Common Sense Corner

[DerVVulfman]

Aaaactually, I was kinda paraphrasing 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' with the Sankara stones. Hey, a whole village in trouble? He had some motive.

But I guess this falls on giving the hero motive to keep going. But killing a principle character off may not be the only means to do so. Rather than killing them off, why not it be a kidnapping? In Final Fantasy VIII, it was Rinoa being taken so the Sorceress could have a new host. In (SNES) Tenchi Muyo RPG, you actually play as Team Tenchi as you try to rescue Sasami. I'm watching the anime now. :P And if you ask Mario, that dang princess gets kidnapped every freakin' week!!!

Sure, killing the person to spark a 'OH, I HATE THAT GUY' determination in the player may work. But it's pretty much up to the writer to make it good. You could just as well make it a kidnapping where the character is taken from your party to now be an NPC you try to rescue.

Animes do that quite well. Record of Lodoss Wars (either Deedlit or Neese being sacrificed), Read or Die The TV's Nenene Sumeregawa (abducted for a cruel experiment), Bleach's first few seasons (Rukia is scheduled to be executed).... I could go on.