On fridging. And message fic.
Hey, everyone? Just because a character's death causes another character pain does not make that a "fridging." [Warning: link goes to TVTropes.] And I say this as someone who has shamelessly fridged more than one character in RP. Trust me when I say I know what it is, and I know what it isn't.
A character death should cause other characters pain, if the dying character is someone they cared about. If it doesn't, then you're Doing It Wrong. There's nothing wrong with a character death providing angst and motivation to other characters. The problem comes when that is the only reason for that character's death, or if that character goes out in a lame way instead of an awesome way. There is a Right Way, and a Wrong Way, to do this.
And for someone to call [spoiler for Hard Magic]Delilah's death in "Hard Magic" a "fridging" is hilariously wrong, and abusive of the definition, and--yep, I'm saying it--agenda-driven. But this gets back to the whole "message fiction" vs "storytelling" debate we seem to be having, and the fact that no one (including Larry Correia) is saying "don't write message fic." Rather, we are saying "don't write message fic while sacrificing story, because that is boring."
And Larry's books are positively stuffed with awesome storytelling, and that's why he wholly deserves his Hugo nomination.
A character death should cause other characters pain, if the dying character is someone they cared about. If it doesn't, then you're Doing It Wrong. There's nothing wrong with a character death providing angst and motivation to other characters. The problem comes when that is the only reason for that character's death, or if that character goes out in a lame way instead of an awesome way. There is a Right Way, and a Wrong Way, to do this.
And for someone to call [spoiler for Hard Magic]Delilah's death in "Hard Magic" a "fridging" is hilariously wrong, and abusive of the definition, and--yep, I'm saying it--agenda-driven. But this gets back to the whole "message fiction" vs "storytelling" debate we seem to be having, and the fact that no one (including Larry Correia) is saying "don't write message fic." Rather, we are saying "don't write message fic while sacrificing story, because that is boring."
And Larry's books are positively stuffed with awesome storytelling, and that's why he wholly deserves his Hugo nomination.