Stories in which the main character/hero is killed off

[ProfJohn]

One of my favorite Japanese comics books is one from the early 90s and in the second to last frame the hero of the story is killed off. Completely unexpected and you have no clue who killed him or why.

So I am looking for other similar stories where the main character is killed off before or at the end of the story. And it can't be an instance where the character sacrifices themselves to help others.


I am thinking about writing a story in which the person we think is the prophecy filling hero is NOT the hero and instead dies near the end of the story where we learn that someone else is actually the true 'hero.' Thought it would be an interesting twist as the reader goes back and looks at all the clues in the book and adds it all up again.


Thoughts?

 

[JS80]

Spoiler

game of thrones?

The Departed was kind of like that?

 

[Gibsons]

Robin Hood? Been a long time since I read it.
Sherlock Holmes, sort of.

Spoiler

All the Cormac Macarthy protagonists that I've read. Llewelyn, The Man, The Kid

 

[zinfamous]

Arrrr, this be a mighty spoiler thread!

 

[LordMorpheus]

Robin Hood? Been a long time since I read it.
Sherlock Holmes, sort of.

Spoiler

All the Cormac Macarthy protagonists that I've read. Llewelyn, The Man, The Kid

OP was saying you have no idea who or why, but with Cormac McCarthy stories the whole point is that their eventual demise is inevitable from the beginning and you see it coming two hundred pages out (not a complaint).

 

[MotF Bane]

Gladiator
Man on Fire
300

 

[ProfJohn]

I am about to read the J R R Martin books, so that will be interesting.
Gladiator is a great example.
Braveheart as well.

One person you have to give major props to is JK Rowling who killed off tons of characters including some very popular ones.

 

[Gibsons]

OP was saying you have no idea who or why, but with Cormac McCarthy stories the whole point is that their eventual demise is inevitable from the beginning and you see it coming two hundred pages out (not a complaint).

I saw it coming in some cases, not so much in one. Or rather, I thought it might happen, but the way it happened was very much out of the blue.

 

[esun]

Psycho (Hitchcock)

 

[HamburgerBoy]

On the side of computer games...

Spoiler

Planescape: Torment

Probably the only computer game ending that really resonated with me on an emotional level.

 

[coldmeat]

major spoiler for a recent video game, you've been warned:

Spoiler

LA Noire

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Gaunt's Ghosts has about two dozen or so named characters with development and a dozen or so main characters. The almost all die a pointless death. The series makes me sad

 

[nublikescake]

Terminator 1/2 (kinda)

 

[BoomerD]

Many of the old John Wayne characters were killed off in his movies.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I am about to read the J R R Martin books, so that will be interesting.
Gladiator is a great example.
Braveheart as well.

One person you have to give major props to is JK Rowling who killed off tons of characters including some very popular ones.

To be fair,

Spoiler

while she did kill off a ton of beloved characters, those characters really wouldn't fit the bill for a main character/hero.

it's not like Harry or Ron or Hermione died, and the ending was wrapped up in a super happy package where everyone was married to whom most people were rooting for and with plenty of kids etc...

 

[Glitchny]

One of my favorite Japanese comics books is one from the early 90s and in the second to last frame the hero of the story is killed off. Completely unexpected and you have no clue who killed him or why.

So I am looking for other similar stories where the main character is killed off before or at the end of the story. And it can't be an instance where the character sacrifices themselves to help others.


I am thinking about writing a story in which the person we think is the prophecy filling hero is NOT the hero and instead dies near the end of the story where we learn that someone else is actually the true 'hero.' Thought it would be an interesting twist as the reader goes back and looks at all the clues in the book and adds it all up again.


Thoughts?

Generally throwing twist endings at readers and just tricking them for the sake of tricking them pisses them off more than intrigues them. Most readers want to feel as though they are on board with the author/story, and don't appreciate having the rug being pulled out from under them/being lied to by the Author. Also it can cause the reader to view the narrator as untrustworthy, where they will either be expecting twists the entire time or just not believe what is going on in the story. It kinda hurts the whole "draw them into the world" aspect of a story if they are expecting an "a-ha!" moment in the end, can easily break immersion.

If there is a plausible reason for the twist to happen,

Spoiler

Game Of Thrones

style then it can work fine. Mostly due to the other characters and it making sense thematically. But if the whole point of a story is the twist, you quickly end up like M. Night Shamallamama (no idea on sp)

 

[ProfJohn]

bunny... you have a point.

But you still have to give her props for killing off main line characters instead of killing off a bunch of 'red shirts'

After 15 books not ONE of the characters introduce in the beginning of the Wheel of Time series has been killed.

 

[SKORPI0]

Lawrence of Arabia
Easy Rider
The Wicker Man ('73)
The Shining
Reservoir Dogs
Dancer in the Dark
Burn After Reading
My Girl
I Am Legend
7 Pounds
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road
Blood Diamond
Departed w/ Leonardo DiCaprio
The Bucket List
Bridge to Terabithia
American Beauty
Cloverfield
Children of Men
Gladiator
Leaving Las Vegas
The New World
X-Men III (Professor Xavier)
Titanic
Revolutionary Road
The Royal Tenenbaums
Syriana
Pay it Forward
Donnie Darko
Crank
Bridge on the River Kwai
Sunset Boulevard
Bonnie and Clyde
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Cowboys
Scarface
Perfect World

probably more.....

 

[gaidensensei]

I felt this was fairly consistent in the

Spoiler

Dead Space

Saga, aside from

Spoiler

Issac Clarke in 1 and 2

from being killed off, every main character in the respective series died or got killed trying to do something. The next started with a fresh hero.

You could see the progression in 4 of 6 of the forms of media - games and movie.

 

[Glitchny]

bunny... you have a point.

But you still have to give her props for killing off main line characters instead of killing off a bunch of 'red shirts'

After 15 books not ONE of the characters introduce in the beginning of the Wheel of Time series has been killed.

True but other somewhat important people have been taken out

Spoiler

Elyas, Aram, Queen of Ebu dar, Asmodean, the guy who went with Mat and Thom into the tower of gehji in the last book. Technically Mat does die, twice, but one of them gets erased when Rand Balefires Rhavin. Verin dies. LTT died:sneaky:

But yea the main people haven't died, they've gotten fucked up though.

Spoiler

Rand has like 3 unhealable wounds, almost went insane, lost an arm. Mat Died, lost an eye. Perrin.... well meh

Apparently being Ta'Varen makes you too important to die. However I wouldn't be upset if Nynaeve got her head separated from her shoulders, along with egwene

Btw I'm sure all of my spellings are wrong.

 

[mmntech]

Star Wars is a big one if you consider it to be about Vader.

For video games, Fallout 3.

 

[MotionMan]

Spoiler

Spartacus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MotionMan

 

[MotionMan]

Spoiler

The Sixth Sense. Well, technically he dies in the beginning of the film, but you do not know that until the end.

MotionMan

 

[Arkaign]

Zed's Dead, I mean Ned's dead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Yp2L6c2KM

 

[tcsenter]

Message in a Bottle (movie)
Nights in Rodanthe (movie)