How to prepare to kill a character in a tragic/heroic manner?

[HellerFeed]

What is the best way to kill off characters? Naturally, their deaths should be meaningful and have a real impact on the story.

As an author, how do you prepare a character’s journey so that they leave a lasting impression and die in a heroic or tragic way that allows the story to pivot or progress? What kinds of goals do you give a character before killing them off? Do you prefer to let them fulfil those goals, or do you let them die with regrets—unfinished business, unspoken confessions, or dreams left unachieved?

• Do you foreshadow their deaths and prepare the audience with subtle cues, or do you lean into shock value and let it come unexpectedly?
• How much screen time should these characters have for readers to truly care about them?
• Finally, which non-main character death do you find the most iconic?

Any and all answers are appreciated. Thank you.

 

[MakBow]

1. yes, make it obvious with the usual cues (Flashbacks, past info dump, etc) or you can do shockwave, ONLY if the story works with that idea
2. As much as needed (Give them person relatability, likeability, and it will be easy_
3. And for that.......................................................................................................itachi

 

[Louhi]

You would need to do some build up. Establish the character and why they are important to the plot or the people around them. Their death should advance the plot, deepen someone else's characterization, or introduce an aspect of that someone that is never seen before. An example would be the 12 Guardian Ninja Arc from Naruto with the death of Asuma and how this impact his team.

 

[ViktorBloodfallen]

1) i personally believe a sudden death can be quite effective. It parallels our world where death is a constant but unpredictable force of nature.
2) I believe their impact to the story, characters, or environment would matter more. If the character brought light into an otherwise dark time only to be gunned down in the street really makes it bleak and tragic.
3) Cyberpunk edgerunners spoilers Rebecca, she brought light and humor to a bleak city. Showed loyalty to the very end. Her sudden death made me weep.

 

[Eldoria]

Hmm... that's a tricky question. I haven't killed off any significant characters, so I'm not qualified to answer this question. However, I think we can learn from some important characters in mainstream fiction.

Do you foreshadow their deaths and prepare the audience with subtle cues, or do you lean into shock value and let it come unexpectedly?

I think foreshadowing should be present, even if it's implicit. Like cliched dialogue like "I'll be back safely," etc. However, that might be too predictable for some readers.

How much screen time should these characters have for readers to truly care about them?

I think the time spent by important characters is only second to that of the protagonist. Jiraya, for example, spent almost as much time with Naruto as Naruto's journey.

However, this doesn't always have to be the case. I think the relationship between a significant character and the protagonist is more important than the screen time.

We can see examples of Itachi and Ace, whose lives were relatively short, but whose deaths were memorable. Why?! Because they were important characters to the protagonist.

Finally, which non-main character death do you find the most iconic?

The characters closest to the protagonist. If they die, their death will affect the entire story. Therefore, mainstream shounen often kills off the protagonist's family figures, such as their master, mother, or sibling, although I disagree with this approach.

 

[Corty]

People are too perceptive nowadays for death flags. All the character deaths I did were never telegraphed by chapters focusing on said characters, instead, they were always an integral part of the story.

And when their death came, it had a meaning.

Also, my regulars now see death flags everywhere, because I made them paranoid.

It's a win-win.

Ps:

The most important thing is that a character's death has to be logical and not out of the blue. If they have to die, it has to happen in a way that leaves no room to say they made a decision out of character or that could have been saved by someone or something. It has to be rock solid on how and why they die.

 

[HellerFeed]

You would need to do some build up. Establish the character and why they are important to the plot or the people around them. Their death should advance the plot, deepen someone else's characterization, or introduce an aspect of that someone that is never seen before. An example would be the 12 Guardian Ninja Arc from Naruto with the death of Asuma and how this impact his team.

