Character Deaths

[Helen]

How important is it that authors "kill off" some of their most beloved characters? I know you don't have to, but there are some instances when you really should - not for shock value or just because.

For example, there are two instances that rather bother me because the author stated that they just "couldn't" kill them because they loved them too much.

One is from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix JK Rowling stated that she couldn't let

Spoiler: Character Name from Series.

Arthur Weasley

die because she loved him too much. The other is from the Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn. Stephanie Meyer couldn't bring herself

Spoiler: This is how the story ends

to kill any of the Cullens, so there is a big build up for a battle that never takes place

and because the deaths of these characters didn't occur, I didn't feel very satisfied by how it all ended (more with Twilight than OOTP).

So should we be able, as an author, to kill off our most treasured characters no matter how much we love them and no matter how much it may "devastate" the reader? Do any of you have a problem or inability to kill off some of your main characters?

Nothing wrong with keeping them if you love them.

 

[Penpilot]

There are many ways to "kill" a character in a story that could be equally as effective as actually killing them. Its all about understanding the reason you want to kill this character off and doing something that creates an equivalent effect. There's the classic killing off the mentor character, but many-many stories "kill" the mentor but don't actually kill them. They simply prevent the mentor from helping the main character in some way. Because a lot of the time the point of killing off the mentor is to leave the character without that support, because now, they have to do the last leg of this journey on their own, using what they've learned.

Want to kill a character off to show how evil a villain is? Well, there are worse things than death.

In some ways killing a character off is the simpler way to do things. It's clean and straightforward. Life isn't always that clean. It's messy, and dealing with that mess, well there's a lot of story potential there if you want to deal with the complications. IMHO, in life, people have to deal with long-term complications more often than death.

 

[Scott]

I think it depends on teh needs of the story. Not killing a character because you like them can be a bad idea, and I know from experience.

In my sci-fi/fantasy series, "The Bygone Wars" I have 6 POV character, with 2 who are more important than the others. One of them doesn't care about anyone else unless that person can help him in a pretty immediate way. He doesn't think a month ahead, so unless he needs a doctor now, then the doctor doesn't matter. Early on he has this conversation with someone else.

“Not just you. All humans. Easy as drowning a cat to gets away from these monsters, but you humans still fight when you has to realize that you can’t win. Death before dishonor and all that cat piss. Like I said before, ain’t no honor in death.”

“Depends on how you die, Scree.”

“Nope. But there’s honor in staying alive so you can win some other way. You dead a long time, Nemucca.”

“When you find someone whose honor you crave, then you’ll change your mind. But now, nobody is more important to you than yourself.”

“And there’s something wrongs with that?”

“You’ll see, one day. Maybe.”​

And he does find those people he is willing to die for. So the truest end of his arc would have been him making that choice. Which he kinda does, but then I let him live right at the last moment which totally took away the impact. I've regretted it ever since. I should have killed him.

Some characters should die, no matter how much the author likes them, mostly because it is probably that growth towards the moment of their death that makes them so likable as characters.

 

[zethren117]

I think it’s also important to be mindful of how that character’s death continues to affect the surviving characters. That death should create a hole in the characters that knew or loved them, and it might be a long time (if ever) that that hole can be filled or healed. The loss of the character will affect the reader, so make it affect the characters as well. How do they remember this person from here on out? How does the temperament of the other characters adjust as time rolls forwards and they begin to heal? There’s all kinds of interesting dynamics that can be played with.