What's the saddest you've gotten over a fictional character dying? (warning: spoiler city)

[Celestial Healer]

Perhaps Game of Thrones hasn’t warranted much mention because you expect everyone to die, but...

Spoiler:

Hodor. Man was that a punch to the gut.

Also seconding Mufasa and Littlefoot’s mom. There’s something especially horrible about the death of a character witnessed through the eyes of a scared child.

[Guy Humual]

The first time I remember being sad for a characters death was with the first book I ever picked and read for pleasure, that was The Hobbit, and Thorin Oakenshield one of the main characters of the book dies, and it was sad and shocking as it was my first foray into fantasy fiction and I thought everyone would live happily ever after. I was in grade six.

One of the more recent deaths was in an Anime called "Made in Abyss", the show started out deceptively cute but got dark really fast. I'd highly recommend it by the way. Poor Mitty.

[Vidmaster7]

Did anyone mention Grave of the fire flys yet. Its not so much that I was attached to the characters but the story made me want to curl into a ball and bawl.

There was also this old movie I only barely remember but it was the first time I cried about a movie. It was about this kid who was kidnapped and he basically him and the kid ended up having a father son relationship since the kid didn't have a dad. At the end of it the kidnapper was shot by the police. (and that kids is when I learned you can't trust the po po.) I think I was like 7.

[Orthos]

I just finished Brandon Sanderson's newest book, Skyward.

Spoiler:

SO MANY DEAD CHILDREN. Okay not that many but still.

RIP Morningtide, Bim, Hurl, and all other pilots lost to the Krell.

[Vidmaster7]

Orthos wrote:

I just finished Brandon Sanderson's newest book, Skyward.

** spoiler omitted **

I'm gonna skip your spoiler but that is the next book on my list soon as I'm done with lord of chaos I'm gonna take a brief break from lord of chaos and skyward it up.

[Scintillae]

Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Spoiler:

Poor Mrs. Richardson...

Also, I didn't cry when Ben died. That waited for when his ghost finally said goodbye to Ginger and crossed over

[Orthos]

Vidmaster7 wrote:

Orthos wrote:

I just finished Brandon Sanderson's newest book, Skyward.

** spoiler omitted **

I'm gonna skip your spoiler but that is the next book on my list soon as I'm done with lord of chaos I'm gonna take a brief break from lord of chaos and skyward it up.

It's Sanderson, so it comes highly recommended. *thumbs up*

[Freehold DM]

Orthos wrote:

Vidmaster7 wrote:

Orthos wrote:

I just finished Brandon Sanderson's newest book, Skyward.

** spoiler omitted **

I'm gonna skip your spoiler but that is the next book on my list soon as I'm done with lord of chaos I'm gonna take a brief break from lord of chaos and skyward it up.

It's Sanderson, so it comes highly recommended. *thumbs up*

I met him. My friend got his autograph.

He looks so much like a mutual friend, it IS NOT FUNNY.

[John Napier 698]

Major Hughes from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

[Orthos]

Freehold DM wrote:

Orthos wrote:

Vidmaster7 wrote:

Orthos wrote:

I just finished Brandon Sanderson's newest book, Skyward.

** spoiler omitted **

I'm gonna skip your spoiler but that is the next book on my list soon as I'm done with lord of chaos I'm gonna take a brief break from lord of chaos and skyward it up.

It's Sanderson, so it comes highly recommended. *thumbs up*

I met him. My friend got his autograph.

SO MUCH ENVY.

[Freehold DM]

Orthos wrote:

Freehold DM wrote:

Orthos wrote:

Vidmaster7 wrote:

Orthos wrote:

I just finished Brandon Sanderson's newest book, Skyward.

** spoiler omitted **

I'm gonna skip your spoiler but that is the next book on my list soon as I'm done with lord of chaos I'm gonna take a brief break from lord of chaos and skyward it up.

It's Sanderson, so it comes highly recommended. *thumbs up*

I met him. My friend got his autograph.

SO MUCH ENVY.

if I had known, I would have gotten you his autograph.

I may see him again. If I do, you're good.

[Vidmaster7]

John Napier 698 wrote:

Major Hughes from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

I felt like the regular full metal was even more heart wrenching then brotherhood's, and then of course there is tucker.... That episode is how I knew this anime meant business.

[Sissyl]

Ok. Gonna have to start with one you guys missed.

Spoiler:

Aeris. She was kind, brave and did all she could to move on despite a horrible history of loss. The good people she had found had died, and still she tried to make people feel better by whatever means she could. She took the time to grow flowers, because she wanted to inspire people.

