[ SECRET POST #2287 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2287 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 084 secrets from Secret Submission Post #327.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with the person you're responding to--if you need a completely surprising character death for emotional impact, your story just isn't very good. A good writer can make things have emotional impact even with appropriate warning tags on their story. "Angst" is not an appropriate warning for major character death.

There are a lot of powerful stories in which we know that a character is dead at the very beginning--Sunset Boulevard, American Beauty, etc. So saying "no, I need the surprise death for impact," just means you aren't writing at a very high level, sorry.

[dancing_clown]

I do not understand you people who seem to think "I'm not going to tell you someone dies at the end" means "Everything is just hunky-dory, happy-go-lucky, OMG DEATH!!!!"

Just because a death isn't warned for, doesn't mean it's necessarily an out-of-nowhere surprise. And if an author (at least on AO3) has clicked "Chooses not to warn" and then the story seems to be going in a relatively dark direction, then you need to take some responsibility for what you're choosing to read and say "Gee, maybe someone could die, here. Maybe I don't want to read that. Stopping now."

[(Anonymous)]

DA

I totally disagree with you. It is a true that a good writer can still make things have emotional impact even with spoiler tags, but to me it will always be a different emotional impact, especially when the death is the central feature in a story. For example, if I am reading a story with a character that is very ill and they need to go on some sort of quest to potentially be healed and the whole story is about if they will or will not be able to get there in time/get healed etc? Then a spoiler warning can damn well ruin some of my enjoyment of the story.

Also, I don't think the whole 'Angst is not an appropriate warning for major character death' thing is very YMMV. For some people (me amongst them) that is enough of a warning and for other people it isn't. I don't think that is ever going to be a thing that will have a clear cut definition.

[(Anonymous)]

What about The Sixth Sense, where the entire emotional impact comes from NOT knowing about the major character death until the very end? That's a case in which the story wouldn't have been anywhere near as powerful if you'd known the truth the entire time. Having that part revealed at the beginning would've ruined the movie.

[(Anonymous)]

NA

A lot of people are critical of The Sixth Sense for exactly that reason though. Any story with a twist like that should be able to hold up even if you know how it ends, IMO, because if the rest is well-written, it's enriched by seeing the "clues" that were there all along leading to the ending.

[(Anonymous)]

But that's just not true. It should hold up on your own, but no twist endings ever? Your preferences are not everyone's preferences and you're not the ultimate judge of quality.

[(Anonymous)]

I guessed that within a few minutes though, it wasn't as if there were no clues. I think there are much greater films with much more interesting twists, but it didn't ruin the film for me having worked it out.

[(Anonymous)]

I think there's a difference between working something out yourself and having it spoiled.

[(Anonymous)]

That's bullshit, anon. You're probably a very simple consumer then.