Personally, I think that if a character (man or woman) dies in a story because it's part of the story and the story wouldn't be right if the character didn't die, then it's perfectly okay.
I don't, however, condone writing stories just so the writer can kill/punish/otherwise abuse a certain character.
What's the difference? Hmmm . . . how to explain something that's not really quantifiable, but more of a slider-scale in my head? Okay, two examples:
1) In one of the fandoms I used to be active in (the very first I was truly active in, in fact), I once came across a fanfic where the main character (another strong, female type like Lois) was brutally raped and beaten, and the characters who did it (most likely gary stus) kept saying things like, "Take that," or "it's just what you deserve." I HATE this kind of story.
2) However, sometimes, a writer might wonder, "what would happen to character X (how would he/she react, live, etc) if character Y died/had to go away suddenly/etc? I have no problem with that type of fic--it helps the writer to expand his or her talents and characterization skills.
Or, the writer might be doing what he/she does when the story comes to a certain point. They try to get the character out of a bad situation, but either that character can't get out of it themselves or no one is able to get there to help them in time.
Should the writer just STOP writing because he/she knows that the character is going to have to die? Absolutely not!
Does this mean that the writer hates the character? I highly doubt it.
Does it mean that the writer will enjoy writing the death of that character? I doubt that too--writers (or at least me) tend to get very attached to their characters, and it might even break their hearts a little to have to see them go, but they do it anyway, so that the story can come to its full potential.
I really don't think that having a character die in a story like the ones we have posted here has anything to do with having fun writing death fic.
And I definitely have not seen anything even close to resembling the first type of fic I mentioned on these boards, on the archive, or even at Annesplace, and for that, I'm grateful!
