Tropescilloscope: Villainous Breakdown

When their Evil Plan is foiled, a calculating villain loses their composure, if not their sanity. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Attempted Rape French Films Ripped from the Headlines Shell-Shocked Veteran Expository Hairstyle Change Comically Missing the Point Children Are Innocent And the Adventure Continues Faking the Dead Casting Gag Riddle for the Ages Peek-a-Boo Corpse What You Are in the Dark Card-Carrying Villain Monumental Damage The Starscream Not So Above It All Babies Ever After Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Artistic License – Law Facial Horror Super Strength Brutal Honesty Narrator O.O.C. Is Serious Business Immune to Bullets Anti-Villain Gender Flip Up to Eleven Dwindling Party Small Name, Big Ego Artistic License – History Interrupted Suicide Freeze-Frame Bonus Gone Horribly Right It Can Think Canon Foreigner Double Entendre Bloodier and Gorier Unreliable Narrator Blood from the Mouth Screw the Rules, I Have Money! The Mole Double-Meaning Title Took a Level in Jerkass Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other True Companions Villain Song Fainting Trailers Always Spoil Film Series Handicapped Badass Artistic License – Gun Safety The Smurfette Principle Guns Akimbo Badass in a Nice Suit The Hero Dies Not Even Bothering with the Accent The Sociopath Even Evil Has Standards The Vamp Training Montage Broken Pedestal Show Within a Show Let's Get Dangerous! The Un-Reveal Time Skip Half the Man He Used to Be Not So Different The Ghost Closed Circle Artistic License – Geography Spiritual Successor Anti-Hero Defiant to the End Anguished Declaration of Love Insult Backfire Word of God Parental Abandonment Blonde, Brunette, Redhead The Chessmaster Bolivian Army Ending An Aesop Combat Pragmatist Destination Defenestration Villain Opening Scene Mighty Whitey Break the Cutie She Cleans Up Nicely Loads and Loads of Characters Brainless Beauty I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Composite Character Ambiguously Gay The Oner Shown Their Work Suspiciously Similar Substitute Stealth Hi/Bye Disproportionate Retribution Real Life Writes the Plot Running Gag The Alleged Car Epic Movie Rousing Speech Paper-Thin Disguise Self-Deprecation The Smart Guy Alas, Poor Villain Sole Survivor He Knows Too Much Artistic License – Military Arranged Marriage Improvised Weapon Department of Redundancy Department Empathic Environment Throwing Your Sword Always Works Pragmatic Adaptation Serial Killer Police are Useless Celebrity Paradox Meaningful Echo Lampshade Hanging Laser-Guided Karma Adults Are Useless Male Gaze Heroes Want Redheads You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Chase Scene A God Am I Adapted Out Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Agony of the Feet It's All About Me Your Cheating Heart Last-Name Basis Action Survivor All There in the Manual Only One Name Reasonable Authority Figure Recycled IN SPACE! Bittersweet Ending Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Anachronic Order Cool Car Unwitting Instigator of Doom The Lancer Important Haircut Mercy Kill Be Careful What You Wish For BFG German Films The Big Guy Bait-and-Switch Dirty Cop Badass Longcoat I Did What I Had to Do Cool Shades Retcon Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Badass Bookworm Armor-Piercing Question Creator Cameo Mad Scientist Bunny-Ears Lawyer Death Seeker The Faceless World of Ham Italian Films The Dragon Jerkass Has a Point Credits Gag Really Gets Around Get Out! Improbable Aiming Skills Auto Erotica Obfuscating Stupidity Disney Villain Death A Minor Kidroduction Happily Married Madness Mantra Bi the Way Race Against the Clock Accidental Misnaming Your Head A-Splode Back from the Dead Death by Sex Parental Neglect The Chick Hair-Trigger Temper Stuff Blowing Up Arch-Enemy Took a Level in Badass Wounded Gazelle Gambit Mood Whiplash Rule of Funny Together in Death Bare Your Midriff Punny Name Even Evil Has Loved Ones Silent Movie Famous Last Words Ghost Fiction The Hero Evil Laugh Spell My Name with an "S" Based on a True Story Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Frame-Up Batman Gambit Index of Film Westerns The '80s Cloudcuckoolander Ascended Extra Belligerent Sexual Tension Homage Nothing Is Scarier Femme Fatale Slasher Movie Not Using the "Z" Word Final Girl Undying Loyalty Outrun the Fireball Romantic False Lead Exactly What It Says on the Tin Camera Abuse Ironic Echo In Medias Res Rewatch Bonus Ambiguous Disorder Dirty Coward Catapult Nightmare Made of Explodium Intergenerational Friendship Darker and Edgier Early-Bird Cameo Ungrateful Bastard Take a Third Option Redshirt Army Retirony Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Domestic Abuse The Load Naïve Newcomer Protagonist Title The Mafia Vampire Fiction Genre Savvy Freudian Excuse Bar Brawl Foil Star-Crossed Lovers Big "NO!" Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Laughing Mad Cool Guns Epic Fail Mistaken for Gay Taking You with Me Determinator The Quiet One An Axe to Grind Obviously Evil Ms. Fanservice Fiery Redhead Thriller Manly Tears Death by Adaptation Dutch Angle One-Word Title Red Oni, Blue Oni Politically Incorrect Villain Unresolved Sexual Tension Wham Line Action Girl Deliberately Monochrome Kids Are Cruel Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Actor Allusion Hollywood Law Beta Couple Adorkable Wrong Genre Savvy The Ditz Moment Killer Creative Closing Credits The Place From Bad to Worse Stepford Smiler As Long as It Sounds Foreign Dark Action Girl Affably Evil Despair Event Horizon Toplessness from the Back Hell Is That Noise folderlabel Jerk Jock Refuge in Audacity Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Bond One-Liner Fatal Family Photo Adaptational Badass Death Glare Kubrick Stare Truth in Television Green-Eyed Monster Only Sane Man Covers Always Lie Breaking the Fourth Wall Red Right Hand Documentary Corrupt Corporate Executive Downer Ending Rated M for Manly Improbable Weapon User Stealth Pun Villainous Breakdown Good Is Not Nice Exact Words Establishing Character Moment Friend to All Children There Is No Kill Like Overkill Cain and Abel Eagleland Reckless Gun Usage And I Must Scream Mind Screw Playing Gertrude Contrived Coincidence NO INDOOR VOICE Becoming the Mask Cool Old Lady Curb-Stomp Battle "Awesome McCool" Name Morality Pet timeperiod Fat Bastard Lock and Load Montage Fanservice Sacrificial Lion B-Movie Jerkass Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Pretty Little Headshots Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Our Vampires Are Different Insistent Terminology Setting Update Cowboy Cop Sir Swears-a-Lot Reality Is Unrealistic Karmic Death Brick Joke The Cavalry Smoking Is Cool Evil Brit Cool Old Guy Dull Surprise The Casanova Hope Spot Sanity Slippage Left the Background Music On Psychological Thriller Neck Lift Zombie Stories Slashed Throat Blood Knight Black Comedy Rape Victoria's Secret Compartment Only Known by Their Nickname Slasher Smile Once More, with Clarity! Logo Joke Fantasy Films Cassandra Truth Blackmail Mystery and Detective Films Character Development Bland-Name Product Expy Deliberate Values Dissonance As Himself Horror Films N-Word Privileges Woman in White Sequel Hook No Ending Off-into-the-Distance Ending Death by Irony Aluminum Christmas Trees Unusual Euphemism Big Bad Chiaroscuro Red Eyes, Take Warning The Remake Gorn Pimped-Out Dress "The Reason You Suck" Speech Soundtrack Dissonance Rule of Three Disney Death One Steve Limit Bottomless Magazines Science Fiction Films Hero Antagonist Animal Title Index Adaptation Expansion You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Bullying a Dragon Foreshadowing Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Face–Heel Turn Determinator aka: The Determinator In Name Only Say My Name Cold-Blooded Torture Heroic Sacrifice Dying Moment of Awesome Bloodless Carnage Pay Evil unto Evil Married to the Job Fish out of Water Film Noir Index Dual Wielding Did Not Get the Girl Historical In-Joke Bad Boss Off with His Head! Public Domain Feature Films The Stoner Historical-Domain Character Kick the Dog Car Fu Eyepatch of Power Bring My Brown Pants Instant Death Bullet Drill Sergeant Nasty Defrosting Ice Queen Take That! Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Cruel and Unusual Death Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality 20 Minutes into the Future From Nobody to Nightmare Idiot Ball Retired Badass A.I. Is a Crapshoot Four-Temperament Ensemble Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Gory Discretion Shot Fatal Flaw Posthumous Character The Brute Dropped a Bridge on Him "Shaggy Dog" Story Apocalypse How Evil Counterpart Bad "Bad Acting" Vacation Films My God, What Have I Done? Mr. Fanservice Call-Back Beard of Evil Artistic License – Biology Country Matters Alpha Bitch Spanner in the Works Does Not Like Shoes Our Zombies Are Different This Is Gonna Suck No Name Given Creepy Child The Voiceless Twist Ending Smug Snake Taking the Bullet Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Film Noir Knife Nut Ominous Latin Chanting Deal with