The death of fictional characters
A chance remark in an e-mail from melodywilde sent me to IMDB today, only to end up on the page for Atonement. Cue a hasty lunge for the Back button!
I've written before about this movie and how it utterly broke me. There is no way I could ever watch it again.
But musing on it got me to thinking about why it upset me so much, and from there, to thoughts about the death of fictional characters.
So I wondered. Do you cry at the death of fictional characters? Or do you just shrug it off as being, well, fiction?
And if you do cry, do books bother you more, where your mind creates the visuals? Or movies and TV?
What fictional deaths have hit you the hardest?
I'm not sure this is even necessary, but just in case, I'll put mine behind a cut, for the sake of spoilers.
Books:
This is easy. Mostly because I still remember the circumstances quite vividly. Sirius Black, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
I loved Sirius right from the start of Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm always drawn to the wrongfully accused, and characters who must hide their innate goodness, or who have been made bitter and hard through events beyond their control. And Sirius fit the bill on all counts.
When OOTP came out, I was waiting eagerly for the Fed Ex truck from the moment I got up. And when the book was delivered shortly before noon, I dove right into it. All day long, I did nothing but read.
And then I got to the end, and Sirius's death, and I just lost it. I remember it was 8:30 at night. I lay facedown on my bed and just sobbed my eyes out. I was living with my mom at the time while my house was being built, and she came in, worried and anxious, to see what was the matter with me. And when I tried to explain, she just got this look on her face that said plainly she thought I was crazy.
See, she doesn't get it.
Movies:
No surprise here, it is of course Atonement. To this day, over two years, later, I am still filled with an almost violent hatred toward Briony and what she did. I know there is no way I will ever be able to watch this movie ever again. There have been others that made me cry -- some quite badly -- but as I wrote after watching it, Atonement takes the prize.
I also have to give honorable mentions to Jack in Brokeback Mountain and the loss of the entire remaining samurai in the climactic battle sequence in The Last Samurai, both of which affected me very strongly.
TV:
Up until February, this would have gone hands down to Laura Roslin's death at the end of Battlestar Galactica. I almost made myself sick from crying so hard when I watched the series finale.
But. Then along came Doctor Who.
And The End of Time.
I am not exaggerating when I say I cried for literally hours after watching my beloved Ten's death and regeneration. I would stop for a little bit, then remember something else from the episode or the series itself, and it would set me off again. At one point I was lying on the couch, sobbing weakly, my eyes so puffy and swollen they hurt to touch, and I realized if I didn't get out of the house and force myself to think about something else, I would go mad. So I called my mom and we went out to dinner -- where I embarrassed us both by crying at the dinner table.
Days, even weeks later, I would still cry just to remember it. Even now, months later, I get ridiculously teary-eyed when I see or read something that reminds me too poignantly of my Doctor.
I blame my severe emotional attachment to this show and this particular Doctor to the happenstance of discovering it shortly after I was laid off, when I was in a depressed, vulnerable state of mind. It doesn't take much for me to become attached to a character, and in this case, Ten pushed all my buttons and then some. Losing him utterly destroyed me.
Just as with Atonement, I will probably never again watch End of Time. Some things are just too painful.
So there's my list. I'd love to know what everyone else thinks.
I've written before about this movie and how it utterly broke me. There is no way I could ever watch it again.
But musing on it got me to thinking about why it upset me so much, and from there, to thoughts about the death of fictional characters.
So I wondered. Do you cry at the death of fictional characters? Or do you just shrug it off as being, well, fiction?
And if you do cry, do books bother you more, where your mind creates the visuals? Or movies and TV?
What fictional deaths have hit you the hardest?
I'm not sure this is even necessary, but just in case, I'll put mine behind a cut, for the sake of spoilers.
Books:
This is easy. Mostly because I still remember the circumstances quite vividly. Sirius Black, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
I loved Sirius right from the start of Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm always drawn to the wrongfully accused, and characters who must hide their innate goodness, or who have been made bitter and hard through events beyond their control. And Sirius fit the bill on all counts.
When OOTP came out, I was waiting eagerly for the Fed Ex truck from the moment I got up. And when the book was delivered shortly before noon, I dove right into it. All day long, I did nothing but read.
And then I got to the end, and Sirius's death, and I just lost it. I remember it was 8:30 at night. I lay facedown on my bed and just sobbed my eyes out. I was living with my mom at the time while my house was being built, and she came in, worried and anxious, to see what was the matter with me. And when I tried to explain, she just got this look on her face that said plainly she thought I was crazy.
See, she doesn't get it.
Movies:
No surprise here, it is of course Atonement. To this day, over two years, later, I am still filled with an almost violent hatred toward Briony and what she did. I know there is no way I will ever be able to watch this movie ever again. There have been others that made me cry -- some quite badly -- but as I wrote after watching it, Atonement takes the prize.
I also have to give honorable mentions to Jack in Brokeback Mountain and the loss of the entire remaining samurai in the climactic battle sequence in The Last Samurai, both of which affected me very strongly.
TV:
Up until February, this would have gone hands down to Laura Roslin's death at the end of Battlestar Galactica. I almost made myself sick from crying so hard when I watched the series finale.
But. Then along came Doctor Who.
And The End of Time.
I am not exaggerating when I say I cried for literally hours after watching my beloved Ten's death and regeneration. I would stop for a little bit, then remember something else from the episode or the series itself, and it would set me off again. At one point I was lying on the couch, sobbing weakly, my eyes so puffy and swollen they hurt to touch, and I realized if I didn't get out of the house and force myself to think about something else, I would go mad. So I called my mom and we went out to dinner -- where I embarrassed us both by crying at the dinner table.
Days, even weeks later, I would still cry just to remember it. Even now, months later, I get ridiculously teary-eyed when I see or read something that reminds me too poignantly of my Doctor.
I blame my severe emotional attachment to this show and this particular Doctor to the happenstance of discovering it shortly after I was laid off, when I was in a depressed, vulnerable state of mind. It doesn't take much for me to become attached to a character, and in this case, Ten pushed all my buttons and then some. Losing him utterly destroyed me.
Just as with Atonement, I will probably never again watch End of Time. Some things are just too painful.
So there's my list. I'd love to know what everyone else thinks.