40 Fictional Characters Whose Deaths Were So Devastating, People Can’t Get Over Them
As readers and viewers, we often become deeply invested in the lives of fictional characters. We follow their stories, rooting for their success, and feeling their pain. So it's no surprise that we're sobbing over their death, too.
In a recent Reddit thread, users were asked to share the saddest fictional character death they had experienced, and the responses are like a testament to one of the biggest signs of being human — empathy. So grab a tissue and continue scrolling to relive some powerful emotions.
Also, don't miss the conversation we had on the topic with game writer and published author from Seattle, WA, Pierre Demery. You'll find it in between the entries.
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Ellie from UP gets me everytime
cycloptian_tit replied:
Sometimes I wonder how movies ever took off when the first ones were short with no sound.
Then I remember the time a 10 minute animation with no dialogue absolutely wrecked me. It's a god-damned masterpiece and I hate it.
To better understand this literary device, Pierre Demery suggests looking at it from two angles.
"From a narrative perspective, I would define a sad character death as an event that emotionally alters how the affected characters (usually the protagonist) view and navigate the world in which the narrative takes place in," he told Bored Panda.
"From an audience perspective, a sad character death is exactly what it is: a heart-breaking, tear-jerking, tragic ending for a (usually beloved or fan-favorite) character."
John Coffey in the Green Mile.
There's a passage in the book (around the time Paul and Brutal and Harry take John to see Melinda Moores) when they pass through the room that houses the electric chair and John remarks about Old Sparky and how he can hear voices coming from it, screaming.
colddeaddrummer replied:
After religiously watching the film and reading the book a handful of times, it hurts so much to know John has to ride the lightning in that same chair, despite being a being of pure light and magic. He's one of King's all-time great characters: a simple, unassuming creature of mythical power, tender wisdom, and infinite generosity.
I love that little speech Paul gives about how he doesn't want to stand before God one day and tell him that "I killed one of his greatest miracles", and John gently tells him he's okay with dying because he's so tired of roaming the country all alone, "but most of all I'm tired of people bein' ugly to each other".
The dog in I Am Legend.
We asked Demery how he would answer the post's question himself, and the writer said that, again, two losses come to mind. Executed differently, but both are very poignant.
"One is the death of Mufasa from The Lion King. Those of us who've seen the movie as kids will forever be scarred by it (pun intended)," he recalled. "Mufasa, Simba's father and the king of Pride Rock, is portrayed as a kind, nurturing, strong, and loving figure in his son Simba's life, and only wanted him to feel safe and prepared for when he becomes the new king. Unfortunately, his jealous and sadistic brother Scar pushes Mufasa off a cliff into a stampeding herd of wildebeest, then places the blame on Simba."
"But that's not the end. We have to watch Simba confront his father's body, trying to wake him up. Absolutely devastating to have the protected find the protector in this way."
Fry’s dog Seymour from Futurama.
xfalinex replied:
“I will wait for you, ‘till you’re back beside me.”
rocks back and forth in a pool of tears
The episode was originally going to centre around Fry's mother, but for some reason they decided that would be too sad and went with the dog instead because... that's LESS sad?! What the Sam Hill were they smoking??
"These examples stand out to me because, in the first one, you have the loss of someone who represents a compass or a guiding light taken from a character who needs them but is instead left with an emptiness inside them and no one to give them direction," Demery explained. "The second example shows that you can lose someone and be the person wishing you could have done more for them by being better or different in some way."
The writer believes we empathize with certain characters more than others because "we attach ourselves to them, treat them like mirrors of ourselves, or see qualities of ourselves in them."
"Sometimes these characters remind us of other people in our lives who we have a close connection with. When we see these characters die or they lose someone important to them, our empathy feels real because in some capacity we've experienced it too and it brings up those emotions," he added.
Tadashi Hamada from Big Hero 6. Dude was working on a robot to help others and died in an attempt to help others. What a guy
Sirius Black from Harry Potter. He was my favorite character.
John Skelton, Emeritus Professor at the University of Birmingham, had been working with applied linguistics, and in his paper Death and dying in literature, he said that one of the central tasks of literature is to impose a structure on life and death, giving meaning to both. According to him, literature as a discipline aims just as certainly as science does to understand the world in which we live and to interpret our own role as participants in the human condition.
He too thinks we can approach the topic from two sides. "At one end of the scale is one of the most common types of death in all fiction, the discovery of the body in the 'whodunnit' or murder mystery," Skelton wrote. The other is often called a 'whydunnit', in which the identity of the killer is not as important as his or her motivation.
"Bear in mind here that the greatest of all constraints on the writers of whodunnits is that they cannot describe the motivations of their characters well, or it will be at once clear who is the killer," Skelton pointed out. "The complete blandness of Agatha Christie's characters is necessary, in this respect, to fulfill the genre's requirements – or at least it is a happy accident. Contrast this with Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which is, among other things, a whodunnit. Famously, Dickens died before revealing the identity of the killer, but it can be determined with near certainty from the imagery and symbolism with which Dickens surrounds him throughout the book."
