DISCUSSION: Killing Off Characters

[diamondpearl876]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but a lot of us kill off our characters. Like, I think at least 3-4 Pidgeots have been killed across 3-4 authors here. What's up with that?

Have you killed off any of your characters, main, supporting, or otherwise? Why or why not? If not, do you plan to sometime in the future?

I write a lot of character-driven work, so it... used to be kind of tough for me to decide to kill of characters. I'm attached to all of them in some way, even minor ones. Now, it comes a little more easily in that if I think it should happen, I'm more comfortable writing the death scenes and how other characters react.

I've killed off one main character so far, and plan to kill off one supporting character and one main character in the future. The link between all of these deaths is that it causes a great deal of conflict among the rest of the character cast, internally and externally.

discuss here and stuff omg

 

[Beth Pavell]

I think some people approach the subject the wrong way - they start with the assumption that a character has to die for the story to be properly gritty and serious, instead of starting with what the story needs to happen. Probably it comes from that hackneyed piece of writing advice that states a good author tortures their characters.

You get this a lot with pen-and-paper RPGs. The only time I deliberately tried to kill a player character, as the GM, was when this particular player started to think he was untouchable. It was less a narrative choice than a little reminder that in my games there's no such thing as invincibility

 

[canisaries]

Well, my fanfics are about TPP, so I can't really kill off any of the "canon" characters without big consequences. I do have complete freedom over killing off the characters I've brought in myself, though. And given the stories are about a serial killer, killing off people isn't a very big leap. It doesn't really have shock value when it's kind of inherently implied. Though while people die for the plot, it's always fun to make it dramatic.

 

[CrystaI]

I haven't killed off any characters in my fic yet, but I planned to so in some future chapters. This event is already listed in my plot agenda.

There are total 2 characters I planned to "kill" in the future, one is a handheld pokemon of the protagonist, second is a handheld pokemon the the second protagonist. And then another character, not necessarily being killed but planned to be severely injured, is the main supporting character that act as the mediator between the previously mentioned two protagonists.

OK, firstly the clarification. Yeah my writing style is character-centric and story plot is character-driven. I don't or very seldom insert events for the mere sake of just having something to do. When something happened, it will always causes some emotional conflict within certain characters, whether that emotional influence is trivially small or significantly large. Death of certain character, to me personally, is a plot device to trigger the largest emotional conflict effect. When it is used, characters directly related to the passing character will experience a significant change in his/her thinking, other characters that are not directly related to but witness the "killing" event will gain awareness and left a unforgettable impression in their mind, which may indirectly causes minor influence to one's emotional behavior. Because this is a very powerful plot device, hence it should be utilize with care.

But hey, I planned to use this device in the future for 2.5 times, am I careless? Maybe, maybe not. The two main protagonists in my fic were both being strong-headed and hence alternatively speaking stubborn at times. If they continue their way of thinking in the same manner as in chapter 1, story will not progress towards the ending like I wanted. That's why "death" comes in which is used as a progression amendment tool.

Is there any disadvantage and/or penalty in using this tool, other than just permanently losing the passing character? Of course there is! The biggest disadvantage is very obviously, the overall atmosphere becomes gloomy and solemn (I don't think there exist any happy-go-lucky carefree death event...... unless it is a slapstick comedy crack fic), where I fear readers will turn away due to such atmospheric change. Well to be fair my fic is not even uploaded for public reading, so I don't care much about losing viewership at this moment. But still for me personally being the writer for this story, it will be tough for me when I work to that point. Not in the writing itself, but just emotionally trying to get pass that point.

 

[lucarioknight56]

I've had characters die in my previous stories, but I found that they didn't have as much impact as I would've liked. In Unequivocant, however...I feel that it will be executed better in that it is a more character-driven plot and how it will end up sparking change throughout the story. I won't say how it will happen or who it will be--I want readers to be surprised, you know?

 

[Persephone]

I constantly struggle between my love for birbs and my duty as a writer to kill them.

