Two things here: Roman's death, and Ruby's character.

I think Roman's death (and all that lead up to it) were perfect for several reasons.

1. Realism: I'll keep this simple (to make up for how long the rest of this is going to be). Grimm are attracted to negative emotion. When the Griffon eats Roman, he is beating an unarmed 15 year old child, says all hunters (people willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others) are fated for death, claiming that good deeds never go unpunished, and promises to "lie, steal, cheat" in order to survive.

If you can think of a way for someone to have more "Negative Emotion" than Roman at that point, I would be surprised to hear it.

1. The contrast between Roman's and Ruby's characters is incredibly well done. Both have come to the same conclusions by the time of Roman's death: Ruby has (mostly) lost her innocent view about the world, as has Roman (if he ever had it in the first place). The difference in their characters is how they respond to it.

Ruby, in spite of being turned into a ragdoll by Roman and Neo, never stops fighting. "I don't care what you say. We will stop them, and I will stop you. BET ON THAT!". (As a side note, that's my favorite line from the show now. So good.)

This is what makes her a hero. More on that later.

1. Theme setting. The show is taking a turn for the darker. Negative emotion demons are flying everywhere, it makes sense that they'd target someone with negative emotions. Yes, this is a bit for the sake of shock value but it does help set the tone for things going forward. Remember, not long ago, Yang was fighting personified memes.

Now, I have some thoughts on theme settings unrelated to Roman.

On a larger scale , I think that RWBY can be described as a realistic fairy tale/ Not just because of the the fact that many characters are based on mythical figures, and the influence that fairy tales have on the plot.

When we read basic fairy tales, we know that the hero's going to win and save the day from the force of evil. In St. George and the Dragon, we know that George is going to kill the dragon, that's never in question. However, what RWBY does is inflict far, far more damage on the heroes and the innocent civilians (including making us think that Blake was decapitated for fucks sake), to lead us to believe that the characters are more open to failure, especially while we're watching episodes for the first time. The outcome will ultimately be the same: the good guys will win, and if the hero dies (Ruby), it will only be to ensure that victory. In RWBY, however, it's going to be far less of a curb stomp than in the fairy tales.

Ultimately, it makes more sense for them to tell a story this way, because the heroes in fairy tales themselves don't know if they're going to win. It's not heroic to fight against evil when you know you'll kick it's ass. You can only be brave if you have a reason to be afraid in the first place.

Ruby really is just like all the ideal heroes from the books, and the world she lives in is just like them too. The only difference is that the stories we read to 5 year old tend not to dwell on what might happen if the hero doesn't curb stomp the (insert villain here), even though it would be devastating for everyone who lived in that fairy tale world. The past two episodes show all to clearly what happens when the heroes don't step up to the plate.

The fact that Ruby knows full well what she's risking and what she's up against, and continues to fight anyways, is what makes her an amazing character. Their struggle is made all the greater because of the knowledge of what they struggle against.

TL;DR, Ruby's a reconstruction of the idealistic fairy tale hero. And a damn well done one at that.