More TV Shows Need to Commit to Killing Off Their Characters

Titans season 4 shows how not to deal with death

Recent series finale Titans is a textbook example of this phenomenon. Much of the season was spent building the predicted confrontation between Starfire (Anna Diop) and Brother Blood (Joseph Morgan), a battle that would leave them both dead. The Titans spend a lot of time arguing about the inevitability of a Starfire sacrifice, and their attempts to get around it have been thwarted. In the last moments of the battle, faced with the fact that Brother Blood could not be contained and must be killed, Starfire lifted them both into the air. Both appeared to be killed by the fire blast, but after the camera lingered on the Titans as they mourned and slowly turned to leave, Starfire descended, alive, without explanation.

This does not mean that Starfire had to die in the finale. As dark as Titans typically, his core has always been optimistic to the point of failure. Killing one of its core team members might have been a satisfying ending, but the spirit of the show always seemed to lean towards a happier ending for its characters. So why did the show take so long to tell us she was going to die if it didn’t have plans to kill her? When rewatched, the entire storyline is a waste of time because it leads nowhere. The Titans don’t make a plan to bypass the prophecy. Neither Starfire nor Brother Blood make any choice that changes the circumstances of her victim. The death threat is a cheap stunt to create tension throughout the season, and her unexpected survival weighs less on her decision to sacrifice herself at the end.

Cheats of death ruin more than just endings

Titans ruined the emotional climax of his last season, but not letting the character die could have worse consequences if the show is still running. Take Rings of Power, who developed the nasty habit of pretending to kill the characters in the second half of the first season, only to show that they weren’t dead just moments later. I pulled this trick several times, but the worst was with Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), one of the few original characters on the show. Twice as many episodes Rings of Power led viewers to believe that Bronwyn was murdered by lingering on her son Theo’s reaction (Tyro Muhafidin), before revealing that she didn’t die at all. After the second case, the credibility of the series collapsed. If in the future he tries to really kill Bronwyn, the moment won’t come, because the audience was conditioned to expect a fake. And then I did similar tricks with Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova), Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), and a particularly egregious attempt to convince us that Isildur (Maxim Baldry) died, this skepticism is likely to extend to the death of any major character. It’s not great when the story the show is trying to tell is a tragedy that ends in massive social collapse and war.

This is not to say that almost dying characters are always a bad thing. There are many ways to threaten a character with death that still cause a lot of drama, especially in sci-fi and fantasy series. A character who is severely injured, poisoned, or trapped can give other characters a compelling time limit to find a solution or add tension to whatever situation they are currently in. The first time Bronwyn almost dies, she is pierced by an arrow. her shoulder, and the scene where Arondir and Theo have to remove it and cauterize the wound is really heartbreaking and intense. If this was the only such scene, or if the moment of uncertainty was skipped before Bronwyn woke up, it wouldn’t be a problem. You can also tell stories that focus on finding a solution to a character’s imminent demise before time runs out. FlashThe third season includes the episode “Duet”, which uses Barry’s voltage (Grant Gustin) and Kara (Melissa Benoist) mysterious coma to force their characters to face the emotional issues they had avoided up until that point. Clever workarounds can also be fun. Earlier in the last season Titans was Gar (Ryan Potter) uses his powers to transform into a swarm of microscopic lifeforms to deliver a cure through Superboy (Joshua Orpin) impenetrable skin. It was a great moment of growth for Gar, and he was never too close to a character dying. But all of these shows have also gone too far in other ways and hurt their audience’s investment and the feel of the stakes.

The death of a good character is worth the effort

The reason so many shows avoid permanently killing characters is because character death is a difficult thing to do right. Death removes a character from history, so the removal must add something to make up for this gap. It’s a difficult balance to get right. But when you do that, it’s great drama.

Take successionThe recent death of a frontpage-worthy character has finally killed family patriarch Logan Roy (Brain Cox) and gain momentum in the battle for control of Waystar. While the show has feinted about Logan’s death in the past, the actual event doesn’t hold water. “Connor’s Wedding” pays close attention to how his death causes both family and business to fall apart. The power vacuum it opens up becomes a driving force for other characters to take action and rethink their priorities. Logan’s presence is so important to the plot of the show that killing him can have nothing but a huge impact. What makes this work is that Logan doesn’t come to life when his plane lands. In fact, he is dead, and the changes that we begin to see over the course of the episode are not going anywhere. Keep it longer successionThe final season would have been a weaker choice.

However, character deaths don’t always have to be so drastic. penultimate episode The MandalorianSeason 3 features the heroic sacrifice of a minor character who has been with the series since the beginning. Impressive Vizsla Pass (John Favreau/Tate Fletcher) met his end fighting three Praetorian Guards, giving the rest of the Mandalorians time to escape. While Paz has never been a particularly important character, he has always been two things - a Mandalorian to the core and an absolute beast in combat. His choice to sacrifice himself fits his personality perfectly, and it also helps to set the stakes before the finale. If the Praetorian Guard succeeds in defeating Paz, it will be very difficult for Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal/Brendan Wayne/Lateef Crowder) and Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) deal with. Killing Paz isn’t a big risk to the show - losing him wouldn’t leave such a big hole - but his death still has an impact on the audience.

Not all shows need to kill their characters, but if they want to get the emotional impact of killing a character, they need to go through with it. Otherwise, the result is not impressive at the moment, and even more so on re-viewing. Titans was never a great show, but his refusal to stick to his guns tarnished his ending and made him far more likely to be forgotten. Rings of Power put herself in a tough fight if she wants to kill the characters in the future. But it shows how succession And The Mandalorian Realize that a good character death is sometimes necessary. Other shows should follow suit and commit to killing off their characters when the time is right. Otherwise, the only thing they kill is audience investment.