gekidasa: (Jabi)
gekidasa ([personal profile] gekidasa) wrote2009-06-12 10:24 am

Character deaths

From [livejournal.com profile] fannish5:

Name 5 character deaths that surprised or shocked you.

This is... actually really interesting, because very often character deaths don't exactly shock me. I mean... specially not when it's a character I like. Once, when talking about Jabi from Garo with [livejournal.com profile] dimmie, she said that she could tell exactly what sort of character she was just from the fact that I liked her... right down to the fact that she'd be killed off. She's right.

Also, I read spoilers. :D;;;

So anyway, deaths that actually SHOCK me are rare.

1. Kusaka, Kamen Rider 555. I mean... I honestly expected him to die. He was not the sort of character that gets to live or to repent and change his ways. But what was very very shocking about Kusaka's death was the way it was done. It was the fact that it was so harsh and cruel and such an utterly hopeless, grim end for the character. There was no redemption in death for Kusaka. There wasn't even a tiny little spark of hope. I expected him to die in Mari's arms and to tell her he did everything to protect her, and that would be his tiny little moment of... well. Not redemption, but his tiny moment of him being not so bad and maybe finding a little bit of peace in Mari's compassion. But instead he turned to dust before she could even find him. Damn. Harsh.

2. Kaidoh, Kamen Rider 555 "Paradise Lost" movie. Kaidoh's death in the movie was shocking to me because it was so sad and horrible. On the one hand, it was a suicide attack on... was that a huge Orphenoc? I forget. Anyway, he attacked never intending to live through it, because he loved Yuka and Yuka had just been killed. But then he got biten in half. And eaten. Damn, Faiz. You really deserve your reputation. D:

3. Trunks, Dragonball Z. How can ANYONE be shocked by a death in DBZ, you say? I may as well say I'm shocked any of the times Phoenix Ikki dies in Saint Seiya, right? :D/ But see, I read spoilers! And somehow I missed any reference to Cell coming back and killing Trunks! And they'd just beaten Cell! And were celebrating their victory! And it was like, the last 30 seconds of the damn episode! And then the fucker came back and and there shots of of all the characters there, and then it was Trunks. DDDDDD:

4. The Duck, Peter and the Wolf. I was like six, okay? Give me a break.

5. Seishirou, X. This is... kind of a special case. It's not shocking in the way the others are, and it's actually like certain other deaths *cough*Hoppers*cough* that don't shock me in that I can see them coming a mile away and that it's so appropriate and fitting for the characters that you're sad but not reallly shocked because, yeah... Anyway, the thing about Seishirou and X is that I got into CLAMP through Cardcaptor Sakura in 2000. And I first read Tokyo Babylon in December of 2000 (Raibow Bridge was in the December 2000 issue of Asuka, if I recall correctly), and then I naturally progressed to X, and I was reading a bit about what the series and the other characters and starting to notice a certain dude in little round John Lennon glasses with a penchant for inappropriate touching (often with pointy sticks!), but obviously the biggest draw for me was the poster couple for dysfunctional, tragic love-hate relationships. And I think like, oh, pretty much every single Tokyo Babylon fan, if I stopped to think about how it would play out, I expected Seishirou to kill Subaru. Because come on. So one night, I was reading through the slashy scenes section of Lipstick Boy (by the way, I loved that site... I mean, as time went on, I actually came to disagree with quite a few of Val's opinions, specially those related to Fuuma, but all of sakurazukamori.net was a labor of love, and Lipstick Boy was my favorite) and I got to Rainbow Bridge, except that it was vague and didn't go into details. And I don't exactly remember what the wording was, but I just kind of stopped and went WAT DDDDDD: and then I went to look for the appropriate Asuka scans. So I knew when I started to read That Chapter that Seishirou was going to die. But I was kind of reeling a little from the revelation even as I did, and CLAMP are evil bitches, but they used to be GOOD at being evil bitches (as opposed to being trolls that fuck with their canon) and just the way it happened was kind of like a perfect symphony, and the very perfection of it just made it even more shocking and terrible (in the DDDD:, not in the sucky way). I mean... who could have seen it coming? We all expected him to kill Subaru. I think we all knew Subaru WANTED Seishirou to kill him. And instead Seishirou dies by Subaru's hand. By his own choice. And destroys Subaru in the process.

And well, there's other character deaths that really affected me, but somehow they weren't shocking, per se.

In Kamen Rider Kabuto:

The Hoppers leap to mind. I knew for a fact that at least one of them would die. I didn't expect BOTH of them to, and I didn't expect it to happen the way it did... but it was such a perfectly fitting end that once it happened you looked back and saw that everything was kind of leading them there... at least, in Kageyama's case. I think Yaguruma didn't necessarilly HAVE to follow him... but I find it beautiful that he did.

Also, Tsurugi was very much a case of Chekov's gun waiting to go off... and that in no way makes it any less emotional.

And in Ryuki... let's just say that what will shock me would be if Super Lawyer Kitaoka is still alive at the end.

And obviously, not death in Saiyuki Gaiden is actually shocking in that... we wouldn't have Sanzo, Gojyo and Hakkai if Konzen, Kenren and Tenpou didn't die. And their deaths were pretty gruesome, but somehow... I mean. I fully expected them to go like that.

And I really don't expect X to ever be finished (and at this point I'm not sure I want CLAMP to go back to it >.>), but if it ever is... while I don't think it's inevitable that Fuuma will die, I know that there is a very very good chance that he will. Really all I'd like is for Fuuma's death to be good, when it comes down to it.

Oh, and since I still have the last episode to go... I'm going to be all sorts of sad and surprised if Hikawa dies in Agito.

[identity profile] ukoku.livejournal.com 2009-06-12 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Here here with Seishirou. That was the beginning of the end, it truly, truly was.

(Stupid X. I just wanted to know if my Tarot Card predictions were right.)

My others would probably be Cowboy Bebop's Spike and Rayearth's Emeraude, but I can't think of another two. I'm tempted to include that long-ago moment in Sailor Moon when she stabs herself with the sword, except that she didn't die.... And maybe Dumbledore if it hadn't been for, you know, the Giant Scandal.
Edited 2009-06-12 16:43 (UTC)
ext_25789: Gay (Dancing) Hoppers (If it hurts)

[identity profile] gekidasa.livejournal.com 2009-06-12 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
(Stupid X. I just wanted to know if my Tarot Card predictions were right.)

Oh my god, the Tarot cards... you know, I had like... this big folder of shit I collected (and I mean physical photocopies and printouts and jotted notes and scribbles, not a folder on my compy), where I was doing all sorts of research, not just on the card themselves and their symbolism but also on the connection to the Kabbalah and shit. I've forgotten a lot of it, but it was a lot of fun. And I always mean to go back to writing my Tarot analysis to stick on my site... but somehow I never do. Not just lack of time, I just end up feeling completely drained after I finish one of those.

Much like I feel any time I start talking about Fuuma.


Spike didn't really shock me, in that 1. I was spoiled, and 2. he's one of those characters where I can see their path through the series and it really feels like they're heading there all along.

ETA: yes, to Dumbledore. Also, I would really like to know if I would have been shocked by Sirius' death. I specifically asked to be told if it was him, so I knew before I even started, and because I knew I could see the path he took and where it led, but it's a case where I'm not sure it would have been that obvious.
Edited 2009-06-12 17:09 (UTC)

[identity profile] trenchkamen.livejournal.com 2009-06-12 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Somehow Seishirou's death didn't shock me. It seemed very CLAMP to do something like that.