The Most Painful 'Death'...

[Deleted member 54065]

Death.

One of writing's most controversial and/or shocking elements. It can prod your character to grow, or amplify his super saiyan powers. It can trigger the ultimate power of friendship bs. It can either make--or break (yeah I'm looking at GoT series)--your story.

However, questions remain...like for you, what is the most painful kind of death?

For me, dying and no one remembered that you exist is the most painful death imaginable. No, not the part where they deliberately avoid you, but a completely lost and forgotten existence. It's as if every effort that you did is for a naught, even to the people that supposedly are 'closest' to you.

So what do you think? For you, what's the most painful kind of death (well, aside from getting run over by a tank, or being roasted in a crashed plane).

 

[Cipiteca396]

Everyone will be forgotten inevitably. Even if you say it's the worst, it's the only real option.

Fiction is nicer, since it can give meaning to death. With that being the case, the worst kind of death in fiction is a meaningless death. You abandoned the only real appeal it should have had. For what? A bit of shock or sadness? Wasteful.

 

[IDKWtWrite-San]

Being torched alive , impact to trauma while you're drowning , Being crucified , impale and stabbed multiple times to death, Slowly getting chainsaw groin first and more.

There's so much more to see in death. The worst part is that you suffer before you die which pains you for a moment of time before you truly dies. It's better to be shot instead in the head or been hit in the vital of the neck since you die a peaceful death

 

[NotaNuffian]

Emotionally, dying alone in the hospital bed where no one is visiting.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Being torched alive , impact to trauma while you're drowning , Being crucified , impale and stabbed multiple times to death, Slowly getting chainsaw groin first and more.

There's so much more to see in death. The worst part is that you suffer before you die which pains you for a moment of time before you truly dies. It's better to be shot instead in the head or been hit in the vital of the neck since you die a peaceful death

A quick death is always better than a slow, physical one, and much better than watching your loved ones die before your eyes.

 

[Deleted member 57675]

One of writing's most controversial and/or shocking elements.

However, questions remain...like for you, what is the most painful kind of death?

Being tortured and then killed in a gory way just to spurn or act as a matyr for a protagonist/protagonist group/whatever powerful group in story that uses it to jusitfy horrible means. The character is really just remembered as a sad tragic death, and they can't redeem or go back from it, unlike the protagonist who can die multiple times but come back wolverine style and still proceed to the next arc.

To me its worse than dying silently without much notice. You painfully slowly die from whatever method happens - either disease or torture that basically leads to death. It doesn't kill you sudden but painfully tearing you apart, may make one wish it came faster bc to them a quicker death is more merciful.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Being tortured and then killed in a gory way just to spurn or act as a matyr for a protagonist/protagonist group/whatever powerful group in story that uses it to jusitfy horrible means. The character is really just remembered as a sad tragic death, and they can't redeem or go back from it, unlike the protagonist who can die multiple times but come back wolverine style and still proceed to the next arc.

Eh, the protags are always coated with 10-meter thick plot armor and can use respawn abilities.

Just like how cameramen are always the lone suvivor in any disaster and zombie movies.

 

[Alfir]

It depends on how many times...
If you die only once, I guess it is mercy at work...
You see, I believe you can die more than once... Physical death is not the only death.
You can die emotionally, apathy overclocking your basic conceptions of how to feel.
You can die spiritually, lost faith of a god you once believed. Maybe you are an atheist, but that won't still save you.
You can die culturally as your most favorite anime becomes the despise of your friends. Heck, cancel culture can kill lives!
You can die mentally, broken by the sadness that weighed in your heart, snowballing into an insanity you won't ever control.
Then the various derivations of how much you can die.
Then you revive, resuscitated back into the living. Shown hope that you can live and forget death— only for the same deaths to repeat again. We can't defy death, we can only accompany it as we grow of old age and suffer from its cyclical reckoning.

This is what I call a 'Hopeful Death'

 

[Deleted member 54065]

It depends on how many times...
If you die only once, I guess it is mercy at work...
You see, I believe you can die more than once... Physical death is not the only death.
You can die emotionally, apathy overclocking your basic conceptions of how to feel.
You can die spiritually, lost faith of a god you once believed. Maybe you are an atheist, but that won't still save you.
You can die culturally as your most favorite anime becomes the despise of your friends. Heck, cancel culture can kill lives!
You can die mentally, broken by the sadness that weighed in your heart, snowballing into an insanity you won't ever control.
Then the various derivations of how much you can die.
Then you revive, resuscitated back into the living. Shown hope that you can live and forget death— only for the same deaths to repeat again. We can't defy death, we can only accompany it as we grow of old age and suffer from its cyclical reckoning.

