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->''I'm so ronery, so ronery\\
So ronery and sadry arone.\\
There's no-one, just me onry,\\
Sitting on my rittre throne.\\
I work rearry hard, and make up great prans.\\
But nobody ristens, no-one understands\\
Seems rike no-one takes me seriousry.\\
And so, I'm ronery *sniffles* A rittre ronery.\\
Poor rittre me...''
-->-- '''[[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Kim J]][[BigBad ong Il]]''', ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice''

It's been said that the [[VillainSong villain tends to have the best songs]] in any given musical, full of flash and gloating. But sometimes, the villain (or perhaps a VillainProtagonist, AntiVillain, or character who made a HeelFaceTurn) has a moment onstage in which they list all of their misdeeds or mistakes... and the audience realizes that the character [[BeingEvilSucks really, really hates themselves for what they've done]], and the song has clearly strayed from fully villainous territory.

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* The 128th chapter of ''Fanfic/HopeForTheHeartless'' provides an example where the resident VillainProtagonist doesn't sing, but lyrics from a song have been added to the narration in order to give depth to introspective musings. During one rainy night, the [[ResurrectedForAJob resurrected]] BigBad of ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'', the Horned King, reflects on how he has [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget cast aside memories]] from an existence of a millennium during his single-minded quest to [[TakeOverTheWorld conquer the world]] and doesn't remember [[WasOnceAMan who he used to be]] before becoming {{the dreaded}} warlord lich he's now known as. He also laments on how [[TheSleepless he is unable to dream]] or stand in the rain without being [[WeaksauceWeakness hurt by it]] like his MoralityPet [[PurityPersonified Avalina]] and how [[BeingEvilSucks he couldn't possibly regain all that]] despite having already [[spoiler:regained a living heart]]. The lyrics added to the narration are from "Nemo" of Music/{{Nightwish|Band}} with slight alterations.
* ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfSpyroANewDawn'': Cyros gets one about her StartOfDarkness called "How Things Were Back Then," revealing how she secretly wishes everything could go back to how it used to be, but feels that's impossible.
* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIUWGCNOB1o My Darkness]]'' is one for Darth Vader, who is singing about how he wants to return to the light side, but doesn't think he can be redeemed.
* ''Fanfic/PrincessCelestiaTheChangelingQueen'': After the failed attack on Canterlot, Chrysalis has a DarkReprise of "This Day Aria" wherein she laments her loss, highlighting how the whole plan was born from her desperate desire to secure the love that she and her hive require in order to survive.
* ''WebVideo/UndertaleTheMusical'' has "[[https://youtu.be/vn_MDtg2FE4 Bergentrückung]]" [[AntiVillain Asgore's]] VillainSong. While being epic and intimidating, it also shows [[spoiler:how wracked with guilt he is by his actions and is only doing this to give his people hope]]. In particular is the verse where he [[spoiler:briefly entertains the idea of giving up and going with Frisk to return to Toriel and be a happy family again, but ultimately decides IveComeTooFar]].
-->'''Asgore''': ''[[spoiler:If we could be a family\\
Walk through the town\\
See my dear Toriel\\
And head home right now.]]''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'': "Jack's Lament" and the first half of "Poor Jack", though this trope is subverted by Jack not being evil just wrong about some things.
* "Up there" from ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''. Who would have known Satan could be that woobieish?
* Spinel from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'' gets two major songs. "Other Friends" is a straight-up VillainSong, but "Drift Away" is the story of how she was [[spoiler:abandoned by Pink Diamond, forced to [[AndIMustScream stand in their garden, alone, for 6000 years, under the guise that they were just playing a game.]] She spent all those millenia by herself, standing so still she became literally rooted to the ground as plants began to grow around her, wondering if it was her fault Pink wasn't coming back ("Is this how it works? Am I doing it right?") while the garden decayed and everyone moved on without her. When she saw Steven's message, she realized that Pink never intended to come back, and had a complete mental breakdown, which led to the events of the movie.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* "It's a Sad, Sad World When your Head Looks Like a Pizza" from ''Film/GoingOverboard''.
* "Marley and Marley" from ''Film/TheMuppetChristmasCarol'', wherein [[JustForFun/StatlerAndWaldorf Jacob (and Robert) Marley]] narrate how it took suffering in the afterlife to realize their misdeeds while living.
-->"There was that time we evicted the entire orphanage!"\\
"I remember them standing in the cold with their frostbitten teddy bears!"\\
"Doh-ho-ho-ho! [[MadeMyselfSad *shudder*]]"
* Dr. Frank N Furter's final song in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'', "I'm Going Home."
-->'''[[Creator/TimCurry Frank]]: Everywhere it's been the same... feeling... Like I'm outside in the rain... wheeling... Free, to try and find a game... dealing... Cards for sorrow, cards for pain...
