Putting the Foot Down



"What? No. No. I'm not falling for any more of your smooth talk! I don't know what you're up to, but my entire shell is tingling. Know what? I'm listening to it this time, and I'm putting my foot down."

- Verne puts his foot down after he and RJ had an argument about the food.

Like Releasing Stress, Putting the Foot Down is a positive alternative to the Villainous Breakdown. In this situation, the hero or heroine reaches the end of his or her rope. He or she channels that into making a firm policy, making a clear statement, and/or using firm discipline, whether it's scolding someone for doing something terrible or standing up against the villain.

Examples

 * Belle puts her foot down several times in Beauty and the Beast, like when she tells off the Beast for scaring her and standing up to Gaston.
 * Lt. Dan Taylor constantly scolds Forrest Gump for saving him in Vietnam which resulted in him being a cripple, and blames Forrest for being cheated out of a family tradition (everyone of Lt. Dan's male ancestors fought and died in every single American war).
 * Beth puts her foot down and tells off Heather, after being fed up with being her servant.
 * Courtney often tells off Harold, Duncan and/or Chris McLean.
 * LeShawna puts her foot down with Heather, Eva, and/or Gwen
 * Roger Radcliffe tells Cruella De Vil that he and Anita are not selling Pongo and Perdita's puppies.
 * Marge Simpson scolds her son Bart for his pranks and her husband Homer for dumping the silo in the lake and letting the EPA put a dome on Springfield. Homer, meanwhile, scolds Bart for not watching Maggie and bans him from seeing the new Itchy & Scratchy movie.
 * Darkwing Duck often scolds his daughter Gosalyn for her misbehavior and disobedience.
 * Mufasa scolds Simba for disobeying his orders to stay away from the Elephant Graveyard and putting Nala in harm's way.
 * Ash Ketchum scolds his newly evolved Bayleef, for constantly tackling him as a sign of affection, and yells at her to get away from him and stay away from him
 * Minerva McGonnagal scolds Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom for being out of bed in the middle of the night, takes 50 house points from each Gryffindor student (resulting in Gryffindor losing a grand total of 150 points) and then gives them each a detention.
 * Edd puts his foot down to Eddy's mischief and selfishness, and sometimes to Ed too.
 * Ask Ketchum is scolded by his mother Delia for his recklessness and by Brandon for his carelessness resulting in him being possessed by the King of Pokelantis.
 * Mavis puts her foot down on Dracula when losing Jonathan and finding out that he almost put Dennis in danger though a viral video of him tossing Dennis over the edge of a tower.
 * Helen Parr firmly orders Violet and Dash to get a grip.
 * Princess Bala does so when she stands up to General Mandible and reveals his evil plan to flood the colony.
 * Verne puts his foot down after he and RJ had an argument about the food.
 * Mr. Krabs scolds Patrick, alongside Spongebob, for selling his Krabby Patties without his permission when Patrick sold Krabby Patty google-eye sculptures at a higher price.
 * Nelson and Molly scolds Eddie for playing on dangerous things like what he's not supposed to do and not listening to advice from other animals.
 * Mac and Coco scolds Bloo for scaring kids.
 * Vegeta scolds Goku for not saving their sons and Piccolo after Kid Buu destroyed the Earth.
 * The Crystal Gems scolds Steven Universe for unleashing Lapis Lazuli against their orders and, alongside Greg, for trying to run away with Connie while banning him from TV for 1,000 years.
 * Mr. and Mrs. Turner scolds their son, Timmy for using the elements from Maho Mushi to unintentionally ruin both their jobs and bans him from TV.
 * Sheila Broflovski, Sharon Marsh and Liane Cartman scolds their sons, Stan, Kyle and Cartman for seeing the Terrance and Philip movie again and grounding them.
 * Mr. Anderson sends Riley to her room after she makes a scene at the dinner table with her terrible attitude and yells at him to shut up.
 * Fix-It Felix Jr scolds Wreck-It Ralph for running away from his own video game as well as making Felix go through obstacles and eventually loose a girlfriend.
 * Lois Griffin scolds Stewie for throwing a temper tantrum in the living room and sending him to his room for the rest of the night.
 * Nolan Walsh orders Channing to get back in his truck, but it's no use.
 * Linda Flynn-Fletcher and Lawrence Fletcher scold Candace for throwing a wild party when she is forbidden to do it. Phineas does the same thing to her when she keeps causing accidents that put dents in the kids' mission to restore the powers of Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor.
 * Drew Pickles scolds Angelica for wrecking his home office and sends her to her room. Kira Watanabe stands up to Coco LaBouche for deceiving Chas Finster and mistreating the Rugrats. Stu and Didi Pickles scold Tommy for taking Stu's medallion without asking.
 * Leah Estrogen stands up to Mayor Phlegmming when he blows off her point that Osmosis Jones was right about Thrax. Realizing the mayor only cares about his re-election, she heads to the hypothalamus herself.
