i am adding tim minear to my list of show creators who don't understand their characters, their creation, or their audience and the desire (more importantly: lack of desire) for main character deaths:
tim minear: "once i started thinking that somebody had to die, then the choice was, who? and the only choice that i thought made sense was bobby. it makes sense for his character to have a tragic sacrifice as a conclusion of his entire journey in the show. and also, if thereās a character whose death is going to affect the most characters, who would that be? so, go big or go home. bobbyās death gives new life to every single characterās story. it changes everything. itās not a shock moment. itās not a superficial thing. it is a potentially game-changing thing. is it a skinny branch iām crawling out on? maybe. but i will never be convinced that it wasnāt the right creative move. so, no, itās not because peter wanted to leave. i donāt think he wanted to leave. weāre great friends. heās fantastic on the show. heās so good that it made [the decision] a terrifying choice on my part, which is why i felt like, 'OK, well, maybe thatās the right choice. do the scary thing.'" (xx)
rob thomas: "and i love jason dohring and i love logan echolls as a character in the show. but this [killing logan] felt like cutting off an arm to save the body. now, if we never get to do any more of these because the fans hate me, then it was a mistake [...] it feels like i placed a bet. and i may lose that bet or I may win that bet. if you never get to see anotherĀ veronica marsĀ episode because the fans hated it and turned on the show, then i lost the bet. if we get to do more and it becomes a long-runningĀ veronica marsĀ detective series that we get to do every once in a while, then i think i won the bet." (xx)
jeff davis: "you want to make big choices. you don't want to do a movie and say, 'well that could've just been another episode of the show.' you want to make it feel grand. [...] i didn't want to do it [kill derek] without tyler's blessing, so i called him up and said, 'what do you think if we gave derek a big, heroic, sacrificial ending?' and he was like, 'i'm in. let's go for it.'[...] you second-guess yourself all the time. you say, 'are we really doing this? maybe we should plan something that'll bring him back.' but there's also part of you that wants to commit." (xx)