I have to admit, Whedon absolutely killed my trust in him with the Serenity Wash death, too. But I was not quite as smart as you: I watched one more thing. ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog.’ I had heard it was by ‘another Whedon’ and didn’t realize that Joss was still involved.

And again, he got me interested and then killed off one of the main characters in a rather random way that frustrated every ounce of reader in me. I know many people loved how the mini-show ended, but I was internally yelling, ‘no! Wrong! This is just WRONG!’

Admittedly, part of that is my strong love of happy endings, but I believe the difficulty I often have with that ‘death to keep you on your toes,’ which is what Whedon’s style of character killing seems to me, is that it so often doesn’t match the heart of the rest of the story.

As you mentioned, in a horror movie we expect, even crave, random death and loss. In a show like Firefly, the story revolved around that core group finding each other, supporting each other, and surviving against all odds. The underdogs and their adventures. It had grit, and darkness, and even tragic reality in it, but there was still that undercurrent of idealism. Kind of a promise of hope, at least that’s how I took it.

And killing off Wash was like a betrayal of the premise for the entire show, to my mind. A slap in the face. Too bad, underdog fans, no matter how hard you try, a random event can still kill you off and make everything you’ve done pointless. Ha, weren’t you surprised?

I think that this, to me, is what separates a meaningful death of a character and a meaningless one: how well does it actually fit with the unspoken promise the author has made throughout the story. Like…okay, 6th sense. Finding out a main character IS dead at the end of that? That still worked. It was tragic and sad, but it FIT with the story.

Killing off Wash sucked, no two ways about it. Which is the reason I had to respond to this very old blog post, just so I could bitch about it, LOL. Phew….need to let go of some old angst there, eh?

Anyway, I really enjoyed your take on this. So often, I see authors urging other authors to not be afraid to kill off their characters, so readers really feel the tension, unsure if a character is going to die or not. Nice to remember that killing them off randomly isn’t the answer.

I seem to recall an interview in which JM said that WB wanted Spike on Angel, because JM pulled in the viewers. This is going back so many years though.

Alas, my DVDs are er… not entirely legal. To save space I don't think I copied over the commentaries on all of them. Will have to check out though, and put buying the official ones further up my list-of-shinies-to-own list. Joss' commentaries are always brilliant, funny and sometimes educational; he had my head spinning with his Objects in Space commentary.

And yah; spice of life. I just like sticking my oar in and giving my opinion. If the world was made up of people with exactly my tastes… well I'd have no one to disagree with and life would be rather tedious.

I'll still argue strongly for the things I believe make for good storytelling –as a writer, it's good to have a strong compass for such things — but I bow with respect to those whose experiences are different.

P.S. I listened to Joss' commentary for Season 5, Ep. 1 of Angel (when Spike comes back) – I can't remember for sure what he said the reasons were for that (though he seemed quite pleased to be working with James Marsters again). I will say that his commentary on the ep was excellent — entertaining and educational. If you own the DVDs, I'd recommend giving it a listen.

Thanks for finally signing up and commenting!

I completely understand your reasons for disliking the deaths you listed, but I really loved them. Joyce, Tara, Anya, Wash; all their deaths completely and utterly stunned me. Yes, they were un-heroic (mostly), pointless, painful deaths that left a horrid taste in your mouth and a hole in your heart. Isn't that what death is though?

I have to say I was very angry when WB made Joss bring Spike back (or Joss chose to bring him back, I prefer to believe the former). Yes, it totally had the reaction on me they wanted; I started watching Angel again. However, I still was not happy about it. His death meant NOTHING if he could be brought back… unless they were going for some demented Messiah comparison, which I hope they were not.

I want Joss to keep killing my favourite characters. It hurts, a lot (and maybe that's a sign I should try to keep reality and fantasy more separate) but that's why I love it.

And er… *cough* Alien3 is my favourite *cough* I'm lame… okay?!

But I have this review I’m getting ready to post up. And I still have to put more art up that Winona’s done. So you’ll see more from me here soon.

And yourself? Things been good with you?

Good luck with it all — I'll be curious to hear more about your forays into the world of "non-yaoi"…

I wrote a non-yaoi script, now being illustrated, and I'm about to pitch it when I find the time ^^.

Blogging is easy, working is hard.

How have you been? It's been so long. 0_0

Nice to hear from you.

I think sometimes it’s necessary to kill a character, especially if you know that this characters demise will in fact, impact your protagonist.

And I would agree — sometimes it is necessary to the story to kill a character off, even the protagonist. I just think that for certain genres you need a damn good reason and you should take in consideration the impact on the reader of your choice. A "senseless death" can feel like avoiding cliche for a neophyte writer (and even some experienced ones), but the truth is, it's been done and often. Much less cliche to come up with a demise that actually says something, IMHO.

It can be tempting as a creator to feel like you are entitled to do as you damn well please with your creations — I was just arguing that you have an obligation to the story and to your readers that should be heeded.

Boy don’t I know it! One editor said to me… ‘no one should die in BL.’ 0_0. Needless to say, Roulette will be death free, regardless of how I originally wrote it.

Interesting. Sounds like there's a story there — can I find it on your blog?

Alex