Killing my POV character

[glutton]

I'm considering killing off my POV character in the middle of my fantasy adventure WIP, which I've never done before. What is your initial reaction to this based on the following details, do you think it would be okay?

The story so far has mainly been following three characters in a devastated world following a huge war - Lars, a mercenary looking for a way to heal his friend who is brain damaged from a war injury, Allen, the aforementioned brain damaged friend, and Cart-Dragger (not real name), a mythic figure who kills Godzilla sized monsters with her hammer and turns out to be a duchess trying to rebuild her city. Lars has been the POV character save for the short opening scene, but Cart-Dragger has been the 'star' and closest thing to the main character - she has the most agency, does the most awesome stuff while the others look on, and saves them a bunch of times. So far it has just mostly been a light romp getting to know Cart-Dragger and showing off how awesome she is, but the story is about to kick into high gear as the main conflict is finally introduced. I had planned to have the villain kill one of Cart-Dragger's friends when he first appears, but now have gotten the idea for him to kill Lars off too and switch the POV to Cart-Dragger. Allen would survive under the new plan, and feeling responsible for Lars' death Cart-Dragger takes it upon herself to take care of him and try to bring his old self back. She also has some other friends and allies who have been introduced so it wouldn't be a one woman show, although she would clearly step into the lead role.

Does this sound okay or would it be too jarring for you?

 

[Reaver]

Sounds okay to me. I like the idea of developing an emotional connection to a character and then ripping them away. Sometimes people need that jolt. Some people will get pissed and some will love it. Either way, you get an emotional response from the reader.

 

[Russ]

I disagree. Based on what you have told us it appears to me that you have had the wrong POV character from the outset. Having a POV character who is the "sidekick" or the observer can work in certain rare circumstances (Sherlock Holmes springs to mind) but only to solve certain problems and I don't think it works if you kill them off.

My advice is to go back to the beginning, write the story from the POV of the person whose tale it clearly is, and then kill anyone you might choose.

It also sounds to me that you might have started your story too soon. Start as close as is possible to that main conflict, introducing the main conflict in the middle is way too late. Cut out a bunch of that light romp and get to the things people will care about as soon as you can.

 

[teacup]

I agree with Russ, it sounds from this (could be wrong of course since we're only going off of the information provided) like it would be much better off starting the story later on.

What is the reason for having Lars as the POV up until this point? If you were writing multiple POV characters at once (which it seems like you're not doing from your post) it could be different, I think, but if it's just one POV character who then dies and the POV shifts, I think you'd need to have a good reason for that.

 

[glutton]

I decided not to kill Lars since there was plenty of emotion already with Cart-Dragger's childhood friend being killed.

Anyway it was from Lars' POV to convey a sense of awe around Cart-Dragger, and there was more drama with him wanting to cure his brain damaged friend as opposed to C-D just going around beating up giant monsters for money.