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Lately, when I have been browsing this forum, I noticed a lot of hate towards killing off characters. Well, I’m here to defend this narrative device.
oncewatcher recently brought up an article called “Once Upon a Time, the series where hunks go to die” in another thread. It is true that on the surface, OUaT would appear to kill loads of character but there are only truly only 3-4 important ones that died… everybody else was just eye-candy.
OUaT has a very large core cast and we, the viewer, constantly ask for more characters that have not showed up yet (ariel, ursula, jasmine, aladdin… etc). often times, guest star are brought on to a show to bring a certain emotion or give motive to one of the main characters and once their guest star deed has been accomplished, they need to go. their story arc has been fulfilled, they have been rendered useless, I would rather see them die and go out with a bang then slowly Roth away somewhere waiting for a story line that could maybe fit them.
Allowing certain character to die is also a great statement to how imaginative and how talented the writers of the show really are. By killing certain people off it pushes them in different direction forcing them to invent new situations, motive and consequences for the core cast.
Of course it’s sad to loose a guest star (unless they are called nikky and paolo) but it also allows everyone to move foreword and it gives more screen time to some other of our beloved characters.
So… that’s how I see it… whadaya think?
[adrotate group="5"]@Marilou wrote:
Of course it’s sad to loose a guest star (unless they are called nikky and paolo)
😆 (For the non-Lost-watchers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_and_Paulo)
A major death could be a good thing in that it could shake up the storyline quite nicely. Just as long as there’s a good reason for the death. I don’t wanna see much loved characters sacrificed just for the sake of being able to give the screen time to a new character. At this stage of the game, I don’t think killing anyone off would really serve the storyline, as there are too many threads that need resolving right now.
haha, Nikki and Paolo, oh my, I never understood why the episode even aired!
Anyway… I SO SO hoped for that second when Cora squeezed Aurora heart that she was going to kill her…
There’s too much death. Good writers can find more than one way to direct story telling. Yes, sometimes this may be necessary. This should be a rarity,though. So much death is a sign of lacking imagination. There are other ways.
Hardly any major characters have actually died so far. It’s only the minor ones, like the previously unknown 8th dwarf Stealthy, and Ruby’s mother. They appear in one episode, then die. It’d be worse if every minor character they introduced either continued as a 2-dimensional character, or had to have time devoted to fleshing them out when they wouldn’t serve the major storyline much.
I agree with OW. I see too much death on this show. Think of something else.
Where I stand: I don’t care who dies……so long as it isn’t Hook. I mean come on, he just showed up!
Not to sound cold, but look at the amount of characters on this show for starters. There is just so much, a good portion of them have not done much. Plus, this show is supposed to be dark. People get hurt. Locked up. Killed. It is going to happen. There are battles being fought, people fighting one another, people going on quests for revenge. It is going to happen.
Has anyone here heard the term “Redshirt”? Well, hello fellow treckies – and fans of Lost should know about it too. Nope, has nothing to do with our she-wolf Red here. A Redshirt is a minor character, who dies most of the times shortly after being introduced. Not always nameless but their prime funtion in the story is to get killed, to show, that there is real danger and live at stake, that lives can be lost, that bad things happen and might happen again. Term is based on that in Star Trek at the beginning (the Originals) particular security personal had red shirts on, and they were the most likely poor guys to get killed when they beamed to some place. It’s a plot device. On OUaT Gus, Stealthy, and in a certain degree maybe Peter and Quinn and even Daniel, would qualify as Redshirts (hm, just noticing that it looks like Redshirts appear significantly often in Red’s story line)
A part of drama is pushing people to the bring of their abilities and their psych and beyond. Killing people they love, they are close to, are important to them, sure is a way to push people. Those killed often are just a plot device, even as guest stars, even if they might not qualify as typical Redshirt. For example Daniel, not much of a character on his own: his purpose was to give Regina a background story of love and lost. That was it. He served well again in another episode, to deepen the insight in Regina’s motivation and emotional state, and helped to get a glimpse of Dr. Whal’s background, but we’re very much done with him now. The situation is similiar with Henry se., Regina’s father, although we see him in more scenes and episodes, might even see him again, but basically his character is of not much interest for the audience on his own. He serves to tell Regina’s story (despite being Cora’s husband so far he had not much to do with her story). Alike Milah, in this case as plot device for Rumple’s and Hook’s background story, and Peter and Anita, used to push Red and tell her background.
