Question Why do you want the MC to die at the end of the novel

I saw this thread and honestly I'm quite curious, why do "you" want the main character to die at the end of the novel ?

 

Because it is a harem, and I'd feel sorry for any of the heroines who would end up with the MC.

I find it interesting that many MCs aren't liked, while harem members are liked and they want that person to end up with the MC. I ask why? If you like that harem member, let the MC die and have that harem member end up with someone who actually deserves them.

 

Oh wow, I didn't see that coming nor I have ever thought it like, that's a very good point.

 

1. to end the story - with no MC, no more story, no more feeling of wanting "MOREEEE", just that's it. MC is dead, so i can close the novel/movie without lingering feeling, you can move on faster (to other book/movie) that way.
2. to felt "self abuse", you know the feeling of catatonic when good book/movie end in the most twisted, usually the MC (that you do pour emotion while read/watch) dead in most unexpected way.

 

there is always the opinion that the girls in harems have it bad, but no one pities the man who has the harem
imo the MC (as long as he is not a complete asshole) often has the disadvantage here (care for, protect, young masters,providing expensive af stuff, and in most cases he doesn't even get anything for it, like, wtf)

while I don't have the preference for stories where the MC dies at the end of the novel, I think it can be a great thing in tragedies or when he fulfilled his life goals

 

As long as fits the theme of the novel idc. But the story would have to be a dark, psychological one to work. The death has to be meaningful otherwise it’s just shit writing that would piss off fans

 

Don't you feel sad if the main character dies at the end? Depending on the style for example if the main character was growing old in the story and we have been foreshadowed that something like that is going to come then yea, I can accept it. I can also accept it when MC goes to other worlds and he dies, but it kinda makes me sad as the characters there will have negative emotions for loosing a loved one.

Yes, if the death has a strong impact then yea, I can totally agree, for example I remember when this one piece theory came out , that each time luffy is using his second-third-fourth(now) gear that he is loosing life span and when he finds the one piece and bla bla bla will die and achieve his and countless others dream.

 

At least for cultivation novels a few of them start with the MC being a no name of a family and has to fight his own clan/family so they now that know personally that there are "redimable" people even in clans that he fights, but most of those stories has the MC destroying the clan completely even if it has students of other sects in there, so I would like to see a novel where the MC dies at the end the same way he killed his own clan at the start of the novel.

 

If MC is getting old and gradually die, it's like a closure of the story itself. Knowing MC is dying build a resistance and acceptance for sadness itself. For me, maybe feel a bit sad, but you know the story is end there, and you move along. As for the other characters besides MC, well, tbh, i don't give any feeling whether they will be sad or not because in my brain i still differentiate this as fiction. The sadness i feel is more toward knowing the story won't continue anymore. Not for the character's own feeling. I find it will pass easier if you read another book.

If MC die because of some heroic/worthy/tragic death, well, just enjoy the catatonic feeling of "emptiness of the world' the author impact on you. This kind of death is like swift cut to the story, you enjoy the story then got cut abruptly. That's why you feel sad, unacceptable, angry and helpless. So far i only find 1 anime with unacceptable somewhat early heroic death.

Sometimes being sad and cry over a book is okay in normal dosage, as long as you not overreacting it. It becomes weird if you forget it's fiction and took that sadness to and affecting real life. If you really cannot move on, there is other option, make a fanfiction and create your own version ending, make your own closure.

 

Well, I like the MC die in Quick transmigration where MC are wearing cannon fodders characters with terrible misunderstandings and tragic lives and follow their tragic story (tragic story caused, sometimes, by the story´s real ML and FL) . But with her/his action change the plot, so when she/he died, they leave a print in other characters. Maybe they leave without regret, but how the others regret but already there is not the person. If there are the scum, it is so satisfacting see them suffer XD (sorry for my english u-u):
Ex. Low IQ Supporting Female, Waiting for Death Online
Even Until Death, the Scum Gong Thought I Was a White Lotus
Heroic Death System
These examples are quick trans so the Fl/ML not dissapear, but every story if have the correct elements are so beautiful.
Yeah love tragic endings but in the last story have HEs.

