Heroes Die

Yesterday I mentioned that most of my favorite characters die.  I can think of a large number of them, but I will refrain from actually stating many of them, as most of them die later on in their books, movies, or shows.  Mainly they seem to be the heroes, whether they are the main hero or a more understated one that no one really sees as a hero.

A good example of the former is Anakin Solo.  He was one of my favorite characters of all time from the Star Wars Expanded Universe.  I've ranted about him and how he shouldn't have died, or how his fate was never actually set in stone as far as death - the book he died in never actually said that he was dead.  Just gone.  Which means he could have just passed out or something.  That, however, is yet another blog post for later when I'm in the mood to just rant about Star Wars.  I've done that before, too.

Anyway, Anakin Solo.  He was a hero in the big sense of the word.  Everyone in his world - his galaxy - knew that he was the best hope for the war against the Yuuzhan Vong.  He was the obvious hero.  And he died because he was being stupid and went off on his own when he was wounded.  Some boys (granted, not all) are really stupid sometimes.  That is one example.

So, he died, and everyone mourned him.  As a Hero.  (Yes, there is a reason for the capital h.)

An opposite example is Archie Kennedy.  He is a character from the Hornblower series.  He is a character in the books, but he's not a major one, and he's actually very different from the character in the movies.  In the movies, he's actually a combination between several characters. The character that I'm referring to as the one I like is the one in the movies, played by Jamie Bamber (who also happens to be in Battlestar Galactica, which I have never watched...but I've heard that it's quite popular).  He starts out as this very young seeming Midshipman when he meets Horatio, and they become friends as they serve together on the Justinian.  They overcome a few trials together as friends, and they go on to serve as officers on the Indefatigable under Captain Sir Edward Pellew.

The first four movies are spent on the Indy, and they go through things like helping out with a rebellion against Napoleon in France and many other things.

Eventually, they are transferred to a different ship after both of them are promoted to leftenant (lieutenant).  The captain is paranoid and rather ill, and eventually it leads him to fall down a ladder into the hold...only he claims to have been pushed, and that there was mutiny going on.  Which, conveniently, there was.  For the first time since he had thought there was.  In the end, the four lieutenants forced the physician to declare the captain unfit for duty because of the way he was acting.  He took that as mutiny, and things only went downhill from there.

Once they ended up where they were stationed in the Indies, after a huge battle, the lieutenants were put on trial for mutiny, and the fact that someone had supposedly pushed Captain Sawyer into the hold.

In the end, a very injured Archie Kennedy walks all the way from his bed in the holding cell/infirmary (Hornblower and Buckland, the two who were not injured had cells, while Bush and Archie were in a barred infirmary or sorts) to the courthouse in full uniform, even though he's had a fever and is recovering from a gunshot wound to the gut.  He confesses that he pushed Captain Sawyer, even though he didn't.  Just so that he can save the lives of his friends.  He died because of that, and not because the punishment for mutiny was hanging.  Because, in walking all the way there on his own right and taking the blame, he pushed himself too hard and his body failed. 

If it hadn't been for the way he gave his own life for Hornblower and Bush, they never would have lived.  They and Buckland would have been hanged.  He sacrificed himself for his best friend in the world, Horatio, and he was happy to do it.  He was a hero in ever sense of the word.

But it's still odd that nearly all of my favorite characters die.  I think it is because I always pick the noble, heroic ones.  Does that say anything odd about my taste in characters?