Look, I actually like it when killing the villain is not a
Golden Snitch nor
The Enemys Gate Is Down. There's
lots of stuff left to clean up after, and stories that don't enforce this take an outright
irresponsible approach. Stories aren't about a villain doing amazing things and heroes defeating them because it's the Right Thing. Stories are about humans overcoming themselves. I for one hate "competence", the ability to accomplish tasks easily and spectactularly. I'm really not interested in how smart or how powerful the villain is, because they, in my mind, are nothing more than a hindrance, an obstacle, an annoyance. What most interests me in a heroic story is the character arc, what it means to be a hero, the obstacles one has to overcome, the responsibilities one has to deal with. Unless the villains are arguably heroes too (in the Greek sense if not in the modern one), I'm really not interested in them, only in the problems they cause and how to remedy them. I'm not even interested in punishing them: as far as I'm concerned, they can disappear into the crowd, as long as I know they won't cause any more problems.
Villains are here to be crushed and expended. Heroes are meant to triumph and exemplify, be intronized in a pedestal as a reminder of the very nature of human struggle.
Ginger: understanding is not the same as agreeing, and neither is the same as
caring. Understand the difference, and clarify what you think you are missing.