 

I like it when someone sacrifices their lives in an emotional way and seeing the reaction of all the people that loved them falling into despair and sadness is just so enjoyable

 

I like that kind of ending when the MC has done horrible things along the way, as a natural consequence of his actions. Regardless of whether he was right or wrong. Whether someone manipulated the entire world in order to protect everyone's future, or whether he just gains a special power and abuses it for his own self-satisfaction.

I'm not fond of people who lie, cheat, steal, murder, rape, etc ascending to godhood and living happily ever after with their harem.

 

I am okay with the main character dying if...

• He wasn't really the hero in the first place. We often see anti-heroes die in the end because it's "justice" in a sense. For example, Death Note's main character dies in the end.
• It's been kind of a long, epic saga and the character is old anyways. There's an epilogue that sort of goes like "During MC's rule, the kingdom was very prosperous and all the citizens were happy. When MC died, the whole country mourned."
• It's some sort of dystopian novel. It's quite common for dystopian novels to have a somewhat vague ending where the MC possibly is dead.

 

Well

1- "And they lived happily ever after", "...und sie lebten glücklich und zufrieden bis ans Ende ihrer Tage.", "Cóngcǐ, tāmenguòzhe xìngfú kuàilè de rìzior" , "...et ils vécurent heureux jusqu'à la fin des temps" "...kai zīsane autoi kala kai emeis kalytera" " Medetashi medetashi" "i stali oni zhit' pozhivat', da dobra nazhivat'" is the biggest lie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_upon_a_time
[These are "Common ending" phrases in different languages, all having the same general meaning as English one, from this it's completely acceptable for most readers from around the world to want a happy ending, but the truth is "The end of every human life is one thing -> death. I don't mean life is meaningless or because of death every ending is a tragic one, but well, we all want to be with loved ones till the last moment possible and of course, want for annoying people to "As gelo chesham gom sho", meaning lovely protagonist even if the series goes on for decades, even if you die and the next generation comes we are still here. And trashy protagonist, I'm not mentally retarded enough to fall into an author's pitfall and follow the story just so that I can see your downfall. (Abandons the book, and doesn't even bother to join the abuse in the common section - "The only answer to fools is silence.")

2- Culturally my own culture is one of those whose common ending phrase doesn't have the same meaning as the one above, and of course this shows the difference in mentality [Although in today's global village most of the new generation also grow up watching Disney and other common media, still native cultures aren't dead o they can go hand in hand with the world while also keeping their own identity]

"Be pāyān āmad in daftar,
hekāyat hamčenān bāqist.

This book has come to end,
(but) the story yet remains."

As you can see, as a child we always know that all we've heard is only one page of a book. [Actually, you can interrupt this as a story having different interpretations or having a different meaning for different audiences or even evolving (for different generations the same story will change, for example, the true stories behind Disney fairy tales and the one that this generation think what they are. Meaning the story itself travels from one storyteller to the other and this book to that book, while changing clothes)

"Qesse ye mā be sar resid,
kalāqe be xunaš naresid.

Our tale has come to end,
(but) the crow hasn't arrived at his house."

Again, one crow, forty crows "Tells tales"
Crows are known as birds that are liars and untrustworthy and also they are signs of a bad omen, meaning when seeing them trouble will come. So, a crow that hasn't reached the destination can be known as troubles that still have business with the protagonist


The above shapes some traits in "Us" or at least me and my crazy friends -> Have you heard the phrase "If I can't have it, I'll destroy it"? well this phrase expresses the root cause of the problem perfectly.
Let me start from the beginning:
We want to hear a long story if the one telling it has the ability [Repetity is not accepted, we can lesson to a story for decades but the story and the storyteller must also be travelers on the same boat as us, meaning they need to evolve, grow and become deeper. Most stories and authors fail this acceptance, thus abandoned stories], now let's observe from another angle, the story is our favorite, but the author is tired, so it needs an ending. [What!!]
Actually, If a story is pleasing no matter what the ending, for us; it's a farewell, an unhappy fact of not being able to follow them to the end. So the protagonist carried on with hope or ended up with friends and family, "Happily ever after?". No thanks. What does it have to do with me? A happy ending that I can't see, is better to be a funeral that I can attend. [I'm not the stupid male/female second wishing you happiness!!]

