David. His death was a lot less of a plot device. Mind you, Amanda's death was a -good- plot device, and along with the destruction of Vulcan really brought home the fact that this wasn't the Trek we grew up with, but even so.
They were both good... but I'll give the edge to Spock's mom. Though, in both cases, the the reactions to the deaths were more interested than the deaths themselves.
What about Ilia's death? ZAP! Decker grieves: "This is how I define unwarranted!" Hm. This is a hard one for me. When I sat down to see Star Trek, I knew that Vulcan was going to blow up, but I had no idea Amanda Grayson was going to die. I sort of freaked in good geekish fashion. Killing Kirk's dad is one thing, I never knew him - but this is the character played by Jane Wyatt! The one who was so tender and human to Spock in "Journey to Babel"! She is now dead. My God. The only way to bring home to the audience the idea the Vulcan race has been genocided is to kill a human. Poignant, eh? I don't even remember what my original reaction was to David's death. Honestly, I have no idea. It's a fair moment for Kirk but I was never particularly keen on the character - and while I liked Amanda, Winona's take on her admittedly has very little screentime. However, when it comes down to it, one of these scenes has the bereaved literally see their loved fall while he stands there, totally helpless. The other one has the guy basically told about it. I'm going with the more cinematic, may I be damned. Which is...? They're both devices. David's death is there to add drama and tragedy to a film that is all about basically removing the drama and tragedy of the last movie.
The reason I went for these two is the similarity between them: They're both very sudden shocks and losses to one of our main characters, whose reaction is immediate.
Oh. I thought the question was about the deaths themselves, not the ensuing reactions. Though if it was about the reactions, Kirk's falling to the floor of the bridge has to earn some kudos.
David's death hands down. Amanda's death. Who cares? The character in the movie was dull like a redshirt, and in the Prime Universe, where things "really" matter, she's alive and well and her "real" character had great moments there.
Spock's has to come in at or near the top. It was powerfully dramatic, touching, moving...showing us once more just how deep the bond exists between he and James Kirk. Fortunately, it didn't last!! Second would have to for me be Jim's death in Generations-again, not a good thing, and in this case not altered(so far...riiiight)in-canon, but 'It was fun' sums up the joy of making a difference he always had. I may as well add George Kirk-a hero like his son, who in this case went far too soon...but, as the Klingons say, 'He died well'....
David's death sucked. And I don't mean that in a good way. It was boring and a major reason why I really don't like that movie (aside from the sequence where they hijack the Enterprise, which was brilliant and the only standout entertaining part). We spend much of the movie stuck with he and Saavik on the planet, getting to know him better. Then he's just killed off unceremoniously, which kind of makes it feel like all of that time spent with him was a waste of time. However, it is almost almost redeemed by Shatner's great performance of reaction shots following his death. That's the other part of the movie I really like, but I'd prefer if they kept that scene but had it be a reaction to something else. Maybe they should have killed off Saavik. After all, her character was terrible in that movie and she wasn't even needed/used in the next one.
David being murdered by the Klingon in STIII. Still packs a whallop, and happens with no special effects or background music whatsoever. Much more of an emotional impact than watching Winona Ryder's Amanda fall to her death while being beamed. As much as I love the new TREK movie, her demise just doesn't hit me even close to the same way.
Couldn't give a shit about Amanda in XI because she was so badly portrayed. I didn't see it as Amanda dying - I saw it as Winona Ryder dying. Who cares? (Still love IX despite it) David's death was much more hard hitting I found, especially to watch Kirk slump to the floor without dignity and curse at Kruge. This is KIRK - and to see him collapse in this manner is just tragic. He'd only just met his son - the same son who for the first time in his life told Kirk he was 'proud to be his son'. But now he's dead, and all that is gone.
My jaw dropped when they killed Amanda. I could not believe they did that. David? Oh no, the annoying character got stabbed! So sad.
I have no real investment in mirror universe episodes other than as a novelty, so I didn't care much for Amanda's death. Besides, the 'real' Amanda is still alive and well. David's death [whilst I wasn't too keen on the character] was well handled and Kirk's reaction made that entire movie.
David's death and Kirk's reaction. This is exactly how I see "bad-guys" being. It wasn't just a threat to kill one of the prisoners, because they were inconsequential to Kruge; kill one, kill them all, it didn't matter because they didn't matter. Kirk's reaction afterwards was spot on. You felt every emothion that he was feeling.
David's death didn't have an effect on me when I watched it, but then again it was no surprise to me when it happened, since I had watched Star Trek VI about 10 years before hand, so I had plenty of warning I will say that Shatner played the reaction well. I didn't really have an emtional investment in Amanda before the film, since I had never seen the TOS episode with her in it, but it seemed to have more impact when I saw it on the big screen, especially when combined with the destruction of Vulcan. Spock's entire body language for the next few scenes really shows a change, even if he spoke no words of anger or grief in those moments.