Killing Off Characters
A Song of Ice and Fire is one of my favorite book series of all time and easily the biggest influence on my own series, The Color of Water and Sky. Anyone familiar with ASOIAF, more commonly known these days by its TV show name, Game of Thrones, knows that part of the story’s appeal is the mortality of the characters. Knowing that someone you care about can die at any second makes the steaks high and the story more engaging.
I can remember exactly where I was when I first read the Red Wedding scene in A Storm of Swords. I was in the break room at my previous job, killing some time before returning to work. At the time, I could hardly believe what I’d just read. I actually went back and re-read the last three pages because I thought I must’ve read it wrong. Then I looked at the book. There was almost 40% of the book left. I could hardly believe it. All the main characters were killed! What was the rest of the book going to be about?
That’s the genius of the scene. It’s completely unexpected and it happens in the middle of the story, not the beginning or end. Having this scene revolve around such a pivotal character’s death in a completely unexpected moment of the book means that there are no rules going forward. Anything can happen at any time to anyone. The story may not necessarily follow a traditional format. The result? From then on, the reader is more engaged.
In some cases, deaths are huge and anticipated but can still be well handled. One of my favorite comic book stories is The Death of Captain America, which follows directly after the Marvel Civil War. In this story, Captain America is killed at the beginning. 90% of the story then focuses on the supporting characters. Conventional wisdom would suggest that without a main character, the story is doomed. Yet, this was not the case. As a reader, you are left to wonder which of these supporting characters will rise to take the mantle left by the now absent protagonist. While reading, you are studying each character more intimately and carefully than you otherwise would have. In my personal opinion, and the general opinion of the comic book community, the series actually got BETTER once Captain America was killed.
So what am I getting at here? Should book authors kill off all their characters?
No, of course not. If everyone is killed, you run into the opposite problem. People will come to expect a character’s death. The element of surprise is lost. Not to mention, you’ll need some characters around to tell the story.
Instead, character killing should be done smartly. Saving a death until the end is popular, but cliche and expected. Killing a character in the middle, now that has an impact. Killing a mentor character off so that the protagonist can learn to do things themselves is also cliche. There are enough dead Qui-Gon Jinns, Obi-Wan Kenobis and Han Solos out there that the audience practically already knows what’s coming (and that’s just in Star Wars alone).
So now you might be thinking: Kill a character off in the middle. Kill a character off that seems essential. Yes! But that’s only half the point. The next rule is probably the single most important aspect of what makes good deaths good: The death has to have an impact on the story somehow.
Uncle Ben’s death makes Peter Parker want to be a superhero. Gandalf the Grey’s death causes the Fellowship to break apart and doubt themselves. Spock’s death exemplifies the meaning of the phrase “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. In all cases, these major character deaths improved the story. They were not simply deaths for the sake of shock value.
If you have not gotten the hint yet, I have taken a great deal of interest in the idea of character deaths. Whether this influences my upcoming books or not, you’ll have to wait and see. Obviously I don’t want to run any story details. But this is something I take to heart.
In conclusion, I will leave you with the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBxMPqxJGqI
