The decision is never easy. There are many variables an author should consider before killing their story’s hero. Sadly, everything must come to an end. And ending the hero’s journey is no different. Read more to make the choice to kill your hero not as detrimental to your overall story and to maintain the reader’s attention afterward.
Ultimately, it comes down to timing (When). Are you planning to have a close family member or the villain kill the hero? (Who) Will there be a specific way the hero meets his end? (How) But the most important choice of all is the reason you have decided to kill the hero (Why).
Why Kill The Hero?
The simple answer is because everything, eventually, must come to an end. All life dies. Nothing lasts forever. Sad but true. And your heroic protagonist will meet his or her fate sooner or later. But there are reasons a writer must consider before writing that character out of existence.
The Arc has Ended
All main characters have arcs. They change by the end of the story. From good to bad. From bad to good. There are exceptions to this rule, but not many. When you reach that end, you have to make a choice: will you end the hero’s character at their changed arc? Or will you develop another arc for them to take? If the latter question is more likely, then the second character arc better be interesting and have lingering results from the first arc.
Better Characters to Explore
Perhaps you have decided that for the next story, you would enjoy writing about a new character you invented or begin telling the story of a character from the first story. Maybe you plan to write a series of stories and you are just tired of exploring that hero any further. There isn’t anything new to learn about that hero. There is nothing wrong with exploring a new hero. But is it worth it? Will your readers like your new hero?
Who Should Kill the Hero?
Villain
The obvious choice is to have the villain kill off the hero. Villains are the main antagonist to the hero’s journey, so why not? It seems logical. It’s safe and it is expected.
The problem is that it is too expected. The audience will not be entertained if the villain kills the main character. They might be surprised the hero died, but not from the villain’s hand.
Someone Close
In my opinion, this is the better option because there is more depth to it. By having someone the hero knows kill the protagonist, it makes it more personal. Why would they do that? There is a rich layer of backstory and character depth that is just waiting for the writer to explore why they would kill the hero. How could a best friend murder the protagonist? Why would the brother want to hurt his sibling? These are all great possibilities to explore as a subplot that could explode later on when the hero meets his end.
When Should the Hero Die?
During a Sequel
If the main character gets through the first story, he or she might meet his end in the next story. Writers like to keep the audience interested. So, they kill the hero during the next story. It is expected that the main character will live because they are the main character, right? Sometimes, the writer goes against this trope and ends the hero in the sequel.
This is good and bad. I am not against the writer killing off the hero in the sequel as long as it makes sense to the progression of the story and the other characters. If it doesn’t, then don’t do it. Really think it through if you want your sequel to be successful. Readers have already engaged with the hero for a long amount of time. When the hero dies, it will bring them to a moment where they will decide to keep reading or even read the next story.
End of First Story
If you really want to pack a powerful punch, then kill off the hero at the end of the first story. This will jolt the audience and completely shake up what they expected. Heros don’t usually die at all. And especially at the end of the first story.
I think back to Game of Thrones season 1 and how Ned Stark met his end. Personally, I never saw that coming. He was the star of the show. I expected someone to save him or he would break free. But that didn’t happen. And it worked well. It made that first season incredible. It worked because the writers already knew that Stark was going to die at the end. Therefore, they set up everyone else at the same time.
How Should the Hero Die?
Nature
This way just comes off so lame to me. Whenever there is an avalanche or a storm or some type of action done to a character it represents a form of Deus Ex Machina. (You can check out my video on that topic right here)
Unless you have built up nature in direct opposition with the hero, then it won’t make sense for nature to kill the main character. It just won’t. It comes off as lazy writing. Big time. Any writer can suddenly make nature kill the character. There is no skill in that. There is no character development because it’s a force of nature.
Weapon
This is good because you can make the weapon that kills the hero special. Maybe it an object that means something to the main character. Maybe it is a family heirloom and the jealous sister wants it.
Whatever it is—knife, gun, etc.—make it special to the protagonist. That way when it kills them it will mean something subtextually.
Suicide
This also seems like a copout, but not as bad as nature.
If the hero must commit suicide to save the world or other characters, then it will matter.
But if the hero kills himself for no reason, then that is just bad storytelling on the writer’s part. Don’t do that.
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