Touching Character Deaths (SPOILERRIFFIC!)
 

In a work of fiction where drama is a major component, it is inevitable that a character will die, or the subject of death will be faced. There are, personally, several character deaths in literature and other media that have touched me, and I'd like to see what ones have touched yours.

Because of the nature of this thread, spoilers are a given and, thus, I wouldn't necessarily say spoiler tags are a necessity. However, there is one I will be using a spoilertag for, as I only know about it due to scanlations of the manga series as it hasn't been published that far in America. In cases such as that, I would suggest using spoilers.

Boromir (Lord of the Rings)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star War Episode IV: A New Hope)
General Leo (Final Fantasy VI)
Spoiler Below

There are others, but I'd like to see everyone elses thoughts before I go on.

For me, it was Harry Morant (Breaker Morant) and Hazel (Watership Down).

The death of Aeris from Final Fantasy VII will always be a classic scene. And I agree about General Leo. His death was touching because it was just so dirty and underhanded. The deaths of Grey Fox and Sniper Wolf from Metal Gear Solid are very powerful too.
I think Chrono Trigger had one of the best character deaths, though. Who could ever forget Chrono's heroic defiance of Lavos. And The 1986 Transformers death of Optimus Prime was very touching. Who didn't cry when everyone's favorite transforming big-rig past on?

anyone ever watch "The Perfect Storm"?

holy crap :( true story, too

i thought that aerith's death in ff7 was kinda touching, but i belive that its also kinda overrated (like the rest of the game :) ) other than that, id have to say mufasa from the lion king and uncle ben in spiderman.

I find the death of Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater to be the most powerful scene, and also a turning point in Big Boss' character. In fact, I kinda feel sorry for him to do that to his mentor.

Metal Gear Solid, Sniper Wolf's death. It's one of the saddest scenes in a video game, and I always get choked up seeing it.

Definitally (Don't highlight unless you read Harry Potter 6!)

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Nephlite, in Sailor Moon, Episode #24. Redeemed at the end by Molly's love, Nephlite's death hit me pretty hard. I'd never seen anything like that in a cartoon before, and it lost none of it's power when I viewed it again not too long ago. If anything it was even more moving because I had a greater understanding of what was going on and a greater appreciation of the emotions the characters must have been feeling.

I totally remember that scene, it was an excellent scene for Sailor Moon. One of the most touching moments from the early Moon episodes.

Mufasa's death in "The Lion King" was a pretty hurtful moment for me. There's nothing sadder then seeing someone not understand the concept of death, and then trying to "wake them up" like they were sleeping. Seeing Simba treat death like it was sleeping was a devastatingly painful and hurtful thing for me to see.

In "Shawshank Redemption", Brooks Hadley, the old man who was the book keeper and friend to Andy (Tim Robbins). His death and the music around that scene still pops into my mind. But probably the biggest fictional death that ever really got to me was from Trigun: Spoiler Below That was a beautiful but deeply saddening character death.

I really didn't see it coming and I don't think the series would be as pivotal or amazing as it is without that death scene.

One of the most heart-rending movie deaths, for me, occurs at the end of Jacob's Ladder. I'm putting this in spoiler tags because knowing it in advance could really ruin the movie's twist ending for you:

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Another character death which really mangles my heart-strings is that of Andrea (Guiseppe Sanfelice) from the Son's Room, which isn't much of a spoiler since it occurs early on the film and is the principle factor which sets the story in motion. Witnessing how his death affects his family for such a prolonged period afterward makes it all the more heart-breaking.

Plus, though I don't think it's ever quite made me cry, I always get this sad little feeling inside seeing Maa pass on in Babe.

There are a whole host of character deaths which have moved me in literature, of which I think that Lennie, from Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, is the most obviously poignant, but there have been many others which have stirred me in quite peculiar ways, such as that which occurs at the end of the Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Random terrorist #4 in Die Hard! :P

Seriously I think Darth Vader's death in ROTJ was touching.

anyone seen "The Green Berets"?

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:'(

or how about "The Untouchables"?

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:(

Ooh yes, you can add that one to my list too.

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I'm pretty cold-hearted, but as I played Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations the death of Mia Fey started to get to me (who died in the second caseof THE FIRST game). Mainly because two cases in the third game takes place a year or so before the first game, and you keep thinking about "she's gonna be dead in a year"

I agree with Cassini on nephlite, though. The cries Naru (sorry, she was never Molly over here) makes over his dead corpse is just... heart wrecking. I didn't cry, but as a 9 year old, seeing THAT, it did make a big impact

most touching caharacter death I would say must have been 'laura Palmer'.

