When our favorite fictional character passes away or dies a tragic death, it can feel like a huge loss. Some might even feel a real sense if grief.
Robert Rowney, a staff psychiatrist at the Cleveland Clinic, said that we feel sadness when we lose a character because we spend so much time learning about their lives. We see the characters losses, their loves and their own griefs.
We begin to empathize with them. Rowney said it's completely normal to feel sad when they die.
We wanted to know which television character deaths hit the hardest for people.
Redditor RIGORR_MORTIS asked:
"What was the saddest death in any TV Series?"
If you're a fan of any of these shows, you might want to grab a tissue.
Futurama
"Seymour the dog in Futurama."
- wanderingstorm
"I normally skip 'Jurassic Bark' as I know I can't handle it. But upon a recent re-binge-watch from beginning to end I decided to put on a brave face, knew what I was getting into, braced myself, and watched it along with all the other episodes."
"I had to stop watching because I couldn't see the TV through my tears."
- LittlestSlipper55
sad happy tears GIF by HULUGiphyThe Good Place
"Chidi wasn't the saddest but made me cry when he went to the door."
- reilmb
"I just watched the finale a couple nights ago and cried through the whole thing for like umpteenth time. Chidi was hard to watch but Jason just hit harder for me. Something about him being so carefree, happy go lucky and still being the first to go...man. Then he waits like 1000 Jeremy Bearemies just to go and break our hearts again"
- LilPudz
season 2 2x5 GIF by NBCGiphyBuffy the Vampire Slayer
"Buffy's mom."
- user deleted
"Yes, that was one of the most crushing deaths in any series. Second would have to be Ms. Calendars' death in season 2."
- Jllbtvs
"This was the first one that came to mind, I think it's because it feels so raw and real. It's not done to further the overarching plot, it's just random and sudden and shocking and just f*cking destroys you, like death does in real life."
- nada_accomplished
Breaking Bad
"The kid from Breaking Bad on the bike."
- A_Reddit_Commenter19
"The moment Todd really became unredeemable."
- Blastspark01
"I don't see it as the moment he becomes irredeemable, but as the moment you see who he really is."
- GeebusNZ
Breaking Bad Crying GIFGiphy"Andrea was worse."
- DerpDerpersonMD
"That's the worst moment in breaking bad. It's one of those moments that's so awful you almost resent the writers for putting it in there. In a way it shows you Jesse would feel, just wishing it wouldn't have happened. That show always blows my mind with how their able make you to feel such strong emotions."
- BDady
The documentary Planet Earth.
"That polar bear in the Planet Earth (2?). Can't watch it again, absolutely devastating seeing it just give up and die next to the walruses because it has no energy to hunt anymore."
- Swaggernuggets69
"God the one where the baby elephant wanders the wrong direction in the dust storm was so painful."
- Keyspam102
"No but the baby flamingo with its legs covered in salt?!"
- IsabellaGalavant
M*A*S*H
"Henry Blake from MASH."
- KayBeaux
"'His plane was shoot down over the Sea of Japan, there were no survivors.' That part always gets me."
- Jack1715
"The clang of that dropped instrument after Radar gives the news. Silence <clang!> back to work. The enormity of the impact, and the inability to deal with it was especially tough."
- theservman
Scrubs.
"Ben Sullivan (Brendan Fraser) Scrubs."
- luvgun21
"Scrubs handled death so well."
"I still think about the Steak Night episode, and the one from Season 1 where all 3 of them have a patient that dies."
"And of course when Dr. Cox approved those I'll fated organ transplants, watching him lose that last patient was heart wrenching."
"It gets remembered as a mostly goofy show, but when it came time to be serious, it really didn't pull any punches, and it didn't do the typical sitcom thing of immediately following a heavy moment with a sh*tty joke to break the mood."
- Shaun32887
scrubs screams internally GIFGiphyWhen fiction meets real life.
"Any character they kill off because the actor actually dies."
- mustang-and-a-truck
"Coach on Cheers - Nicholas Colasanto. He died in between seasons, and so they wrote it into the show when the fourth season came back that he was gone. The last moment of the last episode of Cheers is Ted Danson straightening the portrait of Geronimo, which hung in Nicks dressing room and they hung on the set in remembrance of him."
- HeyYoEowyn
"When Phil Hartman was murdered they had to kill off his character on Newsradio. It's a completely heartbreaking episode to watch. The actors are openly weeping and obviously devastated."
- I_Crush_Your_Head
"Yes. John Spencer aka Leo McGarry, West Wing."
- thewarnersisterDot
If you cried at any of these fictional deaths, it's okay! It's actually really good to cry.
Crying releases stress, restores emotional balance, improves our mood, and even detoxes the body.
So binge watch your favorite show and cry on.
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