Premature Eulogy: Difference between revisions

Bob, a regular and/or beloved character on the show, has been killed off. In the aftermath of Bob's death, at least one of the other regular characters gives him an emotional, sometimes [[Tear Jerker|tear-jerking]] eulogy. It can be ceremonial (part of an official funeral), a moment of introspection among friends, or even a soliloquy. The eulogy has everything you might expect, praising Bob's deeds and lamenting his untimely end, and so on. The phrase "I wish I had the time to get to know you better" seems to crop up ''very'' often.

 

 

Why did we waste our time watching a eulogy for a character who isn't dead? The idea is to generate sympathy for the "dead" character and a sense of loss in the viewers, without actually having to give up the character at all. It's useful for a lot of different reasons: Maybe to expose the true feelings that other characters have about Bob, now that they feel there's no need to further hide their true emotions. Maybe they'll reveal more of Bob's backstory. Or maybe the author feels that Bob [[Creator's Pet|needs a boost to his popularity among viewers]]. Whatever the reason, the fact is that Bob isn't really dead, so the point isn't to sum up his exploits and let him go - it's to enhance Bob's appeal through the sincere mourning of his friends, who have no idea that they have no reason to mourn at all.

** In an early ''[[Deep Space 9]]'' episode ''"The Armageddon Game"'', an alien government tries to kill Bashir and O'Brien after the two had helped them get rid of some biological weapons. The two escape the attack, but are trapped on the alien planet. The aliens, who do not wish Starfleet to come looking for the two escapees, produce a doctored tape showing O'Brien accidentally triggering some sort of security device which vaporizes both him and Bashir. Cue Premature Eulogies from pretty much everyone on the station, ''including Quark''.

*** In this case, the audience knows that the two aren't dead, having seen them making their escape in the intro. This makes the Premature Eulogies especially glaring, but fortunately it doesn't take long before the station crew gets savvy about what really happened.

*** The ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' episode ''Who Mourns for Morn'' from season 6 is practically made of this trope. Morn, a ''decidedly'' minor character in the series, "dies" in a freak accident and is eulogized by several of the regular characters. A sizeable portion of the episode is dedicated to eulogies and other sympathetic gestures by the show's regulars. By the end of the episode, it turns out {{spoiler|he faked his own death}}. ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' is doing a double subversion here. The first subversion is the fact that Morn certainly doesn't answer the criteria you'd normally expect in a character being prematurely eulogized, or even mourned at all, for an entire episode - he has ''NO'' speaking lines, and only appears on screen for a dozen seconds an episode ''if he appears at all''. Other characters often speak of Morn as though he's a truly interesting, talkative and vibrant character, and we (the audience) only ever see him shrugging, nodding, or drinking. And the Premature Eulogy follows the same formula: everyone is eulogizing this insignificant minor character and telling stories about him as though he were one of the major protagonists. The second subversion is of course that this is probably one of the only instances in any [[Star Trek]] work where a eulogy isn't being taken with utter gravitas - normally a series staple. They're not eulogizing Spock, or Worf, or even [[Creator's Pet|Wesley]], they're eulogizing a character who has been given absolutely no depth or role anywhere in the series up to that point.

**** It should be noted however that although it's not being played straight, this is STILL a Premature Eulogy because by this point in the show's running many fans considered Morn to be a major [[Ensemble Darkhorse]], and it's likely that some were truly shocked when his death was announced. The episode manages to generate a lot of sympathy for a completely irrelevant character, then proceeds to make him very relevant, then brings him back to life at the end.