From smug and arrogant to literally choking on his own words.
- Almost all of the villains from the Ace Attorney games do this. The term "breakdown" is even used among fans to describe the moment that a villain's world collapses around them, and there's an entire page devoted to listing them all
. The expressions on their faces as you gradually tear apart their arguments and prove their guilt as the true murderers is part of the reward, as is their final breakdown and subsequent Motive Rant. You want to watch videos instead? Here ya go!- It's almost universal that a villain will utterly lose it at some point; it's not if they'll have a breakdown, but when. It's so universal, in fact, that when one character doesn't have a spectacular breakdown, Phoenix lampshades the trope and begins to question whether they were actually guilty. (Which they weren't, at least for that particular crime.)
- It's actually easier to list the murderers that don't freak out when caught and face their guilty verdict with dignity. Usually, these are the ones who have a sympathetic motive or plain Nerves of Steel. Dee Vasquez (concedes defeat and congratulates you), Yanni Yogi (loses the Obfuscating Stupidity and admits to the crime since he'd already killed the man who ruined his life), Acro (cries while calling himself a murderer), Godot (something explodes in his face, but he composes himself and admits defeat), and Beh'lieb Inmee (it's her husband Tahrust who has the breakdown when she's exposed; Beh'lieb just cries).
- For starters, there's Richard Wellington, pictured on the right, who suffers a truly epic breakdown in Justice for All. When accused of murder, he laughs insanely while alternating between messing up his hair with his hands and squishing his face. After being found as the real murderer, he strangles himself with his own scarf until his face turns blue and he passes out.
- The last breakdown in each game is usually the most spectacular one. Case in point: Manfred von Karma. Especially when you get to rub in his face the fact that he never would have been caught for the original DL-6 murder if he hadn't been obsessed with getting revenge on Edgeworth by manipulating Yanni Yogi into the present day murder, therefore drawing attention to the original case and allowing Phoenix to solve it. Oh, and it's hard not to enjoy watching him ram his head into the wall.
- Though afterwards, he regains his composure and accepts his defeat.
- Then there's Damon Gant. No one else's breakdown involves their hair turning into lightning. Followed by six screens of him laughing insanely and clapping wildly once he's finally defeated.
- How about Matt Engarde? You get to choose which verdict he receives, Guilty or Not Guilty — but he's screwed either way, because you've just turned the assassin he hired against him. If you choose Not Guilty, Matt BEGS to go to prison. Choosing "Guilty" eventually leads to a similar reaction. Oh, and he claws his face off.
- Winston Payne in his prime, though he's not exactly a villain. But he gets a mention here due to his rapid hair loss after being defeated by Mia. So much for being a "Rookie Killer"!
- Double Subversion: When you back Luke Atmey into the corner during the burglary trial in Case Two of Trials and Tribulations, he pulls off a total nervous breakdown, complete with lapse into Talkative Loon status. He's faking it; the burglary charges are his alibi for the murder he committed that night. Once you catch Mr. Atmey as the murderer in the case's second trial, however, he repeats the breakdown word for word — and this time it's real.
- One of the most EXCESSIVE breakdowns is Dahlia Hawhorne's, in case five of Trials and Tribulations, in which she reveals herself to be channeled by Maya Fey, and Phoenix, Godot, and Mia show her that despite being a manipulative, cunning bastard, for a Big Bad she's pretty pathetic, because almost every murder she attempted to commit to further herself in life eventually backfired in this massive Gambit Pileup, and that she never actually managed to kill anybody worthwhile personally. The bitch FREAKS and gets sent to Hell screaming, with the Fey Magatama symbol rising up in those Japanese-style spirit flame things as flashback images of her crimes play out in the background. To be clear, Mia's "The Reason You Suck" Speech performed an exorcism.
- Apollo Justice has another satisfying one, involving Kristoph Gavin. Throughout the entire game, he is penned as the most stoic defense attorney, and is in fact your mentor for most of the first case before Phoenix turns on him. This is further demonstrated whenever you catch him in a lie, his reactions generally being frowns or eye twitches rather than the overblown reactions of previous witnesses. Even his first breakdown in Case 1 is fairly tame, with him simply bringing his fist down upon the witness stand in anger and lifts a few plates of borscht up. But come Case 4, when he's told that a jury is deciding his fate, he completely loses it and starts raving about how their inferior intellects can't decide his fate. And then, Apollo mentions that Phoenix Wright — the man whose law career Gavin sabotaged — planned the whole thing. His hair stands up and he writhes about, screaming Wright's name. Then you get to vote on whether the defendant is guilty or not. You later find out he was pulled from the courtroom, laughing like a madman."The record will show that when the verdict was announced, special witness Kristoph Gavin... laughed. A laugh louder than any ever heard before... or since. A laugh that echoed in the halls of justice, lingering for what seemed like hours."
