When killing off an important character, friend, brother or someone important to The MC. How do you feel about it?

Imagine, the character you wrote that had genuine bond with the MC across different chapter.
You planned to kill him off someday.
That day arrives.
What's your first reaction?

I can't help but feel I'm misunderstanding the question.

How would I, as an author, react to my own planning for killing off a character?

Is this like, playing rock/paper/scissors against yourself and being surprised that your opponent keeps winning or something?

I cried and cursed the authors 9 generations. Who does that bastard think he is?

Nothing, cause I know that living is far more miserable than being dead. Heck, I'm even jealous.

JHarp said:

I can't help but feel I'm misunderstanding the question.

How would I, as an author, react to my own planning for killing off a character?

Is this like, playing rock/paper/scissors against yourself and being surprised that your opponent keeps winning or something?

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I would indeed be surprised if I win against myself in front of a mirror tho

Nevafrost said:

I would indeed be surprised if I win against myself in front of a mirror tho

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I keep thinking I've seen some simpsons thing of Homer doing something to this effect and somehow losing to himself but I can't think of where that would be.

I have a tendency to only kill characters I had doomed from their conception, which sort of blunts the impact to me. Which I'll grant you is a writing mistake

Ral_062 said:

Imagine, the character you wrote that had genuine bond with the MC across different chapter.
You planned to kill him off someday.
That day arrives.
What's your first reaction?

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As an author, I just do what is narratively fitting for the story.
I do have a number of rules for my writing that I follow with all of my stories.
First and Foremost is: "No Plot Armor".
Toward that end, every action, or inaction as the case may be, a character takes will have consequences within the wider world, and overall narrative.
Sometimes, those consequences include death.
Sometimes they don't.
Just as the world itself keeps turning when any individual has passed from it, so too, shall the story continue beyond the passing of any of its cast members.

So, whilst I may not entirely understand what you are asking, my answer would be simple.
I do not care. The character will die, and the story will continue moving on without them, so my reaction would be indifference.

Ral_062 said:

Imagine, the character you wrote that had genuine bond with the MC across different chapter.
You planned to kill him off someday.
That day arrives.
What's your first reaction?

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I did that in my debut novel, but I didn't plan to kill them originally. I don't even know why, but she got on my nerves at some point during the wirting process, so I offed her. It worked out well. I felt better afterwards.

But aside from that, I rarely kill off people that are important to the character AND might be important to my audience. Reason? Is an audience member to many other stories, I hate it when that happens. And the whole "someone dies to inspire / motivate MC" may be tried and true, but also well-used. It's not like it's such a brave thing to do. There's a difference between a story that constantly shows fake-out deaths and a story that has no "important" characters dying as well.
"Important" is a relative term.
A famous example:
Ace in One Piece was surely set to die the moment he appeared for the first time in Alabasta. I say it, because I felt this might happen, even way back when I was quite young. He was introduced as someone extremely powerful and cool; somone, Luffy clearly looks up to. At the same time, he's not just the member of a rival to Luffy's goal, who's way better equipped to reach the finishing line than our MC, but Ace himself would also go for the One Piece, even with Whitebeard out of the picture. He HAD to go.
That is why Ace is shown extremely rarely. I bet my ass that Oda never really thought of Ace becoming this "huge thing" in his story. And when he realised it had, he pulled Sabo out of his ass at the eleventh hour (you can't make me believe he wasn't an asspull - and a friend, who's far more into One Piece than I am, because I'm a casual person watching the anime sometimes to catch up, actually told me Oda had directly or indirectly confirmed that he pulled Sabo out of his ass after Ace died).
A lot of characters that have died like this are those that were received by the audience far too well, yet weren't technically that important. Sure, you choose characters you can safely loose in the story, but why would I care that much? I, as a writer, know I'm going to get rid of him, so why would I grow attached? And why would I show a character to my audience and make them love the character, when I know I'm going to kill them? It's not really making anyone happy and the only thing you need to know is how important they were to the MC, which is simple to achieve with a bit of Show and a bit of Tell.

In general, I just don't get it.
If you have seen things like this in stories, I guarantee you, it's that the authors didn't actually think that highly of the character to begin with or, in a live action movie or show, it's that the actor quit on the project or had to be ejected for one reason or another, so they had to make the decision.

As a reader, when an important character dies, i usually accept it, as long as it does one of three things: It raises the stakes, They are held high in regard for the main character, or it pushes the plot forward. Anything short out of those three, makes me feel like the author is killing peeps just for funsies.

As an author, a death of an important side character has to produce at least one of those three results. It'd feel empty, or useless otherwise. Or rather, I'd feel empty or useless to think "Why did i kill this character?"

Unless that's the point you want to make. "People will die anytime, in anyway, and it could be anyone."

I feel a bit of guilt, and a bit of heartache as that character I wrote was someone I enjoyed because of how close they were to the MC. I realize that yeah, I do have to kill them off as it is important for the MC's growth as a person. If life were to be ideal to the MC, they would forget the meaning of struggle, nuance, and sincerity.

Tragedies happen in life, and such a thing is necessary to cause change in the midst of stagnation. Memories of said character are important as without them, what are the purposes of your MC's goals, strife, and outlook on others? Does it create empathy, or does it create bitter hatred?

Killing off a character in the style of A Song of Ice and Fire feels more petty than anything. It feels more like an author's ego projected upon their world. Death is not something to make as a joke and to drive it into mockery or amusement. When someone dies, there needs to be a sense of asking "What effects will this have on the world and how many people knew this person?"

