Ever become sad about a character's death in fiction?

[Sunflorazumarill]

Recently, I watched an LP of a visual novel on Youtube. I won't spoil anything, but the beginning involved the death of a kind and sweet girl. As the VN went on, I became a little attached to her and by the end I actually cried. I still feel sad for her sometimes when I look up something pertaining to the VN and I actually created an AU one-shot where that girl lives and falls in love with the main protagonist as a way to try and make me feel better. I guess I consider her to be too kind to have died and wished she had lived.

Now that I've shared this story with you, I have to ask. Has there ever been a moment when a character died in a TV show, anime, video game, or anything else, and it make you sad for a while?

[Naryoril]

I probably get attached and moved a bit too easily, i have tears in my eyes quite often when playing a game or reading a story, for sad as well as for happy occasions.

That said, if anyone watches or reads Clannad (especially with After Story), and doesn't get sad, he or she simply has a heart of stone.

[Wafu-Yoshino]

Good question.

For me it is different. Death is something im not afraid of. But that has probadly something to do with my past. When you look at death, it is the only thing in life that is absolutely certain. Everyone dies at the end, there is no turning back.

In my case, I feel sadness and pity much more if a character I like suffer from unrequited love or something similliar. And crying, havent cried in years. Even while I remember the last time pretty clearly and the reason behind it too.

[DeviantProtagonist]

I too can rather be sentimental, albeit more for sad occasions over happy ones. There's often times I'll need to avert my gaze when watching movies with friends, since I'd likely weep over what they couldn't imagine doing.

Shame on me, I guess.

As well, one could call me a tragedian of sorts; I enjoy these things in fiction because if something can get the eyes flowing -- or simply come close to it -- then I feel it does the job for having such a profound effect on me.

That being said, here's some prime candidates:

The Grey (2011)

Here we have an early sequence where a team of oil drilling workers were flown enroute to their job site, only for their plane to crash in midst a frozen wasteland. While recuperating, they come across someone on their last throes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2FB8f_J_U8

There's a lot of trepidation here, but with all the things they do to ease him across, it's the very question Liam Neeson's character asks is what kills me. This is easily one of the more intimate, grounded portrayals of death I've seen.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Frankly, there's more than enough harrowing things in this to send stone-faced WW2 veterans packing for a life-time. None of our experiences could hope to compare, but for the sake of viewing, this death was truly hard to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSRr7wUjLxw

Two men fighting with one knife on hand; it gets to a point you don't even care who you're fighting for anymore -- it's either life or death. What made it worse was this kind of mutual, yet twisted comfort the German lends his victim.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

My favourite movie of all time, as it delves into the deepest ends of hope and despair. Here we're treated to the monologue of an elderly man released from prison, the setting in which this film takes place. It's real as it brutally gets:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kotNxb2YApk

Through the decadence of life, finally comes silence. I give great applause to this actor -- nobody else could have sold that scene and made such a lasting impact as he did. Beyond anything else, though, this man does not die in vain.