And then she died. Just like that. And even worse: There were hints that she could be resurrected, but no matter what, it never happened. For some reason, the cheapness of death and using phoenix downs made it all the worse when someone actually died.

[TriOmegaZero]

I don't get sad over that. I get mad. To this day, it still pisses me off.

[Vidmaster7]

I was warned not to focus on leveling her up...

[Cole Deschain]

Sissyl wrote:

Ok. Gonna have to start with one you guys missed.

** spoiler omitted **

See... FF7 fell so completely flat for me that I honestly felt nothing when anything happened to anyone in that story.

Even that death felt like clumsy wrestling booking...

"Here, THIS will make the baddie hateworthy!"

[Vidmaster7]

I thought the part that cemented him for me was when you got to play with him on your team and he ROLFSTOMPED everything that got in his way. That and the burning village scene. (You know the one) oh and trippy theme song too.

[Yuugasa]

FF7 was so badly translated to English that its complicated story was reduced to all but the broadstrokes but Aeris' death hit me hard not because I was invested in her from a character stand point but because I was the first of my friends to play it and I had invested in getting her limit breaks and making her my primary magic party member.

She dies and soon I realize she is really gone....DAMN YOU SEPHIROTH!

[Charles Evans 25]

Saddest?
Well, the titular character of The Little Match Girl, at least when I was younger. (I'm not sure who/what/if anything in more recent years.)
Darn you Hans Christian Andersen.

[Sad TOZ]

TriOmegaZero wrote:

I don't get sad over that. I get mad. To this day, it still pisses me off.

General Leo, on the other hand...

[Guy Humual]

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Saddest?

Well, the titular character of The Little Match Girl, at least when I was younger. (I'm not sure who/what/if anything in more recent years.)
Darn you Hans Christian Andersen.

That was a really sad one. Now that I'm older I'd perhaps find it a touch melodramatic, every aspect of the poor little girl's life is pathetic (in the sense that it arouses pity), and we're supposed to feel comforted that she's gone to heaven, that she's given peace by the visions she has as she freezes to death, but Hans was a master story teller and it is a classic story for a reason.

[Freehold DM]

Aeris made me laugh. And pissed me off. 7 was the death of FF for me, largely because of that kind of nonsense.

[Yqatuba]

May sound weird but when I was a kid (about 10) and watched The Last Crusade I was really sad when

Spoiler:

Elsa

died since even though she was a villain she was starting to become a good guy it seemed, and probably would have if she had lived long enough.

[quibblemuch]

I just watched this again, and I can confirm it still gets me.

Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister.

[Orthos]

Cole Deschain wrote:

Sissyl wrote:

Ok. Gonna have to start with one you guys missed.

** spoiler omitted **

See... FF7 fell so completely flat for me that I honestly felt nothing when anything happened to anyone in that story.

Even that death felt like clumsy wrestling booking...

"Here, THIS will make the baddie hateworthy!"

I've never managed to play 7 long enough to get out of Midgar. I usually lose interest before then, then have to start the game over a year or so later because I forgot what happened.

The internet has long since spoiled that particular plot twist anyway so I imagine if I ever managed to get that far in the game my emotional reaction would be fairly minimal.

[Fumarole]

Flint Fireforge from the Dragonlance Chronicles series. Dragonlance was the first fantasy world I got into after Tolkien and Flint was my favorite character. It was an unusual death too: how often does a fantasy character die from a heart attack?

RIP little buddy.

[Set]

DeathQuaker wrote:

Anya in particular pissed me off because it was just so gratuitous... an off screen death that happened just to say somebody died.

Yeah. It made no sense that she'd be shown killing an 'ubervamp' with a single swing, and then get practically cut in half by a bringer, who aren't even superhuman, just being blind crazy people with knives. (Then again, that whole season was full of contradictions, the writers were apparently no longer talking to each other...)

Anya was one of my favorite Buffy characters, various issues with her (and Spike) muddling the entire theme of the show (since they were basically evil, but only temporarily unable to do evil, not in any way 'redeemed' or repentant) aside, and I'm glad that if they did feel the need to pointlessly kill her off, they at least waited until the very last episode of the series.

I really liked Illyria, so that was an interesting development, and at least the actress got to keep on working like nothing happened, even if the character of Fred was no more. :)

[DeathQuaker]

I felt like Anya had something of a redemption arc (I vaguely recall a plot where she tried to become a vengeance demon again and couldn't hack it), but she was still very gray in a very interesting way, and had some really good moments in that season in particular.

Fred made me really SAD which was answering the question, but I agree what they did with Illyria was fascinating. And in the comics, which are declared to be canon, Fred's consciousness eventually returned sharing her body with Illyria, which is an interesting dynamic. (It's sort of Jekyll/Hyde-ish but more complex in a good way.)