Brooks, Shawshank Redemption.
It was just so damn sad to see someone so heavily institutionalized. And honestly, I didn’t even realize what was happening in that scene until after he had already carved “Brooks was here” into the beam. It gets me every time. Poor Jake :(
Another Stephen King masterpiece. It was a short story originally, not a novel-length piece, and the movie adaptation was beautiful. James Whitmore was a phenomenal actor. His slightly daffy but truly loving interactions with Jake made us fall in love with Brooks as a character. I love this movie.
Bubba in Forrest Gump.
That whole scene had me wrecked. From Bubba's weak, "I wanna go home," to Forrest's narration saying he died by that river in Vietnam while showing him holding Bubba.....God damn, I'm crying just thinking about it.
I really wanted him to live but happy that Forest gave his family his share.
But why bother going through all of this emotional distress? Well, as Skelton beautifully put it, "literature, if we trust its strength and accept that to become its student is to undertake something always rich and often difficult, is a way of understanding what it is to be human." And I think that applies to other forms of storytelling, too.
So sob away folks, you should come out stronger.
Daisy, John Wick's dog.
bro the RIGHTEOUS ANGER I felt in the theater when this happened. I was FURIOUS. I was right there emotionally with John! Vengeance for Daisy!
Dobby the house elf. I sobbed reading it and watching it.
primeprover replied:
"Such a beautiful place, to be with friends. Dobby is happy to be with his friend, Harry Potter."
Hedwig. Such a small death, but it really helped to show the pointlessness of war
So cliché, but Severus Snape
RIP Alan Rickman. One of my favorite actors ever. From Hans Gruber to the Sherriff of Nottingham to Marvin the Paranoid Android, he brought life to so many characters.
Thomas J. Sennett in My Girl.
“He can’t see without his glasses”
BCouto replied:
I totally forgot about that movie. That was traumatic for a child.
Seeing this as a young child (before I had experienced any real loss of family/friends) really made me realize "oh wow, MY friends could die too!" I was 9. It was rough. But it was such a good, well-made movie that really presented Vada's point of view and her emotions and reactions, that I think it actually helped me accept that sometimes death DOES happen to children, even your friends or family members.
Eddie in Stranger Things
I was sobbing into my emotional support sandwich after that
Boromir! My brother, my captain, my king.
TheLonelySnail replied:
They took the little ones!
I can hear this. Imma go cry in a dark recording studio across the hall.
Tony Stark
lostmymainprof replied:
Tony Stark had the best goddamn character development through the entire phase 1/ infinity war saga, I will die on this hill.
RDJ is the best embodiment of Tony Stark I will EVER see. I grew up reading comic books, so these characters were long beloved by me long before people made actual real movies about them. RDJ was the PERFECT Tony Stark, as he's gone through some of the same "bad boy to actual good human being" stuff that Stark does. I am SO SAD that Pepper and Morgan have to go on without him, and they're FICTIONAL CHARACTERS XD
Fred Weasley.
someone replied:
Tonks and Lupin in the same scene too. Brutal
Lupin hit so hard, he was one of my favorite characters, really everyone in that scene was one of my favorites.
Yondu, gardians of the galaxy
Salami_sub said:
Henry Blake. MAS*H. The scene in the operating room. The actors weren’t told about it, just called back for one last scene shoot and Radar walks in and tells them. The silence is amplified by the sounds of instruments still working. Haunting
GaussfaceKilla added:
Piggy backing off this, the guy they tried to keep alive so his kids wouldn't remember Christmas as the day their dad died. That one gets me just thinking about it.
I watched M*A*S*H a lot as a little kid because my mom watched it. I remember watching this episode and just breaking down in tears. I didn't understand war, and I didn't understand why the people were fighting in Korea - I didn't even know where Korea WAS - but I was destroyed when Radar told everyone that Blake's plane had been shot down.
Cedric Diggory, not his death per say, but his fathers reaction holding his son screaming “My boy! My boy!” F***s me up every time.
Charlotte.
Drakaena added:
"You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that."
😭😭😭
Glen from the walking dead. Him looking over at Maggie as he was dying, destroyed me.
Wash, pilot of the firefly class serenity. He's a leaf on the wind.
Stoick the Vast
How to train your dragon
Dude literally just reunited with his wife after over 15 years of being gone and spends a total of about 15 minutes with her.
Cause of death: basically took a bullet in the chest to protect his son.
ThePurpleMister replied:
I saw it in theatres and a bunch of kids started to cry. Not like sniffing but out loud wailing. It added to the atmosphere.
Leslie Burke, Bridge to Terabithia
I didn't expect it at all, It said Family/Fantasy and was made by Disney.
I wish I could have liked that movie. And I probably would have if the brazenly dishonest marketing campaign hadn't gotten me so annoyed. I was expecting a Narnia like fantasy adventure, not a serious and sad coming of age story. >:(
Honestly I was really invested in GoT (up to a point) and Hodor's whole story and death were so depressing. Just one of those characters that deserved so much better
Spock, in “Wrath of Khan”.
