Watch the Footage archive

I have seen some speculation that characters are about to die (mostly due to the Cat's ominously vague Tweets) on other sections of this forum. Before I go, I have just one question:

If a character dies in the real world... what happens to his story?

Food for thought.

I believe that the characters escape would already ruin the fictional world they came from if they had a big part. So most likely nothing. They would die and disappear

The best way to decide it is by looking at other works of fiction in wich the wall literally breaks and they come to our world, then decide wich one seems to fit. But I have to go, so I can't formulate that up.

I would imagine it depends on what part of the story's timeline the character was taken from. As for specifics, however, I have no clue whatsoever, but I'm willing to take the time to contemplate it further.

...wow look at how verbose i'm getting these days

it's so WEIRD to look at

woo

Endless Sea wrote:I would imagine it depends on what part of the story's timeline the character was taken from. As for specifics, however, I have no clue whatsoever, but I'm willing to take the time to contemplate it further.

...wow look at how verbose i'm getting these days

it's so WEIRD to look at

woo

Oh no, you noticed my evil plot to make you begin using Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness. (Hilariously, the dictionary on this site doesn't even recognize Sesquipedalian)

Maybe the fictional world has backup?

The Thursday Next books have a bunch of rules governing their own version of the fictional world, and one of which is the presence of Generics, blank slate characters that can, in time, be brought up to be any character anywhere (although most are limited to one specific archetype). What if the fictional world has copies of famous characters just in case of a getaway, or an accidental death?

Just for start it up:

• In the upcoming movie Wreck-It Ralph, if a fictional character dies in a (fictional) world that isn't their own, the die forever.

• The Thursday Next books have a bunch of rules governing their own version of the fictional world, and one of which is the presence of Generics, blank slate characters that can, in time, be brought up to be any character anywhere (although most are limited to one specific archetype). What if the fictional world has copies of famous characters just in case of a getaway, or an accidental death?

• We could also divide in between death-relation in between fictional/fictional worlds and fictinal/real worlds

Gotta go now. Keep going as you please. Good night.

JackAlsworth wrote:Maybe the fictional world has backup?

The Thursday Next books have a bunch of rules governing their own version of the fictional world, and one of which is the presence of Generics, blank slate characters that can, in time, be brought up to be any character anywhere (although most are limited to one specific archetype). What if the fictional world has copies of famous characters just in case of a getaway, or an accidental death?

It's possible. Or they could go do what the Nasuverse does with most Heroic Spirit summons. Namely, the data for the characters, their stories and legends always exist, at all times, and in fact, outside of time. The leakage into our world isn't the characters from the fictional universe itself coming through, it's a copy of that data slipping over from that side to this one.

In computer development terms: the Objects still exist inside the fictional cannon, and what dies is the instance that was created on this side.

Wait.

Phrasing it like that makes it sound as if the characters are not crossing the wall: They could be built here so long as there exists a way to access their "blueprint" on the other side.

If so, a character death here would be inconsequential to the work of fiction and the same characters could potentially spawn again?

Ooh, Mr. Administrator won't be happy with that...

Pixelmage wrote:In computer development terms: the Objects still exist inside the fictional cannon, and what dies is the instance that was created on this side.

Wait.

Phrasing it like that makes it sound as if the characters are not crossing the wall: They could be built here so long as there exists a way to access their "blueprint" on the other side.

If so, a character death here would be inconsequential to the work of fiction and the same characters could potentially spawn again?

That was the WMG I came up with, yea. Got no evidence to back it up, though. Pure bred WMG through-and-through. I pretty much just do this kind of thing for the heck of it.

Yeah, the only evidence we have so far is "the characters used to be there and now they are here," and "our books still have Sherlock Holmes/Hercule Poirot/etc. in them". (If a character in the Thursday Next 'verse actually disappeared, they would vanish from the pages of the copy of the book they were from, as well as any copies based on that). Not really enough to form any solid theories, but plenty to start throwing around guesses.

Sicon112 wrote:That was the WMG I came up with, yea. Got no evidence to back it up, though. Pure bred WMG through-and-through. I pretty much just do this kind of thing for the heck of it.

Still, it raises a VERY important point: Where does the crossing start?

See, if the chraracters are spawning here as copies of their in-fiction originals, then the originals are still there! No one actually left the fiction-side.
That could mean that the problem is on our side: Someone here is pulling copies of the fictionals into existence through the cracks.

