How to make a villain leave the work with grace?

[NotaNuffian]

Note that the term "villain" is subjective so I set it as "those who oppose the MC" and mob villains do count in these cases, even if they are more disposable than condoms and comes in so many variants like the Arrogant Young Master #17, ebony blond and featuring NTR functions. Beach shorts included.

I frankly have never seen any good exits of mob villains, solely because they are props that advance the plot for MC and readers. Like the weekly villains in JP LNs like the Pope of Three Heroes Church and the Nun Hunter of DxD. Then there are those readily disposable kinds like the bunch of standard imperial soldiers who wanted to steal Hajime's rabbit people, standard bandits and brainless rich people/ nobles/ etc, the standard people of perceived power who later will get bodied.

The problem comes when they die as they live, pointless. Why? Why do these type of drywall filling must exist?

Then there is the other spectrum, cockroach mob villains, who for heavens' sake is not dead because the plot can't find a better villain to stand in so we end up having a soap opera drama llama. For example, why doesn't the fucktard demons in Kenja no Mago die in droves already? Another example, why doesn't the fucking heroes in that stupid manhwa just die in droves already?

While the villain's entrance is important because of first impression, their exit is just so as well because it has to leave some impact on both the MC and readers as well. True to be told, the closest, yet still not there villain I can think of at the moment is Saint Hao (昊天尊) in Tale of Herding Gods. The character is steadfast, stubborn and haughty with the power to back him up. When I first saw the character, I was thinking along the line of an arrogant young master, then the character continued to surprise me (in a bad way, cuz he is a villain and a good one) by being competent and hardworking. Of course, his exit (actual death) is muddled by the fact that the character is already considered dead by the author himself when he was defeated and forced to, for real, beg the higher power to take him in. The defeat, unlike the others by MC, had shattered his pride so thoroughly that the higher power swooped in just in the nick of time to collar him as their new attack dog. Prior to this, Saint Hao would often scheme between the MC and higher power to be the ultimate winner. He beat his own father, took down an elder god and had forced MC to contemplate suicide. So his end kinda sucks.

So how does one make a good exit of a mob villain? Or is there none since they are mere props?

 

[Horizon42]

Mob villians should be regular characters who we are introduced to, they then leave their impact in a single scene. Then they are vanquished. Short and meaningful.

We don't typically see these because more time equals more content to sell, or sometimes it's hard to put down your hard work.

True novels are built to end, light novels are built to be written.

 

[Scaver]

Note that the term "villain" is subjective so I set it as "those who oppose the MC" and mob villains do count in these cases, even if they are more disposable than condoms and comes in so many variants like the Arrogant Young Master #17, ebony blond and featuring NTR functions. Beach shorts included.

I frankly have never seen any good exits of mob villains, solely because they are props that advance the plot for MC and readers. Like the weekly villains in JP LNs like the Pope of Three Heroes Church and the Nun Hunter of DxD. Then there are those readily disposable kinds like the bunch of standard imperial soldiers who wanted to steal Hajime's rabbit people, standard bandits and brainless rich people/ nobles/ etc, the standard people of perceived power who later will get bodied.

The problem comes when they die as they live, pointless. Why? Why do these type of drywall filling must exist?

Then there is the other spectrum, cockroach mob villains, who for heavens' sake is not dead because the plot can't find a better villain to stand in so we end up having a soap opera drama llama. For example, why doesn't the fucktard demons in Kenja no Mago die in droves already? Another example, why doesn't the fucking heroes in that stupid manhwa just die in droves already?

While the villain's entrance is important because of first impression, their exit is just so as well because it has to leave some impact on both the MC and readers as well. True to be told, the closest, yet still not there villain I can think of at the moment is Saint Hao (昊天尊) in Tale of Herding Gods. The character is steadfast, stubborn and haughty with the power to back him up. When I first saw the character, I was thinking along the line of an arrogant young master, then the character continued to surprise me (in a bad way, cuz he is a villain and a good one) by being competent and hardworking. Of course, his exit (actual death) is muddled by the fact that the character is already considered dead by the author himself when he was defeated and forced to, for real, beg the higher power to take him in. The defeat, unlike the others by MC, had shattered his pride so thoroughly that the higher power swooped in just in the nick of time to collar him as their new attack dog. Prior to this, Saint Hao would often scheme between the MC and higher power to be the ultimate winner. He beat his own father, took down an elder god and had forced MC to contemplate suicide. So his end kinda sucks.

So how does one make a good exit of a mob villain? Or is there none since they are mere props?

