Lately I've read a few books where there's been an amazing character, usually not the main character but still important to me nonetheless, that I fell in love with and then all of a sudden the author decides to be like, "Oh you like this character? You want to keep reading about this character? Well too bad because THEY'RE DEAD NOW. *evil laughter*" and I'm left either bawling my eyes out (it's happened before where I literally just started bawling over a character death) or just feel all kinds of awful because this character that I met and let into my heart is now gone!
Now I totally get that death is a natural part of life, both in the real world and the book world, but that doesn't mean that losing a fictional character that you've come to love is going to hurt any less. I'm not going to name specific characters because I don't want to spoil things for anyone but I think we can all think of just one character that we've come to adore, whether they main character or not, that was ripped away from us through death. While the feeling of loss is still fresh in your head you start thinking things like, "Why the heck did he or she have to die?! The story could've been fine with *insert character name here* still alive! The author just hates us and their characters by killing them off like that!" and it happens. I've felt and thought these things, I've even raged about it. It happens. But I don't really think that authors hate us (though I think they like to make us cry the ugly cry) or their characters. Now I can't begin to justify them killing off characters and quite frankly I don't want to. Death happens and sometimes there is nothing we can do about or nothing we could've done to stop it and that includes fictional characters in the fictional world. As much as we like to believe otherwise, authors don't always get a real say in what happens in their stories. Characters and plot can sometimes take over and as much as it sucks, sometimes it leads to a death of a character.
As painful as a death of a character can be, I think it also speaks wonders for the character and the author. A lot of people don't seem to understand when people get upset over a fictional character because they think, "They're not real so what does it matter?" but it can and it does matter to people. The fact that you can read a book, or several sometimes, and meet this one character who may or may not be the center of the story and begin to care about them and genuinely be upset when they leave your life really says something. That you can get this feeling of "I can't believe I even began to care about you just to have you ripped away" or even think exactly like Dale, "You don't get to just enter my life and make me care about you just to check out of my life!" can really say something. There's nothing wrong with caring about a character, even if that character winds up dead and you can't even begin to process it. As sad as it is to say, it happens. It'll upset you, it'll eat at you, you can and will probably freak out and in rare cases cry, but that's okay! There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeling something for a character or getting upset when a character dies.
Death happens. It's a sad truth in life. While fictional deaths certainly aren't as painful as a death of a loved one, they can still sadden or cause some pain. In all honesty, it sucks as I'm sure everyone knows. There are still going to be times when I want to rage at the author or cry out that a character's death was pointless and didn't have to happen, that the author could've done something to change the death. I'll get upset and say that an author isn't allowed to do that, make a character that I care for and then just take them away. I realize that authors don't always get to make decisions on whether or not a character dies, the story does, and I've for the most part accepted it. Doesn't make things any easier but I'm okay with that! Are there going to be more character deaths in my future? Absolutely. Am I going to be upset over a lot of them? You know it. Is that going to stop me from continuing a book or a series, or even stop me from connecting and caring for characters? No it won't. It'll be a bittersweet thing but I'll still care for the character! They're gone but not forgotten!
You said it Beth!
What do you think about the death of a character you like? Does your reaction differ on your level of connection with the character?
~Kayla~
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