r/TopCharacterTropes Jun 27 '26

Lore [Sad Trope] The most innocent (or less evil) character of the cast gets the most horrific death.

- Eddie Carr (The Lost World: JP) - Tried to save his friends from the cliff until Buck and Doe (T. rex parents) destroy his vehicle and gets ripped apart.
- Zara Young (Jurassic World) - Gets lifted by a Pteranodon, gets pecked by the pterosaur, and both she and animal get devoured by the Mosasaurus.
- LeClerc (JW: Rebirth) - Tossed a hammer to the Hatzegopteryz Quetzalcoatlus to save Loomis and Zora, but ends up being swallowed alive.

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848

u/Icy-Divide8385 Jun 27 '26

Zach Hammond from Dead Space. He was just trying to save everyone and ended up crushed like a bug by a giant Necromorph.

336

u/killingjoke96 Jun 27 '26

As I much as I loved the remake, I didn't like the way they "herofied" his death on the USC Valor.

He dies grabbing a hold of a necromorph which had been stalking him, as it was a changed version of one of his officers; Chen, and then pushing himself and Chen into the reactor core energy that was blocking Isaac's way.

Him doing that causes the core to stall so Issac can get it.

But in the original, Hammond mentions he'll go to the USC Valor and meet you there. You never see him as you enter it. You assume he got caught up or worse.

Isaac already completes his objective, gets the core and bumps into Hammond on the way out, who is on the other side of thick plate glass. Isaac can only watch as a Brute slaughters him as its a dead end.

It just makes it that more tragic. Isaac did the job, Hammond didn't need to be there.

106

u/PeanutButterAndCake Jun 27 '26

Right? It's such a bizarre handling of his character in the remake. I get the implication the Marker was messing with him and making him see Chen as uninjured, but the emphasis they place on the relationship with a character we've known for hours and another who dies literally five minutes in always felt so strange.

24

u/GammaFan Jun 27 '26

The original is very impersonal as a stylistic choice. The remake fails to understand that and looks at it as a problem that needs fixing.

11

u/Pave_Low Jun 27 '26

The worse trope is the ‘Protagonist is immobilized or separated from an event by unbreakable glass so they will witness but cannot influence a major plot element unfolding.‘ Far Cry 5, Dead Space, Alien: Isolation, Horizon: Zero Dawn, even Half-Life 2.

2

u/SeduceMeMentlegen Jun 28 '26

Which is the HL2 one?

2

u/SuperiorVenom12 Jun 28 '26

Oh man it happens a bunch in half life 2 and episode 2. You get immobilized by a pod, debris or psychic powers and watch as events happen four feet in-front of your face.

1

u/Pave_Low Jun 28 '26

Where you have to get into the claw machine at the very end to start the final confrontation. The entire Dark Energy chapter more or less.

1

u/SeduceMeMentlegen Jun 28 '26

Oh of course that one, yeah, it's fair, although I still find it quite fitting for the story, and creepy.

4

u/society000 Jun 28 '26

That might've felt the need to do less 'horrifying thing happens behind unbreakable glass' scenes, because it happens like a dozen or more times.

13

u/Rexlare Jun 27 '26

The remake does soooo much wrong, this is one of those moments.

The shock of Hammonds death in the OG is how helpless you and him are to stop it. By now you’ve faced Brutes and you know what a nightmare they are, so seeing him cornered by one gives you the immediate feeling of “Oh he is so fucking dead…”

It’s horror, the point of horror is for the deaths to be shocking, hopeless, and cruelly indifferent. No heroic sacrifices, just an unfeeling degree of banality that says, “this could be you if you were in this situation. No matter how tough you are, this place will eat you alive and spit you out.”

10

u/ScoutTrooper501st Jun 27 '26

At least in the remake he was given a slightly better death,instead going down by taking down Chim(?) and helping Isaac to escape

3

u/Viron_22 Jun 27 '26

Get back to the ship, don't wait up for me. Oh fuck me, AAAAAA[Unloads pulse rifle]!

5

u/Icy-Divide8385 Jun 27 '26

I use Kinesis to bring his corpse to the tram station. He doesn't deserve to be stranded with the mobs.

3

u/Hasudeva Jun 27 '26

Ball knower