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Villainous BSOD: Difference between revisions
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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]].
Despite the intense emotional anguish this causes, Heroes can pull this with impunity since it's not killing anyone (directly, anyway), saves lives, and in the long run is a fairly elegant form of justice that may even bring about a [[Heel Face Turn]]. Then again, they may do this knowing the effects are temporary and only do it to weaken the villain psychologically long enough to kill him. Even normal, moral people can turn evil, and they may reason they don't want to give him a second chance.
Compare [[Villainous Breakdown]], where it's villainy that eventually drives the villain insane. See also [[Brainwashing for the Greater Good]].
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* ''[[Magical Project S]]'': Pixy Misa, the evil magical girl, was overpowering and about to kill the heroine but entered a BSOD when she realised she was about to hurt her loved ones too and reverted to her powerless alterego.
* ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'''s Digimon Emperor/Kaiser when he realizes that Digimon are real, and Wormmon has just made a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to stop him, the boy freaks out, throwing away his costume, crying, and screaming that he's sorry before wandering alone into the desert.
** 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 [[Villainous BSOD]] is pretty much unavoidable.
** Havoc got a more permanent one -- after losing her powers when Heaven's Gate collapsed, she got all her emotions back. Which is a bit of a problem when your power is to create wide-scale [[Explosive Decompression]], and your renumeration is to ''drink the blood of children''. The only way she got anywhere near Hell's Gate was after making Hei promise to kill her should her powers -- and her old mindset -- return.
* 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 [[Villainous BSOD]] and freakout by the credits, followed by a [[Heel Face Turn]] in the next episode.}} The episode is also one long [[Tear Jerker]], as we see how horrible a childhood Tsubame actually has had up to this point.
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== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* In the [[Kim Possible]] fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3867684/1/bSpirit_b_of_bSnow_b Spirit of Snow]'', Monkey Fist goes through this in the present day scenes after his actions lead to {{spoiler|the "deaths" of his lover and unborn child,}} and Sensei helps him get through it. An interesting example in that he is in a BSOD from the very first chapter, and that the story is told through a series of flashbacks interwoven with the present day scenes to show [[How We Got Here|how he got to this point.]]
* In the ''[[Death Note]]'' fic ''[[Shadow of the Valley]]'' Light has one when he sees a grave robber defacing {{spoiler|L Lawliet}}'s grave.
* In the ''[[Death Note]]'' fic ''[[A Cure for Love]]'' Light after he {{spoiler|loses L}} in both the deleted scenes and in the main story. It's the variation where "the villain becomes ''more dangerous''" as Light goes off the [[Morality Chain]].
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== [[Literature]] ==
* Galbatorix in the final novel of ''[[The Inheritance Cycle]]'' ...and how! Eragon channels his [[Applied Phlebotinum]] to force Galby to understand the suffering his actions has caused. Galbatorix promptly turns himself into a literal nuclear bomb, complete with earth-shattering explosion and massive radiation fallout.
* [[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]] {{spoiler|have the Storm King suffer this as the climax of the last book.}}
* In ''[[Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows]]'', it is mentioned that a Horcrux can be destroyed and a [[Soul]] made whole if its creator feels enough regret, which may be fatal to him. In a twist, it is done the old-fashioned way after all.
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* 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.
** In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Blood Angels]] novel ''Deus Sanguinius'', Arkio's first words when he is [[Dying as Yourself]], "Brother, [[What Have I Done]]?". He is deeply moved by Rafen's [[Manly Tears]], and while quite certain of his own damnation, begs Rafen's forgiveness.
** In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''False Gods'', when Horus mortally wounds Temba, Temba recovers from the Chaos taint, realizes the scale of his betrayal, and [[Tears of Remorse|sobs]].
