wordwalker
Auror
Interesting point, Saellys: is a plot point ever "unnecessary"?
I'd say it's not so much that any character "needed" to die-- there are always other ways to make things happen, unless the theme has focused on some elements so much that they're the logical choice. And it's not often that an event is just too big or too dramatic, even if it's openly redundant with other pressures; usually a problem's is if it's under-justifying what it's there to do (or sometimes that a big event rushes the pacing, or a character under-reacts to how much happened). Hitting harder than you might need to isn't usually a fault.
The real problem is that our patience for any "motivation" ought to be worn pretty thin when it happens to take the form of a female getting hurt. AGAIN.
I'd say it's not so much that any character "needed" to die-- there are always other ways to make things happen, unless the theme has focused on some elements so much that they're the logical choice. And it's not often that an event is just too big or too dramatic, even if it's openly redundant with other pressures; usually a problem's is if it's under-justifying what it's there to do (or sometimes that a big event rushes the pacing, or a character under-reacts to how much happened). Hitting harder than you might need to isn't usually a fault.
The real problem is that our patience for any "motivation" ought to be worn pretty thin when it happens to take the form of a female getting hurt. AGAIN.