So...about dead children

[Reign]

I would say: do what you want to do. It’s a really hairy, weird line. For instance, look at Lord of the Flies. That one has some pretty brutal children deaths, yet in my AP English class it was considered a classic. I guess it just depends on what you’re trying to get across. I’m not sure why death for children is SO much more traumatic or disturbing than it is for death to adults. I do know that children are more innocent, they haven’t lived for as long as other people, and they’re pure little souls. Age doesn’t change the worth of a soul. I think it’s just because children are seen as pure innocence with great potential, and I think losing your life before you’ve lived is a great fear of human kind. I even get disturbed by it. It’s probably the difference between losing innocence as you get older, so witnessing an adult death, though traumatizing, is more understandable to the human brain than is a child dying. But yeah, I would say it comes down to intention, good storytelling, and the ultimate execution of it all. So I would encourage you to do what you feel is best and how you want to do it.

[Maps]

And The Hunger Games had no problem killing off kids.

I wouldn’t be deterred but I’m sure some people may be, as they can by anything. I think as long as you thrown some warnings, people will be able to choose to read that chapter or not.

That’s usually want I do with my novel. Then I’ll sumarize what was missed for those who skipped on the next chapter’s dialogue box and carry on!

[liann]

I'm guessing if the story is kinda leading up to that point, more sensible readers are gonna understand. But if you outright just behead a child out of nowhere for shock value "ho ho evil lurks in the shadows" type of thing, it's gonna throw lots of readers off because it might seem cheap. I usually wouldn't drop a story if a kid dies if the after events pay for it. Like in Les Miserables, where that death added to Javert's character arc. (Not the best example but still)

Child torture is a big no-no to me though. You can mention but you have to be a different kind of sick to explicitly show it.

[sadghost]

So, in conclusion...should I err on the side of caution, or is it probably fine if I draw whatever corpses I want? I don't do gore or anything, so it's really just a matter of them being there.

If is not gore or too graphic, then probably won't be on the "heavy mature" side. No matter what, someone will always hate it, so just focus on those that support your stuff.

Berserk has plenty of people dying in gore ways or nudity, people know it's a dark fantasy, is natural on the story.

[J.Lovelace]

Hmmm, it's taboo?

I think it depends on which target audience you're aiming at...?

The manga "The Promised Neverland" is very popular despite a whole lot of murdered children in there.
[SPOLIER]
There's a child corpse in the very first chapter which is put in a jar to be eaten later by demons :''D It's really brutal what goes on there and yet it has tons of faithful readers.

I had no problem binge reading it day after day, but my husband refused to touch it due to the children deaths.
So I guess it depends.

[Reign]

@Maps

Yeah. I think it really comes down to execution. Both Lord of the Flies and Hunger Games have very specific story elements that let the readers know what they are getting into. It wasn’t just there to be there. It had purpose. On the other hand, there’s Stephen King and his story IT. I don’t like some of the things I saw from that. From Georgie getting his arm bitten off to Pennywise transforming into a little girl with her legs ripped off. That’s the kind of crap I’ll say no to. Sure, it had to do with the plot, but it made me sick to my stomach. There’s a good line between showing atrocities, and just being gross with it.

[sadghost]

I don't see the problem.

Dark fantasy series like Berserk or Games of thrones do it all the time.

[vothnthorvaldson]

I learned that killing kids in fiction was a problem only when I realised that children were immortal in Skyrim. I was in my thirties. So I assume this is not a taboo in my culture of birth (I'm originally French).

So I can't really give a specific advice, but I think going 'one step less explicit' than for an adult would work.

By that I mean, going for a description that would be adequate for a story where the graphic nature of death is less pertinent. Eg. If a death occurs by car accident in a thriller, for adults, I would maybe show some more detailed gore but no close-up, if it's in a romance I would keep gore to a minimum, if it was a story for older kids I would not go further than a motionless, entire and clean body, smaller kid only the collision or nothing at all, only discussion after.. etc.

For kid death, if the audience may be upset, I would go for the lower level, even if it does not correspond to my criteria for the genre (eg. In a thriller, show minimum gore instead of details).

[Adeca]

Yeah, I only really like gore when used for comedic purposes (as in, exaggerated, over the top kinda gore). Not a fan of it in the horror genre as well. OP already clarified that they're not really into gore as well, so yup, no walls are going to get painted with infant blood today.
Edit: I do like gore in horror movies if it makes me laugh though.

[rajillustration]

I think you just have to be careful with it--you can't kill a kid for no reason other than shock value. And you can't kill a kid unless you can back that up with some damn beautiful writing and art. Otherwise, you'll end up making a loss.jpg youknow?

Like it'll either make people cry-- which is what you want-- or it'll make your audience roll it's eyes.

[Maps]

I feel you. I’m pretty sure he killed off 4 year old Tad in Cujo too. I’ve heard weird things about the IT novel which I haven’t read. Steven King definitely has to have a certain type of audience. That’s for sure.

[ar-ninetysix]

So.. I'm in a weird spot with this lol

Tl:dr I have an idea where "kids" die, but it's thematic, so maybe that's okay?