** A hideously dark version in Age of Darkness. A failed [[Care Bear Stare]] attempts to {{spoiler|turn Kharn of the World Eaters back to the loyalist side. It fails when Kharn realises this, but the important thing is that the loyalist Thousand Son who tried knows that Kharn will now always live with the knowledge that siding with Horus (and Chaos) was wrong and that he could have willingly turned back. The loyal Thousand Son briefly wonders what effect this will have on Kharn in the future before dying. 10,000 years later and Kharn is well known for being psychopathically angry (even for a World Eater) and, most interestingly, perfectly willing to slaughter his own comrades...}}
* Much of ''[[Death Star]]'''s cast go through a [[Heel Realization]] by the time [[Earthshattering Kaboom|Alderaan is destroyed]], and most of them go on to [[Defector From Decadence|defect]]. Tenn Graneet, the head gunner on the [[Death Star]], didn't, but he found that pulling the trigger brought him misery beyond his ugliest dreams. At the Battle of Yavin, the superlaser actually was ready to fire, but he stalled desperately until Luke's proton torpedoes hit home.
{{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?}}
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* Dukat in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' has a particularly bad one while the Federation is retaking the eponymous station. His lieutenant shoots his daughter Ziyal when she admits to helping release a group of terrorists (who happen to be main characters) from prison, and the episode ends with Dukat in a cell huddled in a corner talking to the absent Ziyal, still somehow convinced she is devoted to him.
* [[Magnificent Bastard|Malcolm Tucker]] is finally driven to one in series 3 of ''[[The Thick of It]]'': "I USED TO BE THE FUCKIN' PHARAOH!"
* The Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' uses this with many, many villains. Azal in the Daemons is a particularily good example.
** Most memorably, this trope was used to give the titular character in [[The Lone Dalek|"Dalek"]] an [[Alas, Poor Villain]] moment.
*** Arguably, {{spoiler|The Master at the end of "The End of Time". Get out of the way.}}
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* In ''[[A Very Potter Musical]]'', Harry sort of half-heartedly tries this on Voldemort, who almost falls for it. He catches himself in time, though, and {{spoiler|Harry kills him the old-fashioned way. He gets better.}}
* On [[The Spoony Experiment]], Dr. Insano had a brief one after creating the Son of Insano, and cried about how his [[Mad Science]] never comes out right. His son quickly cheers him up by wanting to help him [[Take Over the World]], ending the moment and turning it into a CMOH.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* 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|Freudian Excuses]] were ultimately the results of her own actions, whether overly suspicious or outright evil. The shock is enough to make her reveal the access code that will foil her own evil plan. [[Ignored Epiphany|Despite reverting back to evil form and denying her fault in anything right afterward]], many consider it a [[Tear Jerker]].
{{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.
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', most villains never quite get the point; Zhao, for example goes to his death without compromising, but Azula's [[Villainous Breakdown]] appears to contain a little of this. [[Anti-Villain]] [[Heel Face Turn|Zuko]] never quite goes into BSOD, since he has gradual [[Character Development]] instead, although his [[Battle in the Center of the Mind]] [[Vision Quest]] sort of resembled this.
** Pre-series, Iroh after the death of Lu Ten and breaking the siege of Ba Sing Se would probably be seen as this by the Earth Kingdom, although he'd apparently been struggling with his father's goals for some time, since he lied about the dragons and had presumably already joined the Order of the White Lotus.
* The guy who encouraged Palpatine to go into politics has one of these in ''[[Robot Chicken]] [[Star Wars]]: Episode III'' when he realizes the tyrannical rule Palpatine has imposed over the [[The Empire|former Republic]]. However, just as he raises his [[Ray Gun|blaster]] to his head to [[My God, What Have I Done?|commit suicide]], his attention is [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|suddenly diverted]] by [[Wheel of Fortune]].
* Nox from ''[[Wakfu]]'' has one, when his ultimate plan fails and he is confronted by angry Yugo. The sight of the [[Big Bad]] crying silently is unbearable even to the hero, who stops enraged Sadidas from enacting their vengeance.
* In ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'', Baby Doll gets one of these when confronted with a funhouse mirror that forces her to face up to her [[Not Allowed to Grow Up|growth issue]] that has preserved her as a [[Older Than They Look|Shirley Temple looking toddler.]]
** It is heavily implied that {{spoiler|Two-Face}} experiences this in his final appearance. {{spoiler|He developed a third personality called The Judge, one that even he isn't aware of, and while in Arkham Asylum in the ending of the episode, Two-Face is deliberating in a court in his mind and, while staring blankly, pleads guilty.}}
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[[Category:Character Reaction Index]]
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Heel Face Index]]▼
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Villains]]
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[[Category:Villainous BSOD]]
[[Category:This Index Has Had a Hard Life]]
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