I recently read a request for novels in which the "sunshine" character is slowly losing her spark, until the hero finally notices. Is there also something with a villain instead of the sunshine character?
Situation:
The villain (all the better if it’s the MMC) is defeated and is now punished by the hero (all the better if it’s the FMC). The punishment can be working them to exhaustion, taunting, being thrown into the darkest dungeon to rot, starvation, torture …
Bonus: the punishment is out of proportion, say the hero/ine enjoys the payback but goes over the top or forgets that s/he has given the order to be hard on the villain, so the villain is tormented, weakened or even injured over a longer period of time.
Bonus: The villain gives up at one point. Just doesn’t care anymore, retreats into himself, doesn’t react to taunting or torture anymore. It's just too much.
And THEN finally the hero notices and starts to think about what they did, and tries to get to know the villain.
Important: The villain is evil not for the sake of evil, but for a reason, because people have made him so (PTSD, childhood trauma, abuse, lack of love, lack of touch…). There needs to be a possibility for redemption.
Examples that come close:
{Beast in shining armor by Cassandra Gannon}
{The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey}
{Kiss an angel by Suzan Elizabeth Phillips}
I would prefer romances, but I’m open for any genre and spice level.
by lack_of_ideas
6 Comments
In Iron Widow, the “villian” is society and the protagonist is absolutely enraged. The protagonist wins and does punish the villain, and the next book is about the new situation that they find themselves in. I was not able to finish that book though.
A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms doesn’t really reveal who the villain is until the end but there are hints. The protagonist wins and punishes the villain quite severely. In the next book in the series, you encounter the villain who was defeated and they have absolutely given up on living, but they cannot die. They are brought to the protagonist again for new judgment. The villain is not evil, they are just themselves, it is just their nature, and I think they just got too arrogant for their own good.
The Hunger Games series is exactly what you’re asking for (but start with Songbirds and Snakes so you get the backstory)
Ain’t She Sweet? by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
If you’re open to an inversion of some of these tropes, you might like Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots. The (F)MC is support staff for a villain in a universe with superheroes and suffers serious injury as collateral damage in an encounter with the universe’s main superhero. This sets her on a path of revenge that ends with… well, you could call it disproportionate punishment. The sequel, Villain, is due out in May.
The endings of the brothers Grimm tales were a tad harsh, the witch being put naked in a barrel studded with nails, then drawn by a horse, that sort of thing.
You might like The Cruel Prince series by Holly Black, it has that morally grey dynamic and shifting power balance where characters face consequences in intense ways. Also Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat leans heavily into power, punishment, and slow character shifts, though it’s definitely darker. If you’re open to fantasy romance, From Blood and Ash also plays with power, control, and blurred lines between hero and villain over time.