10 Creators Who Killed Video Game Characters So They Could Move On

5. Manny - Grim Fandango

Tomb raider
Double Fine Productions

It's not technically accurate to say that Manny is killed at the end of Grim Fandango. It's more the case that he simply enters a better level of being dead but, either way, the closing segments comprehensively wrap up his story as he departs for the after, after, after, after, after, after, after, after, afterlife.

It became such a beloved cult title that any story even remotely related to changes at LucasArts (and, my god, there have been a lot of them) would invariably descend into someone wiggling their eyebrows, grinning from ear to ear, and muttering "uhhhhhhh, Grim Fandango sequel, guys?". The answer remains, as it always has done, a flat nope.

The reason for that is the same reason that the ending of the original game was so decisive for Manny, and it's simply that designer Tim Schafer doesn't like making sequels. "If there were five of me", he famously said to notoriously-cerebral gaming publication Playboy, "I might make sequels, but there's always some new idea I want to explore instead".

We can argue the toss all day about whether or not Manny actually dies in this game but, undeniably, Tim Schafer moved on.

 
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