Alas, Poor Villain

Not even the "Mad Titan" deserves to be trapped for eternity.

"Nature has a way sometimes of reminding Man of just how small he is. She occasionally throws up terrible offsprings of our pride and carelessness to remind us of how puny we really are in the face of a tornado, an earthquake, or a Godzilla. The reckless ambitions of Man are often dwarfed by their dangerous consequences. For now, Godzilla — that strangely innocent and tragic monster — has gone to earth. Whether he returns or not, or is never again seen by human eyes, the things he has taught us remain..."

— Steve Martin, The Return of Godzilla

So, there's a villain. Right. Murdering, world-conquering type. The series is ending, so it's time to get rid of him. Slowly and painfully. So he goes out with... a final touching quote and a One-Woman Wail?

As odd as it may seem, if you want the audience to feel sorry for a villain, a good death scene is probably the way to go. This works best if you know their Freudian Excuse; Chaotic Stupid need not apply for this sort of thing. Also works easier if this is a supporting villain. This is easiest to do with a Big Bad's minions: we can identify with The Dragon, and especially the Quirky Miniboss Squad, over time and may be sad to see them go. If a Fallen Hero or a Tragic Monster dies, expect everyone to weep openly. A few well-chosen Last Words may also be used to create this feeling.

Note that if you want the audience to take the scene seriously then you have to add some humanizing elements to your villain beforehand. See Likable Villain for ways in which this can be done. Neglecting to do this may result in Narm or just confuse the audience.

A Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, a Tragic Monster and other kinds of Tragic Villain are the best choices, but any case of a genuinely well-done Anti-Villain will do. Also note that this is primarily about the story showing how sad a villain's life was, not how some of the audience will interpret it.

Compare Draco in Leather Pants, Cry for the Devil, What a Senseless Waste of Human Life, Antagonist in Mourning, and Death Equals Redemption. Do not confuse with Alas, Poor Scrappy (though it can overlap), and share the Super-Trope of Dying Moment of Awesome. Or Alas, Poor Yorick for that matter. Contrast Asshole Victim villains, who are so deplorable that their death elicits no sympathy — although some clever writers have found ways to overlap the two.

Complete Monsters can usually never qualify for this trope. As said villains are completely unsympathetic and aren't meant to be mourned in any capacity. In the few instances where the hero or other characters do posthumously sympathize with a Complete Monster, it's for the most part to establish how heroic the protagonist is.

As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

---

Examples:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Fan Works
• Film
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Webcomics
• Web Original
• Western Animation

Comic Strips

• Dick Tracy: The final arc featuring Big Boy Caprice had several of these. There's the explosion that claims the life of bomb-maker Little as his wife looks on in horror, the pathetic exit of a broke convict hoping to get rich by killing Tracy, and the death of the hired killer known as the Iceman, who was just starting to feel something for Sparkle Plenty. Perhaps the most depressing of all may be the death of Big Boy himself, who dies alone, abandoned by his henchmen, and cut off from all the power that once made him feared. Tracy may think Big Boy was a Karma Houdini, but the audience isn't likely to agree.
• Max Griffin in Amulet. After the death of his friend, Layra, he proceeds to spend the next fifty years on a superpowered revenge-fuelled rampage, kept alive only thanks to a deal with the Amulet Spirit. Still, it’s hard not to feel a little bit sorry for him when he lets the Spirit withdraw their power, making Max rapidly age to death after a memory of Layra calls him out for all the terrible, terrible things he did in her name.
  "I did it - I did it for you."
  "No, Max. You did it for you."

Manhua

• In Ravages of Time every single dead villain receives at least a chapter as a eulogy, making Yuan Shu and Lu Bu look extremely sympathetic.

Music

• Evillious Chronicles:
  • It is almost impossible to not feel sorry for Gallerian at one point or another. His entire family was murdered because he didn't want to work with MA. He honestly believes the Clockworker's Doll is his daughter. And, at his death, there's an image of him hugging his 'daughter'. And later on, it's stated that him protecting her from the flames was the only reason she didn't die.
  • Lemy's death. Despite him being an Ax-Crazy Serial Killer Enfant Terrible, the lyrics really hammer in that he was just a kid.
    Pierrot doesn't want to die! Pierrot doesn't want to die!
  • The titular duke from The Lunacy Of Duke Venomania—despite everything he's done, it's hard not to pity him as he dies completely alone, abandoned by everyone; his harem, the woman he loved (realizing too late he loved her and being unable to voice it), and even the demon of Lust. He reverts back to the ugly appearance that caused him so much abuse in his childhood afterwards, too.
  • Margarita Blankenheim gets this in Gift From the Princess Who Brought Sleep, with Elluka trying to stop her from committing her misery-induced suicide. Subverted when it turns out this didn't kill her after all, and Margarita's nature was much, much more sinister than originally thought.
• The music video to "Gods and Punks" by Monster Magnet. Sure, it leans heavily on parody ("Will destroy your world for food") but when in the end the brats kill the villain (who saw better days) with his own death ray, you shed a tear for him.

