Bad guys – can’t live with ‘em, can’t write a story without them! Most stories have a main antagonist, a head bad guy to lead the minions on their dastardly mission; this is especially true of classic fantasy, which often features an evil overlord bent on lording over the world with evil.
As his name implies, this antagonist opposes the quest of his polar opposite, the protagonist. As such, it is usually necessary during the course of the story to dispose of this bad guy so that he can no longer interfere with the triumph of good. (Generally the minions aren’t a problem – if any of them live to the climax, they usually surrender or convert following the defeat of their leader.)
While occasionally it is convenient to lock the antagonist in jail, it is often necessary to imply the bad guy’s death and officially remove him from the picture. This ensures that he won’t continue to cause trouble for our protagonists. (Unless, of course, the author writes a sequel, in which case the bad guy can often be creatively resurrected.)
Unfortunately, such termination isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are a myriad of ways to dispose of characters, but many of them are just too gruesome, especially for family-friendly movies. Therefore, it becomes necessary to remove the bad guy in a clean, safe way.
Thankfully, Hollywood has addressed this problem nicely. Thanks to watching a lot of family-friendly movies, I have come up with three G- and PG-rated ways to kill bad guys. These methods have been tried and proven successful on countless antagonists, so they are fail proof (while still allowing for resurrection for sequels in some cases). If you’re having trouble getting rid of your bad guy, try one of these tactics – they’re guaranteed to bloodlessly wipe the antagonist from the picture.
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Very creative, and well done. The roses, also added that beautiful touch of color, and fragility, to the picture. Well done, Emmalina and Evening!
