Just Desserts

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

In many a story the Big Bad (or The Dragon (or maybe even the slightly annoying bad)) will get his payback for being a Bad. And the payback is that he gets to be dessert... Well maybe not dessert - sometimes it's an appetiser, sometimes a main course, once in a while, it really is dessert. The high point of this is when the Bad is eaten by the primary character (Hannibal Lecter anyone?).

Note that in some cases, this doesn't mean the heroes' job is done. Whatever monster eats the villain might still be hungry, possibly meaning the true Final Battle is at hand.

This does not include a Heroic Sacrifice. But may be subverted with a minor character being killed and eaten in obvious foreshadowing of what is going to happen to one of the bads at some point. While Mooks may be recipients of the Just Desserts, a true Just Dessert is reserved for those higher up the ladder.

Compare The Dog Bites Back, Devour the Dragon.

As a Death Trope, Spoilers ahead may be unmarked. Beware.

Examples of Just Desserts include:

Anime and Manga

  • Digimon Adventure has chief minion Demidevimon get devoured by his master Venom Myotismon after he decides coming back from the dead has made him hungry.
  • The Immortals of Baccano! can consume eachother and gain eachothers experience by laying their hand on the other immortals forehead. This is how Firo defeats Szilard.
  • In Digimon Xros Wars, Chuuchuumon, a rat puppet Digimon, grew large after seeing Taiki, Mervamon, Wisemon, and Knightmon who are coming to rescue Yuu. Taiki summon Bastemon, a cat-like Digimon, who then gains a Slasher Smile after seeing the mouse. This is a rare case where the one who devours is very, very small compared to the "dessert".
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica has a rare heroic example in Mami Tomoe, who only counts as this because she was uncharacteristically reckless in combat against a Witch.
    • Kyubey does this to himself after Homura riddles him with bullets in episode 8.
  • In Kara no Kyoukai:, Cornelius Alba gets eaten alive by one of Touko's creations.

Comic Books

  • In New Mutants, Wolfsbane had an abusive bigot of a father by the name of Reverend Craig, whose sadistic career came to an end when the brainwashing that he inflicted upon her kicks in, and she mistakes him for the Angel, whom he had ordered her to kill; she lunges at him in her wolf-form, in a bestial state, tearing him to shreds and devouring him. She doesn't remember a thing when she recovers, and her teammates wisely decide to keep it a secret.

Fan Works

  • Alexia's final fate in The Return, devoured by Darkstar.

