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Originally Posted by wufwugy
Here's a way of looking at the "anyone anytime" thing: what would we think if Theon got pneumonia then succumbed on his deathbed in the season finale? I think we'd think that was really goddamn idiotic, and so if we're assuming the show is a great show with great writing, we can assume "anyone anytime" doesn't apply to "any way", which implies that it really can't be "anyone anytime" because they have to die certain ways based in certain character and plot developments
Remember this scene in Adaptation? It's a pretty good argument for characters and stories in fiction being fundamentally special, thus the writers cannot treat them as if they're completely real i.e. anytime anywhere anyone anyhow...
An idea I had for a screenplay was a hopefully well done romance with the kick being that after the boy finally gets the girl, he's out driving to the store or some shit, the happy ending is coming, the audience feels it coming, everything is normal, then WHAM everything goes black and the movie is over. What happened was he got suddenly t-boned by another car and died instantly. Obviously, it would have to be made in such a way that the audience knows that's what happened. So an apropos view of the coming car and sound effects over the ending black screen. But it would be sudden and final. No resolution for the audience whatsoever, because that's what the character himself experienced. Movies love to give audiences resolutions beyond their protagonist's death, but IRL that doesn't happen
That would piss the fuck out of people, and the film would bomb. The screenplay probably wouldn't even get picked up by a studio, despite the fact that it's a pretty brilliant ending. The problem is it's 100% real, and we just can't handle that. Nobody wants to walk away from a movie feeling like shit, no matter how good or real or expressive of the human condition it was.
When you kill off characters, you can't piss off the audience too much. And audiences get mad really easily over that issue. Not just the dumb ones. I mean, I was upset at every major character death in GoT so far, but I got over it. Some people didn't, and if they killed somebody in a way that doesn't fit well for the story at all (like if Tyrion is dead), I'd be really pissed and probably wouldn't forgive them for that transgression
No Country for Old Men.
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