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Have you ever stopped reading/watching a series because a character you liked died?
- Thread starter CharlesAznable
- Start date
It's not that I liked the characters exactly, but The Red Wedding made me feel the same as when I find out a show got cancelled after two seasons, and so why bother watching it.
It's ultimately the tradeoff when people hype up stories that "The characters aren't safe! They have the gall to kill them off." People watch the show for the characters, so in the end characters have to have some degree of plot armor otherwise the audience will just lose investment if too many of them die.
Generally I won't just for that but it could be a symptom for less enjoyment:
Generally I won't just for that but it could be a symptom for less enjoyment:
Lubbock. I was already tuning out, but to kill them off so unceremoniously to a guy that Akame then goes on to kill in 2 seconds and absolute humiliate in turn without even mentioning Lubbock is what made me realize that the artist is probably writing by the seat of their pants. You can kinda tell that he realized his mistake during the final few arcs since he dodged death flags he set up.
Basically everyone. It became super predictable after a while.
Didn't get it spoiled but this is the point I stopped too. I was grumbling about the series quality anyway for ages and then when one of the few likeable characters got killed off I just decided I was done. Tried to watch it again years later but mah this show is trash, the quality drop after Season 1 is so brutal.
there are a few cool things that happen afterwards but mostly same
can't fathom the series popularity.
The OC after Marissa died. I watched the first few episodes of season 4 but they were so bad and I gave up.
I stopped watching Vikings after Ragnar but I had broke up with my ex around the same time and we used to watch the series together so that was definitely a factor as well.
They killed off the other important half of that ending Sofia pretty early too!
They killed off the other important half of that ending Sofia pretty early too!
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I did not give Death Note the full attention after
. I vaguely know whats up after that and the ending of course, but yeah...
I also quit the Walking Dead after
even though that was supposed to be a much anticipated highlight of the series.
L died
I also quit the Walking Dead after
Glenn died
I didn't stop watching The Walking Dead because of any one particular character death, but rather because there were so many deaths that it made it feel like all the drama and effort was pointless. I dropped it right when it was obvious that they were about to kill off the hairdresser lady they'd just spent half a season rescuing from her abusive husband. I didn't even care about her or her kids, but considering that it came so soon after ---Noah-- died, who was the reason --Beth-- died, who they had spent another arc trying to rescue... the pointlessness was overwhelming.
I was spoiled on that death by some jackasses who thought they were being cute right after the demo came out in English. Cancelled my preorder. Eventually picked it up anyways, but I was angry through that whole case.
I picked "no" because I don't think I've watched a show where my enjoyment of it was so contingent on the survival of one character. I suppose I have watched a bit of Death Note, but not enough of it to make a qualification between the two "arcs" of the series, so to speak.
The weird thing for me is that Ned getting executed didn't hit quite as hard because Bran being broken early on in the book felt like GRRM basically saying "this isn't your dad's fantasy epic" after he had laid out a lot of tropes to seemingly pin Bran as the typical child hero
Anyway, I didn't quit because of this, but there is to this very day a mission in Starcraft Brood War that I have never played because I went in knowing exactly what happens in it and I refused to take part in controlling any part of it. Fucking RIP Fenix, you chad of a protoss
It's so weird.
I had a pretentious friend growing up. Always suggesting and at times forcing me to watch/read movies/books that subverted expectations. A lot of dark autobiographies about drug addicts, assault/abuse victims, horrible tragedies. She quite literally lectured me several times on watching things that were too "safe" and that if I feel comfortable while reading then I am not reading something with Substance and Truth. I became miserably pretentious because of her constant badgering (and because I was blatantly in love with her).
Years later, she got to the last episode of Season 1 of GOT and noped the fuck out because of what happened to her favorite character. I was like "oh really!? REALLY!? Was THAT too much for YOU!?"
The Walking Dead tv show for sure. The show has such a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes the comic book work. The comic has tons of shocking and sad deaths, but it never feels completely hopeless. The show kept going for these shocking deaths but it eventually loses all heart and just becomes miserable.
I still haven't finished the show, but somehow I highly doubt that the conclusion is going to be an ideological exploration of liberalism (capitalism) vs socialism like the comic was, and if they do, I can't imagine they stick the landing. They don't have the characters left to make that interesting/frustrating/tense because literally who gives a shit about any of the characters anymore.
The stuff with ---Noah-- and --Beth-- was the fucking worst. Same with Tyreese and Sasha dying back to back.
