Would you continue to read a story if your favorite character died? (POLL)

[darthmongoose]

This has only happened twice to me.

Homestuck, my favourite character died, I was upset, but since there was precedent for characters coming back to life and other characters I liked, I kept reading, and my fave came back to life and remained a major character in the rest of the story.
It was a good death because it represented the absolute loss of hope and the sheer depths the character responsible had fallen to, and it was a good resurrection that was a totally badass reversal that the readers really needed at that time and really moved the character's development forward.

Death Note, my favourite character died and stayed dead. I'd have been annoyed if it hadn't been permanent because it would have really robbed it of impact... but the characters who came in as replacements I... didn't really like as much and finishing the rest of the manga was a bit of a chore compared to how much I'd loved earlier parts. It was still good, but... yeah. I thought it was an interesting death and it did move the plot, but I felt like nothing quite ever filled the hole left by that character in terms of interaction with other characters in the story.

It's unusual for me to experience it because it's way more common for my fave to get sidelined than die (because they're often secondary female characters). Ideally I want the death to be treated consistently with how deaths are generally treated in that series and for it to actually do something in the plot.

[joannekwan]

Yeah it depends on the story surrounding the character for me.
If there aren't any other characters remaining that I like, I'll lose interest. But the remaining interest can be held if the plot was good up to that point and continues to lead me to want to see how the story ends.
As in the case of Death Note, I continued reading because I wanted to see Light get his comeuppance. xD

[darkone4587]

I've done it plenty of times, I mean that's what makes Gurren Lagoon a good gut punch the first time watching.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Gurren Lagann is such a good example of it. You love the character, so does everyone else including the cast. When they die, it's not because they took the spotlight, but it's also not a hole in the genuinely fun dynamic and emotions, it's a crater. Everything goes wrong, no one gets along, emotions fall apart over slight things because no one wants to think of how they'll live without that essential piece. And it's such a great moment when the main cast notices that giving up would be spitting on their grave and they have to move on eventually.

[darkone4587]

Those episodes with Simon in a deep depression as he struggles to move on is the definitive example of what a good character death can do in a story.

[beta1042]

I voted it depends.
-If their death means they are 100% gone from the story- Yes I will most likely drop it.
-If they still appear frequently as a ghost/in flashbacks/as a memory/etc and the death was ok, then I'll suffer through it.

Only exceptions are if they die toward the end. I'm still super bitter that Fred died in Harry Potter, and I did rage quit the book for a little while but eventually picked it back up to finish the ending.

[AmysGames]

A lot of my favorite characters are tragic characters and/or villains, sooo I kind of expect them to die a lot of the time. Also, most stories I've read with character death tie that death into the plot pretty heavily, so it's not like they're really "gone."

I guess I'd probably be upset if it felt like a cheap death, but like others have said, at that point there's more issues with the story than just my favorite character being offed.

[DiegoPalacios]

Yeah, the rivalry and the battle of wits between that character and the MC was the strongest part of death note.

[Random_Guy]

I mean, people kept watching DBZA after Nappa died, so...

[hushicho]

Not at all. I've wasted too much time with stories where the only character I actually cared about is written out. It's not worth enduring the rest of the less interesting or likeable cast when the one thing I actually liked about a work is gone, especially if they're killed off instead of just being written out. Killing off characters tends to be done poorly, it's clumsy and manipulative nine times out of ten, and you one hundred percent lose a lot of people who otherwise might have continued to read in the hopes that their favorite character would return.

When the thing you love most about a story is removed, if there isn't something you love as much, you honestly aren't going to have as much of an investment in the story. We read these things for fun, not out of obligation.

And if, as mentioned by a previous poster, the author just waits until the last minute to kill off a character in a way that wasn't planned or skillfully handled, and which adds nothing to the story, you run the very likely chance of putting that person off your writing forever.

It's just not worth it.

[redfrombluelife]

Kenny from south park is a fan fav. And he keeps getting killed