Protip: when there's a lot of clout behind your creative work as it is in the current collective conscious environment, you can "waste" and "kill prematurely" any good characters for drama without engagement repercussions — because the desperate fans will just make and cling to all the fan works where the character is alive anyways; you could even double down on the opportunistic creativity and do side stories about the character before the death, or alternative universes.