I agree that it’s dumb to eliminate female characters for the sake of a male-oriented plot, but you can’t just call every female death fridging. In real life, people just die. There doesn’t have to be a good reason or a good time.
That’s true. But in fiction, there is a disproportionate number of narratives which kill women (often in situations the men would survive) for the sake of the angst of the men, with the women being little more than plot motivators. I don’t think it is ultimately to be the case here, as her will even posthumously has been very heavily foregrounded here rather than just letting her be an object of angst, but it’s perilous and painful territory. And the sad thing is, this show just doesn’t have many prominent women to spare.