Boy, how I can relate.
Warning: spoilers for Dragonlance novels that are 30+ years old.
I can remember the first time a book made me so upset that I literally slammed it shut and threw it across the room. This was also the first time I got shouted at and made to do extra laps around the marching field since the “room” in question was my high school band hall.
The book in question was Dragons of Winter Night and anyone who has read it knows what part I’m talking about. It was foreshadowed earlier in the Dragons of Autumn Twilight but still, that death gutted me and I didn’t even like that character that much. I remember crossing my arms over my chest after I threw the book and wondering just how in God’s name people could just be going about their lives when that had just happened.
Funny thing is, I was upset by but not angry about the next character in the series to pass. But, that was probably because his arc felt more “complete” whereas the other guy’s felt like he still had a lot of room to grow.
In the years since, as a reader, yes, I have felt that same “did that just happen?” when characters die but never quite as intensely as the first time.
So, what about the rest of you? Anyone else know how this feels?
— G.K.
P.S. — We also have a little writers’ club going and anyone who wants is welcome to join. Just hit me up on the forums!
11 replies on “Can you relate?”
I have a tendency to read biographies about dead people and then be emotionally devastated at the end when they die. I’m look at you Churchill, Grant, Lincoln, Coolidge, et. al. .
I can understand that a little, especially for those who were assassinated or who died young since, to me, it feels like a character who didn’t get a full development arc.
That’s why editors who are like “no, you can’t kill a character until they’ve completed the full arc” get on my absolute last nerve. Yeah, sometimes you kill off someone “early” because that’s going to be the motive to inspire or drive other development and because it’s totally realistic. Do you think Reconstruction would have been the same if it had been Lincoln running the show instead of Johnson? Do you think we would have gotten to the Moon in 1969 if it hadn’t been for Kennedy dying before we could get there? Tragic, unexpected deaths and Great Men (or Women) drive history which is why they also make such fun characters to include in fiction. 🙂
— G.K.
Not the only time, but the worst time that someone died and I went” Noooooo!!!!!”: Ned Stark in ‘Game of Thrones “.. I loved the character. And cut down too early, betrayed, innocent, and honest. Perhaps too good to live. I almost stopped reading then and there. Then I got used to Martin killing characters off. But I swear, the good tended to die too quick, and the bad too slowly. Yes, the world is harsh. But just a little more of him, and it would have not hit me so hard. Even if it ended the same. And don’t get me started on the end of the HBO series. Pitiful, wrong and very unsatisfying. Just dreadful.
I actually had a feeling that Ned was going to get killed when it kept getting emphasized that he was a real fish out of water being an honorable man in King’s Landing. So, that didn’t come as a massive shock to me.
The Red Wedding, however? Holy cow.
And I hated the HBO series. Especially how it ended. Talk about the grandmother of all train wrecks.
— G.K.
Grandmother of all train wrecks. Good phrasing. How about the train wreck that reverberated through infinity? (Nah. Too long)
And by the way, the Red Wedding was patterned partly after “The Black Dinner” in 1440 Scotland. (Figures it would be Scotland. I can say that, given my Scottish roots) Given what occurred before in the books, that one did not really shock or surprise me. Ned’s death was so early I did not see it coming, at least not that soon.
Tha thu à Alba? Snog! 😉 (Well, I mean, not you but your family. Sorry, just started learning Scots-Gaelic a few weeks ago!)
I knew about the Black Dinner because I tend to remember things like that from history class and my history teacher in high school loved to hit us with those kinds of things to prove that history is cool.
— G.K.
I can do the Scottish accent well. And darn it, knowing any Scots-Gaelic makes me jealous. Maybe someday.(I’d better hurry at 67 years old. First though, and #1 on my bucket list is: Learn to play the bagpipes. Have the chanter, have a book and know where I can find a teacher. Already know how to read music, and played the trumpet, can play the piano a bit, so the fingering should not be too hard.)
Duolingo, my dude. Download it on your phone. That’s how I’m learning it and keeping up with my French, Latin, and Greek!
You can also learn Klingon!
— G.K.
oops please ignore
Thanks for the info, but I know about it and other aides.
My problem is time.
Work.(from home, yes!),4 rescue dogs, a quirky, in need of minor repair 147 year old Victorian house with an overgrown yard and a wife needing a knee replacement,(coming soon), a back herniated disk needing repair ( next up), my time is limited.
As to Klingon; I have the dictionary.and:
thiNgan maH!
Heghlu QaQ Jejvam
Bortas bir Jablu’Di’ reh QaQqu’ nay’
Also took one year of Latin because I could.
Favorite phrase:
Si vis pacem para bellum
In response to a yes or no question asked in Latin I said: “Tibi certum fortasse dabo.
I wasnt supposed to know a single one of those words.
I tend to dig deep when I do, and that takes time
I will do that in the writers forum as best I can.
Carry on.
Please ignore the Diane baker reply. I forgot I was signed on as her to debug a pr oblem. I’m her tech support.
As to the origin of de-bug:
I believe in the 50’s, when computers took up a whole room, a big one had problems. They used mechanical relays, and could actually walk into the computer. They went in and removed a moth that got caught in a relay.
Thus, they “debugged” the computer