Feb 14 2010
When the Villain Beats the Heroes, Don’t Just Let Them Go
If the heroes are defeated but the villain lets them walk away, the manuscript is probably dead on arrival.
If the characters can lose without anything bad happening to them, nothing’s at stake. Give your villain some chance of beating the hero once and for all, or there’s no point reading the story. If the closest your villain can come to victory is releasing the heroes with a stern warning, that’s just pathetic.
If you are absolutely sure that you want to release the heroes, please at least give the villain an adequate reason not to kill them or take them prisoner/hostage. Here are some reasons that are NOT adequate.
- “Next time I won’t go so easy on you!” Awful. Don’t bother having a fight/confrontation unless something’s at stake. Also, you and I both know that the heroes will beat the villain next time, so this is empty bluster. When the heroes lose, make sure that there are consequences. For example, in Star Wars, Luke lost a hand, Han got taken prisoner and Obi-Wan died after losing various fights.
- “You better join me next time, or else!” Not too bright. If the villain just defeated the heroes in combat, how useful could they possibly be to him? Also, wouldn’t you rather have lieutenants that don’t have a history of trying to kill you? Finally, if you really want to do this, please have the villain be more proactive than just letting the heroes walk away and think his offer over. For example, have him poison a hero or take one hostage so that he can blackmail the others.
- The villain’s only goal was to show off or make a statement. “Now you know my true power!” Ick. Again, make sure there is actually something at stake. If the loss has no consequences, readers won’t care.
- The villain is too nice and/or stupid to kill (or capture) the foes he has beaten in combat. If so, he’s probably not much of an obstacle. Unless you’re writing a comedy of errors, please make your villain competent. Beating a wuss isn’t very impressive!
Here are some reasons that might be sufficient.
- The villain advances a major goal by releasing the hero/heroes. For example, if the villain’s goal is to start an epidemic, infecting and releasing a hero makes sense. Or maybe the defeated hero is some other kind of Trojan horse. A villain could bug a beaten sidekick with a tracking device in the hopes of hunting down the superhero. For example, the antagonists in The Matrix bug Neo so that he will lead them to the other protagonists.
- The hero is saved by a plan he sets in motion. It’d probably be undramatic if the hero were saved by backup bursting through the wall at just the right moment. (Guardian angels!) But you could give the hero some role in saving himself. For example, perhaps the hero knows he’s losing and has to survive until help can arrive. Perhaps the act of calling for help is difficult and the hero has to figure out where he is before the cavalry can save him. Don’t just make him (or her) a passive damsel in distress waiting around for a rescue.
- The villain has a compelling reason to take the character(s) prisoner/hostage instead of killing them. Even though imprisoning heroes (particularly superheroes) has rarely accomplished anything, it makes more sense than just letting them go. At the very least, this gives the villain a bargaining chip to deal with any remaining heroes.
Great tips in this post. It is frustrating to read about a villain winning a fight and just letting the hero go without good reason. Basically it’s just saying, “Okay, you’re at a low point in the plotting structure. I’m letting you go so you can beat me in the climax of the story.” As you said, if I were an editor, I’d reject a plot like this, too.
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Cy
I’m glad I found this one. Going to have this problem at a later point in one of my stories and hope that I have come up with a feasible solution.
Hero has a secret identity he does not want to reveal to the general public but the Villain is already aware of identity. Villain captures Hero, beats Hero senseless. Villain can’t keep captured Hero without risking him being found and revealing the Villain’s less than legal past-times. Villain decides against killing Hero because Villain is aware that once the Hero is dead, the cosmic powers that created the Hero are free to make a NEW HERO, but he believes (almost accurately) that he has an upperhand over the current Hero.
I’m sorry if this is difficult to read, but the name’s were changed to protect the guilty. Please share what you think.
If you want to release the hero, I’d recommend making sure that the encounter will continue to present challenges for the hero down the road. For example, maybe the villain poisons him with something that won’t kill him, but will help ensure that he retains the upper-hand forever. Or the villain does something to the hero so that releasing him helps the villain advance a goal. (Like bugging him OR releasing him in such a way that it helps deflect blame from the villain, like framing the hero for a crime somehow).
Hero is stalking the Villain at his house. Hero gets noticed and gets beat down, broken ribs, ect. Villain reveals, I’m aware of your true identity, I know who sent you (even though the Hero doesn’t yet know himself), but I can’t kill you or else a new and better Hero might be chosen.
