What's the worst thing you've ever done to a character?

Unnamed characters don't count, but named Asshole Victims do.

Personally, I tend to create plans for killing off characters in horrible ways, then not carry out those plans when I actually write the story. At worst, my characters have been tortured over long periods of time, and those characters always find some manner of happy ending.

I just excluded unnamed characters in an attempt to leave out Apocalypse Wow. It doesn't really count for much if millions of unnamed people burn to death in agony. (As for trauma versus death, either will do.)

edited 24th Oct '11 1:19:12 AM by feotakahari

Unnamed characters should too count. Ethical issues aside, if anyone did something more horrible to a nameless mook then one of their main characters, I'd be very interested to hear it.

I'll have to think about this some myself - I'm not terribly big on angst. By the way, are we talking "worst thing" as in Trauma Conga Line, Cruel and Unusual Death, or both?

thats hard to answer.

+1 post

Well, I did subject one character to a heart attack, made her husband watch, and made her doctor believe it was all her fault. That doctor was also subject to oodles of Fantastic Racism and nearly froze to death once, and nearly suffocated another time. Another character had to watch a man die and then get blamed for the murder.

Wow, that all sounds pretty harsh when it's all down on one page. I'm sure somebody can top it, though.

One of the more gruesome ways I've killed off a character is shooting him through the throat and showing the (initial) writhing around in pain you'd expect from a throat hit.

The scene where this happens is played for characterization and a tad bit of drama since he had started being firmly established over the course of the few chapters he was in.

He doesn't get forgotten either. I have a bit of a Continuity Nod planned for the third book that involves this character.

Well, if we're going by worst single event, I'd have to go with heavy duty magical torture. One character gets kidnapped and forced to experience death. Without the finality of it. Multiple times.

If we're going by most horrible things over the course of a story, well... Has to fight to the death at age 14, both her parents are killed shortly afterwards, the same killer tries to kill her and almost succeeds, she gets flung into an alternate universe where her parents are alive, has her powers stripped away, and gets gang-raped by a psychopath.

A girl gets gang-raped by half dozen thugs, dismembered via motorcycles on each of her limbs, and lastly, getting her head smashed with sledgehammer. In two tries. Luckily for her, she does not survive.

A guy gets dragged around by a motorcycle like a rag doll for a hour. Then the thugs (fyi, it’s the same ones from above) proceeds to beat him with all kinds of implements, golf club, aluminum bat, beer bottles, crowbar, whathaveyou. Would have been decapitated by a chainsaw were it not for his superpowered alter id kicking in.

Then there’s an urban legendary figure. He first got shot in the back with a assault shotgun (Daewoo USAS-14 (upgrade version) to be specific) twice, got shot by dozen M4 Carbine, got his left arm blown up by grenade launcher, ran over by a jeep that mounted gatling gun, which proceeds to practically saw through him. Then he got hit by a three sniper rounds to the head and an anti material round to the torso, which completely blows it up reduces him to lower half. It still walks around to give one last extremely painful kick to the groin to a soldier before falling down.

Pretty sure anyone can top this, though.

...I created them.

I'm not sure if I can top your examples, but I do have something pretty bad.

My main character's father thought he was gonna have a normal day at work, until he was kidnapped and imprisoned, despite there being no charges against him. He finds out soon that he's been placed on death row, all in the name of keeping him and other scientists who are working on his specific invention (a living human clone) from spreading their "heresy".

A lot of Cold-Blooded Torture ensues to make sure he doesn't think about escaping. He's rescued before his execution day, but he's so badly scarred physically and mentally that his own son hardly recognizes him.

I had Naruto blow up a crowd of Mooks using exploding clones, then clean up the aftermath.

This is far from the worst of this thread, but posting anyway because as far as I know none of you have had a main character's testicle torn out in a real world, non-action oriented setting. Character is also permanently crippled. Yay, playing injuries realistically.

edited 24th Oct '11 8:54:40 AM by Merlo

I thought that too and came back here to post that, but you beat me to the punch.

I was actually going to say:

"The worst thing I have ever done to my characters was bring them into the cruel, messed up world I created. Truly, it would be better if they were never born. Death would an indulgence for such characters."

When I imagine my avatar saying that as the diabolical creator it makes it seem more sinister!

It's spoilerific, but Justin breaks down hard throughout his story and ends with a less than desirable state.

Oh, this is pretty bad.

[name withheld] and [name withheld] were taken into custody as prisoners of war, knocked unconscious, and taken to a very rural village for execution. The two were brutally tortured and starved during the days leading up to their execution, and one of them gave his life to allow the other to escape, who survived. The one who remained did not and was hanged, then his body was left to decompose, be desecrated by the villagers, and get picked apart by crows.

edited 24th Oct '11 2:51:07 PM by CrystalGlacia

I have done horrible, horrible things to characters from New Dawn.

