episode "Divided We Fall", several of the robotic evil knockoffs created by Lex Luthor merged with Brainiac uses this technique. It works against Superman due to his fears of being the same from his Alternate Universe Evil Counterpart, but Evil Flash has what might be the least successful attempt in history:
- The Legend of Korra:
- In the episode "The Voice in the Night", Korra challenges Big Bad Amon to a one-on-one duel, only to be ambushed by his army of Chi-blockers. With her restrained, Amon reaches out threateningly, only to take her by the chin, and announce that while he could strip her of her Elemental Powers and kill her then and there, he won't, because she'll merely become a martyr for her cause. He tells her she'll get her duel when the time is right before knocking her out. When her mentor Tenzin comes to rescue her, she breaks down crying into his chest.
- In Book 3, Zaheer gives a chilling one to the Earth Queen while he's in the process of killing her.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In "The Return of Harmony, Part 1", Discord corrupts each of the main ponies to keep them from using the Elements of Harmony that they represent against him. Ultimately, he just brainwashes each of them with magic (aside from Twilight Sparkle), but he also takes the trouble to break each down before that, usually by talking. In Applejack's case, he tricks her into doubting the value of honesty (her element) by showing her a terrible "truth" she cannot accept, before turning her into a liar. For Pinkie Pie (laughter), he makes her think her friends laugh at her all the time, before turning her unhappy and hostile. Fluttershy (kindness) is the only one on whom his speech doesn't work because she's too trusting and accepting of her own flaws... so he just zaps her into being cruel anyway.
Discord: Well, it must be so upsetting to know how weak and helpless they think you are.
Fluttershy: Not at all! I am weak and helpless, and I appreciate their understanding. - In "Putting Your Hoof Down", of all ponies to deliver one, Fluttershy does it to both Pinkie Pie and Rarity, calling their interests frivolous and driving them both to tears. Yikes. It's enough to make her realize what a bully she has become and locks herself away in her cottage out of fear she'll insult others.
- In "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 2", after coming to the realization that she can't beat Starlight Glimmer in a head-on confrontation, Twilight Sparkle resorts to trying to talk her out of the battle. It's effective enough that, rather than defeating her, Twilight is able to actually swing her to the side of good instead.
- Diamond Tiara has proven time and time again to be very... eloquent in her treatment of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
- Discord gives another one, this one to the villains, in "The Ending of the End – Part 2", demonstrating that being robbed of his power and undergoing a Heel–Face Turn did nothing to rob him of his silver tongue. He specifically targets Tirek, calling him a child who's constantly trying to impress his father but never measures up. Tirek is so enraged that he attacks Discord in a blind rage, which Discord redirects to free the others from their prison. Considering that Discord was present at king Vorak's court when Tirek was still a young prince, it's safe to say that he hit a nerve.
- In "The Return of Harmony, Part 1", Discord corrupts each of the main ponies to keep them from using the Elements of Harmony that they represent against him. Ultimately, he just brainwashes each of them with magic (aside from Twilight Sparkle), but he also takes the trouble to break each down before that, usually by talking. In Applejack's case, he tricks her into doubting the value of honesty (her element) by showing her a terrible "truth" she cannot accept, before turning her into a liar. For Pinkie Pie (laughter), he makes her think her friends laugh at her all the time, before turning her unhappy and hostile. Fluttershy (kindness) is the only one on whom his speech doesn't work because she's too trusting and accepting of her own flaws... so he just zaps her into being cruel anyway.
- The Owl House: Late in Season 2, Emperor Belos verbally crushes Luz Noceda's spirit by revealing that she unknowingly enabled his rise to power via a Stable Time Loop. This, combined with her Conflicting Loyalty between her lives in the Human and Demon Realms, sends her into an extreme mental health crisis that lasts until the Grand Finale.
- Peter Pan & the Pirates: Captain Hook delivers one to Peter after being captured by him and the lost boys that drives him into a Heroic BSoD. Also doubles as Face Death with Dignity since Peter had just threatened to kill him.
Peter: So there's no reason why I shouldn't put you AND Neverland out of your misery!
Hook: Very well. If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in my arms. For I, at least, have lived a full life, Peter Pan! I have been a child, I have been a youth, I have been a man, a scholar and a gentleman! I have sailed the world in the finest navy ever to set sun, sky or moon sail. In short, I have lived a full life. Whereas you are a pathetic creature, forever locked in the self-serving egocentricities of childhood. You will never be a youth, and you will never be a man! So, finish me now and be done with it! - In the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Season 4 finale, the shapeshifter Double Trouble does this to Catra after they betray the Horde for the Princess Alliance and reveal Catra's treachery to Hordak. Catra narrowly survived Hordak's wrath, only for Double Trouble, disguised as Adora, to emerge behind her. They proceed to shape-shift between everyone Catra has ever betrayed or alienated while delivering an absolutely epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech, telling Catra that she herself is the only reason why everyone she cares about abandons her. An interesting example in that they actually have no personal investment in telling Catra all this, they just wanted to smugly explain why they failed while twisting the knife as much as possible. The speech hits Catra so hard that, when Glimmer finds her a few minutes later, Catra all but asks her to kill her.
- Eric Cartman in South Park gives a Breaking Speech to a British super-nanny, of all people. He starts off asking her innocent questions about her job, which turn into biting remarks about how she'll die alone because "no one wanted to have babies with her". After realizing that Cartman is more than just an Enfant Terrible, she leaves. Later in the episode, he apparently gives a Breaking Speech to another nanny that's so bad it causes her to have a mental breakdown.
