So...about dead children

[silverraven0]

One of the child in my comic died. I showed the dead face and the body on the coffin.

I'm glad no one is calling me out for it.

[azzy-m]

I've never really thought about this before, but yea, this is a line I probably wouldn't cross either... even if I really dislike children. (all the screaming, and whining, and snot and mucus and saliva... yuck)

I feel like if you do want to kill off a child, you should:

A.) not do it for shock value; the reason why you're killing off a child should be for plot reasons, character development, or both.

B.) Imply it rather than outright showing it.

[Azifri]

Darn, guess I should be prepared to lose some readers in the future I do kill characters in almost all stories that I write including my current comic, but it's because the world they live in is a miserable place and regardless of age, people die. It's never really shown for shock or gore, or at least that's my intention.

[Adeca]

Don't take my advice very seriously, because I'm 100% impervious to taboos and I don't give a fuck about dead kids, explicit sex, gore, cussing, etc... When it comes to storytelling and art, I'd just do whatever makes the most sense and fits the tone and message of my work better. I can't really tell you "go ahead and do it" because a LOT of people will probably refuse to read/follow/subscribe to your work if it contains any ammount of these elements. It will attract other readers as well, but they'll be little and scarced (a niche audience).
I mean, since it's very difficult to please everyone and write a story that's made for all kinds of people, just stick to a target and write for that target. If you want a lot of subs and viewers, do something that even children could read. Full Disney style.

Just enough to show you "yeah, that happened", but not too much where it's "now this is just for shock value"

Well, I understand your point, but if every single character that dies in that story dies horribly, in a very gory and explicit way, then treating the children differently is betraying the spirit and the tone of said work for the sake of avoiding criticism. I worked for a short animated school film in college that had a psychopath little princess dancing around corpses and beheading a guy at the end, cussing included, where several of those corpses were also children (shot, hanged, impaled, you name it). And everyone loved it, the faculty included, precisely because its sheer lack of filter (it was a comedy, btw).
However, I do agree that killing children in a story where that's not normal and in a way that it doesn't fit its tone, only to shock audiences, should be avoided at all costs for several obvious reasons.

[Jenny-Toons]

Well, I understand your point, but if every single character that dies in that story dies horribly, in a very gory and explicit way, then treating the children differently is betraying the spirit and the tone of said work for the sake of avoiding criticism

I mean, we can debate semantics and all that, but I'm just talking about why I personally don't go overboard with gore, with children or not with children. As someone who does more physiological horror anyhow, I find using excessive gore to be kinda...lazy?

At least in terms of horror. And from my experience, I've found that a lot of people who add it or try to have a child die just do it for shock value -- it's just plot in and doesn't really drive the story. Just speaking from experience.

Sure -- everyone died a horrible death. But was there an impact for the reader? Did they actually care in the end and was the story moved because of it? Just comes a point where you need to balance between "wow, anyone can die, the stakes are high" and "wow, everyone can die -- shocker"

[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...