I never thought the mangaka would kill of characters like Asuma, I assumed he had main plot armor like everyone else, his death was tragic and unexpected and leaving behind his girlfriend and unborn child. Definetly one of the iconiq tragic deaths,

1) i personally believe a sudden death can be quite effective. It parallels our world where death is a constant but unpredictable force of nature.
2) I believe their impact to the story, characters, or environment would matter more. If the character brought light into an otherwise dark time only to be gunned down in the street really makes it bleak and tragic.
3) Cyberpunk edgerunners spoilers Rebecca, she brought light and humor to a bleak city. Showed loyalty to the very end. Her sudden death made me weep.

Not mention Rebecca was not there in the intial script, but added later on by the studio trigger. Never thought a filler character would make such an impact on the fan base

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

All depends on your writing...

Spoilers for DEN below

Spoiler

One of my protags and my MC had a bunch of awkward interactions at first, then got closer over a fairly short period of time. She then got scared of that closeness, hopping into her space fighter and taking a job in another star system. She ended up getting stranded there from fighting an invading alien force and died of asphyxiation just as the MC came charging to her rescue.

I spent a fair amount of time developing the character, and gave her some good traits and bad traits. I would include her POVs multiple times, particularly when she was running away, and I gave her a death while eating a chocolate bar the MC gave her before she passed out.

This all said, she will be resurrected later due to my MC going on a quest for that magic, but I could have just left it there, and that would have been tragic and heart-wrenching...

Anyway, you should build the character up first, make them have both positive and negative qualities that your readers can relate to, then your choice of death doesn't matter. A long, drawn-out encounter, or them and the MC in a random car accident, it will be tragic, and you can use it as a focus to pivot how your MC thinks and acts.

Just don't make the death pointless from a narrative perspective. Just pointlessly killing off someone and everyone is just like "Oh no, that is so sad... Anyways, where were we?" is senseless. It should build your work, not tear it down...

Unless you're Brandon Sanderson when he took over The Wheel of Time series and George RR Martin'd 80% of of the side characters... that was a necessary evil.

 

[HellerFeed]

The characters closest to the protagonist. If they die, their death will affect the entire story. Therefore, mainstream shounen often kills off the protagonist's family figures, such as their master, mother, or sibling, although I disagree with this approach.

I think killing the characters mc closest to is the easiest and most efficient plot device for the MC to grow or change in a short time. Instead of mc going through the normal way of life and experience and gradually grow as a character, to die/kill someone close to him is the most shortcut and efficient way to change him very quickly. You can use the death to instantly turn an evil character to good, or a good character to evil, very quickly and in a believable manner, whereas, without death, the same result will be a long and slow burner.

Killing characters can bring quick change/growth for your character, either negatively/positvely, whichever you want.
Eg, how Ben Parker's death affected Spider-Man, even though Ben Parker was given a very short span of screen time. But his death was a lever to change Peter.

I agree that killing a character is basically like developing a character on steroids and should be done very sparingly.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

when I finally did this, the entire story transformed into more than the sum of its parts.

What is the best way to kill off characters? Naturally, their deaths should be meaningful and have a real impact on the story.

of course. Mine was the MC. Well, with two co-M C's, it was the most important one.

As an author, how do you prepare a character’s journey so that they leave a lasting impression and die in a heroic or tragic way that allows the story to pivot or progress?

the entire tale had been a long slow upward ramp, leading to the final underdog success. he had started, conmtinued, and made sure the thing no one else could do, happened. Without him, things stayed the same as they had for years.

What kinds of goals do you give a character before killing them off? Do you prefer to let them fulfil those goals, or do you let them die with regrets—unfinished business, unspoken confessions, or dreams left unachieved?

all of those. its a mixed bag. Success mixed with tragedy.

• Do you foreshadow their deaths and prepare the audience with subtle cues, or do you lean into shock value and let it come unexpectedly?

again, both. why choose between two appetizing dishes? Writing is free, order both and enjoy. I used such subtle foreshadowing, it was the kind you only graspo it in hindsight, or on subsequent reads, You realize, it was right there the whole time. Little omens. Life can only be lived forwards, yet it can only be understood in reverse.

• How much screen time should these characters have for readers to truly care about them?

