Antagonist's Remorse

Sometimes antagonists are not always proud of their actions after being confronted by the protagonists, they might feel sorry for their past actions, they may want to atone for their crimes and seek for redemption, though this may not be the case for some who would continue to doing their mean-doing afterwards. Anti-villains have a 99% of being remorseful about their actions. Often, it was related with Antagonistic BSOD.

There are several ways a antagonist can feel remorse:


 * They may have a tearjerking or/and heartbreaking breakdown if they ever considered their actions caused a lot of harm in the first place.
 * After being defeated they may turn themselves in without ranting and raging around like maniacs.
 * Kneeling down in repentance after seeing either the massive damage they caused or that they exceeded on their misdeeds that they did not expect to happen.

A sociopath usually have no remorse although there are a few exceptions.

Anime and Manga

 * Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Hope:
 * In the final confrontation between him and Hajime Hinana, Ryota Mitarai started to cry in remorse since he was torn by his reckless act of making the Despair Video after deceived by Junko Enoshima, who later used to brainwash many of his classmates. After being persuaded by the former Remnants of Despair that his plan was wrong, Mitarai finally had a change of heart, prompting him to shut down the Hope Brainwashing Video and joined his classmates' atonement.
 * The former Remnants of Despair later started to atone their sin committed when they were brainwashed. They began by falsefully claiming themselves to be responsible for the Final Killing Game, which was caused by the Future Foundation itself, saving the Future Foundation from disgrace and making the world away from despair.
 * Fairy Tail
 * Laxus Dreyar shed tears while being ashamed of his actions during Battle of Fairy arc while watching the Fantasia Parade.
 * Zeref Dragneel expressed remorse for all the lives he took and sins he committed and even wanted to die to atone for it.

Cartoons

 * Yokai after being apprehended for his crimes, he feels remorse over them after seeing his daughter for last time before being taken to judicial custody.
 * Ursula as she expresses her remorse for accidentally killing her pet eels Flotsam and Jetsam before turning her rage towards Ariel for causing it in the first place.
 * Ziraas she mourns for the death of her eldest son Nuka, who was crushed to death by logs during his attempt to kill Simba in order to earn Zira's favor.
 * Amos Slade expresses genuine remorse on how his actions got him and Copper almost killed by a grizzly bear and realizing that Tod saved their lives as he is not the fox Amos thought he was; thus he decides to spare Tod's life.

Live-Action

 * Carl Bruner feeling remorse for sending Willy Lopez to mugger his best friend Sam Wheat for the bank codes, not thinking that Willy was going to kill Sam.
 * Maleficent feeling regret over placing the sleeping curse on Princess Aurora out of spite against her father King Stefan for stealing her wings, due to raising Aurora in the Moors for nearly 16 years and loving her as an adoptive daughter. Eventually, her motherly kiss on Aurora's forehead was enough to revive Aurora from her sleep.
 * Thanos (Marvel Cinematic Universe) feeling regret after he sacrificed his adopted daughter Gamora.
 * Tobias Beckett feeling remorse after getting shot by Han Solo and tells him he wanted to kill him.

Western Animation

 * Song of the Sea: After Macha the Owl Witch is defeated for a while, she starts to cry due to her feeling terrible about what she did to her son.