How to: Kill a character
Every one dies at some point right? So it’s not beyond
belief that a character or two would die over the course of the story. When
killing off one of your characters you can get many different effects, from sad
to triumphant and everything in between, all depending on how you do it and who
you do it to. On the other hand it can come off as silly or just ineffective if
done the wrong way. Note there will be spoilers in the examples and I’m going
to use male pronouns for ease. So without further delay look out for the reaper
grim and let’s take a look at how to kill a character.
Death #1 the inspirational death
Usually targeting the hero’s mentor or teacher. This is the death that hits right at the start of the series and is what inspires the hero to go up against the bad guy. The bad guy will show up and kill the hero’s father figure who taught him everything he knows, most of the time right in front of him, and the hero swears revenge against him. It could also hit his love interest or hometown but every time it will be someone close to him and often include someone dying in his arms while he screams at the heavens. This death can also hit near the end when the bad guy ask what reason the hero could possibly have for killing him and then shown in flash back. This is most often seen in shonen battle manga and basically every single martial arts film ever made. Notable examples are Cyan’s home town in Final Fantasy VI, uncle Ben in Spider-man and Doctor Hiluluk in One Piece
Death #2 the unexpected death
Our hero stands up to the hordes of death and destruction; he is straight backed and righteous, red adorns his armour and the cape that flows in the wind. We see a shot of the base miles back and the female crew members all swoon when he turns and winks at the camera. Cut to the live news broadcast and a kid, action figure in hand, is looking up at the screen with worship in his eyes. Back on the battle field our hero is cutting down monsters and demons with no difficulty and soon makes it to their leader. Firing off a quip he rushes forwards to end the fight - and gets run through with his own sword. Yeah turns out the real hero is that kid not the guy we saw at first. This is sometimes over lapped with the inspirational death if the real hero thought the first guy was unstoppable. Other times it can be the hero coming across the first guy wounded and taking up his fight. Notable examples are Kamina from Gurren Lagann and Sigmund from Infinite Undiscovery.
Death #3 the forgone conclusion
This one is the territory of prequels, flashbacks or in some cases a story that opens with a flashforward to the ending. We all know this character is going to die since they are dead in the main timeline but this can be one of the worst moments in a story. The devil really is in the details for this one since most of the time it will either be developing a previously flat character so we actually care about their death this time around or it will be from their point of view this time around instead of a character detached from them or an all knowing narrator. Other ways to go are if all we know is the character died but not how or why or even reveal that the person that told the story has been lying, maybe they didn’t go out with a smile but instead were crying and begging for their life. Most heart breaking of all is to show a hopeful character and make it look like the plan will work and the bad guy will be killed until the very last moment and it all turns pear shaped in an instance. Notable examples are Elphaba in Wicked, Bree in The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and Rose in Martin the warrior.
Death #4 redemption = death
A villain, usually not the main bad guy, realises he is on the wrong side of the conflict and changes sides but dies because of it. This could be because they need to do it at that moment or because they are never really trusted up to that moment and want to do anything to be accepted. While the delayed deaths can be sad the worst are the last minute ones where the villain saves the heroes life in the place of their own. Whether they do it because they realised they were wrong, because of some sense of honour or even for their love of another character it doesn’t matter. Sometimes overlaps with the foregone conclusion if it includes a flash back to why they became a villain. Notable examples are Darth Vader in Star Wars and Dinobot from Beast Wars.
Death #5 the heroic sacrifice
Basically exactly what it says on the tin. A hero sacrifices himself to save someone or something else. This one is fairly self explanatory but one thing to remember when writing this kind of death is that in almost every occasion this needs to be one of the most awesome moments of the entire series. Something that makes the audience sit up and say “hell yeah!” One final exclamation mark on a heroic story. On a rare occasion it could instead be a meaningless death (see below) but that is more difficult to pull off successfully. Notable examples include Joe from Act II: Father of Death and Joshua from The World Ends With You (sort of.)
Death #6 the meaningless death
The ultimate tragedy; this can be separated out into two varieties for both the heroes and the villains. On the hero’s side this could be a heroic sacrifice or they could have gone off thinking they were the hero and got hit by the unexpected death; either way they don’t accomplish anything. Sometimes they do get something done with their death but not enough to really affect anything such as using a last ditch taking you with me attack but not hurting the villain at all. This might get the hero to attack with his true strength and win but you have to wonder did this character have to die? On the villains side we have the moment when a hero kills a villain but it turns out it was a fake or that they have several lives/regenerations and have to be killed several times. Worst case scenario the villain was holding back a stronger baddy with their life and killing him set some big cosmic horror on the world. Notable examples include (heroes) android #16 in Dragon Ball, (villains) the Oración Seis in Fairy Tail and (a villain but falls under the hero taking you with me category) Phantom from Megaman Zero.