- Played with during "Turnabout Corner" from same game. Alita Tiala's overblown breakdown happens earlier than usual, with quite a bit of cross-examination still left to do afterwards, as her reaction to nearly being strangled to death by the case's victim two nights before is stronger than her feelings about being caught. Her full confession at the end is far more calm and composed.
- Happens in Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth too, probably the best example being Ambassador Alba seemingly losing entire portions of his face. Ick. And that's not the half of it. Then the already-old man ages about 20 years in a matter of seconds.
- On the other hand, Shih-na's final breakdown is simply going to haunt your dreams for weeks to come. That hyena-like laugh of hers is worse than her bite.
- The final boss of Gyakuten Kenji 2, Sōta Sarushiro/Simon Keyes, has a variation: instead of breaking down directly, he has a comparatively calm Motive Rant followed by a pathetic plea of "I didn't understand anything!" (or if you're going with the fan translation, "The only one who helped me was Dogen, so I used everyone else! What's wrong with that!?") As this takes place at a circus, doing so ticks off the nearby animals, who all line up to have a go at him. Notably, he also fakes one of these when accused of being no different from his despised father just to mess with Edgeworth.
- The breakdowns in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies are now even more over-the-top than ever through the new usage of camera angles.
- The breakdown of the first culprit, Ted Tonate, is pretty over-the-top compared to past games: He starts trying to disarm his model bomb by biting down on the wires and yanking them around while screaming like a maniac, followed by extending his goggles to full (ridiculous) length and smashing the bomb with them. Just as the bomb stops ticking, the goggles blow up in his face, knocking him down. And just to rub it in, the bomb reactivates just as he hits the floor, announcing "GAME OVER: DISARMING ATTEMPT FAILED" to the entire courtroom.
- Another such breakdown of Aristotle Means consists of writing a bunch of sentences that are basically alternate, lamer punishments to his really long years of prison on his chalkboard, with the audience booing at each suggestion and throwing chalk at him, and causing him to break his teeth when he tries to write another word (most likely "Guilty" since the only letter he manages to finish is a capital "G") and collapses along with his blackboard.
- That's nothing compared to the final boss of the game. The Big Bad turns out to be a master of disguise known as "the phantom", and his breakdown involves removing masks of other character's heads in a Shape Shifter Identity Crisis, one after another as pieces of the courtroom ceiling fall around him, and finally just as he removes the final mask, someone snipes him from afar and he falls into the shadows of the courtroom, with his face conveniently hidden.
- What happens when Capcom gets used to doing 3D? You get the even more epic breakdowns in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice.
- Almost as if a tribute to the extremely over-the-top nature of the previous game's breakdowns, Pees'lubn Andistan'dhin, once exposed, tries to express his rage with a long solo on his amped-up dahmalan at maximum volume. He unplugs the dahmalan and proceeds to smack his two loudspeakers away with it, then after several alternate camera angles, swings the instrument down hard on the witness stand, breaking the instrument in two. The dahmalan's body soars into the air and hits him in the head on its way down, leaving him dazed and confused as he collapses.
- The second case's Roger Retinz, also known as Mr. Reus, tries to shrug off the accusation once he's been conclusively proven as the killer, appearing to perform a show to spite Trucy and Troupe Gramarye. He proceeds to burn several masks representing his former colleagues on his cape, and prepares to burn Trucy's "mask", only to find his own Mr. Reus persona instead. Shocked, he tries again, his mask now splattered with blood. It laughs and flies off, and Retinz starts pleading desperately to an unseen entity. Several spotlights shine in his face with increasing intensity while he curses Gramarye before he finally collapses, stunned.
- While not over the top, Paul-Atishon Wimperson's is notable. He cuts to him winning the election, cheers of "BANZAI!" and all, but then a display reveals he's being stripped of his win due to murder charges.
- Finally, there's Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in. Apollo dares her to channel the Holy Mother to prove her legitimacy as queen of Khura'in with a dramatic finger point that blows away Ga'ran's guards and staggers Ga'ran herself. She, with increasing desperation, attempts to perform the Dance of Devotion to channel the Holy Mother that while the guards encourage her, only for it to fail. Her guards, realizing she is a fraud, aim their rifles at her. Attempting the dance one last time (this time with Khura'inese chanting), she shuts down, unconscious, and falls backward into the Pool of Souls.
- Jean Greyerl from Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is notable in that she averts this trope. She barely loses her composure at all during her trial, and when she's finally cornered, instead of freaking out like every other person Phoenix has ever convicted, she simply admits her deeds, explains the tragic backstory that led her to this point, and prepares to Face Death with Dignity. Instead of the usual Catharsis Factor, the scene ends up being one big Tear Jerker. Especially since the victim had actually committed suicide, and the note that Jean believes is her employer denouncing her as a witch was a suicide note where the victim regrets leaving her behind. Learning her employer only wished her the best leaves Jean grief-stricken.