[Capt Mutt]

Vidmaster7 wrote:

There was also this old movie I only barely remember but it was the first time I cried about a movie. It was about this kid who was kidnapped and he basically him and the kid ended up having a father son relationship since the kid didn't have a dad. At the end of it the kidnapper was shot by the police. (and that kids is when I learned you can't trust the po po.) I think I was like 7.

A Perfect World, that's the movie you're thinking of; starred Kevin Costner as the kidnapper/Dad TJ Lowther as the boy and Clint Eastwood as the trigger-happy Sheriff who had a similar role in Butch's life as he did with the boy. Hated that

Spoiler:

Butch died

and truly hated Clint Eastwood for that decision as he was the director of the movie.

[Irontruth]

Wilfred.

[Lord Fyre]

Saddest death?
--- --- ---
I used the knife
I saved a child.
I won a war.
God forgive me.
--- --- ---

[Ash Raven]

I can't just narrow it down to one moment. I have ten tied for the spot of "most sad death in fiction".

* Aerith's death in Final Fantasy VII. That tore me up the first time I played the game and that was back in elementary school. It's much more impactful now. I know that FF7 Remake is going to be depression in HD once the second or third installment comes out.

* Sarah's death from The Last of Us legitimately made me cry. Not just tear up, actually cry.

* Rin's death from Naruto Shippuden. That was rough and it's easy to see how Obito lost it after that.

* Shadya's death in Assassin's Creed Origins. I know she had death flags popping up in every interaction with her, but she was so sweet that I couldn't help but get attched to her. And the way she was killed was particularly cruel.

* Laphicet's death in Tales of Bersaria. I was right there with Velvet in feeling a need for revenge.

* Gascoigne's Daughter's death and her sister's subsequent suicide. The daughter tries to escape and gets eaten by the giant mutated boar. After you give her sister the bloody ribbon that the boar drops, she cracks and kills herself. You can tell she cleaned the ribbon because it is now white. Those two little girls didn't deserve any of that.

* Theresa of the Faint Smile's death from Claymore. I don't know why, but that really cut deep when she was killed. What's worse is that I couldn't even fall back on hating her killer since she honestly just cracked and transformed into a bloodthirsty monster.

* Christina Medicci's death in Assassin's Creed 2. The whole thing was a tragedy: a romance cut short by happenstance, several missed chances, and then a cruel end to all of it.

* Midori's suicide in Black Bullet. How can you not feel sad when the loli catgirl full of cheer kills herself because she doesn't want to drag down her companions after being infected?

* Jenny's death in The Darkness game. You not only see Jackie's childhood friend and girlfriend die, but you know that you could have stopped it if The Darkness didn't physically restrain you. Getting revenge on Paulie felt really good after all of that.

[Rysky]

Recent so spoilering, but in Borderlands 3

Spoiler:

Maya's death. She was my main in 2 ;_; This hits even worse since Roland was my main in 1 so now I'm two for two...

[Tender Tendrils]

I generally just get sad in the moment (from empathizing with the other characters affected by the loss) as I don't get too hung up on a fictional character being gone (as I can just rewatch old episodes or reread old books they they aren't really gone).

Spoilers for CWs Legends of Tomorrow season 3, and the Crisis on Earth X crossover event with the other CW/DC shows:

At the end of the Crisis on Earth X event, the character of Martin Stein (one half of the nuclear hero firestorm) gets mortally wounded. There is a scene in the following episode where Jefferson Jax (the other half of firestorm) has been keeping Martin Stein alive through their psychic link, and Stein has to convince Jefferson to give him a serum which will sever their link, so that Stein can die without dragging Jefferson down with him. This comes in the wake of;

Martin finding out that he now has a daughter (a result of talking to himself in his past and causing himself to be more family orientated) and building up a relationship with her.

A season long plot arc of Martin and Jefferson trying to work out a way to separate from each other so that Martin can retire from the hero thing and be with his daughter, and then Jefferson becoming upset over the idea because he realizes that Stein is the father figure he never had and doesn't want to separate, and trying to accept the idea of being separated.

The scene tore me to pieces because of the long build up and extensive character development of their relationship, and very emotional acting in the scene. The actors showed a lot of emotional vulnerability (it is so rare to see male characters expressing their feelings and being emotional vulnerable with each other, and it really needs to happen more), and because they where genuinely likeable and relatable characters, who had had enough screen time and character development together to actually make the impact of the loss plausible.

It probably also had something to do with the fact I had recently gone through a breakup with the first person I had ever had a romantic relationship with, and hadn't properly cried about how I was feeling yet though.

