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Your favourite character deaths

Gryphos

Auror
I assume most of us have killed a few of our characters in our stories. My question is, what's some of your favourites times you've killed a character? Be it the most gruesome death, most epic, most emotional, anything.

Personally, it's got to be the time one of my magic-using characters summoned a tentacle to reach down into his stomach and pull a fist-sized orb out through his throat. I had to do surprisingly extensive research into whether that would kill a person, and I can confidently say that it probably would. Not to mention the fact that the orb wouldn't fit out through the character's mouth so on its exit it would wrench the jaw apart and probably send teeth flying. Sheesh. That's definitely the most creative/gruesome death I've ever written.
 

Legendary Sidekick

The HAM'ster
Moderator
My favorite was this samurai character who befriended the MC for one episode. The story was written in first-person POV, so the main character didn't actually see the samurai die. He saw him rush into a chaotic exchange with two other allies (one known for his strength, the other, for his skill). Blood and limbs and chaos were all the hero saw, but at the end of the battle only the strong and the skilled samurai were standing. The MC's friend was dead on his back with that confident smile on his face. He didn't even feel it, but the hero didn't give that a thought. He was pissed off and there were no enemies left to kill, so he had no outlet.

Though I wrote that as a newbie, I was pretty proud of how it came out. I thought of a friend of mine when I wrote that doomed character, that way I could make him genuinely likable. Also, it was 100,000 words into the story. Before then, the hero met allies and friends in his travels, and they always survived. I wanted the death to be unexpected. Comments from readers suggested I got the reaction I was going for.
 
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