I still haven't finished the show, but somehow I highly doubt that the conclusion is going to be an ideological exploration of liberalism (capitalism) vs socialism like the comic was, and if they do, I can't imagine they stick the landing. They don't have the characters left to make that interesting/frustrating/tense because literally who gives a shit about any of the characters anymore.
The stuff with ---Noah-- and --Beth-- was the fucking worst. Same with Tyreese and Sasha dying back to back.
I have to agree.
Maybe I'm just speaking from a story teller perspective but you need a character's death to mean something for the people who survive. That's just storytelling. If you're killing a person and there's no one to mourn them and/or their story still hasn't concluded and/or their death doesn't add to the story, then it's just basically a useless death just to stir things up.
Walking Dead is especially egregious because by it's nature many deaths have zero impact on the survivors due to them becoming desensitized to it early on. At that point death is no longer something that improves or amplifies or moves forward the story, it's just something to shock the viewers to keep them interested.
The only Walking Dead media I've ever bothered with is the Telltale series but I never went back to it after season 2 for the same reason. Literally everyone in the new group Clementine joins that season is dead by the end of it. Like come on.
They axed way too many good characters in Season 5...and I feel like the series never fully recovered. None of the replacements were up to par.
Yep. Just like The Office (US) when Michael Scott leaves, a single change make the show feel like a different show in the same universe.
Stopped watching House of Cards when they killed off Corey Stoll's character in the first season. He was pretty much the only character I enjoyed on screen (this was pre-Spacey-Gate).
Stopped reading Leviathan Wakes when it became clear they were killing off Miller. I ended up watching the Expanse, but still haven't read more of the books.
Took me ages to finish reading Paper Girls due to it looking more and more clear that Mac was going to die.
Still haven't finished reading Low despite loving it because pretty much everyone fucking dies. Same goes for Black science. Rick Remender is a bastard I tell you.
There's probably a few more. It usually only happens when that character was the only reason I was actually enjoying the book / show.
Stopped reading Leviathan Wakes when it became clear they were killing off Miller. I ended up watching the Expanse, but still haven't read more of the books.
Took me ages to finish reading Paper Girls due to it looking more and more clear that Mac was going to die.
Still haven't finished reading Low despite loving it because pretty much everyone fucking dies. Same goes for Black science. Rick Remender is a bastard I tell you.
There's probably a few more. It usually only happens when that character was the only reason I was actually enjoying the book / show.
Vikings. I did try watching a few episodes after but they just didn't have anyone who could carry the show.
Same, I knew what was coming because of the comic, but thought we might get out of it because of a recent near death swerve but nope. And it wasn't like I was all in on the character, but when they died it made me realize I was really only watching the show because other people around me were.
In The O.C., I was re-watching it with my wife (it was the first time she had ever watched it) and she refused to watch more once one of the prominent characters died in season 3.
We also jointly stopped watching Jane the Virgin after S3E10, when a major character died.
Besides that, I've never stopped watching a show because a character died.
We also jointly stopped watching Jane the Virgin after S3E10, when a major character died.
Besides that, I've never stopped watching a show because a character died.
I personally didn't stop at this point, but this was the death I immediately thought of when I saw the thread title. I know a lot of people who stopped at this point.
Personally, I also echo many of the TWD post with the death of ----Carl---
Yes. I won't spoil.
I did not finish AoT, TWD, The Magicians because of certain major/minor deaths. Although, I think quitting TWD was inevitable for me, because there were too many seasons and spin-offs, and I would have been tired of it anyway.
I did not finish AoT, TWD, The Magicians because of certain major/minor deaths. Although, I think quitting TWD was inevitable for me, because there were too many seasons and spin-offs, and I would have been tired of it anyway.
Ahhh The Walking Dead thread.
Oh how could I forget what they did to Luke Skywalker
That threw a wrench in things for me as I had zero investing the new guard except Poe
Killing off Carl was some fucking bullshit. Stopped watching immediately, didn't watch the last season until 2 months ago.
Oh how could I forget what they did to Luke Skywalker
That threw a wrench in things for me as I had zero investing the new guard except Poe
I don't think I've stopped because of a character's death, but I have for an actor's death. I tuned in for a few episodes of Spartacus after Andy Whitfield's death, but just didn't vibe with the new actor. I've heard it's still really good, so I might circle back to it at some point, but just couldn't watch it at the time.
I dont think I have, but if I were so inclined, it would be because I thought the death was hacky and bad, not because a bad thing happened to my comfort character or whatever