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Something I’ve started to find odd in fantasy books is that most characters have no problem taking a human life.  I can understand monsters, but it’s rare that a fantasy hero will have any hesitation in killing.  Even if they’ve never killed before and there is no thinking back to the act.  Sword stabs, body falls, and the hero moves on to the next chapter.  When I was younger, this never phased me and it’s only recently that I realized how strange it is.  This isn’t even the beginning of the situation.

Ever read a book where the character is noble, honorable, and everything good then commits blatant murder in a bar fight?  Again you see this in fantasy a lot where local thugs are put in as drunken fodder.  It’s as if the local guard were given a memo that these characters are allowed to kill if pushed in any way.  I’ve always wanted to read a story where a hero does this and is arrested.  Maybe I’ll do it at some point, but it wouldn’t make sense for Legends of Windemere.  I’ve already established that the heroes know this is a bad thing.  Fight and injure is one thing, but killing is something else.

Then there is the emotion behind killing.  This is more teaser than spoiler since I won’t use certain names.  While writing the 5th book of Legends of Windemere, I got to a fight between Luke Callindor and another warrior.  It suddenly dawned on me that Luke had never killed another man before.  He’d taken out monsters and humanoids like orcs and goblins, but this was something else.  The other heroes are more used to death with their former careers or the life they grew up in.  Luke is rather pampered in that way, so this was a big scene.  One that he had to talk to a few people to get his head around because it scared him that he didn’t feel as much guilt as he expected.  It wasn’t full grief over taking another life, but it was a reaction.  I think this milestone for a character is overlooked rather often.  Killing a goblin or demon is one thing, but the first kill of another human in battle strikes me as needing an emotional and mental impact.

Now this isn’t a call for no killing in stories because some require the violence.  All I’m saying is that it should fit the established character.  Wolverine and Punisher will kill an enemy without batting an eye or shedding a tear.  Spider-Man and Superman will try to find another way or accept that they might fight the captured enemy again.  It’s simply who they are and the code they follow.

As an author and a reader, one must take the mentality of a character into account when analyzing their actions.  We might do or feel something different in a situation than what ends up on the page.  If you’re the type to have no problem killing someone in a bar fight then that’s you.  If the character has been established as killing only as a last resort or is a pacifist then they shouldn’t take that life.