

Main characters are more likely to die in children's cartoons - blowski
http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7184

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patio11
This has been a running gag in my family since I was seven, when I said "Why
does Disney think that two parents is too complicated?"

I loved Frozen, but as soon as they introduced the parents I whispered to my
wife "Bet you dinner they're dead within five minutes." "In a Disney movie?"
"Three minutes, then."

I think that, narrative-wise, this is partly because Disney basically always
has a coming of age element to their films (it is a theme almost as common as
true love) and the existence of live parents means that parents would be able
to resolve the conflict in most cases. You thus have to explain the inability
of parents to help ASAP. Killing them is the quickest way to do this.

Presumably this is covered in Hero With a Thousand Faces, too.

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dzdt
This might be explained by "the parent problem" : if a story has a child
protagonist that has to solve difficult problems, how can the story set it up
so the parents aren't stepping in and solving the problems for their kid? A
common answer is, kill the parents! See [http://pcwrede.com/the-parent-
problem/](http://pcwrede.com/the-parent-problem/) for a nice discussion of
variations and alternatives.

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reuven
Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) made this very clear in an interview that
I saw several years ago. He said that in order for children to be heroes, the
first thing that you have to do in any children's book is get rid of the
parents. Sometimes you can get away with putting the child in a place the
parents cannot reach, but it's far more common to kill them off. Only this way
can the child rise to the occasion, demonstrate leadership, and save the day.

I hadn't noticed this pattern before he said that, but now I see it
_everywhere_.

Of course, in "A Series of Unfortunate Events," the parents die in a fire on
the first page of the series. And then, as the books say, things go downhill
from there... (I absolutely love that series, and so do my children, although
it might be too dark for many.)

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stcredzero
In Grant Morrison's seminal _Doom Patrol_ run, he forwarded the idea that
traditional children's stories and fairy tales were actually deliberately
meant to traumatize children, to get them ready for harsh reality.

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dctoedt
> * traditional children's stories and fairy tales were actually deliberately
> meant to traumatize children, to get them ready for harsh reality.*

In Peter Paul & Mary's concert album, Peter Yarrow introduced the hilarious
satire "Blue" with a similar riff. [1]

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2TZ_zQjMfQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2TZ_zQjMfQ)

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normloman
I'll add my hypothesis to the mix: Adult dramas can create layered emotional
conflicts without needing characters to physically fight. Kids have smaller
attention spans and a poorer ability to grasp emotional nuance, so cartoon
writers have to create simple conflicts: Good versus evil, good guy fights bad
guy. And with fighting comes more death.

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proveanegative
[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeathByNewberyMed...](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeathByNewberyMedal)
comes to mind.

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blowski
Fascinating site, thanks.

