Villainous BSOD: Difference between revisions

'''A:''' The kind that gives villains [[A Worldwide Punomenon|a heart to attack.]] }}

 

 

 

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 control -- that wouldn't have happened if he'd fought it off, but which he had no control over.

 

 

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]].

 

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

** 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.

** 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 (Manga)|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.

* Agahnim the wizard has one of these, in [[Zelda Manga|the Akira Himekawa manga]] of ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: [[A Link to The Past]]''.

* In [[Gankutsuou]], Fernand Morcef's response to losing virtually everything he has worked and sacrificed for {{spoiler|including and especially his conscience and morality}} due to Edmond Dante's successful revenge is literally taking down his entire planet with him as he crashes and burns {{spoiler|Even if it means rejecting a [[Last Second Chance]] offered by his wife, despite the fact that it was his [[Love Makes You Evil]] for her which ultimately caused his [[Start of Darkness]]}}.

* [[Zeta Gundam|T-the sky! It's falling!]] [[Big No|NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!]]

* 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 [[Villainous BSOD]] as he witnesses Nova's simultaneous display of extreme bravery and extreme devotion. It makes him change his mind about pursuing the Star Force, he declares to Nova that the war between Gamillon and Earth is over, and he offers her advice on the Comet Empire's one weak point in its mobile fortress. Doubles as a ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]'' AND a ''[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]]''!

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* ''[[Watchmen (Film)|Watchmen]]'' (''specifically'' the film): {{spoiler|Ozymandias appears to be going through one of these the last time he's seen on camera. He lets Nite Owl beat the hell out of him, without even the slightest move to fight back this time, and then wanders over to watch the others leave while staring into space, stoop-shouldered and weak-looking. It's a bit complicated, given that his mass murder actually saved the world from a greater threat, but unlike in the comic, he can't just calmly meditate on his utopia, and in the sped-up footage showing New York being rebuilt, it's possible to pick out Veidt Enterprises building equipment taking care of things.}}

* Of all things, the third [[Saw]] movie was supposed to have this. Jigsaw was to awaken on his makeshift hospital bed, and realize to his horror that for all his life before the films, for all his warped intent to try to make people reflect on what they've done with their lives, all that anyone would remember him as is a monster and a killer. The thought, naturally, was to have occurred too late in the film for him to do anything to save the current protagonist, leaving the man weeping and too weak to move. [[What Could Have Been]], indeed? A slasher movie villain feeling remorse for his crimes could arguably have redeemed the series from shallow Gorn.

** Also, when he is repaired by his owner, he actually seems to feel a tinge of remorse.

* An Anti-[[Villain Protagonist]] example: Gru of ''[[Despicable Me]]'' goes into a deep depression after his [[The Dragon|Dragon]] Dr. Nefario sends the girls he's adopted and just recently bonded with back to the orphanage so that he could focus on their plans to steal the moon.

** 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.

* In ''[[Crime and Punishment (Literature)|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 herself--namely that she's a manipulative, backstabbing bitch who has built her entire life on a lie. She ends up going comatose from the shock, and doesn't recover until near the end of the final book.

* [[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 (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' uses this with many, many villains. Azal in the Daemons is a particularily good example.

*** Arguably, {{spoiler|The Master at the end of "The End of Time". Get out of the way.}}

** The Doctor himself also falls victim to this at the end of "Waters of Mars".

* One episode of ''[[House (TV)|House]]'' had a patient who was a psychopath. Sociopath. Well, one of those 'paths. She had no problem with cheating on her rich husband, poisoning people, and trying to get one of her doctors in deep trouble, among other things. Then they fixed her underlying medical condition and the lack of empathy wore off, resulting in this trope.

:: To compound things, Kelso sees some other doctors walking towars him, and tries to [[Stepford Smiler|fake his usual happiness and cheery attitude]], making one wonder how many other times he's gone through a similar BSOD.

 

** Sadly, the dialogue for the final confrontation with Eden wasn't written particularly well, so that unless you look ''really'' closely, it just seems like you tell him he sucks and should die, and he just agrees with you for no reason.

** The same can be done to the [[Big Bad|Master]] in the original ''Fallout'' game, in which he will commit suicide if you reveal to him that his plan is doomed to fail, having realized how crazy its plan really was and guilty over what it did in order to undertake it.

** Well, not immediately. After the battle he first suffers a [[Villainous Breakdown]] and becomes so obsessed with getting revenge that he builds up enough psychic power to {{spoiler|obliterate his body, leaving only his splintered psychic mind}}.

** This is a [[Epileptic Trees|possible explanation]] for how you win the final battle in ''Earthbound'', as well: {{spoiler|the prayers of all those you have met overwhelm the ultimate evil within him, and he tears himself apart in realization of what he is.}}

{{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.

** 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.

* Nox from ''[[Wakfu (Animation)|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.

** 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.}}