When villains lose their cool (spoilers)

Johnny Novgorod

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Meestor Pickle said:
No mention of Hades from Hercules? Interesting.

I imagine most people have seen him at some stage, I know there is an avatar of him floating around here somewhere but when I think suave villain I think of him first, several times after hearing his schemes aren't quite working he flares up but usually gets him back under control.
I think they're more outbursts rather than breakdowns and the fact he has one in every scene he's in undermines the mental tear but yes, he's an interesting example and funny as hell, too.
 

J.V

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What, really? No mention of Calvin Candie of Django Unchained?

Well for those who haven't seen the film, he's a Southern slave owner played by Leonardo DiCaprio and spends the majority of the film demonstrating himself to be a well spoken and even slightly charming gentleman. Then... something... happens and he completely flips his lid in a genuinely terrifying outburst, thanks to Leo's fantastic acting.
 

Casual Shinji

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Moloch Sacrifice said:
Casual Shinji said:
Zant from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, except there it ruins the character.

Throughout the whole game he carries himself with cool confidence, and then near the end just goes batshit crazy for no reason. Well, the only reason being that he needs to pave the way for Gannon. It's like the game's way of saying 'Sorry Zant, but Gannon is the main baddy in every one of these damn games. So I'm afraid we're demoting you to wacky sub-villain.'

Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a good one though.
See, I always liked what was done with Zant. Whilst wearing the mask of the Twilight King, he is able to come across as a collected, if ruthless ruler. It's only when the mask is removed that his true nature is revealed. It also helps to show his position as a puppet, and that there is a darker power guiding his actions.

That said, I still think a better job could have been done foreshadowing Ganondorf's appearance; the only hint you get of his involvement is after Zant starts going crazy, which is a little too late to give any real sense of foreboding.
The problem I have is that the threat behind him instantly desolves. With Rattigan from The Great Mouse Detective you could tell from the moment you saw him that there was this vicious animal behind that gentleman image. And once it broke free it only added to his threatening presence.

Zant just becomes this whiny screwball all of a sudden, when at first he was the main antagonist. It begs the question why he was even in the game at all.
 

Moloch Sacrifice

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Casual Shinji said:
Moloch Sacrifice said:
Casual Shinji said:
See, I always liked what was done with Zant. Whilst wearing the mask of the Twilight King, he is able to come across as a collected, if ruthless ruler. It's only when the mask is removed that his true nature is revealed. It also helps to show his position as a puppet, and that there is a darker power guiding his actions.

That said, I still think a better job could have been done foreshadowing Ganondorf's appearance; the only hint you get of his involvement is after Zant starts going crazy, which is a little too late to give any real sense of foreboding.
The problem I have is that the threat behind him instantly desolves. With Rattigan from The Great Mouse Detective you could tell from the moment you saw him that there was this vicious animal behind that gentleman image. And once it broke free it only added to his threatening presence.

Zant just becomes this whiny screwball all of a sudden, when at first he was the main antagonist. It begs the question why he was even in the game at all.
That's a fair point, but I like the way it shows just how far under Ganon's influence he is. He uses Ganon's voice, Ganon's charisma, and Ganon's authority. From a character perspective, I think it's quite interesting to see him stripped down to who he really is, and how pathetic his true nature is without his patron. Whereas Rattigan was always his own man, Zant was nothing until Ganondorf showed up, and without Ganondorf he becomes nothing again.
 

TheRookie8

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Fox12 said:
Hands down, the best example I can think of is Avatar.

It helps that Azula always appeared cool and collected, it was her defining trait. Then, in the end, you begin to realize how off kilter her psyche really is. You see lack of self esteem, her guilt, and her desire to be loved by her mother. All these things existed before, but the audience didn't realize it until the end. After several betrayals, you begin to see the cracks in her persona, until everything comes crashing down around her, and she's writhing around on the floor like something filthy, disgusting, and pathetic.

It also turns the whole series into a family tragedy. Zuko wasn't the only character struggling to earn a parents approval. The psychological impact of his fathers actions tore everyone apart. It was a surprisingly mature theme for a childrens show, and it was a side plot that far exceeded the main plot.

Hm...just noticed that Zuko now has two scars, one for each family member that has been touched by madness and power. This could represent how he now carries the proof of their depravity for all to see.
 

Fox12

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TheRookie8 said:
Fox12 said:
Hands down, the best example I can think of is Avatar.