Mythology and Religion

• In some versions of Arthurian Legend, one can feel sorry for Morgana whose father was killed by Arthur's father and in some cases Mordred is also sympathetic
• The Bible:
  • In the Books of Samuel, when Saul and Jonathan (David’s father- and brother-in-law) are killed in battle, David writes a song of lamentation for both of them. While Jonathan had long been David’s Heterosexual Life-Partner, Saul had tried to kill David on several occasions. David still greatly mourns for the man who was once like a father to him.
  • Later, also in the books of Samuel, David's son Absalom rebels against him and is ultimately defeated and killed. When David gets the news, rather than rejoicing over the victory, he is devastated and mourns his son so intensely that his officers finally have to give him a What the Hell, Hero? for hurting his men's morale.
  • In Matthew, Judas Iscariot is depicted as feeling very remorseful over his role in betraying Jesus, and tries to give the thirty pieces of silver back to them. When they refuse he throws the money into the entryway of the temple, and then goes off and hangs himself.
• In Beti-Pahuin Mythology:
  • Oveng may have been a dick pursuing his goals, but the narrative certainly sympathizes with him: his dream of a world without war is crushed, the woman he loves has been taken from him, and his tribe whose safety is the entire reason he was born is about to be finished off by two of Engong's most vicious killers. Fortunately Engouang shared his dreams.
  • Obame Andome was a generous and kindhearted man. His only wish was to avenge his father. He and his father pleaded their case so well to God that they almost managed to get him to strip the Ekang of their immortality.
  • Mesi Me Kot Endong did what was right for his people and wasn’t even able to die in an honorable duel. Even if his people were testicle ripping, face eating, baby grabbing, crop destroying assholes.

Podcasts

• Roleplay Retcon: Indiana Jones pities the antagonist of their re-imagining of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull when they are transformed into the fourteenth crystal skull for eternity. He puts it in his office and talks to it.

Tabletop Games

• Farmgirl and Goodwitch mourn Dark Lady's passing in the artwork for Kozmourning in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. The scene resembles both a sorrowful Dorothy regretting having to kill the Witch and Luke Skywalker mourning his father's death.

Toys

• Makuta Krika in BIONICLE; he was the Noble Demon of the Makuta with a Freudian Excuse, who only went along with the plan of the Makuta of Metru Nui because he saw it as a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario. He made a genuine effort to help the Toa (the heroes) at the end of the Karda Nui arc, and then, when he learned that the Makuta were about to outlive their usefulness, he tried to warn them, and was rewarded by slowly becoming so intangible that all of his atoms flew apart - the kicker of his death was that it was caused by his own power being forced out of control by his brethren, who thought he was lying.

Theatre

• Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto: Giovanni visits Angelo while he's recovering after the dramatic events, and genuinely mourns the traitor Draghignazzo, saying he wishes he'd done more to understand him. Giovanni's awareness of his own failing here does more than anything to make him grow some depth.

• Romeo and Juliet
  • Tybalt. After all, the hero had just murdered him for what had ultimately been an accident. As this is Shakespeare, the validity of this is really up to the director and the actor.
  • Paris would also be a good example. He's often displayed in a negative light, but ultimately, is simply a man trying to woo a girl he's in love with in the typical fashion of that era, and he's killed while trying to arrest a dangerous criminal who had killed the cousin of the woman he loved, and, for all he knew, drove her to suicide.

• Jesus Christ Superstar: Due to Judas being portrayed much more sympathetically than in the original story, his guilt-induced emotional breakdown and suicide following his betrayal of Jesus come off as rather tragic.