- Ashley Graydon from The Great Ace Attorney has a particularly violent one. After Inspector Gregson admits to helping Graydon fabricate his testimony (and thus proving his guilt), Graydon bends his cane on the stand and attempts to strangle the inspector with it.
- And if you thought all that was over-the-top and awesome, just wait until you get to Mael Stronghart's breakdown in The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve...who has two. First, Ryunosuke finds Klint van Ziek's confession to being the Professor and reveals Stronghart's involvement in this grand scheme. Stronghart screams in rage...before calming down and applauding Ryunosuke, Asogi and their allies for their work in exposing him, all while stating that all of his actions were for the good of London and claiming that they can't reveal this scandal without diminishing public opinion of the law and the cops... and then Herlock Sholmes reveals he's been telecasting the entire trial that blew the lid on his massive government conspiracy to Queen Victoria herself, getting him stripped of his position as Britain's Chief Justice. With that, Stronghart repeatedly slams his cane gavel into the judge's bench, desperately calling for the court to be adjourned with every pound, until it snaps in half, at which point he topples over his bench, onto the empty juror's benches, and then to the courtroom's floor — this triggers six guilty "votes", which collect into the "Guilty" scale in the background of the court. The sudden weight of the flares causes the scales to tip, then snap off the balance pivot, and "roll" towards Stronghart as he picks himself up. Ultimately, the "Guilty" scale lands right behind Stronghart and explodes in a fiery blaze as he screams in rage and gets burnt and charred.
- It's almost universal that a villain will utterly lose it at some point; it's not if they'll have a breakdown, but when. It's so universal, in fact, that when one character doesn't have a spectacular breakdown, Phoenix lampshades the trope and begins to question whether they were actually guilty. (Which they weren't, at least for that particular crime.)
- Danganronpa:
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc:
- Monokuma (and by extension, the Mastermind) spends most of chapters 5 and 6 (and arguably part of 4) in one, as the murders stop happening, the remaining students unite against him, and Kyoko gains some real leads about the school. He starts to lose his cool and tip his hand, culminating in faking a murder to frame Kyoko- something the early game Monokuma would never do, as he sticks to the role of administrator and observer. After Makoto takes the fall for Kyoko and his execution fails, he breaks completely, spouting lines of random characters and getting very sloppy in what he allows the students to do.
- The Mastermind, a.k.a Junko Enoshima, also known as SHSL/Ultimate Despair, does not take too kindly to Makoto Naegi refusing to give into Despair, instead filling the remaining survivors with Hope! Even with her plans defeated, she still finds the best despair ever: her own execution. She willingly goes to her own death, taking in all the punishments she put the killers through before finally being squished flat.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. The Mastermind is once again Junko Enoshima, regarding the surviving students as nothing more than pawns in her game to not only bring the survivors of Hope's Peak Academy to her game, but as a means for her to take over the bodies of the dead students if they press the Graduate button. Hajime Hinata goes through a Heroic BSoD, unable to decide between Graduate or the Forced Shutdown after learning that his former life, Izuru Kamukura, was not only the one responsible for helping start the Tragedy, but for also being the one who brought AI Junko onto the island. After going through his own mind and dealing with his demons, he and Makoto work to bring not just Hope, but a new Future for the survivors, going practically Super Saiyan! Junko is practically screaming This Cannot Be! as the survivors, now filled with a new hope, go with the Forced Shutdown. This brings Usami Back from the Dead to destroy Junko once and for all. As she lays dying, she's filled with too much despair that it's now too boring to use Monokuma a third time.
- Subverted in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. The Mastermind, Tsumugi Shirogane, mostly stays calm even after the survivors decide to pull an Heroic Sacrifice and not vote, and thus risk to be executed. When the audience starts losing attention and abandoning the show, Tsumugi admits defeat, and Goes Out With A Smile as a falling boulder from the destroyed school crushes her and Monokuma
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc:
- Dies Irae emotionally inverts this, as the Big Bad, Reinhard, only gets closer to insane happiness as the hero, Ren, gets closer to beating him. As he is such a genius at combat, he has never felt how fun a difficult fight could be for him.
- In Doki Doki Literature Club!, Monika never once loses her cool and gets angry, and barely even cracks her Nice Girl facade, even though she later describes every moment as torment because she's aware of being trapped in a video game and madly in love with the player because they're her only connection with anything real, but the game is always railroading the player to choose someone else to romance. In the climax, though, she becomes incredibly angry and tries to express it through every profoundly hurtful thing she can think of to say after the player deletes her in self-defence, retribution, and/or to continue the plot, since the player was all she had left and it feels like the biggest betrayal possible. She eventually comes to her senses, though, and realises what she has done to provoke such a reaction.
