Villainous BSOD: Difference between revisions
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'''A:''' The kind that gives villains [[A Worldwide Punomenon|a heart to attack.]] }}
Only a scant few villains work under a conventional moral framework with [[Even Evil Has Standards|standards]], fewer acknowledge the [[It's All About Me|egocentricity]] implicit in the wrong they do, and a distressing number are [[Complete Monster
In these cases, the only solution is for the heroes to actively [[Care Bear Stare]] him into growing a conscience to make him voluntarily stop his rampage... because the accumulated [[My God, What Have I Done?|shame]], guilt, and [[Out, Damned Spot!|mental instability]] over his misdeeds will be too much for him to bear. The heroes may not have used [[Mind Rape]] on him but they might as well have, because now that he has the heart and conscience of a hero he can't help but suffer a [[Heroic BSOD]]. He'll [[Tears of Remorse|weep openly]], [[Driven to Suicide|become suicidal]], and may either [[Puff of Logic|will himself into non existence]] or [[Mercy Kill|beg to be killed.]] The heroes have basically [[Talking the Monster to Death|Talked The Monster To Death]] by helping him grow a conscience.
The exact reaction depends on the villain and the weight of his sins. One that hadn't yet gotten to do much more than [[Poke the Poodle]] or [[Kick the Dog]] once may survive with emotional counseling. If he crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]]? The black hole he's become will finally crush him. Things can get really interesting if the character, through his own fault, invited in [[Mind Control]], [[Demonic Possession]], or [[The Virus]], and entirely remembers all the evil things he did under its
One unlikely, but possible, outcome is that he reacts not with unbearable sadness but ''overwhelming anger'' at the heroes for daring to make him ''"feel like this!"'' This tends to [[Turns Red|make him]] ''[[Turns Red|even more]]'' [[Turns Red|dangerous]]. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]].
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** In ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'', this happens to Beelzemon, the Mega form of the human-hating Digimon, Impmon. After being granted the power to digivolve like he always wanted, Beelzemon attacked the children and destroyed one of their partners (who unfortunately, don't have the pleasure of being reborn as digi-eggs as it was in the previous series). After being defeated in battle and spared, he begins to come to realize the atrocities he had committed and wanders around, guilt-ridden, depressed and haunted by memories of what he did. After surviving what was essentially a suicide attempt (not fighting back when he's attacked by a swarm of digimon which quickly render him powerless), he eventually sets off to make things right, by first making amends with the humans he had abandoned and then by helping the others in the battle against the D-Reaper, and saving the girl who's partner he killed.
* Self-inflicted (of sorts) example with Greed in the manga of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' {{spoiler|The second version of him, while having mostly the same personality, is at first much more malicious in keeping with the behavior of the other homunculi who are [[The Heartless]]. After Greed kills Bido, who was the only surviving member of his former [[True Companions]] after the rest were slaughtered by Bradley, Greed's memories return and Ling starts mocking Greed in his head while he's tormented by the memory of his comrade's screaming voices.}} While this also counts for [[Amnesiac Dissonance]], it fits this too, because basically the [[Power of Friendship]] is used as a weapon against him.
* One contractor from ''[[Darker than Black]]'' has a renumeration of temporarily regaining her conscience and humanity every time that she uses her powers. The power in question is [[Bad Powers, Bad People|the ability to destroy other people's internal organs in a manner akin to Ebola]], so the regular
** Havoc got a more permanent
* Cyrus in ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure]]'' has a BSOD for most of a chapter when he realizes that his grand plan to fix the world (by [[In Their Own Image|destroying and rebuilding it]], natch) only managed to summon a pair of very angry gods whose fight will destroy everything ''without'' any hope of revival. Even near the end when he manages to get his act together, the impact of all this leaves him drained to the point where one of his officers has to help him stand.
* Tsubame Otorii of ''[[Cyber Team in Akihabara]]''. Since her introduction, she acts as the Dragon to the [[Big Bad]], easily defeating the Cyber Team girls in every encounter. {{spoiler|In episode 20, Tsubame is dragged home by Hibari. She spends the entire episode slowly breaking down while watching how Hibari's family interacts with one another, eventually suffering a
* In ''[[Tokyo Tribe]] 2'', Buppa has one of these in episode 10 when {{spoiler|Mera stabs him in the face.}} He stays in that state for nearly an episode before seeing Sunmi snaps him out of his BSOD. When someone points this out, he simply denies that the BSOD even happened.
