When an author kills characters...

[Wolf72]

this summer I got to see Spamalot with Alan Tudyk playing Lancelot ... when I saw him get shafted (literally) in Serenity I was honestly shocked and speechless for a moment ... life is so much more fun when you don't have all the spoilers.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Contrast a campaign where you KNOW the DM won't kill a character with one where death always lurked and choices were important. You know which campaign had more tension - more of an air of reality - and which was more fun.

well, you've certainly given me a good idea of which one it is for you... But obviously you don't know which I perfer. (hint : in groups I've expereince, I haven't found that lurking death and choices mattering are that connected.)

 

[Elf Witch]

well, you've certainly given me a good idea of which one it is for you... But obviously you don't know which I perfer. (hint : in groups I've expereince, I haven't found that lurking death and choices mattering are that connected.)

I don't mind playing in a game where death can happen. But I would not want to play a game of thrones type game where death can happen all the time and it really does not matter how smart you play the odds are still against you.

If I played in a game like that I would not want to invest anything into the character.

That maybe why I don't really get into Martin's book because I don't want to invest in any of the characters because they could die at a drop of the hat.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Quoted for truth.

GRRM kills off characters to lend tension to the tale and a certain truth to the story.

Contrast a campaign where you KNOW the DM won't kill a character with one where death always lurked and choices were important. You know which campaign had more tension - more of an air of reality - and which was more fun.

I like campaigns where death is possible too, but GRRM's books are starting to resemble a campaign where the DM routinely throws near-impossible encounters at the party and kills off PCs just how "grim & gritty" and "dangerous" his campaign is. Those types of campaigns (the ones where you're rolling up a new PC every session or three) aren't very fun either.

 

[Ranger REG]

I find this idea interesting enough to pull out and talk about a bit. Wen do you think of it as the author killing off the characters, and how do you feel about it when it happens?

It depends.

When I was young, I was peeved that they killed Mr. Spock on the The Wrath of Khan, even though they showed his casket landed safely on the Genesis planet while it is being terraformed (a powerful instrument that can make a dead planet into a livable environment, both flora and fauna). After all, he was one of the "Trinity" of TOS. I mean, who the hell is going to irritate McCoy now?

A character's shocking and sudden death can give the reader a sense of mortality. It may downplay the character as being larger-than-life, by putting themselves in the high-risk environment can give it a perceived sense of ... reality check. It indicates that they're ordinary beings just doing extraordinary things.

Of course, if it is your favorite character, especially when one has invested his adoration toward it, then much like your own PC in a roleplaying game, you don't want it to die a senseless death. You prefer it has a meaningful death, which is a contrast to wanting realism in movies ... as well as in game. You still want the character to be larger-than-life, no matter how fatally real the environment this character lives and breathes in.

 

[Broccli_Head]

red wedding,etc

I didn't like the Red Wedding because as others have stated, it seemed like GRRM, the GM in this case decided to be arbitrary to push forward his plot/story. It seemed out of character for Rob Stark who had shown genius on the battlefield, and his paranoid mother Catelyn to be duped like that, not to mention his "I see bad aroudn every corner" advisors. They even had the wolf going nutzo as a hint and neither of them thought anything was untoward. They had Frey and one of his sons insult them, and they didnt get the hint. Totally out of character in my opinion. Plus, the "springing from the ground" of the crossbowmen. It just boggles, that a well-trained army could be duped like that.

Now, had GRRM written it so that they were taken while sleeping off hangovers...more plausible.

I also dont like his habit of keeping bad guys alive...the Cleaganes, Theon...when they are shown on camera to be moratlly wounded. What..bad guys have a stronger will to live? BS death for the Red Viper as well. Even heated by passion, given the history of the Viper as told to us in the narrative, he was described as someone who does not loose his perspective in combat. At least Joffery and Catelyn's sister died.

But by this example...I guess my point is that I appreciate a well-conceived death scene. Not one that seems arbitrary. As a counterpoint, Ned Starks death, though very tragic, was throughly a logical consequence of his actions, and within his character.