User blog comment:TheUnknown285/Things You Do and Don’t Want from ME4/@comment-8419211-20140612234947/@comment-4950455-20140613002136

This is a tricky issue, because with RPGs there's always been that struggle between balancing player agency - it sort of defeats the purpose of a game like this if you feel your character is nothing but a helpless pawn of the plot - and the limits of what one person can "realistically" influence. I think Bioware has repeatedly erred too far in the direction of railroading lately, so I'm not really in favor of too much "realism" at the expense of limiting the player's options, but I do think this sort of thing can be a very powerful moment when executed properly, so I'd be in favor of at least one death like this.