I have been very absent this month, but I do have a good reason for that; I've been participating in National Novel Writing Month, known also as NaNoWriMo. It will be over in a couple of days, after which I hope I will have written a story of 50 000 words. Not quite there yet, but I still believe I can do it. I mean, I'm definitely not quitting now, when I only have a bit over 5 000 words to go.
But that is not the point of this post. I wanted to talk about favourite characters, and how it sometimes feels like all of one's faves die. I get Very Attached to my favourites. Like, it's kind of ridiculous sometimes, but I just love them so much. (They are my babies.) When you love a character, like really love them and want to keep them from harm and feed them chocolate, realizing some people may die before the end tends to be very stressful. For example, there is still a hundred pages left in the book, and it is not looking good for the main characters. Or, there is a war going on and people are going to die. And sometimes the death just surprises you, leaps at your fave from nowhere and takes them with it.
(This paragraph has spoilers for Harry Potter.) Sirius Black is my favourite character in Harry Potter. I love him. And the way he died, it just came out of nowhere and left me staring at the book in a bit of a shock. Like, what. How. Why. And then came the Deathly Hallows, after Dumbledore had died, and everyone just knew a lot of people were not going to make it. I was really scared that one of the main trio was going to die, I was afraid Luna Lovegood, my other favourite, was going to die. I read the book in fear, but I knew the deaths were coming, just not who they were. And yeah, it still makes me cry a bit, but at least I've now read the book so many times it isn't as surprising anymore.
(This paragraph has spoilers for the Maze Runner trilogy. I don't mention the events or the characters' names, but still. Spoilers.) My favourite characters survived the first book. Well, I did cry when a character died in the end of book 1, and he was lovely, but not in my top two. Then came book 2, and I was scared one or both of them were going to die. Luckily, they didn't. But then came book 3, and brought with it some events and revelations that made me really scared to continue reading. I was afraid to turn the pages, if it was there that I would see my favourite boys dying. And then it happened. In a way that was horrible and made me cry for a few pages. My ultimate favourite character from this series, dead. I kind of knew it was going to happen, after the things told in the beginning of the book, but it still really shook me. After that I was really fucking scared for my other favourite, who then kindly didn't get himself killed.
And gosh, I love when reading something can give you that kind of feeling, The same with tv and movies. I love it when you are sitting and gripping the book or the edge of you seat with white knuckles, because you really want to see your favourites survive. If it's at all in the genre where it's possible that people are going to die, I want to be afraid for them. I want to be gasping when things are revealed, and cry when someone dies a tragic death. (And here we could argue what or if all deaths are tragic.)
And killing people for the sake of killing people, or not killing anyone ever? If you're fighting a big monster, and suddenly all of you survive, that's not very realistic. That's something I really don't like, authors being afraid to kill people in fear of the fans being upset with them. Dude, just go for it, not everyone can survive if you have like six main characters. If you want your story to be realistic, you have to make some sacrifices. But then again, there is too much. I don't feel like all the people that died in Harry Potter had to die, but on the other hand, it was a war.
So yeah, even if it hurts, sometimes people have to die in order to keep the story realistic. Even if those people are always someone's favourites.
Ps. The Finnish parliament just said YES to marriage equality today. It's not quite legal yet but we're getting there. Fucking finally, now I don't have to move somewhere else out of embarrassment.
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