Oh man, that description alone is making me so happy. If only, if only, if only. They should hire you for the show. This is a realistic and far more emotionally satisfying scenario.

Thank you for explaining. You are absolutely right. This is just what the show does, but I couldn't put it into words. Tripp's death made me so angry! There was no point to it at all. What's worse, his character was underutilised on the show. I'm noticing the same thing with Mack and am starting to worry. It's a pity because the cast have so much chemistry and the characters are all awesome, and there's so much more they could be doing!

I agree that killing off characters is lazy. It's a cheap way to get an emotional response from the audience. Joss Whedon is most definitely guilty of this. I really hope AoS doesn't continue down this road because the cast is so talented and there are so many stories the writers could tell.