I'm working on a series that involves killing yokais. Some yokais take the form of humans, and so, sometimes yokais that look like humans get killed. I have a story in there where the yokais in question had a childish demeanor so.. you can see where this'll go. I have this idea about giving them human forms that look like children. This naive character's first case is one where they're gonna kill demons that look like kids. After they're dead, the corpses morph back into their original forms though so.. ehhhh. The overall theme that kinda comes out of this is a struggle of losing one's innocence, but to an extreme. Maybe it's not too bad if it's included that way????? But what I know, I'm numb to a lot of things lol

Look, kids are innocent for the most part, having them suffer gruesome fates just sucks. Babies.. even more so. I can understand why someone wouldn't like that, however.. It's not like they're immune to dying! Kids aren't the most invincible beings out there! Fact is, there's times and places where kids die. Sometimes it's avoidable, sometimes it isn't. That is the reality of children deaths. That's the reality of death in general!

If death is a part of your series.. include it if you have to, but give it meaning and give it an echoing impact. Even if it's a meaningless death, that has to resonate with somebody in some way. If a death has to be gory... you gotta build up to it. I don't mean that you gotta slowly pan up to the bloody scene.. (well, that helps for the first one, I guess. You don't gotta do that every time though.) Nah, what I mean is, you gotta establish that the world is just.. cruel and unforgiving. It doesn't care what age you are, it'll wreck you up if it wants to. If you gotta kill off a kid first to express that.. that's a cheap way of doing it, but make it work at least lol

[Freemints30]

To me I really don't care. I'm the audience attracted to gore and junk like that. I know there is a sub set of people who dislike that stuff. But works like it, hunger games, promised never land, made in abyss(not complete death but makes you wish they died), puella madoko magica , higurashi, grave of the fire flies and several popular niche works that thou they don't have main stream appeal they have a dedicated audience. saying don't have children die is a very dumb rule. You will get the audience if you appeal to them. A audience who like dark shit have very little options and will thus flock to something that has what they want. Want to show how they die with corpses? do it, just have the writing to back that up(thou I have seen some pretty shitty web comics that killed off kids and adults gorily but are for some reason very popular so I guess appeal triumph over writing).

Really at the end of the day ask who are you trying to appeal to and do it. Do what you want really, there is really no rules on what is and isnt appropriate other than individual preferences(which are subjective anyway).

[joannekwan]

Eh, doesn't bother me.

Like I'd rather not see the death in explicit gory detail, but that goes for any sort of living thing regardless of its age (unless the fucker deserved it (also regardless of age)).

But corpses are all right in my book.

[nauko]

I think...it depends on the person. There are bunch of series I know with immense popularity whose premise start off with children dying ( when they cry, promised Neverland, and kuroshitsuji errs on this side in multiple arcs?)

Um, as long it's not done in a way with no weight or relevance to the story, I think you will be fine...

[CodeMonkeyArts]

I agree with your POV. There are horrible things that happen in real life and if your story is about War, or a horrible monster, plague, zombies, then I feel it would be unrealistic and a disservice to not show horrible things happening to everyone, including children.

To be honest, I admit to have been jaded since I suffered a personal loss previously, so the idea that child death, a very grim part of a reality, is taboo from comics or animation, is very odd. Not only that, but I have watched a ton of movies and shows (Stranger Things, IT), even animated shows where children's lives are in danger or they die (Child of the Fireflies, Evangelion, The Promised Neverland, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, hell Finding Nemo, The Disney Animated Tarzan).

As long as it's not just for shock value (A Serbian Film is a POS for that) and has a point to the plot, or the setting, etc, I don't see the problem. Could it a personal line for the creator? Of course.

However, there shouldn't be a blanket taboo, especially in stories dealing with some serious topics.

[Iris-Grimoire]

One example that I forgot is in the Castlevania anime - you know the one. EVERYONE talked about it and so many people were disturbed by it, but no focus was drawn to it specifically and it was used solely to show how ruthless and indiscriminating the night raids were. The first season was full of shock value, but the one you'd expect to be most obvious was actually so subtle it became scary and unnerving on its own, all to make the stakes higher in a show that's already gory.

[Freemints30]

I dont think shock value is inherently bad. If you want to purposefully shock your audience to show how horrifying something is then shock value is a tool you can use to get that across.

Hellsing Ultimate(my favorite action anime) is pretty much full of shock value. But its premise is Dracula fighting Vampire Nazis. Its supposed to stupidly violent and over top and that what its trying to do and it succeeds. Its not a completely straight faced serious series but it uses shock value to enhance us wanting the vampire nazies dead(they eat babies for crying out loud , turn entire villages including children into ghouls, screw them)

[RiidDisBuk1]

You can't do that even if the comic is mature? Can you at least write about a child dying?

[PaulDevers]

I feel like you should be cool with, while not necessarily showing anything graphic, (and here's their ribcage open with gore and guts) you should be able to cool with something as simple as showing their body in a coffin, or implied at a distance with an artistic flair. I don't think you can, or should for that matter, go the same amount of gore you can go with for adults for children.
I didn't know this was an issue of Tapas, actually!