Killing Your Character

You're planning a story, and you see a brilliant opportunity to advance a character or plot arc in an amazing (or so you think) way. Just one little caveat, though. Nothin' big, just gotta kill someone is all. Oh, and not just any someone, it has to be a character you've spent many an hour cooking up in your brain and growing attached to as you nurse them to literary life. That one loveable Woobie or Crazy Awesome screwball you love to write and always steals the show (or page). Yup. Slaughter 'em. Slaughter 'em in the NAME OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!

Yeah, how about it? What are your experiences having to kill a character? Was it painful? Did you break down like a little baby just imagining it like I did? Discuss!

edited 11th Mar '16 1:42:35 PM by DeathlyTaco

You might want to fix your grammar here.

Nope, "make your characters become dieded" is completely grammatically correct. Yup. Totally. /s

See, that's the thing. I would have contributed to this thread, but a post like that is something I can't take seriously.

edited 11th Mar '16 1:20:31 PM by ChaoticQueen

Then, the deed is done.

edited 11th Mar '16 1:48:07 PM by DeathlyTaco

Okay, sorry about that.

I remember a few years ago, my brother and I wrote a lot of Spyro the Dragon fanfics. Our main work was called the "Dual Worlds Trilogy". It's actually still on FF in case anyone wants to read it. It was a three-part crossover of the original Spyro series and The Legend of Spyro trilogy.

The first story, "Spyro Meets Spyro", had the original Spyro, known as "Artisan Spyro" or "A Spyro", and his friends stumble in the T Lo S universe where "Legendary Spyro" or "L Spyro" and Cynder were married and had three eggs that hatched at the end of the story. The three babies were Inferno (he was actually a fear dragon, but they thought he was a fire dragon for years, hence the name), Umbra (Shadow), and Dizzy (Electricity).

The second story, "A Tale of Two Spyros", took place a few years later with the triplets as young children, and mainly featured the characters on an adventure in A Spyro's universe, and also had A Spyro get together with Elora.

The third story, "The Merge", was a triple crossover with Mortal Kombat. L Spyro and Cynder's children are teenagers in this one. The big conflict is that Ripto had merged the worlds together in service to Shao Kahn, and both Spyros had been fused together into a Spyro with the worst traits of both halves, the cockiness of A Spyro and the temper of L Spyro. At one point in the story, a bomb is about to go off and Dizzy is the only one fast enough to take it away from everyone else safely. Unfortunately, she couldn't escape in time, and the bomb leaves her severely injured. Cynder sings a lullaby as her daughter dies in her arms. This death was important, however, as it gave L Spyro the will to fully control Fusion Spyro and eventually defuse, and it gave Inferno the strength to kill Shao Kahn.

I remember our reviewers being quite upset with Dizzy's death, saying it honestly made them cry and some of them actually got angry with us for killing off such a sweet and adorable character. However, Dizzy's death was the hardest for my brother and I for personal reasons. I'm not going to say why, because I'm not asking for sympathy. But all I can say is that my brother and I struggled when Cynder held Dizzy in her arms.

I'm writing a story right now that is currently at over 40 pages and counting of just establishing the main character's relationship with her family. This is all in preparation for her parents and three older brothers to all die in a fire, leaving the main character as the reigning monarch of a country she was never taught how to rule, because nobody ever expected her to have to. This is essential for her character, as well as for the development of other characters around her, particularly the one that ends up becoming her love interest.

I am absolutely dreading the moment when I reach that point in the story. Thassilae loves her family, and I'm starting to get attached to all of them. But there's really no way around it. Thassilae has to be Queen for anything else I have planned for her future to make sense.

On the plus side, this has made me decide that, whatever else happens, I will not be killing off her love interest. Partly to avert Bury Your Gays, but mostly because I don't have it in me to kill everyone she loves twice.

I don't have much of an attachment to my characters, and any character deaths were already planned beforehand, so I won't feel anything when the eventual moment come.

I suppose I can chime in too. I have this character that started rolling around in my head one day and then pretty much kick-started an idea for a story that I've been developing in my brain/on paper since. She's a sort of laidback, confident type with streaks of Crazy Awesome and Cloud Cuckoo Lander. To maybe get a better picture, imagine Kamina and Ibuki Mioda put into a blender, and then develop that into a more fleshed out character. Spending a lot of time "with" her and others in the cast, I've grown attached. And then recently, the idea of killing her during the grand finale occurred.

