The Dictionary of Fictional Techniques: The Fred Weasley.

IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE SERIES: SPOILER ALERT.

From Bookriot:

Definition: A secondary character who dies to give a story pathos.

Heh.

Anyway, the definition was inspired by this older (AND EVEN MORE SPOILERY) post.

I don't have an issue with the definition—or the Fred vs. Ron argument, actually—but I don't buy this:

This isn’t a value judgment, but an observation about what adult literature does that children’s literature doesn’t do; it not only brings the worst-case scenario into play, sometimes, just sometimes, it actually happens.

Because, you know. That's the danger of making sweeping generalizations. "Sometimes, just sometimes, it actually happens" in children's lit, too. For instance: Charlotte's Web, Anne of Green Gables, Erin Hunter's Warriors books, Animorphs, The Golden Compass (I consider it YA, but I've seen it shelved in more than on children's collection), Mockingjay (technically YA, but I'm including it because of the massive readership), almost every award-winning book about a dog...

Relatedly.

Comments

[Ilana Waters]

I agree that this kind of pathos is seen in MG/YA books all the time. But I actually kind of like the idea of it "almost happening" in kids' books, and then happening "for real" in adult books. That said, I'm guilty of killing off some important characters in my young fiction as well ;-).

[Justine]

Hmm, the convergence of this post and a review I read (http://www.rtbookreviews.com/rt-daily-blog/why-john-scalzis-redshirts-must-read) makes me want to read Redshirts even more. Living with a Star Trek fan, I've always thought of those secondary characters who end up dead as redshirts.

[UFC 147 Live stream]

Do you have any video of that? I'd want to find out more details.