Just my two cents. It's pretty painful to kill off a character, but it is necessary in a way that affects your characters, your readers, and yourself to evolve.

when i wrote Beast Heroes: Bianca's Genesis, i made it clear to myself that I will only kill off a main character if I had no choice, the first was Tracy Goldfang, and that was because i tried to redeem her, but just didn't work out, so i had her kill herself.

Next was Riski, Bianca's BFF, i wanted her to improve alonside Bianca, but it just wasn't working, so she had to go as well.

Finally, there was Dante, who started out strong, but his cultivation slowed down as Bianca's speed up due to her being an Early Bloomer, in the end, he had to die by religious torture.

In the end, i ended up killing 3 characters, could i have done better? Maybe, but this was my first legit webnovel..

I revive them UwU

Heh... I have plans to kill off an MC... And it's taking longer than I anticipated (but really can't happen until his kids are born and he hasn't even gotten married yet... and has to attend a funeral before THAT can happen...).
And that story has already murdered a major support character and a minor one so far...
And he won't be completely GONE for a while as his daughter can still talk to him... and has to be convinced bringing him back to life would be a bad thing...

Nothing really tbh.

"Everybody dies sometimes..."

Really though, it sucks because you literally give these characters life and you're basically a cruel god by deciding when they die. Just make sure if people believe in The Hand of God in your universe, that they at least placate each other with "The Author works in mysterious ways..."

More seriously, for my stories that cover large spans of time, eventually I get far enough in the timeline where old age is a factor, and... Yeah. Everybody dies eventually. Just make it worth it. If you're writing something more grounded, then it's going to sting entirely when they get sent into the void. If you're writing something more free, then amor fati. They didn't die. They've always been dead. They'll always be alive.

My favorite deaths are in Adventure Time, and Avatar: Legend of Korra. In Adventure Time, it's largely existential, metaphorical, and inevitable, but Finn and Jake will always be alive at some point in time, and the viewer can always return to them. In Korra, The Avatar can literally only exist if the last one is dead. It's a sad truth. We're lucky to see some old characters return, but learning Aang is dead, despite how obvious it is, is still sad. Still, they're bringing the original back so we can see what happened in between series. Compare that with Harry Potter, and while you could always rewind the timeline to when dead characters we alive, their deaths are still carry a depressing finality that can't really be forgotten.

If I'm killing off a side-character, I give them the same respect I'd give a main character. Death in stories shouldn't really be written for aura-farming. Everyone's life matters to someone, so it's one of the most powerful narrative devices. If it's mishandled, it can derail an entire story. Of course, that doesn't account for series in which death is expected, or humorous, but that still relies on our baseline ideas of death. It's also worth noting that different cultures treat death differently. The differences are actually so vast, it'd be difficult to cover without an entire dissertation. We think that most people just cry, dig a hole, and then throw them in, mourn for a while. That's the prevailing concept for a reason, but when you actually get into how different cultures of the present and past handle it, it gets so complex. One thing is always true though: Everybody dies.

Escriba_Sombrio said:

Nothing really tbh.

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Do you... like your characters?

Emotica said:

"Everybody dies sometimes..."

One thing is always true though: Everybody dies.

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Well... I have one character who can't ... and kind of wants to... but it was a curse...

CharlesEBrown said:

Well... I have one character who can't ... and kind of wants to... but it was a curse...

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They'll either die in a billion years, they'll be dead on the inside, or yeah, they're just immortal. Technically, their life can still end so long as you're alive.

When I write immortal characters, it doesn't mean they can't get killed or desensitized to the point of it emulating death. Also, immortality can be relative. If I lived for three hundred years, I'd probably think I'm immortal, but who's to say I don't die at 400, or 400 million? Superman is an interesting immortal character, because for the most part, you never even see a gray hair, and it's a big deal when one shows up, only for him to still live so long that the only ending I'm aware of his him discovering immortality.

How does your character actually know they're immortal? Is the magic system so hard that it's a certainty? I have a character that's lived for almost 12,000 years, but she has no reason to believe she's immortal. She just thinks other people die quickly.

Emotica said:

They'll either die in a billion years, they'll be dead on the inside, or yeah, they're just immortal. Technically, their life can still end so long as you're alive.

When I write immortal characters, it doesn't mean they can't get killed or desensitized to the point of it emulating death. Also, immortality can be relative. If I lived for three hundred years, I'd probably think I'm immortal, but who's to say I don't die at 400, or 400 million? Superman is an interesting immortal character, because for the most part, you never even see a gray hair, and it's a big deal when one shows up, only for him to still live so long that the only ending I'm aware of his him discovering immortality.

How does your character actually know they're immortal? Is the magic system so hard that it's a certainty? I have a character that's lived for almost 12,000 years, but she has no reason to believe she's immortal. She just thinks other people die quickly.

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The curse is that until the three artifacts he created that, together so offended the gods, are once again brought together and destroyed by someone who understands that this act will end his punishment, he cannot die, no matter what happens to him. He does not heal any faster than another person, he still ages (and uses magic to compensate for this), and has become a bit callous but also far more easily amused than he was before the curse.

There is at least one immortal in fiction who did not succumb to being dead inside - the most successful experiment of the Howard Families (allegedly created due to a printer's error), Woodrow Wilson Smith, aka Lazarus Long of Robert Heinlein's Future History novels. He had a timeline showing when his characters would supposedly be born, live, and die spanning the late 19th Century up through the 41st IIRC. Lazarus Long was supposed to live about four hundred years, but the printer screwed up and his timeline spanned all four pages of the chronology, with no end date, and the author decided to run with it.

Ral_062 said:

Imagine, the character you wrote that had genuine bond with the MC across different chapter.
You planned to kill him off someday.
That day arrives.
What's your first reaction?

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Well, I did it actually, well for me, it was sad moment. It was MC's 2 disciples, who actually love each others.