A bare-bones description of the hypothetical scenario: she starts as an Affably Evil antagonist who develops and does a Heel–Face Turn, and her and the protagonist develop this deep friendship over many chapters. This part I pretty much have decided on. The part that's farther off and not quite set in stone: she dies during an Apocalypse How scenario masterminded by a Monster Clown who revels in watching humanity self-destruct, and the hero has to come to grips with her dearest friends' death and ultimately use everything the two learned from each other to defeat this enemy, complete with a Libera Me from Hell sequence during the protagonist's Darkest Hour Heroic BSoD and a "It's beneath your mask!" moment when finishing off the villain. For those who don't get the references, what I mean is, the deceased's spirit appears beside the protagonist to give her courage (Libera me) and their two souls metaphorically fight as one for their last stand, as a sort of "they live on through me" type thing ("beneath your mask").

It probably sounds very cliche, but that's a brief, general description of the scenario I imagined. Done right, it would theoretically be a massive Tear Jerker and then Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming for both the in-story characters and the readers, who developed a bond with both characters over the course of the story. Done wrong, though...

Although, I haven't gotten nearly that far yet. If the final product is anything like what I picture it being, it would be a good two books before this came to fruition (if it ever does). That's what makes it so difficult: I imagine all the shit she and the protagonist go through together, and how much I enjoy writing/thinking up her Crazy Awesome screwiness (or at least, what I perceive to be such; reader opinions may differ), and imagine the death and the climax and the aftermath, and, and, a-and... ;_;

It doesn't help that I listened to things such as Goodbye, Despair Academy while visualizing it all play out (I played that during the Libera Me from Hell scene)... and then proceeded to look up death tropes on this wiki to fuel my depression... Yeeeaaaahh...

So there you go. That's the plight that inspired me to create this thread. I'm by no means an experienced writer: I have no published works to my name and a majority of my projects end up in eternal Development Hell. Thus I was a bit surprised when I got so invested in this particular story, even being driven to tears at that possible ending. I never cry at books, movies, etc. I can come real damn close, but I don't recall ever crossing the brink. But I guess when it's my own characters, who I've raised as my brainchildren... Well, it comes with the territory of being a writer, I guess. I should've seen this coming, damn it... Well at least I've got 2 or 3 books before I have to make that decision. If I ever actually have to make it. Kill a character who's been through so much together with the protagonist...? Who I'm so attached to and who the readers would (theoretically) also become attached to after so much time spent...? Kill her for the sake of that wham finale...? Only I can make that decision...

Gaaah, they're fictional people, they're not real, why so heartrending!? Go on, laugh at my inexperience, laugh at my hand-wringing over this, laugh at my stupid trite scenario, laugh like the Joker!

edited 12th Mar '16 12:18:37 AM by DeathlyTaco

I have an original story that's still in the planning stages, and I plan to kill the main character partway through - something like a third of the way in. After that, the Deuteragonist becomes the new main character, so the original one is more like a Decoy Protagonist of sorts. It ties heavily into the story and changes its course pretty drastically, so it's not like it's entirely for shock value. It also goes without saying that it'll have a huge impact on the rest of the cast, who will have grown to be a pretty tight-knit group by this point.

I get emotional pretty easily, and this'll be my first time killing a major character, so I don't imagine it'll be easy to write. Either that, or having planned it from early on will make it easier to deal with. Guess I'll find out when I get around to writing this thing.

in the story I'm currently trying to write, I need to make the protagonist's hate for an enemy nation to become so great that she crosses the line and commits a war crime. to that end, I needed a catalyst; her eldest son dies.

right now I'm in the middle of planning his character arc— its gotta be fairly simple, as it occurs in a fairly short time period, and as ive started with the protagonist being somewhat neglectful towards him out of disappointment, its a very important character arc that has to— if not completely turn around her opinion of him, at least give her enough hope of his future that his death is a massive slap in the face. I think however, if i had designed him prior to deciding his role in the story, i would be rather unwilling to kill him off.

i also planned to kill her youngest daughter, as a consequence of her war crimes, but ultimately decided to write that daughter out in a different way, one that would not leave the protagonist an emotional wreck for the final chapters of the story, instead leaving her more contemplative of her actions, and putting a more intentional halt to them.

i guess, i dont tend to kill off characters if i havent made them with the intention the kill them off— its certainly much harder to kill off characters i made in a contextless void, though moving forward in the timeline to a point where they're no longer alive is not too much an issue beyond making me wonder how they died, and me not desiring to set that in stone yet.

