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What came to my mind immediately is Foreshadowing Foreshadowing is the art of giving "hints" of what is about to happen in order to build tension, and a pretty common literary device. In your e...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46569 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
What came to my mind immediately is ## Foreshadowing Foreshadowing is the art of giving "hints" of what is about to happen in order to build tension, and a pretty common literary device. In your example, there may be multiple moments building up to the eventual death of that character. I'm stretching the definition here, and i'm aware of it. When you show the close bond between two characters, you are not making it in order to foreshadow one dying in the future. You usually do face-value, no literaly device intended. Yet, arguably, the death that happens later is so much more important if the relationship between those characters has been well portrayed before. Under the umbrella term of foreshadowing, [\*](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThisIndexWillBeImportantLater) gives an interesting, more specific definition: ## Rewatch Bonus Rewatch Bonus is a detail or a set of details that grow in significance when the reader already knows the ending[\*](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RewatchBonus). It reminds me of Supergiant's videogames, namely Bastion and Transistor. In those games, tid bits of previously harmless dialogue become _really_ significant when the player knows the ending.