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Death is an inevitable part of most video games. And putting aside the hundreds or thousands of enemies, some of which look exactly the same, that you will indiscriminately take out over the course of the game before you hit those end credits, there are, of course, those distinct character deaths that hit you particularly hard. But the beauty of video games is the freedom of choice and possibility they present to the player. often that they can actually affect the outcome of the story and in some situations even prevent a beloved character from shuffling off their mortal coil.
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00:00Death is an inevitable part of most video games and putting aside the hundreds or thousands of
00:06enemies, some of which look exactly the same, that you will indiscriminately take out over
00:10the course of the game before you hit those end credits, there are of course those distinct
00:14character deaths that hit you particularly hard. But the beauty of video games is the freedom of
00:19choice and possibility they present to the player, often that they can actually affect the outcome of
00:25the story and in some situations even prevent a beloved character from shuffling off their mortal
00:31coil. We've all played games that granted the player agency to ensure a character remained alive,
00:37but to the same token, we've all desperately tried to save a character whose fate was unfortunately
00:43sealed by the developers all along. And the latter is absolutely the case with the 10 games I'm going
00:50to be telling you about now, all of which absolutely broke our hearts with character deaths that we
00:55just couldn't do anything about. Now of course, I am talking about big character deaths, so there
01:01are spoilers ahead, be wary. I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are 10 video game deaths you were powerless
01:08to stop, but kept trying anyway. Oi, you, what are you buying? What are you selling? Well, I'm so
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01:33Number 10, Roebuck and Polonski, Call of Duty World at War. Near the end of the American campaign in
01:39Call of Duty World at War, you'll be given a choice of saving one of the two beloved comrades that
01:44you've
01:45been through fresh hell with, Sergeant Roebuck or Private Polonski. When the pair search for a group of
01:51Japanese soldiers, they suddenly activate concealed grenades, at which point the player needs to choose
01:57whether they want to save Roebuck or Polonski from certain death. The outcome is, as you can imagine,
02:03absolutely heart-rending no matter who you save. And even for the survivor themselves, they're racked with
02:08guilt over the soldier that met their demise. It's just pretty brutal no matter how you look at it.
02:13And many players felt it too, to the extent that they experimented around trying to figure out a
02:19way to take the Japanese soldiers out before they could ready the nades. It was eventually discovered
02:24that you technically can save both of them if you throw an explosive and kill all the soldiers before
02:31they can strike, but there's a catch, which is why I said save like that. Though both soldiers will
02:37stand upright and appear to be alive, one of them will still react as though the other has died.
02:43And as for the other totally not dead soldier? Well, there'll be an unresponsive spectre-like
02:48zombie from this point forward for the entire game to come, so that might be a fate worse than
02:54death. Maybe just go with the original.
02:56Number 9. Grey Fox – Metal Gear Solid
02:59One of the most tragic moments in Metal Gear Solid occurs when your old frenemy Grey Fox shows up in
03:05the middle of the Metal Gear Rex boss fight in order to offer some assistance. Though Fox absolutely does help
03:11you out destroying Rex's radome. In doing so, he's also crushed against a wall by Rex, which mortally wounds him.
03:19As he dies, he urges Snake to fire their Stinger missile launcher at Rex, even as villain Liquid Snake,
03:26who is piloting Rex, points out that if he does that he's gonna kill Fox. At this point, control is
03:32handed back to the player and if you do as Fox instructs and attempt to fire the Stinger,
03:37Snake will point out he can't do it, as doing so will finish his friend off. Players might then try
03:43and find a way to fire the Stinger at a different part of Rex's
03:46chassis further away from Fox, but alas, there's nothing to be done. After a little while, a cutscene kicks in,
03:53wherein Rex knocks Fox to the floor and then crushes him beneath his foot, ending him once and for all.
03:59It's easily one of the most brutal character deaths in the entire franchise, and considering you can save another imperiled
04:06character, Meryl, earlier in the game, fans can't really be blamed for thinking there must be a way to rescue
04:12Fox as well.
04:13Number 8, Lenny Summers, Red Dead Redemption 2
04:17Lenny Summers is absolutely one of the most likable characters in Red Dead Redemption 2, and this is a game
04:22with a lot of colourful characters, so that's really saying something.
04:26But for Lenny, it was really from the moment that we got drunk at a bar with him in Valentine,
04:31he was just this surefire fan favourite ride or die.
04:35But that's exactly what makes Lenny's death that much more heartbreaking. During the robbery of the Le Moyne National Bank,
04:42as Lenny and protagonist Arthur attempt to flee across a rooftop, Lenny's met by two Pinkertons who immediately gun him
04:48down.
