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Killing Off Characters to Create Drama is Cheap

SixtyFourBlades

SixtyFourBlades

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,864
Death used to mean something. It used to hold weight. It used to be a thing that writers used to create powerful, emotional arcs for other characters in the series.

But now? Death is like Pringles. Once you pop the fun don't stop. Writers nowadays to me, it's like killing off characters is the new hot thing to do. I've seen deaths of beloved characters in TV shows, movies, mangas, animes, videogames, and some of them still hold weight, but for the most part they don't make any sense whatsoever than just a cheap ploy to get an emotional response from viewers. It's a huge turn off for me now.

I've been following a certain medical drama series and they recently killed off one of the best characters in the show for like no gaddamn reason. One of my biggest praise to the show was that it was NOT Grey's Anatomy, which seems to absolutely love torturing its characters, but now I'm like, "Oh we at that point already? Just three seasons in?" And now I'm feeling like I just might not return for the next season. Looked it up online and it seems many people share the same sentiment.

Why do writers do this?
 
DarkSora

DarkSora

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Oct 28, 2017
6,186
I remember Degrassi hyping it up for season 5 and they ended up killing one of my favorite characters. :(
 
skillzilla81

skillzilla81

Self-requested temporary ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,043
You're Protecteded said:
Death used to mean something. It used to hold weight. It used to be a thing that writers used to create powerful, emotional arcs for other characters in the series.

But now? Death is like Pringles. Once you pop the fun don't stop. Writers nowadays to me, it's like killing off characters is the new hot thing to do. I've seen deaths of beloved characters in TV shows, movies, mangas, animes, videogames, and some of them still hold weight, but for the most part they don't make any sense whatsoever than just a cheap ploy to get an emotional response from viewers. It's a huge turn off for me now.

I've been following a certain medical drama series and they recently killed off one of the best characters in the show for like no gaddamn reason. One of my biggest praise to the show was that it was NOT Grey's Anatomy, which seems to absolutely love torturing its characters, but now I'm like, "Oh we at that point already? Just three seasons in?" And now I'm feeling like I just might not return for the next season. Looked it up online and it seems many people share the same sentiment.

Why do writers do this?
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Gonna guess it's the good doctor, and I'm pretty sure I'm done with the show after that finale.
 
TransEuropaExpress

TransEuropaExpress

Member
Dec 6, 2017
10,989
US
I think this was used to great effect in the first few Game Of Thrones seasons. It gave the show an unhinged and brutal vibe.

Overall though, I guess I agree if used without proper intent?
 
Solo

Solo

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
15,749
Doesnt the killing of every character in every piece of fiction ever serve to create drama?
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,894
I don't think story telling has changed in any meaningful way in the last few decades.

Thats the way it has always been.

If it works it is going to get you. If the characters or story don't work for you then it is going to seem cheap and stupid.
 
Drakeon

Drakeon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,274
I remember Downton Abbey doing this...
I fucking hated when they randomly killed Matthew in a car accident. My wife and I stopped watching the show right then and there.
 
Doober

Doober

Banned
Jun 10, 2018
4,295
I feel like Walking Dead really started abusing the trope just to keep people watching.

But I guess they also didn't have a choice in latter seasons once the mainstays started bailing.
 
alexi52

alexi52

Member
Oct 28, 2017
18,933
It depends on the situation, sometimes a character has served it's purpose and would be better off dead to move the story and other characters forward
 
Aureon

Aureon

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,819
It's not.

It's actually the only way that has a cost - you're sacrificing character development. Some storylines just end with death involved.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,261
I know which show you're referring.

Even the actors seem pissed.
 
meowdi gras

meowdi gras

Member
Feb 24, 2018
12,658
Most movies and shows resort to lazy devices to elicit cheap reactions from viewers. Which is why I can't stand most movies or shows.
 
