Writer Talk: The Death of a Character · 3:28am Jan 17th, 2015
As authors of fiction, be it science fiction, fantasy or even fan-fiction, we explore the possibilities of where a character begins their journey, through their growth, and finally the end of said journey. It doesn't have to be action oriented, or anything like that; the natural progression of a story is to show us that journey in some way or another—even a vignette, considered in Literature nothing more than a snapshot in time, is still basically showing us a moment of relevance in the life of our character.
But, as we delve into writing our stories, sometimes we deal with the death of a loved character. Someone we've watched grow in our minds through their relationship with other characters, and whose growth we have lovingly written down and shared with our readers.
The choice of killing off a character is viewed in many ways by our readers. Sturm Brightblade's death ensued a serious amount of mail sent to Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman with heated arguments from fans of Dragonlance, accusing the authors of not caring, despite Margaret's insistence that it had been one of the hardest moments in her life to write that scene, having to stop several times because of how emotionally taxing it was.
But here's the thing. She still pulled through and wrote the scene, because Sturm's death had a huge significance to Krynn in general, and more specifically to the Companions of the Lance and even more so to the Knights of Solamnia. There was a lot of significance in that scene: The battle of Good vs Evil. The knowing sacrifice of Sturm's life to rally the knights to fight and fend off the enemy. The contrast between himself, a mere Knight of the Crown truly embodying the soul of the knighthood (and unknowingly resonating with Huma Dragonbane) and Derek Crownguard, a full-fledged Knight of the Rose, who sought glory rather than honor, ironically with the result that the lower-ranked knight achieved the highest honors possible the Solamnic Order could give, and Derek simply faded into nothing, his death insignificant even to the readers. Of course, if we delve deeper into it, the betrayal of friendship, the fact that Kitiara (mother of Steel Brightblade) was the one that killed him, etc. increase the significance of this moment, and yes, it's true that not all character deaths can be as pivotal as Sturm's.
When we translate that into our own writing here, for example, I have seen several authors balk at the thought of going through with their plans of potentially having to kill off a character, not because it would have significance but because they fear the reaction of their readers accusing them of doing things just for shock value, rather than a thought-out moment with an objective. In a way its understandable: the world of MLP is for the most part light and careless, mostly quirky with the actual 'darkness' as little more than questionable choices and gut reactions that, if wrong, get resolved (in the show) within 30 minutes.
But we're not writing for the show. Or the show. Thankfully. I mean... it would be horrible. We write stories for an audience that, in its vast majority, does not qualify as children. We examine possibilities that they will never examine in the show itself. Or even in the commissioned fanfics comics: we can and do take leaps into territories that deserve exploring. Ideas that jump out of watching a moment of doubt in a character in a tv show, that spawn thousands of words taking the meaning behind that to the extreme. So, why should we authors shy away from a character's death, IF it's relevant to the story?
Don't be afraid. Before you write the death of a beloved character, ask yourself: "What is the point of this? What does it achieve, other than show how horrible X is?" Because that will elevate you from those accusations of you writing a scene just for shock value. If it has purpose. If it changes things for better or worse in a way that's significant to the story, don't be afraid. The readers worth keeping will stay anyway, because all good readers (and there's not that many out there) know that there's always more.
For me, this was Lyra in the Empty Room.
What about you? Who was/is your Lyra or your Sturm?
I love when character death happens with no drama or fanfare. Just like, bam, they're dead, scene continues, emotions later. I believe Fallout: Equestria has one of these with Steelhooves.
Worth noting that this can go the other way, too. While I admire G.R.R.Martin for being able to recognise that sometimes, good guys do die, I must criticise him for overusing it. It's gotten to the point where I'm no longer surprised when a character is betrayed a couple books after they're introduced. Hell, I'm pretty sure that his mass character-culling has caused me to cease caring about the good guys completely, knowing that it's only a matter of time.
2727882
If I'm not mistaken, Steelhooves' death wasn't really like that. He got his head cut off, Littlepip saw it, flipped out, and threw all the hellhounds in the area a mile straight up before dropping them. Weeping ensued.