04:49This being a game from Rockstar who've offered alternate fates for supporting characters in a lot of GTA games, players
04:55sort of assumed that if they were a little bit quicker on the draw, maybe they could shoot the Pinkertons
05:01before they open fire on Lenny.
05:03But no, unfortunately there's nothing you can actually do here. Of course that hasn't stopped fans from modding the game
05:10so they can teleport to Lenny, pick him up and fly away before the Pinkertons riddle him with lead.
05:14Sadly, there's no mod that keeps Lenny alive in the story mode, but I guess at least we still had
05:21that fun night out. Lenny! That was a good bit.
05:24Number 7, Noble 6, Halo Reach
05:27Halo Reach's post-credits scene sees the player staging a last stand as they attempt to defeat the Pillar of
05:33Autumn while it escapes Reach, with their position becoming overwhelmed by Covenant forces.
05:38You'll eventually be swarmed and killed by the Covenant, leading to an affecting final scene, which eulogizes Noble 6 and
05:46his brave team.
05:47But given that that final mission's title is survive, you'd really be forgiven for assuming there might be a way
05:53to, you know, survive.
05:55Even with Halo Reach being a prequel which leads into the events of Halo Combat Evolved and in turn seemingly
06:02sealing the fates of Noble Team, many players initially believed that if they just fought long and hard enough, they
06:08could actually make it out in one piece.
06:10But no matter how long you can last against the Covenant, you will eventually be overcome by the enemy, which
06:16is programmed to become increasingly aggressive until they take you out.
06:20Much as it stings to hear, and you would know this from many TV shows, movies, books, and video games
06:26where you've encountered this before, sometimes that's just the only way it's gonna play out.
06:31Number 6, Emperor Uriel Septim The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion
06:35The instigating death in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion is that of Uriel Septim, the Patrick Stewart-voiced Emperor who's
06:42assassinated in the game's opening moments, setting the rest of the story in motion.
06:47Despite the fact that his demise is kind of necessary for the entire story to unfold at all, it still
06:53hasn't stopped a lot of players, and I mean, pretty much anyone who's played that beginning section more than once,
06:59from wondering if they can just get ahead of the situation and take that assassin out before they get Uriel.
07:04I mean, I think we probably all did it again if you played Remastered.
07:08Even accepting Bethesda's penchant for branching storylines and wildly varying outcomes, there is no official canonical way to keep Uriel
07:17Septim alive.
07:18But with players being players and Bethesda games being the perfect breeding ground for mods, of course some fans discovered
07:25ways that you can save Uriel by glitching through a wall and sneaking up on that assassin before he gets
07:32the chance to grease the Emperor.
07:33Although if that happens, the Emperor will just follow you around the sewer like a lost puppy, and then the
07:39rest of the game still takes place as if he died, because again, that was already set in motion, but
07:45kind of funny if you want to try it out.
07:47Number five, Jen, Prey.
07:502006's cult classic FPS Prey drops one hell of a devastating mid-game plot twist, when protagonist Tommy's girlfriend Jen,
07:58who's kidnapped by aliens at the start of the game, is revealed to have had her upper body surgically grafted
08:05onto the lower body of a reptilian creature.
08:08More to the point, this creature has pretty firm designs on killing you, so there's really not much you can
08:13do other than to take on the Jen monster type thing.
08:17After defeating the creature in a boss fight, Tommy tries to figure out how it is he could save Jen,
08:23and as players, we assume that Tommy could somehow use his spiritual powers to restore her regular form.
08:29But tragically, Jen is quick to tell Tommy nothing can be done to save her life, and that's right before
08:35she asks him to put her out of her misery, and the player has to pull the trigger themselves, which
08:41is always such a gut punch.
08:43Even if you might have hesitated at this point, assuming surely there's a way to save her, unfortunately, well you
08:49know, you understand the list by this point, there isn't, that's pretty much it.
08:53At least given the series' supernatural nature, we know for sure that Jen ends up in the afterlife-like realm
08:59known as the Land of the Ancients, so that's a little bit of a reprieve.
09:03Number four, Ethan Forrester, Telltale's Game of Thrones.
09:07For all its flaws, Telltale's Game of Thrones did absolutely stay true to the mantra of the TV show that
09:14nobody is safe, not even the main guy.
09:16Case in point, one of the main playable characters introduced in the game's first episode is Ethan Forrester, the young
09:23teenage heir to House Forrester.
09:26Of all the main characters, he seems like he's the safest, and even not, this being a Telltale game and
09:31all, you might get some choice in whether or not he ends up surviving, right?