This is what I call a 'Hopeful Death'

So what do you think? The most painful way to die for you is...?

 

[Alfir]

So what do you think? The most painful way to die for you is...?

Well... A death that doesn't end...

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Well... A death that doesn't end...

Oooh...sounds plausible. ??

The Subaru death. The kind of death that will completely break you.

 

[NotaNuffian]

So what do you think? The most painful way to die for you is...?

I've got a second one.

Dying just before knowing all your hopes and dreams are dashed, all your loved ones will follow in your footsteps even though you struggled hard to prevent that as well as knowing that all your efforts are in vain and nothing can change the horrible fate ahead.

So like dying normally, but depressed I guess.

 

[Jemini]

Define "painful." Are you talking physically, emotionally, or phychologically?

I would say #1 for physical would be the classic "death by a thousand cuts." Basically, have the character beat to death in such a way that any 1 injury is minor, but they total up to something life threatening.

#1 emotional would be the betrayal of being killed by someone who you thought was your friend.

#1 psychological would be some form of physical dismemberment. A live organ harvest without anestesia would probably be especially horrific.

Of course, it would be any combination of the three that would total up to the true most painful death. I do not think it's possible to actually combine all 3, but combining any 2 is not so difficult.

 

[Aouliuo]

Death by torture, I suppose. Washboarding, sensory deprivation, starvation, barbs and whips, chains, psychological maiming, isolation, potential dismemberment, diseased blood loss, helplessness, a complete and utter lack of agency. . . Drawn out over a very, very long time. Since I'm female, rape would probably be on the table too.

It'd tick both boxes of mental and physical hell. I'd probably clock out into insanity before the final tick tocks and all, but it would destroy me. I don't have the mentality or the will to withstand that kind of thing and my imagination would probably prove the most lethal weapon of them all.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Define "painful." Are you talking physically, emotionally, or phychologically?

I would say #1 for physical would be the classic "death by a thousand cuts." Basically, have the character beat to death in such a way that any 1 injury is minor, but they total up to something life threatening.

#1 emotional would be the betrayal of being killed by someone who you thought was your friend.

#1 psychological would be some form of physical dismemberment. A live organ harvest without anestesia would probably be especially horrific.

Of course, it would be any combination of the three that would total up to the true most painful death. I do not think it's possible to actually combine all 3, but combining any 2 is not so difficult.

Whatever is your definition of painful would apply. So just list them down for others to see and discuss ?

I've got a second one.

Dying just before knowing all your hopes and dreams are dashed, all your loved ones will follow in your footsteps even though you struggled hard to prevent that as well as knowing that all your efforts are in vain and nothing can change the horrible fate ahead.

So like dying normally, but depressed I guess.

I guess this could be painful, too. I mean, after all that effort and ended wasted just before you die...felt like a failure, after all, and you can't do anything aboit it anymore.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I guess this could be painful, too. I mean, after all that effort and ended wasted just before you die...felt like a failure, after all, and you can't do anything aboit it anymore.

Spoiler for a decade long (?) novel that is Mushoku Tensei,

Spoiler

the Human God (Hitogami if you are a weeb) tried to one up Rudeus as he disappears into the white light by pulling this, only for him to say "I am already dead" in a calm tone. And just like how the latest episodes of Rudy meeting up with the faceless one at his death, Rudy doesn't give a shit about past regrets, especially when he has already did his best as well as no longer able to influence it.

So the important lesson here is, "do your best, at least you have no regrets"

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Spoiler for a decade long (?) novel that is Mushoku Tensei,

Spoiler

the Human God (Hitogami if you are a weeb) tried to one up Rudeus as he disappears into the white light by pulling this, only for him to say "I am already dead" in a calm tone. And just like how the latest episodes of Rudy meeting up with the faceless one at his death, Rudy doesn't give a shit about past regrets, especially when he has already did his best as well as no longer able to influence it.

So the important lesson here is, "do your best, at least you have no regrets"

Yeah, it's his children's turn to kick the Human God's arse.

Though if I may say, Rudeus' ending is more hopeful, than let's say, some MCs, who died without seeing the light of the day...(I suddenly remembered the FMC of the manga, Lament of the Lambs).

So the important lesson here is, "do your best, at least you have no regrets"

Ah my daily life mantra. ?

 

[SakeVision]

Too philosophical.


The most painful way to die is probably by impalement on bamboo. As it slowly keeps growing in you.....

 

[PeacefulMyst]

perhaps having a chopstick forced inside the hole of your d and then slowly being tortured to death

 

[Deleted member 54065]

If I'm the executioner and looking for great ways to torture and kill people, I'd ask SH Forum peeps for ideas. ?