the Devil Groin Attack Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Dramatic Gun Cock Adaptational Attractiveness Gratuitous English All Men Are Perverts Humans Are Bastards Action Genre Fourth Date Marriage Captain Obvious Bilingual Bonus Animated Credits Opening Totally Radical He Who Fights Monsters Love Triangle Chekhov's Gun It's Personal Gilligan Cut Meaningful Background Event Military and Warfare Films Slap-Slap-Kiss Wicked Cultured Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Overprotective Dad Red Herring Dramatic Irony No Celebrities Were Harmed Punch-Clock Villain What the Hell, Hero? Mama Bear Drugs Are Bad Roaring Rampage of Revenge Made of Iron Big Eater No Antagonist Music Stories Superhero The X of Y Non-Indicative Name Make It Look Like an Accident Beware the Nice Ones Tagline Badass Boast Crazy-Prepared The Dog Bites Back Air-Vent Passageway Male Frontal Nudity Cat Fight Fake Shemp Redemption Equals Death Darkest Hour In the Back Due to the Dead Martial Arts Movie War Is Hell Distracted by the Sexy Serious Business Whole Plot Reference Vomit Indiscretion Shot Translation Convention Funny Foreigner Red Shirt Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Leitmotif Age Lift The Great Depression Drives Like Crazy Evil vs. Evil You Killed My Father Woman Scorned Pragmatic Villainy Big Bad Duumvirate Evil Sounds Deep All There in the Script Major Injury Underreaction Russian Films Cluster F-Bomb No-Holds-Barred Beatdown The Film of the Book Video Credits Big Brother Instinct Plot Hole The Reveal Big Damn Heroes Neck Snap Easily Forgiven Camp Gay Tranquil Fury Fun with Acronyms Re-Cut Award-Bait Song Worthy Opponent Shut Up, Hannibal! Revenge Cat Scare For the Evulz Scary Black Man Leaning on the Fourth Wall Alliterative Name As the Good Book Says... "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue La Résistance All for Nothing Bury Your Gays Room Full of Crazy Badass Normal Dramedy Aside Glance Actually Pretty Funny Ship Tease Only a Flesh Wound Eureka Moment Enemy Mine Police Brutality Informed Ability Betty and Veronica Never Found the Body Malevolent Masked Men Eldritch Abomination Failed a Spot Check Beauty Is Never Tarnished I Have Your Wife Bound and Gagged Depraved Bisexual Naked People Are Funny Adaptational Heroism The '60s Fingore Faux Affably Evil Badass Grandpa Spared by the Adaptation Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Evil-Detecting Dog Psycho for Hire Race Lift Brother–Sister Incest Names to Run Away from Really Fast Jitter Cam Flipping the Bird Grievous Bottley Harm Heel–Face Turn Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Humiliation Conga Author Avatar Eye Scream Token Minority Imagine Spot Sequel Escalation Motor Mouth All Just a Dream Jump Scare Central Theme Demoted to Extra Coming-of-Age Story Adaptational Villainy May–December Romance Anachronism Stew Maybe Ever After Ax-Crazy Wretched Hive Those Two Bad Guys Man on Fire Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Canadian Movies Hypocritical Humor Papa Wolf Daddy's Girl More Dakka Horror Comedy Dark and Troubled Past Amusing Injuries Captain Ersatz Pet the Dog Foregone Conclusion Chekhov's Skill Artistic License – Physics Genre Shift Straight Gay Dumb Blonde The Power of Love Evil Is Petty Deconstruction Australian Movies Hong Kong Films Novelization Antagonist Title Parental Incest It Will Never Catch On Mr. Exposition After the End Real Life Daylight Horror Title Drop The Stoic Loophole Abuse Implacable Man Fire-Forged Friends Crazy Jealous Guy Hero of Another Story Nice Hat Author Appeal Getting Crap Past the Radar Call-Forward The Atoner Adaptation Dye-Job Bavarian Fire Drill Too Dumb to Live Deadpan Snarker Never Trust a Trailer Match Cut Every Car Is a Pinto Mooks As You Know Chekhov's Gunman Hidden Depths Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Curse Cut Short Villain Protagonist Shipper on Deck Intrepid Reporter Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Ass Shove Five-Man Band Shout-Out Rule of Cool Abusive Parents Overly Long Gag Mundane Made Awesome Properly Paranoid Hypocrite Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Black Comedy No-Sell Rule of Symbolism Diabolus ex Machina Not So Stoic Psychopathic Manchild Precision F-Strike Missing Mom Big-Bad Ensemble Fan Disservice Men Are the Expendable Gender Poor Communication Kills Lighter and Softer Affectionate Parody Irony The Cameo Dressing as the Enemy Boom, Headshot! Shoot the Shaggy Dog Sci-Fi Horror Very Loosely Based on a True Story Sports Stories Gainax Ending Random Events Plot