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