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

If it works, of course you can do it. It isn't the most common thing that happens in novels, but I've seen it before, although that was in an anime. However, there should be a good reason for kill...

posted 7y ago by James‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:45:17Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28029
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar James‭ · 2019-12-08T03:45:17Z (almost 5 years ago)
If it works, of course you can do it. It isn't the most common thing that happens in novels, but I've seen it before, although that was in an anime.

However, there should be a good reason for killing the protagonist, and it should do something good for the story. If you kill off your protagonist without explaining what it resolves, then your reader probably won't see the point in the death. They have followed this character through the story and they'll hate to see him/her die at the end, but their pain will ease if you provide insight into why it happened and the good it did for the world.

SPOILERS ALERT

In 'Harry Potter', Harry discovers he is a Horcrux and must die in order to fully defeat Voldemort. Hence, he sacrifices himself, yet is able to return to life to finish what he started. And in the anime I mentioned above, the main character made himself hated, then planned his death to unite the world. Just two examples of killing off the protagonist.

Thanks a lot, Code Geass.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-05-12T10:43:39Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 0