 

[Iggy]

The story must demand it, not my own inner urges, before any character leaves the mortal plain of existence. Right now my work in progress fan-fic demands the demise of one particular person. Hopefully it stays at that. Deaths, just as any other event, serve the story or they don't occur. Simple as that.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I have a really, really tough time killing characters. I grow too attached to them and invest too much time into them for it to feel like it's worth it. I do have one that I want to kill off by the end of Land of the Roses but it's going to be very hard on me, even though I realize that they're not a real person and don't actually have a life.

That said, the general concept of killing characters has probably gotten a little out of hand in terms of media today. Ever since Game of Thrones hit the spotlight with its HBO series, it feels like television shows, webcomics and video games have gotten worryingly bloodthirsty just for the sake of reaching that bar, possibly in the hopes of achieving success. A good example is the new Star Trek series, a franchise that historically isn't afraid of death (let's ignore the redshirts of yesteryear), but this newest incarnation is slaughtering the masses like sheep, and it's usually focus characters who are getting brutally shredded to ribbons. It's needless and I worry that this will be the new norm for general media for the next decade or so.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

*glances at the lore for my multiverse, which involves somewhere in the ballpark of quattuornonagintillion* people killed in a single event*

It's never something I've focused on, as it doesn't matter to the story I'm trying to tell, but if someone has to die for the sake of the story, they're thrown onto the chopping block without a second thought

*1, followed by 285 zeroes

 

[Instrutilus]

I not only would happily kill off a character, I'd plan out when it happens and how as one of the first things that goes into the character. And then I'd write them out no different to anyone else, just to ensure no one knows which one of these three people are gonna die.

 

[Natu? Natu!]

I have never killed off any main characters. I'm in no way against doing it per se, I just haven't been in a situation where I have felt that it had been the right decision for the story. A risk with adding characters for the mere purpose of killing them off is that they typically aren't as developed as they would be otherwise, because the author knows what will happen. If a characters dies, I would want it to be something important, something that deeply affects the other characters, and where death itself is part of that. What I mean to say is that if the purpose is to get rid of a character, I would simply have the character leave for something, I wouldn't kill them. Sometimes I feel that killing off characters is used as an easy way to add drama and emotions to a story, when something else could be used instead.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Ever since Game of Thrones hit the spotlight with its HBO series, it feels like television shows, webcomics and video games have gotten worryingly bloodthirsty just for the sake of reaching that bar

They miss the point of why character deaths in A Song of Ice and Fire work. In A Song of Ice and Fire characters die because it makes sense for them to die - plot armour won't save them from making fatal mistakes. When people saw that first major death in Game of Thrones, it defied all the usual conventions, and that's why it had such an impact.

TV being TV, the network execubots concluded that what made the story work was as much violence as possible. In a ridiculous twist of irony, this also coincided with Game of Thrones fan writer's pets gaining suits of plot armour

 

[diamondpearl876]

@canisaries TPP is probably(?) different, but killing canon characters, I think, is totally considered kosher in fanfic. XD Like, we can change the canon world, can change Pokemon colors and moves and other game mechanics, etc, why not canon characters, too? At least, that's how I've always viewed it.

@Crystal Your post brings up a good point. Killing off characters, no matter what the tone of your story was beforehand, can drastically change the story for better or for worse. I guess I did have a lot of fear when starting my fic, Phantom Project, because the tone is so utterly depressing (while the original wasn't quite as so). I didn't want to turn away readers, but really, that's what the series is about at its core: characters and emotions and working together to overcome the worst of the worst. Then of course I had to add the cherry to the pie and add a character death within the first 4 chapters, so, yeah, I see where you're coming from there.

@Twilight-Kun Another good point, lol. Killing off off-screen characters, that is. That probably is a lot easier (omg I sound terrible) in that we're not particularly attached to off screen characters, and some events, like bombings or explosions or whatever, necessarily call for it to make what happens realistic and to up the motivation of characters trying to stop the antagonistic force causing the killings.

