Contemplate Our Navels: Difference between revisions

 

Not to be confused with [[Naval Gazing|Contemplating Our Navy]].

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* [http://adland.tv/commercials/heinz-estd-2001-030-usa This ad for Heinz ketchup] uses this trope to contemplate what the term "Est'd" on its bottles means.

 

* In an example of a [[Tropes Are Not Bad|version of this trope well done]], ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' does this during the Younger Toguro fight. It comes off as [[Ayn Rand]] trying to challenge the Shounen hero's [[Power of Friendship]].

** And later in the series, Yusuke has one of these (verging on a full-fledged [[Heroic BSOD]]) halfway through his final fight with {{spoiler|Yomi}}, as he blanks out in the middle of a fight upon realizing that he's been fighting for so long that its lost all meaning.

* The [["On the Next..."|trailers]] of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'''s first season are mostly floating text with a vague, [[Heroes (TV series)|Mohinder]]-style voiceover. Of course, [[Crowning Music of Awesome|that music]] would make the phone book sound intriguing and mysterious.

** And that ''[[Yukari Tamura|voice]]'' would make ''anything'' sound dramatic. Especially when you find out who is speaking.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In the ''[[Robocop vs. Terminator]]'' graphic novel, ''the Terminators'' do this, since RoboCop is essentially a divine being to them (as in this continuity, he was an integral part of SkyNet's creation). It gets really weird when they start discussing the fact that he doesn't want to help them.

 

 

== Film ==

* ''[[The Matrix]] Reloaded'' and ''The Matrix Revolutions'' were both crammed with navel-contemplation. The original wasn't free of it either, although it was far more pronounced in the [[Two-Part Trilogy]].

{{quote|'''Dawn Campbell''': You can't deal with my infinite nature, can you?

'''Brad Stand''': Of course I can... what does that even mean? }}

* The entire film ''[[Waking Life]]''.

* Oddly, ''[[Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]'' has this mentioned in a very strange way part way through.

 

== Literature ==

* Probably makes up the majority of the text in ''All Saint's Day''. And it is a rather informed variety, as the protagonists friends, with the possible exception of his love interest who comes in half-way, have a in depth knowledge of the works of western philosophers, at least the German ones, as well as their original, more artistically bent, thoughts and critiques.

 

* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'' the two [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] species repeat the [[Armor-Piercing Question|Armor Piercing Questions]] "Who are you?" (Vorlons) and "What do you want?" (Shadows) to [[Trickster Mentor|force the "younger races"]] to contemplate their navels (or biological equivalents).

** Of course, the two races themselves have been asking the questions for so long that they [[Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid|don't know their own answers]], and have ended up adopting the [[Order Versus Chaos]] framework without really understanding it. They have become roughly equivalent to divorcing parents trying to get "the kids" to choose a side.

* Nate contemplated a used condom in one episode of ''[[Six Feet Under]]''.

* Happens from time to time on ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', particularly in comparison to the other, somewhat more two-fisted elements of the franchise. (See, for instance, the entirety of "In The Pale Moonlight") On one noteworthy incident led [[Deadpan Snarker|Garak]] to comment that, since [[Bizarre Alien Biology|what passed for his navel was centered on his forehead]], he would have to be the one to get things done.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Hummiez don't underztand orky navel watching. We boyz know that Gork and Mork are the invincible and the indeztructible, but we'z like to discuss regularly which is which. (Fightning noise)

* [[Munchkin (game)|Munchkin]] has the card "Contemplate Your Navel: Go Up a Level."

 

* [[Cats|The moments of happiness... We had the experience but missed the meaning and approach to the meaning restores the experience in a different form, beyond any meaning we can assign to happiness... The past experience revived in the meaning is not the experience of one life only but of many generations - not forgetting something that is probably quite ineffable...]]

 

== Video Games ==

* At the very end of ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'', the characters find out that their entire universe is {{spoiler|a video game. The man who created the video game destroys it;}} however, the heroes choose their last moments to do some navel contemplating and their perceived universe is forced to spontaneously generate.

