this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
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This is part of why I'm a shit writer, I think. I can't stand to put my characters through any major torments. I also hate it when writers kill off major characters at the end of a story. Doing so often feels cheap and gratuitous.
I suppose I haven't written enough. I need more practice, maybe.
I do think a lot of modern media embraces “unexpected death” tropes a bit too much. When done well, it can emphasize the harshness of a world and drive ambition to right things. Done wrong, it actually depletes the stakes because a lot of the motivation and interest was in saving the person that was just killed.
Breaking Bad, and Danganronpa V3, are some examples of where I felt the latter.
That said, it suspends belief sometimes when readers realize anyone in the main cast has plot armor. To me, part of that remedy is occasional deaths, but part is to just not invent frequent hanging-by-thread situations, and then frequent deus ex machina to exit them.