What are the best times a villain lost his/her cool?

[Uzumaki Goku]

Throughout the story, the villain is in control, they're smug, magnificent, manipulator, always one step ahead of the hero but then... the hero starts fighting back and the villain starts to lose their cool.... what was once a calculating manipulator becomes a barely sane, raving individual. What are the favorite villainous meltdowns in fiction?

Here are some of mine.

Freeza from Dragon Ball Z

When we first met Freeza, he's a calm, smug little snake who knows he's superior over everyone. He's a sadistic murderer who has committed genocide, but then he creates the Super Saiyan he always feared and Goku begins pushing back and Freeza becomes incredibly unhinged. He's barely holding back his sadistic tendencies and it all exposes him for the petty child he really is on the inside. He gets several more in Resurrection F.

"DAMN YOUUUUUUU!!! WHY?! WHHHHHHHYYYYYY?! THIS SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING! I AM LORD FREEZA!!!!!"

Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Azula is a smug chessmaster, she's always one step ahead of the good guys and she uses fear to keep her "friends" in line, and always loves rubbing her superiority in her brother Zuko's face, but then Zuko turns to the good side and her friends rebel against her and Azula begins slowly losing her sanity, in the final battle, she is a completely raving madwoman.

"You... you can't treat me like this! You can't treat me like Zuko!"

Rattigan from The Great Mouse Detective.

Voiced by the late great Vincent Price, Ratigan fancies himself a gentlemen but at the end when Basil begins getting the upper hand, Rattigan becomes a completely feral monster fully embracing the rat side of him...

"There's no escape this time, Basil!!!"

You can see it here:


There are many more, but I wanted to give the floor to the rest of you.

 

[Astral]

I was gonna say Azula. Azula was simply the fucking best. I wanted to see old crazy Azula in Korra.

 

[Hypron]

Light in Death Note losing his cool and starting to beg for his life was cathartic, especially the manga version.

 

[Sephzilla]

Frieza's meltdown isn't even the best villain meltdown in DBZ, hell not even in the Namek Saga

 

[Deleted member 15428]

 

[BWoog]

Frieza's meltdown isn't even the best villain meltdown in DBZ, hell not even in the Namek Saga

Click to shrink...

Brian Drummond was the best Vegeta.

 

[Deleted member 2809]

"we live in a society" monologue in the dark knight

 

[Deleted member 15227]

Azula's meltdown was amazing.

 

[Darth Pinche]

Stansfield in The Professional

 

[Bronx-Man]

Azula.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

The death of Luca Blight. Dude just starts laughing his ass off while full of arrows after basically taking on an entire army single-handedly and being betrayed by his own men.

You could of course argue he already lost his cool a long time ago, but the fact you finally take him down and all he does is just taunt you and laugh until his body fails is just amazing.

 

[Betty]

All of Hades' flashes of anger basically.

 

[admataY]

Wilson Fisk finding new application for a car door, first season Of Netflix's Daredevil . Also the moment the series really clicks

 

[Vector]

Azula was a phenomenal villain, probably my favorite ever.

Her meltdown at the end actually makes the viewer empathize with her, a crazed cold-blooded villain, which is testament to how amazing she is as a character.

 

[Heromanz]

When Goku starts bodying Frieza it's one of the Great moments in history

 

[Sephzilla]

Brian Drummond was the best Vegeta.

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I prefer Bruce's Vegeta for the Saiyan Saga and early Namek Saga because it works really well with how much of an evil shithead Vegeta is supposed to be. After Vegeta starts slowly turning good I think Chris's version works better

 

[Just Some Rando]

Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham - all the way through Robin Hood.

Spoiler

He's that movie's only saving grace. :'(

 

[Burrman]

Loki right before hulk smashes the shit out of him in avengers 1

 

[CopperPuppy]

Nothing tops Azula for me.

 

[ZackieChan]

Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham - all the way through Robin Hood.

Spoiler

He's that movies only saving grace. :'(

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He's so amazingly over the top in that film.
Also, the hanging scene is super tense and the final sword fight is badass in how "loose" it feels.
Otherwise, the movie kind of sucks.

 

[PantherLotus]

There's a moment when Kylo Ren just fucking breaks with Rey when he asks her to rule the galaxy with him and it is perfect:



That split second where he's like 'you're still holding on!' is so good and so illuminating in just how on edge he is. Incredible work.