Rune Walsh

Rune Walsh

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Oct 25, 2017
6,029
janusff said:
don't know the specific example but often times when this happens, the character needs to be written off cause the actor playing them either is getting fired or has to move on from the show
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When they flipped a car onto Matthew in Downton Abbey, I was done with the show. I know they did this because he was leaving, but what a stupid death.

Drakeon said:
I remember Downton Abbey doing this...
I fucking hated when they randomly killed Matthew in a car accident. My wife and I stopped watching the show right then and there.
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Lol. Glad to see I'm not the only one. My wife forged on but it was a shark jumping moment for me.
 
Hero_of_the_Day

Hero_of_the_Day

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
17,346
It is so damn lame how much killing off a character is THE main writing crutch for TV season finales.

If it hasn't already been done, someone should make a youtube video showing clips from commercials around finales time showing all the "who's gonna die!?!?" teases.
 
VaporSnake

VaporSnake

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,603
It's worse when they're meta about it. Show I watched recently had a character deliver a line that came across as the writers saying "...We need causalities this season"
 
BDS

BDS

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,845
In a post-Lost, post-Game of Thrones world, there's an idea that killing characters is the only way to create tension or drama. How often do you see people complaining that a particular story has no stakes because "We know X is going to live," as if life and death is the only possible tension that could exist in the plot? One of the best shows on TV right now is Better Call Saul, where much of the main cast including the protagonist are protected from death because it's a prequel to Breaking Bad, and yet the show finds myriad other ways of creating tension and dramatic stakes.

Broadcast TV shows are particularly terrible about this because they basically only ever kill characters when the actor wants to leave the show (or alternatively, when they want to "fire" the actor) so character death is often cheap, random, out of nowhere, and not congruent with the character's existing story arc.
 
Vincent Alexander

Vincent Alexander

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,758
Cheap, easy, and generally lazy as shit in execution.

Rescue Me and Game of Thrones were guilty as fuck of killing off characters to create drama. I'm trying to think of shows that executed it well...The Shield comes to mind.
 
Border

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
Rune Walsh said:
When they flipped a car onto Matthew in Downton Abbey, I was done with the show. I know they did this because he was leaving, but what a stupid death.
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I did not realize that Downton Abbey even had cars, let alone ones that could go fast enough to flip.

This is more mind blowing than learning that a doctor on ER was crushed by a helicopter.
 
Christian

Christian

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,636
You're Protecteded said:
Why do writers do this?
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Because people are idiots. Look at how people whined about the MCU not having stakes until the writers felt obligated to kill Tony In Endgame. It's just garbage. People are too boneheaded and lack the thoughtfulness and nuance to realize that profound character development can show stakes just as effectively, if not more effectively, than killing people. These are the same people that claim that mature content has to have an R-rating, because they need to be bludgeoned with blood and foul language to think that things are mature.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,419
tenor.gif

You're Protecteded said:
ploy to get an emotional response from viewers.
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This is literally the point of writing.

Some of these comments are hurting my head.
Aureon said:
It's not.

It's actually the only way that has a cost - you're sacrificing character development. Some storylines just end with death involved.
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giphy.gif
 
toy_brain

toy_brain

Member
Nov 1, 2017
2,207
Its a cheap writing trick used when a character no longer serves a purpose to the story. For some reason 'just kill them off' is the go-to solution instead of, y'know, anything else.
Like, the character cant just say "Fuck all this, I'm moving to Denmark and I'm not giving you my address!". They gotta be killed off.
Its especially overused in movies. Moreso than TV series when characters are usually killed because the actor wants out for whatever reason.

It's dumb really. Killing a character is such a dead-end, and just means a story will look stupid and contrived when it tries to bring them back.
Like, if Superman had just fucked off to Denmark to smoke weed and chill for several months, instead of dying, it wouldn't have looked quite so dumb when he was bought back, and comic book character deaths wouldn't be viewed with quite so much eye-rolling.

I fancy a holiday to Denmark now.
 
mxbison

mxbison

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Jan 14, 2019
2,148
I like it if its done well.

