Character survival in franchises

 character survival in franchises is a difficult thing to manage because kill too many characters your film loses its heart kill too few and all danger shown on screen is moot because no-one is gonna die. Star Wars was fairly good with this for a period of time because main characters died yoda, uncle ben, darth Vader, the emperor, han solo frozen in carbonite then killed in no.7 the entire Jedi order dying off in episode 3 while not entirely balanced main characters died so danger was always there until episode 8 this is where things started to go wrong Han had already been killed in a horrible betrayal that was solid that was good but then starting in episode 8 they began wiping the slate killing Luke, leia, wiping c3po's memory bringing back the dead emperor, snoke, Finn gets brutally hit with a lightsabre in episode 7 in 8 he is magically better there are other smaller examples but those to me seem the most egregious but then it was clear in an instant what they were doing they were wiping the slate clean as quickly as possible to make space for the new set of characters but then when its convenient to bring someone back he didn't die or force ghosts. this caused the danger to disappear for the old and new characters because they will either become a ghost or wont die because Disney needs to milk them for money. what worked in the original trilogy and the less good prequel trilogy is while people died to an extent it was permanent but it also grew throughout as the films went on more and more characters died as the danger came closer and became more pronounced whereas in the newest set of films death becomes used to make space and then reversible if the script needed. Force ghosts were always going to be a struggle because why worry if they can come back anyways they did this well by using them sparingly and not giving them any power making them really a memory of a lost character whereas in the new trilogy they can do lightning and appear whenever they want and become the one of the reasons Rey wins in the finale unbalancing the scale putting the whole franchise slightly off kilter. Harry Potter deals with death quite well over 6 movies what adds to this is the fact they are children until the later films if one of them dies even if it isn't a main character it hits on a different level because they are a child and as said earlier death comes more and more through the movies the danger literally becomes more pronounced from a floating evil monster to a walking pale monster who wants to kill an orphan child. While obviously the good guys had to win in the end it is Harry Potter after all both sides take losses notably Dumbledore dobby and Snape so while the good guys win it wasn't without losses. Good end film or end series battles need a balance because otherwise it becomes couldn't they have just done that earlier they all got through without a scratch or why worry in a franchise if they all appear invincible. Fast and furious is very bad in this regard Dom survives a plane crash, a car crash, being thrown 100s of meters by a tank being pulled down by a car, a collapsing car park,  a bus crash, a collapsing border tunnel, a possible heart attack, driving out a skyscraper in a car, explosions, even more crashes, innumerable gun fights races and more. this happens to many main characters and when Letty dies oops she's not actually dead what adds to this is the stupid stuff they get up to with each film having to add more spectacle compared to the last all danger goes out the window sure characters die: Han, Blonde police lady, Gisele but these were bound to happen Han died in  a prequel and his love interest Gisele isn't in it so they must die and if Letty is alive you have to get rid of the other love interest for Dom. The actor Paul Walker died DIED but they are still trying to put his character into the fast and furious 9 which is just a bit messed up. X-men swaps between timelines and is very confusing but this means they can have those fun characters they killed back Transformers kills alot of transformers but then ooh look there are more new transformers which have appeared from thin air. The problem is fans no matter what will be angry or sad if their favourite characters get killed Optimus Prime dies in four out of the five Michael Bay films he was in because studios want money how do they get more money don't kill the main characters and add more spectacle this is directly contradictory which is why so many franchises struggle with danger. Mission Impossible is one of the few franchises which manages to do both this is done very simply by putting the world in danger by not focusing on the civilians by having them generally unaware of the massive amount of danger they are in the danger becomes more pronounced because everyone is completely unaware. in X-men, Transformers, the MCU, Jaws and many more they have civilian reaction shots say of someone running and screaming while this shows people in danger it doesn't matter because the police, army, FBI will save the day or the danger is too big to be stopped by anyone else but the heroes and so it's almost guaranteed the heroes will win somehow but with mission impossible it's just Ethan Hunt and his crew often themselves cut off by government agencies the enemies are human they themselves are only human so the odds are often either side could win and no other random agency could suddenly save them. There is also the thing with desensitization with big danger in most action films and more the danger is still there but because it's happened so many times before in films that the audience isn't really bothered by the mass civilian casualties anymore or it just doesn't effect anyone anymore beyond that films are competing with each other so films constantly add more and more danger until no one cares about the danger anymore it's now all about the strength of the characters. next blog is societies fears as representations in film byeeeeeeeee.