Is it acceptable to kill a child character?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Bongo Mongo, Mar 16, 2009.

  1. Jiggy

    Jiggy New Member

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    Suppose there was a person who had phenominal amounts of chaotic energy inside them, and if they ever learned to use their magic, it would tear the universe asunder. So your main character's a government agent assigneded to find and kill the person before they have a chance to learn to use their powers. Turns out the person they're looking for is a four-year old girl.

    Are you telling me there couldn't be any kind of moral conflict there for the agent?
     
  2. Acglaphotis

    Acglaphotis New Member

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    Not if they're smart. If they were, they should find a third option (explain her about the magic and train her, etc). If a third option isn't available, resort to math: Death of the universe => Death of a 4 year old girl. You see, in both situations, she dies. Why would we have to go down with her?
     
  3. Kas

    Kas New Member

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    I generally dislike MCs who can't do what needs doing. Even on a much smaller scale - 1 vs 100. Their honor annoys me when others suffer for it. I start to think of them as the bad guys, whether that is the author's intention or not... Often in a situation like this, the villain will step up to the plate. It's a good way to make me side with the villain and hope for the hero's demise. A logical mind will look at total results... I think it would be a mistake to assume that the readers will be as illogical as the good guy MC. (although some certainly would be)

    I would kill 1000 little girls if the world was at stake. Sorry if that bothers you... You can execute me after I've saved your life:p.
     
  4. -NM-

    -NM- Active Member

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    Easy to say, not so easy to do though. The characters who choose not to kill are more realistic, as when faced with a choice like that, even if by killing a person they would save many others, it is still a very difficult thing to do. The others wouldn't die by your hand, but this one would.
     
  5. g1ng3rsnap9ed

    g1ng3rsnap9ed New Member

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    I actually really enjoy reading/writing about these characters, and their choices tend to make them all the more sympathetic. Take Roland's character in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. He lets all these characters die for one sacred purpose and I loved him even more for it at the series' end. But that's just me. ;)
     
  6. KP Williams

    KP Williams Active Member

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    Probably. That's one of the worst weaknesses of humanity: we're dominated by emotion rather than logic. Not usually a bad thing for most of us simple folk, but when a situation exploits that weakness, it's not pretty.
     
  7. Acglaphotis

    Acglaphotis New Member

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    I find that hard to relate to. Most people would defend themselves from harm, even resorting to lethal force to do it in a normal situation (mugging, someone trying to kill you, etc). If not only you but everyone you knew and cared about, were in danger and only you could save them, I don't think it'd be a choice that took to long to reach. Hesitate, maybe, but actually failing to do so would be practically killing everyone by your own hand, only worse.
     
  8. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    doctor and jiggy...

    yes, no violence at all...

    i'm not missing out on anything... i didn't say i don't read anything with violence... just that i don't approve of it... and i won't help writers with work that contains any, as those who know me can tell you...

    fyi, 97% of all fiction does NOT have violent content, though 97% of what you read may...
     
  9. Jiggy

    Jiggy New Member

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    It doesn't matter how many lives are at stake if the child lives. The main character may still have to go through with it, but there needs to be some kind of hesitation or remorse. Pity, even. Unless the whole point of your protagonist is that they're the kind of person who has no problem killing children.

    And yes, mammamaia, I did pull that statistic out of my ass. There is A LOT of good fiction that involves physical combat and other such dangers, though. I'd hate to imagine someone missing out on Star Wars or Avatar because of a reason like violence. It's your thing, though, so whatever floats your boat. I prefer an exploding boat myself...
     
  10. Acglaphotis

    Acglaphotis New Member

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    Oh yeah, of course, I'm not arguing that.
     
  11. g1ng3rsnap9ed

    g1ng3rsnap9ed New Member

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    It all depends on the character, if they are a really greedy person and their own life is at stake, I wouldn't doubt for a second that they would kill a child without remorse. But if they were a genuinely good person, then they would definitely hesitate to do the deed, and either may or may not end up doing so.
     
