{"id":626,"date":"2015-01-13T11:30:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T16:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/?p=626"},"modified":"2015-01-13T10:26:04","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T15:26:04","slug":"to-the-death-no-to-the-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/?p=626","title":{"rendered":"To The Death – No, To The Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer: This post is overflowing with spoilers for Harry Potter, Arrow, Star Wars EU, The West Wing, Firefly, The Hunger Games, and Battlestar Galactica. Proceed at your own risk.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Death is a part of life. Everyone who lives, has to eventually die. Which, when you think about it, really kind of sucks. Sure, it makes life worth living, because if you know it\u2019s going to end someday, you want to make the absolute most of out the days you have on this Earth. But death is final, it\u2019s eternal, it\u2019s forever.<\/p>\n

Once someone is gone, they\u2019re gone.This is true in real life as well as in movies, books, and television. (Comic books are a whole other story, but that\u2019s a topic for another post.) Even though the characters are fictional, their deaths still feel incredibly real and can often have the same emotional impact as a real life death. It\u2019s similar to finding out that a beloved celebrity has passed away; you never knew them personally, but their work touched your life, and you feel the sting of their passing keenly.<\/p>\n

When we immerse ourselves in media, the characters become living, breathing entities to us. They feel real in a way that\u2019s often difficult to explain. We form bonds with these characters. They become our friends. They represent a part of us. And then they sometimes they die. Their death often creates a hole that can\u2019t be easily filled. It causes pain that we may never overcome.<\/p>\n

Often I understand the reasoning behind a character\u2019s death. It furthers the plot, it spurs another character to action, one character sacrifices themselves for another. I don\u2019t love these deaths, but I understand them and I acknowledge them.<\/p>\n

But sometimes\u00a0I\u00a0simply outright refuse\u00a0to acknowledge the death of a character. To absolutely ignore\u00a0to the fact that\u00a0they\u2019re gone and never coming back. Instead I\u00a0cling to hope that they were revived offscreen or off page and are living\u00a0a happy life on a white sandy beach somewhere in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s my list of the character deaths I\u2019m still not over. The ones I refuse to admit happened. The ones that still live on in my heart (and fanfiction).<\/p>\n

Fred Weasley, Harry Potter<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"fredweasley\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are plenty of deaths in the Harry Potter books. It starts with the Potters and it just goes downhill from there. They all hurt, and most of them had me at least tearing up (who am I kidding, I full on sobbed when Sirius and Dobby died). But none of them hit me quite as hard as Fred Weasley. It was a combination of both my love for the character and the suddenness of his death. One minute he was there, laughing and joking, and the next he was buried in a pile of rubble. When it happened I stared at my book in shock, refusing to turn the page because I wasn\u2019t ready to admit that it was real.<\/p>\n

Mara Jade, Star Wars<\/em> EU<\/h4>\n

\"marajade\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No. Just no. This didn\u2019t happen. I don\u2019t even want to talk about it. * plugs ears and hums as distraction *<\/p>\n

Tommy Merlyn, Arrow<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"tommy-merlyn\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh Tommy, you were with us for such a short span of time, but in that very first season of Arrow you managed to worm your way into my heart and carve out a space for yourself. He disagreed with Oliver\u2019s choice to become the Vigilante, yet he never even thought to betray his friend. Tommy was the hero of that first season. He was the one who saved the girl and sacrificed himself. He was the heart of the show and when the writers made the (understandably logical) decision to kill him off, I was heartbroken. The only silver lining is that Arrow is a show of flashbacks, so while Tommy may be dead in the present, we still get to see his smiling face grace on the tv screen when the past calls for it.<\/p>\n

Sara Lance, Arrow<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"sara<\/a><\/p>\n

This was a death that I absolutely did not see coming and it was a completely unwelcome surprise in the season 3 premiere. Sara was killed off to further Laurel\u2019s character and help transform her into the Black Canary. And just, no. That is not okay. Sara didn\u2019t need to die for this to happen; she had already handed off the mantle and given her blessing in the season 2 finale. Killing her this was lazy writing plain and simple. I\u2019m so tired of seeing women fridged like this. Sara deserved better.<\/p>\n

Leo McGarry, The West Wing<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"leo<\/a><\/p>\n