Film

  • Shrek: Lord Farquaad, the Big Bad, is eaten by the Dragon in the middle of his villainous rant right after crowning himself king. Adding insult to injury, the Dragon then spits the crown out.
    • Also stated to be what the ogres intend for Rumpelstiltskin in Shrek Forever After just before the Reset Button is hit, though it never actually happens.
  • At the end of A Bug's Life, Hopper stupidly believes that the bird is a decoy, the same trick Flik pulled earlier. It isn't. As he taunts the protagonists, the bird proves to be real, and feeds Hopper to its chicks. (And this is a Disney movie, folks!)
  • Jurassic Park, so many times:
    • In the first movie, sysadmin Dennis Nedry sets off the chain of events that releases the animals, and then is eaten by one. Also, while not truly villains, the raptors themselves become prey for the T-Rex at the climax.
    • In The Lost World: Jurassic Park Dieter Stark is devoured by a pack of tiny-but-vicious Compsognathus, and Ludlow gets a truly Karmic Death via the T. rex hatchling.
    • In Jurassic World, Rexy saves the day again, bringing down the Indominus Rex with the help of the Mosasaurus. Meanwhile, Hoskins becomes prey to one of the raptors, again karmic, as he was the one trying to breed them into military grade weapons.
  • Resident Evil. The male security operative who released the T-virus inside the facility is killed and partially eaten by the Licker monster.
  • Subverted in Beetlejuice. The title character is swallowed by a Sand Worm near the end of the movie, but turns up later in the afterlife office none the worse for wear.
  • Cast a Deadly Spell. The Big Bad who summons Cthulhu is grabbed and eaten by him.
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Mola Ram is eaten by crocodiles.
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where The Dragon gets eaten by Siafu
  • Return of the Jedi. Boba Fett (who captured Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back) is swallowed by the Sarlacc, where (according to Jabba the Hutt) he will find a new definition of pain and suffering as he's slowly digested over 1,000 years. But he's Boba Fett so he's too cool to die.
  • Men in Black. Spousal abuser Edgar is skinned and eaten by the Bug.
  • Men in Black 2. Serleena eats a mugger.
    • This appears to be the case at the end, when Serleena is eaten by Jeff, only for her to kill him from inside and morph his body.
  • In The City of Ember, Mayor Cole gets eaten by a giant star-nosed mole.
  • InRomancing the Stone Zolo's hand is bitten off by a crocodile, and then he drops into a pit of them.
  • Scar survives his Disney Villain Death in The Lion King, only to find himself cornered by the hyenas he just threw under the bus.
  • Rampage: Clair - who is obviously more of a monster than the three giant ones - is eaten by George at the climax of the movie.
  • How the eponymous killer in The Gingerdead Man is defeated, which makes perfect sense, seeing as he is a living cookie; well far more sense than anything else in the movie, that is.
  • In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, The Dragon to the Big Bad (more or less) is a possessor, a dangerous malevolvent spirit that can possess and control any nonliving object. Before the Big Bad shows up, it tries to kill Phoebe by taking control of her photon back; when this fails and Podcast smashes the weapon with a sledgehammer, it bails out and takes possession of the nearest oject it can find - a pizza. This proves a mistake, as the always-hungry Slimer appears and gobbles it up.

Literature

  • Short story "Thus I Refute Beelzy". A mentally abusive father is eaten by the title character, his son's not-so-imaginary friend.
  • Famously done in The Silence of the Lambs books. If they are a Bad, it is a good bet that Hannibal Lecter will eat them.
    • Or, in Hannibal, he (in this case, Mason) gets eaten by the wild boars that he thought would eat Hannibal.
  • In Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Mrs. Gorf is tricked into turning herself into an apple. Louis finds the apple and eats it.
    • This happens to Mrs. Gorf again in a later book. She materializes in a plate of potato salad, and John and Joe quickly eat her before she can turn them into apples.
  • In the story of Daniel from The Bible, after having to consign Daniel to a lion's den because of a law that some princes had tricked him into passing because they were jealous of him, King Darius, overjoyed that (as he himself had predicted) the Lord protected Daniel for the night by sending one of his angels to shut the lions' mouths so they could not hurt him, has Daniel taken out of the lions' den. The princes responsible for the law (and their families, in a bit of Disproportionate Retribution) are thrown in instead, where they promptly get eaten by the lions.
  • Happens in H.P. Lovecraft's Short Story "The Cats of Ulthar" to an old couple who killed cats for fun.

Live-Action TV

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Subverted in the episode "The Pack" (s01e06) with Xander and four gang members are taken over by a hyena spirit. As part of their rampage they kill and eat the school mascot pig, and then - when called into the principal's office for questioning - Principal Flutie. It's played straight at the end of the episode when the Zoo Warden (who brought the hyenas so he could get the hyena spirit) gets tossed into the hyena holding pit where he gets eaten.
    • "Graduation Day": Little Bad Principal Snyder gets eaten by Big Bad The Mayor, who has just transformed himself into a giant demon snake thingy.
    • Possibly the coach's fate in "Go Fish":

Xander: Boy, the swim team sure loves their coach!

Even more Squick if you recall that the coach intended to have Buffy to be raped by the fish-men - they had already eaten at that point.

