Character death vs Character decay

[istne_pieklo]

Lately I've been thinking about character exits a bit (and to a lesser extents, show exits), and as much as the BBC has the reputation for ripping people's hearts out, I think it's doing the right thing by occasionally killing off half of the cast - because honestly, anything is better than watching them decay slowly. Of course, UK shows don't

Comments

[zoicite]

Great post and so many excellent examples!

I didn't even watch ER past the first or second season, but as soon as you mentioned Lucy's death I immediately remembered that episode.

Mostly this left me with an itch to rewatch all of Angel and also series 4 of both DW and BH.

[istne_pieklo]

Thank you! <333
Oh, that ep is the tragedy of my childhood. T_T There was also an Austrian cop show that I liked as a kid, and they killed off the main character there as well. I haaated the writers for that. XD But I think it's much better to hate the writers for a death than to thank them for it b/c if the character feels so useless that you want him/her dead, there must be smth wrong there. XD
Haha, I've got the same itch, but no time at all. Besides, rewatching DW is too painful. :( The same as BH. I know what follows those series 4 and it's not smth I like.

[zoicite]

Heh, I'm pretty sure I was in college when that episode of ER aired.

I tend to be pretty good at still enjoying segments of things even when disappointed with what I know comes later, but I hear ya. I don't really have time these days to rewatch much of anything (and certainly not 100+ episodes of Angel!)

[istne_pieklo]

I was in school, but I don't really remember how old I was.
LOL, I rewatch Angel pretty much every year (or even half-year) for several years already. BtVS and Angel are without a doubt my fvaourite shows, sharing the pedestal with DW 1-4 and BH 1-4. It's sad that the last two took such an unsatisfactory route in the end.

[istne_pieklo]

Darla is one of my favourite Buffyverse characters. XD I remember that when she died on BtVS the first time, we didn´t know that much about her and I was still thinkingÑ Too bad. But then she appeared on Angel, and I was crushing on her instantly XDD I love how she doesn´t automatically become a good person just because she has a soul. When she´s human, she's no less dangerous than when she's a vampire, but she still shows some remorse. Actually, when you think about it, Angel is the only weird one with complete split personalities. XD He and Hal should meet. Angel would diagnose him. XD Have you been recently cursed by gypsies? XD
It pains me that fandom considers her one of the least likeable characters in BtVS. I think she's the best. She iiis! <333 So many fans seem to hate her for her actions in season 6, and I can't understand that. Buffy may be imperfect, but that's what makes her so realistic. Who wants a perfect Mary Sue who always does the right thing as a protagonist? That's so boring.
So he's the reverse of Mitchell now:

[istne_pieklo]

Yup, I agree that the curse must be the reason for Angel's behaviour because all other ensouled vampires don't seem to have that big a divide between their evil and less evil personalities. Oh God, you're doing a terrible thing here: you're making me want to rewatch Angel and write meta about. XD STAHP!
I think when it comes to Hal, I've already expressed my views on his so-called split personality in GT,BT. That is: LOL, nope. XDD
Those fans obviously don't get the main message of season 7. It's such a lonely thing being a slayer, even if she has friends and a house full of people. I admit I like one-of-a-kind characters (like the Doctor being the last Time Lord in the new series) and I'm not the biggest fan of Willow's slayer activation spell, but at the same time I understand that it was a good thing for Buffy personally. Loneliness combined with such responsibility can account for certain despotism, but I don't see how anyone would have done better than Buffy under the circumstances. [/biased fan speaking ;)))]
So I guess the

[shirogiku]

Cutler's death (and his entire character arc that you've nailed here) is still one of the most upsetting things ever T___T

(why Gaeta's death isn't here? :))

As to BtVS, Anya's death was the only spoiler I somehow HAVEN'T seen, so it hit me harder than, say, Tara'sXD

I don't even spoil myself on purpose most of the time...

Btw, this makes me realise one of my longest running narrative kinks has always been a character with screwy life getting a shot at unlikely peace/better life/"heroism" (in very loose terms).

(LP/Einreaper as an example XD)

[istne_pieklo]

Sooooo truuue!
Gaeta isn't here b/c I was running out of patience with this post and because his exit is... well, I don't know how to explain it. Neither good nor bad? It's tragic and all, but it's hard for me to analyze because it doesn't strike me as... Well, it just doesn't strike me. Maybe it's because Gaeta was a relatively minor character. To me, his final episodes pretty much made the highlight of his character. There was no particular journey for me, or rather, it was half-behind the scenes, partly in deleted scenes and webisodes, etc. I don't really know the full picture b/c I haven't seen the webisodes. I'm not saying it makes Gaeta a bad character. If I put my mind to it, I could analyze him, but it's hard for me because he wasn't all there. Same goes for Dualla btw: her exit was startling and unexpected, but she barely got my attention before that, so no actual journey for me.
I considered putting Arthur's death here (from Merlin), but once again, as sad as it was, it wasn't anything that special for me. The focus of the

[shirogiku]

Ah, I see... come to think of it, Gaeta's last story arc was more upsetting (the hospital scene, etc) than his actual exit so yeah, doesn't count :D

Ooh, I ttly forgot to mention Joyce! That was really heart-wrenching :(

>>>Esp. if it's not a "good" character.

Hiii, Baltar)))

LP!Ripley is worse than FF!Ripley, I think)))

Ehehe, well, my reasoning for letting FF!Ripley fade was purely practical: there was little else interesting we could have done with him and Q2 was tightly packed already... and, to make it even more unfair, his disappearance didn't make that much of an impact on anyone, arguably.

[istne_pieklo]

LOL, yes, Baltar is perfect! XD
Well, we need at least one unfair death XDDD What happened to In Cam Einri was also pretty unfair imho.