Happy Sunday, guys!

My mind has been on a Marvel kick lately (side note: did you know that people in New York did a 31-hour Marvel movie marathon? #mindblown).

Anyways, there’s usually one constant thing connecting all of these movies:

Resurrections.

No matter which Marvel movie series you watch, there’s always someone that seems to be dead, but comes back to life. And although it can make us feel better, I keep wondering, is it a good idea to resurrect your characters in writing?

So, we're going to go through this pros/cons style. Here we go:

Pros:

It makes your readers feel. Obviously, if you kill off a beloved character, there will be tears. There will be heartbreak. There will be shouts of "WHY, CRUEL AUTHOR??" as the author laughs. But if you bring that character back, there will be joy in the hearts of your readers. I mean, who doesn’t wish that their favorite character was still alive?

The backstory for what they've done since they "died" can get interesting. What did they do while your main character thought they were dead? Were they leading a revolution? Or wait, what if they joined the bad guys? What would happen then? Your plot could suddenly get a whole lot more interesting.

Probably one of the best resurrection plots out there

It's just plain fun. Let’s be honest here: it’s fun to mess with your readers.

Cons:

It makes them question that entire scene. Remember how I said that it’s fun to mess with your readers? Well, sometimes it’s really not a good time to make them doubt things. For instance, whenever I watch The Dark World, I get really distracted by thinking of how Loki could have possibly lived. Every time the movie switches back to Asgard after his "death" scene, I’m not thinking about the main save-the-world plot anymore - I’m thinking, okay, how did he survive?

(I just realized that this could also be a good thing. It’s really up to you to decide whether this would be good for your story or not.)

If you do it too often, they never believe that your characters are dead. This has happened to me waaayyy too many times. I’ll read a book, someone will die, and I’ll be like, oh, they’re coming back.

AND THEN THEY DON'T.

This is a very painful thing to experience. Right now, (Infinity War excepted) anyone that Marvel kills off is still alive in my mind - just because most "dead" people come back.

So yes, I don’t accept that Tadashi is dead.

Sometimes it’s just not possible. If you have your character, say, shot about sixteen times, they’re probably not coming back. (Unless there is magic or a Time Stone involved....). If you bring them back, there had better be a really good explanation as to why. If not, your readers will lose trust in you.


So, should you resurrect your characters? There’s really no right or wrong answer here. Just make sure it could actually happen and that you don’t do it too much.

-Nicole