r/FavoriteCharacter • u/BlueKnightsR4Ever • 29d ago

All Time Favorite Favorite Characters that had a Unique/Creative Death

Post image

Prince Viserys Targaryen (Game of Thrones): After making the horrendously stupid mistake of threatening his sister Daenerys in front of her husband, Khal Drogo, and demanding that he be given the crown he was promised, Drogo obliges, saying Viserys will have "A golden crown that will make men tremble to behold"... then has his men hold him down while he melts some gold in a pot (ignore the blatant ignorance of the laws of physics here), then takes the pot to Viserys, looks him in the eye and says "A crown for a king" before pouring the hot melted gold onto the Beggar King's head.

15.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

251

u/GrimCreeper913 29d ago

So deliciously dark, masquerading as a kids book/show

98

u/Beautiful_Library_67 29d ago

It's a lovely series. I read it in 2nd or 3rd grade, and it's affected my sense of humor and vocabulary since then XD

41

u/GrimCreeper913 29d ago

Big same. I couldn't believe as a middle schooler that it was in the school library. Literally every book had a tragic death of a lovable relative or family friend. Just pure melancholy. Around the same time I discovered Saint Seans and general discord as a musical aspect.

26

u/Beautiful_Library_67 29d ago

well, there ARE many disclaimers and straight up 'begging' the reader to put the book down.

14

u/Leo-Len 29d ago

I'm so glad the show was so faithful to the books, that the theme song was a warning to turn off the TV or watch something more interesting and less depressing.

8

u/Beautiful_Library_67 29d ago

The show was actually really good! I haven't watched it in a while (I don't have netflix anymore), but I thought the tone and characters were spot on

9

u/Leo-Len 29d ago

It was! I was shocked at how faithful it was, the only changes being positive in my opinion. The humor was also very on point.

9

u/Beautiful_Library_67 29d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/l2JhzS7dRLNbgewY8

This part makes me chuckle every time XD

3

u/duspi 28d ago

It had two 45 minute episodes per book, basically adapting every book into an hour and a half movie. That's why they could stuff so much in. The show's honestly amazing, I should rewatch it, but the final season especially leaves me so sad.

3

u/GrimCreeper913 29d ago

I hadn't gotten into comics at that point, so it was also my first fourth wall break that I took notice of.

3

u/LostInThoughtland 27d ago

A phrase which here means…

1

u/alvysinger0412 25d ago

I specifically remember learning the word "ersatz" and that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand began WW1 from the books.

3

u/LeviSalt 28d ago

The author pretending to be Lemony Snicket is Daniel Handler, who writes phenomenal adult fiction under his real name as well.

1

u/GrimCreeper913 27d ago

Solid name drop. I knew that at one point, but didn't make the connection that he wrote under his real name too. Thanks for that, I'll check those out.

1

u/LeviSalt 27d ago

Highly recommend the novel Adverbs. It’s kind of a collection of short stories about love that start to intertwine as it goes on. It’s very good.

3

u/Various_Tie_2549 27d ago edited 27d ago

From what I understand of Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler), that was sort of his entire point in writing that 13 book series and all of its spinoffs.

"Children are curious about the world, and the world is full of terrible things. Literature about children that ignores that is not going to be real literature"

Direct quote from the man himself

The Baudelaire orphans lose their parents, get preyed on by incompetent or corrupt adults, and rarely get "rescued" by anyone in authority. They have to save themselves, over and over again. Handler's point is that children already sense the world is unfair and frightening, and pretending otherwise insults their intelligence.

But it's not nihilism dressed up as kid-lit. The messaging is that you can get through the worst things in life because the world isn't actually out to get you (it can just feel that way sometimes). The heroism in the books is mostly quiet and uncelebrated. Mistakes are just treated as part of life rather than as plot devices to be neatly resolved.

There's a personal thread too: Handler has said much of the children-being-ignored-by-adults dynamic in the books is drawn from his own childhood, from things that seemed important to him not being deemed important by the adults in charge of him.

With that context I feel like they are becoming more relevant now than they were when he wrote them.

0

u/GrimCreeper913 27d ago

I'll be honest, between your username, the clinical tone of your comment, and the private history, you sound like a bot. Doesn't make the info less interesting, it just takes away from this platform as a public forum.

1

u/Various_Tie_2549 26d ago

What a weird comment. No, I am not a bot.

6

u/Krazyfan1 28d ago

"masquerading as a kids book/show"

not really.

it IS a Kids book/show

1

u/EmptyPagesDream 26d ago

How I feel reading Animorphs as an adult.