Death of a character

[Spqrblues]

I have a delimma though. One of my fews fans, her favorite character is the one that I had plannned on killing off from the start.

What do I do? Kill the guy and lose a fan or change how the story is going to go when it gets up to that point?

1. Have a long think about whether keeping the character IMPROVES the story and opens up better avenues. This is always possible.

2. If you don't have a revelation as to how the comic would be much much better by keeping the character alive, then don't compromise the story just to please the readers. You'll never please every person.

3. Make the character's end touching and memorable.

A fan who is only there for one character, rather than for the story, is just as likely to stop reading if the character does something she doesn't like. Do you want to spend the rest of the webcomic making sure everything the characters do meets the approval of each reader? Or do you have a story to tell? Or does it not actually matter much to you (that is to say, you really don't mind letting the story shape itself as you go along)? That last is a valid method, letting the story respond to the audience interactively, but runs the risk of the overall plot dissolving into incoherence. And the risk of ending up with a story so tailored to one specific person that other people lose interest.

I see this as an opportunity to think carefully about the story, rather than a reason to worry about skittish readers....

[Dr Legostar]

I have a delimma though. One of my fews fans, her favorite character is the one that I had plannned on killing off from the start.

What do I do? Kill the guy and lose a fan or change how the story is going to go when it gets up to that point?

someone who would stop reading your comic cause you killed off one character isn't a fan.

[Black Sparrow]

I have a delimma though. One of my fews fans, her favorite character is the one that I had plannned on killing off from the start.

What do I do? Kill the guy and lose a fan or change how the story is going to go when it gets up to that point?

someone who would stop reading your comic cause you killed off one character isn't a fan.

A fanboy/girl, perhaps. And know how disappointing it is when my favorite characters are nixed. But that's part of what makes the death more touching. Let it affect the story in some way... because that's what's important.

[The Mortician]

Its usually the case when I finally like a character and then it turns out they were slated to die.


Course, that wasn't the case for me with the movie, "Stranger than Fiction"... SPOILER FOR A MOVIE: I was actually disappointed that the author in the movie didn't kill off Harold (Will Ferrell). But it was one of those stories where it was so blurry to make a decision. I mean was Harold always a fictional character? Was he real? Did the writer make him real? Did the author actually have control over his death? its those kinds of questions that I kinda thought if the author had went and killed her character... and Harold lived... that the story wasn't fully in the writer's control.

[Dawny]

Hello all.

Rather new here, I don't know if there is any point in posting this but when it came to my comic two of my four main characters started off as being dead. So it is possable to kill a character so long as there is a point/reason to it.

Dawn.

P.S. Just don't kill the wrong character (With no plans to bring them back.) or else your fans will not like it.

[LibertyCabbage]

Hello Dawn.

[Dutch!]

Goodbye Dusk

[Kemmy]

Goodnight, Moon.

[Dr Legostar]

Goodnight, Room.

[Fleakitten]

3. Make the character's end touching and memorable.

I plan on making sure the character gets a rather touching and honorable farewell.

A fan who is only there for one character, rather than for the story, is just as likely to stop reading if the character does something she doesn't like..

She did say she liked my story telling. I'm just hoping she continues to like it after that event.

[McDuffies]

I have a delimma though. One of my fews fans, her favorite character is the one that I had plannned on killing off from the start.

What do I do? Kill the guy and lose a fan or change how the story is going to go when it gets up to that point?

someone who would stop reading your comic cause you killed off one character isn't a fan.

A fanboy/girl, perhaps. And know how disappointing it is when my favorite characters are nixed. But that's part of what makes the death more touching. Let it affect the story in some way... because that's what's important.

Kill her and make her body never be found, thus giving your fan a vain hope that she isn't really dead and that she'll come back one day. But eventually fan'll forget all about it.

[Spqrblues]

Kill her and make her body never be found, thus giving your fan a vain hope that she isn't really dead and that she'll come back one day. But eventually fan'll forget all about it.

I suggest a massive cataclysm (volcano) during which most of your cast disappears (buried in lava), some of whom might turn up again later (swam to safety), or not turn up for 2000 years (archaeological dig). The fan will just have to wait and see which one it turns out to be. Problem solved!

I'm feeling morbid tonight. I think I'll send my characters up that volcano.

[McDuffies]

To swim in lava?

[Leperdoctor]

To swim in lava?

It's good for the skin. Eats all the bad skin away. And everything else, as well.

[Spqrblues]

To swim in lava?

It's good for the skin. Eats all the bad skin away. And everything else, as well.

Ha. Beat me to it.

[Noise Monkey]

...some of whom might turn up again later (swam to safety), or not turn up for 2000 years (archaeological dig). The fan will just have to wait and see which one it turns out to be. Problem solved!

wait 2000 years for then to turn up in the dig? you really do have long term plans for the comic, eh?

[Spqrblues]

wait 2000 years for then to turn up in the dig? you really do have long term plans for the comic, eh?

I've already cast several poor plaster-cast people in major roles. I figure the least I can do, giving some locals a little work.

[Moonshadow]

Heh, I can't believe I made it all the way through this. ^^

For my own two cents (and because I'm trying to rebalance forums to get back to this one again), I've been having several discussions with my writer lately about character deaths. We'd already planned a bunch of them before the comic even started, but as the story's evolving, some of the circumstances have changed.

With at least a couple of them, up until recently I'd had reservations on whether or not I really did want to kill them. I've become pretty attached to the characters, so it'll be sad for me when we do have their deaths, but storywise we're both pretty well resolved that it has to happen.

There's also one who's been dead from the start...

[Anarchist]

i would probably do what a not so recent issue of Sonic the Hedgehog did- knuckles (a much liked character) sacrifices himself, but comes back to life later on and saves his friends.

[MixedMyth]

How would you kill them?

In the drawing room with the candlestick.

Sorry...someone had to say it.

Unless they already have. It's an awfully long thread.