Villainous Breakdown/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Lex''': And they're all going to burn... BUUUUURN!!!}}

* [[Magnificent Bastard|Azula]] is one of the best examples of this trope. She becomes progressively more unhinged throughout the [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', kicked off by {{spoiler|the betrayal of Mai and Ty Lee}}. She really starts going nuts when {{spoiler|her father Ozai promotes her to Fire Lord, only to name himself the ''Phoenix King'', effectively rendering her a [[Puppet King|Puppet Queen]]}}, goes even farther when she fires her servants out of paranoia when she thinks they are plotting against her and {{spoiler|she hallucinates a conversation with her mother}}, and climaxes after {{spoiler|Zuko and Katara interrupt her coronation and defeat her in an Agni Kai}}. Her last scene {{spoiler|is of her weeping, screaming, and writhing on the ground; chained, and pathetic}}. [[Word of God]] has stated that {{spoiler|she's now in the nuthouse and is supervised around the clock (not that it makes the breakdown any less disturbing to watch)}}.

** Before Azula, Long Feng was a relatively [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] [[Manipulative Bastard]] who had the Earth King and Kingdom mostly under his thumb. After Azula crushes him via a [[Hannibal Lecture]]/[["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] stating that power is BORN, not EARNED, the once proud [[Evil Chancellor]] collapses to his knees and dejectedly declares, "You have beaten me at my own game."

{{quote|'''Azula:''' Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player.}}

** In ''[[Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker]]'', {{spoiler|the Joker himself has a big one. After receiving probably the greatest [[Hannibal Lecture]] in animation history from Terry, he screams "SHUT UP SHUT UP" and goes berserk with grenades.}}

** {{spoiler|Baby Doll (in the episode of the same name)}} leads Batman into a carnival funhouse. Once he's cornered her in its hall of mirrors, she is understandably startled and then bittersweetly distracted: {{spoiler|1=the mirrors are the [[Hand Wave]] that allow us to see how Baby would have appeared if her growth hadn't been stunted. Watch the rest of the excellent [[Tear Jerker]] finale [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUtLTxBYZHw here]. That's some powerful storytelling.}}

* Derek Powers has one spanning season 1 of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' after he's turned into Blight... culminating in an enraged psychotic break that brings whole new meaning to "having a meltdown".

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]''

** In his 2nd appearance in the series' 3rd tv movie, the evil ringmaster Freakshow suffered from one when Danny played on his [[I Just Want to Be Special|jealousy of ghosts]], resulting in him using the powerful [[Reality Warper|Reality]] [[Artifact of Doom|Gauntlet]] to become a ghost himself, which is exactly what Danny wanted so he could use the [[Weapons That Suck|Fenton Thermos]] to trap him and save the world.

* Sykes in Disney's ''[[Oliver and Company]]''. While he's mainly calm throughout the movie, in the climactic car chase he pulls down the gear stick so hard it breaks off, and ''punches his hand through his car's window'' to get at the heroine.

* Henry Peter Gyrich of ''[[X-Men]]'' was always a little unhinged, but after years of being on the losing end of an on-and-off conflict with Professor Xavier, topped off by weeks of (offscreen) struggling with him to ratify the latest anti-mutant bill, he finally [[Chewing the Scenery|cracks]] in the last episode. This turns out to be the "dangerous" version, as in the space of a minute, he throws his whole reputation out the window to make things go very, very bad.

** Butters AKA Professor Chaos has this in "The Simpsons Already Did It" where, after watching every [[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpsons]] episode to make sure one of his plans won't be a ripoff of an episode and leaving to inact it, he hears a commercial of Bart doing the same thing. He then hallucinates of every place and person looking all like Simpsons characters. He gets better when he learns that [[Department of Redundancy Department|the ideas the Simpsons used were used before the Simpsons too.]]

* ''[[Exo Squad]]'''s [[Big Bad]] Phaeton loses it after he contracts automutation syndrome in the aftermath of a battle with J.T. Marsh. He becomes more enamored with doomsday weapon projects, abandons all subtlety, and resorts to grandiose speeches and rants as everything falls apart for the Commonwealth due to his increasingly irrational command decisions. One of the more justified examples since the automutation syndrome is gradually ''liquefying'' him. ''That'' can't be good for one's sanity.

** Does nervously backing into a corner while frantically trying to explain to your former [[Mooks]] [[The Dog Bites Back|that are about to kill you]] that you didn't mean to pin all the blame on them count as a form of breakdown?

** The original ending that was ultimately cut has him throw Simba off Pride Rock (though Simba survives) and Scar, after being revealed to everyone and losing everything, goes [[Laughing Mad]], not even trying to escape as the fires around Pride Rock cover it and burn him to death.

