To begin with, this thread is actually for all of the novel genres, but since a rather decent part of NaNoers are posting here, I'll put it here. For you writers out there who already know how your story is going to end, how does your arch-villain get taken down? Post your epic villain ( or hero, depending on how your story ends ) death here!
I'll start it out. My guy gets shot with a shotgun twice at point-blank by my MC, but later comes back to life when his body is thrown out of a helicopter and into a nuclear blast. After that, my poor MC jumps out of the helicopter after him and hits him with a special sword, which completely explodes them both. :(
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46,068 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 17 23
My villain dies quite epically--the main character means to summon a demon to fight him and maybe knock him unconscious (she's quite averse to fighting unless she absolutely has to), but instead she summons a massive, semi-mechanical, angelic hunter thing, which has been chasing the villain for some time but has been unable to reach him (because it was locked in a separate world from the villain). It vanishes the villain in a huge poof-boom. The MC is quite horrified because she didn't intend on this to happen.
And then the angel-hunter thing begins following the MC around, thinking her its new master now. Fun. But that's for the sequels.
30,043 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 17 34
Okay, I'm going to make this up as I go. My main villian, whom I don't have a name for yet, is set upon by four characters introduced in the prologue, two to start but when the villian tries to hide behind a horde of his warriors the other two show up. Together, though not intentionally, they leave the villian a crippled mess but are themselves badly injured and unable to finish the job. In his weakened state my main villian is unable to control those he killed and brought back from the dead and the survivors of his army tear him to pieces as they drag him down to my world's equivalent of hell.
----------"Where's your god now?!"
"Ah!-continuity, my immortal enemy..."
2008 - Prophesies Awaken (failed) currently in work
2009 - Gathering of the Claw
27,893 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 17 55
I can't really speak for my current novel, since it doesn't have any real villain to kill, but when I do have villains they tend to go out in as spectacular a manner as possible. Some examples:
Herul: Gets the magic dagger he used to steal the gnoll god's power stabbed through the back of his hand, releasing his control over the deity. Did I mention that the gnoll god is also the god of vengeance?
Hakter: Gets cornered by one of the main characters, who erects a magical barrier to prevent either of them from leaving and then deliberately overloads the artifact weapon Hakter had been using to destroy the kingdom's armies. The resulting explosion takes both of them out, along with about half of the city.
Delyriel/Magnus: 500 foot god of magic gets his entire body crystalized, but survives by possessing a nearby magical prodigy. She and one of the protagonists have a duel to the death on the giant's crystal arm, which gets severed during the fight and plummets to the ground. Possessed mage climbs out of the wreakage, leaps into the middle of an army of soldiers and tanks, and breaks into a dome city through the roof. She engages in single combat with the city's near-immortal leader, who activates the self-destruct button and collapses the entire city on top of her. And after that she still tries to crawl away, but is stopped by an antimagic bullet fired into her head from point blank by one of the surviving protagonists. With no other mages around to possess, the god disappears into the afterlife plane (which was destroyed earlier in the story and now is home to a reality-consuming horror)
50,155 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 17 57
One villan is drowned in the Great River by an angry sorceress.
Another is publicly beheaded. I got over 1600 words out of that execution scene.
I'm not even going to go into what happens to the others . . .
----------"What you create doesn’t have to be perfect. So what if the eggs are greasy or the toast is burned? Don’t let fear of failure discourage you." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf
18,283 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 18 05
My villains who die (some escape) are dispatched by various means -- battle, knife fights, some drown -- but one does get swallowed whole by a large dog.
----------Also, art: http://instantelixir.blogspot.com/
52,540 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 18 26
This forum really is for primarily fantasy questions. I'll move this to coffeehouse for you, so you can get more than a fantasy perspective.
----------Heather Dudley
Forums Moderator
Liquid Story Binder, on sale for 50% off during November!
A Dragon Writes
38,604 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 09 28
My villian doesn't die... "What?!" You say... I say "True." He get's very badly wounded and sulks off to tend to his wounds and the group of protag's get away safely... after all I can't kill off Lucifer. :P
----------3,583 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 13 15
My antagonist is an establishment, so the establishment will fall... man, that sounds anticlimactic... I think I need a villian.
51,009 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 02 14
Well... I don't consider him a villain, but there's Giles who dies somewhat ambiguously. I know it's caused by my other character and the object of his one-sided affection, Cybele, and she wields two flintlock pistols infused with godly magic, and his head is blown off, but the exact circumstances escape me. But I'm probably going to use a lot of abstract description, considering that this is the battle between Summer and Autumn, and if he wins, then it's going to be summer for another season, and if he loses, he dies.
He dies.
----------NaNoWriMo '09: The Path to Eden (51 009/50 000)
Icon by a_minor_third at LiveJournal
63,447 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 11 34
One of my particularly odious characters (I seem to have a lot of them...) is captured by the indigenous people he mistreated. As punishment for his cruelty and greed, they pour molten gold down his throat.
According to some historical accounts of the character I'm referring to, this actually happened. (!)
18,122 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 12 02
My anti-hero died when the virus he was experimenting with turned him into a crazed lunatic and an officer shot him to death not knowing who (or what) he was...
-----------Klane
58,190 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 12 05
Ahem! The death of my villain is NSFW. It wasn't intended to be that way, but that's how it worked out. Revenge can be very nasty.
----------Whatever the words say, there's always more beneath.
My writing blog: Words on Top
http://wordsontop.blogspot.com
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NaNo '09 - Gift of Blood: Beginnings and Endings
NaNo '10 - Gift of Blood: Michel (tentative)