 * Stinger scolds Maverick for disobeying a direct order to land his plane even though he was trying to save Cougar from crashing his plane.
 * James Henry Trotter stands up to his aunts in New York City.
 * Mowgli is scolded by Baloo for refusing to go the Man-Village and by Bagheera for using human tricks in the jungle, thus disobeying Akela. Mowgli himself scolds Baloo for scaring Shanti after he changes his mind on her.
 * Dave Seville often puts his foot down on Alvin's recklessness
 * Queen Elinor orders Merida to listen to her about her future.
 * Claire Dearing telling Owen Grady about she don't want to kill the Indominus Rex.
 * Chakotay scolds B'Elanna Torres for pushing Joe Carey and fighting with him.
 * Rose Dewitt Bukater puts her foot down with her mother Ruth, when she learns that there aren't enough lifeboats for everyone on board, and she also puts her foot down with her abusive fiancé Cal Hockley, when she finds out that he framed Jack Dawson for stealing the Heart of the Ocean diamond necklace.
 * Kelly puts her foot down with her daughter Taylor in Total Drama presents: The Ridonculous Race, for her disrespectful attitude
 * Kerchak ordering Tarzan to stay away from the humans and protect the gorillas, and the gorilla leader later tells him off for disobeying his orders to protect their family and not go to the Human Camp by betraying the gorillas.
 * Quasimodo puts his foot down with Judge Claude Frollo after discovering his now ex-father figure's true, twisted nature.
 * Juan puts his foot down on Paula for taking the drugs he gave her while she does the same to him for giving them to her in the first place; all the while they argue about Chiron's upbringing.
 * Judy and Hugh Neutron scold their son, Jimmy Neutron, for doing a reckless act with his jetpack and they send him to his room for the night without dinner and is also banned from going to the opening night of Retroland, even though the reckless act in question was unintentional
 * The Genie puts the foot down with Aladdin, when Al thinks he can't get him and Abu out of the Cave of Wonders.
 * Goofy puts his foot down with Bradley Uppercrust III, that he's quitting the Gammas, only to be thrown out of the Gamma House by Brad and his fellow Gammas.
 * Bulma scolding Krillin, Yamcha and Master Roshi for having Goten and Trunks in the Time Chamber to be killed by Super Buu.
 * Jason Shepherd puts his foot down with Marty Wolf after he burns his story Big Fat Liar.
 * Big Macintosh scolds the Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle) for writing mean-spirited gossip about him and Applejack.
 * Jiminy Cricket puts his foot down after discovering that Pinocchio is friends with Lampwick, a rude boy.
 * Sykes puts his fin down with Oscar for making the horse lost the race.
 * Nicole puts her foot down on Gumball, Darwin, and sometimes Anais when their behavior is disrespectful, but mostly does this with Richard due to his simple-mindedness causing more than enough problems.
 * Duke puts his paw down with Max for trying to get rid of him and warning him if they don't get along, it wont be pretty,
 * Benson putting the foot down with Mordecai and Rigby for throwing a wild pizza party at a lake. Mordecai, however, usually does this with Rigby's unbelievable behavior, especially when telling him off for the fake rejection paper from College University.
 * Stan is scolded by Dipper for making do dumb chores and Ford for being crazy enough to restart his old portal machine.
 * Gosalyn Mallard puts her foot down with Darkwarrior Duck for his tyranny and abuse of power
 * Judy Hopps is scolded by Chief Bogo for leaving her post and causing trouble in Little Rodentia and by Nick Wilde for her speech about predators going savage.
 * Tantor scolds Terk over her "emotional constipation", as well as her selfishness and tells her that Tarzan really needs their help.
 * Baloo puts his foot down on Mowgli's accusation of "betrayal" while having to take him back to the Man Village, as ordered by Bagheera.
 * Ella puts her foot down with Lady Tremaine, calling her out on her cruelty.
 * Mickey Mouse scolds his dog, Pluto for chasing an innocent kitten.
 * Sally Brown putting her foot down at Linus van Pelt for waiting for The Great Pumpkin instead of going trick-or-treating and attending the Halloween festivities.
 * Fiona scolding Shrek for making a terrible impression on her parents.
 * Popeye scolds his nephews for making music in the middle of the night.
 * Nelson putting his foot down with Nigel, for knocked over his house of leaves.
 * Aviva putting her foot down with Martin, for testing the stone digger before it was ready, destroy the stone digger.
 * Pappy scolds Paz and Dog for destroying his globe.
 * Major and Mother Clanger scold Small into using a silly invention for Granny's birthday.
 * Nicholas Lorenz puts his foot down at his father, Ernst for almost getting him booked to jail by taking his tickets to the Halliburton contert for a thirty wreck to have a party.
 * Robert Hawkins scolds his son, Virgil for running away from the police who appears to be his new girlfriend and grounds him.
 * Carey Martin scolds her sons, Zack and Cody for crashing the wedding and grounding them. Later, she scolds them for sneaking out to London's Internet show and grounds them in rage.
 * Donald Davenport scolds Leo, Adam, Bree and Chase for coming home past curfew and grounds them for three weeks. Later, he grounds them forever for using his memory-erasing device.
 * Mr. and Mrs. Read scolds Arthur for punching D.W. in the arm over the broken model plane and bans him from TV for a week. Mrs. Read also scolds D.W. for threatening to pinch her baby sister, Kate for not giving her back her doll and sending her to her room for ten minutes.
 * Casper scolds his uncles The Ghostly Trio after being fed up by their antics.
 * Henry Jones Sr. chastises Indy for just bringing his diary with him while rescuing him. Later, Henry Jones Sr. also slaps his son for using blasphemy during an disagreement on the directions of to the diary or to Marcus Brody.
 * Merlin puts his foot down with Wart for choosing Ector's side.
 * Olivia puts her foot down when she has had it with Basil of Baker Street for not listening to her about her father's abduction and her shushing Basil, having enough of his bossiness, rudeness and bitterness towards her as soon as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson arrived for she was old enough to know the dangers that applied to her.
 * Dr. Dawson loses his temper and cuts Basil of Baker Street off, having enough of him whining about his mistake on the mouse trap that Ratigan and his gang has set up.
 * Vixey scolds Tod for insulting her.
 * Alfredo Linguini privately scolds Remy in a refrigerator for constantly biting him, causing their first attempt at cooking to end in disaster and embarrassing Linguini in front of the other chefs.
 * Blue defies the Indominus Rex when she orders her, Echo and Delta to kill the humans, and when the Indominus seemingly kills her in a fit of rage, Echo and Delta turn against her as well and fight her, but both are killed by the hybrid.
 * Harry Potter stands up to Vernon Dursley for having Marge Dursley magically inflated before running away.
 * Oscar Proud scolding his daughter Penny for making out with a rapper named 15 Cent, and grounds her and cancels her Sweet 16 birthday party, forbidding her to turn 16
 * Lincoln Loud puts his foot down with his sisters on their meddling in Heavy Meddle
 * Roddy St. James puts his foot down with Sid.
 * Bruce Wayne putting his foot down and refuses to let Dick become his partner in order to defeat Two-Face.
 * Marge Simpson scolds the whole town for passing judgement on her son Bart aster her dropped the ball at the Little League Baseball
 * Tom Baker puts his foot down with his kids for their chaotic behavior (i.e.: fighting at school, slacking on chores, etc) while his wife, Kate is out of town for her book signing event and grounds them and bans them from going to Dylan's birthday party.
 * Chi-Chi and Bulma put their feet down with Piccolo and tell Goten and Trunks that they need to rest.
 * Cyberwarp turns on Cyclonus, having enough of the suffering that the Decepticon High Council is inflicting on the Autobots.
 * Robin puts his foot down with Batman and refuses to follow his rules.
 * Kate McCallister scolds Kevin for fighting his older brother, Buzz and sending him to the third floor of the McCallister house for the rest of the night.
 * Mary McGinnis scolds Terry for doing slappers (even though Terry didn't actually do anything wrong, he took the slappers as evidence) and grounds him.
 * Sheldon Cooper reprimands Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali for nosing in his private business of what he does for 20 minutes a day in that empty storeroom.
 * Esmeralda scolds Judge Claude Frollo for allowing Quasimodo to be publicly humiliated by the people of Paris.
 * Captain Jean-Luc Picard reprimands Worf for his killing of Duras which, while legal under Klingon law, was improper conduct for a Starfleet officer. He even confronts Wesley Crusher about his team using the forbidden Kolvoord Starburst maneuver. Picard also reprimands Georgi La Forge for disobeying his direct order and endangering his own life whilst reconnecting himself to the interface probe in an attempt to find his mother. Picard strongly reprimands Wesley again for his attitude and his actions that made the colonists to riot against the away team from the Enterprise.
 * Optimus Primal scolds Cheetor, Rattrap and Blackarachnia for their terrible battle performance.
 * Sarah Quinn putting her foot down on Tommy Madigan's stubbornness and threatening to make his life a living nightmare unless he surrenders Haunted Halloween.
 * Lou Lou Who standing up to Mayor Augustus Maywho after he harshly scolded his daughter, Cindy Lou for letting the Grinch steal everything on Christmas.
 * Sharon Marsh puts her foot down with Stan and refuses to let him spend Christmas with his friends at Eric Cartman's grandma's house in Nebraska.
 * Mrs. Testaburger puts her foot down with Wendy for threating to beat Eric Cartman up after school.
 * Carl Fredrickson scolds Russell and Dug for not letting him bring the house to Paradise Falls.