For me, it was always Optimus Prime from The Transformers movie.
Athelstan from Vikings.
Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
spoiler
the dog Searchlight dies in the end, and it fucking killed me as a child when I read this
Bridge to Terabithia
!Leslie!<
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 ‘dead’ status is more properly ‘unconscious’ in Final Fantasy games, and is sometimes actually translated that way. FF5 even has a scene where they try using phoenix downs on a genuinely dead character and it doesn’t work.
Rob and Catelyn Stark in the Red Wedding. So traumatizing!
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood spoiler:
Tap for spoiler
Mayes Hughes
Richard Gere in Hachi.
Ka’Dargo in “Farscape Peacekeeper War”. They were on their way for Moya to pick them up. The worst of the fighting was over and BAM.
At least he went out as a warrior.
Lessons in Chemistry.
Storm light archive has a tough one.
Tap for spoiler
Teft
In a totally different vein, Grey’s anatomy has the worst one
Tap for spoiler
Dereks death was super heavy. But the COVID fever dreams were cathartic.
Just like Jesus, He didn’t even really die. He went away for a few days and on the third day he rose again so that all may follow him and enjoy everlasting life.
John Cofey in The Green Mile.
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.
Grave of fireflies. Just… Yeah.
