War, youth kills and is killed

[SeverinR]

My final battle is set in a large meeting room of a castle,
the noble is fighting and his (illegitament) son(teen age) is ignored and kills a main character.
But in doing so enrages a dragon and thus is killed moments after he kills.

The boy is acting as a page(traditional age being 7-14) is shy and is small for his age.

The new Conan has a young Conan killing many men.

How young can the son be and not be to offensive.

Basically the (smaller then average for his age) boy stabs the warrior in his exposed underarm when he blocked an attack by his father. (Never ignore the little man behind the evil leader)

Any teen could do it(strength and height), apprenticeship starts at 11-13 for most occupations.

I am leaning towards 13 or 14, but will readers stomach a young teen being killed by a dragon? (I believe most fantasy readers will accept a teen killing someone in a battle.)
For the kill to work, the warrior needs to believe the child is harmless, thus a small early teen.
Also the child is not a spawn of satan, just a pawn in the battle brought on by his father.

What is peoples opinions on this, it is all about the reader, will they accept a young man being killed?

 

[Linqy]

I'd say it would depend on how it happens exactly and to what detail things are described I suppose. I wouldn't ditch a book because a child in it dies, and judging from the way your story evolves I'd say 13 or 14 would be the best fit as well. The fact that he doesn't die as a complete innocent will in my eyes make it easy enough for most readers to stomach a young kid to be killed. It fits the story.

But I wouldn't make it too over the top gruesome I guess XD

 

[Chilari]

I don't see why it would be unacceptable. In fact there's a lot you could say with the death of a child - about the war, about his role in the society, about his beliefs and their legitimacy and the reasons behind them, his importance to his father, and loads more. Do not hide from the prospect of killing a character due to their age. He is a character, for a start, not a real person. In life, people die, and sometimes they are old and sometimes they are young and a lot of the time it is unexpected and happens due to a series of events which cannot be predicted. And people die in wars, sometimes unable to defend themselves. You can say a lot with any death, if you know what you want to say. Age does not change that. A person's youth does not magically protect them from death and that is worth recognising in fiction, as is the affect that a death has on the people who care about the deceased.

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

Unless you're writing for really young kids, in which case the violence probably needs to be toned down anyway, there should be no age limit to death. Obviously if your hero is some paladin righteous warrior he shouldn't go around slaughtering 8-year-olds younger victims tend to have a much more poignant effect, both on the reader and your characters.

 

[SeverinR]

Maybe this was never real but my perception.
I always felt that the original Conan did not have him kill when younger because it was taboo back then.
Innocent children idea. Kids were never the person to shoot the bad guy, never the one to stab the killer.
I do beleive this has changed but just checking. ---demographics, got to consider them.

The child is trying to prove himself to his evil father, and picks the wrong time to do it, he kills the dragons rider, with the dragon there. He will be electri-fried. Sadly, his father was killed just a second prior, just had not fallen yet.(by the dragons baby, this part is graphic, dragonet bites unarmored crotch destroying the femoral artery.)
(Never put it together, baby dragon kills evil dad, mother dragon kills the son.)

I know I can write anything, but just getting opinion on if it would cause outrage in the reader.

 

[ScipioSmith]

I say go with it. It has the potential to be very dramatic (I can imagine the terror of the lad as the dragon goes ape on him), shocking (the death of his victim followed by the boy's own death), and, as others have said, meaningful. There's nothing to hold you back.

 

[Lordfisheh]

Honestly, put it in, don't worry about 'acceptable' ages too much. When people are offended, a lot of the time it's because someone made them think about something they didn't want to or from a point of view they preferred not to consider. And making people think and feel something, in my opinion, should be one of the goals of any good book.

 

[ShortHair]

Until very recently, people were considered adults upon reaching puberty. In some cultures they still are. If you establish that, in your world, people at that age are treated as adults, then your readers shouldn't be surprised by their killing and dying.

 

[Codey Amprim]

I don't see why it'd really outrage anyone, except for a kindergarten teacher or something.

What I would consider very emotion-enticing would be the murder of an infant or YOUNG child 3-7ish. It's all on how you deliver the blow. I mean is the kid tricked into walking into a dark room where he's killed? or is he mercilessly chopped down in a raid infront of a throng of people?

Is the child a main character? Did you establish a connection or bond with him and the reader? The more invested a reader is in the character, whether it be a child or adult, the more of a reaction they'll have when they pass.

Its all delivery and whatever you sprinkle on top. But with what you're going for I wouldn't call it bad at all, just attention snatching, especially if it's a main character.

 

[Amanita]

For me, it depends.
I don't really understand the fuss about "underage characters" in a world where it's normal that young people fight (and marry) at a much younger age than in modern day Europe or US. Therefore I don't think I'd be that much more shocked about your character's death at such an age if this was established that way.
If a story is set in our own time and young teenagers from an (almost) ordinary late 20th century British school start to form "armies" and go into war it's a different matter. At least to me. I don't think there were many other people who were bothered by this in HP.

I this is a setting where young people are seen as adults earlier, no problem. If it's a setting where the people in universe would be shocked and point it out, it might be different.

 

[SeverinR]

The main character has seen the boy before and servants relayed feeling sorry for the boy, by the way the father mentally bullies him.
I just wrote him in the scene delivering a message at the castle gate as the group enters.

I don't want his death to be just another corpse for a body count, but I also don't want it to cause a reader to throw the book across the room. (BTDT and yes the story did connect with me)

As the final fight is set in my mind:
The main character is within striking distance of the boy when he kills, like everyone else she ignored him. Even to the point of the dying rider having to tell her to run, before she realizes he is dying, and the boy is holding a small bloody knife.

Soldiers in war, dying is a part of the scene, but a page killing and being killed is out of the ordinary. So I think it should elicit an emotional response, hopefully the same one the MC has.
"Oh____! What did he just do?"

Also the reader knows their healer has been seriously injured and is not going to be any use in saving the rider.

I will post the scene when I get it done, I had a POV question too. (I asked it on another forum)

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

I definitely don't think it is a problem and the scene sounds great

 

[TWErvin2]

Some of it depends on the tone of the novel and how the characters are eastablished and portrayed.

It also depends on how the dragon slays the youth...
breathes on him with fire
rips him limb from limb--one at a time
swallows the youth whole
vomits acid or venom on him
slaps him against the wall with his tail and something else crashes down and kills the youth
bites his face off, leaving blood and brains to spill out, etc.

Another factor is the how invested the readers are with the youth...if he's evil and cruel like his father, not so much concern as if he hust happens to be in the right place the the wrong time and is simply trying to save his father (evil or not).

Even how the aftermath is treated affects the answer to your question.

In the end, you won't please every reader with whatever you write.

 

[SeverinR]

Wrote out the battle scene, then as I was having them settle the dragon down, I realize I forgot a character in the battle.
So I have to go back and plug him in.
Centaur joined the group in route.

Might have to add more guards, 12 enemy(not counting killer page) to 7 friendly, now it would be 12 enemy with 8 friendly(one being a centaur). Fame and lore causes half not to react right away when trouble starts.(Which is good, because 7 are armed with crossbows.)

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Your brief plot description is enough to justify what you're doing. I don't think this will leave a sour taste in the reader's mouth, and it's more realistic than having the dragon show mercy or having the kid somehow escape from the dragon's attack.

I'm speaking from an adult perspective, but honestly, as a kid I didn't think it was realistic for a kid to survive in a situation that results in a lot of adult deaths. I think I'm more squeamish now that I was as a kid!