Sometimes, they have to die
It’s just the way it is.
I often suffer wrath from my wife when a character she loves dies in one of my stories. It’s understandable, and I know how I feel when I’m reading a book and one of the characters who I’ve vested my emotions in dies suddenly. If you’ve ever read Game of Thrones and recall the “Red Wedding”, you know what I mean. After reading that scene, I was so pissed off. How could they do that to the Starks? Outrage was all I could remember. I recall going to a forum somewhere and seeing pages after pages of hate comments against George R.R. Martin for writing that scene. Later, I recall how he mentioned that he actually got death threats from it. True or not, I have no idea. But some characters are just loved, and removing them from the story drives people (including me) nuts.
The problem, for me, has always been the experience of fear and anxiety inside stories. I can’t get there without death. It doesn’t matter if I’m watching a show or reading a book, if I know for certain that the author is not going to kill anyone, then how can I be afraid for the characters during the scene? Think about Star Trek. No one ever dies in a Star Trek episode. Pick the franchise. For me, it was always TNG. Picard, Riker, Worf, etc…you knew they were never going to die no matter how bad it got. So in the back of your mind, you’re always thinking “they’ll find a way out of it.” And that blunts the fear.
True entertainment in stories comes from pulling out the emotions of the reader. Laughter, tears, fright, anger. If you find yourself angry at something a character did in a story or wanting revenge - GOOD! Then the author did his/her job. If you shed tears in a scene, outstanding (unless you’re weeping over how bad it sucked). The death of a character should be surprising, and it should invoke emotion. Sometimes, it invokes a sense of justice, as a bad guy got what was coming to them. Other times, the bad guy needs to get away. Maybe justice never gets served. That pisses people off, but you know what? It’s realistic.
Characters have to die for a story to have realism.
What’s more, is that characters have to be developed for them to be real. If the author doesn’t develop a character they plan to “off” somewhere in the story, the reader picks up on it sub-consciously. They know the author is creating a “stock” character, and because time in fleshing that character out wasn’t invested, the reader won’t invest emotions into them. Then, the death ends up being meaningless in the tale.
So yeah, it sucks when characters die, just like it sucks when people we know in real life dies. But that’s the way life works. If Humanity were really to leap forth into the galaxy like they do in Humanity’s Leap, for them to do it without casualties would be more reminiscent of Star Trek. Not that there’s anything wrong with Star Trek, but that’s not what I write.
And I hope you’ll understand.
