: Re: Plot twist where the antagonist wins I’m putting together this story and its formative stages are almost complete. However, I am genuinely interested as to how the ending would appear to the

@Gloria285

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where the antagonist wins by luck, so to speak.

When you say "wins by luck", do you mean a deus ex machina scenario? Such as, "the unstoppable hero is struck by lightning and dies, the villain wins due to an event outside of the control of the parties"? That would be very unsatisfying, not because the villain wins, but because I'd get the impression that the author wrote himself in a corner with an overpowered, invincible main character, and couldn't think of a better way to resolve the conflict than killing him by accident.

So I am wondering, is this in general a poor way to end a story, or an effective one? Would this kind of ending make sense, or would it be too sudden and immediately turn off the reader?

Having the villain win is not the issue. It's who wins, and subsequently, how they win, that is the crux of the matter.

If you want the villain to win at the end, for this twist to be satisfying, you should have a villain that's as interesting as the hero. Don't make him pure evil for the sake of being evil, make sure that the audience respects, empathizes, or is even charmed by the villain. If the villain wins, that makes them the new "protagonist", so to speak, so that they should be worthy of that role.

Another thing you can consider is the chemistry between the hero and the villain (see Batman vs the Joker), if that was developed in the prior chapters, it will add a layer of depth to both characters in their face-off.

Another thing you can do is make the final fight escalate, and ultimately turn into a Pyrrhic victory for the villain. The hero eventually loses, but they put up a good fight, and while they don't defeat the villain, they leave it permanently impaired in some way(s), so that "nobody wins", they both lose.

In any case, you should not rob the protagonist of a heroic death, they shouldn't lose to a stroke of bad luck. This time, especially the moment they realize that they're going to die, they should fight to the best of their ability, so that they can have a solemn death. If the villain has respect for the fallen hero, the audience will also have respect for the villain.

On the other end of the spectrum, and depending on the personality of your characters, their backstory, and your audience, in order to make the villain more likeable, you could make the hero turn villainous on the brink of their death. When I mentioned having a Pyrrhic victory before, it was implied that the hero would cause debilitating injuries in a fair fight. But, imagine if the hero uses an underhanded tactic to dishonorably maim the villain with their last breath, or, even worse, hurt someone dear to the villain.

Of course, this dark awakening would need a justification, it can't happen out of the blue: maybe the hero had used dirty tricks before, or maybe the hero feels like that they have no honor to lose if they employ cheap tactics now that they've been already defeated, or maybe the villain is so evil, that the hero feels like it's justifiable to give up their moral code, in one last desperate attempt.

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