For me, it was always Optimus Prime from The Transformers movie.
Jesus, because no one ever shuts up about it
Turns out that he didn’t die after all so none.
Well, he did die. Then toy sales flatlined too and they brought him back.
The 10th Doctor.
I don’t want to go…
Maes Hughes
I think, due to lack of diagnosis and medication, plus age - I was barely double digits - Aeris/Aerith in FF7.
I had no spoilers. And it wasn’t so much the death itself, it was the fact that I had fucking FARMED shit for her. She’s healer coded? I already had a history with RPGs, and healers are worth their weight in gold.
I think all that time and effort invested really solidified it.
Also, I had phoenix downs. WTF?
The protagonist in Farewell My Concubine. And then again when he suicided in real life
Aerith. Do I need to say more?
My reaction was “good, now they won’t force me to keep this useless redundant healer in my party anymore”. I suffered through the loss of Cid in ff4, who was actually useful in battle, so I was hardened by the time 7 came out
The FF7 remake is going to make it hurt more.
Geez, that hasn’t come out yet, has it? I’m a bit out of the loop, but you’re telling me we got a game about Yuffie, but Aereth didn’t die yet?
Things do happen in part 2 that has been out for nearly a year but we only got one part of what we expected, everyone got mad that the big scene was “stolen from us”, and we expect the other shoe to drop in the upcoming part 3. The writers did it on purpose, and they might plan to make it worse for us.
This was spoiled for me since I didn’t play it until the PS2 era, and it still hit me hard and unexpectedly.
I started reading Dragonlance novels around 10 years old. When I got my hands on the third main one (IIRC), one of the main characters who’s a knight died and that impacted me for quite some time.
Sturm Brightblade, in the second book _Dragons of Winter Night _
When the older character in the first(?) book dies, it hit me like a ton of bricks the first time around.
Mordin Solus from Mass Effect.
“Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong”
“Too many. Lost shields. Sorry, Shepard. Tell them… I held the line.”
And I had to reload an old save.
I was going to post Shephard, but no, Mordin was the worst.
I haven’t the constitution to play “evil”, so saught out the evil equivalent as video… also heartbreaking.
Dexter: when his wife gets killed and they pan over to that shot of her in the bathtub i literally threw my mouse against the wall.
Artax from The Neverending Story
The last one i remember is the Going Merry from One Piece
Marley and Me
deleted by creator
I probably haven’t seen The Neverending Story in 25 years, but I still think about Artax from time to time. Fuckin’ Swamp of Sadness…
For real. That moment in that movie is basically telling you that you cannot save your best friend from crippling sadness and depression. The horse and the boy love each other but it doesn’t matter in the end.
I was allowed to watch that movie waaay too young, and I know it’s the same for others my age, but I was pissed when I learned that one of my friends let her 5 year old watch it because she’d seen it when she was 5, and apparently forgot or didn’t care that the horse dies?? Like how can you forget that?? And then the 5 year old heard us talking about the movie and the FIRST thing she says is “Remember the horse?” in this sad little voice. Way to traumatize your kid.
Thank you! This traumatized me as a child, my dad used to have to fast forward that part because it was so upsetting for me.
It was so traumatizing, death by depression. But, overall, as a little fruity kid about the same age as Bastian when it came out, TNS was the closest thing to affirmation of my own little fruity existence I could find. We easily traumatized fruity kids don’t usually get represented well in action films.
Fun fact: Artax can speak in the novel.
AAAANDD ITS SO MUCH WORSE TOOOOOO 😭
Dangit! Two people now have totally eclipsed what I was gonna add with something that just takes more wind out of my sails!
I definitely need something to cuddle now.
Well, at least your username fits.
The 80s were so brutal. We had a kids movie that starts with the main character’s horse dying from sadness.
