Have you ever read a book or seen a movie where one of your favorite characters die? It catches you by surprise. Or maybe you saw the tragedy coming this whole time. It might not be the main character who dies. In fact, you might like the supporting character a sliver more than the main character. 🫢 So, why do storytellers kill off their sweetest, most closest characters? Why do they leave us crying, “If only…..!”?
Note: please be sure you have parental permission to watch these movie clips. They are merely examples and not endorsements to the movies. Some may be tragic.
Character Development
One reason storytellers kill a close character to the main character is for the development of the main character. For instance, in Marvel’s Spiderman: No Way Home, Aunt May dies from getting hurt in a battle against some powerful bad guys. Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) sees the destruction as his fault due to wanting to help fix the antagonists and help them return to where they belong. (Side note: guilt is a big internal conflict that moves one to action.) However, that obviously does not work out. Nevertheless, Aunt May encourages him. You can see her in pain and short of breath as she encourages her nephew (who is like her son) that he did the right thing.
The storytellers hint (aka promises of something bad happening) that Aunt May is not okay, but they don’t spoil anything. Instead, they wait for her to say her last words. Once Peter and her were going to go get help, Aunt May collapsed. Not only is Spiderman struggling with external conflict, but now one of his closest people and probably the only one his has known his whole life is dying right in front of him. This is making guilt and grief, and the strength to do right is even harder. To add to this intense moment, the storytellers plug in an external conflict–a swat team shooting at him. Also, Happy (another close character) sees the scene and is hurt emotionally while being arrested. The tension is perfect in this scene because of these factors:
> Empathy for Peter (when we connect with a character, we feel what they feel. In this case, it would be grief and hurt)
> External and Internal (the story is packed with external conflict. Now, adding this internal conflict builds everything–the stakes, the struggle, the character)
> Desire tearing (if Peter doesn’t leave Aunt May’s body, then he will be killed. And we also have another close person who’s been taken away, but also encouraging Peter to go the other direction)
Why did Aunt May need to die in Marvel’s Spiderman: No Way Home? Because doing so, it added more hardship that the main character needed to go through. Now, the main character must choose to rise above everything, and perhaps his motives change too. In short, Aunt May died for Spiderman’s character development.
Promises
Another great example of this conflict is Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1. One of them must die. We all know it. The storytellers have promised us that. But here’s the suspense…..which one will die? We are praying for the main character to get there fast enough, though we know he won’t be able to save one. Note that, good storytellers always keep their promises. Even if they are promises you don’t exactly want. A good death in a story leaves you saying, “It’s awful……but there was no other way.”
Message
Another reason storytellers kill a dear character is because it makes the message. For example, White Bird combines conflict and hope but the promise of tragedy. The message of White Bird is that kindness is worth everything. Yes, including one’s life.
Imagine if the supporting character did not die? Well, for one, the main character’s future would be different. She would want to talk about it. It would have been more joyful, and that is what the audience wants. We want the main character to be happy, because then we would be happy. However, if this certain supporting character did not die, then the message of kindness would not be as strong. Kindness is worth…….yeah, everything. This moves the audience to now choose how much kindness means to them.
Storytellers kill great characters for multiple reasons: to develop the main character, to get a message across, to spur a certain action, to give a different motive, to turn the main character’s world upside down, and more. However, what about when the bad guy dies?
Antagonist Death
We like to see good win over evil. Sometimes, the evil is so big it must come to an end in itself. Many times, we see evil become its own downfall. Consider Jafar in Disney’s Aladdin. He wants all the power! But even powerful genies have limits. Jafar, as a genie, is forced to live in a lamp and serve other people’s wishes. Note the message here: power comes with boundaries and beware because you can be the reason for your own downfall.
Okay, but…..Jafar didn’t actually die. And what about when the protagonist must actually kill the antagonist? Yeah, you’re right that not only affects the antagonist, but now the protagonist is going to have to live with that.
Let’s break down the final battle scene between the antagonist and protagonist of Marvel’s Black Panther. Ever hear the saying hurt people hurt people? Yeah, that’s this antagonist here.
The protagonist, the black panther, believes in doing what’s right, but it’s also sympathetic. The audience sometimes keeps their eyes out because if the protagonist is sympathetic, the antagonist–though he or she is dying–might pull one more evil move. I love this scene because the storytellers let good win over evil in external conflict and internal conflict. Having the antagonist die. Not only does it add a sense of justice to the story, but it also shows who the main character really is.
In summary, when a protagonist or antagonist dies, it must be for a reason, and it must be big. I don’t mean big in that thousands of armies have fallen, but big as in one certain character who has won our empathy falls. This is way more impactful because we have stepped into his or her shoes and have gone so far with this character. The death must mean something to the main character because when we are connected with the main character, we feel what they feel and are impacted by what they are impacted by.
Some factors of a well-composed death in a story:
- Empathy for the character
- There is no other way
- Leaves the audience crying “if only”
- Necessary for the character/plot
- Epic according to the character
- Enhances the message
- Builds the main character
Wrapping this all up, it is not that storytellers delight in death. However, death is one thing that we all can relate to. We want to see the main character succeed even though things may never be the same. This is pretty relatable in real life. Humans were not made to die. However, God gives us the strength to endure to the end and beyond. That’s heroic!
Michala Woodruff 