There is a pattern I sometimes see on the internet that admittedly I too am a part of. When someones favorite character gets defeated by another character with similar power levels sometimes the fans post scans of a one time feat of the character with decades of history which never got mentioned again and argue that the defeat is bad writing. On the other hand if the character goes against someone clearly more powerful sometimes they say their favorite is used as cannon fodder and it's again bad writing. So my question is when would you consider the defeat of your favorite character good writing. In what scenario would you say the writer did a good job where your favorite character hits the ground?