In the Belgariad series, it would have to be Durnik at the end of the last book, as it gave everyone conviction to do what needed done to resist the darkness. It also didn't come out of nowhere either. The character tried to do something that they knew they wouldn't win, but had to due to honor, and fighting for what was right.
haha
oh wow
got me there
2727910 Yeah, there's always a couple that despite their physical age can't qualify as adults. Or even teenagers.
Mine would be SteelHooves from Fallout Equestria. Just felt his death ended up changing the stakes in the conflict Littlepip was in. I'm currently actually writing my own FoE side fic and even pondered about killing off one of the main characters that my main character ends up having a deep friendship with to the point of feeling like family to her. But when I thought about it more, I just really didn't want to kill any of the main cast at all . . . but killing ponies that the cast befriends over time with their deaths being a result of some of their actions? That, I may end up doing.
So you are saying that one was seeking wide spread approval while the other was seeking personal dignification more along the lines of morality that the lines of the public?
I don't know from what story Sturm is from so I'm just checking that I understood this part correctly because I might be a bit fuzzy about the difference between seeking glory and honor.
This blog was a very nice read D.
~Leonzilla
2727892 That sounds mostly accurate, minus the weeping. I'm pretty sure the lack of fanfare was indicating they didn't get that cliche last goodbye as he lay there bleeding like you see in every movie.
I guess you could count RD's death and replacement in "Getting What you Wanted" but that was a 1,111 word short story.
Character death is not beyond the ken of my stories(no pony has 100% plot armor), but the closest I have come to a main character is when Misty Midnight (the main character in pegasus horns) was captured by Celestia and imprisoned. All of a sudden the story changed its point of view to another character since the main character was now indefinitely indisposed.
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Hard to say goodbye when your head's several feet from your body.
But anyway, AP's post was about there being no drama/emotions in the scene, which isn't really true.
Hrm… I'm not sure how many beloved characters I can think of that have died truly meaningful deaths... Steelhooves dying in Fallout: Equestria disappointed me a bit, I suppose, but it wasn't that impactful or dramatic, honestly. Puppysmiles' death in Pink Eyes was moreso, but still not quite the same.
Looking further back, the death of Gerald Tarrant at the end of The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman is much closer, though it's hinted at that it was more a sacrifice of identity than life, which is a theme that's somewhat reprised in the end of The Madness Season, also by C.S. Friedman, wherin the protagonist—a shapeshifter—takes over for the queen of a racial hivemind after killing her.
Honestly, though… if you're looking for the one big one of my childhood, it'd have to be Aeris/th from Final Fantasy VII, which is really disappointing to admit, since I don't even like the game much. Still, it's the one where I had to pull my mom in and replay the death scene just to go "LOOK HOW SAD THIS IS MOM ;_;"
…yeah, that was awkward.
As for me as an author… well, the only non-antagonists I've ever killed were the previous generation of alicorns in Sharing the Night, and I basically went into writing that flashback with the goal of making them all flawed and ill-fated exactly enough for them to both be relatable, and yet have no one be too upset to see them die. I'm not sure that I succeeded, but I also doubt anyone was exactly surprised to see them go, so… well, it's kind of a wash, I guess.
Yeah, Lyra in Empyt Room whe I first read it was heart broken, like a little part of me died with that character. Truth be told, while I'm eager to see that fics re-writen update. I dread seeing that. It was tragic, added even more tragedy after the fact ... but I in a way get it. Almost. Her spirit staying strong in the face of an unimaginable evil. Then death ... honestly I remember when I read her death scene, even havign read the trope page was hoping for a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShootTheRope or a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheManTheyCouldntHang just to see her pull through.
Noetheless, while I dread seeing that scene again. I'll be waiting to see her death and the pain / horror (InVerse) it causes in the rewrite.
If you haven't played Halo 4 don't read this!
For me it was Cortana, I'm not sure why. It just stuck with me.
Diamond Tiara Dies Alone was emotionally wracking. (I'm sure it's obvious who died.)
Other than that, in ponyfics I've only ever killed characters for the comedy value.
In non-pony writing, I wrote a novel where every named character died (no, I'm not George RR Martin). Some of those were easier than others.
I think the hardest death scene I ever wrote was where the protagonist accidentally killed his girlfriend.
