Hide Death Flags

[LostLibrarian]

Just write normal character (inter)action from time to time...

Death flags stand out, because that one side character that had 5 sentences in the entire story suddenly gets 4 emotional chapters before they go to fight a boss. It's the attempt to make the reader feel sorry for the character.

If you want to kill Character X, just give him some screentime every few chapters. And have him talk about marriage 2 arcs before he dies and not 2 chapters. Also, try to give multiple side characters screentime. With that it won't be so obvious which character is next...

 

[trinitys_gadget]

The problem isn't truly "death flags," although there are some common ones out there (Hi Redshirts!), the problem is really plot armor. "He Who Fights With Monsters" and "Blue Core" are both good, recent examples of plot armor on steroids. Now, don't get me wrong, the ressurection of the hero is a tried and true trope, but not since Christ has it been done so obviously or tackily. A good example of the kind of thing you want to pull off is

Spoiler

Aeris Death in FF VII

. She was everyone's favorite waifu, and then she died.

 

[SakeVision]

The problem isn't truly "death flags," although there are some common ones out there (Hi Redshirts!), the problem is really plot armor. "He Who Fights With Monsters" and "Blue Core" are both good, recent examples of plot armor on steroids.

that's right, if the logic of the story demands that a character dies, they should die, not get another asspull power-up or win through plot induced stupidity

if the story has no other good character to shift the focus to, then it's the story's fault, nothing else

 

[TheHelpfulFawn]

Death flags only stand out when you make them stand out. I.E. you give whoever is going to die attention and spotlight. LostLibrarian explains it the best in their post.

 

[Bronzeapollo]

A death flag is situational and even genre-based. Here is how the overly cliched death flag, "Let's go for a drink after this battle." Can be used and still confuse readers. Every reader in the world the character who said this will die. So use that to your advantage for the storytelling. What can be fun, is to have the person he tells this to die instead. A small move like that can subvert basic expectations.
In satire, these sorts of moves of subversion are the focus, at least for my style. But once you do it once, the expectation of the reader has changed, so now have someone random die. For example, have it be said by a group of people, to where they don't know who will be the one to die. Even have them all live sometimes, or eventually, after a multitude of times have the person who said it die.
Instead of trying to hide death flags, use them to your advantage.

 

[SpiraSpira]

Many times I've seen obvious death flags, that people even comment about it in stories I've read. So I wanna know how to hide a potential character death. Like you won't expect it at all.

Thanks for tips btw :D

Don’t wrap up their business. Leave them unfulfilled as far as their story arcs. For example, when they are introduced give them a motivation like they want to take revenge on this person or group who is nowhere around. People would think Chekov’s gun, that you mentioned that revenge because it will definitely be a plotline. Nope. They died before their revenge could be carried out.