SPOILER: Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies (including the stupid DM)

[nin_ninja]

WATCH OUT FOR THIS SPOILERIFIC THREAD


RF, ED is a scenario where at the end of a story (or a game of D&D) all the main characters die. This can be done either really well if its built up to that point, or its a copout story writers(and DMs) use because they can't think of an ending.

So case in point, bad deaths equals poor writing. Let's here some of your examples of deaths/disappearances/etc. that felt poorly written to you.

Such as Renee from 24, or what's her face from the latest Star Trek series.

 

[Negatempest]

Kat from Halo Reach. The **** they take game wise and the plot has her killed just because.

 

[Lolth17]

Almost every death in the Harry Potter books except Cedric's. It felt like JK Rowling was just trying to up the drama by killing off a more important person in each book.

And now I watch the hatred pour in...

 

[The Boy in the Hat]

T.K Baha in Borderlands. Sure, he was just a minor mission giver, but he was the best minor mission giver.

 

[Harlemura]

Spoiler: I think Reach spoilers are fair game by now, but Spoiler Boxed just in case...

Kat's death kinda annoyed me. I know several of them had generic heroic deaths, but "Running, running oh I've been sniped I'm dead" just didn't seem a fitting end to someone I thought had quite a lot of character.

EDIT:
All that work with a spoiler box and I'm spoiler-box-free ninja'd by the first reply.

 

[Signa]

Spoiler: Star Trek

Data in Insurrection

pissed me off

T.K Baha in Borderlands. Sure, he was just a minor mission giver, but he was the best minor mission giver.

Yup.

@nin_ninja you might want to remind people to spoiler their posts. I know there's going to be a ton of juicy ones in here.

 

[teh_Canape]

Cassidy's death in DarkWatch

I mean, it was so unexpected, and just made me feel quite sad about her

 

[No_Remainders]

Fallout 3.

Original ending? It just STOPS.

 

[Pandaman1911]

Eli Vance from HL2. Okay, sure, I can buy that a few advisers followed the trail of rocket smoke to the secret base, but how in the hell did they find the EXACT SPOT WHERE THE LEADER OF THE RESISTANCE IS?! They should have wound up at the silo, or something. And what the feck was Dog doing in the meantime?! I remember seeing him right before I walked into the hangar where the helicopter was. Did he just see the advisers crash into the building, but then get distracted by Dr. Magnusson's robotic cat, or something? He only bursts in to save the day AFTER Eli dies, a good thirty to forty-five seconds after the advisers break a hole in the ceiling.

TL;DR: Eli Vance's death was a load of horse manure.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Almost every death in the Harry Potter books except Cedric's. It felt like JK Rowling was just trying to up the drama by killing off a more important person in each book.

And now I watch the hatred pour in...

No, that's pretty much right.

OT: On a similar note, minor characters in comics. I mean characters who only appear once, or haven't appeared in years. We either don't know them enough to actually care that they died, or don't care because they never really did anything. But it's enough to motivate the hero or signify that the bad guys mean business. Either kill someone important or some nameless grunt! It's not clever!

 

[Dags90]

When death is used as a solution to an existing love triangle/love competition side plot.

Gee, our main character wants the affection of another person who is taken or must compete with a side character? I wonder who's going to win that fight. As soon as the bodies start dropping it's pretty clear where the other person is going to wind up.

Spoiler

2012 is a particularly egregious example of this.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

Serenity, you know who.

Spoiler

I fucking CRIED.
I can think of no reason why he had to die.

 

[FalloutJack]

Almost every death in the Harry Potter books except Cedric's. It felt like JK Rowling was just trying to up the drama by killing off a more important person in each book.

And now I watch the hatred pour in...

No, no hatred. I'm not what you call a huge fan of the books, but my brother was and I decided to read tham for myself. To me, I don't believe that most of the deaths are cheap. Perhaps some towards the end, but then towards the end it was also a bloody war. So, given that, I can understand how you might feel, but we all gotta go sometime.

 

[Je Suis Ubermonkey]

Serenity, you know who.

Spoiler

I fucking CRIED.
I can think of no reason why he had to die.

I can think of a reason: Because you fucking cried. Creating emotion is something writers strive for, often no matter what the cost.
I wasn't that affected by it, probably because I missed the actual impaling bit (I think that's how he died but I'm still not sure) by blinking (seriously, it wasn't even a very long blink, then hang on, why's he dead? What happened? WHAT IS GOING ON?)

OT: I actually cannot think of any. Strange that, since almost every book I read has deaths, often aplenty.

 

[garbutt]

Serenity, you know who.

Spoiler

I fucking CRIED.
I can think of no reason why he had to die.

One reason I can think of is a rumour I heard that the actor (I forget his name) who plays Wash doesnt want to get type cast - he's afraid it will damage his career. So he insisted that they kill Wash off.
Similarly, go watch the film Dodgeball. All through the film, he appears dressed as a pirate... but for no real reason he appears out of costume right near the end... far as I can tell, it was just to get his face on screen without the costume.

On topic: Pretty much all of Noble Team from Halo: Reach. The only one I didnt think was completly badly written was Jorge. Then again, I think Reach was full of missed opportunities and bad plot writing from start to finish.

 

[flipsalty]

Serenity, you know who.

Spoiler

I fucking CRIED.
I can think of no reason why he had to die.

One reason I can think of is a rumour I heard that the actor (I forget his name) who plays Wash doesnt want to get type cast - he's afraid it will damage his career. So he insisted that they kill Wash off.
Similarly, go watch the film Dodgeball. All through the film, he appears dressed as a pirate... but for no real reason he appears out of costume right near the end... far as I can tell, it was just to get his face on screen without the costume.

On topic: Pretty much all of Noble Team from Halo: Reach. The only one I didnt think was completly badly written was Jorge. Then again, I think Reach was full of missed opportunities and bad plot writing from start to finish.

I don't think that rumor has a lot of truth to it. The movie served as an ending to the tv show so it would be the end anyway, it's not any of the characters were going to continue on alive or dead.

 

[flipsalty]

Serenity, you know who.

Spoiler

I fucking CRIED.
I can think of no reason why he had to die.

One reason I can think of is a rumour I heard that the actor (I forget his name) who plays Wash doesnt want to get type cast - he's afraid it will damage his career. So he insisted that they kill Wash off.
Similarly, go watch the film Dodgeball. All through the film, he appears dressed as a pirate... but for no real reason he appears out of costume right near the end... far as I can tell, it was just to get his face on screen without the costume.

On topic: Pretty much all of Noble Team from Halo: Reach. The only one I didnt think was completly badly written was Jorge. Then again, I think Reach was full of missed opportunities and bad plot writing from start to finish.

I don't think that rumor has a lot of truth to it. The movie served as an ending to the tv show so it would be the end anyway, it's not any of the characters were going to continue on alive or dead.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Serenity, you know who.

Spoiler

I fucking CRIED.
I can think of no reason why he had to die.

Because Joss Whedon hates you, his fans.