[SPOILER WARNING] Which fictional death are you still not over?

SwampCreature

WARNING - THIS THREAD WILL CONTAIN HEAVY SPOILERS!

We all get attached to fictional characters sometimes. Personally, Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII was my favorite fictional character right from the jump and...well, her death was so shocking and tragic that it became a meme. At the time the game came out, her death was a huge twist - she was not only a main playable character, but she was the main character’s love interest. The game so far had been telling us she was the only hope to save the planet, and then the BBEG brutally murdered her right in front of us. On top of all of this, we see the characters mourn, which was a first for me in terms of video game storytelling. Obviously it has really stuck with me both for its sadness and for its narrative importance.

What are some fictional character deaths that stick with you? Why do they resonate with you? Do you think the story should have gone another way?

Kismet

@SwampCreature I was really affected by the first time Bobby died in Super Natural, I know he ends up coming back to haunt them later but at the time it was a pretty heart breaking arc in the story

Mariano

Ooof, let's see...

In live action movies, I remember watching My Girl (1991) and Bridge to Terabithia (2007) and being shocked about the infamous deaths in them, particularly since it's children that die and they're both movies marketed towards children, which is crazy.

I tried to go see Robin Hood (2010) in theaters, but we forgot our IDs to show we were over 13, so we had to go see Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) instead. We were bawling the whole movie, poor baby boy Hachiko didn't know Richard Gere's character wouldn't come back Also if Marley from Marley & Me (2008) counts as a fictional character, then 100% it gets added.

In animation, the first time I watched Up (2009), I was ugly crying during that opening sequence; they really went from zero to a hundred in like 5 minutes of movie. Another big one for me was Death Note (2007), but in this case, the big character death halfway through the show was more of an upsetting event from a narrative perspective, because the show went downhill after that. Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) is another anime that destroyed me with a character death early on; if you know, you know, but it was gut-wrenching to see particularly because it's a 5-year-old girl betrayed by her own family.

In literature, when I first read A Game of Thrones (1996), the huuuge character that dies after having been one of, if not the main character of the book... I felt so confused, I'd never read anything like it. Finally, the ending of The Hero of Ages (2008) was extremely bittersweet, truly marked the end of an era in remarkable fashion, but I felt emptier than I had reading any other series before.

Alexander Salkin

@SwampCreature I'm gonna be lame here.

Charlotte of Charlotte's Web. She has a presence all her own, variously matronly to a bit dark to kind. She gives everything of herself for Wilbur's sake and it's a beautiful bittersweet conclusion. Similarly, it's tragic because Wilbur couldn't necessarily appreciate everything she did until she was gone and in some lights, Charlotte may have overextended herself as a result.

She's a lot of things and I don't blame E.B. White for getting choked up trying to speak about his character's death.

merlin

@SwampCreature

The one that hit the most for me was Quentin Cold water the magicians. His whole story was tragically beautiful. He started out as a kid who was suffering from depression with thoughts of ending it all, only to learn he had Magic and the world he of fantasy that he loved was real.

But once he entered the magical world he quickly learned magic wasn’t going to be the solution to his problems. Even so he continued on, finding love, friends and even becoming the king of this new world. And then it was all ripped away but he kept on fighting.

He was never the hero, not in a traditional sense. He had no great power. At the end of it all, when he learned his true specialty of magic, it was the repair of small objects .

And when the world was about to end , his gift was exactly what was needed. And all it cost him was his life to do it.

Truly beautiful story telling that show

Ezra

I know he's not technically dead dead, but The Doctor is probably the one I still think about and struggle with. Specifically the 10th Doctor. Too much of Tennant's performance was just an emotional whirlwind to begin with, so naturally his "passing" left a huge impact on the fans.