Bobby Singer – Supernatural
I’ve said this many times before in various articles on The Winchester Family Business, but let me recite it here for those that may not be familiar with my work there.
I’ll never, never, never, never, ever, never, never, ever, ever, never, never, never, forever forgive TPTB for killing off Bobby Singer. Never. Ever. Never.
The premise was pretty clear. They wanted Sam and Dean Winchester to be left to their own devices, and remove every ally they had out there. However, Castiel, who they killed off in the very same season in episode two, was an angel. It’s rather easy to flip the revival switch with him. With Bobby, they kind of painted themselves in a corner.
“Death’s Door” was massive, teary, dramatic goodbye episode as Bobby lingers near death in the hospital after being shot in the head by Dick Roman. Yes, shot in the head by a supernatural being that really could have easily eaten him or at least turn his insides into swiss cheese. Bobby eventually dies, and then it’s left as a cliffhanger weather he goes with the reaper or not.
Honestly, if you were going to have to balls to kill off a long time beloved character like that (he was there from season one!) and do it in such a dramatic way, don’t bring him back as a ghost. A disgruntled, angry, unstable ghost that actually pisses off Sam and Dean instead of earn their allegiance. We go through all that and in the finale, the actually kill him for real, burning the flask that was his connection to this earth. Oh, except he’s brought back in season 8 because his apparently his soul was dragged to Hell by a rogue reaper paid off by Crowley and he conveniently gets saved by Sam, who just happens to need to save an innocent soul from Hell for the trials. Wow, lucky how that worked out.
Don’t get me wrong. I loved seeing Bobby back. It made me realize how much I missed him. But talk about taking a much loved father figure, the one ounce of stability in Sam and Dean’s life character and do this to him? To us as fans? It’s sacrilege. I read this somewhere, it’s like Batman without Alfred, Ironman without Pepper. All heroes need their keepers. If you’re going to bring him back, give him back his salvage yard, his house, his phones, his budding romance with Sheriff Jody, his broken down Chevelle, and let’s get back to hunter business as usual.
Favorite quotes:
Bobby: Do I look like a ditchable prom-date to you?
Sam: No, Bobby. Of course not.
Dean: This is about me… and Sam. Ok? This isn’t your fight.
Bobby: The hell it isn’t! Family don’t end with blood, boy.
You stupid, stupid son of a bitch. Well, boo-hoo! I am so sorry your feelings are hurt, princess! Are you under the impression that family’s supposed to make you feel good, make you an apple pie, maybe? They’re supposed to make you miserable! That’s why they’re family!
Now are we done feeling our feelings? Because I’d like to get out of this room before we both start growing lady parts.
Now get the hell off my property before I blast you so full of rock-salt that you start crapping margaritas!
I agree with almost all of these. I never watched Breaking Bad, or The Simpsons (hangs head in shame), but all the shows I do watch I agree with. Frankly, I would have preferred Alaric to come back over Jeremy. Killing Bobby was a HUGE mistake. I always thought they should have had him in a coma, on life support so he could come back if needed, but still be off the table for season seven. Well, they didn’t ask me, so…
Ianto Jones – Torchwood
This is my first time posting. I don’t know if this death will count because I don’t know if there will be more seasons of Torchwood or not, but here goes….
Torchwood is about a team of people, but Ianto was the real heart of the team. He was funny, caring, witty, and extremely loyal.
Many spoilers follow.
I realize some people may say that his death did serve a purpose in that it caused Jack to be so broken that he was able to kill his own grandson in the next ep, but for me, Ianto’s death was sad and meaningless. It was a death simply because Torchwood is a dark show, and no one is safe. I do like dark shows. However, only when something is accomplished by that person’s death. Even Tosh and Owen had a hero’s death because they were helping save Cardiff, and possibly the world, when they died.
I digress, but Ianto simply died; there was no greater meaning. I mean some would say he died in the name of duty, but for me, there was no purpose to his death.
I’m getting sad just writing this, but I’ve been a lurker for a while, so it makes me happy finally posting.
As, a final note, I agree with what’s been said previously, and I enjoyed the article.
Welcome first time poster! I always get excited when a lurker posts for the first time. I’m happy you took the time to post here!
Honestly, Torchwood is on my list of shows I must see. To show you how behind the eight ball I am, I’m still in the 2005 season of Dr. Who. Never seen it before. So Torchwood will happen eventually. Thank God for Netflix.
You didn’t spoil anything for me, but I do get the lingering pain of a character death from shows past. I was always bitter about Charlie, Sun and Jin on Lost and Jonathan Kent on Smallville. It affects the way you go back and rewatch shows, no?
Thanks for posting and I hope to see more from you in the future.
I don’t watch all of these shows but I enjoyed the article. The loss of Bobby from SPN and Alaric from TVD were two of the ones that stung. Especially Bobby, he was one of my favorite characters of all time. I found Damon and Alaric very charismatic together and I hope they can bring him back in some form. I love seeing Bobby every time he reappears but I am always torn between that and thinking they should just leave it be!
I always hate it when a character gets killed off when contract negotiations break down with an actor. It seems so mean spirited to me. Not only do you get no raise but we will kill you off so you can’t return ingrate!! I don’t think that happened with these two actors mind, you just that it does happen sometimes.
comma s/b after ‘you’ in last sentence! Sheesh.