- The symbiote in The Spectacular Spider-Man combines this with Journey to the Center of the Mind to get Peter Parker to bond with it permenantly, mainly by pointing out that he's living in a Crapsack World and has gotten nothing in return for his heroics. Thankfully his memory of his uncle and friends snaps him out of it.
- Often subverted with Jasper from Steven Universe, who regularly attempts this but fails due to the victim either being too self-confident to listen to her or too clueless to understand what she is talking about. The only time it does work is in her first fight with Amethyst, whom she not only utterly curb-stomps without letting her land a single hit, but also shatters her already fragile self-esteem by telling her that she is a failure of a quartz soldier because of her birth defect. This breaks her spirit to the point where she stops fighting and takes a final hit without dodging. This isn't helped by the fact that, when she recovers from her brief breakdown upon realizing she left two children to face a super-soldier alone, she discovers that they took her on with no problem, casing her into depression for the next few episodes.
Amethyst: (shakily gets up) Rose said... I'm perfect... The way I am...
Jasper: Then she had low standards.
(After the battle)
Steven: We WON! I can't wait to tell the others!
(Steven and Connie run off laughing)
Amethyst: Oh, good! (Beat, she looks down) You didn't need me at all... - Slade from Teen Titans (2003) is a master at this trope. Especially when Robin is the victim because it's all Not So Different Remarks and that ticks Robin off.
- The Venture Bros.: An interesting variation of this happens in the Season 5 finale; after The Monarch makes half-hearted attempts to physically torture Dr. Venture, he eventually breaks down and openly admits how pathetic he and Dr. Venture had become, eventually leading to Dr. Venture to simply walking away despondently. This was apparently all part of The Monarch's plan to break Dr. Venture's spirit.
- In the Voltron: Legendary Defender episode "Crystal Venom". Commander Sendak is accidentally awoken from cryo-sleep by Shiro. Sendak tears into Shiro, claiming that the two of them are more alike than Shiro will admit. Shiro has a nervous breakdown and launches Sendak's cryo-pod into space as a result.
Sendak: We're connected, you and me. Both part of the Galra Empire.Shiro: No! I'm not like you.Sendak: You've been broken and reformed. Just look at your hand.Shiro: That's not me!Sendak: It's the strongest part of you. Embrace it. The others don't know what you know. They haven't seen what you've seen. Face it. You'll never beat Zarkon. He's already defeated you.Shiro: I'm not listening to you!Sendak: Did you really think a monster like you could ever be a Voltron Paladin?!Shiro: Stop it!
- Discussed in the WordGirl episode "The Rise of Miss Power". The titular character (of the episode) relies on this trope to defeat her enemies, and justifies it to the titular character (of the show) by reasoning that she is a good guy, and the bad guys deserve it. WordGirl falls for it at first, but after she deeply hurts her family, friends, and sidekick under the excuse "I'm a good guy", she realizes that she can't say she has a higher moral ground while putting everyone else down. Miss Power... doesn't take this news in the best way.
Real Life
- Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech". At the time, the impact on the delegates was immediate. Soviet sources now say some were so convulsed as they listened that they suffered heart attacks; others committed suicide afterwards.
- A series of independent experiments carried out by a sadistic Harvard psychology professor named Henry Murray in the 1960s could be counted as an extreme (and, as it turned out, extremely unfortunate) real-life example of Breaking Them by Talking. University students were instructed to write an essay summarizing their personal philosophy on life and underlying principles, then went into a room expecting to debate philosophy with a fellow student. They instead faced an interrogation by a far more experienced opponent, whose sole purpose was to attack and ridicule their beliefs at length. Since one of the main goals of the experiment was to induce stress and upset the subject as much as possible, it's not surprising that many students came out feeling traumatized. One of them, a student by the name of Ted Kaczynski, eventually went completely over the edge (for this reason or some other) and became the Unabomber.
- Murray had worked with the CIA in developing a test that tested pilots' wills, preventing them from possibly being brainwashed if captured. He decided to "fine tune" his technique using students as test subjects, but really, the guy was a sadist who got off on this sort of thing. WNYC's Radio Lab covered this story in one of their pieces titled "Oops".
- A favorite technique of many Trolls is to hurt people in chatrooms and the like with offensive language.
- In the documentary, I, Psychopath, diagnosed Narcissist Sam Vaknin subjects the filmmaker to these during most of the filming. The filmmaker almost has a nervous breakdown.
- Many gay men, especially drag queens, have perfected the Xanatos Speed Chess variation of this called "the read", being able to assess someone quickly and jab them precisely.
- Margaret Cho describes the process on her album Assassin:
(sassy voice) When you read somebody, what you are doing is you slowly chip away at their self esteem, but you do so in such a subtle manner they have no idea what is happening to them; they are simply overwhelmed by a sense of dread.- Of course, anti-LGBT forces who are aware of this technique can resist it using anti-mind game techniques. They can even turn the tables by casting doubts on the compatibility between the causes of the homosexual and transgender movements as well as the future of both movements.
- Sadly, some parents, teachers, and caregivers (i.e., at daycare centers, or even babysitters) have done this to their offspring/students/charges, unwittingly or not.
- Emotional and psychological abuse has this as a staple. The abuser will resort to things like insults, dares, and taunts that prey on the victim's fears, insecurities, etc. As one might expect, this can cause the victim to have difficulties (or a complete inability altogether) to form healthy relationships because of the trauma. They might even latch on tighter to the abuser, especially with abusers who play the "I'm a saint for putting up with you" card.
- A mild case of this can occur when knowing that you've disappointed someone by your actions makes you feel worse than any punishment could. It's unlikely to affect a sociopath, however.