It helps that Azula always appeared cool and collected, it was her defining trait. Then, in the end, you begin to realize how off kilter her psyche really is. You see lack of self esteem, her guilt, and her desire to be loved by her mother. All these things existed before, but the audience didn't realize it until the end. After several betrayals, you begin to see the cracks in her persona, until everything comes crashing down around her, and she's writhing around on the floor like something filthy, disgusting, and pathetic.

It also turns the whole series into a family tragedy. Zuko wasn't the only character struggling to earn a parents approval. The psychological impact of his fathers actions tore everyone apart. It was a surprisingly mature theme for a childrens show, and it was a side plot that far exceeded the main plot.

Hm...just noticed that Zuko now has two scars, one for each family member that has been touched by madness and power. This could represent how he now carries the proof of their depravity for all to see.
Oh, wow, good catch. I actually hadn't noticed that before.
 

LrgLives

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I immediately thought of Stansfield (Gary Oldman) from Leon: the Professional. All together now ... EVERYONE!


Although, it must be said Stansfield was barely holding it together throughout the movie.
 

Storm Dragon

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In the latest episode of Kill la Kill, Nui completely snaps after Ryuko curbstomps her and chops off her arms. There were a few times previously where her cutesy facade briefly cracked, but she always covered it back up pretty quickly. Now, though, her mask has been shattered, and the sadistic monster beneath is laid bare for all to see.

And now for some gifs of Nui getting brutally injured. Yay!


 

'Record Stops.'

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Uratoh said:
It is more satisfying than anything I can name seeing her get hurt, scared, or upset. Because she's so incredibly fake and psychotic, when bad things happen to her it's a satisfying spectacle as we see just how Fucking insane she is. That and we see that when she's pushed against a wall, all of her strength and insanity are just smoke and mirrors, and in reality she's a repulsive abomination who has a complete lack of awareness for her own miserable existence until she's forced to acknowledge it.
You posted this yesterday...have you seen the latest episode now? XD
Actually, yes. Yes I have. That episode was most satisfying as the cat's out of the bag at long last, she's 100% pure hatred and crazy.

Seeing her arms get cut off, her entire personality go to shit, and the sheer insanity she was showing as she finally got what she deserved...well, I'm looking forward to the clincher for her.
 

'Record Stops.'

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Storm Dragon said:
In the latest episode of Kill la Kill, Nui completely snaps after Ryuko curbstomps her and chops off her arms. There were a few times previously where her cutesy facade briefly cracked, but she always covered it back up pretty quickly. Now, though, her mask has been shattered, and the sadistic monster beneath is laid bare for all to see.

And now for some gifs of Nui getting brutally injured. Yay!


This. This a thousand times and more.

That expression of hers as she just fucking loses it with no arms...God damn, that is brilliantly animated.
 

E-Z

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Scarim Coral said:
Aizen from Bleach come to my mind (I'm not suprised if anyone haven't seen it given that arc just dragged on for too long).

(Last 5 minutes)
I think it was deserving given to how much he trolled everyone so it was fitting he got trolled back.
This was my first thought. His anger when Uruhara appears is one of my favourite scenes in anime.

I would say that it should be watched in the original Japanese audio though as the delivery is typically lame and Aizen's voice actor doesn't compare to the suave nature of the original in my opinion (I hate dubs so I'm a tad biased).
 

Scarim Coral

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E-Z said:
Scarim Coral said:
Aizen from Bleach come to my mind (I'm not suprised if anyone haven't seen it given that arc just dragged on for too long).

(Last 5 minutes)
I think it was deserving given to how much he trolled everyone so it was fitting he got trolled back.
This was my first thought. His anger when Uruhara appears is one of my favourite scenes in anime.

I would say that it should be watched in the original Japanese audio though as the delivery is typically lame and Aizen's voice actor doesn't compare to the suave nature of the original in my opinion (I hate dubs so I'm a tad biased).
I actually was trying to find the original subtitle clip but the only videos I found were the crappy AMVs so I had to make do with the dub (I agreed that the dub voices are bad).
 

Naeras

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This happens to several characters in Full Metal Alchemist(that duality is pretty much the entire character of Bradley), but Envy deserves a special mention here:

He goes batshit insane several times in the series, but the moment that stucks out to me is when his manipulative, resentful stance towards humans is called out on. There are few times I've seen a major villain completely give up the way Envy did, as he couldn't stand to have the much hated humans understand him better than he understood them, and at the same time give him some sort of sympathy.
 