I kill characters from time to time, but I'm having trouble with one that I will be getting to eventually.

The character in question is the wife of the Big Bad. She's a nice girl stuck in a horrible relationship, but still thinks that she might be able to turn her husband towards a less insane route (he's a king who's rewriting history to make himself look like a god and generally abusing everyone). Unfortunately for her, The Dragon speaks with the king and the two murder her in her sleep to frame the leader of a popular religion so they can remove his objections to the king's apotheosis.

The problem is it seems like I'm just stuffing her in a fridge for the sake of cheap drama...

Well, there was that one time where the Deuteragonist gets shot and killed by his own father (during a Face–Heel Turn) after he betrays him to join the Protagonist....

First idea that spawned my work in progress was image of pale, white haired, mystical looking girl. Very next image was of her dying in arms of her yet undefined love interest telling him not to despair as their love was delusion brought forth by their desire to escape lifeless, undesirable status quo of their lives. And while he ultimately caused her great pain in her final days, at least this relationship - no more than tangiable escapism - sparked some flame in her emotionless life. Thus she dies in absolute despair and smile on her lips.

As you can see, I have no issues with killing my characters. Quite often it's where I start. And I enjoy every moment of this exhilarating experiance.

Death... At the most Basic nature, there really is no point to it- Yet every action or inaction shapes the Ultimate Future. Thus, Character Death can regularly serve as fuel for the Character Development of others... Or even the full catalyst for a Character's creation, Born because of Death.

I have no love for Purposeless Murder though- Thus if a Character could stay alive and the same goal achieved, then I refuse. Though for one of my 'Holy Projects', two of the three Magical Girl protagonists are born in reaction of the previous Magical Girl leader dying- The first being her genetic clone, and the second born from her boyfriend & her best friend.

My point is, sometimes Death truly is the only avenue possible to achieve certain Stories- Certain possibilities, with Dimension W being an example. Death is a terrible thing to inflict on them, yet Tragedy is often required to pursue the Stories you want to tell with your characters. Still, the moment you go "Eh, I'mma kill cause plot"?

Then their death has no meaning to you- It isn't a happy thing or something to casually brush off. In the end, you shouldn't be designing a Character to die. No, you should be designing them as the living being they are, whose Death is ultimately the product of everyone's Characterization and the Setting.

I find it very hard to make the choice to kill off characters. Some I write from the very beginning knowing that they must and will eventually snuff it at a set point in the arc of the story, but even then, truly killing off a character means that you can't really keep using them within that narrative, outside of leaps backward in the timeline. The time that a character who is marked for death must count; your options and theirs are finite, for all intents and purposes, and must be used well. Even if the point is that their existence has been pointless—and I do play with that in a slightly perverse fashion with at least one very mortal character—having them onstage at all needs to advance something in a meaningful way outside of their death.

Is this reply to my post? Whatever the case, let me respond!

I can agree, there is no great value in killing characters for sake of shock, raising stakes or even furthering plot. That is frankly wasteful of both writer's and readers' investment. Of course sometimes it's inescepable to kill characters for sake of plot, but it doesn't mean their stories and personalities can't be developed as much as their screen time allows. It doesn't have to be only one of the two.

So what is reason for my affection for murder? Simple, death is emotional. It leaves impact on surviving characters, on hypothetical readers and most importantly on me. That is probably reason why I come up with these scenes so early in development of so many characters - they excite my emotions. And there are benefits of knowing about their untimely departure ahead of time as I can mold their arcs, personalities and interections ahead of time. Even plot and themes of entire work can change to benefit emotional scenes. (I feel I should clarify that emotional scene doesn't always mean death, but it's what we're talking about in this thread.)

It's telling that of all my characters side characters are in the greatest safety.

edited 10th Aug '16 4:07:07 AM by Prany

With the whole bury your gays thing. I really hate it when almost every straight character dies and the only people who survive are a bunch of lgbt people, call me a bigot but that's just unrealistic. Sometimes I have no other choice but to kill off character even if they might be queer in some shape or form, you just gotta realize that's how real life kinda works. Plenty of people whether they're queer or not are gonna die one day and that's a fact we all have to live with. If a straight character dies, I might as well be equal and kill off a gay character while I'm at it.

edited 10th Aug '16 10:55:25 AM by ewolf2015