A fictional character death you are still not over?

[OneUmberJoker]

Marley's in Marley and me

Khaireddin in Dorothy Dunnett’s Pawn in Frankincense,
The baby in EM Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread,
The baby in John Updike’s Rabbit, Run,
The kitten in LM Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside,
Ginger and the horses in the burning stable in Black Beauty,
Hester in The Subtle Knife,
Piggy in The Lord of the Flies,
The kitten in Susan Cooper’s Dawn of Fear,
The bear cub in Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Beginning of Spring,
The dog in Penelope Lively’s Spiderweb,
Judy in Seven Little Australians,
Too many rabbits in Watership Down,
The baby in Goodnight Mr Tom.

Too many, really.

Linda in The Pursuit of Love - and the Bolter’s last sentence was brilliant.

George Cooper, Sheldon’s dad.

And Barb. justice for Barb!

Yes! I was haunted for days after reading that book

I forgot about “La vita è bella”. I couldn’t believe it when the dad died. I kept asking my dad in the cinema if he was really dead - I couldn’t believe it. That film is so devastating!

I was also thinking of Anna Karenina..

I also thought of Hamnet, then decided as he actually existed his death didn’t count as fictional…I’m splitting hairs I know!

Justice for Piggy!!!

Realised that Cedric Diggory from HP hasn’t come up yet..I remember finding that quite shocking. First “goodie” death in the HP universe I think

Ethel in Eastenders . And more recently, Martin Fowler.
Joy (Debra Winger) in Shadowlands.
Mog
Charlotte the Spider
Mr Chips in Goodbye Mr Chips (Robert Donat version).

God yeah! That was literally the moment those books turned a corner. A real shock.

The final episode of Blackadder stays with you. An absolute masterpiece of tv. So so haunting.

I can't say I've ever given the demise of a fictional character any long lasting thought. It's hard enough trying to block out real bereavement trauma. Maybe that's why for me..

Just read through all the pages of this thread thinking that surely someone would say Johnny and Dally! Still my favourite book since I was about 13 though

The 2 upsetting deaths that instantly sprung to my mind were Ruth in Spooks, as others have said, and Cassie in Unforgotten. Probably no coincidence that both roles were played by the wonderful Nicola Walker 💔

Gosh, that really is niche! Toby Wren was the lead character in a TV series called Doomwatch around 1970/71. All us school girls swooned over him at the time. It is a lovely name.

Oh yes! That's exactly what me and my best friend hoped at the time. We were convinced they woudn't really kill off the gorgeous Toby. We thought for sure he'd emerge from the water as you say. And it was the first time I remember the hero dying too. The bomb made me jump as well. Glad someone else remembers it so vividly (or even at all!).

Seems like there's at least 2 of us on this thread that remember! I was 14 at the time and, yes, it was the talk of my senior school (all girls). There were quite a lot of tears as well. My best friend at the time wrote "Toby Wren Lives" all over her science overall in indelible felt pen. She got detention for it!

Rachel in coldfeet. I shall never recover from that trauma

Oh God yes! The part where she was standing watching Adam at her own funeral gave me the chills.

Yes, I knew it was after a TV character but hadn’t realised it was such a big deal! I thought it was some random show no one else apart from my parents had watched 🤣🤣 Thank you for educating me!

Jack from This Is Us

Oh yes! The death of the gorgeous Toby Wren left a generation of teenage girls bereft.

Also Mark Green in ER it never seemed the same after he died, and Beth in Little Women you knew they were going to die but didn’t make it any easier

Yes - and heartbreaking

Forgot about Fred ,Remus Tonks Snape and Sirius in Harry Potter