How to determine an antagonist's fate

[Caveat Lector]

I sometimes have difficulty determining how I should handle an antagonist's fate at the end of a story, and not just ones I've written or are in the process of writing--even ones who have yet to have an actual place in a story. I'll often make notes about a certain villain, what their backstory is, what their major crime could be, etc., just to have on stand-by. Sometimes, the fate just easily slides into place, but other times I'm not entirely sure. How do you determine an antagonist's fate at the end? The measurement of the crime might be one way, but what about other ways? And also, if you do choose to kill them off, when and how should you make the moment sympathetic?

[dramspringfeald]

The issue is you keep thinking of them as criminals. Remember the Antagonist was at one point the hero. They were fighting the big fight but lost their way along the path. Their best resault would be realizing this and helping the hero out. Either through being the dragon to make sure they can take out the big bad OR sacrificing themselves to save them.

Remember It was fated Anakin Skywalker was going to save the galaxy and by killing the sith lord... and he did just that by sacrificing himself to save his son. They usually aren't criminals they are just lost.

[Greeny]

Alternatively, have them sacrifice themselves in vain for a cause they think is just.

[LVUER]

The fate of antagonist should be dependent on what you're trying to write and the them of your story.

If you are writing kid story, there's only two fate for them.
1. Join the good guys OR become a neutral NPC (not bad anymore but not good either).
2. Disappear into oblivion, AKA dead. But since the protagonist are usually good guys in this kind of story, the antagonist would gladly blow themselves up in dramatic fashion.

Basically like saying: "Don't do any bad things anymore or we'll kill you", in soft way.

But when you're making anything else (especially for adult where story is very important since adults are all human being that need to be satisfied intellectually), you can go anyway you want, as long as it's good. You can even make the antagonist win (and the protagonist is dead) and people will still say your story is good.

Anywhere between, one thing you may want to consider is whether the antagonist crime can be pardoned (or may be justified) and how he can pay for it. If the antagonist make a doom device and then the protagonist finally open his eyes, make him realize his wrong, he usually dies in the process of turning off the doom device.

[wordlesswriter]

Dramspringfeald has a good point- everyone, from their perspective, is the hero in their personal story.

One possible solution is that you could make it into a decision the player makes, either before or during the final encounter. Maybe the MC and Alice talk strategy before the big battle/event and asks what they plan to do.
Another option is that there could be a timed event after their defeat where you have only a few seconds to decide what to do, and in the case of inaction, a third, more decisive character comes in and makes the decision for you, or the bad guy escapes.

Of course, this is from me assuming that this is a physical, high-fantasy style confrontation/defeat. If this was an otome it would be handled in another fashion. Social confrontations are completely different. D:

[merdeamour]

Remember It was fated Anakin Skywalker was going to save the galaxy and by killing the sith lord... and he did just that by sacrificing himself to save his son. They usually aren't criminals they are just lost.

Exactly what was on my mind while reading this. You get the 'sympathy' part when it's shown that the villain was actually the good guy before, and he just lost his way (to quote dramspringfeald).

The issue is you keep thinking of them as criminals

Of course there are antagonists who had backstories that fueled their criminal behavior (Anakin, Galbatorix from Eragon), but there are also antagonists of the purely criminal kind, drug lords, business magnates whose actions were driven just by greed and can't be attributed to a sad backstory. It isn't always that case that the antagonist was the protagonist--aren't there people who are aware that what they're doing is a crime, and hurts other people, but keep on doing it? Making the readers feel sympathy for the villain isn't always the case in every story.