Finally, Someone is Not Trying to Insult Us

A big issue I have with fiction is when a franchise 'kills off' a character, then goes through the whole 'are they really dead, it seems like they are' for a while, and then finally make a big (Oh so shocking) reveal that the character is not really dead. In comics, just about all your big heroes have been there at one time or another. So many shows have done this, some devoting seasons to the mystery, when all along you already know the character is not going to stay dead.

It is one over played, extremely cliche, story type that has stretched way past being enjoyable or shocking.

I knew that Superman, Spider-Man (regular Marvel, as they did keep the Ultimates Universe Peter Parker dead) and Wolverine would all be back from the dead after the big deal that was made about them dying. I had hoped Marvel was going to keep Captain America dead and make his perfectly done death in the after math of their Civil War event mean something. Nope, he was brought back a few years later.

And in all these cases they play out the big 'mystery' of if they are really dead and go through a whole insulting con job of a story trying to make us wonder and doubt what we already know, which is they are not dead. It is a real insult towards the fans to do that, especially with how often it is done.

It also trivializes the idea of death in fiction.

Either commit to a character's death, or don't play games with your audience.

So when the first trailer for Stranger Things season 4 came out a little bit ago, I was very much pleased to see that they were not going to insult us. One of major characters appeared to have died at the end of season 3, and they gave us a bit of a hint that he wasn't really dead at the very end, without out right saying he was alive.

Well the trailer was all about making it clear the character was not dead. I applaud them for being straight with us about this. It gives me hope that there are going to do this right. We can still get the drama of all the other characters believing him dead, while not being insulted as the story plays out. They don't need to waste time with the over done concept of trying to solve the mystery of if he is dead or not, and can instead focus on a bigger story.

And this works great, because we never saw a body, never got any kind of confirmation that he was dead, it was just his body was not there after an explosion took place. It appeared he died and it makes sense that everyone would assume he was dead, but they never tried to push this idea.

I've seen a few complain that the trailer was a spoiler, by showing he was alive.  I see it as them making it clear from the get go that they are not going to play that sad game. They are not going to insult us.

I love it and am looking all the more forward to season 4 now.

I hope other writers look at this as an example of the correct way to do a 'not really the death' of a character.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Now That Was One Geeky Conversation

My son and I were out doing some Pokemon hunting today.  We got talking about how the Remoraid (A sardine like fish style Pokemon) makes no sense at all to evolve into a Octillery (Basically an octopus like Pokemon). It is the kind of thing that makes it very clear the creators of Pokemon were on drugs while watching Animal Planet when they came up with most of these creatures and their evolutions. We went through most of the Pokemon and made judgement calls as to how much sense the evolutions made. I think less than half of them really looked right. The creators clearly didn't care at all about logic or study nature when they came up with most of them. They have a basic teddy bear somehow turning into a monster grizzly bear with nothing more than them being bears connecting them, as they physically are clearly not the same species. There is a fat flying rabbit/squirrel then somehow becomes a ferret. Seriously, WTF were they on? And of course if you get enough gold fish (Known ...
Read more

Disharmony of the Spheres

My story 'Time of the Bursting' has been published in the anthology 'Disharmony of the Spheres: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/disharmony-of-the-spheres/ It is an anthology of stories that focus on mental illness. This is the most meaningful anthology I have been in. Half the profits from this book will go to the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Organization, a group that battles teen suicide. The following is from the product description. "Mental illness is very common in our society, but it’s also very misunderstood. Many view those with mental illnesses as being weak, but there is a great deal of strength in those that must battle their own minds on a regular basis. Disharmony of the Spheres focuses on characters with mental illnesses that are still able to be successful. They may not completely overcome their illnesses, but they are able to beat them back and succeed."
Read more

And His Time Is About To Come To An End

Twenty-Seven hours until the beginning of the end of the 11th Doctor. Since BBC America started airing Doctor Who we have been getting the new episodes the same night as they air on BBC One back in the UK, instead of waiting months for them.  That means that we get the Christmas Specials on Christmas Day, making it so Christmas Day ends with a nice little gift. This year's the episode is 'The Time of The Doctor' and will be the end for the 11th Doctor. Supposedly we will also get answers to just about all the big questions still out there from the last few years. We'll see how that goes. We will also be introduced to the 12th Doctor, although most likely this will not give us much of an idea of the character.  We'll have to wait till fall next year for the new season to start up to see just what the new Doctor is like. It is going to be a long wait.
Read more