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' does this from time to time, usually at the worst possible moments. Towards the end of the first game, the [[Big Bad]] 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 made fun of in ''Justice For All''.

{{quote|'''Edgeworth:''' This is a trial, not the Phoenix Wright Wax Philosophical Power Hour!}}

** 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 literally outside their gates. Their inaction ultimately led to a [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]] when Revan said, "[[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right|Screw this]]" and went out to fight, getting [[Drunk on the Dark Side]] in the process.

*** Interestingly, their navel gazing is revealed to be general justified in The Old Republic and its associated media, which shows that there indeed was a threat manipulating the Mandalorians.

{{quote|'''Announcer:''' This marks the end of an epic battle. The winner emerges with the pride and honor of a hard won victory, but also with a nagging sense of uncertainty. The loser walks away with a heart heavy with shame and anger, ready to make a new start and fight again another day. Both warriors know that this isn't truly the end. Neither one's potential has been truly reached, and there is much hard training ahead. They'll never forget the days of exchanging blows at a fevered pitch. They'll never forget the days of lost hope, of self-loathing. Once they've caught their breath, the warriors will return to the ring. This is the burden of the true fighter. There is no other choice. Who knows where their next opponent lies? This story may be over, but the battle is just beginning!}}

* Irenicus did a fair bit of it in the dream sequences in [[Baldurs Gate II|Baldur's Gate II]], waxing on about how "life is power" and precisely why, in his opinion, your character should embrace their Bhaalspawn nature instead of fighting it. All of which was made ten times more creepy by David Warner's mostly-deadpan delivery.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* A [http://meninhats.com/d/20021014.html couple] of [http://meninhats.com/d/20021025.html times] in ''[[Men in Hats]]'', characters contemplating profound questions about the universe get hungry and turn their thoughts to sandwiches. It can apparently [http://meninhats.com/d/20031022.html cause Aram] to BSOD, too.

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'', Belkar is {{spoiler|under a Paladin's curse and hallucinating about the aristocrat that authorized it}} and is constantly being asked "What are you?" After several attempts at classifying himself, he finally responds with "I am... a... sexy... shoeless... god of war..."

* This is basically the entire point of [[HERO (Webcomic)|HERO]] once you get past the first part or so. You'll end up hard pressed to find a single sentence that isn't in some way philosophical once it gets going.

{{quote|[http://ozyandmillie.org/2000/11/11/ozy-and-millie-518/ "So are you any closer to unlocking the secrets of the universe?"]}}

* ''[[Bob and George]]'': [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/031020c George contemplates free will].

* Karkat in ''[[Homestuck]]'' engages in this during a three-year journey between universes, musing on the unfair and [[Do Well, But Not Perfect]] nature of a world where [[You Can't Fight Fate]], and its implications for any meaning life might have, and morality therein. Its a natural thing to wonder about when {{spoiler|passing through the dream-bubbles of a myriad of doomed-timeline versions of dead friends... and yourself}}.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[The Tick (animation)|The Tick vs. the Protoclown]]'': Tick gets knocked into orbit unconscious, and his mind (a six-winged vision of his head) tells him he can only get home by answering the question "Why am I here?" [[Journey to the Center of the Mind|The Tick's brain]] is mostly desert. There's the pleasure center (a giant smiley face that will make him enter an endless coma of ecstasy), the brain's defense mechanisms (little Ticks armed with fish), and a giant Tick statue that will answer only one question ("How's it going?") The Tick eventually stumbles across the answer himself: "[[Completely Missing the Point|I'm here because]] [[Rule of Funny|a big clown hit me]]!"

* ''[[South Park]]'' episode "The Tooth Fairy Tats" has Kyle start to doubt his own existence after discovering the tooth fairy isn't real. He spends the rest of the episode reading various philosophy books and talking about the nature of reality, even when the conversation around him is something totally different. He finally has an out-of-body, one-with-the-universe experience, and comments that it was weird. It's never, ever spoken of again.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Speeches and Monologues]]

[[Category:Philosophy Tropes]]