As for published fics? Man, that runs the gamut. I'd have to skim through a bunch of half-remembered novels to give a complete list, but in a nutshell, Lee Scorsbee in The Subtle Knife, the admiral in Alistar MacLean's H.M.S. Ulysses, the old-timer in King's Insomnia, and Hazel in Watership Down. Paksenarrion's near suicide in The Deed Of Paksenarrion was a very powerful scene too.
And it's worth mentioning some fanfictions that have stuck with me, too. I'll spoiler the character names, just to be safe. Trixie, in Through The Eyes of Another Pony, and Rarity's speech in It's A Dangerous Business just before the World Serpent comes crashing down . . . also, Simply Rarity.
There is a guy here on fimfic called Airstream that in my oppinion do charcaters deaths pretty well. The final chapters of Dusks dangeorus game is a good example, at least I think so.
1) Screw you for killing Lyra
2) That Protag's girlfriend in "Alchemist's Heart". Boy, that was a dark chapter.
3) I have a character that is rather adamant against dying due to his entire family dying from a parasite, though its more of a background event.
Lyra...wow...yeah...Empty room was the fanfic that sucked me into the fandom...I was a casual observer until I hit upon empty room....and Lyra..she was the apex, the defining moment that made me a fanfic brony now and maybe forever. I remember reading it...and I remember pausing, mid story, and just letting the enormity wash over me. I don't think I've found a moment quite that intense sience (a few have come close).
I killed Celestia once. But these days I try not to think about that particular project anymore.
If we're discussing deaths in other fiction that stuck with me... I guess, Rorschach from Watchmen, L from Death Note, John Marston from Red Dead Redemption and Walter White from Breaking Bad.
...And... fine... I guess I'll also say SteelHooves.
Gods, Dragonlance. It's been so long.
A Song of Ice and Fire taught me that you can kill off characters... but if you fail to replace them with interesting characters in turn, you run into a very serious problem which is that your plots falter and you shove useless chars down the throats of your readers.
In A Feast for Crows and a Dance with Dragons we're stuck with Theon and, even worse, the gorram Greyjoys, who are an agony and I couldn't care less if they lived or died (hoping, begging that they would die and be replaced with someone better.)
For deaths that really got to me, I think one of the first was Major Hughes in Full Metal Alchemist. I just didn't seem it coming at all at the time. Another brilliant one was the death of The Boss/The Joy in Metal Gear Solid 3. On the pony fanfiction front, I'll go with Sun Goddess by Skywriter.
The "necessity" of a character's death indicates a pre-determined outcome of a story. I prefer the characters to dig their way into or out of their own graves.
I have to tell, my stories are too light hearted to bear the tematic of death.
There are only two instances of a character of mine dying (SPOILER ALLERT): Night in CMC Nightmares and Northern Sky in How to Save a Nightmare. Of the two, this last one was my first time facing a character of mine dying, and even if it's not nearly as epic as Sturm's death, Northern Sky story and death made my world shift a little, both the story one and my own, pointing both of them to their current places.
I remember seeing some commentary from the show writers at a convention panel that this was basically the point of the library getting blown up. Given what the show is they could never get away with killing a main character (or really anyone other than the occasional villain, which to my memory might only be Sombra up to this point), so taking out a beloved piece of scenery that has been the heart of the show since episode one was more or less the next best thing.
It's not like they couldn't have grown the new Castle without getting rid the library, after all.
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That wasn't good character death, it was 10k words of brutal torture and rape with a brief pause in the middle for decapitation, all wrapped in a plot line that could only make sense if every single pony in the Canterlot legal system was incompetent. It was also the moment I downvoted, untracked, unfollowed, and swore off reading anything by that author ever again.
That is a tough question. I've read a lot of good books in which a beloved character dies. Most of the time it is an unfair or horrible death. Off the top of my head one of those characters that struck me was David (I think that's his name, been a couple years) in the Pennykettle Dragon books by Chris D'Lacey. (Pretty sure that's his last name XD) I highly recommend them. (Second book not the greatest) David was, for the most part, innocent from everything until certain events eventually brought him into the chaos. He was a very, very relatable character which made it harder in the end.
