I just realized...

[pyrephox]

There is a whole sub-genre of creative works where Boy A meets Free Spirited Girl B, and they have delightful adventures together, form a friendship and/or romance...then the girl dies horribly or tragically, and the boy learns a Life Lesson.

Am I the only one to find this more than a little disturbing?

Comments

[archangelbeth]

There was a recent thread on the Bujold mailing list which... pretty much had that, yeah. Bujold herself pointed it out.

I don't know if there's a sub-genre where Boy A is the one who perishes, etc., though.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Not really. And in my admittedly small sample of manga, the Untouchably Awesome Dead Girlfriend/Sister/Childhood Crush Who Eternally Affects The Boy's Future Romantic Relationships trope is way too common. It's right up there with the Obligatory Dead Parent(s) of console RPG cliches.

[siadea.livejournal.com]

There is a particular movie out there that is otherwise very good except for that. Yeeeeeah.

Something something 'beautiful woman as symbol (in this case of freedom)' internalized instead of externalized as masculine norm ceases to need an exemplar of the concept...

[brianh]

It is disturbing, yes. >_< The oldest one I can remember is Bridge to Terebithia, which is about to be a movie! (Is that what brought this up?)

[letiwolf.livejournal.com]

Huh, that's never a trend that I noticed.

...probably because I don't tend to like Tragedy, I identify far more strongly with the Free Spirited Girl than with the male of any kind, and if she dies, I lose interest.