• Heathers: The Musical: J.D. committed murder, and attempted to blow up his school. But it is clear that before Veronica, no one truly liked him, his father was cruel, and his mother killed herself in front of his eyes. And he ends his life taking his bomb from Veronica, admitting he is "far too damaged". Even Veronica, despite everything he's done, can't help but plead for him to stop.
• Played with in Wicked. Even as the rest of Oz celebrates Elphaba's death, Glinda can't bring herself to condemn her old friend. Of course, not only is Elphaba not the bad guy here, but she's not actually dead either - she's run off with Fiyero/The Scarecrow to live the rest of their lives in peace.

Visual Novels

• In Double Homework, Dennis is a douchebag, but he does get some sympathy after his death, especially after the protagonist meets his father, and realizes how he had been brought up.
• Higurashi: When They Cry: Takano ultimately is subject to this trope, left to run and fall apart emotionally in the rain in a scene mirroring her escape from her Orphanage of Fear, bloody and barefoot, left a gun with one bullet with which to kill herself, betrayed by all her allies, and ultimately left to have her grandfather's papers stomped on again, causing her to break down sobbing as her trauma catches up with her.
• Umineko: When They Cry: Beatrice falls in this trope. She starts the series as a witch who loves to kill Battler's family in the most horrifying ways, but in EP5 it's confirmed that she didn't actually enjoy doing this, and in EP7 you are shown just how Beatrice came to be. After she's broken, Bernkastel keeps playing with her.
• Danganronpa frequently has this for its killers; after all, most of them are ordinary teenagers whose greatest vulnerabilities are being used to manipulate them with the express purpose of driving them to kill.
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc:
    • Leon is taken to his execution utterly terrified, having killed Sayaka after her attempt to kill him (which, according to the manga, was an accident).
    • After being convicted for killing Chihiro, Mondo is revealed to have accidentally killed him in a fit of PTSD-induced rage, stemming from Monokuma threatening to reveal his greatest failure- that he'd accidentally caused his brother's death and covered it up so his gang wouldn't fall apart. He doesn't protest his fate when found out; the only actions he takes to cover up his involvement were actually an attempt to keep the victim's secret; after all, if Chihiro had been found dead in the boys' locker room, it'd have been obvious that he wasn't a girl, and Mondo had promised to keep that hidden.
    • Celeste, the most ruthless of the murderers in the first game, gets this. Despite Celeste unapologetically claiming to having killed Hifumi after manipulating him into killing Taka, simply to escape and live a life of luxury, Makoto notices that she's still scared at the prospect of her impending death, and it's up to the player's interpretation as to how much of her story was a lie.
    • All three of the above only get worse in retrospect once it's revealed that they only became villains thanks to Monokuma wiping their memories. If that hadn't happened, the Character Development they had undergone as students of Hope's Peak Academy would have prevented them from even attempting to kill one of their True Companions.
    • Mukuro Ikusaba is an odd example, in that they're effectively a Posthumous Character that most of the cast isn't even aware of until well after their death, but when the circumstances of said death are revealed, namely that she was betrayed and murdered by her emotionally manipulative sister for no real reason other than said sister having a despair fetish, the rest of the cast can't help but feel sorry for them, despite being The Mole and one of the people who helped set up the killing game in the first place.
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair:
    • Teruteru is revealed to have accidentally killed Byakuya^note or rather, the Imposter, while trying to kill Nagito for two reasons. The first is because he thought Nagito was trying to kill someone, not realizing that Nagito wanted to get the killing game started by any means necessary, even at the cost of his own life. The second was because he was desperate to get home and look after his sickly mother.
    • After Peko's plan to make Fuyuhiko graduate fails due to her being considered the murderer, Peko apologizes to the remaining survivors, asking them to forgive Fuyuhiko for causing the murder and not allow another killing. She has an emotional breakdown after Fuyuhiko's Anguished Declaration of Love, and dies protecting him when he's injured trying to stop her execution.
    • Gundham willingly accepts his fate, saying that while he killed Nekomaru so that the class wouldn't starve to death, he's nothing more than a murderer, and it's strongly implied that he allowed himself to be caught so that the others wouldn't be executed.
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Gonta is manipulated into killing Miu (who also gets a fairly heartbreaking death scene) by Kokichi, only to end up forgetting that he committed a murder as a result of accidentally putting the wires in the wrong sockets. For most of the trial, Gonta honestly believes that he's innocent, and his death is one of the saddest executions in the game. The others are very pissed at Kokichi for forcing them to convict Gonta.
• Ace Attorney
