The Handling of Death in a Narrative

phantomrose96:

I was thinking about how death is handled from one show to the next,

how severe one show is willing to be vs. another, what lines they’re not willing to cross. I’ve come up with 10 different tiers, with explanations and examples for each of them, for the degree of severity with which a show may approach death. It’s not a ranking of how dark a show is, or how cruel it is. It’s only a focus on the treatment of death. The ranking comes down to opinion for the most part, so feel free to disagree with my stacking. It’s just kind of a fun list. 

The examples are mostly spoiler-free, (except for what their location on the list implies).

1.    Death does not exist

• Nothing and no one dies. It’s never discussed.
  It doesn’t exist. Everything’s fine and nothing hurts. These shows are probably
  aimed at kids below 8.
• Blues
  Clues: No explanation needed

2.   Death exists as a concept

• The characters are aware that death exists and
  is possible. They can find themselves in mortal peril. Characters may crack
  morbid jokes. Skulls and skeletons may decorate the background of evil lairs.
  However no one ever dies for real. These shows can only “kill” on a loophole: if the
  killed character doesn’t count as real—A.I.s, clones, or alternate timeline
  selves are fair-game. These episodes usually fall under the “Wow wasn’t it fucked up how–?” category
• Gravity
  Falls: No one dies for real, except the paper copy Dippers, may they rest
  in clone peace

3.   Death can be undone

• Fits the Death
  exists as a concept criteria, but sometimes they do let character die for
  real…they’re just brought back after a proper amount of shock and horror. But
  for a period of time, those characters were really truly dead-as-a-doorknob
• Danny
  Phantom: Characters’ lives are threatened, clone Dannys die, and Ultimate Enemy very happily killed off
  Danny’s whole family. (A timeline reset saves them.) The ghosts don’t qualify for further
  on the list since they’re treated the same as living characters

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