Trying To Save My Favorite Character From His Tragic Fate

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Levi Ackerman, 100%. I almost choked on my soda the first time I heard him say that. It’s such a great character moment. It’s cool and it’s heartbreaking at the same time. I mean he saved Eren’s life but he’s also making it clear that he’s not a guardian angel or anything. It’s a wake-up call really. And that’s why I love him, that’s why he has such a great fanbase because he holds people to such high standards.

One of the best ways to elicit pity from a reader is to let them see the situation through the eyes of someone neutral or even unsympathetic to the hero in the early going. If a hard-bitten, cynical character can change his or her perspective on the hero and come to feel sorry for them, then that can elicit a change of heart in the reader too. We read through the eyes of the other character as they come to realize the depth of the hero’s plight. We see the worn patches on their backpack, or the careful calculations that they make to determine how to spend their money to get the most nutritional value from their lunch funds. The reader’s feelings are plumbed by watching the other character come to realize the hero’s plight, in a ‘show not tell’ way.

‘Helpless Ending’ stories resolve in a more realistic and non-deterministic way. Instead of plotting out a scenario to a victorious ending for the characters, the external circumstances are acknowledged by the characters for what they are, and the characters find a way to come to terms with them, however helpless they are. They may cease resisting the forces that control them and find a way to exist within their limitations. These are bittersweet stories of resignation, but of a peaceful kind, the kind of peace reached after a long and exhausting struggle.

Rather than being tied up with a bow, the central tension is dissolved in order to be concluded. The frenzy of struggling to resist gives way to a quiet moment of understanding, as the reader looks at the situation with the protagonist for the first time and understands. The struggle is over. The conflict has ceased. And that can be a very hollow and very unpleasant feeling, yet at the same time a very relieving one.

The similarity to many real life situations, where some tangles cannot be undone but must be carried in a different way, is part of what makes this kind of ending successful. The narrative ultimately achieves satisfaction because we get to witness the moment of transcendence, and that moment is sufficiently concrete to carry its own weight. We see the protagonist walking away from a long debated battlefield, or sitting quietly in the smoldering remains of it, his face serene. It’s a conclusion that has the weight of reality to it, and not the weight of fiction.

One way that Peter came to realize the power that he held was in his battle with the wolf Maugrim in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Not only did he realize the full extent of his physical strength in this fight, but he also realized his full potential as a leader and guardian. It was at this time that Peter finally stepped into his role as High King and found his heroic place. It was a time of growth for Peter and of tremendous courage, for Peter finally realized that the power of a hero comes from having the sense of responsibility to complete the task at hand and to fulfill one's duty.

Most people get hung up on who she ends up with in the end, but I think it’s really amazing that she ends up with herself. After regaining her memories from her past life, and garnering enough grit from surviving in this one, she’s able to build something completely her own using the knowledge she’s gained from both worlds. Her identity, past, and future are all hers again, and she’s freed herself from the deathflags/character settings that threatened to constrain her in this life as well. The romantic storylines all get wrapped up more or less satisfactorily, but ultimately, they’re all just part of her journey to arrive at this point, where she’s standing at the horizon, free to go wherever she wants. It’s a very feminist ending for a genre typically marked by the objs being conquered by their love interests.

I felt cheated out of an ending to Rebirth of the Thief Who Sees Through Time. Hundreds of chapters of intrigue and complex magic systems had led me to expect a dramatic and perhaps angst-ridden conclusion but instead it was resolved by a faintly ridiculous ‘death’ that wasn’t even real. A large amount of development had gone into the Crown Prince and the Saintess’s complicated relationship – we’d seen him consider going against his own morals to save her on more than one occasion – and in the end all of that was cut down and ripped away in a few short chapters and conveniently concluded by having him retire to a small cottage in the country to spend the rest of his days in silence, his many decades of plotting and manipulations having no lasting impact on the kingdom. The entire storyline with the ‘demon king’ (in the end it was just a simple grudge that had been festering for years) had been built up over hundreds of chapters, only to be resolved in a handful of scenes of conversation in the final arc, and the chapters that followed were very rushed as the author presumably tired of the story and was meeting a deadline. A quiet ending would have been fine but it would have had to have been more fully fleshed out in order to have made sense – instead it read as lazy. The little bird that flies down at the end of the book? Unearned sentimentality.

The final chapters of the Last Battle, and the book as a whole, saw the deaths of Egwene al'Vere, Gawyn Trakand, Siuan Sanche and Gareth Bryne. Of these, Egwene's was perhaps the most significant, as she used a never-before-seen weave to save the world. His death was a tragic accident brought on by his own heroic bravery, whereas the deaths of Siuan and Gareth came simultaneously in a poignant and romantic ending to their own little story. The others who died in the final battle, outside of the above group, were Hurin the sniffer who was killed in a Trolloc charge, Jain 'Farstrider' (Noal) who fell in the Tower of Ghenjei, and Rhuarc who had been turned by Compulsion earlier in the story. But overall it was a bloody and desperate fight to the death, and saved only by the barest of margins - making the end a fragile and hard-won thing, rather than a cheap and easy happily-ever-after.

It’s the kind of happy ending that redeems your faith in happy endings to romance stories. Because, no, it wasn’t easy. It was messy and hard-won. There was lots of crying and some pretty ugly truths to confront. It could have been a trite, easy happy ending and not resonated with me at all. But as it was, I felt like I had earned their happy ending by sticking with them through all of the tears, doubts, and setbacks. It was a monumental step forward for them in the end, and a very special kind of storytelling magic that I feel grateful to have experienced.

The death of Cassius au Bellona in 'Light Bringer' hits like a gut punch. This former Razor champion and reluctant mentor to Darrow dies defending him from the Rim Dominion fleet. His sacrifice isn't just emotional—it reshapes the entire Solar War. Cassius' death removes the last bridge between Darrow and the Bellona family, making reconciliation impossible. It also triggers Lysander's full descent into villainy, as he betrays Cassius' trust. The loss of such a skilled warrior leaves Darrow's forces weaker in space battles. Most importantly, Cassius' final act of redemption cements his legacy as a man who finally chose the right side, influencing how future generations remember the Bellona name. His death scene is one of the most beautifully written in the series, with his last words to Darrow carrying the weight of their complicated history.