Audience’s Rights Reform #4: Restrictions around characters’ deaths/removals
As a general rule, popular characters should not be removed or killed off, except where required for the plot. This is because those characters are popular for a reason.
Loss is a powerful narrative tool that can teach valuable lessons about resilience, growth, and acceptance. In fact, it can serve as the impetus of the plot, including in children’s media. In such cases (Bambi, The Lion King, James and the Giant Peach, etc.), the loss is integral to the story’s message and should remain intact. Plot-critical deaths are acceptable; arbitrary deaths are not always.
However, when a character’s death or departure serves no clear narrative purpose and instead reflects production decisions, misjudgment, or disregard for audience attachment, it undermines the work’s integrity. Audiences invest emotionally in stories and characters. When removals feel arbitrary, the public should have a formal right to demand review and, where justified, reinstatement.
Example A: Mona Simpson (The Simpsons)
Mona Simpson’s death in season 19 is one of television’s most disputed creative choices. Fans overwhelmingly reject her death, often depicting her as alive in fan works. Even the show’s writers have expressed regret over the decision, and yet, it has never been reviewed or amended. The logical fix would be to delete or re-edit the episode in question and its references, restoring Mona to the living canon. Regret from the creators themselves is sufficient grounds for correction, especially when the audience never accepted the change. It bears repeating: there is no time limit on recalling and editing existing media.
Example B: Dimentio (Super Paper Mario)
Ambiguous character fates should also be revisable when fan consensus and in-game evidence support survival. Dimentio’s Catch Card refers to him in the present tense and is only obtainable after the game’s finale, suggesting he lived. His ability to survive dimension-shifting magic and his absence from the Underwhere both reinforce this theory. Therefore, Super Paper Mario should be edited so that Dimentio visibly escapes in the ending and appears somewhere in the postgame, establishing his survival as canon. Fans insist that he survived being blown up at the end of the game, and have even petitioned for him to reappear in a future Mario game (paper or otherwise).
Example C: Angela (Family Guy)
Writing a character out just because their actor has died or quit is a fair reason in live-action TV and movies, but not animation. An approximation of the character’s voice is better than nothing, so recasting should be the default approach, especially if the character is popular.
Ideally, this would mean editing the Family Guy episode S17E13 Trans Fat so Peter’s bosses Bert and Sheila get arrested for buying him a sex change he never consented to (acting transgender for restroom access does not constitute written consent), while Angela (Peter’s old boss) is revealed to have been erroneously presumed dead. This episode would have been the perfect opportunity for such a revelation. Furthermore, as it stands, Bert and Sheila blatantly get away with breaking the law. In short, this particular edit would correct a major plothole.
Example D: Terry Bates and John Saunders (American Dad!)
Normalization of recasting would also mean editing American Dad! so Terry Bates only leaves for a few episodes instead of permanently. (The demand to bring him back is virtually universal.) Similarly, S12E13 Widow’s Pique should add a reveal at the end that Stan’s coworker John Saunders was only erroneously presumed dead. Given that his name is shown on a desk at the CIA in a later episode (S13E03 Portrait Of Francine’s Genitals), that discovery is implied to have happened offscreen, even though both characters’ disappearances were the result of Mike Barker leaving the show. Finally, Terry and Saunders should each be added to some existing later episodes, with a replacement voice actor. Recasting, not removal, preserves continuity and audience satisfaction.
Example E: Principal Victoria in South Park
Character departures unrelated to actor or plot issues should also be subject to audience veto. In South Park, Principal Victoria’s replacement by PC Principal was widely unpopular. The season 19 finale’s title, PC Principal Final Justice, even suggested his departure—a promise unfulfilled. Editing that episode to remove PC Principal, reinstating Victoria as head of the school, would reflect majority fan sentiment. Popular demand should hold creative and ethical weight, ensuring that arbitrary removals do not override communal investment in long-running series.
If a popular character’s removal was unnecessary, or was only temporarily necessary (like in this example), majority fan consensus should be enough to bring them back.