Hi, peeps! (see what I did there, given the holiday? Heh.)
I hope this weekend treats you well and that everything is fab with you and yours.
This, my friends, IS A MAJOR LONG-ASS POST. But one in which I need to unpack a few things with regard to certain tropes.
I’ve been thinking about the characters I write, and the characters I’ve grown attached to through other people’s writing, and how it affects people when a writer decides to kill a character.
Writers make decisions all the time on which characters live or die, and that depends on a variety of factors, including the genre, narrative arc, and the personal arcs of the characters themselves. It also depends on where the story may be headed, especially if it’s a series, and how that character is going to fit into a larger picture down the line, if at all.
So there are any number of factors involved in a decision to remove a character either from the printed page or a TV show or movie. And there are any number of things that can happen, both inside the story and outside once the character’s death occurs.
There are also much larger currents at play, and those, too, have a role in reactions. Especially outside the story, among those who are following it.
Specifically, I’m thinking here of a couple of series on TV that I follow. Those are The CW’s The 100 and AMC’s The Walking Dead.
And here’s where I put the SPOILER ALERT. If you follow both these series and you have not seen the most recent episodes, DO NOT READ ANY FARTHER. STOP NOW.
I MEAN IT. SPOILERS.
NOT KIDDING.
Okay, fine. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Let’s proceed.
And because this is a looooong piece, with lots of rumination, grab your fave delicious beverage and snacks before reading on. I’ll wait.
dum dee dum. la la la. ::checks the Twitterz:: ::plays around on Facebook::
Okay, ready? Let’s go.
Andi Marquette 