That discussion of tragedy is very interesting and - though I never really thought about it before - exactly right. I don't know if you've read Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief books (if you haven't, do), but in the second one, The Queen of Attolia, something awful happens to Gen (Eugenides, the titular thief), but to paraphrase what she once said, it was actually the best available option based on the characters. In every other storyline she could come up with, he died. Fascinating to think about.