Yeah, the one a couple weeks back. People made a really big stink about it as I recall, considering they all were under the impression Robb Stark was the hero of the series and would win out in the end. Nasty shock that he died horribly instead, right?
I won't go into my own feelings that Robb deserved to die for being an oathbreaker, because nobody wants to hear it. Also, that's not what I came here to talk about. No, what I want to talk about are some of the things I heard people say. Things like how writers "shouldn't be allowed" to kill off their characters, or accusing them of having "God complexes". I even came across somebody rallying people to "make a difference" by not buying novels in which good-guy characters die.
What. No, seriously, what? That's just really ridiculous, isn't it? I wonder if the Harry Potter fanbase got this distraught about it when Dumbledore died, or when anyone who was killed in the last book did. I don't know, but somehow I can't see them saying that Ms. Rowling should not have been allowed to do what she did.
A writer has the freedom to choose what happens to their characters. They created them. They decide what they look like, act like, speak like, and yes, even when and if they die in the story. It's their right as the creator of the character to do so. It has nothing to do with a "God complex". I'll bet you nobody's ever sitting there rubbing their hands and cackling fiendishly, going "Yes! I will kill my hero just to make the audience upset for weeks! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Saying a writer shouldn't be allowed to do things to their characters as they see fit really annoys me. Who are you to decide what I can and cannot do with the setting I created? Did you sit there and come up with them? No? Then you don't get to tell me that I can't do as I wish with them. When it's your story, you can do whatever you like, as is your right and privilege. If it's not, then you don't get a say. I'm working on a book myself, and, since people seem to need a warning about this sort of thing, I'll tell you right now. Allysdair, my main character, dies very early on. In fact, most of the story takes place after he dies. He's not the only one either; quite a few people get the axe besides him. There, now you know.
As to the "making a difference" crowd, all I can say is get over it. You're not doing good by trying to force people into only writing happy things that make you happy. I also really can't fathom being upset for weeks over a fictional character. There's people who still blubber about Aeris dying and Final Fantasy VII came out what, sixteen years ago? True, people get attached to their favorites, but at the end of the day they're not real. Nobody actually died, so there's no need for all this wailing and gnashing of teeth so long afterwards.
Also, admit it. Once a villainous character (like I dunno...Joffrey) dies, you'll be the same bunch that gloats for weeks on end.
Sometimes the hero dies. If every book, movie, or anything else only had the villains die, it would get dull and repetitive indeed. Good doesn't always triumph over evil in the real world. It doesn't have to in fiction either.
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