User blog:KillRoy231/Series that no longer kill main villains

The age of the classic old-fashioned ending is ending. As far as I know, the only movie this year to kill off its main villain is Resurrection F (released yesterday), which sees Frieza destroyed for the second time.

I can list 11 series that used to kill off the main villains but don't anymore:

In order of when they stopped: (warning: contains spoilers for these series)

Batman (Tim Burton series)
Both main villains of Batman & Robin, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy, are committed to Arkham Asylum, and the former turns good. Incidentally this was the worst film of the series, prompting its cancellation and reboot of a more realistic and dark film trilogy
 * 1) Batman - Joker falls to his death
 * 2) Batman Returns - Penguin falls into a pool of poisoned water
 * 3) Batman Forever - Two-Face falls to his death (even if the Riddler is imprisoned)

Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon Super S, while killing off Zirconia, has the true villain, Queen Nehelenia, survive, reimprisoning herself in her mirror to regain eternal youth
 * 1) Sailor Moon - Princess Serena blasts Queen Beryl and the Negaforce to oblivion
 * 2) Sailor Moon R - Wiseman, the true main villain of the season, is vaporized by Princess Serena and Rini
 * 3) Sailor Moon S - Sailor Uranus stabs Germatoid in the eye, Hotaru destroys Mistress 9 from within, and Sailor Moon destroys Pharaoh 90 from within

Although the reboot Sailor Moon Crystal did kill Queen Metalia

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Though Drusilla survives Season 2... Season 7 has The First as an unkillable, non-corporeal villain, so the best they can do is destroy his army and render him effectively powerless
 * 1) Season 1 - Buffy impales the Master on a broken piece of wood
 * 2) Season 3 - Giles blows up Mayor Wilkins with explosives
 * 3) Season 4 - Buffy tears out Adam's heart
 * 4) Season 5 - Giles kills Glory by smothering Ben
 * 5) Season 6 - Dark Willow flays and incinerates Warren

Shrek
Shrek Forever After sees Rumpelstiltskin, the most evil villain of the series, imprisoned in a cage at the swamp, and he's still there by Christmas
 * 1) Shrek - Dragon eats Lord Farquaad. She even kills his ghost for good measure in the spinoff Shrek 3D.
 * 2) Shrek 2 - Fairy Godmother is destroyed by her own attack
 * 3) Shrek the Third - Dragon kills Prince Charming with her tail

Kirby
Though King Dedede survives the first game and reforms... Kirby's Return to Dream Land has Magolor survive and turn good
 * 1) Kirby's Adventure - Kirby destroys Nightmare with the Star Rod
 * 2) Kirby's Dream Land 2 - Kirby destroys Dark Matter
 * 3) Kirby's Dream Land 3 - Kirby destroys Zero (who returns as the undead 02)
 * 4) Kirby: The Crystal Shards - Kirby destroys 02 for good
 * 5) Kirby & the Amazing Mirror - Kirby destroys Dark Mind
 * 6) Kirby: Canvas Curse - Kirby destroys Drawcia
 * 7) Kirby: Squeak Squad - Kirby destroys Dark Nebula
 * 8) Kirby's Epic Yarn - Kirby destroys Yin-Yarn
 * 9) Kirby: Mass Attack - Kirby destroys Necrodeus

Spartacus
In War of the Damned, Marcus Crassus not only survives, but wins, as his men kill Spartacus. At least the other villains on this list either turn good, are imprisoned, or are utterly defeated some other way. This takes it a step further.
 * 1) Blood and Sand - Spartacus slits Batiatus's throat
 * 2) Vengeance - Spartacus rams a sword down Glaber's throat

Winx Club
Though the Trix survive Season 1 to return in later seasons and end up imprisoned in all versions: Season 5 has Tritannus banished to Oblivion, and the Trix are main villains of Season 6. Though my allegiance is to the RAI dub, as it is the best dub, and it ends at Season 4 (Seasons 5 and 6 were only dubbed in Nickelodeon, which I heard isn't that good)
 * 1) Season 2 - The Winx destroy Lord Darkar with Charmix Convergence
 * 2) Season 3 - Bloom destroys Valtor by putting his flame out
 * 3) Season 4 - Nabu destroys Duman with a magic sphere, and Ogron, Anagan, and Gantlos are frozen by the Winx and Nebula and fall into a crevice to their doom (I'm sure they shattered to pieces on impact like that bird that the snake froze)

