A few years ago I saw an episode of the Supernatural series entitled "My Heart Will Go On." Here's an overview:
I'm not plugging the Supernatural series in this post. I bailed on the series some time ago. Initially, in a good TV drama, the series exists for the sake of the story. They begin with some good story ideas. But the danger of a successful series is that there comes a point where the story exists for the sake of the series. They scratch their heads and wonder what to write about for next week. How to keep the series afloat for its own sake.
But this episode unwittingly contains a theodicy. This is despite the fact that there's nothing Christian about Eric Kripke or most of his screenwriters.
This episode is set in an alternate timeline where the Titanic never sank. The episode probably borrows from other similarly themed movies like Final Destination and The Butterfly Effect. The episode is a tragicomedy.
The sinking of the Titanic was a tragedy. On the fact of it, a world in which that never happened would be a better world.
But that's shortsighted. For instance, some people will be born in a world where the Titanic sank who wouldn't be born in a world where the Titanic never sank. Conversely, some people will be born in a world where the Titanic never sank who wouldn't be born in a world where the Titanic sank. So you have winners and losers on either scenario.
Likewise, some people live longer that was in their best interests. They'd be better off had they died sooner. Some lives end badly. When someone's life is cut short, we don't know how their life might have turned out, so we can't compare both timelines. It's asymmetrical. We only know what happened, not what didn't.
Perhaps you had a married couple on the Titanic, of whom the husband was a wife-beater. Frankly, she's better off when her abusive husband goes down with the ship.
In general, the sinking of the Titanic was a tragedy for the drowned passengers, as well as grieving survivors who lost a parent, spouse, sibling, child, or friend. But if you consider that event from a diachronic perspective, it has both good and bad ramifications down the line.
A world in which the Titanic never sank is better in some respects, but worse in others. Better for some, but worse for others. Even if a world in which the Titanic never sank would be a better world overall, a world in which the Titanic sank will include some goods which the alternate history fails to capture.
The Supernatural episode is a vivid pop cultural illustration of a Christian theodicy–even though that wasn't the intent of the director, producer, or screenwriter.
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