Just Desserts - Television Tropes & Idioms

In many a story the Big Bad (or The Dragon (or maybe even the slightly annoying bad)) will get his payback for being a Bad. And the payback is that he gets to be dessert... Well maybe not dessert - sometimes it's an appetiser, sometimes a main course, once in a while, it really IS dessert. The high point of this is when the Bad is eaten by the primary character (Hannibal Lecter anyone?).

This does NOT include a Heroic Sacrifice. But may be subverted with a minor character being killed and eaten in obvious foreshadowing of what is going to happen to one of the bads at some point. While Mooks may be recipients of the Just Desserts, a true Just Dessert is reserved for those higher up the ladder.

Compare The Dog Bites Back, Devour the Dragon.

WARNING: This is a Death Trope. Here Be Spoilers

Examples:

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Anime

Digimon Adventure has chief minion Demidevimon get devoured by his master Venom Myotismon after he decides coming back from the dead has made him hungry.
The Immortals of Baccano! can consume eachother and gain eachothers experience by laying their hand on the other immortals forehead. This is how Firo defeats Szilard.
In Digimon Xros Wars, Chuuchuumon, a rat puppet Digimon, grew large after seeing Taiki, Mervamon, Wisemon, and Knightmon who are coming to rescue Yuu. Taiki summon Bastemon, a cat-like Digimon, who then gains a Slasher Smile after seeing the mouse. This is a rare case where the one who devours is very, very small compared to the "dessert".
Puella Magi Madoka Magica has a rare heroic example in Mami Tomoe, who only counts as this because she was uncharacteristically reckless in combat against a Witch.
- Kyubey does this to himself after Homura executes him with a single bullet in episode 8.
In Kara no Kyoukai, Cornelius Alba gets eaten alive by one of Touko's creations.

Film

Shrek: Lord Farquaad gets eaten by a dragon.
- Also stated to be what the ogres intend for Rumpelstiltskin in Shrek Forever After just before the Reset Button is hit, though it never actually happens.
A Bug's Life: Hopper is eaten by a bird.
Jurassic Park where sysadmin Dennis Nedry sets off the chain of events that releases the animals, and then is eaten by one.
Resident Evil. The male security operative who released the T-virus inside the facility is killed and partially eaten by the Licker monster.
Subverted in Beetlejuice. The title character is swallowed by a Sand Worm near the end of the movie, but turns up later in the afterlife office none the worse for wear.
Cast a Deadly Spell. The Big Bad who summons Cthulhu is grabbed and eaten by him.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Mola Ram is eaten by crocodiles.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where The Dragon gets eaten by Siafu
Return of the Jedi. Boba Fett (who captured Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back) is swallowed by the Sarlacc, where (according to Jabba the Hutt) he will find a new definition of pain and suffering as he's slowly digested over 1,000 years. But he's Boba Fett so he's too cool to die.
Men In Black. Spousal abuser Edgar is skinned and eaten by the Bug.
Men In Black 2. Serleena eats a mugger.
- This appears to be the case at the end, when Serleena is eaten by Jeff, only for her to kill him from inside and morph his body.
In The City of Ember, Mayor Cole gets eaten by a giant star-nosed mole.
InRomancing the Stone Zolo's hand is bitten off by a crocodile, and then he drops into a pit of them.
Scar survives his Disney Villain Death in The Lion King, only to find himself cornered by the hyenas he just threw under the bus.

Literature

Short story "Thus I Refute Beelzy". A mentally abusive father is eaten by the title character, his son's not-so-imaginary friend.
Famously done in The Silence of the Lambs books. If they are a Bad, it is a good bet that Hannibal Lecter will eat them.
- Or, in Hannibal, he (in this case, Mason) gets eaten by the wild boars that he thought would eat Hannibal.
In Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Mrs. Gorf is tricked into turning herself into an apple. Louis finds the apple and eats it.
- This happens to Mrs. Gorf again in a later book. She materializes in a plate of potato salad, and John and Joe quickly eat her before she can turn them into apples.
In the story of Daniel from The Bible, after having to consign Daniel to a lion's den because of a law that some princes had tricked him into passing because they were jealous of him, King Darius, overjoyed that (as he himself had predicted) the Lord protected Daniel for the night by sending one of his angels to shut the lions' mouths so they could not hurt him, has Daniel taken out of the lions' den. The princes responsible for the law (and their families, in a bit of Disproportionate Retribution) are thrown in instead, where they promptly get eaten by the lions.
Happens in H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Cats of Ulthar" to an old couple that killed cats for fun.

Live Action TV

Subverted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode The Pack (s01e06) with Xander and four gang members are taken over by a hyena spirit. As part of their rampage they kill and eat the school mascot pig, and then - when called into the principal's office for questioning - Principal Flutie.
- Though played straight at the end of the episode when the Zoo Warden (who brought the hyenas so he could get the hyena spirit) gets tossed into the hyena holding pit where he gets eaten.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Graduation Day." Little Bad Principal Snyder gets eaten by Big Bad The Mayor, who has just transformed himself into a giant demon snake thingy.
- Possibly the coach's fate in "Go Fish":
  Xander: Boy, the swim team sure loves their coach!
Even more Squick if you recall that the coach intended to have Buffy to be raped by the fish-men - they had already eaten at that point.
In V: The Final Battle, Daniel Bernstein is framed for the kidnapping of the Visitor Brian. Daniel is then captured, tortured, and taken away to be served to the aliens
The tennis-playing giant alien blancmange in Monty Python's Flying Circus gets eaten by Mr. and Mrs. Brainsample. On the planet they're from, they're used to blancmanges being that size.

Theatre

The opera Hansel and Gretel adds a new element to the familiar tale by the Brothers Grimm: the witch owns a magical oven which bakes children into gingerbread. Of course, the witch gets pushed into it, and a very large piece of gingerbread is brought out at the finale.

Video Games

In Overlord 2, the villain's dragon, Marius, is praising his boss after a One-Winged Angel turns him into an all-devouring Eldritch Abomination, his praise is interrupted by the devourer eating him.
In Super Mario RPG, after the Bundt cake is beaten down to its last Raspberry layer, it gets swallowed by Booster in one gulp. Of course, it was supposed to be just a dessert in the first place, but instead it came alive and started attacking.

Web Comics

In The Order of the Stick, this is the ultimate fate of Tsukiko. By her own wights, no less.
In "The Adventures of Dr. McNinja", the Lumberjack's companion is defeated, only to be turned into Blue Steaks.

Web Original

Alexia's final fate in The Return, devoured by Darkstar.

Western Animation

Bartholomew in The Great Mouse Detective is only a Little Bad, but he is eaten by Professor Ratigan's cat Felicia.
Add Jonny Quest TOS:
- Episode "Treasure of the Temple". The archeological thief Perkins and his men are eaten by crocodiles.
Dr. Ashida in Jonny Quest is eaten by his own Ashida dragons.
Happens to Big Bad Phobos near the end of season 2 of WITCH when he's betrayed by Cedric. However after Cedric's defeat we see that he did manage to survive.
The Thief And The Cobbler: Zigzag is eaten by crocodiles and his own pet vulture.