Villainous BSOD: Difference between revisions

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|Complete Monsters]] [[Above Good and Evil|beyond all attempts at being reasoned with]]. And to make things worse, these also tend to be [[Omnicidal Maniac|too powerful]] [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil|to beat]].

 

 

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.

 

 

{{examples}}

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

* It's impossible to tell how many of these Akito from ''[[Fruits Basket]]'' has. When {{spoiler|Hatsuharu almost beats her up for imprisoning Rin, during conversations about Shigure and Ren's relationship, when she stabs Kureno, and when Tohru falls from a cliff in front of her. She consequently goes through a very angsty, somewhat suicidal, phase. She ends up being saved from herself by Tohru's friendship and Momiji's statement that Akito should treasure the ones she cares for}}.

* ''[[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.

** 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* [[Anti-Villain]] Coyote Stark from ''[[Bleach]]'' has two of these. A powerful but lonely arrancar who considered the other Espada his [[True Companions]], Stark can't bring himself to try in his fights after his immediate peer [[Number Two|Barragan]] is killed, but his companion (and other half) Lilynette snaps him out of it, convincing him to avenge Barragan instead. {{spoiler|In the anime, however, Lilynette's consciousness is destroyed by [[Taking the Bullet]] for Stark, which clearly destroys his will to fight, and even to live; moments later, Stark's opponent and [[Good Counterpart]] Kyoraku cuts him down as well.}}

* [[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]] ==

** 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.

** And he once even got to use it on Galactus.

* In ''[[Star Wars]] [[Tales of the Jedi]]'', Ulic Qel Droma suffers a rather massive one when he murders his own brother in a fit of rage. Before he had been a borderline [[Complete Monster]], kept from being a true one only by the delusion that he was doing the right thing. After murdering Cay, Ulic finally faces what he's become and simply breaks down sobbing while cradling his brother's corpse. Ironically, crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]] finally forced him to change for the better. Raana Tey also undergoes this. After suffering an increasing breakdown over 12 issues, committing a multitude of atrocities against the protaganist, her plans go to hell, and when she's trapped Zayne tries to save her despite all the things she's done. This causes Raana to realize that she's the villain and not Zayne, and that he is in fact not the monster she think's he is. She dies less then a minute later, and her last words are essentially a plea for forgiveness from her mistress and from Zayne.

 

== [[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.]]

 

== [[Film]] ==

{{quote| '''Ghost Rider''': A thousand souls to '''BURN!!!'''}}

{{quote| '''Mal:''' They take you down, I don't expect to grieve overmuch. Likely to kill you myself, I see you again.<br />

'''The Operative:''' You won't. There is nothing left to see. }}

* 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.

* The air conditioner in ''[[The Brave Little Toaster]]'' delivers a [[Hannibal Lecture]] and when the other appliances tell him to [[Shut UP, Hannibal]], has a [[A Worldwide Punomenon|breakdown]] and [[Nightmare Fuel|spontaneously combusts.]]

* Cutler Beckett suffers this in his final moments in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At Worlds End'', when both the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman actually flank both sides of his ship: When he witnesses this, he couldn't even give the order to fire, as he was rendered virtually catatonic from witnessing it, and could only reply in a very soft but shocked tone "It's just... good business...", and walked, not ran, but walked as his crew abandoned ship and his ship was being destroyed, and couldn't even react when the flames from the ship exploding engulfed him.

** This is despite the fact that his ship has more guns than the ''Pearl'' and the ''Dutchman'' put together. On the other hand, the ''Dutchman'' can't be sunk.

** He goes into a [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking]] one after {{spoiler|he realizes that he killed his wife.}}

 

== [[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.

* 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.

** 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.

** In fact, the only regret she has is not having done even worse things.

* 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 [[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?}}

* 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.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* This is exactly what the Gypsies did to ''[[Angel]]'' after he killed a daughter of their clan. The curse turned him into the [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire]] he is today.

** There is also an unintentional example happens at the end of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', season 5. Tearing down the walls between dimensions allows Glory to feel Ben's human emotions, for some reason. She... isn't happy.

*** It's the tearing down the separation between Glory and Ben that's the problem. He's getting her ruthlessness and self-absorption, she's getting his caring. Neither one is happy about it.

** Happens again in Season 4. {{spoiler|As of the end of the show, it seems to be taking just fine.}}

* [[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.

*** 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".

* Mr. Wolf, the [[Anti-Villain]] leader of a team of hostage-taking bank robbers, has one late in ''The Kill Point'', after his [[Token Good Teammate]] goes nuts from a combination of PTSD and gangrene and gets himself shot by the cops.

* Dr. Kelso from ''[[Scrubs]]'' isn't (usually) so much a villain as a boss playing the role of [[Good Cop, Bad Cop|Bad Cop]] with his underlings, but one episode of Season 5 definitely shows this happening to him. The episode states that it's a well known fact that no matter what happens at the hospital, the second Dr. Kelso leaves the building all his cares vanish. In this particular episode, Kelso promises Dr. Cox to allow Cox' patient (who is a really great guy) a spot for testing a new drug that should save his life. Later, Kelso bumps that patient off the drug trial in favor of a much richer one. Later we learn that Kelso's patient lives while Cox' dies. When [[What the Hell, Hero?|Cox angrily confronts him]] over this, [[Shoot the Dog|Kelso replies that it was a necessary evil]]; the rich guy donated a ton of money to the hospital afterward, which allowed Kelso to reopen the pre-natal ward and rehire Elliot. However, when Kelso leaves the hospital that night instead of going straight into being happy and cheerful, he has a moment where he just looks around in heartbreaking sadness. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9UGIilzr6Q See it for yourself.]

** 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.}}

* ''[[The Secret of Monkey Island]]'': [[Ghost Pirate]] LeChuck has a brief one during the ending when he [[Did Not See That Coming]]. ( {{spoiler|Governor Elaine, whom he was going to marry, is revealed to have escaped and the one in the wedding dress is two monkeys}}) He just utters lines such as: "Hey...", "What..." "How...". But he recovers quickly.

* When you finally catch up with Takahisa Kandori in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]: [[Persona]]'', he's realized that he's gotten everything he's ever wanted and it ''absolutely sucks''. He's demotivated to the point that Nanjo has to needle him about how he's achieved his nigh-godhood through borrowed power in order to prompt the requisite boss fight.

* For a rare literal example (or at least lampshading,) in the Xbox 360 version of ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'', defeating M.O.D.O.K. results in a "Blue Screen of Death" achievement.

* 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 [[Villainous BSOD]] (presumably, he retreated out of the shock that {{spoiler|Cecil was his younger brother}}).

 

== Web Comics ==

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Ghost Rider]]'''s "Penance Stare." Especially notable when he used it on freakin' [[Planet Eater|Galactus]] in the ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' cartoon.

{{quote| " {{spoiler|[[Madness Mantra|It was me. It was me. It was me. It was me.....]]}}."}}

{{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.

* 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]].

** 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.}}