MadMacs77 replied:
"'I have been, and always shall be, your friend'.”
bozoconnors replied:
Arguably, Shatner's finest moment imo. That tremoring 'no...' after he sinks down. F**king devastates me. Every time. Start tearing up again on "Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human."
I cried at this, and I cried when I learned that Leonard Nimoy died. What a masterful actor.
Little-foot’s mother’s death
isurfnude4foods replied:
My son fell in love with this movie when he was 3 or 4, and every time that part would come on I would have to leave the room because no matter what age I am, I will always get emotional. Something about the music and the overall vibe that really just punches me in the gut.
fiofo replied:
The music plus the quote "Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely". It's so beautiful and tragic.
I remember when I was about six years old and asked if we could rent The Land Before Time on VHS again my mother said "but why? That movie always makes you cry!". But dammit I loved it anyway, and didn't mind that it made me cry. It was the start of a lifelong appreciation for sad stories. In fact now I'm an author I sometimes have to be talked out of making my own stories just a bit *too* tragic and depressing.
The Iron Giant will ALWAYS have me ugly crying when he goes up to stop the missle
Wolverine in Logan, that was such a great ending to his story but damn if it wasn't sad
I've read X-Men comics since I was a little girl in the early 90s. Wolvie has always been one of my favorites (I named one of my pet lizards after him in childhood.) It was rough to watch him die, especially since Hugh Jackman is about as close to the 90s comic-book Wolverine as a living human can get!
Saving Private Ryan has two of the saddest, most brutally gut wrenching deaths I’ve ever seen on screen in Wade and Mellish. Wade trying to talk the guys through his injury that goes from panic and terror to acceptance of his own death as he cries out for his mother and says “I want to go home”? Jesus Christ. Mellish is brutal for all the more uncomfortable and raw reasons you’d imagine. War is horrific. Young men are sent off to die and their lives are cut short for no reason. It’s tragic and heartbreaking and this is one of the only movies to really nail that feeling
The dogs in Where the Red Fern Grows
such_sweet_nothing replied:
Came here to say this. This book destroyed me in grade five but also really demonstrated grief in such a profound way.
snarky_spice replied:
Teacher read it to the class in fourth grade. Everyone sitting on the floor crying together, including the teacher, is a core memory for me.
Old Dan and Little Ann. Let me tell you than I will be 41 years old in a month, and I read this book when I was 10, and I STILL cry when I think about their deaths.
Uncle Iroh singing to his dead son, dam now that was sad.
Pops from Regular Show
He was the literal embodiment of good and he died saving the universe from and with his brother. He was such an innocent and friendly guy who was kind to everyone he met. I still tear up seeing the finale to this day.
Edit: His last words to Mordecai and Rigby especially hurt.
"I know you're sad, but I promise this is a good ending. Take care of each other. Goodbye."
Note: this post originally had 90 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Also the girl in the red coat from Schindler's lost. Also also the boys from The Boy in The Striped Pajamas. I saw where it was headed while watching it with my grandmother. I said I wanted a banana and to keep it going-- i don't like bananas. I walked upstairs to the kitchen and cried as I ate a banana. Like to my knees crying. The movie had been in the inspirational section, I expected it to have a happy ending so i was fully not prepared for the ending. Also also hooch from Turner and Hooch-- my dad pick for movie rentals when I was like 7-- NO ONE TOLD ME THE DOG WOULD DIE AT THE END!! I was inconsolable and cried myself to sleep. He was taken off of the blockbuster rotation by my mum for like a year.
I also expected a "happy" ending in "Schindler's List" and "The boy ...". I remember a sense if relief when the little girl finds a place to hide, and I thought the German boy would somehow manage to help the Jewish boy to escape. When I realised the kids were dead I just couldn't stop crying. Terrible cruelty for millions people, and there are still people who glorify Nazi ideology!
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Also the girl in the red coat from Schindler's lost. Also also the boys from The Boy in The Striped Pajamas. I saw where it was headed while watching it with my grandmother. I said I wanted a banana and to keep it going-- i don't like bananas. I walked upstairs to the kitchen and cried as I ate a banana. Like to my knees crying. The movie had been in the inspirational section, I expected it to have a happy ending so i was fully not prepared for the ending. Also also hooch from Turner and Hooch-- my dad pick for movie rentals when I was like 7-- NO ONE TOLD ME THE DOG WOULD DIE AT THE END!! I was inconsolable and cried myself to sleep. He was taken off of the blockbuster rotation by my mum for like a year.
I also expected a "happy" ending in "Schindler's List" and "The boy ...". I remember a sense if relief when the little girl finds a place to hide, and I thought the German boy would somehow manage to help the Jewish boy to escape. When I realised the kids were dead I just couldn't stop crying. Terrible cruelty for millions people, and there are still people who glorify Nazi ideology!
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