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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46142
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46142
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'd say, make sure her central dilemma is NOT exactly about where her brother is, but about what her brother _does_ for her.

A good analogy would be Dorothy in the movie The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She seeks the Wizard, to get her home, and goes through all sorts of trials and meets her friends, but in the end the Wizard is a bust, a fraud. Not what they expected.

But then the Wizard shows all her friends that all along, they **already had** the character traits they thought they were missing. Then when Dorothy gets left behind by the Wizard, Glinda the Good Witch of the South shows Dorothy she also had what she wanted, all along -- The ability within herself to get home.

In your story, the brother is "The Wizard", your character seeks him because she thinks she needs him. But her personal growth in the journey proves she had all along what she thought only her brother could provide; she can be self-reliant. Her own hero. She doesn't need him after all. And though she may grieve his death, it won't be the disaster she originally thought it would be.

Dorothy sought the Wizard because she thought she needed him to continue her life at home in Kansas with the people she loved. But it was a false goal. Following the Yellow Brick Road was the journey it took to transform her from a child to a hero, to meet and ultimately risk her own life to save her friends, both from the Wicked Witch and from their own flaws. The fraudulent Wizard was her downfall, the moment when all seemed lost, but then she realizes she doesn't **need** the Wizard to save her, she can save **herself**.

It took Glinda to tell her that, but when your character discovers her brother is dead and believes all is lost, you can have some character tell her she already has everything she thought she needed from him; she has proven that on this journey. The climax of the story is not that everything worked out as she planned, but that she realizes her own full potential. She did not need her brother's protection after all. And she can grieve him because she loved him, not because she needed his services.

Original score: 4