I feel like I see a lot of writers missing the point of how to make a death sad.
It’s not the death itself that needs to be made tragic, but rather the hole left behind by their absence afterwards.
For example, I didn’t cry in theatres over El’s death, and I don’t get sad thinking on it afterwards.
But if the writers HAD intended to make the audience sad, all they needed to do was include some kind of scene afterwards where Hopper looks into his fridge and sees Eggos, turns around excitedly for El out of habit, and then breaks down crying remembering she’s gone, all those simple times she spent in his kitchen enjoying Eggos, and how she’ll never enjoy them with him again.
The emotional impact can also be improved through the moments leading up to the death and directly following it.
At least in my experience, under extreme emotional stress people don’t tend to comprehend the true weight of what’s happening in front of them, but rather their brains seem to default to simpler thoughts, whose simplicity and earnestness feel real and tragic.
The thoughts can often sound like “but… we never finished watching that movie together,” or “you promised we’d play that new game and you’ll voice your favorite character,” or, on a more serious level, “we’re supposed to grow old together, you’re gonna be a teacher like you studied for, and we’ll introduce our kids to each other like we’re family.”
By doing so, not only is the audience shown how the character cares for the dying one on a truly personal level, but also grows to care for the character themselves and understand the weight of their absence like they now have to deal with it too, like the world is worse off with them gone, a little less laughter and joy.
I think “The Summer Hikaru Died” does this really well, which is probably why I ended up crying so much while watching it.
The pleading character is humanised more too in the process. Mike’s “please don’t do this, please don’t do this” is
A. very generic and unspecific to El to the point it could’ve been said to anyone and still hold, but
B. is very composed, almost as if he’s looking back on the scene after it happened and is able to comprehend the weight of what El is about to do.
As explained, I think the scene would have been far more impactful if he pleaded with her based on things relevant to their relationship (although to be fair, with them there isn’t much) by maybe saying they need to roller skate more together, that he can’t imagine life without her playing along with his stupid pizza jokes, and that the world needs her and her compassion towards endangered children and that she has so much more good to do in the world. (tbf i would’ve had more sad things to write if it was Hopper talking to her since we actually saw their simple moments and how fondly he values her)
The current death scene is a disservice not only to El but also to Mike as it takes away the humanity and complexity of their characters as well as their relationship.
With all of that left behind, it feels to me like death-writing by people who haven’t lost someone and don’t truly value the impact and presence of their lost character.