So here is my best shot at a spoiler free article about a pretty major spoiler for The Avengers. There is a tragic event that takes place in the plot and it’s a big turning point in the film, and recently Joss Whedon was quoted on the decision to have that bad thing happen to a good person and why. But it’s hard to talk about it without spoiling it. So I think I did a pretty good job talking about it and why, but still not revealing the who, how, what or when.

I repeat – Spoiler Free. Promise.

So a pretty pivotal moment in the movie turns the tide of the plot and it involves a bad thing happening to a pretty major character. And now we get a behind the scenes look on just who’s idea that was – and considering Joss Whedon wrote and directed it, we kind of assumed.

But it turns out that while Whedon gave a green light to that terrible thing, it seems it wasn’t his idea in the first place.

Whedon says :

In our first meeting [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige said, this is what we’re gonna do and I said, ‘Oh, but you have to go out there and tell everybody that it was your idea because this is going to get me so much shit. Because they are all going to be like, “Oh, he did it again!”‘ Whedon said. “It was stipulated from the beginning, and I completely agree that it was the right thing to do, and so did [the actor], who said in the early days, when I was busy apologizing for it, ‘In a movie like this, with what’s going on if there isn’t some toll, it’s just irresponsible story telling.’

And that’s as close to spoiling as I am going to get even though statistically with how much money this film made you should already have seen it!

And I agree. There had to be some collateral damage, or the battle just wouldn’t have had the same weight. I thought that added so much to this film. I also have to confess that when it happened, I did think to myself “Well you know Joss Whedon wrote this!”

So if you didn’t like the outcome, at least you now know who to blame. For the spoiler version you can check out the original article at Io9.

Also, while discussing this in the comments, please respect that I tried my best to address this topic without spoiling which character was dramatically affected. Please keep the discussion spoiler free as well