* "I'm so Ronery", Kim Jong Il's song in ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice''.
* ''Film/TheTwoTowers'': "Gollum's Song" that [[SolemnEndingTheme plays over the credits]] is a broken wail of anguish over how lost, alone and irredeemable Gollum is after being corrupted by the One Ring. Since [[SplitPersonality Gollum is also Sméagol]], it can also count as a GriefSong.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Galavant}}'': In "What Am I Feeling," the evil [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Madalena]], an established {{sociopath}}, feels her first emotion. Unfortunately, the feeling is sadness, as she had just been bullied by an entire room full of OldMoney royals for being NouveauRiche. While she herself is a cruel individual, the hosts of the lunch invited her to a roast meal without telling her that ''she'' was what was being roasted.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* "bellyache" by Music/BillieEilish, is about the singer is implied to have murdered her compatriots in a [[TheCaper heist]] to [[NoHonorAmongThieves keep the money for herself]]. According to Billie, the song is about "a [[TheSociopath psychopath]] who regrets being a psychopath [[spoiler: [[ZigZaggedTrope but doesn't really care"]]]].
-->Thought that I'd feel better\\
But now I got a bellyache
* ''Music/CG5'': "Let Me Through" has a melancholy waltz tune, and it features [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys Foxy]] singing about how he's lonely and sad because the security guard won't let Foxy into his room. Subverted in that Foxy also makes some thinly veiled death threats, and the music video shows him violently attacking the other animatronics, implying that Foxy's sadness is [[CrocodileTears just an act]].
* The Music/{{Coolio}} song "Gangsta's Paradise" is about a hoodlum who obviously knows that his lifestyle is morally wrong and self-destructive, but has given up hope on changing for the better.
* Music/DoctorSteel's "Lament for a Toy Factory", although it also doubles as his MotiveRant.
* Music/{{Mothy}}'s "Regret Message" from the ''Music/EvilliousChronicles''. The [[spoiler:tyrannical princess Riliane]] looks back on what she did and realizes that not only is she a horrible, horrible person for it, but she's lost the one person who truly cared about her. Since she can't apologize, she writes her grief on a note in a bottle and throws it into the ocean.
* Music/TwistedSister's "Burn In Hell": "You can't believe all the things I've done wrong in my life / Without even trying, I've lived on the edge of a knife..."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}}'s theme, "Metalingus", was a really twisted inversion, or maybe just a subversion. It's a song about a Christian triumphing over personal shortcomings through faith in God....but Edge started using it ''after'' he became so obsessed with winning the WWE Championship that [[FaceHeelTurn the desire turned him into a villain]]. So he basically saw championship gold as his "salvation" - even if he had to betray [[Wrestling/ChrisBenoit his tag-team partner]] and screw and corrupt his rival's girlfriend along the way.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* "If I Can't Love Her" from the ScreenToStageAdaptation of ''Theatre/BeautyAndTheBeast''.
* "Rudolf, wo bist du?" from ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}''.
** Not a straight example as Elisabeth, who sings the lament, isn't the villain. While not an entirely likeable person, she is in fact the protagonist. A better example is "Bellaria", sung by the Archduchess Sophie, in which we find that the domineering, cruel woman we've seen her as until now has given everything for her son.
* It's kind of hard to pinpoint a "villain" in ''Theatre/{{Evita}}'', but all three main characters do villainous things and have songs where they regret something.
** Eva has (depending on the production) "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" (about people taking advantage of her) and "You Must Love Me" (showing her love for Peron).
** Che has "High Flying, Adored" and the DarkReprise of "Oh What a Circus" (which are both technically laments for Eva, not himself). Peron has "She is a Diamond", which is a lament for Eva.
** The entire ''ensemble'' has the opening song, "Requiem for Evita".
** You Must Love Me" was written specifically for the movie, and "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" belongs to another character in the stage version. However, both the movie and stage versions end with the appropriately titled "Lament", in which Eva wonders whether all of her scheming and manipulating were worth the toll it took on her life.
* "Accursed All Base Pursuit" from Gounod's ''Faust''. Yep, an actual operatic example.
* "The Bum Won" from ''Theatre/{{Fiorello}}'', in which a group of Tammany hacks read the headlines and weep.
* In ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'', Aaron Burr, Hamilton's [[WeUsedToBeFriends friend turned enemy]], after [[LateArrivalSpoiler killing Alexander in their infamous duel]], is horrified by the realization that Hamilton had always planned to throw away his shot, and the rest of "The World Was Wide Enough" is given over to his lament.
-->Now I'm the villain in your history \\
I was too young and blind to see...\\
I should've known\\
I should've known\\
The world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me\\
The world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me
* "Those Canaan Days" from ''Theatre/JosephAndTheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat''. Marks the brothers' HeelFaceTurn as they realize they miss Joseph.
