When Does a Character Die

SPOILERS for the Last of Us Part II if you are into that sort of thing

Sadness around characters dying is actually kinda weird. Of course in real life, you are sad that another human being won’t be around anymore and only now exists in memory, but a fictional character exists outside of that time. Fictional characters always exist in a state similar to memory as you never actually interact with them. You are always just getting somebody else’s account of who that character was and what they did. There is a separation due to them being a fictional creation.

So what does dying really mean personally if you can always just flip back 10 pages and they are walking around again? Does each time you read it, mean the character dies another death? What happens if a series ends with a character’s death, but then a spinoff series follows that character in a prequel? Were they dead until that new show spun up? Can you talk about them in the present? Even fan fiction factors in, as you could always just take that character and create new stories surrounding them, disregarding what is considered “canon.” A character really is just an idea that doesn’t have to be bound to the original creators or time at all. It is all just stories that can keep being told. Can there really be a time placed on stories at all?

Another comment that I take issue with is that a new piece of media that tells a new story in the same series is degrading what came before. Just don’t acknowledge it? If fan fiction can be considered canon interpretations of what a character would do in a certain instance, then I don’t understand why you can’t just decide that it doesn’t count. Unless there is some personal value tied to the quality of a brand, but that is not something we should really want. We should like art because it is good and meaningful to us. Not because you like the brand and want the company who owns it’s stock prices to rise. If a series you love starts being bad, then you have no obligation to defend it online. You should stop engaging with it. The chronology of the series to you can be whatever you want. We all have our own experiences, and you can decide when it is meaningful to you.

A character dying is never really the end of their life because you can always personally revive them. It may be sad to see them in later entries of a series, but where they were will always be there. This also draws a line to discussions of spoilers in media, and asking not to spoil things. But doesn’t actually watching a movie kinda spoil that movie? Like it sucks that when you watch a movie for the first time, you spoil the movie for your second rewatch. If spoilers are so meaningful then why is there a desire to experience something multiple times? Is engagement with media what actually brings characters to life. A human is always a human for the entire time they are alive. Living and doing activities. But a character only exists when somebody is perceiving them. They only really become alive when a person’s imagination is engaging with the art. A death of a character then would be when people stop engaging with them. Which is something that really doesn’t happen with the prevalence of fan fiction. A person can keep their favorite characters alive by making more art with those characters in it. Or even just thinking about what characters would do in certain situations.

It's cool to think that our favorite characters will never truly die.