Serenity 2?

[Jen]

As I said before...it's not my favorite thing either, but that doesn't mean that aspect of his work can't be enjoyed by someone else or that there's anything wrong with Whedon's brand of writing. For example Mr. O, I know that you watch and enjoy Battlestar Galactica. That show is packed full of negative parallels to everyday life and has lost several characters. Did they all have good deaths? I think that's debatable. Do I think every episode is well written? No. I was rather fond of several of those now deceased characters, and I don't always need the realistic parallels...but I still appreciate the writing and the show as a whole. And I can, at the same time, understand and respect why others might disagree with me. To each his/her own.

Here's something I found online that Ken Levine mentioned about killing off characters, which speaks to your points and also to Kenny's

When a main character dies fans of the show are now sad, usually for a day, maybe two if they don't have lives themselves. We're now so used to series regulars being whacked, people voted off islands, fired, or told they can no longer sing "On Broadway" on national television that the impact is lessened. The downside of this practice is you begin to protect yourself by not investing too much emotion in the characters going in for fear that they'll be taken away. (although I don't think that was a problem for Paris Bennett or Amarosa.)

None of the current deaths will ever have the wallop that MASH killing off Henry Blake did. The entire country was stunned, and in many cases, outraged. But it also made a point. This was a show about war and in war people die, even the people you care about. For my money that one episode (written by Jim Frizzell & Everett Greenbaum, produced by Larry Gelbart & Gene Reynolds) turned MASH into a classic. It was groundbreaking, shocking, and people forget -- very funny for the first 27 minutes.

(Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, CHEERS, FRASIER, THE SIMPSONS, WINGS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG, and has co-created his own series including ALMOST PERFECT starring Nancy Travis. He and his partner wrote the feature VOLUNTEERS. Ken has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres.)

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2006/06/its-now-okay-to-kill-actors.html

[Darth Gaos]

I still remember MASH killing Henry.....I could not tell you anything about the rest of the episode....but Col Blake was killed.  MASH is still one of my favorite shows on TV

[Ktrek]

From a recent interview with Joss Whedon. So maybe this will help put this to rest for now!

Actor Alan Tudyk mentioned the possibility of another "Firefly" movie in a recent interview. Is that wishful thinking? Is something happening? If so, can you talk about it?

I can talk about it because it's wishful thinking. I always said, they made the special edition DVD because they cannot keep the DVD on the shelves. That's what they told me, and they really went to the mattresses to make something special because they knew I wasn't going to do a "director's cut" because the "director's cut" played in theaters. So they really pumped up the extras and I really appreciated that. And they also (slides into a Peter Lorre-ish voice) made it look pretty, finally. But I think what happened was that I said, "Well, if there's hope for a sequel, it's people buying the DVD," and that translated into something more literal. But, no. Right now, nobody has any plans to do any kind of sequel. If they do, I hope they'll include me, because if I find out Brett Ratner is directing it, I'm going to be so mad. That's not a dig on Brett. I want to do more, but nobody's talking about doing more right now.

The original interview is here:

http://movies.msn.com/new-on-dvd/feature-article/default.aspx?news=281562

Kevin

[X]

For me, I hate that main character are often protected by the invisible shield of the writer. When Chewbacca died, there was this line by Han that basically said that before the death he and his extended family seem to have lived through things protected from death by an unseen force and when Chewie died he knew that anyone could die.

For me, I can't enjoy a story of life and death if I know that there is no way for the main characters to die. It cheapens the deaths of those around them and it cheapens the story by allowing the protagonist to survive something that no one else should have, but when a protagonist dies for some random (not saving the universe) reason, it's a better story.

I was shocked when Fred was killed in Angel.
I don't even want to go with all of the deaths on Lost, Prison Break, Alias, and other shows I love.
I was floored when Kate was killed in NCIS.
When Jackson died in SG-1 I couldn't believe it.
The loss of Marcus on babylon 5 still sucks to this day.
When Tara died in Buffy, I thought there had to be a mistake.
The death of Ripley in Aliens 3 wasn't a good day.

Not only do deaths work well, some times they are the only things that we remember. When a core character dies, it reminds the viewers that everyone is not safe and that makes the action that much more compeling to watch.

Everyone doesn't need to save the universe when they die if they let the viewer and the reader see that people can die, the story becomes richer.

After the death in Serenity, each scene afterwards had me worried that someone else would fall. It had my heart racing and me rooting for my guys to survive more than if that death never happened.

If you think about it, how invested do you get into the danger for the crew when a red shirt dies? now compare that to worrying about the crew after a key player dies. Characters are characters, but as a wise man once said "The play is the thing.".

A character should never hamper the growth of the story. The characters should be a part of the story, but not the exception.

[Geekyfanboy]

That was very well said.. X... that's why I love Joss's work.