Children and death

[Gray_Mann]

Just have a facility full of children mutant monsters that can barely talk and making all these moaning sounds. The process is cannot be undone. Have one of the monsters recognize the mc and mutter their name. Then MC has to do a bunch of mercy killings.....

View attachment 31238

Man. That scene is still haunting.

Still didn't stop me from laughing at the picture tho

 

[CarburetorThompson]

There’s a difference between worst and most impactful for a story. I’m sure you could come up with some complex really painful torture to kill someone, but for me the most impactful things in a war story would be.

Cancer - Radiation poisoning if that exists in that world. Cancer is a very ugly killer. Radiation poisoning doesn’t have to kill a character to be bad. Children who are still growing will be the most impacted by non fatal radiation poisoning, if it doesn’t kill them it will certainly have adverse effects on their body that will burden them for the rest of their life. It’s a really sad thing to read because it perverts the image of what children represent.

Famine - Famine is impactful because it shows how someone doesn’t need to be directly targeted by weapons to die because of war. Famine is impactful because by its very nature you can’t escape. A single village may be destroyed by a bomb, but famine will destroy an entire country. It’s really ugly especially when you see things like family pets being killed and eaten just to survive.

Friendly Fire - There is something very soul demoralizing about having an ally meant to save you cause you direct harm. This is something that will directly negatively impact both the civilians and soldiers. I’ve listened to cockpit audio of fighter pilots who accidentally killed friendly soldiers, it’s really gross and heartbreaking, especially when you hear pilots who are trained and ready to kill start throwing up into their flight mask after getting confirmation of what they did.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Real world? Drowning or burning probably, though death by slow torture might be pretty darned awful.

Fantasy would be probably rapid aging, turning the kid to an adult and then very old person and then dust in a matter of minutes or seconds.

 

[WinterTimeCrime]

As ScribbleHub's resident Gore-lovin' Gal, who's experimented with this in-depth, you don't need a horrific scene with a child in a war setting unless you want to show how inhumane one side is.

The child could die a martyr and ignite a new conquest. Or could be the deciding catalyst of ending one, and a terrible accident causes all hell to break loose.

It depends on the story's narrative, and what point you're trying to prove. While some horror readers love gorefests (I know I do), if there isn't a message attached and you're just torturing children for shock value, then there's really no point... unless you're just satisfying your abnormal fantasies.

But if you are doing it for shock value, I respect that, too.

 

[Lysander_Works]

Google "Worst way to kill children."
Wait, never-mind. The glowies might be watching...

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

Burning alive is the first on the official scale of most painful deaths, if you're aiming for that. But some may think that death isn't something that bad, it releases you from suffering. If you're aiming for shock actor - leave the children alive, but wishing they were dead.

Don't you like, pass out pretty quickly?

 

[SRB]

Don't you like, pass out pretty quickly?

Ye, doesn't mean that the novel has to be 100% realistic with that.

 

[3guanoff]

The worst way is a pointless death. Torture is difficult to write well if you have never witnessed the actual thing. And if you have, you do not need to ask that question.

Write a (few) chapter(s) of the girl tragically surviving alone but full of resolve and will to live... only for an American/protagonist to get summoned to your world with magic/super powers. He shoots the girl to see if his powers really work. They do and she slowly bleeds out. Oops! Of course, protagonist quickly gets over it with the help of beauty#1:
"It's not your fault. You were thrown into this situation without any warning. It is only reasonable to be frightened and use your powers on the first passerby."
"But I feel so bad."
"Oh no, but I know a great way to make you feel better."
Girl's corpse lying forgotten in the streets: "..."