* Anemone of ''[[Eureka Seven]]'' begins this after her {{spoiler|second failure against the Nirvash, due to her fear that Dewey will kill her for [[You Have Failed Me|failing]]. This causes her to do nothing but lie down in her bed when she isn't fighting, and she gets worse after finding out Dominic went AWOL.}}
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* A more literal example presents itself in ''[[The Big O]]''. After recieving a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] and as he is being assimilated by his [[Giant Robot|Megadeus]], Alan Gabriel's mech ''Leviathan'' scrolls on its main screen, "CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD {{spoiler|[[Bait and Switch|YE GUILTY]]}}".
* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', Degwin Zabi suffers this after {{spoiler|his youngest son, Garma, is killed.}} By the end, he's had enough of the war and wants it to end. In the anime, he attempts to broker peace {{spoiler|only for Ghiren to blast him and General Revil with the Solar Ray}}. The novel of the series, however, doesn't give him that chance - he can only watch as the rest of his children get plucked off before {{spoiler|Char takes over.}}
* In ''[[Star Blazers]]'', Comet Empire series, in one of the episodes close to the end. Leader Desslock had earlier accepted a commission from Prince Zordar to defeat the Star Force, so he pins the Yamato by teleporting mines over to surround it. To escape, the Yamato executes a small warp and rams Desslock's ship. Deputy Captain Derek Wildstar boards the Leader's ship. The two of them face off on the bridge. Desslock slowly levels his pistol at Wildstar, while goading Wildstar to shoot him. But Wildstar, already injured earlier, falls to the deck while drawing his. His love interest, Nova, dashes out of hiding, grabs the pistol, blocks Desslock's aim, then aims Derek's pistol at Desslock. Moments later, she drops the pistol, places Derek's head in her lap, and comforts him while he remains semiconscious. Desslock gets his
* Seto Kaiba of [[Yu-Gi-Oh!]] had one of these as well, over the course of the first half of the second series' first season. Back then, prior to the end of the first episode, Kaiba didn't take dueling seriously at all and believed that power was the only way to win a game. Then he received a big shock when Yami summoned Exodia the Forbidden One and obliterated all three of his Blue-Eyes White Dragons (which at the same time led to Mokuba using a "[[This Cannot Be!]]" line) and afterwards used Mind Crush on him. Ever since then, Kaiba came to realization that he didn't know who he himself was anymore, and began to seek redemption. He eventually learned that Mokuba was taken prisoner by [[Affably Evil|Pegasus]] and went to rescue him only for both's souls to be captured by Pegasus later... until Yami finally won his duel with him with [[The Power of Friendship|the help of his friends]].
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** Wait, the Joker's insanity is power-related since ''when?'' Wasn't the point that he '''[[The Killing Joke|Just. Had. A. Bad. Day]]'''
*** [[Multiple Choice Past]], remember? It is possible that it was all just one bad day, or it could've been a lifetime of bad days. Regardless, many stories do portray the Joker's craziness as a superpower of sorts. It's because of his insanity that he's dangerous to the point of making even the most powerful villains in the DCU scared of him.
* The ''[[DC Comics]]'' [[Elseworld
** Lex himself gets one near the climax of All-Star Superman. {{spoiler|After a day of having Superman's powers, and knowing they're already fading, it finally sinks in to Lex that all he's done with them is blow stuff up.}}
* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', this is [[Big Bad|Winnowill]]'s reaction when Leetah tries to heal her, forcing her to relive her memories of how and why she turned to evil, and of everything she's done since. Too proud to spend the rest of eternity angsting and atoning for it all, Winnowill tries to kill herself.
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** The film adaptation does have Voldemort briefly experiencing the trope whenever his horcruxes are being destroyed (in one instance, when he was bombarding Hogwart's barrier with spells, after firing a huge beam from his wand upon a horcrux being destroyed, he stares in shock, looks at his arm, and leaves without a word. Both the movie and the novel also implies that this is the reason why Harry and his friends were able to track down the remaining horcruxes.