Theatre

  • The opera Hansel and Gretel adds a new element to the familiar tale by the Brothers Grimm: the witch owns a magical oven which bakes children into gingerbread. Of course, the witch gets pushed into it, and a very large piece of gingerbread is brought out at the finale.

Video Games

  • In Overlord 2, the villain's dragon, Marius, is praising his boss after a One-Winged Angel turns him into an all-devouring Eldritch Abomination, his praise is interrupted by the devourer eating him.
  • In Super Mario RPG, after the Bundt cake is beaten down to its last Raspberry layer, it gets swallowed by Booster in one gulp. Of course, it was supposed to be just a dessert in the first place, but instead it came alive and started attacking.
  • Several villains in World of Warcraft:
    • One Alliance quest you can take in the Burning Steppes involves using a disguise to infiltrate the Blacktooth Hovel and, among other things, eliminate three of their leaders. One of them is Worgmistress Othana, a cruel woman who beats and tortures the worgs she is in charge of. After you strike her with the weapon provided by the quest giver, she's paralyzed, and the abused worgs waste no time closing in to finish her off. (It's rather enjoyable to watch.)
    • In Isle of the Giants, Dohaman the Beast Lord is a troll "dinomancer" who has altered a giant devilsaur named Oodasta into a gigantic living siege engine. Before the Raid actually starts, he orders Oondasta to crush the Raid members, but Oondasta decides to devour him before doing so.
    • In the Suramar storyline, one quest requires you to free menagerie animals held with Slave Collars, including another devilsaur named Su'esh. Again, her trainer orders her to attack you, but she does not, and devours him. But that's only the start. You then have to ride Su'esh and go all kaiju on Suramar, crushing and devouring the Legion soldiers.
    • In the Highmountain instance, a Shaman tries to summon Naraxas, a giant worm-like abomination, to sic on your party. It complies, but eats him first.
  • In Hitman 2, one way to eliminate Rico Delgado during the "Three Headed Serpent" mission is to throw him into the pool containing his pet hippopotamus, where the animal attacks and devours him.

Web Comics

Western Animation

  • Bartholomew in The Great Mouse Detective is only a Little Bad, but he is eaten by Professor Ratigan's cat Felicia.
  • In the original Jonny Quest:
    • Episode "Treasure of the Temple". The archeological thief Perkins and his men are eaten by crocodiles.
    • Dr. Ashida is eaten by his own Ashida dragons.
  • Happens to Big Bad Phobos near the end of season 2 of WITCH when he's betrayed by Cedric. However after Cedric's defeat we see that he did manage to survive.
  • The Thief and the Cobbler: Zigzag is eaten by crocodiles and his own pet vulture.
  • In Trolls, Chef and Creek are devoured by a giant hill-monster in a mid-credits scene. A Karmic Death for a couple of Evil Chefs who tried to cook the protagonists and serve them to King Gristle.
  • Possibly what happens to Barry in the Amphibia episode "Sasha's Angels". Originally (in the episode "Cursed", Barry was Maddie's rival, a candy seller and Inept Mage who used witchcraft for petty revenge. In this episode, the rebels (Maddie included) are ambushed by a gang of highwaymen that Barry is leading. The ensuing fight results in the heroes confiscating all their supplies and Barry turned into a chicken (for the second time). His men are upset about being beaten and humiliated and are wondering what they’re going to eat - and then notice their leader is now a chicken. Seeing as Barry does not appear again, it is implied they may have ate him.
  • In the Little Demon episode “Night of the Leeches”, The Devil goes to his friend Baka’s bachelor party, which means they and two other demons are going to “murder dumb humans for kicks”. This time, however, he doesn’t find such atrocities as fun as he used to and goes out of his way to spare many of the intended victims. When his friends (who really aren’t friends at all) realize this and turn on him for “wimping out”, his snake-like valet blindsides Baka and swallows him whole (Satan quickly tears the other two apart). This is very much a Karmic Death for Baka, as this would have been his tenth wedding, and he devoured all nine of his previous wives.
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