Your writing character is only successful when you can write a story with the characters as the protagonist. In other word they are not just to increase the word count but they have a 'reason' and a goal not just for the sake of killing mc. Mc just happens to being in front of them and is a hinder in their goal. Thus they must be removed. Except a villain don't always have to have the intention to kill.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Well, a villain leaving with grace... Unless you're like me and are a sucker for subversion and villainous mc's, it doesn't seem to be a thing you can do commonly. After all, there should be something you intend to deliver to your readers in terms of the moral values of the story you have written. Your villains, since they oppose the mc and are to be showcased as bad people and, therefore, must have a moral flaw that makes them villainous, and that moral flaw eventually should lead to their doom. You can't let a villain "leave with grace" without implicitly acknowledging that the flaw of your villain was not a flaw after all, and the villain, therefore, was not a villain. Especially when it comes to mobs.
One was to circumventing it, is by redeeming the villain and making them grow as a character. But can this kind of character be considered a mob anymore? Can they be even considered a villain?
You can also do like me and go full-on nihilist mode, and say "anything goes". In my stories (that are on a long hiatus) there is no greater moral message to be delivered. My "evil" characters can thrive and they can fall. So can my "good" characters - all of whom are on a supply so short there's literally more stories written by me than them.
Only then, I believe, can you truly make your villain leave with grace - perhaps by triumphing over the mc.

TLDR: letting a villain leave (be defeated) with grace is the same as not defeating the moral flaw that makes them villanous - the same as not defeating them at all. It can only be done if your story has no morals it wants to convey. But then, is there a reason to have your villains leave in defeat? I feel that such stories would only gain by having villains win sometimes, and having main characters grow from such failures - perhaps in a "more evil" direction.

New edit: perhaps then, it's best not to let your villains be defeated gracefully, maybe it's best to treat your villains like precious bullets and leave their defeats devoit of grace, but full of meaning - one villain down, one (aspect of a) moral problem tackled. No need to come back to it again. That is, in novels with morals.

Another edit: all of the above was a lie. There is a way to make your villains leave with grace - by making their defeats tragic. Your main character needs not to be a paragon - they, themselves, can be an antithesis to your story's moral backbone. The villains then, would be either innocent victims of the MC's actions, or martyrs, whose defeats are to showcase why the mc is wrong.

I also realise that I seem to imply that moral stories have to have conventionally good morals put in them, so I tell this: they mustn't. They can be anything. But then "good" of a story may not agree with the conventional "good", so know that I refer to the "good" of the story.

 

[PancakesWitch]

Usually by making the mc or his allies think what they've been doing so far, leaving an impact in their mentality

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

Every villain can be disposable but to write a villain with grace, you gotta give them the plot armor a protagonist has.

They knew they will die, they are just fodder for the MC to grow in strength. But at least write them to have their own cool death by giving a scar which the MC and even the readers feel like the mob is threatening enough to at least give reason why they are memorable.

Why is Joker famous when he confront batman? It was mainly because he knew he can provide the motive for batman to be a threat even with all the skills and money he can throw against the villains, on a clown who is just unpredictable.

So, why can't a mob who is just a canon fodder for the MC be at least a threat to our guy.

Like, even when everything he has are gone, he has no reason to live because of the MC but you can still give him a shocking end that you don't expect to happen to the MC.

Ex: the Mob knows that the MC is too strong and can easily kill him. But he still believes he has a chance, even if it cost him his life. There, you can write up a scene of him fighting the MC with no chance of victory, no hope to come out of the top. But at least you will make him give one hell of a fight to the MC which even the MC felt a bit threatened with a chance of losing. And until the end, the Mob succumbs to his defeat but even with his loss, he can still give an MC a middle finger before dying and say some lines that can make even the readers who felt like the Mob is just a canon fodder to have a character.

"Your strong, your fucking strong. But in the end, your dumb luck will run out and I can at least book you a room next to me when we meet in hell." There, the Mob will die but the MC, for the first time in his life, felt like his plot armor was broken when he almost die to a random mob, a mob who was clearly weaker than him, even with his plan was so perfect that only a tiny gap was place where he can die at that moment.

For the first time, the MC felt like he has no plot armor and his luck almost ran out, if not for being the fortunate son of heaven. He realizes that it was at that moment that he could have died, if not for the Mob dying at the last second.

He might die weak but at least he gave a scare to the MC.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Retire in the middle of a confrontation. Not because of the MC but because it was something that he had been saying will happen from the moment they met. A punch to the gut for the MC that they are not that special and can be ignored at a drop of a hat.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Have the villain fall in love and ride off into the sunset.

 

[BearlyAlive]

A villain retiring/leaving in grace comes mostly down to two things: progress in their character arc or taking so much of a beating they just call quits/die dead (which is also development, well kind of, I guess).

For cartoony villains or Team Rocket style annoyances you can just let them join the MCs side for a reason and then let them decide they like this side of the moral compass better or that both sides suck and they wanted to retire anyway. Also works with the more honor-bound types and debts of gratitude.

Tl;dr: A villain leaves with grace when he stops being a villain or finishes his goal/character arc and is fridged.