While plotting a new manuscript the other day, my deranged imagination churned out all sorts of scenarios that I won’t use. One daydream was particularly over the top: the paranormal hero, who had shifted into a form other than human to best protect the heroine, ate the antagonist. Ate him! In my mind’s eye, the scene was epic. The hero threw the bad guy up into the air, caught him in his mouth, and swallowed him whole. The heroine cheered him on. “Get him, honey!” I laughed and rubbed my hands together. My cat looked at me funny.
Ahem. Though I won’t use the scene in the actual manuscript—ever—it got me thinking about the variety of ways villains kick the bucket in romance novels, especially paranormals.
That’s not to say antagonists always die. In one of my favorite all time romantic stories, Where the Heart Is, the primary antagonist gets an emotionally satisfying ending of his own.
Antagonists get shot, stabbed, and thrown off cliffs. They die in explosions. They get locked into scrolls as sex slaves. They lose hand-to-hand fights in the mud. They dress up as Dracula only to get killed by a real vampire.
What’s the most bizarre/entertaining/unusual/memorable antagonist demise you’ve read?
About Sarah Gilman
You crack me up.
I’m thinking the Wizard of Oz. I know, that’s going way back. But seriously, a falling house from a twister in another world? 
Hooda thunk it.
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Sarah Gilman Reply:
May 22nd, 2012 at 5:04 am
Ha! That was epic, especially with her feet sticking out!
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Being eaten by the good guy!!! Hey, it could work. Maybe. =)
I love the way an antagonist always seems to bring about his own demise. The protagonist has the chance to knock him off, but being the better man, decides to walk away. Then Mr Nasty whips out the dagger or gun and prepares to finish off his dirty deed. But then, like in Sherlock Holmes the movie, he trips up and is savagely yanked to death in a tangled noose of giant chains. OUCH!
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Sarah Gilman Reply:
May 22nd, 2012 at 6:37 am
True, they only hurt themselves! Ouch, I felt those chains…
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I have to say, dropping the house on the Wicked Witch of the West was pretty epic.
In my cozy mysteries, the rule is that the antagonist – murderer – goes to jail, so it’s rarely anything fun. I had someone fall down the stairs after being tripped by a cat in the first book. Since then, it’s mostly just been knocking them out or holding them at gunpoint until the police arrive. In the less cozy mysteries, I’ve shot or stabbed a few antagonists, since there was no rule about keeping them alive for their judicial come-uppance.
I have to know… who got locked into a scroll as a sex slave? Clearly I’m reading the wrong books.
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*spoiler warning*
LOL! The sex slave ending would be Fantasy Lover, a paranormal romance by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Highly recommend.
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Jenna Reply:
May 22nd, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Ah. I know Sherri – she’s in my RWA chapter, we live in the same town – but I don’t actually read her stuff. Guess I should start.
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Hmmmmm can’t think of any really unusual endings for the antagonists I’ve read lately… But you’ve given me something to consider for the antag in the paranormal I’m working on…. I love the mysterious endings- where the bad guys disappear and are assumed dead until the next book
In the series…
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Sarah Gilman Reply:
May 22nd, 2012 at 9:34 am
AH, definitely! Many good series are built that way!
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Dont laugh–the end of the movie Ever After (Cinderella). The evil step-mother and step-sister lose their ill-gotten fortunes and are forever banished to the lives of servitude they deserve. Meanwhile, no one takes them seriously as “betters” and they turn on each other and get smacked around by a supervisor for being absolute nitwits! No one dies–that would be to easy an out. Nope, they’re gonna suffer forever, the way they’ve doomed others to for so long. Perfect ;o)
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Sarah Gilman Reply:
May 22nd, 2012 at 9:33 am
OMG Yes! They end up in the vat of purple dye! That was awesome.
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Angi Morgan Reply:
May 22nd, 2012 at 1:56 pm
LOVE THAT MOVIE !
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The vat of purple dye got me to thinking… A few of the kids in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory met some suitably sticky ends, IIRC. And I guess they were sort of antagonists, since only Charlie could win the prize.
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Anna Destefano Reply:
May 22nd, 2012 at 12:55 pm
And it was like Willy Wanka was the antagonist all along, except the real conflict was coming from each kid’s own personal vice and dishonestly. I LOVE those kinds of stories, for kids and adults, where the message and underlying theme are so subtly hidden!
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To this day, my favorite is from A Fish Called Wanda when Kevin Kline’s character gets hit by the steamroller. It’s K-k-ken coming to kill me!
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I loved The Lovely Bones, how the antagonist was killed by a fallng icicle. He might not’ve been caged like the animal he was or executed by lethal injection or shot down by police in a dramatic shoot-out, but karma eventually caught up to him, giving him his due in just the right place at just the right time.
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I can’t recall anything off the top of my head that beats the wicked witch, or what happened in Willy Wonka. Fun stories!
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That’s a new one. And rather amusing. I ran a guy over with a big flaming boulder once, though, so I guess I can’t say anything.
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