Death
I’ve always wondered this when it comes to some stories involving a set location that has either high levels of science or magic. These are the ones where at least one person dies in every adventure. Not always random people too. You get named characters introduced in an episode and they are killed at some point. They had lives, connections, and an existence in that world. Then, they’re gone and are sometimes joined by others by the time the problem is solved.
While I get that this helps to raise the stakes in stories, it does come with a curious issue for me:
Why would people still live in these areas or attends these schools?
In the real world, a high death count would drive people away from an area. Only those who are unable to move away or believe they will be fine will stay. Yet, I can’t see many seeing the stats on these places and wanting to put their lives at risk. Some stories play this off as ‘the rewards outweigh the threat of death’, but that is not as common a mentality as one would imagine. Not when person flat out see or are affected by the lose of a community member. I can’t remember any stories where one or several people are killed in an incident then the next one has fewer characters due to a few deciding they want to be somewhere safer. It’s not even a discussion most of the time.
Now, I do know that this is for a story to continue. Heroes are heroes because they don’t give up. Same goes for their allies who might stay simply because they trust in their heroic friend. Still, the surrounding characters don’t really seem to run away. Is it just how humans work though? We have people living in regions where natural disasters are common and they’ve come to accept that fact. Many just shrug when a tornado or hurricane is coming. Guess if you survive enough, you just assume you will make it through and have to rebuild. Not sure if this falls under blind acceptance or pure stubbornness though. It could explain why this is found in fiction too without there being much discussion.
On the other hand, I do think there should be conversations about the possibility of leaving if the death count is high. 5 people being killed in a day by a magic spell run amok or a robotic experiment going berserk should have some people questioning their decision to stay. Perhaps it isn’t important if it isn’t the main characters doing it, but you don’t even see a mention of the tension at times. Nobody is scared of the next accident taking their life. Could it be that everyone thinks they’re the main character and will be safe from whatever happens? Lots of psychology to consider here when writing a story that continues after such events.
Personally, I don’t really know what to do here. Having a story stop because everyone is scared is definitely not a good idea. Yet, moving on with no mention of the fear and tension feels lazy. There is a simpler middle ground with having the emotions talked about and showing unnamed characters leaving. You don’t really reduce the population since they appear solely to be departing. Seems the easiest and cleanest way to tackle this and put a handful of readers at ease. Good chance that I’m not the majority in thinking about this problem.
So, what do you think about characters staying in areas with a high risk of death?
Legends of Windemere 
I always wondered about people who live in areas where kaiju run amok! 😊 I’ve seen a lot of books about magic schools besides Harry Potter where the possibility of death is sky high. Usually, fellow students are the potential murderers out of rivalry. And I used to think getting bullied at my high school was bad. I really liked the high stakes in HP and how they were handled. But later stories of magic schools seemed to crank up the death toll. I’m not sure if for shock value or not. I didn’t see the emotional toll on the characters. Everyone seemed so casual about it. That’s why I love LoTR. Many people died during the course of the adventure. But you could see the toll it took on the hobbits.
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Guess Kaiju would be like people living in earthquake areas. The threat isn’t often enough to make the place unlivable. LoTR makes sense with the war and adventure setting. HP is a weird one for me. Why do parents send kids back to a school with a high accident number?
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When I saw Godzilla Minus One and the devastation, I was glad I live where I live.
Yes, it makes you wonder about those parents, especially when Dumbledore talked about an area in the school where students could possibly experience a painful death.
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Godzilla Minus One was a great movie. I assume Hogwarts avoided parent-teacher conferences.
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The only reason for characters to stay in a high danger zone is if there was a compelling reason that would make sense to the reader. An example would be ordered from superiors to stay until the mission is accomplished.
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I thought so too. Then again, we hear of people staying in natural disaster zones. Maybe it’s human nature to believe the bad stuff won’t happen to us even if we’re in its path.
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I think that may be it.
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I think John is right. People think it won’t happen to them. And when it does, they wail, ‘Why me?’
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Human nature is my theory.
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It’s totally realistic to stay even without good reasons. Spend some time on Google Earth and look at the construction up the sides of Mt. Vesuvius and other places. Seattle, etc. Your position is more compelling if these horrific events occur more often. Even then, Florida should be a low population area by now, but it isn’t. A sinking continent or something might make for an interesting Exodus type tale.
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You’ve got tornado alley too.
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I guess whoever is in charge could be covering up the deaths? Or kids might stay at a dangerous magical school because there is nowhere else they can get the training they want.
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The odd thing is that the deaths aren’t shown to be covered up. They’re in the open and public too.
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