- Don’t have them die of old age after a long, fulfilling life. Many people don’t even think of this as sad (note that this can still work if you have enough of the other factors).
- Leave one of their major goals unfinished. The more enthusiastic they are about completing the goal, the sadder.
- Give them strong relationships with other characters.
- Make them fight against whatever is causing their death. Their ultimate loss is sadder if they struggle.
- Kill them in the middle of their character arc.
- Don’t describe their funeral in detail. Maybe it’s just me, but I find that long descriptions of funerals kill the sadness.
That’s enough Satan’s publisher…
>B)
7. If possible, try to kill them off in the middle of the story, so we had time to like them and we will have time to let the loss settle in.
8. Also, place surviving characters in a situation where having the deceased person there would help them get out. You can choose whether you will point this fact out or if you want the audience to make the connection themselves.
9. Make them die by sacrificing themselves to save someone they love from a danger created by the antagonist.
10. Make them die by sacraficing themselves to save somebody they love from a danger created by themselves
How many satans are there on this site and are they all this helpful?
11: Have the villain fake his death along with the victim to leave the savior feel alone and entirely useless. Savior and victim have a deep bond to help it work more.
The villain then recovers. The victim is left to die.
:3 I’m pretty sure I’ve used some of these.
12: The victim had overcome a great challenge just prior to death.
13: The victim has flashbacks of memories not explained prior in the story.