- Fate/stay night:
- Sakura. Going from zero self esteem up to being able to say A God Am I justifiably did give a major confidence boost. Yet, when Tohsaka, without having the power of the Grail to draw on, still effortlessly matches her, she freaks even more than she was before. In a manner of minutes, while Tohsaka casually blasts all the shadow giants she makes one by one, she's reduced to an incoherent screaming wreck about how it was pure chance that made it her that lived among the Matou and not Tohsaka. Her will to fight is seconds from vanishing utterly when Tohsaka eggs her back into fighting spirit. She gets better.
- Gilgamesh in Unlimited Blade Works experiences one when he realizes Shirou is beating him with his replica blades. He quickly goes from condescending god-king to shouting "Bastard!" over and over again.
- The final chapter of It Lives Beneath is played out like this. After going through a cult and a vengeful ghost, it's two months later, everything's settled down and Harper is just ready to make fishsticks for dinner. Turns out there's one last survivor of the Society: Richard Sutcliffe. He drugs Harper, ties them up in a coffin while in the middle of the lake and tells Harper that nobody's ever gonna find them and lets them know it was him who killed their parents just before plunging them into the water. The breakdown comes when a high Nerve Harper breaks out and swims back up, making Richard go into this trope, swinging a hammer at him. He either gets punched in the face or kicked down below. Richard tries again with a fire extinguisher, only to put a hole in the hull of the boat they're on and get his foot stuck. By now the player has two choices to either kill him or let him drown on his own, pathetically begging for his life.
- Bolt in SC2VN is normally polite on camera, but he drops all pretenses after he loses his match.
- Xavier Wolven of the visual novel Serafina's Saga, who was considered The Dreaded for almost the entire visual novel and the person responsible for the Elborn Massacre leading up to the events of the game, undergoes a breakdown in the last chapter when it's revealed that his real motive for causing the massacre was out of jealous devotion to Nadia, who gave the key that unlocked the Grand Keep of Darzia to Arken Jeridar. It starts of subtle but it's reduced to Unstoppable Rage after a while before he gets locked away inside the Grand Keep.
- Also in Serafina's Saga, Reuben Jeridar has two. The first when Arken asks him to help kill Xavier Wolven and the second when his "half-brother" Kallias informs him that he summoned Xavier to kill Serafina. Likewise, Kallias has a big one at the end — when he finds out the Grand Keep is empty, he undergoes a Villainous BSoD and goes into exile. Partly averted, since in the canon ending Reuben undergoes a Heel–Face Turn and marries Serafina, although the sequels show he's still The Casanova more out of habit than anything.
- In the sequel Serafina's Crown, Big Bad Picard de'Friva goes through a very subtle breakdown after learning that even though being a technically unkillable Wild God makes it impossible to formally punish him for Queen Belatrix's murder, his power base in Darzia is effectively gone and Kendall Terrace, the acting head of the family that worshipped him, openly tells him to leave for good. Throughout the game you've only seen him as psychotically blissful, smug, or angry, so seeing him finally defeated is a big shock.
- Umineko: When They Cry: Bernkastel went through it several times.
- Beatrice has an epic one in Episode 2, after Shannon (her alternate self) announces that she and George are in love and will be forever.Beatrice: .....Ha! Don't speak like a poet like it's so neat and clean!! Love is lust and can't be measured without sleeping together. Men are flies and maggots that get caught in your female scent and gather around you. Do you still not understand that at your aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage? You'll despair after the glasses man behind you gazes at you even once with dark lust, you'll lose heart, be shocked, be dumbfounded, be stupefied, and it's all useless isn't it, Shannooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn?? Hiiihaaaaaaahahahahahaaha—!! That's enough stop talking furniture, you furniture furniture furniture, who the hell do you think you are, talking like that, showing off this fraud that love is beautiful when in the end it's filthy filth, don't people become adults when they realize thaaaaaaaaaat, die you trash, furniture furniture scrap, I'll turn you into a filthy maggot, then we'll see whether that glasses guy still loves you, I'll show you that guy only has his eyes on your fleeeeeeeeeeeeesh, die you piece of craaaaaaaaaaaaap, don't tell me about loooooooooooooooooooove!!
- Beatrice has an epic one in Episode 2, after Shannon (her alternate self) announces that she and George are in love and will be forever.
- Your Turn to Die: Midori (aka the real Sou Hiyori) spends his entire screentime trying to get under Sara's skin, attempts to kill the survivors in various impractical ways, and does so all for his own amusement. But once he realizes that he's about to be impaled by a giant drill, he panics hard.
- Midori: Urgh...!! Don't screw with me...! Saraaa...!! I gave you a compromise!! And yet...!! You should've given this up!! To think death... would be so terrifying...!!