** On the other hand, in ''The Tales of Beedle the Bard'', one story ("The Warlock's Hairy Heart") does end this way. It has commentary from Albus Dumbledore explaining it.
* Subverted in the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld/Wyrd Sisters|Wyrd Sisters]]'': Granny Weatherwax attempts to defeat the Duchess by pulling down the mental dividers that keep her from thinking about the horrors she's
** In fact, the only regret she has is not having done even worse things.
*** So basically, she's not really an [[Expy]] of [[Macbeth|Lady MacBeth]]; rather, she's closer to being [[Titus Andronicus (theatre)|Aaron]].
** Since [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] tends to show up after people have been disconnected from all their glands and after death has stripped away any rose-tinted glasses villains may have had about their actions, he's been known to induce a few. Mr. Tulip gets a big one in [[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]] (although he's probably better off than his associate Mr. Pin who didn't repent).
* When [[Inspector Javert]] from ''[[Les Misérables]]'' finds that Jean Valjean, while still a criminal, is a ''good person,'' Javert simply cannot reconcile his previous black and white system of morality with this demonstration that all along he had been wrong in his belief that what is lawful and what is right were one and the same. He [[Driven to Suicide|jumps off a bridge]] and drowns. His final song in [[Les Misérables (theatre)|the musical]] is essentially a summation of his
* Very common in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' among people tainted by Chaos, when Chaos ceases to blind them:
** In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''Cain's Last Stand'', the Sisters of Battle completely lose control after Jurgen's blank status frees them from mind-control; they jump to their deaths.
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{{quote|He wouldn't be able to walk on a street on any civilized planet on the galaxy; people wouldn't be able to abide his presence. [[My God, What Have I Done?|Nor would he blame them]]. He couldn't stop thinking about it. He didn't believe he would ever be able to stop thinking about it. The dead would haunt him, forever. How could a man live with that?}}
* In ''[[Crime and Punishment]]'', [[Manipulative Bastard|Svidrigailov]] has a [[Heel Realization]], [[Pet the Dog|gives his money to charity]] and {{spoiler|becomes unhinged and commits suicide in public.}}
* In ''[[The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara]]'', Grianne Ohmsford, aka the Ilse Witch touches the Sword of Shannara, which forces her to accept the truth about
* Elizabeth Bathory in ''[[Count and Countess]]'' upon realizing that her closest handmaid has betrayed her and Vlad has stopped writing back to her. Her letters become notably shorter and more frantic before altogether stopping.
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== [[Music]] ==
* One interpretation of Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone" is that it's about a spy-turned-killer having a self-inflicted
== [[Parody]] ==
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* In [[Magical Diary]], after [[False Friend|completely crushing the PC's heart]], {{spoiler|Damien}} goes through one of these, causing him to run away and live in the woods for a month.
* The game ''You Find Yourself In A Room'' believes that its hatred and anger toward humanity and torment of yourself as you play is fully justified because it's a superior emotionless being disgusted by the flawed entities that created it. You then get a chance to point out that hatred and anger are actually emotions. This trope results, as it falls into a despair in which it simply lets you go, finding no more meaning to its life.
* [[Final Fantasy IV|Golbez]] fleeing from Cecil after the first fight is heavily implied to be that of a
* Queen Grimhilde (from ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]'') suffers this trope during the battle with her in [[Disney Villains Revenge]], which causes her to destroy the mirror before being killed herself.
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* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''' nemesis, Mojo Jojo, has one after realizing that {{spoiler|while he was still The Professor's lab assisstant, he inadvertently created the Powerpuff Girls}}.
{{quote|" {{spoiler|[[Madness Mantra|It was me. It was me. It was me. It was me.....]]}}."}}
* Demona from ''[[Gargoyles]]'' goes through a very temporary one at the end of the four-part "City of Stone" when [[The Hero|Goliath]] and [[The Fair Folk|the Weird Sisters]] force her to realize that all of her [[Freudian Excuse
{{quote|"The access code is...''{{spoiler|alone}}.''"}}
** The [[Tear Jerker]] element becomes [[Fridge Horror]] in the context of the later episodes of the series and comics: she never willingly works with someone else. For all that she reverts to previous opinions, she never recovers from her BSOD.
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