Saddest Fictional Character Deaths

[Jackie.Hikaru]

The most upsetting moment in "A Wizard of Earthsea" is the otak's death.

I forgot about poor little hoeg

 

[sister jenny]

Do not want to spoil things for anyone.
But there is a death in Fourth Wing that crushed me I cried to much I could continue reading for a bit.

Dobby in Harry Potter was very emotional for me too.
And of course Fred Weasley.

Beth in Little Women really affected me, he whole life was so sad and it just broke me.

 

[SimonDoom]

It wasn't exactly a death, but Frodo's departure from the Grey Havens and leaving his friends behind felt something like an ascent to heaven and therefore akin to death. It was a bittersweet, although appropriate and satisfying, end to the story.

I wonder, though, what he would do in Valinor. Bingo with the elves? It sounds dull.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I've never heard of almost all of these.

 

[onehitwanda]

It wasn't exactly a death, but Frodo's departure from the Grey Havens and leaving his friends behind felt something like an ascent to heaven and therefore akin to death. It was a bittersweet, although appropriate and satisfying, end to the story.

"We set out to save the Shire, Sam and it has been saved - but not for me."

... and now we're crying. Thanks, @SimonDoom, you bastard.

 

[Bramblethorn]

"We set out to save the Shire, Sam and it has been saved - but not for me."

... and now we're crying. Thanks, @SimonDoom, you bastard.

Nobody can listen to this and stay sad.

 

[StillStunned]

I forgot about poor little hoeg

Fierce, brave and loyal to the death. He deserved better.

 

[StillStunned]

Nobody can listen to this and stay sad.

And back to sad again:

 

[onehitwanda]

Nobody can listen to this and stay sad.

 

[SimonDoom]

Nobody can listen to this and stay sad.

Well, it might bring you to tears if you had to watch the full 10 hours. But it is amusing.

 

[davion2308]

No spoiler here because if you haven't read Richard Matheson, you probably won't get around to it.

The dog in "I am Legend" absolutely wrecked my poor 14 year old, impressionable heart.

 

[Bramblethorn]

See, "disappointed and angry" isn't "sad"!

 

[PrimalDual]

I was so sad when Spock died in the Wrath of Khan! So distraught, in fact, that I vowed never to watch another entry in the Star Trek canon again! Just not the same without Spock.

 

[AlexIce]

John Coffey in The Green Mile. Absolutely ruined me.

 

[Erozetta]

I forgot how sad Shelley and Eric's deaths were in The Crow.

Just watched it tonight in a local theater and, yeah, cried quite a bit.

 

[Wifetheif]

The schlub loser protagonist of Harlan Ellison's "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes" The guy is a zero but his death is worse than a cosmic joke. The final line, "Some of these games go way back indeed." hits like a sledge hammer and has inspired the endings of some of my own stories. I've largely soured on Ellison but that story -- WOW!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Fuschia, from Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy.

When the first book starts, she's sixteen, the Earl's daughter wearing a scarlet red dress. Over the course of the story, she ages to 33 or 34, haunted and beautiful; and in the end commits suicide by diving into flood waters around Gormenghast castle.

I was sixteen when I first read the novels, Fuschia was probably my first literary crush. Possibly the second, Susan from the Narnia series might have been the first, but when you're twelve, does that count?

 

[StillStunned]

I was sixteen when I first read the novels, Fuschia was probably my first literary crush. Possibly the second, Susan from the Narnia series might have been the first, but when you're twelve, does that count?

Mine was Princess Eilonwy from the Chronicles of Prydain. I can't have been more than 9 or 10. And it counts so much that I married a woman just like her.

 

[HordHolm]

In the 1970s as a kid I recall watching an animated ABC Afterschool Special called Last of the Curlews. It was about an Eskimo Curlew, a bird that is probably extinct. It spends most of the TV show looking for a mate, and he finally finds her, and they're happy, until she is shot by a farmer and killed. At that point, he was the last one. I almost never cry but I cried a little at that.

That film made it across the Atlantic, too. I remember being at my grandmother's, aged about 8, and she insisted I watch that film (I expect so she could get on with her life in peace and quiet). By the end of it I was so angry I wanted to track down that bloody hunter and wrap his gun around his head for him. Repeatedly. I wasn't very happy with my grandmother, either, for making me watch it.

 

[HordHolm]

The fictional death I always hated was Cheyenne in Once Upon a Time in the West.

But there's two deaths in that film that make me mad, instead: Maureen and Timmy McBain. And that really serves its purpose because from then on I just want Frank (Henry Fonda) dead.

 

[darkride]

One for the older Aussies...

Mad Molly Jones from A Country Practice, tv show from the 1980's.

No... Molly!

First they made her adorable and lovable and then the actress decided to leave, and gave her a cancer storyline ending with her viewpoint slowly fading to black whilst watching her husband and young daughter flying a kite, and her husband's distraught screaming out her name. Still brings me to tears! I was 8 at the time.

 

[SimonDoom]

The death of Alfredo, the movie projectionist, in Cinema Paradiso. He doesn't die on screen, and there isn't anything dramatic about his death. But he leaves behind a movie reel for his former protege, Salvatore, who is now grown up and a successful movie director, to watch. The final scene, when Salvatore watches the reel, is one of the best, most perfect, and most moving final film scenes I've ever seen. Plus, the score is by Ennio Morricone.

 

[SimonDoom]

The deaths of Alice, and then Uncas, in Last of the Mohicans. When Uncas dies, his father, Chinachgook, is the last of his tribe, so he knows the tribe will die with him. The film ends with him saying this about his son:

“Great Spirit, Maker of All Life. A warrior goes to you swift and straight as an arrow shot into the sun. Welcome him and let him take his place at the council fire of my people. He is Uncas, my son. Tell them to be patient and ask death for speed, for they are all there but one, I, Chingachgook, last of the Mohicans.”

 

[SimonDoom]

Gorman and Vasquez, in Aliens. Gorman's one of the less sympathetic characters in that film; he fucks up badly and gets several of his command killed through poor judgement and indecision. But in the end he's no Burke, just an inexperienced commander out of his depth, and when he sees a chance to atone for his mistakes he doesn't hesitate. Also I might have a slight crush on Vasquez.

One of the best dialogue passages in that movie is when Vasquez is doing pullups and Hudson, played by the late, great Bill Paxton, comes over and asks her, "Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" and she replies, "No, have you?"

 

[Wifetheif]

There was an incidental death in James Blish's "Cities In FLight" that always stayed with me. It had been established that because of anti-aging drugs people were essentilly immortal barring accidents or cancer -- cancer could no longer kill but it might make life so painful you would chose euthanasia. Anyway, two beat cops who are best friends investigate an incident and one is shot and killed. It always stuck wit me. Imagine losing a friend after HUNDREDS of years together and realizing you will probably live THOUSANDS of years more without them!