2727921 was honestly expecting this altho in the form of a writers guide thing OH WELL
hmmm emotional deaths Walker Boh from the Shannara series of books. guy has a massive shitload on his shoulders from day one. hes basically hit with the DESTINY (tm) stick and told wel lyour the last druid alive it' your job to bring them back.
he achieves this by being the sourest most secretive "mysterious" asshole on the planet this is literately the last person you want to trust anything to hes bitter resentful of having a massive task thrust upon him and most of all Alone.
when he finally meets his end it's the saddest thing ive ever his death is unnoticed by the world. and that's it a signifigant character in every book up to his death and it passes without thought. i still cry.
I have always personally been a fan of the story where the hero dies in the end. Its's tragic, it's heroic and most importantly it prevents terrible sequeals.
I once killed off everyone's favourite character. Not because of anything spectacular (well, he did die while killing a dragon...), but rather, because I flipped a coin to see who bit it.
It could have gone either way, and there definitely was an outlash, but hey. That's the way probability works. 49% heads, 49% tails, 2% neither.
2727882 I agree entirely. However, I also apparently like stories where the entire thing was actually about the subplots, and the main plot ends unresolved due to the fact that the main character dies before he actually achieves his goal, thus letting evil triumph.
this reminds me of that movie, Stranger Than Fiction. some of the story is about this very same dilemma.
I can't think of very many character deaths that truly got me upset. I think they affect me more not by trying to feel sad, but just bleak and empty. I remember the anime Evangelion hitting me pretty hard in that way.
I am not generally a fan of character death, and I can lay the blame at the almost ENTIRELY at the door of Marvel, in their New X-Men run. Wherein they killed SO MANY named character in such a short period of time (for no good reason), that by the time they had one of the character abruptly shot in the head by a sniper, I said "Oh. Another one." So whatever they had been attempting, what they achieved was the absolute death-knell to any author or writer: apathy.
It was only sheer-bloodymindedness and the knowledge that the cmcis often hit a low point before picking up again that kept me reading. (Until a year or two ago, where I dropped almost all the X-Men stuff, save only the one That Has Jubilee In It, and only because Jubilee is my favorite character of all time.)
It CAN, of course, be handled well. Unfortunately, in this day and age, it usually isn't. It's either used for shock value or for a false sense of realism (seriously, chaps, if I want realism in my telly or reading, I'll read nonfiction) because that's what Hollywood thinks is mature this week. ("Look, anyone can die! Feel the tension!" Oh, so anyone can die, can they? Well, guess I won't bother getting invested in any of characters then, because you aren't...)
Examples of it being handled well?
Boromir in LotR, I think.
Tara in Buffy, for the sole reason I've never forgiving Joss Whedon for that. (Not just for killing her off, but for the actual dirty trick of putting her name in the credits of that episode's intro so you thought "oh, how nice, she's finally becoming a proper main character" AND I FELL FOR IT. The worst thing is, it's EXACTLY the kind of dirty trick I'd have done in his position... And this is why I started watching Agents of SHIELD with a reminder to not get too attached to any of the characters...)
Naruto - at least in the first parts and not towards the increasing poor end - handled it well. But to be fair to Naruto, the characters it killed off have a SERIOUS lasting effect. You still see the Third Hokage in flashbacks and memories into the very end, over a decade after it happened, and that, I think, is pretty unusual.
THAT, I think is a VERY important part of killing a character off: You should only ever kill a character off if the story you tell AFTER they die with regard to the other characters is more engaging than the one you can tell with them alive. If you just kill a character off, have a death/funeral scene and never mention them again... You're doing it wrong.
Also, it shouldn't be over done. There is a very real truth to the saying, one death is a tragedy, several is a statistic. The dramatic impact of character death is not directly proportional to the amount of characters you kill. (Something comic writers and movies writers would these days be advised to remember.)
A few with great impact is far better than to do so many that your readers just decide to stop caring about any of the characters.
I feel like I want to mention Optimus Prime, but considering how he is killed off at least once in every Transformers continuity that has ever existed (and sometimes more than once) I'm never sure whether that's a good example or not...! (Though there is a good reason why I use "died more times than Optimus Prime" as a point of comparison...)
Sturm Brightblade. Hah, the death in Dragon Lance that got to me was Flint.