Put simply, “villain gets the girl” describes any book where the heroine ultimately ends up in a romantic (or romantic enough) relationship with the bad guy.
Thereadinglifeblog.com describes it as “a trope where the villain is the love interest instead of the hero and gets the girl in the end.”
One Villain Gets the Girl Goodreads list describes books that belong on the list as “Romance where the hero does bad things and/or is completely ruthless in his pursuit of the heroine, but still manages to get his HEA with the heroine. Preferably books where the hero doesn’t have a complete turn around and become a good guy.”
“Villain gets the girl” is one of the rare romance tropes I think I could apply to pretty much all of my novel ideas. After reading Seven Figure Fiction, I realized one favorite bit of “butter” for me was when the actual villain in the story ended up with the protagonist at the end—without undergoing a redemption arc. It’s deliciously transgressive and exciting, and it’s a powerful illustration of how dark fiction allows readers to explore otherwise off-limits places in their imaginations, like choosing the bad guy.
Since this trope is tragically rare, I felt compelled to write it myself in stories like Random Acts, my Innocent series, and so many of my planned novels. The vast majority of my stories, written or not, revolve around a compelling villain who eventually claims the heroine for good, whether she fully embraces it or not. It’s a gothic relationship trope to its core, so it’s my happy place. I’m not cut out to write romance, but I am absolutely cut out to write dark fantasy novels that revolve around a heroine and an utterly obsessed, usually larger-than-life villain (this will be Dark Lord’s Conquest in an absolute nutshell once I expand it).
Here are the key elements that, in my interpretation, make something a Villain Gets the Girl book.
What Villain Gets the Girl Must Be
These are the elements that must exist for this trope to be this trope. In villain-gets-the-girl, there’s actually only one requirement. Three guesses what it is.
The heroine and the villain must end up together: This is the be-all-end-all of the trope. Literally what it’s named for. The heroine can’t merely end up with the villain for a time and then get away or be let go by him or whatever. They must end up together by the end (happily or otherwise), or it’s not a villain gets the girl book.
Villain Gets the Girl Reader Expectations
These are the things readers expect when picking up a villain gets the girl story—the reasons they pick it up and love it.
The villain should be an actual villain: Within the context of the story, this trope works best if the villain love interest functions as an actual villain for some characters, even if that character isn’t the heroine. At the very least, he should fit a role that’s almost always played by the villain in any other genre. He might be a serial killer, world-dominating emperor, mob boss, dark lord, supervillain, terrorist, dictator, etc. The more larger-than-life and the more the role is traditionally always played by a villain, the stronger the effect.
The villain should remain a villain: I almost listed this as a genre requirement, but I think there are enough counterexamples that are considered villain gets the girl for it to go here instead. By and large, readers who love this trope do NOT want a bad guy turned good guy, but I think they would be okay with a villain turned antihero or a misunderstood villain who the story reveals to not truly be the villain even though he walks the walk. I do think the vast majority of villain gets the girl fans want a true villain who remains a villain, though.
The villain-heroine relationship should be prominent: The main plot doesn’t have to revolve around the heroine and villain’s relationship. It doesn’t even have to have much “screen time,” technically. But readers will absolutely want some delicious, sexually and/or romantically charged encounters between the heroine and the villain. You risk “villain decay” if you have the heroine and the villain together too often in a way that’s too familiar, but there should be a balance.
The villain should be compelling as hell: The villain should have an attractive exterior and an attractive personality, even if he’s utterly awful. The reader should go crazy for the villain even if the heroine resists him fervently.
The heroine shouldn’t immediately swoon over the villain: I think resistance is a key part of what draws readers to this dynamic. It would strain most readers’ beliefs if the heroine were an ordinary woman who just hopped into the villain’s arms the second he showed an interest in her. Also, yawn. It kills all of the tension and conflict if the heroine immediately loves him.
Villain Gets the Girl Options
It can be a romance, but it doesn’t have to be: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a popular villain gets the girl adult fantasy novel, though one could argue that it doesn’t entirely count. Of course, romance books dominate this trope, but you’d be surprised by the number of fantasy novels that also qualify.
The heroine/villain can be in love or not: There’s probably a subset of villain gets the girl fans who require the heroine to fall for the villain as hard as the villain falls for her. But I think quite a few readers would eat up a book with this trope that’s more about obsession, possessiveness, control, sexual attraction, and other darker, more nuanced feelings. Likewise, I don’t think all readers of this trope are looking for an ending where the heroine is perfectly happy alongside the villain.
Stories About Getting with the Villain Will Never Die
Whether they’re part of dark romance, villain romance, gothic fiction, literary fiction, or something else, I bet my money that readers will continue to be obsessed with stories where the protagonist chooses the villain. There’s something dark and primal about our attraction to danger, power, and the forbidden, and that’s perfectly encapsulated in the Villain Gets the Girl Trope.
I personally like to take the trope in different directions. Sometimes the protagonist chooses the villain in the end. Sometimes the villain chooses them, and they relent. Regardless, it’s such a fascinating way to explore the morally gray (or black), transgressive areas of our imagination. No matter who cries that choosing the villain, even in fiction, is wrong and dangerous and we shouldn’t go there, even in our minds, the darkly curious among us are still going to use our imaginations and go there. I sure know I will.