It was the water cooler talk for months, "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" and why?

for those of you confused, it was from
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monti :-[

Maes Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist. Made me wish Envy would die a horrible death as comeuppance.

Big ups to the two mentions of General Leo in Final Fantasy 6, arguably the only honorable member of the empire, and the one who inspired Terra.

Nephrite's death in Sailor Moon was also one to remember. Even DiC didn't screw with it.

ETA: Almost forgot Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist, who sacrificed himself to save Al. It was touching when he reflected on his observations of Ed and Al looking after each other, and realizing not all alchemists are bad.

oh yeah gotta add that to my list as well. and dyne from FF7. that was depressing. :(

Dr. Hiluluk's death in One Piece. For super cereal. I haven't seen it in a while but I remember crying through the whole thing, especially when they show his hat sorta flying away. :C How he knew the mushroom was poisoned and sdjfkdsjfksj ; ;


Actually, I cried over almost all the One Piece flashbacks. XD WRY ARE THEY ALL SO SAD 8c

That one reallyhit hard. I think what really made it so powerful was the aftermath like his funeral. I was actually chocked up.

Hughes death in FMA was one of the most touching moments at the series, and gave one of the best scenes of who Roy really was at his funeral. It's a clear, blue day out there, and all of a sudden...

Roy (crying): Oh, look, water...it must be raining...

Another touching death was Alice Elliot's at the end of the game Shadow Hearts. It's especially poignant when you see all she did for the main character.

There were also several touching deaths at the end of the Xenosaga series, including

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So far, it's been Harry Osbourne/New Goblin from Spider-Man 3 for me.

It was quite sad how he died.

When Spoiler Below in The Simpsons Movie.

"Goodbye everybody...!" :'(

Hm...well, as others have mentioned, Mufasa's death in The Lion King really gets me, even though I've seen the movie a million times now. It was just so heart-breakingly sad...poor innocent Simba. ;_;

And in One Piece, though there's plenty of heart-wrenching death scenes in this anime, one that really got to me was Spoiler Below

FamoKrishina is right in that Mufasa's death in TLK was pretty sad. I didn't cry, but it just kinda gets you.

I'm gonna betray my true geek nature here and mention two deaths that kinda hit me. * thumps heart for a beat *

In Star Trek 2: The Warth of Khan, the whole scene between Shatner and Nimoy (no spoiler tags because it's such an old film-- early 80's-- so i guess a lot of people have seen it. If not, sorry for that!) here was so great and well-acted. (Yeah, I know, well-acted and Shatner tend to contradict sometimes, but it's true.)

The other was in Star Trek Nemesis when Spoiler Below . It was so good and... Shakespearian. I got choked up and then I bawled like a baby for fifteen minutes. (Thankfully, I was in my room watchingit on DVD and my parents were downstairs. Me crying like that would have freaked them out.)

See why I call myself a nut job? ;)

Littlefoot's mother's death in The Land Before Time. That scene brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it...

I'm also kindof surprised. When I was little I was sad about Littlefoot's mother's death, but then when I went and watched The Lion King, Mufasa's death didn't upset me as much. It wasn't until I watched the movie THIS YEAR that I realized how heartbreaking that whole scene was...

OH GEEZ. I had actually been spoiled for that on some joke website (made me SO mad...) but that scene still ripped my heart to shreds. Spoiler Below

(I don't really need to put spoiler tags around this because the movie's been out for a couple years.)

Edward Bloom in Big Fish. I mean...okay, it was kinda obvious he was going to die before the movie ended. And even though he was finally happy when he died...okay, I balled my eyes out for the last 20 minutes of the movie the first time I saw it. I'm such a baby :P

*OT* Nathandeeerrr!!! Great to find another Hellsing fan here!!!

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In Hellsing, characters die like flies. :P

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I Fist of the North Star... well, just about everybody, but some highlights (you'll know if you've seen the series)


Rei

Toki

Raoh (even the villain!)

Fuuga and Raiga

Mamiya's family

EIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Falco

Jyuuza

Fudoh

SHU!!!!!


...And a lot of others, actually. Danged depressing show, for all the exploding heads.

Come on people! Who could forget "Old Yeller?":'(

The biggest tragedy of Old Yeller was that he didn't maul that bratty kid first.

8D 8D Oh, that is so bad. 8D 8D

Hey, nice to find another one too.

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Another death that got me was the death of Spoiler Below in No Country for Old Men. I don't know how it happens in the movie, if it does happen in the movie, but it was surprising and heartbreaking when it happens in the book.

For Nathander:

Spoiler Below