In my case? Oh, not too much. Lets see here. volume one, five sections each pulp novel length in word count. Volume two, another four. Volume three, another four. Near the end, setting up the aftermath.

Finally, which non-main character death do you find the most iconic?

earlier, much earlier. a minor side character had gone off to commit suicide. I consider that foreshadowing, though it was impossible to see it until the end.

Any and all answers are appreciated. Thank you.

you're welcome. We all cook differently. I believe in go big or go home.

 

[DismaiNaim]

What is the best way to kill off characters?

How's this:
I slammed my hand flat against Bazen’s chest, grasping the arrow shaft between my thumb and the rest of my hand. He heaved and coughed. A bloody glob dropped out from his mouth and splatted onto the black dirt below. “I need someone to hold him!”
I felt arrows being pulled from my sling, and Finn’s steady voice behind me. “Daemon, Turic, you need to get up, man. Come on.”
Captain Turic sat in a corner beneath a thick cover of bluish sawblade palm leaves. He’d wrapped his arms around his knees and he shook. His eyes were glued to the ground in the center of our stronghold. Across from him, Ardou lay on the ground beside Jenzui with his hand on the man, his eyes blinking, and his breath slowly lifting up and down.
Daemon’s fingers trembled inches from Bazen’s skin. Bazen shook violently, pulling hard against my grasp.
“Hold him!” I shouted at Daemon.
Immediately, Bazen shook free from me, doubled over, and heaved another glob of blood onto the ground, only to cough more. The feathered end of the arrow snagged on the ground, tilting the angle sharply upward. I tried to grab his arm, and his whole body shot up and his muscles grew tense. He coughed, and another spray of blood shot out from his mouth.
Bilal rushed over and helped me pick him back up. Bazen coughed violently, but between the two of us, we held him mostly steady. “Need more!”
Daemon crouched behind him and took his shoulders in his arms, locking him in place. Charis the whaler’s nephew knelt and took my place so that I could get to work.
“OK,” Finn said behind me. “I’ll take ten arrows and get up on that rock. Orel, Kurt, that only leaves two to keep watch.”
I tried to focus on extracting the arrow, but I also didn’t need another casualty. “Stay here. Listen to the vudu birds; they’ll let us know if they come back.”
“I don’t think it’s…”
“Don’t argue!”
It was bad. The broadhead cut through the ribs diagonally, making the entry grooves too small to fit the arrowhead puller, and I couldn’t push it all the way through without running into his shoulder blade. I would have to cut through the meat between his ribs to get it out. “Bilal, I need you to hold the arrow shaft up here.”
Bazen’s body shook, and he coughed and gargled, but with three men holding him, we’d kept him steady.
I washed the blood away, and more came out. I washed that, and it trickled down his chest.
Still no sign of Miyani.
Oma snapped the arrow shaft from his arm and pulled it through with a grimace. He came over and rummaged through my medical kit for supplies. “What’s a vudu bird?”
Bilal answered him. “Those red and white birds you see swooping down, that low grinding you hear. There’s dead bodies all around. If those assholes try coming at us again, those birds will tell us.”
Bazen’s whole body jerked in spasms, violently at first, and then he calmed down and gave a weak cough. His head was tilted to the side, and a trail of blood dribbled down his chin.
“Come to think of it,” Bilal added, “If I were them and I did come back for another round, I’d take out that rock perch, first. I don’t think you want to be up there.”
Behind me, I heard Orel the Pickpocket’s voice talking softly with Turic and Ardou. He’d got them sitting together, at least. Kurt borrowed Dannie’s eupin bow, and he and Finn kept watch, listening out for the birds.
In front of me, Bazen Spider-Web’s Bane was dead.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I have a lot of planned character deaths. One MC is even slated to die (though he'll stick around for a bit anyway...) in one story.
Often it is NOT a heroic death but one that just sort of happens - a heroic death during the story climax is satisfying, but an unexpected death during the epilogue can be used to great effect, as can the death of a major support character.
If the death is to have any impact, you have to show what the character meant to the survivors, and how this death impacts their decisions later.