Okay, so this isn't exactly a technology-related post, and it's extremely long. But if you're an animator like me, then at some point you might find yourself creating a storyline, at which point you're going to need this post. All of it, even though it's extremely long.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the Alex Rider series, Artemis Fowl series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Wars. If you are not familiar with any of these, and you plan on familiarizing yourself with these, and you want to be surprised by them, then stop reading now.
The title for this post was almost "Why, Anthony Horowitz? Why?" Because that's where it all started: a display of his Alex Rider novels in my local bookstore. I read several of the Alex Rider novels a while back; while I didn't think they were literary genius by any stretch of the imagination, I like action stories and they were entertaining. However, Eagle Strike completely killed my enjoyment of the novels, with its melodramatic way of separating Alex from his girlfriend. I admit to being a believer in happy endings, or at least hope for the future, in fiction. If you're going to end a book on a sad note, then it better be a really awesome book to get me to love it. Not being that impressed with the Alex Rider novels, I stopped reading them after Eagle Strike.
But there was this shelf in my bookstore, with all the Alex Rider novels lovingly displayed--with cool new iridescent-printed covers, even. I was curious. I picked up Scorpia, the last Alex Rider book that has come out for a while, and flipped to the last few pages. Although I didn't like the direction the novels were going, I liked the character, and I wanted to see how Horowitz had Alex deal with his inner demons. I should have known better.
In the final pages of his novel, Anthony Horowitz kills. Alex Rider. Off. Or at least he goes to great lengths to make it seem like that's what happens. Seriously? We spend several books getting to know, love, and cheer for this character, and he can't get a happy ending? Instead he gets shot by a sniper, and it's not even a compelling death scene? You have got to be kidding me.
So in honor of Anthony Horowitz, Eoin Colfer, and the other authors and scriptwriters who have killed off characters they shouldn't have, here is the guide to killing off characters without making your audience hate you forever. (I am aware that many thrilling tales break these rules right and left. This is for the benefit of the stories that are good, but not good enough to compensate for an ill-placed death.) I have distilled the Killing-Off-Of-Characters (KOOC) principals into an exception and three basic rules. Story creators, ignore at your peril.
KOOC Exception for Evil: None of these rules apply to evil characters.
If a character is on the side of the bad guys or has been at some point in the story, they may be killed without a second thought, because chances are they had it coming. In fact, sometimes you should kill them to avoid conflicts between your desire for a happy ending and your desire for justice. (And as a creator of a story, you do have both, right? Right?)
To put it in terms of the most popular action tale, Star Wars: It's okay to kill off Governer Tarkin (the guy of the "foul stench") and the Emperor and dozens of little officers and Stormtroopers. They deserve it. Darth Vader's death is also justified by this rule. (Do you really think that it would be acceptable to have him choke and zap Rebels right and left, mind-probe Princess Leia, use Leia/Han/Chewie as Luke Bait, and then have Luke say "Hey, Dad! It's me!" and have everything be fine and dandy? Something's gotta give, and Vader is easier to remove than the viewers' sense of morality.)
KOOC Rule #1: The death of the character must further a plot element.
In other words, no pointless deaths. The death of the character should create difficulties for the hero(s) to overcome. Television shows who must remove an actor from the cast are a common offender (like the Star Trek TNG episode "Skin of Evil", where there was absolutely no reason Tasha Yar needed to get killed. While the crew reacted to her death in various ways, her death could have been removed and the plot would be basically the same.) On a related note, the death of the character should not come at the end of the story when there is no time for the hero(s) to overcome difficulties caused by the character's death, forcing the story to end on a note of mourning.
Star Wars analogy: It's okay to kill off the entire Gold Squadron, because they have to be out of the way so that our heroic fighter pilot is forced to act as a bomber pilot. It wouldn't be okay to have an X-wing and it's named-in-dialog pilot get blown up so that the hero has six TIE fighters on his tail now, instead of five. (At that point he'd be in enough trouble that another TIE or two wouldn't make a difference.) It's okay to kill Darth Vader, and then have Luke hang out with his spirit for a bit before joining a victory celebration with Leia and Han and all his other friends who love him and care about him. It wouldn't be okay for Darth Vader to die three seconds from the end of Return of the Jedi, giving Luke just enough time for a horrified "Noooooo!" before the credits start rolling.
KOOC Rule #2: The character should not welcome death or perceive it as a moment of peace, calming, etc.
Because that is freaky. I'm looking at you, Anthony Horowitz! You escort your character through situations he shouldn't have to deal with as a teenager, show him having to endure the emotional backlash of those incidents--and then you kill him and he seems to enjoy it?!? I know that is probably a realistic response for someone in Alex Rider's position. But when I read a novel, I don't want reality. (I've got more than enough reality in my real life, thank you very much.) I want fantasy and people who solve their problems and live happily ever after, or at least happily for the moment. Having your hero get killed and welcome the experience is mildy disturbing, to say the least.
Star Wars analogy: Star Wars actually has probably the best-executed violations of this rule that I've ever seen, most notably in the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The freakiness-factor is blunted by Obi-Wan's calm, philosophical attitude to everything as demonstrated in the rest of the movie, and the fact that we aren't actually told what's going through his mind as he dies. If Obi-Wan hadn't taken everything else calmly in stride, and if we had been viewing his calm reaction to getting slashed with a lightsaber in first-person perspective, then it would have been disturbing.
KOOC Rule #3: The character should be defined by their function in the story, not by their personality.
Eoin Colfer (author of the Artemis Fowl novels) is guilty of violating this rule, big time. He spends three stories letting us get to know and love Commander Root as not just the grouchy commander, but a truly smart elf with a heart of gold if you look for it in the right place, and then in the fourth story he kills him off?!? (That's the main reason I no longer read the Artemis Fowl novels.) If the character is defined by their function, e.g. "the wise mentor" or "the hired henchman" or "the enthusiastic but inexperienced officer [in a red shirt]", they can be killed off with minimal fear of reader backlash. If the character is someone your audience has grown to understand inside and out as a person, rather than a role in the plot, then you'll have major problems if you kill them.
Star Wars analogy: It's okay to kill Obi-Wan in A New Hope, where he has played the role of "wise mentor" to a T, and we don't know anything about his personality other than the fact that he is a wise mentor. (In fact, getting killed so the hero must work on his own is almost a prerequisite for the position of Wise Mentor. [see Rule #1]) It wouldn't be okay to kill Han Solo in Return of the Jedi, after we've spent three movies learning what makes him tick.
So that concludes the KOOC rules for killing off characters without making your audience hate you forever. Uphold them stringently and disobey them only when necessary!*
*Hint: Most of the "disobediences" you will think of are covered under the second part of the Exemption for Evil. If you have one of those delightfully complex characters who drifted to the Dark Side at some point (metaphorically or literally) because they, like all humans, are neither pure good nor pure evil, then you may kill them to bring karma, absolve their guilt, or release a happiness/justice deadlock. Go for it.
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