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Q&A Killing the protagonist - should it be done?

Quite simply, it is impossible to kill off the protagonist before the end of the story. Killing off your main character is absolutely possible, but the protagonist you can not. The story is ultima...

posted 10y ago by the lion vulture‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:45:16Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/15994
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar the lion vulture‭ · 2019-12-08T03:45:16Z (about 5 years ago)
Quite simply, it is impossible to kill off the protagonist before the end of the story.

Killing off your main character is absolutely possible, but the protagonist you can not. The story is ultimately the protagonists struggle. If you kill him at the beginning then the book is flashbacks, you still killed him at the end of the Story. Your only telling the story out of order. I know a lot of people are pointing out George R.R. Martin, i'll argue with you that as an epic fantasy his protagonist is his world as a whole. That's why he can arbitrarily kill off characters. Or

> Bran is the protagonist, and he is present for every scene by his connecting to the trees.

In short, no your protagonist is impossible to kill off before the end of the story. If the story continues then by definition they were not the protagonist just a main/major character. Like killing off Sherlock Holmes without Watson, Watson's the protagonist, Sherlock is the main character.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-01-24T23:02:09Z (almost 10 years ago)
Original score: 0