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
First main villain, Nightmare Moon, was Luna corrupted, so naturally she'd be restored, plus this was before the fandom existed. Discord was turned to stone again because that's what the Elements did the first time, as well as leaving open possibility of his return as he is fun to have around. So, starting from after him: After people were disappointed with Sombra's death despite hating him so much (and despite the fact that they pretty much asked for it), Equestria Girls saw Sunset Shimmer reformed. While she isn't evil enough to be killed in this show, Lord Tirek in Twilight's Kingdom was, but instead he gets de-powered and re-imprisoned in hell. Rainbow Rocks saw Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk de-powered and run off, and The Cutie Map saw Starlight Glimmer run off without even being de-powered.
 * 1) A Canterlot Wedding - Queen Chrysalis is blasted over the edge of Canterlot (high up a mountain) and presumably falls to her doom (comics aside)
 * 2) The Crystal Empire - King Sombra is destroyed by the power of the Crystal Heart. Meghan McCarthy confirmed it if there was ever any doubt

Disney movies
I'll be brief here: Evil Queen, Man, Maleficent, Edgar (presumably), Madame Medusa (presumably), Percival C. McLeach, The Horned King, Professor Ratigan, Sykes, Ursula, Gaston, Oogie Boogie, Jafar, Sa'luk, Scar, Zira, Frollo, Shan Yu, Hopper, Clayton, Kron, Carnotaur, Yzma (presumably), Rourke, Kraken, Scroop, Syndrome, Charles Muntz, Dr. Facilier, Mother Gothel, Mor'du, Mr. Whiskers, and King Candy were all killed off. Disney movies are the reason I am old-fashioned with villains because I grew up watching the earlier Disney movies.

Then came Frozen. Prince Hans is now the third Disney Princess villain not to die, first being Lady Tremaine from Cinderella and Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas. Although Jafar did not die in the first Aladdin, he did in the second. Big Hero 6 follows soon after with Yokai. Instead of killing the villain, they killed good characters related to the protagonists, so don't even try the "trying to be more kid-friendly" excuse.

X-Men
Though Magneto survives all films up until the one where he is immediately revived... Like Spartacus, X-Men takes the villain survival a step further in Days of Future Past by having the heroes' main objective be to save the villain, Bolivar Trask, on account of his death causing the Apocalypse. (usually it's a villain causes the apocalypse and they have to kill him to prevent it, like Frieza in Resurrection F) At least he is arrested afterwards instead of winning, but it is also worth noting that, while history definitely was altered for the better, it also resurrected Stryker.
 * 1) X2 - William Stryker is killed when the dam burst
 * 2) X-Men: First Class - Magneto kills Sebastian Shaw by sending a Nazi coin through his brain
 * 3) The Wolverine - Wolverine throws Ichirō Yashida over a mountain

I bet Apocalypse survives X-Men: Apocalypse.

Marvel Cinematic Universe
Though The Abomination survives The Incredible Hulk, and recurring villains Loki and Thanos will always survive: I always thought Ronan's death was both spectacular and epic enough to be reserved for Thanos, plus I always imagined the Avengers would play out the same scenario with the Infinity Gauntlet. Turns out my suspicions about Ronan's death being the grand finale of villain death scenes were correct, because in Avengers: Age of Ultron, according to the novelization, Ultron survives and runs off.
 * 1) Iron Man - Obadiah Stane falls into the large arc reactor
 * 2) Iron Man 2 - Ivan Vanko blows himself up
 * 3) Captain America: The First Avenger - Red Skull is destroyed by the tesseract
 * 4) Iron Man 3 - Aldrich Killian is blasted to oblivion by Pepper
 * 5) Thor: The Dark World - Malekith is crushed by his falling ship
 * 6) Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Alexander Pierce is shot by Nick Fury
 * 7) Guardians of the Galaxy - Ronan is destroyed by the Guardians of the Galaxy (cept Groot)

Other notes
Contains spoilers for Fairy Tail and Game of Thrones

It is somewhat ironic that Fairy Tail, a series that almost never kills off villains, killed off a main villain, Hades, for the first time in 2014, a year when most movies and shows don't do so. Likewise, Game of Thrones, which rarely had villains killed outside of Daenerys's story, in 2014 killed the closest the series had to a mvin villain: Joffrey.

Spoilers end here

So... is anyone else as old-fashioned with villains as I am or is Joffrey the only villain you ever wanted to be killed off?