 

[Bishop89]

 

[Deleted member 8861]

22 posts too late

 

[Deleted member 2809]

There's a moment when Kylo Ren just fucking breaks with Rey when he asks her to rule the galaxy with him and it is perfect.

Click to shrink...

"finally neo space hitler is dead !"
"yay !"
"now.. how about we be neo neo space hitlers together ?"
"oh bb"

 

[Stowaway Silfer]

This came to mind since it's fairly recent:

Spoiler: Minor Black Clover spoilers

Basically this dude was finally done working with a bunch of people he didn't want to have to work with and as soon as he was done he dropped the act and left no doubt as to how he saw them. Felt really cold considering the benevolent leader facade he had, one of this characters most memorable moments for me.

Light in Death Note losing his cool and starting to beg for his life was cathartic, especially the manga version.

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This is my favorite one probably. So cathartic.

 

[RolandGunner]

Don't bother Gary Oldman with repetitive questions.

 

[demosthenes]

Star trek 09. Eric bana. Fire everything is a recent one I enjoyed.

 

[ZackieChan]

There's a moment when Kylo Ren just fucking breaks with Rey when he asks her to rule the galaxy with him and it is perfect:



That split second where he's like 'you're still holding on!' is so good and so illuminating in just how on edge he is. Incredible work.

Click to shrink...

Luckily we almost instantly returned to the status quo

 

[Mudcrab]

The "birth" of Superboy Prime.

 

[Daysean]

When Kumagawa let his actual emotions slip in Medaka Box in the aftermath battle with Zenkichi

 

[GuessMyUserName]

Reminder to self to gif the live action version when I'm home

 

[Soj]

 

[Kernel]

You can't top the Kingpin.

 

[Hydrus]

Petyre Baelish falling to his knees and crying like a bitch, while begging for mercy.

 

[theaface]

Reminder to self to gif the live action version when I'm home

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Was going to say, this could basically be an Ace Attorney thread with the amount of amazing villain breakdowns it has.

 

[Kevers]

I've been rewatching my Tarantino collection lately and when Leonardo DiCaprio loses his shit in Django and slices up his hand on the glass is pretty great.

 

[Coyote Starrk]

Petyre Baelish falling to his knees and crying like a bitch, while begging for mercy.

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Came here to say this.

 

[Medalion]

Darth Vader the thread...noooOOOOOOooooo

 

[Deleted member 13015]

Death Note spoilers:

Spoiler

Crazy fucker.

 

[Deleted member 7051]

Aji Tae's meltdown in Shin Angyo Onshi is beautiful. He spends the whole manga being your usual super overpowered antagonist that plans everything several steps ahead, then right at the end of the manga Munsu makes him doubt himself.

That just breaks the guy completely, to the point he even begs Munsu to not come closer - despite the fact Munsu has lost both his arms and is dying from an illness anyway, making him no actual threat to Aji Tae at all.

It was so cool.

 

[HellforLeather]

ESB Vader/Luke fight after Luke kicks him off the platform.

PLAYTIME IS OVER!

 

[Creamium]

Chuck breaking down in BCS is pure AA so an edit was made to make it so

 

[AlphaMale]

Stansfield in The Professional

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This!

 

[SugarNoodles]

Azula's unraveling is difficult to top in that regard. She's such a powerful, fear inducing villain that succumbs so believably to her unrecognized weakness.

 

[SOLDIER]

"I am Vlad Dracula Tepis!"

AND I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!"

 

[Doober]

Wilson Fisk finding new application for a car door, first season Of Netflix's Daredevil . Also the moment the series really clicks

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And then the prison visit in season two. Fisk goes from being kind of dopey to fucking terrifying REAL fast.

 

[Krauser Kat]

All of Hades' flashes of anger basically.

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ugh that animation will never be topped.

 

[The Archon]

I was gonna say Azula. Azula was simply the fucking best. I wanted to see old crazy Azula in Korra.

Click to shrink...

This

Azula going nuts is one of the highlights of the avatar series.

 

[Violence Jack]

All of Prince John's outbursts in Disney's Robin Hood

They start like this:

And end like this:

 

[Wood Man]

Batman Beyond: The Return of Joker, when Terry starts laying into Joker turning the tables on him and making him the joke for a change. He doesn't know how to handle it and just loses it. Never seen the Joker like this before. Skip to about 1 minute in: