A Villain to Die for Scribd

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A VILLAIN TO DIE FOR

Brian Randleas

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A Villain to Die For

Perhaps one of the most important elements of finishing a story is deciding what to

do with the villain. Do you kill them off? Leave their fate unknown until the next

book? Incarcerate them? Or do they have a change of heart, and realize the error of

their ways?

The preceding is a list of just some of the many ways that a writer can deal with

their villain. Some writers are even so bold as to combine several of these options into

one very poetic end.

***

Example death of a villain.

Jhobehr looked into the eyes of his adversary. Robert Frazier was an American. He

stood five foot nine inches, with a perfectly groomed goatee and a thin manicured

moustache. His appearance, in his tailored grey suit and understated patent leather

shoes, belied the depths of malice contained in that mind. Jhobehr knew that he was

looking into the face of true evil, the face of the man French newspapers referred to as

the Paris Ripper. He held in his hand a slender blade sixteen inches in length, and

gleaming like a sliver of light. It was pointed at Jhobehr.

"I ave you monsieur Frazier." declared Jhobehr. He was bluffing, but he hoped that

Frazier would not notice. "It is no use. You must give up." Jhobehr cast his gazeabout him looking for a weapon. He was surprised that monsieur Frazier had not

seemed to notice that the detective had dropped his pistol in the pursuit of his quarry.

There seemed to be nothing within reach he could use to defend himself or subdue

Frazier.

"No my dear inspector you are mistaken." replied Frazier. "Things are proceeding

just as planned. You know and I know that I am evil. There is a part of my mind that

screams in horror at the things I have done. It is that part of me that left behind the

breadcrumbs which have led you here. It wants you to stop the evil which lurks

beneath my flesh."

"Then you admit defeat monsieur?""I admit nothing inspector. Evil does not surrender. It does not cease. It breeds in

darkness and thrives in secret. It plots and it schemes, and it does not feel remorse.

Evil does not fade away, and it most certainly does not give up! It must be

vanquished!" With a scream Frazier launched himself at the inspector, his blade

leveled at the heart of his foe. Jhobehr tried to step back startled. He threw up his arms

in defense, and that was when he discovered the one item he could have used for

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defense. His right foot came down on a twenty inch length of pipe. The pipe rolled

beneath his weight throwing him off balance. As Frazier's blade came within striking

distance of Jhobehr's chest, the inspectors arms deflected the point upward. Frazierhad not anticipated the inspectors actions or his clumsiness, and therefore Frazier'smomentum carried him forward, and off balance.

***Jhobehr was trapped beneath Frasiers weight. He struggled rocking back and forth

until he was finally able to extract himself from beneath the body. Frazier had a frozen

look of surprise on his face. His deadly blade that had carved the flesh of thirty-seven

victims had been deflected up under his chin and exited through the top of his skull.

The most feared man in Paris, the man who had held a whole nation in fear for the

past 23 months lay still at his feet. His reign of terror had been undone by a simple

trip.

***

If the writer chooses to end the life of his villain then they must be sure to make

the punishment fit the crime. By this I mean that if your villain was rather a nasty sort,

then your readers are expecting him/her to meet with a rather nasty end. If your villain

was merely an antagonist that spread rumors and lies, then they can get off with a bit

of embarrassment and die peacefully in their sleep.

If the writer chooses to let the villain escape then they must find another form of

closure for the story. One or two cliff hangers in a story ending are acceptable, but not

too many. The reader needs to be left in a spot where they can take a deep breath, and

relax. (Anticipating book two of course.) A good way to do this is to find personal

closure between friendly characters or form temporary alliances. Making a profound

discovery is also a good form of closure in the middle of a cliff hanger. Give thereader hope that good things could or will happen in the future.

Letting your villain escape can open your book to a sequel. (Readers today love

series.) If your villain is well written then your readers will love to see them face off

with your hero for round two.

Some of my favorite novels ended with the villain coming face to face with

themselves and realizing the error of their ways. Let us take for example Mr. Ebenezer

Scrooge. In this story the villain/antagonist does a complete one hundred and eighty

degree turn around to become one of the good guys. If you should choose this route

you really must make it plausible. I.e. the villain cannot merely be confronted and

then say "oh yeah, right. I hadn't thought of that. Let's do lunch and be friends." andthen walk off into the sunset singing the Barney song "I love you. You love me...."(A

sure sign of evil in itself.) Your readers would scream "OH COME ON." and burn

your books for kindling. If your villain is going to change character at the end of the

story and become good then they must be confronted with some degree of angst

throughout the story. MAKE IT BELIEVABLE.

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