out of interest as a writer, could you give an example for:
UNLESS☝️as a poetic consequence of something either character themselves inadvertently put into motion
Syndrome in The Incredibles: He could have taken the L, but instead chose to kidnap the heroes’ son, resulting in his cape sucking him into a jet engine, which calls back to Edna’s insistence on heroes not wearing capes for safety reasons- this death symbolically reinforces that Syndrome is not a hero (wears a cape where Edna won’t let a hero do) and is instead obsessed with the APPEARANCE of being one (wearing a cape like a hero in a comic book).
He is not a hero, he is a villain who makes villainous choices to make himself look heroic, and he dooms himself on both counts. If he had any interest in actually BEING a hero- in ACTUALLY putting himself in danger- he would know how risky a cape IS (literally AND symbolically) and as such would not have had one to begin with.
In this case, the villain dying without being directly killed, is not a cop-out: it’s poetic tragedy. The existence of the cape that kills him is a symptom of his fatal flaw- if it wasn’t there, he wouldn’t be doomed, but if it wasn’t there, it would be because he lacked the flaw that led him to his death. The caper represents the trappings of a heroic image without substance. Syndrome pursues the trappings while lacking the substance. The trappings then trap him.
Now if he had, say, just been hit by a car or something for comedic effect? In a way totally divorced from his choices and actions? Cop-out. Absurd. The message goes from “the appearance of heroism is not the same as heroism- a real hero is a hero because of who they choose to be, not how they look” to “choices are meaningless and some people are just irredeemable assholes we shouldn’t give a shit about, the universe is random and at the same time judgemental of sin, bad things happen because you are a bad person and you cannot fight it”.
THAT is an EXCELLENT example of “hero can’t kill” and “villain can’t be stopped” where “villain dies anyways” is justified, imo, because it MEANS something.
It was avoidable. The villain doomed himself. He didn’t just die because he had to, because there were no other ways to wrap the story up. He did it to himself. It could have happened today or in twenty years, but he made it happen, because the flaws that made him a villain are the same flaws that caused his death.
Just one fantastic example of the importance of the villain’s takedown to the overall story