  • Acro's defeat in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All, with his remark (that you have to interpret for Regina) about how he wanted to stick around, which is why he didn't kill himself or turn himself in despite being overwhelmed with remorse for accidentally killing Regina's father. He's worried that he might be in prison or executed by the time his brother gets out of his coma.
  • Godot's defeat in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations could count, judging by how he was desperately trying to repay his debt for Mia Fey, for whom he blames himself for her death and has been taking it out on Phoenix for his failure to stop the murder back in the second case of the first game. It's not until Bridge to Turnabout that he was finally ready to forgive him.
• Like its Spiritual Predecessor Danganronpa, Your Turn to Die is full of examples of this.
  • Kai was revealed to be Sara's stalker early on, and in the first round of the Deadly Game it's discovered that he's been working with their captors, which results in him being voted off. However, he refuses to give the Killer Game Master the satisfaction and wounds her before slitting his wrists and encouraging the others to carry on. It's later revealed that he was a Defector from Decadence trying to take down the game from the inside, and was stalking Sara because her father secretly hired him as a bodyguard.
  • Rio Ranger was a Robotic Psychopath who secretly wanted to Become a Real Boy, as he was programmed to have human emotions but only negative ones as his "father" thought it would make him more genuine. As a result, Ranger was a Green-Eyed Monster who despised humans for having what he lacked and took great pleasure in his role as a Killer Game Master. After he's sentenced to death by his own father for breaking the rules, his co-creator grants him the full range of emotion he lacked and a proper name in his final moments, but he dies too tortured with regret over his evil actions to appreciate it. Sara has the option to praise her for granting his wish, or condemn her for causing him such unneeded pain.
  • By the end of the second chapter, Nao is so psychologically broken by the game that when she's given the Sacrifice card she's willing to let the others die to save herself and Sara despite having been a reliable ally up until that point. Her execution method is a metal vice that slowly crushes her abdomen, and Sara is given a button to make it quick and painless but Nao's screams for mercy prevent her from pushing it.
  • Sou was an Anti-Villain who served as an antagonistic force through much of the game due to his belief that Sara was the mastermind, but genuinely wanted to end the game and help everyone escape. His more ruthless side was in response to learning that he had a 0% estimated chance of survival, but in spite of it, he's still willing to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to save Kanna. If voted off he's gunned down by the facility defenses while trying to escape, but manages to survive just long enough to give Sara an AI copy of her late best friend Joe and give her closure over his death.
• Fate/stay night
  • Caster in the "Unlimited Blade Works" scenario. Yes, she captures and tortures Saber, holds Taiga hostage, and is responsible for many a Bad End in Unlimited Blade Works, including one where she orders Shiro's friend, Issei, to kill him. Yet her last moments were so touching, it almost made you forget all that.
  • Ilya in the "Unlimited Blade Works" scenario. Yes, she was a psychopathic monster at worst, appeared in 'Unlimited Blade Works' long enough for a finale with backstory that managed to make her sympathetic without even giving away her whole Freudian Excuse (which was saved for 'Heaven's Feel'). And Berserker, already Deader than Dead from his Self-Destructive Charge, managed to stand long enough to give her comfort before both died.
  • Kirei Kotomine in Heaven's Feel, even more so. His actions in the route, and the backstory it reveals, does an impressive job of building sympathy for him, considering that he lives to see others suffer and is actively trying to destroy the world. Seeking the reason for his twisted existence, he died without regret. No wonder Shirou realized that he liked Kirei.
  • Zouken Matou. It's difficult to feel sympathy for the monster he's become, but you might just pity the idealistic Zouken Makiri, who kept seeking immortality so that the woman he loved wouldn't have died in vain.
• Doki Doki Literature Club!: As horrifying as her actions are, Monika is still worthy of pity. She's gone utterly insane due to her status as a fictional character, and on top of that, she doesn't even get a chance to romance the player character, meaning her only purpose in life is to be a side character. It doesn't excuse the lengths she went to to rectify this, but it's understandable how she ended up this way. And, in the end, she saves you — proving that when she says she loves you, she means it.
  If I don't know how to love you... I'll leave you be...
• Penthos: Downplayed but still present with the spirit of Adam Walpole; he's not actively malicious, but is definitely aware of the adverse effect his Emotion Eater tendencies have on the town's population. By the end, he comes to recognize this, but only after it is already too late.
  • Played straight with Amadeus Geoff, whose Freudian Excuse is the abuse he endured from his father, as well as the death of his brother.

---