[Rysky]

*offers hugs*

[captain yesterday]

Old Yeller, for obvious reasons, with obvious results.

It didn't help that a week before my brothers rented it our dog was hit by a car (that sped up to hit her).

My brothers were never ones for empathy.

[captain yesterday]

I was heartbroken when I got to the end of The Phantom Menace and Jar Jar Binks didn't die.

I haven't seen a Star Wars movie since.

[Freehold DM]

captain yesterday wrote:

Old Yeller, for obvious reasons, with obvious results.

It didn't help that a week before my brothers rented it our dog was hit by a car (that sped up to hit her).

My brothers were never ones for empathy.

WHAT THE ACTUAL F%*#

I WOULD TAKE DOWN THAT LICENSE PLATE AND HUNT DOWN THOSE SHEEPF+*+ERS

[Freehold DM]

captain yesterday wrote:

I was heartbroken when I got to the end of The Phantom Menace and Jar Jar Binks didn't die.

I haven't seen a Star Wars movie since.

I cant the character or its defenders seriously.

[captain yesterday]

Freehold DM wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

Old Yeller, for obvious reasons, with obvious results.

It didn't help that a week before my brothers rented it our dog was hit by a car (that sped up to hit her).

My brothers were never ones for empathy.

WHAT THE ACTUAL F!*!

I WOULD TAKE DOWN THAT LICENSE PLATE AND HUNT DOWN THOSE SHEEPF$@@ERS

I did, I even kept watch in the local town for the car, the sheriff didn't do shit, wouldn't even write down the license plate number I gave him.

[captain yesterday]

Freehold DM wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

I was heartbroken when I got to the end of The Phantom Menace and Jar Jar Binks didn't die.

I haven't seen a Star Wars movie since.

I cant the character or its defenders seriously.

Funny enough, we tried to watch this again recently as Tiny T-Rex hasn't seen it and we got five minutes with Jar Jar and Tiny T-Rex gets up and proclaims "Well, I can't watch it if he's going to be in the whole movie!".

[Freehold DM]

captain yesterday wrote:

Freehold DM wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

Old Yeller, for obvious reasons, with obvious results.

It didn't help that a week before my brothers rented it our dog was hit by a car (that sped up to hit her).

My brothers were never ones for empathy.

WHAT THE ACTUAL F!*!

I WOULD TAKE DOWN THAT LICENSE PLATE AND HUNT DOWN THOSE SHEEPF$@@ERS

I did, I even kept watch in the local town for the car, the sheriff didn't do s%$~, wouldn't even write down the license plate number I gave him.

well.

F@+%.

I am enraged at this.

[Cole Deschain]

Two more...

Blade Runner 2049-

Spoiler:

Joi. You see it coming a mile off, when she puts all of herself into the portable, but... ugh.

K, but in his case... it' a good sad? A Spike Spiegel at the end of Cowboy Bebop sad

[Tender Tendrils]

Freehold DM wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

I was heartbroken when I got to the end of The Phantom Menace and Jar Jar Binks didn't die.

I haven't seen a Star Wars movie since.

I cant the character or its defenders seriously.

Honesy, phantom menace isn't even the worst star wars movie, as it doesn't have Hayden Christmas creepily m'ladying Natalie Portman until he breaks her will. Its the worst romance (and dialogue) I have ever seen in a movie and it kind of makes me nauseous.

Phantom menace at least has a great lightsaber fight (and dual of the fates is a fantastic song), so there are at least parts of it that are mildly enjoyable.

[quibblemuch]

captain yesterday wrote:

I was heartbroken when I got to the end of The Phantom Menace and Jar Jar Binks didn't die.

I haven't seen a Star Wars movie since.

That was 20 years ago! Isn't it time to let Qui-Gons be Qui-Gons?

HiYO!

I'll show myself out...

[TOZ]

We could but Qui-Gon is Qui-Gone.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Where to begin? I've been traditionally derided as the "sensitive" one of the gaming group for decades. I think it began with a book-and-record version of Fox and the Hound when I was 8.

Spoiler:

Fast forward 2 years, age 10, to my first love in comic books before all others, Spider Man. My brother showed me a graphic novel that encompassed a couple Gwen Stacy stories. Waterworks.

Of course there was Optimus Prime in '86, but that one's already come up several times.

Spider Man did it to me a few more times though, in comics and in the first Raimi movie. First there was Aunt May, in the clone series, who dies while Peter is with her, holding her hand and reading her Peter Pan "First star on the right..." *May passes* "... and on, til morning"

Next was when Peter and MJ lose their baby girl at birth. Yes, I know this and the Aunt May death have been retconned and turned into alternate timelines and everything, but at the moment reading them it was tough.