Don’t always have to kill people to create drama, but death is ultimate lost, taking away hope. Considering that Kitsis&Horowitz said, that hope is an important motif in the show, it shouldn’t surprise, that death is an often used plot. But it’s not a sign of good or bad writing to often kill people, it depends on how they do it, and how it’s embedded in the story arc.
Up to this point you can say we lost if at all only one character, who worked on his own and had his own story and was not just a plot device: Sheriff Graham, the Huntsman. Although you can say, his main purpose was to bring some insight into Regina and into Emma, but to up the stakes somewhat, they gave him a bit of own story to tell, He was no major character either to be killed of, but his death certainly gave people the feeling, the writers might not be shy to kill (seemingly) important, even regular characters, characters who many in the audience liked. So now, in dangerous situations, we feel not so sure, that good always will win and that our loved characters will be safe from dying. Makes things more interesting.
Good writing makes us invest emotionally in fictional characters, we identify with them, like them, love them, drool over them (and/or the actor/actress). There is always a dilemma with the bad guys in a story, if you want to keep them around longer, you either have to make people really hate them, but that seldom works so good in the long run, or like them, but that makes them less bad. And of course we don’t want to lose the characters we like, for many they are the main reason to keep watching a show. So often only minor characters, recurring at best, sometimes guest stars, often not, get killed on shows – after all they want to keep us watching. Main characters are mostly killed only out of necessity – because the actor/actress leaves the show, having another job, or out whatever reason. You’re not going to find many main characters being killed on any TV show (think Grey’s Anatomy is one of the shows with the most main characters killed). Although sometimes from a dramatic point of view it would be good for the story telling to even kill a main character. Doubt they will dare that on OUaT without necessity, but never know. At least they shouldn’t be shy to kill recurring characters, guest stars, as long as it serving the story well and not just a way to get rid of character.
What I worry about is ressurrecting people without good plot. Remember Ensign Kim in Star Trek Voyager becoming annoying because it seemed like they had a hard time to come up with any really good story for him besides killing him, or nearly killing him – he was like the regular Redshirt replacement, to compensate for the low number of possible crew members. Thankfully so far they don’t go there on OUaT. The only case of ressurrection was Daniel, and that served the plot and character development well. But think all this talk about getting back Graham is something that people should reconsider. In flashback, okay, but not for SB in present time – that would be bad writing. Dead is dead. And no, not counting Phillip as dead.
Is there too much death on OUaT? No, I think not, but that is a matter of point of view. So far the deaths added something to the over all plot and the development of a character, so it made sense. And they didn’t kill Aurora or Mulan (despite wishful thinking of some), did they, but I guess they will be out of the picture at least for a while now (their quest would be worth a story on its own, but there is always fanfiction to turn to).
@Elle wrote:
Not to sound cold, but look at the amount of characters on this show for starters. There is just so much, a good portion of them have not done much. Plus, this show is supposed to be dark. People get hurt. Locked up. Killed. It is going to happen. There are battles being fought, people fighting one another, people going on quests for revenge. It is going to happen.
I agree with you, that it is going to happen, that there are battles fought. I don’t agree on OUaT being supposed to be dark. Think quite the opposite. Probably why some people seem to feel umcomfortable with seemingly a number of characters getting killed. This is not a show about how desperate people can become, but a show about how they find hope even in dark moments – evil never will win. It’s about hope and love, not about darkness, desperation and destruction.
¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯
I agree that the story is about hope, good vs. evil, love, redemption, and forgiveness. But it can be dark–Regina killing her father, Red Riding Hood eating her boyfriend, Graham’s death, when Red Riding Hood was forced to kill her mother, Captain Hook’s journey to revenge, and other storylines/characters. But that makes the show great. 🙂
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