Nothing more boring than characters with plot armor.
 

VAD

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,529
Yes it sucks and I support everyone who says Better Call Saul knows how to have stakes without killing characters.
 
Chopchop

Chopchop

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Oct 25, 2017
14,171
It's a decent storytelling device if planned out and done well. It undercuts plot armor and shows that no one is safe. The ASOIAF books were good at this, and it was one of the reasons why the series took me in. Most deaths in the books are telegraphed by the story in some way, but in a way that's not that obvious until you look back and look for the signs. That's good writing.

But you're right in that sometimes it's often not done well. In which case such deaths just come across as cheap shots from the writers, as if they didn't know what else to do, so they killed someone off to create shock value.
 
KingM

KingM

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,480
Death has been a thing in fiction forever. Putting characters in danger and showing that everyone is in danger is old to the point where it precedes written story telling. It's not something new or even close.
 
FunMouse

FunMouse

Member
Apr 30, 2018
1,293
Ahh yea I think I know which show you are talking about. It's pretty lame and I'm not too happy with it as well.
 
Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

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Sep 24, 2019
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Nothing says "this is a legitimate threat" in a narrative like keeping every single beloved character insulted and protected from death.
 
Sephzilla

Sephzilla

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Oct 25, 2017
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Death can be a solid storytelling device when used properly. The problem is that sometimes writers lean on it like a crutch and it results in shallow moments.

You can create tension without killing off characters. Sometimes the threat of death is just as effective. Empire Strikes Back kills off zero important characters yet that movie is pretty tense.
 
Biestmann

Biestmann

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Oct 25, 2017
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It's important to choose which route to go. Are your characters invincible to all dangers, or could anything kill them at any given moment? Pick and stick to it. The last two season of GoT kept putting its cast into impossible to survive situations... just for them to survive anyway. A sudden contrast like that doesn't fit and sours everything. That's when things become cheap.
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,894
Chopchop said:
It's a decent storytelling device if planned out and done well. It undercuts plot armor and shows that no one is safe. The ASOIAF books were good at this, and it was one of the reasons why the series took me in. Most deaths in the books are telegraphed by the story in some way, but in a way that's not that obvious until you look back and look for the signs. That's good writing.

But you're right in that sometimes it's often not done well. In which case such deaths just come across as cheap shots from the writers, as if they didn't know what else to do, so they killed someone off to create shock value.
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Hard disagree.

ASOIAF is a great example of it being used as a way to create shock and drama. It worked beautifully right up until the Red Wedding. After that it the shock wore off and it started to feel almost formulaic. In the end that seemed to be the point of the whole series. Just a way to create shock and drama, mostly from surprise deaths.
 
Sephzilla

Sephzilla

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bionic77 said:
Hard disagree.

ASOIAF is a great example of it being used as a way to create shock and drama. It worked beautifully right up until the Red Wedding. After that it the shock wore off and it started to feel almost formulaic. In the end that seemed to be the point of the whole series. Just a way to create shock and drama, mostly from surprise deaths.
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Ned Stark's death and the Red Wedding, while great story moments, ended up having a negative effect on ASOIAF / Game of Thrones. It turned that franchise into a franchise that the general public viewed as the franchise where people can die at any moment and kind of ignored the storylines that built up to those moments, which I sort of think poisoned the later seasons of the show.
 
Chopchop

Chopchop

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Oct 25, 2017
14,171
bionic77 said:
Hard disagree.

ASOIAF is a great example of it being used as a way to create shock and drama. It worked beautifully right up until the Red Wedding. After that it the shock wore off and it started to feel almost formulaic. In the end that seemed to be the point of the whole series. Just a way to create shock and drama, mostly from surprise deaths.
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If you're talking about the TV series then I agree that the deaths got increasingly cheap as the show writers deviated from the books and were left to their own devices. The show writers can't write for shit.

But the books themselves always tried not to be cheap about it, though I do also agree that they've slowly gotten less clever as the series went on.
 
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