Uncle Ben in the movie, trying so desperately to speak to Peter one last time... so many feels!

Peter David did a run in Hulk comics, ending with the death of Betty Ross-Banner. Bruce had done it, found a way to integrate his personalities into Professor Hulk; he FINALLY found a way to have some kind of peace... but why is Betty coughing so badly in the bathroom? By the end of the issue you find that the cancer has spread too quickly, been too aggressive... cancer brought on by exposure to radiation... GAMMA radiation...

Ugh, that hit like a cold kick in the gut. But Peter David gives one last shred of hope. Banner has a way to remove gamma radiation from a body. He re-engineers it uses it; the visible damage seems to be repairing itself but close up on Betty's hand as her EKG shows her heart is slowing... pulse falling... too much damage, too quickly... and as they announce her time of death the limp hand falls open and her wedding ring falls to the floor.

So. Much. Sadness.

But there again the comics reversed themselves and Hulk goes ever on. Still when you're in these moments and you're feeling these things, it's so hard to keep a logical head.

When I was a kid, around 13, my brother turned me on to a series by Robert Lynn Asprin called the Myth series. The main character, Skeeve, befriends a Pervect named Ahhz who agrees to be the kid's mentor in magik even though a spell cursed Ahhz to lose his own powers.

Fast forward a couple of books and Skeeve has been hired in the "cushy" job of court magician to a sleepy little kingdom called Possiltum. A giant mercenary army however is on the way and the job was a setup. Skeeve and his small band of friends do their best to harass the army into turning back but in the ensuing skirmishes Ahhz gets captured... put on display so Skeeve can see... and hanged.

I was a kid. I didn't understand that with a few more chapters in the book left it was likely that such a critical character wasn't being killed off. The feelings came up and I cried; I even still have a tear-stained paperback downstairs in my office.

Years later another little series about a kid-magician, this time with glasses and a scar, would have me bawling all over again. Sirius Black, Professor Dumbledore, Dobby... all tough. Severus Snape though...

J.K., that was just mean.

I'd read much of the series but I listened to Deathly Hollows on CD. To hear the character of Snape given a voice IRL that wasn't Alan Rickman, to hear how Vodemort found him and what he ordered Nagini to do... and then the memories! Are you FREAKING kidding me?!

But then after HEARING it all I had to watch the legend who was Alan Rickman go through it all. "You have... your mother's eyes..." COME ON!

But as I said, I'm the "sensitive" one. Here's a few more, just to illustrate that point:

- Kira, The Dark Crystal

- The end of the movie Glory

- Roy in Blade Runner

- Han Solo

- Tony Stark; "We're going to be ok Tony; you can rest now..."

- Raimi's Doc Ock in Spider Man 2

- Donna Noble (no, she didn't really die, but she can never remember)

- John Coffee from the Green Mile

- Algernon, Flowers for Algernon

And finally...

Sam Winchester, the season 5 Finale of Supernatural. When I was 18 my older brother Matt passed from cancer. He was my absolute best friend in the whole world. The last words he ever heard me say to him before he slipped into unconsciousness for the last time was that I'm here for him... I'm here... I'm here.

Then in the final moments of a fight between 2 fictional brothers in a graveyard, when Dean is just taking it on the chin over and over from his little brother Sam (who was possessed at the time and wasn't in his right mind), at the end all Dean can do is just say it, over and over... "I'm here Sammy... I'm here... I'm here..."

Dangit all! I'm sitting here tearing up as I'm typing this! Why do I even jump into threads like this? I gotta snap out of this if I'm gonna finish my work today.

[John Woodford]

Ellie Fredricksen in _Up_.

[Scavion]

Manchee from Chaos Walking was brutal. Just something about your telepathic dog not really understanding about what's about to happen but still communicating before it actually happens.

I was pretty young when I read Wheel of Time and Thom's fakeout death in Whitebridge concerned me a lot.

I'm a huge sucker for heroic sacrifice so I get misty eyed all the damn time.

[Lord Fyre]

captain yesterday wrote:

Freehold DM wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

I was heartbroken when I got to the end of The Phantom Menace and Jar Jar Binks didn't die.

I haven't seen a Star Wars movie since.

I cant the character or its defenders seriously.

Funny enough, we tried to watch this again recently as Tiny T-Rex hasn't seen it and we got five minutes with Jar Jar and Tiny T-Rex gets up and proclaims "Well, I can't watch it if he's going to be in the whole movie!".

You have already taught him perception and good taste.