Would you bring a character back from death if the other characters could never interact with them?

[Alidar Jarok]

Imagine there is a character you liked in a TV show who was killed off. Imagine that you didn't like the death - either the fact that they died or the way it was handled and wished they hadn't been killed off. Now imagine the writers want your opinion on whether they should reverse that death and bring the character back.

Now here is the catch. When the character becomes alive again, they will still be written out of the show. The way the resurrection would work is the other characters will not be able to interact with the character. In other words, for future story potential, there is no functional difference between the character being alive and the character being dead. To make it more complicated, they also won't get any kind of goodbye scene if they didn't get one first time. The only difference is the other characters will be aware the person isn't dead so they'll no longer be "sad" over the death.

Would you support bringing a character back under these circumstances? I guess what I'm getting at is whether you view the character being alive as its own thing separate and independent of the story you're watching? I put this in TVM because it's theoretically broader than Sci-fi/fantasy, but that's obviously where it's most likely to occur.

 

[Greg Cox]

That's an oddly specific question, but I think I get what you're getting at. Are you asking whether it matters if the character is alive or dead if they're not actually part of the story anymore?

I guess it would depend on how effective and dramatic their death scene is. If the show actually went to trouble of killing them, I don't really see the point in bringing back to life off-screen. But I can certainly imagine a scenario in which it might be preferable to write a character out of the show without killing them, so that we can imagine them living happily ever after somewhere outside the setting of the show . . . even if we never actually see them again.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

^ That's pretty much what I'm getting at. The ability to imagine someone living happily ever after, but it won't affect the plot (you can substitute writing out without killing for resurrecting from death if you want).

 

[borgboy]

If it's written well, yeah. If it's a beloved character I'd like to generally think of them going on with their lives. But it really just depends. If the death is well written and meaningful it might should stick.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Thinking about this thread brought to mind the recent death of an old friend of mine.

We were best friends for about ten years, but that was over twenty years ago. Unfortunately, we'd had a falling out and we hadn't spoken in many years. It's not certain, but entirely possible, that we would never have spoken again, even if we were to have lived at least thirty more years.

From that standpoint, he was out of my life (just as I was out of his). But his death makes that final. Not only is that door between us closed, even if it would have never been used again, but moreover there isn't even a room on the other side to go to.

So, yeah, I feel there is a difference. His death affected me. Even though I missed his funeral, because I was out of the country, I visited his grave.

So, to get back to the OP, I think it does tell a different story when a character dies right away, as opposed to them moving away to live happily ever after somewhere out of sight or otherwise never to be heard from again; possibilities never realized are distinct from impossibilities, which goes to the very heart of the meaning of the term "possibilities."

 

[Taylirious]

Katherine Pierce/Patrova on The Vampire Diaries.

She freaking got sucked into nothingness with no hope to return on a show where most characters never actually die! She got a good-bye but no one knew she was totally gone until the other side was gone...if then!

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Meh, what's the point if it doesn't affect the story?

Personally I hate it when they bring dead characters back because it cheapens death in the universe, the only exceptions being cases where it's very justified in some special way. In 99% of cases dead just needs to be dead, or else character death loses all impact in the first place. You know that no matter who dies if the fans whine enough they'll just magic them back somehow, so you stop caring if characters die in the first place.

If I had to choose one character it'd be Fred from Angel.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Nah. All men must die. We might as well get some drama out of it.

 

[WebLurker]

I'd honestly have to take it on a case-by-case basis. I will say that in general, unless there's a very compelling reason (drama, sake of story, only way to remove the character without raising logic questions), I tend to prefer characters being written out though means other than death. It's nice to be able to think that they're living out the rest of their lives outside the scope of the series.

While it doesn't follow the exact rules of the original scenario, I was very pleased in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series that Peter Parker's death was undone. While he promptly left the comic after the story, it gave more closure and his iteration of the series what was, in my opinion, the only logical end that it could've had.

 

[Admiral2]

Imagine there is a character you liked in a TV show who was killed off. Imagine that you didn't like the death - either the fact that they died or the way it was handled and wished they hadn't been killed off. Now imagine the writers want your opinion on whether they should reverse that death and bring the character back.

Now here is the catch. When the character becomes alive again, they will still be written out of the show. The way the resurrection would work is the other characters will not be able to interact with the character. In other words, for future story potential, there is no functional difference between the character being alive and the character being dead. To make it more complicated, they also won't get any kind of goodbye scene if they didn't get one first time. The only difference is the other characters will be aware the person isn't dead so they'll no longer be "sad" over the death.

Would you support bringing a character back under these circumstances? I guess what I'm getting at is whether you view the character being alive as its own thing separate and independent of the story you're watching? I put this in TVM because it's theoretically broader than Sci-fi/fantasy, but that's obviously where it's most likely to occur.

What the hell would be the point? It's most likely that one of the things you liked about the character was the way they interacted with the rest of the cast. Why waste the money involved bringing the actor or actress back just to be ignored for however much screen time they'd get?