Punishing a Character

Recent edits to my WIP included big changes to one of the characters. They either had to be killed or wooed to the dark side to make an integral conflict of the story work. Then out of the blue came the brilliant idea to make them alive or good again, but only after a severe loss or punishment.

Just FYI, this is a paranormal romance which makes bringing them back to life much easier. I opted for good guy/bad guy/good guy; mainly to keep the emotions of the heroine towards angry than sad.

Instead of bringing him to the good side with a loss I chose a severe punishment. He's an archangel with an attitude. The hero adjusted this guys attitude (don't want to give away too much) and now believes in him whole-hearted...because they find out they are brothers. The heroine doesn't know this so she remains leery of him up to the final conflict when he proves his loyalty and trust to her. There are BIG twists at the end that will please and tease.

Do you punish your characters? If so, how?

When To Kill A Character

Ever have a character you don't know what to do with after a certain chapter? Maybe they were an integral part of the beginning, but lost their purpose as the story evolved. You can't go back and delete them without having to change too many details that are necessary, but you can't move forward with them either. What do you do?

So far I've come up with the following:

1. Have something traumatic happen to them to increase the conflict of the story (i.e. accident/coma/terminal illness).
2. Have them move (make up a short back story of a long lost relative that needs them).
3. Kill them off.

I write characters. I should know how to delete them. How do you get rid of your characters when they can no longer be written?