Five more deadly words · 10:09am Nov 15th, 2014
You may have heard the eight deadly words: "I don't care what happens to these people." The idea is that if you're a writer, and someone says this about your book, it means they won't keep reading that book. Inspired by a comic book that implied one of the most likable characters was burning in Hell forever, I'd like to propose five more: "That was the bad ending."
Oh, I don't mean "That was a bad ending," as in "That would have been a bad place to end the story." That happens all the time. I mean "That was the bad ending," as in "Trying to have a good ending in a later chapter would be meaningless." No matter what happens from now on, no ending can be a good ending, or even a bittersweet one. The story has changed irrevocably for the grimdark, and if the author tries to fix that, they'll wind up just ignoring the entire event and pretending they never wrote it.
I can't claim blamelessness, of course--at least one reader noped out of Chitin on the grounds that the deaths permanently darkened it. The most I can say in my defense is that I won't ignore the consequences. Those deaths will matter as late as the final chapter, and the ending will be darker because of it.
I dunno. Maybe I'm just ranting. But I feel like I needed to let off steam after reading that comic book. And I don't think I'll be reading any future volumes, especially given the promised return towards more humorous content.
Out of curiosity, what comic are we referring to?
2596501 It's called Empowered. It ranges between "This is literally the best comic I've ever read" and "I just lost 10 IQ points reading that."
Ah. The loss of Mind****? or part of the Ninjette arc?
2597669 The former, specifically towards the end of volume 8 when she wishes Spooky goodbye. I actually took it pretty well at first, because I was afraid the author was going to kill off Spooky, and I was so relieved he had the sense not to go that route again. Then I actually put together the implications of one of the most pure-hearted characters in the comic (regardless of what she thinks of herself) turning out to be in Hell after all.
I felt that the accidental deaths in Chitin didn't quite make it go over the grimdark threshold. It added a serious tone and made it a little dark, but not grimdark. No if you had plans for Applejack to get ambushed and beaten to death or forever crippled on the other hand...