Yes of course the story demands it, because making the wicked witch look wicked by having her kill a regular character is real demanding. I guess they want us to hate the witch so bad that by the time she dies we’ll all be singing “ding dong the witch is dead”.
I’m just gonna have to believe that it’ll make sense once we see the story play out in its full context :/
I think he’s full of it. I think this death is solely to make the witch look wicked.