Villain is egocentric, and believes he is practically unstoppable. Plans to become an all-powerful to rule the “third plane” (Earth, between Heaven and Hell). Hero has been chosen as a joint effort by the forces of Heaven and Hell to act as the chosen one so that neither side needs to exhaust too much of their own forces in fighting said Villain. Villain believes he has the upper hand (Hell, one of his lackeys just put the beat down on the Hero).
Does he still need to do something completely sinister to make setting the Hero free feasible. Or should I scrap this story and come up with a different two-parter to put in its place?
“I can’t kill you or else a new and better Hero might be chosen.” Umm, okay, but this may dampen the drama: if the villain won’t do anything to the hero when he has the chance, at what point will the hero actually face danger? Here’s a possibility: If the villain isn’t willing to kill the hero, maybe the primary threat to the protagonist actually comes from his employers. Heaven and/or Hell threaten to consign him to the worst pits of hell (perhaps even the Chamber of Cheese Shredders?) unless he gets his act together.
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Also, there seems to be a discrepancy between the villain’s belief that he is practically unstoppable and his refusal to kill the hero lest the hero be replaced by somebody stronger.
Yeah, I think I realized that as I was typing this up. Also, I’m finding the difficulty in the fact that the Hero has practically already lost everything of personal importance.
The Villain does fear defeat, but he believes at this point that he knows the Hero’s fatal flaw and can hold onto that (much easier than discovering who a new Hero would be as well as discovering a flaw to exploit). The real danger within this story arc will not come to the Hero directly, but those around him. What happens if the Villain’s plot is completed, where does that leave the Earth?
The Heaven and Hell aspect will come in much later down the line, as both sides believe they have picked the perfect warrior, not only to defeat the Villain, but also serve their own cause.
(A year worth of storylines planned out and it still doesn’t seem like I’m scratching the potential of this character. Not to mention I’m stuck with a case of let the good guy go…I need to change this storyline I think.)
What about this scenario:
Evil-Villain-Man has solidly beaten the crap out of Hero-Man, and then pulls the ‘let the hero go’ trick by telling the hero that he (Evil-Villain-Man) has kidnapped Hero-Man’s family, and that if Hero-Man doesn’t hurry, his family will die. Or something.
Hero-Man freaks out and starts to leave at a high rate of speed, when Evil-Villain-Man says “Just kidding!” and shoots him in the back. Evil-Villain-Man then imprisons the hero and kidnaps the hero’s family for real.
Plausible? Or just stupid?
An idea for Stagecast:
He has the head of a magazine/newspaper that unfairly criticized him during his magician days, held hostage. The heroes fight their way to the top of the building, and believe they have Stagecast cornered. However, he reveals that he has planted several bombs on the building, and they only have three minutes to escape before he detonates them. And then he jumps out the window for a ‘certain death survival’ trick. He has cameras record their escape to ground floor, with the hostage, broadcast citywide. When the hostage is released into police custody, he and his men take the place of the escorts, and shoot the hostage.
Well?
If my hero is captured by the villain (who isn’t really a bad person he just works on the wrong side of the law) and ends up letting her go 1) because he thinks capturing her was wrong in the first place and 2) he thinks her motivations for coming after him are noble. Is that okay? I can clarify if necessary.
Maybe there should be a forum for helping people come up with villainous plots. Like”this is my hero, please tell me how a smart villain would go about killing them”.
xDDDD I like that CCol.
@ShyViolets: Why would the villain capture her in the first place if they thought it was wrong?
He isn’t the main villain. He work very closely with the main villain and is now experiencing doubts about what his employer has been having him do. The main villain was his mentor so he wants to believe he isn’t doing anything wrong but kidnaping is over his personal moral boundaries. He has no problem with theft and other white collar crime but kidnaping is not his thing.
I think a secondary villain having a bout of conscience is perfectly reasonable if you do it right. Kidnapping (and subsequent murder) is a very different crime from non-confrontational theft and embezzlement. For one, it’s a Federal crime in the U.S. and punished much more severely than any level of non-violent theft. That alone should be enough to make a normally non-violent criminal wonder if he’s getting in over his head. It must fit with his character though, and you have to show that it does.
However, consider how your main villain will react to the action of his underling. According to evil overlord policy, the secondary villain should at the very least be transferred to some division where he will no longer have any chance of interacting with the protagonist. That’s if he’s a useful minion who can’t be readily replaced. If he ISN’T useful, then evil overlord policy suggests he should be disposed of immediately, because he is obviously a liability.
