Just a Face and a Caption: Villainous Breakdown

The previous thread I attempted to make for this was unceremoniously locked by Fast Eddie in a single post because he thought the image "was fine", and that "not everything needs to be a cartoon". The latter is a complete nonfactor, and no, this image is not fine. It shows a man just grasping at something. He could be getting ready to kill someone; he could be having a heart attack; he could be Milking the Giant Cow; there's nothing there that would cause someone to believe that he's undergoing a Villainous Breakdown.

So can we at least reach some kind of consensus before Fast Eddie just locks it again without discussion?

And so we can actually have a real discussion, here are some suggestions I was given:

[1]◊[2]◊[3]◊

I'll admit, this pic isn't ideal. However, he looks like he's freaking out about something to me...the only change I'd make to the current as of right now would be to add a caption to make the "villainous" part more clear.

edited 2nd Jun '14 11:16:21 AM by Willbyr

Yeah, the current shows breakdown fine for me... but not the villainous at all.

2.1 is my favorite of the suggestions. The guy is so stereotypically villainous looking that he's Obviously Evil, and he's making a whining face like a baby.

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What 3 says, although I doubt that that was intended to be pink.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Yes, it was; I wanted to state that in mod-voice to show that I think something can be done with this even though this thread is pretty much flagrantly daring Eddie to start stomping. I would've closed this already if I didn't think it needed work myself.

edited 2nd Jun '14 11:30:57 AM by Willbyr

Ah, so.

As for the suggestions, tho', none seems better than the current.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Looks villainous enough to me. Not seeing breakdown in the suggestions.

I am going to offer that it's going to be nearly impossible to depict this trope with an image alone. It just doesn't convey without context. Willbyr was proposing some captions from the image source and it sounds to me like the specific instance is properly a Villainous BSoD, not a Villainous Breakdown.

The former is when the villain goes to pieces over the realization/accusation that he/she is a villain; the latter is when the villain goes to pieces over his plans being disrupted and/or his impending defeat.

It shouldn't be at all hard to dig up quotes that accurately represent the trope; the problem is that there isn't going to be any image that isn't JAFAAC.

edited 2nd Jun '14 11:50:25 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Whatever happened to that image of Azula snapping? That was much better than this.

Perhaps we could establish context by adding a second image of the villain displaying his normal Smug Snake demeanor?

The scene this is from is a Villainous Breakdown, not a Villianous BSOD, using that distinction. He's not just realizing he's a villain, he's been captured and is facing a roomful of people who are about to lynch him for what he's done.

^ He's not normally a Smug Snake.

edited 2nd Jun '14 1:58:29 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I'm not familiar with the work in question; I was just trying to think of a way to remedy the general problem Fighteer pointed out—that almost any single image would fall under JAFAAC.

edited 2nd Jun '14 2:25:12 PM by MrL1193

The three quotes that I had proposed as caption ideas are:

• "I can't help what I do! I can't help it, I can't..."
• "I can't help myself! I have no control over this, this evil thing inside of me, the fire, the voices, the torment!"
• "I want to escape, to escape from myself! But it's impossible. I can't escape, I have to obey it. I have to run, run... endless streets. I want to escape, to get away."

In the context of the pic, any of these seem apropos.

edited 2nd Jun '14 3:52:38 PM by Willbyr

I prefer the second quote. It's pithy and pathetic at the same time.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

That's my favorite of the three as well.

In case anyone's wondering, the image was actually suggested in a Image Pickin' thread as a suggestion to a previously non-pictured thread. Fast Eddie thought it demonstrated, so he locked said thread up while putting this image onto this thread.

That's probably one of the reasons why he locked your first thread in the first place, The Pope.

Except there initially was another image here. A better image, mind you. Two better images. One of Azula, another of Rattigan.

Where they went, I have no clue.

Fast Eddie was probably referring to those two pictures when he said "Not everything needs to be a ^%$#^%$^ing cartoon."

Anyway, Azula's breakdown's apparently a spoiler and the Rattigan picture had been moved to VillainousBreakdown.Animated Films.

edited 3rd Jun '14 12:14:53 AM by KarjamP

Then why wouldn't the current be under Villainous Breakdown.Film, then?

For that matter, Animated Film and Comic Books are the only subpages to have their own images.

The only subpages that have images are the main page, Animated Films, and Comic Books. Here are all three images side by side:

	Professor Ratigan, from before and after Basil makes a fool of him.

Personally, I think Ratigan shows it most clearly, since we have a before and after. The one on the main page just looks like some weird freak. There is no indication that he ever appeared sane. I say put Ratigan on the main page and leave the subpages blank, lest we can find more examples than just from two mediums.

edited 3rd Jun '14 5:03:26 AM by Rethkir

Image Source. Please update whenever an image is changed.

I'm good to move the M pic to the Film subpage and tag the main to tell people to make threads for pics for the other subpages if they want them.

I like the "I can't help myself! I have no control over this, this evil thing inside of me, the fire, the voices, the torment!" quote for the Peter Lorre pic, but I'll try to dredge up the line from "M" that goes with the scene.

I agree that moving it to the Film page works.

That approach, though, of having the medium image on the medium page has the problem of making the main page look somehow less important than the subpages. We should come up with a way to prevent that. Mosaics, maybe?

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty

^ That line is from M, from somewhere in the same scene as the still is.

I like the idea of mosaics on the main page. Underlines that the trope can appear in any medium.

edited 3rd Jun '14 6:51:18 AM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Thank you. That's been bugging me for a while but I haven't been able to put it into words. I've been trying to circumvent it by finding examples that don't fit on a subpage, but mosaics would work as well.

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