Matthew: A homeless boy who was born out of wedlock, dropped off on to the street and abandoned, picked up by the BEST DAD EVER Kyrio, brainwashed into thinking he had been born into a real family, but that his first dad was abusive due to Matthew's mom dying giving birth to him. Then Matthew's fake dad left and Kyrio entered the picture as Matthew's dad. He then vivisected Matthew, put a squirming Eldritch Abomination Evil Weapon into him for the sake of fighting the Big Bad. And then Kyrio brainwashes his son again into thinking Kyrio died. Matthew grows up with Borderline Personality Disorder, appropriating his personality from those around him, his only real "friends" being either video games or his instructors, who are working with Kyrio to give Matthew Training from Hell. And then he gets inducted into the Magical World by being stabbed in the chest, and more horrible psychological things go on, including the reveal he has placed a block on himself which makes him Feel No Pain. Which is shown by him slicing open his hand while cooking and not noticing until Sorata noticed for him. And then he gets impaled and sliced by another villain, turned into target practice for Sangou and Kasuga, abducted, revealed that he has the kriffing Lance Of Longinus in him, that he is endangering his friends just by being there, oh, and that his whole school will probably start trying to kill him. Then his best friend dies horrifically and is revealed to have been a clone the whole time.

Shuuji: Oh, the Yakuza Boss's son, who started the book as a narmy and smarmy little idiot. Why is he like that? His own father abused him and tried to force this Nice Guy to be a violent and crazy gangster after his own heart, or Shuu would never see his sister again. She might not even exist. And then The Seer kidnapped him, cloned him, and sent a clone down in his place, resulting in existential problems when The Reveal happens. And then he dies, only for his real self to wake up from being Brainwashed and Crazy by that bastard The Seer.

Sorata: Oh, you thought she would be the Only Sane Man? Nope! She was forced to discard her emotions to fight evil as an Esper, and her last Meister, Kyrio, only communicated to her six times, all of those being him ordering her to kill someone. So now the cyborg has a crisis of identity: Is she a real person, or just a killing machine? The reason she became a Cybernetic Esper? In order to save her kidnapped crush, only to find out he was not kidnapped at all: he was working with the kidnappers the whole time. This pushed her into Stepford Smiler territory, even worse than Matthew above. Oh, and even though she really loves Matthew, Kyrio says if Matthew goes crazy, then she has to kill him.

Alina: She is FAR Older Than She Looks. In fact, she is an Artificial Human Battle Doll made by "The Alchemist" Miria Lishten, a Majitek Vampire Sorceress Scientist Occultist Nun, to help Sir Galahad find the Holy Grail. He did not know her true origins, only that she could help. Of course, given the Grail is actually The Seer, Galahad "already ascending to heaven" was something decidedly more sinister and violent. Before this, she fell for him HARD, but then a heartless enemy revealed her true origins, and she never knew if he forgave her for being a Construct. Because The Seer ripped out one of his internal organs by hand, ripped off his arm, smashed him against a wall, put 3rd degree burns on 90% of his body, and then ripped him in half and disintegrated him. Oh, and she fell in love with Matthew, who looks exactly like Galahad and is on the same exact quest to find the Holy Artifacts. And The Seer has made it abundantly clear to her that he plans on doing the exact same thing again. Now then, can we forgive Alina for being just a little bit Ax-Crazy?

Thank you for finding my comment amusing. I figured it was the most succinct way of posting in this thread, whilst simultaneously avoiding the inevitable pissing contest.

Well, it's far from written, but; A man fights a Black Magic user. Said mage pushes him with the palm of his hand, disintegrating and blowing away the armor and clothes on his front torso, and immediately forming a palm print of gangrene on his chest. The spell disables him and causes damage all over his body, as life was sucked from him. Then his soul is eaten, preventing him from having an afterlife. (Not that this world's afterlife is nice or eternal, but still.)

Speaking of unpleasant ways to go, another world had a little sonic weapon that turned bone into powder without hurting anything else. Though I guess it wouldn't stay a powder because of the fluids.

For nasty ways to go:

While not particularly unpleasant given the nature of my comics, I always felt that the fate of one villain's Dragon - being literally dragged off to hell albeit in the form of a Twilight fan convention - was rather more then he, as a fairly inoffensive villain, deserved. In fact I eventually wrote a scene to get him out of it out of guilt. Rather more nasty was the villain last seen having his soul eaten by Eldritch Abominations, though he at least had it coming.

It's hard to think of anything overly traumatic I've done to my characters, though. As I've said before, my comics lean towards the silliness side of the Sliding Scale of Seriousness Versus Silliness.

I may have to second AHR's answer, but for slightly different reasons than hers.

re: the sonic weapon: Oh my fucking God.

I don't get it.

It's a Take That Me at AHR's own writing ability.

...and in my case, a Take That Me! to my own relentless authorial sadism and morbidity.