Why'd They Die? - Deaths of TV & Movie Characters (Disc. Spider-Man 2)

THIS THREAD CONTAINS SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE TELEVISION SHOWS AND MOVIES IN QUESTION, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.
















Here we'll discuss the various onscreen deaths of characters from TV shows and Movies with how they drove the plot and affected the show and get general feelings on the event.

Our first character death to discuss will be Jonathan Kent from Smallville.

JK's death occurred in the 100th Episode of the series titled "Reckoning". Here Clark is forced to make a choice to save someone he loves. At first Lana dies but uses the Fortress of Solitude to bring her back. As a result, JK's life is taken. The death of a major character was forshadowed for quite sometime going back to the 3rd episode of season 5. When I first watched this episode I was shocked. I really loved JK and how John Schneider played him. As for how this affected the plot, I believe it was neccessary for it to happen in order for Clark to realize the limits of his powers and that he needs to accept his responsibility that comes with his powers for looking after the world.

 

I've never watched "Smallville", but the death of Jonathan Kent signals childhood's end, I would guess.

 

Quite agreed... same function as the deaths of Ben Parker, the Larses and Obi-Wan, the deaths in Harry Potter so far... forces the main character to take responsibilty for their own actions and inaction, and completely step up to the plate without anyone really protecting them.

Frankly, if it weren't for plot, I'd much rather Lana die. She's become incredibly annoying.

 

That episode was one of the best Smallville episodes ever. I was really shocked that Pa Kent was killed off in that season. But yea, it's to show that Clark is maturing.

 

Except that, for all intents and purposes, everything stated about the death was contrived: namely that, in order to fit the movie continiuty of Jonathan being dead in the movie world and Superman Returns coming out that summer, everything needed to align so "people didn't get confused."

There are very, very few character deaths on TV I can think of that aren't a) contrived in that fashion or b) due to contractual issues (see: MacNichol, Peter or Lloyd, Sabrina). Among the non-contrived, the only one I can think of off the top of my head was Rosalyn Shays from L.A. Law (and I still always check elevators before getting in them, thank you very much). Was Linda Hamilton leaving Beauty and the Beast a contract-issue as well? I don't recall, as that'd be another good example...

 

Nooooo!

Can you bloody believe it? I'm just watching this series since last month because I couldn't wait for it to come on my TV channels. I'm only on series three and he's about to ungo open heart surgery. And I see the title for this thread. Well that's just gone and upped the tension hasn't it?

At least I didn't read the comments. Ah well, what can ya do eh?

 

TV charaters die because Jack Bauer kills them, plain and simple

 

I think the original plan was to kill him off sooner, but they liked him so much they kept him around as long as they could.

I agree that if you didn't need that plot point I would much rather have Lana killed off. So much bad stuff has gone on between them that now when they try to show feelings for each other it just doesn't make any sense. To be quite honest they are both psychotic stalkers. I mean the initial basis for their relationship was "peeping-tom" Superman. And you wonder how why developed that x-ray vision and flying ability.

 

Cool idea for a thread - can't comment on Smallville, but I can think of a bunch of other TV/Movie deaths...

 

Beat me to it!!

 

Is having the currently discussing name in the title really a wise choice? Some people may be going through some of these shows on DVD and that is a pretty large spoiler. I haven't gotten that far on Smallville yet and while I'm not upset about it I would have prefered not to see that.

Maybe having the show and no character name would be more courteous to users who are behind on TV?

 

Agreed, rogue_wookiee.

And while the death of Mr. Kent in Smallville was sad, it was to be expected considering he dies in the Superman mythos as well.

 

In the interests of not spoiling people, I have removed the character name from the header...

 

Thank you very much for that Zaz.

 

SPOILER WARNING - WE DISCUSS DEATHS OF CERTAIN CHARACTERS IN TV SHOWS AND MOVIES HERE. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

















The next character death we will discuss is Qui-Gon Jinn from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

When I went into the theaters seeing TPM I really liked Qui-Gon Jinn's character as the movie went on. Then towards the end he gets the business end of Darth Maul's lightsaber. This was one of the few moments in my many journeys to the movie theater where I was in a state of disbelief when I left the theater. I was shocked that a main character like that would be killed off in the 1st movie of the prequels. In the larger picture it was probably necessary though. I thought the music at this scene was great and how it captured Obi-Wan's reaction well. Discuss away!

 

This was a character whose actions were (apparently) originally intended for Obi-Wan. Somewhere along the line, Lucas divided Obi-Wan into Qui Gon and Obi Wan, which explains why Obi Wan seems too old for the character's real age in the OT.

As to why he was killed, I guess it was the division.

 

Qui-Gon had to die so that Obi-Wan could train Anakin. The PT was about, of course, about Anakin, but Obi-Wan also had a story arc. I assume this is why Lucas made him young in TPM. If Obi-Wan had been the Qui-Gon character, there'd be little for him to develop in Episodes 2 and 3. This way, the Anakin-Obi brother dynamic is established as both have the "same father" in Qui-Gon.

 

Pre-determined plot necessitated his death. I don't really think there's anything too esoteric about this one.

 

As far as the story went, it provided a good means for Obi-Wan to step into his own as a Master, and for a good division between him and Anakin, one master to the other. Plus, there was the promise that Obi-Wan made to train Anakin in the first place.

 

I liked the Qui-Gon character and I never thought of this before, but what if he had lived, Obi-wan STILLED trained Anakin with Qui-Gon watching from the side and then Vader kills Qui-Gon (whom Anakin would be shown to love just as much as Obi-wan). Imagine the hurt that Obi-wan would feel in that, the betrayl. Now I think that would have been the icing on the cake!

 

Agreed. In order for Anakin to turn, Qui-gon had to die. Its that simple.

 

I'd like to nom this as the equal of Vader and Yoda's death scenes, myself. Awesome scene.

 

i agree that he was meant to die, but I didn't think it'd have to happen in the first film

 

It does seem a bit abrupt, as if he's played his part and is offed. Also unfortunate, as Liam Neeson gives the best performance in Ep.1