Gold Digger Death of a Child Not Quite Dead Works Set in World War II Mugging the Monster Wham Shot Authority Equals Asskicking Manchild Only in It for the Money Henpecked Husband Obstructive Bureaucrat Kick the Son of a Bitch The Ace Guile Hero Dirty Old Man Chewing the Scenery Suspiciously Specific Denial The Alcoholic The End... Or Is It? Funny Background Event Fantastic Racism She's Got Legs Knight Templar Damsel in Distress Bowdlerise Kill 'em All Dark Is Not Evil For Want of a Nail Offscreen Teleportation Catch-Phrase The '90s Does This Remind You of Anything? I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Killed Mid-Sentence Soft Glass A Father to His Men "Well Done, Son!" Guy Big Applesauce Evil Is Hammy Villain Ball Big Fancy House Those Two Guys Shower Scene Love at First Sight Corpsing Biopic Rasputinian Death Hooker with a Heart of Gold Driven to Suicide Anyone Can Die Heel Realization Crapsack World The Dreaded Dark Reprise Flashback Genre Throwback Sealed Evil in a Can Fanservice Extra Calling the Old Man Out The Stinger Earn Your Happy Ending Hate Sink Manipulative Bastard Market-Based Title Sinister Minister Shirtless Scene Costume Porn Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Dogged Nice Guy Everyone Has Standards Greater-Scope Villain The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Would Hurt a Child One-Man Army Line-of-Sight Name My Greatest Failure Arc Words Conspicuous CG Leave the Camera Running Continuity Nod Pyrrhic Victory A Date with Rosie Palms Product Placement Danny Peary Cult Movies List Rich Bitch Disguised in Drag Stalker with a Crush Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Broken Aesop Advertised Extra Heroic BSoD Face Death with Dignity Mexican Standoff Blatant Lies Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Dissonant Serenity Would Hit a Girl The Lost Lenore Unusually Uninteresting Sight Reality Ensues The '50s The Bully Adaptation Distillation Rape as Drama Scenery Porn Crucified Hero Shot Sassy Black Woman Ambiguous Ending Reality Has No Subtitles No OSHA Compliance Meaningful Name And Starring Needs Wiki Magic Love Drowning My Sorrows Didn't Think This Through Spiteful Spit Demonic Possession Hollywood Darkness An Arm and a Leg Sexy Discretion Shot Adult Fear Tap on the Head Animal Motifs Black Dude Dies First Body Horror Visual Pun Kill It with Fire Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Amoral Attorney Parental Substitute Pre-Mortem One-Liner Developing Doomed Characters Adaptation Name Change Karma Houdini Decoy Protagonist Asshole Victim Black and Gray Morality Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Broken Bird Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun I Need a Freaking Drink Grey and Gray Morality Framing Device Fate Worse than Death Sadistic Choice Extremely Short Timespan Christmas Movies Index Light Is Not Good Villain with Good Publicity How We Got Here Deus ex Machina Jerk with a Heart of Gold '80s Hair Japanese Films Same Language Dub Those Wacky Nazis Ugly Guy, Hot Wife What Happened to the Mouse? I'm a Humanitarian Nice Guy Put on a Bus Storming the Castle Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Action Prologue Bald of Evil Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Disappeared Dad Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Berserk Button MacGuffin Bond Villain Stupidity Evil Plan Well-Intentioned Extremist Plucky Comic Relief Yandere Early Installment Weirdness Silence Is Golden British Films Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Stock Footage All Girls Want Bad Boys Insane Troll Logic Have a Gay Old Time Extreme Doormat Heterosexual Life-Partners Unspoken Plan Guarantee Never My Fault Large Ham Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Almost Kiss Manic Pixie Dream Girl Awesome, but Impractical Break the Haughty Abhorrent Admirer Accidental Murder Television Movie Index Historical Villain Upgrade Honor Before Reason Annoying Younger Sibling My Beloved Smother Eiffel Tower Effect Scare Chord Suddenly SHOUTING! Historical Hero Upgrade The Bad Guy Wins Scenery Gorn Dies Wide Open Stylistic Suck Bloody Hilarious Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Oh, Crap! The Musical Vitriolic Best Buds Book-Ends Black Best Friend Butt-Monkey Offscreen Moment of Awesome Not What It Looks Like You Have Failed Me Romantic Comedy Vomit Discretion Shot Noodle Incident Skewed Priorities Here We Go Again! Tempting Fate Older Than They Look Pretty in Mink Better to Die than Be Killed The '70s Mythology Gag Hoist by His Own Petard Meet Cute