Death Is Always Justified

It bothers me that death is always justified in our mainstream stories.  Horror stories are the worst.  The people who died always are morally corrupt.  Take one of the seven deadly sins and you'll have a character who deserves to die (and surely will).

Are good, wholesome characters exempt from death?  Of course not.  However, it is never meaningless.  Good people often volunteer to die.  They perform the heroic sacrifice to save countless others (or one very special person).  If they are simply killed, that death enrages the protagonist, giving the fuel and drive necessary to defeat the antagonist.  Otherwise, the person gains some power because of dying (like haunting or other ghostly skills), which ends up being a net gain for the good guys.

And while I am saying that not everything should be black and white, I would say that the same holds true for characters.  It's not simply perfectly good people and scum of the earth in stories.  Sometimes a character is good enough, but chooses to do one nasty thing.  Sometimes that one nasty thing is all you need to bring about the curse.

Maybe us humans need justification.  Maybe we simply cannot handle meaningless death (or anything else for that matter).  Whatever it is, know that going with the flow will make you predictable and going against it will make you largely unliked.