How to Kill Kids In Media

[RedDeadFred]

I really hate this "new" way of writing where "no one is safe." It's lazy. Writers like G.R.R. Martin and Robert Kirkman do it simply for shock value. It's the literary equivalent of using jump scares to make an otherwise mundane movie scary (I'm looking at you, Paranormal Activity). They don't have the skills (Martin) or otherwise don't care to write well enough to keep it suspenseful (Kirkman) without the constant threat of killing off your favorite character for no reason. It's lazy writing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to killing off main characters. But you shouldn't just waste them for shock value. Andrea's death last season was good. She was "used" and her death meant something to the story. Dale's and Lori's and any number of others were simply wasted and meant nothing.

I would disagree about the big deaths in ASOIAF being simply for shock value. The TV series was more guilty of this with the Red Wedding than the books:

Spoiler

In the books, we clearly see from Cat's view that her son, while having a strong start with lots of support, has slowly made a series of bad decision that show more and more that he is not a good King. His failures result in his and many of his supporters' deaths. These aren't deaths for pure shock value.

As far as the first big death goes:

Spoiler

Ned Stark's death was Martin basically saying that the truly honorable don't win in his world. I guess you could call it shock value in that the trope filled hero character didn't win the day, but I think it's more that Martin is making a statement in that he finds morally grey characters far more interesting. I tend to agree. I liked Ned, but as the series has gone on, he's far from my favourite character.

I agree with you on the Walking Dead deaths though. Lori and Dale were pretty much pointless. Although, I do think Andrea's death was incredibly stupid and pointless too. She basically died because she spent too much time staring at Milton while making "I'm scared" faces instead of getting out of her fucking restraints. Also, I found her character to be extremely annoying for the entire season and it really just seemed like they killed her off because they didn't know what to do with her. This is a big reason for why I found season 3 so underwhelming and didn't bother watching season 4.

OT: Glad they actually had the balls to do this even though I don't watch the show anymore. Sounds like they actually had good reasons for doing it too instead of just "OMG look what we just did."

 

[God'sFist]

I don't watch the show because I couldn't stand the first season of it so I wrote it off. But hearing this it actually sounds like it got better. The reason I can watch kids die in the media is mostly because I don't like children in media, they are usually not very good at being kids if you know what I mean. Real children is a tragedy, fake children in media comedy in my book, because I find their deaths to be amusing. Don't take me the wrong way I do enjoy children when they are written correctly like in the walking dead games by tale tale games but in TV or other games kill em and let me laugh.

It's really not gotten better. Season 2 was the high point. The Walking Dead show always sounds like it's gotten deep and interesting. But the actual acting and plot progression in the show is fucking terrible.

eh, I figured as much. The show just seems to be stagnate so I don't watch it. Plus I never got into the zombie craze either I don't even own a zombie movie, game or book. I probably won't watch any zombie stuff anyway. hurray for indifference to passing fads.

 

[DazZ.]

So if you didn't watch last nights episode of The Walking Dead titled "The Grove". GTFO. NOW. Trust me, I'm going to spoil the shit out of it.

You already did with the title...

I saw this title and just closed the tab and attempted to forget, but then watched the episode knowing half of what happens.
Think about your titles man...

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

So if you didn't watch last nights episode of The Walking Dead titled "The Grove". GTFO. NOW. Trust me, I'm going to spoil the shit out of it.

You already did with the title...

I saw this title and just closed the tab and attempted to forget, but then watched the episode knowing half of what happens.
Think about your titles man...

FUCK!!!

I'm changing the title right now.

 

[ItouKaiji]

I actually found the most recent episode of the Walking Dead to be hilariously inept and poorly written tripe. It is not in any way an example that should be followed on how to kill off kids. Instead it did everything that should be avoided in this situation because I actually was laughing at loud at a few of the scenes because what else could I do when the show is trying so hard to be edgy? That describes this entire episode, trying to be edgy while the writers scramble to get rid of two burdens. The only character this episode that acted in an acceptable manner was Carol and to a slightly lesser degree Tyrese even if a ton of his dialogue was completely forced. However, it was Lizzie that was the worst this episode, she was acting completely random jerked around by horrible writing, rather than any natural character progression or sense of logic for what was going on with her. Instead it seemed like the writers just wanted to get this over and done with as quickly as possible, and it worked because a lot of people see something good in this episode even though I can't see it any more as a cheap attempt to shock and be edgy. And one that fails pretty hard at that because I've seen worse and done better than this.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

I actually found the most recent episode of the Walking Dead to be hilariously inept and poorly written tripe. It is not in any way an example that should be followed on how to kill off kids. Instead it did everything that should be avoided in this situation because I actually was laughing at loud at a few of the scenes because what else could I do when the show is trying so hard to be edgy? That describes this entire episode, trying to be edgy while the writers scramble to get rid of two burdens. The only character this episode that acted in an acceptable manner was Carol and to a slightly lesser degree Tyrese even if a ton of his dialogue was completely forced. However, it was Lizzie that was the worst this episode, she was acting completely random jerked around by horrible writing, rather than any natural character progression or sense of logic for what was going on with her. Instead it seemed like the writers just wanted to get this over and done with as quickly as possible, and it worked because a lot of people see something good in this episode even though I can't see it any more as a cheap attempt to shock and be edgy. And one that fails pretty hard at that because I've seen worse and done better than this.

I disagree with you completely. It felt completely natural, it didn't feel like it was trying to be edgy. Many people have complained about Lizzie's acting and I've never seen eye to eye about it. It didn't feel cheap especially since I KNEW Lizzie was going have to die eventually from her craziness. AND ON TOP OF THAT, I thought her character progression was very well done this season and everything made logical sense to me.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

In the 80s the hero didn't die. It didn't matter what the hell was getting thrown at him he would get through it. This killed any anticipation and what if thinking by the audience. 90s that started to change, but children were still treated as the heroes (untouchable). Oh there were dead kid horror movies galore, the age of scaring the crap out of people with creepy children was definitely popular. But you never really saw a kid get killed and even when one does you rarely even see the body.

Honestly, I don't particularly care for the walking dead. It feels like the worlds longest zombie movie to me. However, one of its strengths is knowing that any one of the characters at any time could get killed. It makes it more real and you become closer to the characters.


On a side note, did they ever figure out how the hell it happened?

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

In the 80s the hero didn't die. It didn't matter what the hell was getting thrown at him he would get through it. This killed any anticipation and what if thinking by the audience. 90s that started to change, but children were still treated as the heroes (untouchable). Oh there were dead kid horror movies galore, the age of scaring the crap out of people with creepy children was definitely popular. But you never really saw a kid get killed and even when one does you rarely even see the body.

Honestly, I don't particularly care for the walking dead. It feels like the worlds longest zombie movie to me. However, one of its strengths is knowing that any one of the characters at any time could get killed. It makes it more real and you become closer to the characters.


On a side note, did they ever figure out how the hell it happened?

How what happened???

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

In the 80s the hero didn't die. It didn't matter what the hell was getting thrown at him he would get through it. This killed any anticipation and what if thinking by the audience. 90s that started to change, but children were still treated as the heroes (untouchable). Oh there were dead kid horror movies galore, the age of scaring the crap out of people with creepy children was definitely popular. But you never really saw a kid get killed and even when one does you rarely even see the body.

Honestly, I don't particularly care for the walking dead. It feels like the worlds longest zombie movie to me. However, one of its strengths is knowing that any one of the characters at any time could get killed. It makes it more real and you become closer to the characters.


On a side note, did they ever figure out how the hell it happened?

How what happened???

How the zombie apocalypse started.