AustinN

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Scarim Coral said:
Aizen from Bleach come to my mind (I'm not suprised if anyone haven't seen it given that arc just dragged on for too long).

(Last 5 minutes)
I think it was deserving given to how much he trolled everyone so it was fitting he got trolled back.
Meh. I've heard that a lot of people consider Aizen's breakdown to be a badly down example of this kind of thing. After spending the whole series being calm, rarely phased by anything, the second he realizes Ichigo is stronger than he is, he completely loses his shit, along with all of the intelligence that had marked him up to that point. People say that it was massively out of character, and that it only happened so that Ichigo could beat him by brute strength, instead of actually having to outthink him in any way.

Anyway.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainousBreakdown

I'm not normally one to spam TVtropes, but I figured this would be easier than trying to think up examples on my own.
 

Asita

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I think Khan Noonien Singh (Montalban's version, not Cumberbatch's) deserves a bit of a mention here. It's not as spectacularly unhinged as some of the ones brought up priorly, but the man showed a certain self-awareness of it that is rarely seen. This is a very smart, very cultured man who finds himself driven to self-destructive vengeance born of grief...and what is the last thing he does? Blows himself up in an attempt to take his hated foe with him while gleefully quoting Captain Ahab, perhaps the single greatest literary example of that same self-destructive (and ultimately impotent) vengeance. He could not have been oblivious to how utterly fitting that line was to his situation, and yet he seemed not to care. While Khan had a more vehement outburst earlier, it is this scene where I feel he completely and utterly breaks, the last vestiges of his sanity crumbling as he tacitly acknowledges exactly what he became, how much his final moments had been shaped by a meaningless vendetta, how much he had come to define himself by his grudge...and instead of being repulsed by that, he embraces it. In this moment the last vestiges of the calmly confident Khan die and are replaced by a madman who has sacrificed everything he had left for the sake of his rage.
 

Flutterguy

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BanicRhys said:
This still hurts to watch.


Although, Mikami's sudoku attempt is still hilarious.
I like to pretend that season never happened T_T

I went into the show being told not to go past S1 by everyone i talked to. I was just so young, so naive..

Maybe I'll get into the manga one day.
 

Vegosiux

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I actually liked the scene in Alpha Protocol, if you play your cards right, you can get to kill Marburg in Rome. Now, if you actually goad him into that fight, he'll simply drop

"I will end you, Thorton."

But you can tell that the guy completely lost it, despite his ice cold demeanor.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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lacktheknack said:
ALL the villains in Tomb Raider 3.

Tony seems a bit weird yet harmless when you first meet him, but goes clean off the hostile deep end when he gets the artifact.

Sophia Lee, when you first meet her, treats you as a potential employee. When you reveal that you know what happened to her last batch of employees, she promptly starts trying to shoot you down with her artifact, cackling all the way.

Willard seems like a decent guy at first, but when Lara reacts to his plan of "Evolve Everyone In The World Horrifically" with all the expected horror, he suddenly flips a table in her face and fires a gun at her.

Heck, even Puna, who we only meet during his boss battle, is implied to be a normal tribesman before he went completely off his meds after getting, you guessed it, his artifact...

I don't know why Lara wants those artifacts, really.
I'm guessing to prevent any further destruction? What does she do with the stuff she raids anyway?
 

lacktheknack

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Johnny Novgorod said:
lacktheknack said:
ALL the villains in Tomb Raider 3.

Tony seems a bit weird yet harmless when you first meet him, but goes clean off the hostile deep end when he gets the artifact.

Sophia Lee, when you first meet her, treats you as a potential employee. When you reveal that you know what happened to her last batch of employees, she promptly starts trying to shoot you down with her artifact, cackling all the way.

Willard seems like a decent guy at first, but when Lara reacts to his plan of "Evolve Everyone In The World Horrifically" with all the expected horror, he suddenly flips a table in her face and fires a gun at her.

Heck, even Puna, who we only meet during his boss battle, is implied to be a normal tribesman before he went completely off his meds after getting, you guessed it, his artifact...

I don't know why Lara wants those artifacts, really.
I'm guessing to prevent any further destruction? What does she do with the stuff she raids anyway?
Also answered in Tomb Raider 3: She has a pretty dang epic trophy room. Still, considering that the artifacts seem to drive everyone insane, she's got massive femme-balls to keep them in her mansion.