Killing Your Darlings: On character death and torture

I think Shadsie and I would get along great! I also love writing dark fics. My first (and so far) only Fanfic is Zelda's Honor which has quite a few character deaths, both for the protagonists and antagonists alike. I don't relish in torture and brutal rape and death unless it serves the needs of the story and helps to grow both the characters and/or the situation they are in, but I never shy away from it. I've gotten a lot of flak with how I treat some of the fan favorites in the Zeldaverse but I don't mind, it means I've done my job as a writer to get you to REACT. Next up on my list? A Walking Dead fanfic and a Final Fantasy VIII fanfic, both dark as hell and most likely involving death, rape and more. Why? Because I can. :)

edited 2nd Jun '15 2:28:43 PM by Darkflamewolf

I REALLY hope everyone here knows the difference of being open to dark and interesting storylines for the good of a story and just plain meaningless cheap sadism.

We do.

Since my darlings live in a universe where if you cast healing magic you be healed instantly I can get away with setting them on fire multiple times.

A large number of my characters in the Roleplay of Geass RP forum I frequent end up either undergoing trauma or dead.

The Four Katamasa Brothers are a case where things get worse for them over time; one of them gets his weapon taken from him and then skewered on it, the next brother to die gets pulped by a hyper-compressed air bullet type of weapon...

Then there's the people who die to Mr. Aside.

On another note, what exactly is considered too dark in a fic? I just wrote this one: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4314003 and I'm not sure if it's way too dark or okay...

One of my OCs is named Necrocyte. He manipulates nanites that are programmed to replicate the properties of necromantic magic....

And mind you these nanites are integrated into his nervous system and his circulatory system. Psychological horror is likely going to be something I tool with him (I imagining that the nanites might try to replicate the common problem with necromancy in itself...power trips) and since there nanobots physiological horror for when they are initially injected into his body will also be employed.

And on top of that since he will be an OC used for a superhero world he will receive quite a lot of pain on the field. I personally like to employee forms of character torture...yes. Hell I don't really fret if I have to kill off OCs as well.

The only problem I see is if you take the trauma past a certain point as it's very easy to potray victims of said trauma incorrectly to the point it's almost insulting. So yeah forms of trauma like rape is a no go as that is rarely portrayed well....

That's not terribly dark at all. Heck, my Zelda fanfic was beyond dark and most likely crossed the line several times! However, there is still an audience for that type of thing and people still loved the story regardless. Don't let the dark nature of the material have you shy away from it if what happens services the story.