This is a request for help. The proofreader has been going through the manuscript of
Hippo Eats Dwarf looking for errors. This is the final check that the book receives before it goes to print. After this, nothing can be changed. Anyway, in the final chapter of the book (about death), I include the following definition:
Xenacate, v.: To kill a TV or movie character off so completely that no chance remains of bringing her back from the dead. Inspired by the TV show Xena: Warrior Princess. Its occurrence usually indicates that the actor playing the character has lost her job under unpleasant circumstances and has no hope of being rehired.
The proofreader has pointed out that it would be good to name a character to whom this occurred. (And I suppose it would be best to name a character on Xena itself to whom it occurred... It must have occurred to someone on that show in order to inspire the term. Though, in a pinch, an example from any show will do.) So can anyone think of a character who has been xenacated? If I use your answer I'll send you a free, signed copy of the book once it comes out (which will be in about three months). I need the answer by Friday, or Monday at the latest.
Update: I ended up using the red-shirted characters on Star Trek as an example. So thephrog wins the contest. I should note that I pulled a bit of a bait-and-switch, because I decided to revise my definition of Xenacate by deleting the part about the actor getting fired. After reviewing the few uses of the term on the internet, I decided that wasn't part of the word's meaning. Instead, it means to get killed off and not return. In which case the red-shirted characters are probably the most famous example of characters who only exist to get killed off. (Though I was tempted for a while to use the guy from MASH, but decided he didn't fit as well with the new definition.)
Comments
But does that stop him having been truly xenacated? I suppose you did say "so completely that no chance remains of bringing her[/him] back from the dead"...
Oh well, I'm posting this anyway now I've typed it.
At the end of the film he was beaten soundly by Nicolas Cage, after which he - to quote from Screenit.com - "smashes through a glass walkway, lands on top of several powers lines (and is electrocuted) and then lands on a conveyor belt that stops him under a construction pile driver that slams down onto his face".
The classic example of the opposite would be that kid in "South Park" (Kenny?) who dies in every episode.
Outside the world of horror and sci-fi death generally means death; there is no chance that the victims in "Reservoir Dogs" or "The Godfather" will return from the dead. Paradoxially, the most spectacular death sequences, the ones involving molecular disintegration or gallons of green blood, they tend to occur in the kind of films in which reincarnation is most likely.
I am reminded of the classic exchange from "Ghostbusters", in the elevator, where Harold Ramis is explaining to his comrades that should be careful where they point their wands - "Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light" - and then Dan Aykroyd nodes sagely and says "Total protonic reversal."
Erm. The other problem is that whenever I think of a supposedly final death, I think of Bobby Ewing from Dallas; I reckon that if the cheque was big enough Xena could easily rise from the grave (or they could simply do an "Untold Stories of Xena" kind-of-thing, albeit that they would have to explain why Lucy Lawless is older).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090540/
The "killing" in the title is a metaphorical death
I am also reminded of Alien3, in which Ripley falls into a pool of molten metal whilst wrestling with an alien queen that has just burst out of her chest; except that Ripley came back for the next film, or rather a clone of Ripley, but it was a stupid idea all around.
I think the definition itself is flawed. If an actor has offended the producers he or she is unlikely to be around to film a lengthy death sequence; from what I remember "Xena" ended because the people who made it had run out of ideas (after doing six years of "Xena" and a similar period of "Hercules", plus a year of "Young Hercules"), not because Lucy Lawless was asking for too much money. And simply reporting that cast member X disappeared at the end of season Y is a bit dull.
The other example I can think of is "Blakes Seven", in which the entire cast were gunned down at the end of the last episode of the last series - there was some ambiguity as to whether they were merely stunned, but it remains one of the most famously jarring endings of a show ever. In that case everybody involved was fed up with the show.
Ah, Gabrielle. I liked her more.
And oddly enough my password I had to type for the spam protection was "death".
In the UK soap Eastenders, the character "Dirty" Den Watts was killed off twice.
The first time was in 1989 when he was shot, and his daughter identified the body.
Death didn't stop him however, and he returned in 2003, to the surprise of everyone, only to again be killed off in September this year, knocked out with a doorstop and having his corpse encased in concrete under the floor of a pub.
I'm not sure of the exact cause of it.
Shannon on Lost. They buried her, and at the end of the original show, I thought they might be doing the typical thing wherein they fake the audience out and they're still alive.
Likewise, one-off movies are meaningless as there is no continuation beyond that 'episode', but characters killed off in a long running series might count. Unfortunately, I can't think of any that didn't occur as either the result of the actor's death, or the result of adhering to the plot of a series of books.
So the case of Malkovich's character on Con Air might work, because it was such an over-the-top and irreversible death.
Is that over the top and irreversible enough for you?
Good thing the proofreader said something, or I might have had a flawed definition in the book.
They cut her due to budget, but I guess she never really died or anything - so I don't know if this would fit? But it's interesting ;')
Would characters from the hit TV show "Lost" count? They never come back and one just died recently!
Of all of the examples the MASH one was the best because there was no way in Korea anyone was going to back to life.
KRUSTY
Poochie's dead! (laughs) (kids in audience cheer) Well kids, we all know that sometimes when cartoon characters die, they're back again the very next week. That's why I'm presenting this sworn affidavit that Poochie will never, ever, ever return!
LAWYER
This document conforms to all applicable laws and statutes.
You can't get much more unequivocal than that!
DoctorPsi
Maude may not qualify because she did return for one of the Simpsons Hallowe'en episodes, but she "returned from the dead" which implies she really was dead in the first place.
I just saw Boone fall in the yellow plane earlier on tonight. I thought there was still a chance I'd find out he'd survived next week, and now it's been ruined for me, by the comment above.
("Lost viewer," sorry about the spoiler. I'm an idiot.)
I heard that the female fan base bailed on the show in droves, so he was written back in for season 7 ('descended' with no memory of his time 'up there'). I suppose flexible SciFi scientific and philosophical rules tend to allow anything to happen.
But the series continued to do well, and eventually Gurney wanted to come back on board, so to speak. Everybody involved was regretful that, this not being a sci-fi or fantasy series, it was no-go.
But, in keeping with the spirit of competition, I nominate Coach on "Cheers" to be the definition of Xenacate. They did a special episode in honor of him so they wouldn't have dared bring him back after that.
A similar thing happened with Detective Nick Yemana on "Barney Miller" when Jack Soo died.
(However, they did bring him back a couple seasons later. Ah well.)
Also, they killed off *the main frickin' character* in Earth, Final Conflict.. That show was rife with important characters dying left and right.. Which does add some drama, but you lose fans of individual characters.. Still, if TV and Movies have shown us one thing, it's that writers are endlessly creative (and non-creative) in coming up with ways to bring back favorite characters from beyond the veil..
It should be noted, regarding Henry Blake on MASH, they didn't tell the cast and crew they were going to kill him.. Was just going to be 'oh, ok, he's off back hom, yay for Henry!', then they shot the final scene. It's why some of the reaction shots are so good in that one; they were genuine expressions of shock, including someone dropping a tray of instruments.
Radar: "I have a message. Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Blake's plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors."
The term probably applies more to bit characters and villians who might otherwise start casting a shadow on the main ones, given their popularity.
Also in the Buffy-verse, there is Anya in the final episode. Supposedly that one was due to the actress who played her asking writer/creator Joss Whedon to kill her off, so that no future stories could be done using the character with a different actor (a la Bewitched or Roseanne).