In that case, it would also explain why the heck Deadpool didn't cross (yet): He can't or isn't trying to come here and no one pulled him through.

(Oh, I know the Meta-reason for why he's not here nor will be, above is just a possible in-game explanation that makes sense. ^^)

Deadpool is a real person that accidentally crossed the wall in the other direction, and never got out.

Actually, Deadpool's problem is a bad case of malignant tumors with a dash of Wolverine healing factor. Besides, even if he was from the real world, that wouldn't explain stuff like his ability to see text boxes.

Sicon112 wrote:Namely, the data for the characters, their stories and legends always exist, at all times, and in fact, outside of time. The leakage into our world isn't the characters from the fictional universe itself coming through, it's a copy of that data slipping over from that side to this one.

That's just about what I used in the Regulator story. I'm not exactly sure what the sleepless me meant at that time (yeah, I have no idea what I've written ), but it goes like this: There is Him, which is his character definition that's present in his story, and there's Meta-Him, who wanders outside the story. And somehow, two may coexist, or something. I believe in my case it was to swap them for a while. Now that the story is accepted, it may or may not be a part of the canon.
So, my thought on that is they did cross the wall, and if they die, they "respawn" behind it, as long as the story still exists. If the wall collapses, though, I have no idea.

That could mean that the problem is on our side: Someone here is pulling copies of the fictionals into existence through the cracks

Should we consider the possibility that we ourselves are to blame for this? One of the WMG’s buzzing around mentions how we always wonder, either as wish fulfilment (“I wish that happened in real life”), or as a part of our attempts to deconstruct and reconstruct the fiction we find unbelievable in reality-terms (“what would happen if X were real?”) And we’ve also spent the last couple of centuries at LEAST breaking the forth wall with fictional characters. Probably longer actually, Shakespeare characters addressed the audience sometimes didn’t they? Maybe we MADE it possible for the wall to break in the first place: maybe it’s US who have been bringing these characters through/copying them (copying seems as likely, since characters seem prone to being copied anyway, as in Alternate Reality fic, elseworlds and so on – it already happens all the time) not Mister A.

Maybe that was part of what Mister A’s initial experiments were about – working out exactly how this worked.

That's just about what I used in the Regulator story. I'm not exactly sure what the sleepless me meant at that time (yeah, I have no idea what I've written ),

Not to make you paranoid, but I’d keep an eye on that – I’m entertaining the slightly disturbing thought right now that our ability to make fiction itself may be being manipulated... it’s mostly just my paranoia, but still what you pass off as sleeplessness may have been your talent being manipulated, especially if you don't remember what you wrote (of course writers ALWAYS lose track of their own words like that sometimes, it's just the nature of the beast)... I hope that’s just me talking crazy, though (why do I always think of stuff that makes me want to go hide under the bed?)

Perhaps the proliferation of fanfic, creating several linked layers of the same canon (before getting into crossovers and such) weakened the stability of the Wall.

Perhaps the proliferation of fanfic, creating several linked layers of the same canon (before getting into crossovers and such) weakened the stability of the Wall.

It's a good possible theory, you know what they say about too many cooks spoiling the broth.Question is, why is it only just happening NOW?

And would we or would we not start to see manifestations of characters from more popular fanfiction (or at least fandom) sources first? I don't recall if Holmes had fanfic in the beginning, but he was certainly one of the earlier 'fandoms' to speak of...

Better watch out for red shirts and klingons, I'm thinking.

Scarab wrote:

Perhaps the proliferation of fanfic, creating several linked layers of the same canon (before getting into crossovers and such) weakened the stability of the Wall.

It's a good possible theory, you know what they say about too many cooks spoiling the broth.Question is, why is it only just happening NOW?

And would we or would we not start to see manifestations of characters from more popular fanfiction (or at least fandom) sources first? I don't recall if Holmes had fanfic in the beginning, but he was certainly one of the earlier 'fandoms' to speak of...

Better watch out for red shirts and klingons, I'm thinking.

And Death Stars and Daleks.

Or Daleks in Death Stars.

And Death Stars and Daleks.

Oh, lord, anything but the daleks. Getting to play around with the boundaries of reality and fiction is SO not worth the daleks.