09:35Well, that's not what happens. Instead, at the very end of the very first episode, Ethan Forrester is taken out
09:43by possibly one of the worst fictional characters ever envisioned, and that is, of course, dickhead Ramsay Bolton.
09:50Now, at first, players might assume that they could go back, make some different decisions, and give Ethan a reprieve,
09:56but in fact, all story permutations lead to that same tragic outcome.
10:01There is no way for players to save him. While a lot of players were definitely frustrated that they couldn't
10:07find another fate for Ethan, it was also kind of smart of Telltale to toy with player expectations, that even
10:13though they have a lot of agency in these games, they still can't control everything.
10:18Number three, Reggie Rowe, Infamous Second Son. One of the most important characters in Infamous Second Son is protagonist Delson
10:26Rowe's brother, Reggie. He's killed near the end of the game when villain Augustine leaves the pair dangling from a
10:32platform with Reggie's legs encased in concrete.
10:36Knowing that Delson can't save them both, and the concrete is soon going to encase his brother as well, Reggie
10:42lets go of Delson's hand. When he does so, he does fall to his death.
10:47But Infamous is a superhero franchise, you might think. Combined with the first game's time travel element, there must be
10:53some way to undo what happened to Reggie. Given the players probably know that Delson has a fourth power which
10:59hasn't been unlocked yet, what if it's the ability to manipulate time, and before the games end, he'll manage to
11:06go back and save his bro? Well, unfortunately, that isn't what happens.
11:11After defeating Augustine, it turns out that that special fourth power unknown up until this point is concrete, which is
11:19absolutely not going to help Reggie, and in some ways is sort of cruelly ironic.
11:23Even though the game has a karma system which somewhat influences the story, you're simply wasting your time if you
11:29attempt a squeaky clean playthrough, hoping that in doing so you can avert your digital sibling's fate. That one, unfortunately,
11:37is done and dusted.
11:39Locked in stone. It's concrete.
11:46Two of the most memorable supporting characters in The Last of Us are Sam and Henry, brothers that you encounter
11:52and some of the only people you encounter who don't try and murder you on sight.
11:56During one mid-game set piece, you need to provide cover using a sniper rifle as Sam, Henry, and Ellie
12:03traverse perilous terrain.
12:05Clickers inevitably eventually attack the group, at which point Henry and Sam are both tackled to the ground.
12:11Players are then prompted to offer assistance, but you've only got time to shoot the clicker attacking one of the
12:17brothers.
12:17Shortly after this sequence, it's devastatingly revealed that young Sam was actually bitten and has become infected.
12:25When he attacks Ellie, Henry shoots him dead before turning the gun on himself out of grief.
12:30There is enough ambiguity in the gameplay here that you could be led to believe if you decided to snipe
12:36the clicker who is attacking Sam instead of Henry, maybe this could be avoided.
12:40But The Last of Us, as you'd know if you've played it or watched it or just heard anything about
12:46it, is not that type of game.
12:48Pretty much everything always goes wrong.
12:50And no matter which clicker you shoot in this situation, the outcome is set in stone.
12:55Sam's fate is sealed, and in turn, his brothers also.
12:58Number 1, Aerith Gainsborough, Final Fantasy VII.
13:02And finally, was there ever going to be any other choice for number 1?
13:05Sure, there are plenty of other characters that are devastatingly taken from us in an inevitable way in plenty of
13:11games.
13:11And if I haven't mentioned them, please put them in that comment section.
13:15But I couldn't do this video without telling you about Aerith.
13:17There's simply no more iconic or lamented death scene in video game history than that of Aerith.
13:24And this happens in the original version of Final Fantasy VII.
13:27The moment she was cut down by Sephiroth is a serious pain point for an entire generation of gamers.
13:34And it didn't take long for players to try and figure out a way to bring her back from the
13:39dead or, ideally, circumvent her demise entirely.
13:42All over the world in the late 90s, it was whispered about on schoolyards and all over gaming magazines that
13:49there was some kind of secret mission you could do which would save Aerith from this fate.
13:53Unfortunately, it simply wasn't true.
13:56There is no canon-authorized way to keep Aerith alive, with players ultimately resorting to cheat devices like Game Sharks
14:04or mods to play as Aerith following her expiration.
14:07Recently, a glitch was also discovered, which allowed players to keep Aerith in their party until the end of the
14:13game.
14:13But in terms of the actual story, she is, of course, still treated as dead.
14:18The subject of Aerith's fate has also been something of a touchy subject in the ongoing remake project.
14:24And considering what a convoluted way they decided to deal with it at the end of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth,
14:30where there's sort of a Schrodinger's cat situation going on, where she's both dead and alive,
14:36it understandably hasn't given still-distraught fans too much comfort.
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