Died in Disgrace
"Death comes to us all, Oroku Saki. But something much worse comes for you. For when you die, it will be...without honor."
-Splinter to the Shredder, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990
Villains who have particularly shameful and ignominious ends, dying without a person to care about them and also usually in the midst of committing or attempting to commit another foul deed. Specific examples of villains who Die in Disgrace include...
- Villains who try to kill the heroes after being offered mercy only to end up dying in the process (Gaston is a good example)
- Villains who are betrayed and/or killed by their fellows, as they've been forsaken even by their so-called "allies". Could be considered a kind of brutal karma.
- Villains who are pure evil (for examples of that, see my Complete Monster lists) that finally get their just desserts in a particularly painful and/or satisfying manner. Alternatively villains who die shortly after crossing the Moral Event Horizon (which does not automatically lead to a Complete Monster, though it can potentially).
- Villains who die in an ill-conceived, foolish, and/or desperate attempt on the heroes' life, such as an "I'm taking you with me" type attack that backfires. Khan Noonien Singh, Lexaeus, and MCU Whiplash are good examples of that.
- Villains who try to weasel their way out of their predicament by trying to talk the heroes into mercy, only for the disgusted hero to kill them anyway.
- Villains who are offered redemption and die turning it down (similar to the first one).
- Villains who die in the process of having a Villainous Breakdown. For more information on what that entails, please see either the TV Tropes or Villain's Wiki articles on the subject.
- Villains who commit suicide to avoid facing the music for their crimes (Hitler and Nero to give some examples of that)
And so with all of that out of the way, here's a list of villains who died any one of the aforementioned kinds of shameful demises.
