Death in Books and Movies

You know what annoys me in books or movies? Kids movies especially? When they kill or almost kill a character just to bring them back to life. That makes me want to throw rotten fruit or something almost every time. I want to discuss death in fiction today along with when and how it should and shouldn't be used.

Don't take death lightly

Death is serious. It shouldn't be used to make reader/viewers cry and then, bam, everything's right again. When they do that, it erases the whole point of the death. Plus, it puts the idea in kid's heads that if someone dies, they can just come back like that. Only one person has ever truly died and was raised to life, and that's Jesus.

I think we need to take death more seriously in our fiction. It's part of the reason people are getting desensitized to violence, I think, because things don't show death as the hard thing it is. When a character "dies" these days, I rarely believe them because I know they're just coming back. Stop killing characters to bring them back, like in Thor, Home, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Star Trek Into Darkness, to name a few.

Side note: there is the very, very rare occasion that it is okay to kill a character and bring them back. Like possibly when they're being self-sacrificing like in the Power Rangers movie or something. But it's extremely, once in a hundred years, rare.

There are times where it's okay to make it seem like a character has died, but they actually survived. Like Master Wu in The Lego Ninjago Movie or Professor Callahan in Big Hero 6. It's much better than straight out killing them and having them restored. But even then you need to use it with caution and give us a good reason they survived. And please no magic without a excellent cause. Magic doesn't solve all problems.

Then there are the times that characters really die. It's sad, and I may say I didn't want them to die, but that doesn't mean they should come back. I love and hate a good character death that makes me actually sad. (Not yours, Star Wars.) Ones like Tadashi, Stoick, or a multitude of Disney characters. Excuse me while I go cry in a corner now.

Properly killing a character

Now that we've discussed why you shouldn't kill and bring back characters, let's talk some about when and how to properly kill them. There are plenty of great posts out there and I'll link them at the bottom of this section. But here are a few of my tips.

Don't:

• Kill them for no reason. I hate it when a character just up and dies or gets killed, for no reason. (Sorry, Warriors Three.)
• Kill them for tears. This normally leads up to them being brought back and then our tears feel useless.
• Kill them for the shock factor. Basically the same as the other two.
• Kill them to get rid of a character. If the character is that unimportant, why did you put them in?

Do:
• Use it for character development. Death changes us, and it can change your characters in the same way. That's why a death often comes at a pivital part of the story.
• Kill a character for plot advancement. Sometimes, a character starts dragging a plot and sometimes, the best way to deal with that is to get rid of them.
• Use it for character motivation. Think Uncle Ben. If he hadn't died, Peter would have turned into a punk kid who only used his powers for himself.

Here are a few articles that cover this topic more thoroughly, plus you can do more research on your own-

10 Ways to Make the Most Out of a Character Death
How to Successfully Kill a Character
The Rules of Character Death

Let's talk! What are your thoughts on this subject? What's a character who died that you wish hadn't? Tell me in the comments.

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