 

[chaos_Leader]

In other work I've done, I've killed off several major supporting characters form earlier points in the series as a means to create a "talent vacuum" for the principal characters to fill. An especially relevant point is that one of these characters survives, and goes on to act as a mentor figure to the main protagonist. I knew pretty much from the start that I was going to kill off the characters, and that I wanted it to hurt and leave a lasting impression. It was a way to really drive a spike into the surviving mentor figure, giving him some major, major baggage he has to work through while still looking after the "next generation". Similarly, it impresses upon the younger protagonist (and the readers for that matter) the sheer danger and hazards of what he's getting into. I feel like this death (or collection of multiple deaths at once) succeeded because it fulfilled several roles in the story. It drove the plot along (introducing some juicy revenge elements), made sense in-setting, and deeply affected other significant characters in the process.

I've also successfully and convincingly faked a character's death, and brought them back later. It's actually quite a bit trickier than it sounds. You pretty much go through the motions of an "actual" death, only they suddenly show up later, at which point it ought to be a pretty big deal in-story. When staging a fake death, I feel like it helps to leave few tiny narrative bread crumbs lying about for the readers to find, so when the reader thinks back to the character's fake death, they can go "oh! of course! now it makes sense!" and feel clever for having caught on.

One of these days, I'd like to tackle a story where someone tries to cheat death, either for themselves or another.

 

[Silktree]

The premise of my fanfic is fairly bleak, so it shouldn't be a surprise that there will be at least one death down the line. That's all I want to say about that.

I like how Lost handled the major deaths (there were a lot of them) by exploring their impact and treating the deceased with respect.

 

[AceTrainer14]

I think a lot of people see death as the ultimate dramatic impact moment. To kill a character is to show that things are serious. I will be playing into that a bit in upcoming arcs of Eight Easy Steps (how I made it 121 instalments and seven years without killing anyone, I am not quite sure), but I find when reading that death is almost an easy way out. Someone is gone, but the person is really only hurt emotionally. Ultimately, they can carry on. In that sense, death is often cheap, a momentary glitch that is soon passed over.

I think if you really want some drama, there are often far more effective ways. Some sort of traumatic event, whether mental or physical in its effects, can have a more lasting impact and actually change things, because at the end of the day, if a character is gone, the story can still carry on as was. If a character loses a leg, that's going to complicate things a tad more.

 

[MisheardWhisper]

It's been a while since I wrote a fic that was truly serious enough in tone to warrant a character death. I used to write fics that were dark for the sake of being dark and yes, characters would die. But if I had somebody die in Star Performer, for instance, it would feel totally out of place simply because the fic does not have the emotional capital to deal with it. I'm currently agonising over whether to kill off a minor character who barely even features onscreen as a source of drama, but it just feels out of place for even such a character to die so I'm probably not gonna go through with it.

Course, the flipside is that deliberately avoiding death when it should be there is that your heroes start to seem like they're immune to consequences. Character death obviously has its place, but I don't think that place is in my stories.

 

[jasonwolf]

I mean character deaths have sort of become normal to me. I'm not like desensitized, but I've just found its not really an issue to me. Like yes I'm attached to characters, but the whole "I'm killing my baby!" thing doesn't happen to me. These characters are immortal in my mind because literally I can write them whenever I want and do more with them even after they are dead in the story. If its what is gonna happen in the story then it happens and works out just fine.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Killing a character is the easy part. It's dealing with the aftermath that's the trick - I think I must have said this at least once to Aether, but writing grief is one of the most difficult challenges there is in writing

 

[jasonwolf]

Killing a character is the easy part. It's dealing with the aftermath that's the trick - I think I must have said this at least once to Aether, but writing grief is one of the most difficult challenges there is in writing

I would disagree personally. It's fascinating to write it and It's gonna sound weird if I saw I enjoy it. There's something that does feel right though when you get really into writing it and really share the emotions with your characters.