tl dead? Prim died for no reason because Suzanne Collins wanted to use her death to show how inevitable the casualties of war are and because Prim symbolized purity and pure and goodhearted people cannot survive in a corrupted world such as Panem

It drives home a point that is vocalized throughout the series. "No one decent ever wins the games". In this context, Prim is the representation of the inability for decency to survive in "the games", which are are pushed out into a greater setting as Panem in all of its cruelty.

She died for no reason, but in order for the books to ultimately make sense, Collins HAD TO kill her off for everything to come full circle.

This brings up Gale, his excitement for bloodshed, and the sickening war strategies he ends up creating in Mockingjay. The whole war was about making Panem a better world, but in the process his bombs are what kill Prim, who again, is the representation of good.

So, as one of the worldly truths of the Hunger Games is that human nature destroys all that is good, Prim's death serves as an arrow to hit that final target that the books want its readers to understand.