I agree with CCol, if he’s not the main villain and he’s thinking of defecting or something similar, he can have doubts, let the hero go, and it would be believable. You just need to be careful with how you execute it. : )
ShyViolets, admittedly I only have a bit of information to go on, but my initial impression is that your (secondary) villain sounds too nice to be very threatening. If the villain is nice enough to let the hero go because the villain isn’t a bad person and recognizes that capturing the hero was wrong, what’s at stake for the hero? Are there any circumstances under which this villain might actually do something villainous to the hero?
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If this secondary villain is not primarily intended to threaten the heroes, what is his main purpose(s) in the plot? (Maybe he’s sort of the Darth Vader meant to make the Emperor look more purely evil? Maybe he’s a villain-turned-protagonist?)
CCO: “Maybe there should be a forum for helping people come up with villainous plots. Like ‘this is my hero, please tell me how a smart villain would go about killing them.’” Okay, I’ve set it up here.
I really want the secondary villain to eventually become a hero. The main villain is the real bad guy being ruthless, manipulative, and cruel, but doesn’t like to get his hands dirty so he sends the secondary villain to do it for him.
@ShyViolets
The way I’m developing 2ndary villain is that she used to be best friends with the hero in high school (before they had powers) but something happens that causes her to pursue a career of villainy while the protagonist chooses to become a hero. Neither of them know about each other’s super identities because they lost contact for a couple of years.
Hey, I have a secondary villain-turned hero in my comic book too
Basically the villain ends up working for the main villain because she (main villain) promises to cure a disease that she has developed front her powers, if that makes sense. Anyways she ends up kidnapping the hero, discovers the hero is her old friend, and rebels against the main villain and teams up with the hero. More details in between, of course, but that’s the gist.
As for your villain, Violets, I would say as long as you build up to the moment he/she decides to become a hero, it should be believable.
P.S. Sorry for the long comment!
@ Indigo
Your story for how your and why your villain becomes a hero sounds really interesting and like something a lot of people, myself included, would really like to read about.
As far as my secondary villain goes, he was raised in the foster care system until he was about 10 years old. Then the main villain, who adopts foster children with unique gifts to use as tool and, if necessary, weapons. So the main villain raises him and several other children acting like a good father and mentor all the while teaching them to do things life fight and steal.
The secondary villain is the main villain’s most skilled student/child and the main villain almost feels like he is his actual son. The main villain sends the secondary villain to steal a rare and powerful artifact and frame another thief, who has gone strait, for the crime. The second thief is the boy friend of my hero’s mother. The hero goes after the secondary villain and is captured.
After hearing the the hero’s side of the story he begins to realize that many of the things he has been doing are wrong. He then helps her escape and the two of them work together to bring down the main villain.
@ShyViolets
Is it a novel or a comic book?
I really like the idea for your story too; the idea of the villain adopting foster children with abilities is a fresh take on the super villain team storyline. Also the close bond between the secondary villain and his foster dad makes sense as to why he is pursuing a life of crime, whereas he might have otherwise turned out to be a hero if not for his upbringing. The fact that the villain considers him his son will createA LOT of drama when he finally decides to rebel against the person who raised him, needless to say. I would like to read your story when it’s ready
@Indigo
It’s going to be a novel. The plot goes roughly like this. My hero, Theo, and her family have just moved because her mom, who is a police investigator, just got a new job. Theo has also begum to relies she is developing super powers (she has very advanced eye sight). A rare and powerful Egyptian artifact, gets stolen from the local museum and Theo’s mom’s boy friend (they have been dating for 10 years so he’s basically Theo’s dad) get framed for the crime. He was a thief in his youth but went strait after the death of his best friend. Theo then uses her powers to track down the real thief (aka secondary villain/Eli) but he escapes her. The the primary villain (The Shadow Man) sends the secondary villain to capture her, which he does fairly easily even though he feels that it’s wrong. After hearing Theo’s side of the story, he relies that his “father” isn’t the man he thought he was and he helps her escape. Final the two of them work together to retrieve the stolen artifact and capture the villain.
There is a lot more than that but I’m working on getting my ideas out of my head and on to paper.
I like the sound of that, it definitely sounds like something I’d read. Yeah it’s hard getting all those ideas onto paper and then trying to make it all make sense
I’m trying to accurately map it all out so i don’t contradict my self.
That’s exactly what I’m doing with my comics! It takes forever, but it’s really helpful in the end.
It will make sure nothing is redundant and that there are no continuity errors :3