* [[Music/WhosNext "Behind Blue Eyes"]] by Music/TheWho was originally intended as a villain's lament within Townshend's aborted RockOpera ''Lifehouse''.
* In ''Theatre/LilAbner'', General Bullmoose has "Progress Is The Root Of All Evil," a lament for plutocracy lost.
* "The Madness of King Scar" from the stage version of ''Theatre/TheLionKing''.
* [[spoiler:"Javert's Suicide"]] from ''Theatre/LesMiserables'', during which Javert realises that he ''hasn't'' really been pursuing justice all these years, and [[spoiler:he decides he just can't live with that]].
* "Pore Jud Is Dead" from ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'' counts as both a [[TheVillainSucksSong Villain Sucks Song]] and this -- Judd is a really self-loathing person, and even though Curly is insulting him in the song, he likes the idea that if he killed himself, people would feel sorry for shunning him.
* "Reviewing the Situation" from ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}''. Fagin wonders whether he should give up crime and make an honest man of himself.
* "The Best at Being the Worst" from Team Rocket in the ''Theatre/PokemonLive'' musical.
* Both of Tybalt's songs from Gerard Presgurvic's ''Theatre/RomeoEtJulietteDeLaHaineALamour," but especially "C'est pas ma faute".
* In ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}'', AntiVillain Sir Despard makes his entrance with a song lamenting his life of evil.
* "Le Blues du Businessman" from ''Starmania'' may count.
* "I Loved Her, Too" from ''Theatre/StreetScene''.
* "Die Unstillbare Gier" from ''Theatre/TanzDerVampire'', in which both the audience and Alfred realize that Count von Krolock is a ''person'', capable of great longing and regret.
* "Call From The Grave" and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfa0mkvbmX0 "Epitaph"]] from BertoltBrechts ''Theatre/TheThreepennyOpera''. (Titles vary depending on the translation - "Ruf aus dem Gruft" and "Grabschrift" are the original titles.)
* Richard in ''Theatre/ThrillMe'' has "Afraid", which is mostly about how he's scared of going to prison, but also serves as the moment when he finally realizes what he's done. It's entirely possible to play him as having his first real MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment as he sings, "What we did was wrong!"
* ''Theatre/TwistedTheUntoldStoryOfARoyalVizier'' has one in homage to "No Good Deed" from ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}''. [[spoiler:It's a subversion, as it reveals all the villains singing were good people who were demonized by the supposed "heroes". Jafar even gives a subverted ThenLetMeBeEvil rant near the end, with the subversion being that he's going to do the right thing even if it means he'll go down in history as the villain.]]
* "No Good Deed" from ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}''.
-->Sure I meant well\\
Well, look at what well-meant did!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* In ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'', this is one of the functions served by the song "Your Reality", which is from the point of view of a character who recently had a HeelRealization. As befits the style of the game, it hides some really dark stuff behind relatively innocuous words.
-->If I can't even read my own feelings\\
What good are words when a smile says it all?\\
And if this world won't write me an ending\\
What would it take just for me to have it all?\\
Does my pen only write bitter words for those who are dear to me?\\
Is it love if I take you or is it love if I set you free?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', in a hugely spoileriffic example, has [[spoiler:the main theme, "Edge of Dawn"]]. It's about [[spoiler:Edelgard]] wishing they could just live out their life in peace at the Academy, and that the bonds they formed there didn't have to be a ruse, but that [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans they have to go through with their plan for the good of the world, regardless of what their heart wants]]. Fittingly for this trope, the full lyrical version of the song only plays on the routes in which [[spoiler:Edelgard is fought as an antagonist and dies]].
-->Cross my heart\\
Making vows I know will be betrayed\\
A sad girl's pleas\Live only for a breath and then they fade
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The final song in ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog'' seems to go back and forth between this and a straight VillainSong. To an extent, the whole show is this trope.
* ''WebVideo/PotterPuppetPals'': "Have you ever had a bad day? Do you know what they'd call you if every day of your life was like that? They'd call you Snape..."
* Edgeworth's song in ''Theatre/TurnaboutMusical'', "Decree of the Prosecutor", has him question his own tactics as a prosecutor. "For if I cheat in the court can I say with a straight face/ that I'm a better man than the sort that I prosecute every case?".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'''s resident RichBitch Diamond Tiara sings "The Pony I Want to Be" in the episode "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", lamenting about how she wishes she could become different but how she has no idea how to change into a nicer pony.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Sideshow Bob had a plan to kill Krusty the Klown, and he was about to see the plan come to fruition when Krusty sang a song about how he really missed working with Bob. In turn, Bob sang about how he would really miss Krusty when he had killed him, and this made him have second thoughts and prevent his trap from killing Krusty.
[[/folder]]

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