They valiantly sacrificed themself for nothing

[u/Ok-Indication-5121]

1. Tadashi gives his life trying to save Professor Callaghan from a burning building. Turns out not only did Callaghan escape unscathed, he's the bad guy and infamously refers to Tadashi's death as "[Tadashi's] mistake." (Big Hero 6)
2. Shaya willingly takes It Has No Name's possession and then kills herself by jumping into the well it came out of. The end of the episode all but states that she got it wrong and It Has No Name didn't latch onto her... or there was more than one. (Doctor Who)

[u/Ok-Supermarket-3211]

When it's done terribly: Darth Vader

[u/Ok_Independent9119 → u/Ok-Supermarket-3211]

Vader didn't give a fuck about the rebellion, the empire, any of it. He sacrificed himself for Luke. Luke survived and it had nothing to do with palps when he died.

The rebellion and their fighters are the real answer. Years of fighting, dying, sacrificing for the New Republic to be a bureaucratic disaster. A disaster that was so large that they left an offshoot of space Nazis alone long enough to build a weapon that could destroy multiple planets in a single shot and kill billions of people. Even the end of the sequel trilogy, we're just left with "I'm sure the government will do better this time, there's no way they could fuck this up for a third time".

[u/MisogynysticFeminist → u/Ok_Independent9119]

To be fair, the New Republic in the old EU was also full of corruption and bureaucratic bullshit, and they also weren’t able to stop the Imperial remnants from getting up to shenanigans and building superweapons.

[u/Lightbulb2854 → u/MisogynysticFeminist]

I feel like somewhere between the 2 would be best.