: Re: What makes the death of a character satisfying? My wife and I were watching a movie where one of the main characters died shortly after being reunited with his long lost love. His death was

Most of the time, you are just going to bum the audience out with the death of a character, unless s/he is a complete villain.

A perfect example of this is the recent Spider-Man 2 movie.

I went into that movie knowing the outcome since I read the comic books a long time ago. However, after paying a piece for myself and a couple of other family members the character's death was completely unsatisfying and made you wish you hadn't seen the movie and wasted the money on it.

And, the director knew it too, because after the scene of death (trying not to spoil here) the movie switches to a beginning of Spider-man 3 vignette and it is as if another movie is starting.

It is lame to the Nth degree.
I want my back.

Maybe just have the character who is going to die walk off into the sunset or something instead. Keeep it open. We want stories to help us get through something, but death in a movie or book is mostly just depressing and makes you want to stop watching or reading as soon as it happens.

Update / Edit

I came back to add this part. Usually if you are reading fiction or watching a movie or show you are doing so for entertainment.

Seeing a character die is generally not great entertainment.
The other reason humans tend to watch stories is to learn about -- live vicariously as another character -- other lifes, adventures, etc. So, when a character dies we rebel against it since we tend to think, "Yeah, crap like that happens in real life too and there's nothing you can do about it. Why would I want that in my fiction?"

I don't know.

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: Re: What makes the death of a character satisfying? My wife and I were watching a movie where one of the main characters died shortly after being reunited with his long lost love. His death was

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