Character deaths
- Thread starter safarial
- Start date
Possible spoilers below for people who haven't read all of S.C.E. or Wildfire in particular...
Keiron Duffy was one of my least favorite S.C.E. characters. I usually don't care for the hotshot prick type characters in general, this guy always reminded me of Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four. I never forgave him for his bad treatment of Nog.
Wildfire made me care about his death, rethink my feelings about the character and wish he was still around. Gomez's reaction to it was just amazing. Other than Spock's death, I find it the most powerful death scene in all of Trek.
Still, I'll take Tev over him any day!
(No Tellarite emoticons..arrrgh!)
Keiron Duffy was one of my least favorite S.C.E. characters. I usually don't care for the hotshot prick type characters in general, this guy always reminded me of Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four. I never forgave him for his bad treatment of Nog.
Wildfire made me care about his death, rethink my feelings about the character and wish he was still around. Gomez's reaction to it was just amazing. Other than Spock's death, I find it the most powerful death scene in all of Trek.
Still, I'll take Tev over him any day!
(No Tellarite emoticons..arrrgh!)
^ Thanks for your compliments on Wildfire, destro. Much appreciated.
duffy.
Shar's mother, I think was the worse for me, but I felt pretty bad for Tuvok's son and daughter-in-law.
I felt bad for the changeling the Founders think is the Progenitor, possibly coming to see its children and being killed by Ascendants. Maybe it would have straightened the Founders out.
Also Gerda... and every single Jem'Hadar who has died (with the possible exception of Kitana'klan, but I kinda blame his superiors, at 3-4 I doubt he was high ranking).
Jaza was probably one of the characters I was most disapointed to see die. I really liked him, and I was sad him go after only 4 books. I was also sad to see them kill off Charivretha zh'Thane in the last Destiny book.
All the deaths in Wildfire were given wonderful emotionalism by Mr. Mack, but the one that I was sorry to see go was David McAllan. In part, I'll admit, because I was pitching SCE at the time, and had a story idea that put him in a larger role. But in larger part... this was a guy who, in the early SCEs, was more or less only there for a running gag: he would stand up every time Gold entered to announce "Captain on the bridge," and cause Gold to roll his eyes at the pointless, archaic ritual. But then, in Wildfire, McAllan is the one who demonstrates his true and undeniable respect for the captain by pushing him out of the path of a falling girder and sacrificing his own life for Gold's. And though we never knew much of anything about McAllan up to that point, in that final act, we're made to wish that we had.
Runners-up:
Runners-up:
I was disappointed to see Leybenzon and T'Lana both killed off. Yes, they had been damaged in Before Dishonor and had to be kicked off the ship, but I think it's a shame that, after only one or two appearances before being bungled in one book, they had to be dealt with so finally, without opportunity for redemption.
Actually, I would argue that both achieved a redemption of sorts -- depending on your definition, of course. To me, T'Lana was already redeemed because she had realized how fundamentally illogical and destructive her behavior had become. And in particular, I found myself feeling very sorry for her upon her mental list of regrets -- especially her feeling sorry that she would never be able to tell Worf her real feelings for him.
But she achieved complete redemption with her final sentence. "T'Lana shut her eyes... and accepted what she could not change." The essence of T'Lana's character up until that point was her inability to accept things beyond her purview. That she was finally able to accept a circumstance beyond her control indicates fundamental growth and redemption to me -- especially given that the circumstance beyond her control was her own impending death.
And I would argue that Leybenzon achieved a redemption of sorts, too. In his final moments of life, he finally gained the self-knowledge and insight that he had been lacking in his previous appearances -- his final understanding that his over-eagerness to engage in war and violence, his suicidal desire to die in the name of an imagined just cause, was something that was a fundamentally negative force that would endanger the lives of innocents. I suppose the fact that I consider the simple capacity to gain understanding of your own behavior's negative nature might not be redemption to many -- but I guess I'm just a very forgiving sort.
But she achieved complete redemption with her final sentence. "T'Lana shut her eyes... and accepted what she could not change." The essence of T'Lana's character up until that point was her inability to accept things beyond her purview. That she was finally able to accept a circumstance beyond her control indicates fundamental growth and redemption to me -- especially given that the circumstance beyond her control was her own impending death.
And I would argue that Leybenzon achieved a redemption of sorts, too. In his final moments of life, he finally gained the self-knowledge and insight that he had been lacking in his previous appearances -- his final understanding that his over-eagerness to engage in war and violence, his suicidal desire to die in the name of an imagined just cause, was something that was a fundamentally negative force that would endanger the lives of innocents. I suppose the fact that I consider the simple capacity to gain understanding of your own behavior's negative nature might not be redemption to many -- but I guess I'm just a very forgiving sort.
Lotsa spoilers in this thread, so I'm just going to pop in briefly and say: really, all of them, the only difference being in origin and degree. Origin, in respect that some books themselves manage to make you feel sad for the character(s) who have been, er, 'discontinued' in and of themselves, while others may fail to trigger such sentiment but one can still reflect on the loss of potential and future opportunities in the character being snuffed out. Degrees, because some stories, as said, simply succeed better at making you care about a character's passing, even when the attempt is made. There's no comparing the poignacy of a story like Wildfire with something honest but ultimately less affecting like Love/Hate, let alone something like Before Dishonour that, far from looking for empathy in death, actually seems to delight in it.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
ditto. that one wiped me out.
I think Janeway should have had a better death than she did.
Kieran Duffy > It was a very heroic death for him. But the Sonya scene afterwards was even better written and broke my heart.
Janeway > Her death was too quick for me too but it was nice that she could help Seven in the end. However, I do believe she'll pop up with Q/as Q. :-)
Janeway > Her death was too quick for me too but it was nice that she could help Seven in the end. However, I do believe she'll pop up with Q/as Q. :-)
I was sorry to see McAllan go as well. I also liked the chief engineer's death scene, his name escapes me at the moment.
His, Tuvok's son, and Shar's mom all got to me. Which pretty good because other than Destiny, only two prose character's deaths have gotten to me as much as the ones in Destiny, Dumbledore and
the character Monk
Although in the end it turned out Monk my still be alive
I'll second this. That death hit me harder than any other death in anything I've ever read, except for Amanda Seafort in Challenger's Hope by David Feintuch. That made me put down the book, crying, and I couldn't make myself resume reading it for two weeks.