  12. Benska

    Benska New Member

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    Hmm, I don't think I worded that too well... What I meant was:
    killing off a somewhat-close-to-baby-age child = pointless. Children that young are are less than an obstacle, and it's not like they're going to give you away or anything
    Killing off a relatively young child/early teen = not so bad, if done right, and for a very good reason.

    Also, I didn't really mean that I would think you were a sicko. It's an Australian sarcasm thing, I guess.
     
  13. Dr. Doctor

    Dr. Doctor New Member

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    You're being pretty narrow minded there. It's not like killing off child characters in books means that the author would kill children in real life. There should be a purpose to any action done in a novel, and if an infant or very young child died, there would be some symbolic purpose to it - just check out Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane.
     
  14. Benska

    Benska New Member

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    No, no, no. Still not what I was trying to get at. All I was basically trying to say, was that I disapprove of killing babies in novels, in the same way that Mammamaia doesn't approve of violence. Fair enough if I'm reading along, and come across the killing of a baby, I just don't approve of/like it.

    My apologies for not being very clear.
     
  15. Dr. Doctor

    Dr. Doctor New Member

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    Yeah, I just say that putting limits on what you can do in a novel is wrong. Anything goes, if you have a point to make or a really riveting story to tell. You can't censor yourself. My motto has always been, never compromise (or something along those lines), and it rings true here - if you have a story to tell, tell it the way it was meant to be told.
     
  16. hyperknees91

    hyperknees91 New Member

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    Yes it's acceptable.......just not by everybody.

    I would never kill any type of character just to kill them though (others have already expressed enough opinion about this though).

    For me I'm most uncomfortable seeing animals get killed in novels or movies (though that's probably because it's almost ALWAYS just for the sake of killing the animal to make the reader/watcher sad).

    Though if there is fair reason I'm willing to accept anything (try reading berserk or battle royale).

    It's all about the way you execute things. Sure you may exile yourself from some potential readers, but do what's right for your story.
     
  17. -NM-

    -NM- Active Member

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    I don't like animals getting killed either, i get more upset when a dog dies than a child in books/films :O
     
  18. KP Williams

    KP Williams Active Member

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    Same here. But in general, I like animals more than people, so...
     
  19. Acglaphotis

    Acglaphotis New Member

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    You guys are way too empathic to fictional child characters. The only characters I've felt a bit sad about are Lycoris from AI buster and those two kids from Grave of the Fireflies. Most others I've encountered are of so minimal importance that they just get forgotten.
     
  20. Neha

    Neha Beyond Infinity. Contributor

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    Hey, people kill off teenagers...how long ago was the teenager a child?
     
  21. pacmansays

    pacmansays New Member

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    But there's a romanticism about teenagers dying....
     
  22. Neha

    Neha Beyond Infinity. Contributor

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    so's about killing a child..makes people cry(at least weird ones like me) :p
     
  23. Castlesofsand

    Castlesofsand Banned

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    i kill them all the time, they are just characters, people die, age has no bearings
     
  24. Kas

    Kas New Member

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    I agree.. and grave of the fireflies was sad, but it wouldn't have been much of a story if the kids were happy.

    I tend to feel more sympathetic to adult characters, which are often more developed.. (haha..) Child characters are typically secondary, which makes them no more than a lost pawn on the chessboard... if even that.

    And the 'child death' question is a little too simplistic for my taste. Look at A Song of Ice and Fire. There's a little girl MC in that series, about 8-10, who encounters horror after horror.. and becomes a cold killer, forged by circumstance. It would have been merciful to kill her off early, but no.. her story is more interesting when she lives to tell it.. so she lives.. and suffers.

    Fiction is fiction... The immediate goal of any story should be to capture your interest.. and whatever developement is most interesting is the one I want to see happen. That doesn't imply that you be entertained by tragedy - just that you be interested. See the difference?
     
  25. Castlesofsand

    Castlesofsand Banned

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    well killing for the sake of killing never improves a story, tragedy is a flick to the next page if the characters aren`t drawn in properly for the reader to attach themselves to, that goes for adult child or whatever. I agree with Kas that it shouldn`t be used as a filler, it must serve a purpose.
     

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