Leo\u2019s death hurt deeply in a way that the others didn\u2019t, because it was real. Leo\u2019s onscreen death was written into the show following the real life death of John Spencer. No one was prepared for his death, there was no lead up to it and as a result it was abrupt, raw, and utterly painful. It hurt watching the episode featuring his funeral because the cast wasn\u2019t acting, they were mourning the loss of a dear friend live and in front of the camera. It\u2019s a hard death to accept, and I prefer to exist in the happy bubble before mid-season 7 and pretend that Leo is still alive and well.<\/p>\n

Dolores Landingham, The West Wing<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"mrs<\/a><\/p>\n

The blunt, outspoken women who served as gatekeeper, secretary, and big sister to President Bartlet was a fan favorite on The West Wing. She was endearing and kind, and who didn\u2019t share in her excitement when she announced that she was buying her first brand new car? Then, just moments later, that excitement turned to utter sorrow when in a cruel twist of fate she was killed off in a car accident. Well, I don\u2019t like it. I think she simply had enough of the White House Life and skipped town in her new car and she\u2019s happily cruising up the PCH, windows down, and the wind blowing through her hair.<\/p>\n

Hoban Washburne, Firefly\/Serenity<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"wash-firefly\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By the time Serenity hit theaters, I was prepared for a character death. I was ready and waiting to see which of the crew would suffer the ultimate fate. After all, this is Joss Whedon we are talking about. The crowned King of Killing Off Beloved Characters. I just wasn\u2019t ready for it to be Wash. At that point in the movie we had already lost Shepherd Book (and Mr. Universe with his weird fembot thing), so I was confident that we\u2019d filled the quota for major character death. But\u00a0oh,\u00a0how wrong I was. Wash\u2019s death is sudden and slams into the audience with no regard for their feelings or their hearts. It left me in denial and to this day I refuse to acknowledge the last bit of the movie, because that means that I\u00a0have to say he\u2019s really dead.<\/p>\n

Winifred “Fred” Burkle, Angel<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"fred-angel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Angel had its ups and it\u2019s downs, and it absolutely made its fair share of missteps (I\u2019m looking at you writers, for your poor treatment of Cordelia Chase). But one of the things I cannot forgive the show for is the death of Fred Burkle. Fred was so full of life and she brought levity to a show that was practically buried in pain. She was a bright light in the dark, but they snuffed it out. And then, almost as an apology in the form of a slap in the face, they gave us Illyria. So Fred was there, but she wasn\u2019t and it was awful. None for you writers, none for you.<\/p>\n

Felix Gaeta, Battlestar Galactica<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"felix<\/a><\/p>\n

Gaeta became one of my favorite characters the moment he stepped onscreen in the miniseries. He was so young, but so capable and so intelligent, that it was easy to see why he was a trusted senior officer on the deck of Galactica. Yet, as the series went on, the writers clearly had no idea what to do with Gaeta and the amazing character he\u2019d been at the beginning slipped further and further away. And while his death was almost a relief, as it ended the suffering I felt watching the character assassination unfold, I\u2019m still unable to forgive the writers for what they did. I refuse to admit that Gaeta didn\u2019t also make it to Earth and go off to build his own house and live in peaceful solitude for the rest of his days.<\/p>\n

Finnick Odair, The Hunger Games<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"finnick<\/a><\/p>\n

Finnick. Oh, Finnick. I was sure I wasn\u2019t going to like you. I was positive that you would end up being the annoying cocky asshole that I grumbled about each time you appeared on the page. But you weren\u2019t. You were a cocky asshole at times, sure, but you were also so genuinely good and you cared so much about people and damn your good heart being what got you killed. In my version of the story, Finnick bravely battles the mutant sewer creatures and emerges, victorious, to join Katniss in her final push against the Capitol. And then he and Annie have all of the babies and live happily ever after the end.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer: This post is overflowing with spoilers for Harry Potter, Arrow, Star Wars EU, The West Wing, Firefly, The Hunger Games, and Battlestar Galactica. Proceed at your own risk. Death is a part of life. Everyone who lives, has to eventually die. Which, when you think about it, really kind of sucks. Sure, it makes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"To The Death - No, To The Pain. Character deaths in movies, tv, and books. (SPOILERS, AHOY) http:\/\/wp.me\/p4Vfwz-a6","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[40,187,191,33,47,190,77,136],"class_list":["post-626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character-study","tag-arrow","tag-battlestar-galactica","tag-character-death","tag-firefly","tag-harry-potter","tag-star-wars-eu","tag-the-hunger-games","tag-the-west-wing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.avengingforce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/pto-the-pain.jpg?fit=600%2C370","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Vfwz-a6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions\/700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}