Another thing that I must remind is that "death" has different meanings in different cultures. For example, my friend's family cry for the decade, attends the grave annually, and cares about the funeral process, and wears mourning clothes. While in our own funerals people attend in daily clothes, no one crying, or even having a sad face, [The result if someone comes and doesn't know, they'll think it's a gathering] even the decades family will be stopped from crying or being sad. [Your guests won't let you cry!! after all, will being sad and crying change anything? - Think of it how can a mother tolerate, but even the mother has the right of being sad for at most a few days, as for crying, better get done with it in at most 2 hours [We are so generous, aren't we?]
Then again the funeral is actually nothing special. [We've been born with nothing and die with nothing], as for attending the grave after that? He, good luck finding it. [Fun fact, no one remembers where my grandma is buried!! Then again the place is kind of like a mass grave, and you won't know who's been buried as it's recommended to not] [Generally if you're dead then you are dead buy]

Although I said all the above, and although I myself am incapable of crying for the dead, or care about a cold piece of meat and blood, that will dissolve shortly, It doesn't mean that those around me are cruel or without sympathy, on the other hand, we cry and sympathy really easily. The same people that can't cry in a real funeral will cry like children for a fictional character's sadness [Not even death!!]
So what's going on?
The answer is simple, we don't view death as a farewell at all. That's correct. And It's not even the high fetching fact of the afterlife and such things, but simply being aware that a person that you know is yours. Your friends, family, and loved ones are people that nothing can take from you. What does it mean?
Let's start from the other side of the coin -> A sentence like "I've misjudged you, didn't know you were such a person?" "I've been blind to love a person like you" "I thought you were my friend" and so on, are the stupidest things that we can hear. if you've misjudged a person, then the one that you loved never existed, then who did you loved the real person or the mirror image of your understanding? If you've been betrayed and didn't predict then who was the one you trusted? Who gives you the confidence to make a fictional character, push your expectation to others, and then even be disappointed. Aren't you just a selfish and self-centered person? With the same method, you can also say that if you loved a person, then you know them, and so isn't that person yours? So what if the person is dead, the one you loved wasn't the past him and your memories, neither is the person that he will become, but an evolving picture, that is yours still you will readjust your memory together, reevaluate their personality traits. Your's and their story hasn't ended at all, what is yours can't be taken.
Remember your emotions aren't in the past or future, but the wage now. The emotions in memory aren't static but dynamic. Today it's a happy memory and tomorrow it's a sad one.
So why must the "character" die? Aren't they also the image that is yours?
Well, here is the place that things get tricky. If there is an original, there is also fiction. Even more, in today's world, even the original characters aren't written only by the authors, as readers' comments and their expectations directly influences the authors.
The reason is - even humans can't fill their personality traits and make others universally accept them. Everyone accepts that they have irrationality and emotions and traits, that even they can't grasp. While someone relating traits to themselves is invalid till the society around them, accepts. People are available and experimental, no one accepts someone dictating their traits unless it is proven through their actions. But what about the character of a book? The written fact remains, the original book is accepted. Even if the author's character analysis is never accepted by any reader, even if fans write thousands of assays character analysis, that damn book remains. This is the problem, the character is still arguable, the image is still yours, but someones has a higher level of ownership, and this is unacceptable. Even if a character's death doesn't make the author's ownership invalid, even if they can come back one day and write a sequel saying the death was fake and so on, the seeds of a falling apart character is already planted in the author's heart and that's the enjoyable part. As the saying goes "Rights must be grasped, no one will best over them" and so no court can take the original right, their doubt is what frees the character and their inspiration bubble will be destroyed.
So character's death is for taking revenge from an author that either disappointed the readers by an inability to continue their favorite character's story presentably or is abandoning the character at least for now [And no matter how many extra's they write, we remember their crimes]

 

The only ever time I've wanted an MC to really die now or eventually was when I read the novel "Soul of Negary" that guy is true evil, literally lol. Most times I was rooting for side characters he was against. So I guess there are times it's not about rooting for the MC, it's more like a history book about someone.

 

To end MC suffering and safe them from villainess

 

I think it just makes a good twist and ending. Joy of Life had MC die at the end of the drama. Then the ending was a bit confusing, but it's alright. That was in the drama but I didn't finish the novel Joy of Life.