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If you ever gonna write a character death, remember...
7 years ago
Okay, I will admit that characters dying has always been a big sore spot for me since childhood. I hated the idea and thought it was the cruelest thing. Nowadays I don't have any hang ups, but I guess I ended thinking hard enough about it to write down my thoughts on how to do good deaths. Albeit, what makes one can be due to different criterias, I'll admit.
Now first things first, is the idea that death has to be "unpredictable". How do you manage that? Well, most common way to do so is to avoid tipping the red flags. That includes divulging heavily into the characters backstory or their standing and how they are planing their future and all that kind of stuff. It makes it obvious to the audience that you, as an author, want them to feel bad when the death comes. It is awfully telegraphed most of the time. Other then that, it is also likely to be predictable by the type of character. An Old Master sacrificing themselves trope is overdone, but it is also due to pragmatism on the part of the author. Aside from teaching their student, you don't always know what to do with them after in terms of character art, and killing them off raise the stakes as the student in question is now without guidance. Killing of a morality pet or the optimist is also common, as well as loved ones, since it is done at the time the tone has officially changed. Sometimes the character has nothing to offer and you need to write them off.
So, in reverse, would it make a good death if it unpredictable, came from nowhere, lead to nowhere and to a character that people don't care for or whose role is more random, right? Actually, that sounds terrible.
So what makes a good death then?
Well, making the death not be a large part of who that character is. It is inevitable that as a writer you may want to do a character death for plot, however, I would advise from focusing too much on the event as central to the character, even if it is to the plot. An example, Mufasa. You know who he is, his role, his relationships and his standing, who he loves and whom he hates. His death, in the end, is inevitable to the plot, but the audience doesn't see him as a sacrificial lamb, but a good father figure to whom rates happened to be tragic.
Spoiler, but Ceaser from Jojo is also a good example. You know who he is and what's he like. Aside from that, the way his death is done is in fact sudden, as in you don't see it coming necessarily, but you do see why it can happen. He went ahead and fought against a godly vampire in hopes of revenge, thus, his death was brought in by his own flaw, as all memorable deaths are (against those random "hey let's have this guy die for no reason"). He also struggled to survive, meaning that there was in fact a sense that it could have been prevented.
Also what I like about these two deaths is that they are not drawn out but are still heavily mourned over. No poetic prose of "Oh wow is me as I die", which can be sad, but it tends to affect those around them more than the person in question.
I remember when my cat died, being ran over by a bunch of drunk asshats. I also remember a family friend who constantly would lend us his car to drive us to school and come frequently as our guest, only to find he died of heart attack a year after we came to Canada. What stood out to me is the sense of an empty spot in the room, which no matter what you put there, it won't come back. You can't hear them, or have them tell you exactly what you know they'll always say.
Death is unfair, cruel and tragic. So use it with that in mind.
Now first things first, is the idea that death has to be "unpredictable". How do you manage that? Well, most common way to do so is to avoid tipping the red flags. That includes divulging heavily into the characters backstory or their standing and how they are planing their future and all that kind of stuff. It makes it obvious to the audience that you, as an author, want them to feel bad when the death comes. It is awfully telegraphed most of the time. Other then that, it is also likely to be predictable by the type of character. An Old Master sacrificing themselves trope is overdone, but it is also due to pragmatism on the part of the author. Aside from teaching their student, you don't always know what to do with them after in terms of character art, and killing them off raise the stakes as the student in question is now without guidance. Killing of a morality pet or the optimist is also common, as well as loved ones, since it is done at the time the tone has officially changed. Sometimes the character has nothing to offer and you need to write them off.
So, in reverse, would it make a good death if it unpredictable, came from nowhere, lead to nowhere and to a character that people don't care for or whose role is more random, right? Actually, that sounds terrible.
So what makes a good death then?
Well, making the death not be a large part of who that character is. It is inevitable that as a writer you may want to do a character death for plot, however, I would advise from focusing too much on the event as central to the character, even if it is to the plot. An example, Mufasa. You know who he is, his role, his relationships and his standing, who he loves and whom he hates. His death, in the end, is inevitable to the plot, but the audience doesn't see him as a sacrificial lamb, but a good father figure to whom rates happened to be tragic.
Spoiler, but Ceaser from Jojo is also a good example. You know who he is and what's he like. Aside from that, the way his death is done is in fact sudden, as in you don't see it coming necessarily, but you do see why it can happen. He went ahead and fought against a godly vampire in hopes of revenge, thus, his death was brought in by his own flaw, as all memorable deaths are (against those random "hey let's have this guy die for no reason"). He also struggled to survive, meaning that there was in fact a sense that it could have been prevented.
Also what I like about these two deaths is that they are not drawn out but are still heavily mourned over. No poetic prose of "Oh wow is me as I die", which can be sad, but it tends to affect those around them more than the person in question.
I remember when my cat died, being ran over by a bunch of drunk asshats. I also remember a family friend who constantly would lend us his car to drive us to school and come frequently as our guest, only to find he died of heart attack a year after we came to Canada. What stood out to me is the sense of an empty spot in the room, which no matter what you put there, it won't come back. You can't hear them, or have them tell you exactly what you know they'll always say.
Death is unfair, cruel and tragic. So use it with that in mind.