Death #7 the triumph
Falling out of favour these days is the ending where the bad guy is slain huzzah drinks are on the house and they all lived happily ever after. Just a basic bad guy death with no hidden depths, no flashback to the impressionable boy who just wanted to save people, no reveal he was doing it for his sister’s sake; no he’s just dead and every one celebrates. These days you can only really pull this off if your bad guy is a force of pure evil (the devil for example) or in a more realistic setting a complete monster; you know the guy who tricks the hero into killing his best friend, rapes his true love, burns his house down and then dances on the embers while wearing his childhood dog as a hat. Notable examples include The First Evil from Buffy and Shinji in Fate/Stay Night.
Death #8 alas poor villain
This can be done in several ways but the gist of it is a villain dies but we don’t feel good about it, whether it’s because he was sympathetic or was just likable despite his habit of killing people we are sad to see this guy go. It might be because of a last minute redemption = death or maybe the last moment reveal of his true reasons for being evil. Sometimes even retroactively due to a prequel using the forgone conclusion and showing that he started out as a young boy who watch his heroes on the TV and wanted to be just like them but when he tried the harsh reality of the real world made him bitter. But then what if you want to make your villain die but don’t want him coming across as a wimp who couldn’t keep his convictions at the end? What if you don’t want to make him a whiney little kid but still want people to miss him? Two options; 1) give him a sense of honour that causes him to go up against the big bad but still not on the hero’s side or 2) make him love another villain and have him take the blow for her, a villainous sacrifice if you will. Notable examples are the Anti-Spirals from Gurren Lagann and Dr. Octopus in the second Spider-Man movie
So there you have it the 8 basic deaths. They aren’t mutually exclusive and could be conbinbed such as the heroic sacrifice being the conclusion of a redemption = death plot and such. Also I only mentioned Villains on three of them but a well written cast can produce evil deaths that use the other more heroic deaths and if you were to write it from the ‘evil’ guys POV then even stuff like the redemption = death could be pulled off and heroes would suffer the triumph.
Death #1 the inspirational death
Usually targeting the hero’s mentor or teacher. This is the death that hits right at the start of the series and is what inspires the hero to go up against the bad guy. The bad guy will show up and kill the hero’s father figure who taught him everything he knows, most of the time right in front of him, and the hero swears revenge against him. It could also hit his love interest or hometown but every time it will be someone close to him and often include someone dying in his arms while he screams at the heavens. This death can also hit near the end when the bad guy ask what reason the hero could possibly have for killing him and then shown in flash back. This is most often seen in shonen battle manga and basically every single martial arts film ever made. Notable examples are Cyan’s home town in Final Fantasy VI, uncle Ben in Spider-man and Doctor Hiluluk in One Piece
Death #2 the unexpected death
Our hero stands up to the hordes of death and destruction; he is straight backed and righteous, red adorns his armour and the cape that flows in the wind. We see a shot of the base miles back and the female crew members all swoon when he turns and winks at the camera. Cut to the live news broadcast and a kid, action figure in hand, is looking up at the screen with worship in his eyes. Back on the battle field our hero is cutting down monsters and demons with no difficulty and soon makes it to their leader. Firing off a quip he rushes forwards to end the fight - and gets run through with his own sword. Yeah turns out the real hero is that kid not the guy we saw at first. This is sometimes over lapped with the inspirational death if the real hero thought the first guy was unstoppable. Other times it can be the hero coming across the first guy wounded and taking up his fight. Notable examples are Kamina from Gurren Lagann and Sigmund from Infinite Undiscovery.
Death #3 the forgone conclusion
This one is the territory of prequels, flashbacks or in some cases a story that opens with a flashforward to the ending. We all know this character is going to die since they are dead in the main timeline but this can be one of the worst moments in a story. The devil really is in the details for this one since most of the time it will either be developing a previously flat character so we actually care about their death this time around or it will be from their point of view this time around instead of a character detached from them or an all knowing narrator. Other ways to go are if all we know is the character died but not how or why or even reveal that the person that told the story has been lying, maybe they didn’t go out with a smile but instead were crying and begging for their life. Most heart breaking of all is to show a hopeful character and make it look like the plan will work and the bad guy will be killed until the very last moment and it all turns pear shaped in an instance. Notable examples are Elphaba in Wicked, Bree in The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and Rose in Martin the warrior.
Death #4 redemption = death
A villain, usually not the main bad guy, realises he is on the wrong side of the conflict and changes sides but dies because of it. This could be because they need to do it at that moment or because they are never really trusted up to that moment and want to do anything to be accepted. While the delayed deaths can be sad the worst are the last minute ones where the villain saves the heroes life in the place of their own. Whether they do it because they realised they were wrong, because of some sense of honour or even for their love of another character it doesn’t matter. Sometimes overlaps with the foregone conclusion if it includes a flash back to why they became a villain. Notable examples are Darth Vader in Star Wars and Dinobot from Beast Wars.
Death #5 the heroic sacrifice
Basically exactly what it says on the tin. A hero sacrifices himself to save someone or something else. This one is fairly self explanatory but one thing to remember when writing this kind of death is that in almost every occasion this needs to be one of the most awesome moments of the entire series. Something that makes the audience sit up and say “hell yeah!” One final exclamation mark on a heroic story. On a rare occasion it could instead be a meaningless death (see below) but that is more difficult to pull off successfully. Notable examples include Joe from Act II: Father of Death and Joshua from The World Ends With You (sort of.)
Death #6 the meaningless death
The ultimate tragedy; this can be separated out into two varieties for both the heroes and the villains. On the hero’s side this could be a heroic sacrifice or they could have gone off thinking they were the hero and got hit by the unexpected death; either way they don’t accomplish anything. Sometimes they do get something done with their death but not enough to really affect anything such as using a last ditch taking you with me attack but not hurting the villain at all. This might get the hero to attack with his true strength and win but you have to wonder did this character have to die? On the villains side we have the moment when a hero kills a villain but it turns out it was a fake or that they have several lives/regenerations and have to be killed several times. Worst case scenario the villain was holding back a stronger baddy with their life and killing him set some big cosmic horror on the world. Notable examples include (heroes) android #16 in Dragon Ball, (villains) the Oración Seis in Fairy Tail and (a villain but falls under the hero taking you with me category) Phantom from Megaman Zero.
Death #7 the triumph
Falling out of favour these days is the ending where the bad guy is slain huzzah drinks are on the house and they all lived happily ever after. Just a basic bad guy death with no hidden depths, no flashback to the impressionable boy who just wanted to save people, no reveal he was doing it for his sister’s sake; no he’s just dead and every one celebrates. These days you can only really pull this off if your bad guy is a force of pure evil (the devil for example) or in a more realistic setting a complete monster; you know the guy who tricks the hero into killing his best friend, rapes his true love, burns his house down and then dances on the embers while wearing his childhood dog as a hat. Notable examples include The First Evil from Buffy and Shinji in Fate/Stay Night.
Death #8 alas poor villain
This can be done in several ways but the gist of it is a villain dies but we don’t feel good about it, whether it’s because he was sympathetic or was just likable despite his habit of killing people we are sad to see this guy go. It might be because of a last minute redemption = death or maybe the last moment reveal of his true reasons for being evil. Sometimes even retroactively due to a prequel using the forgone conclusion and showing that he started out as a young boy who watch his heroes on the TV and wanted to be just like them but when he tried the harsh reality of the real world made him bitter. But then what if you want to make your villain die but don’t want him coming across as a wimp who couldn’t keep his convictions at the end? What if you don’t want to make him a whiney little kid but still want people to miss him? Two options; 1) give him a sense of honour that causes him to go up against the big bad but still not on the hero’s side or 2) make him love another villain and have him take the blow for her, a villainous sacrifice if you will. Notable examples are the Anti-Spirals from Gurren Lagann and Dr. Octopus in the second Spider-Man movie
So there you have it the 8 basic deaths. They aren’t mutually exclusive and could be conbinbed such as the heroic sacrifice being the conclusion of a redemption = death plot and such. Also I only mentioned Villains on three of them but a well written cast can produce evil deaths that use the other more heroic deaths and if you were to write it from the ‘evil’ guys POV then even stuff like the redemption = death could be pulled off and heroes would suffer the triumph.