{{quote|'''Gaston:''' I'll ''have'' Belle for my wife!! Make no mistake about ''that''!}}

* In ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'', Dr. Facilier loses his cool a few times when it looks like his plans aren't going to pan out (and he won't be able to pay off his "debt" to his "Friends on the Other Side"). He loses it completely at the end of the film, when {{spoiler|Tiana destroys the talisman he needs to complete his plan, and his "Friends" show up to collect that debt... by [[Nightmare Fuel|dragging him to his doom through a hellish portal]]. ''"[[Ironic Echo|Are you ready?!]]"'' "NO! I'm not ready at all!"}}

{{quote|'''Hades''': This is... this is ''impossible''! {{spoiler|Y-y-you-- You can't be alive! You'd have to be a-a-a--}}

'''Pain and Panic''': {{spoiler|A ''god''?!}}

** Shredder suffers this moments before being killed in both [[Bad Future|Same As It Never Was]] and {{spoiler|Turltes Forever}}. Both scenes go about the same way:

{{quote|'''Shredder:''' No! I AM THE SHREDDER! I AM '''[[Evil Overlord List|INVINCIBLE!!!]]''' I....I....NO!!}}

{{quote|Robotnik to no one in particular: "I hhaattee that hedgehog...I Hate him. HATE HIM. HAAATEE HIIIMMM!! HATE! HATE!! HATE!!! HAAAAAATE!!!!!! ARRRRGAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!}}

** That's also a reference to Robotnik's [[Catch Phrase]] in ''[[The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]''.

* Brother Blood from ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' had one that progressed over each of his apperances. In his first apperance, he was usually calm and controlled his students through trickery, fear and rage. By his last apperance, he was reduced to shouting in rage over Cyborg somehow being able to defy his control. It got even worse when Cyborg kicked his butt.

* ''[[Tangled]]'': : After Rapunzel calls her out, Mother Gothel switches from a selfish [[My Beloved Smother]] to a hardcore, homicidal Disney villain.

{{quote|'''Gothel:''' "You want me to be the bad guy? Fine — now I'm the bad guy..."}}

** Frank Grimes. At the end of his episode, Grimes actually goes crazy and starts running around the power plant doing very dangerous things, pretending that he's Homer Simpson, before finally touching several live electric wires and being electrocuted.

{{quote|'''Grimes''': Extremely high voltage? Well, I don't need safety gloves 'cause I'm Homer Simp- [[Killed Mid-Sentence|(zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)]]}}

* ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'': As Milo ruins his attempt to carry the crystal containing Kida to the surface, Rourke starts attacking him with an axe:

{{quote|"I consider myself an even-tempered man; it takes a heck of a lot to get under my skin. But congratulations - you just won the solid gold kewpie doll!"}}

* [[Daffy Duck]] has one in the [[Looney Tunes]] short, "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" after being shot by Elmer Fudd ''for the sixth time.''

{{quote|'''Daffy:''' Shoot me again! I enjoy it! I love the smell of burnt feathers, and gunpowder, and cordite! I'm an elk! Shoot me, go on! It's elk season! I'm a fiddler crab! Why don't you shoot me?! It's fiddler crab season!!!}}

* Happens in ''[[Regular Show]]'' to The Warden of the Internet in ''Go Viral''. After {{spoiler|all her prisoners are freed}} she flies into a psychotic rage, tearing herself out of the wall and going on a rampage.

** {{spoiler|He actually gets ''terrified'' when he realizes he's about to be hit with the Elements Of Harmony. His [[Faux Affably Evil]] act dissolves into fear as there's nothing he can do as the attack strikes him. Considering everything he'd done over the past two episode has just effectively imploded right in front of him, this makes perfect sense.}}

{{quote|'''Hexidecimal''': No! No! I must...I must stop it! Stop it all from going so very wrong! *Snaps fingers, undoes bug and walks off with a sly smile.*}}

* In ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' "Secrets", Harm's [[The Sociopath|sociopathic villain act]] falls apart {{spoiler|when he sees his sister Greta's ghost.}} The Sword of Beowulf rejects him {{spoiler|when Greta removes the purity of his evil}}, and Artemis easily overpowers his clumsy attempts at close combat. He even drops the [[Third Person Person]] speech.

* In ''[[Anastasia]]'' when Anya smashes Rasputin's [[Soul Jar]] he completely loses it as his minions attack him.

* The Big Bad Wolf in ''[[Three Little Pigs (Disney film)|Three Little Pigs]]'', after his Fuller Brush Man disguise (or Jewish peddler disguise, depending on where you live in the world) fails.

{{quote|'''Big Bad Wolf''': By the hair on your chinny-chin-chin, I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!}}

** He'd later go into a spasm and be placated with "nasty medicine."

 

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