Thread:Shanethefilmmaker/@comment-397235-20150127033511/@comment-397235-20150130025212

But at the same time, he saved most of his friends, he's become a Jedi, and the movie ends with them riding off to rescue Han. So it's still an optimistic ending.

The anime version of Another has this, since half the cast is senselessly dead by the end, and the two main characters are more or less back where they started, alone.

Full Metal Panic! ends more or less the same way (well, not as much death, surprisingly); the series wraps with the main couple walking away together, while the girl comments rather sadly that even after three years they're still really not together.

Fallout 3 gets this; by the end of the game your father has sacrificed himself to save you and you're forever exiled from your home by your best friend.

Oz the Great and Powerful sort of heads in this direction, especially since so much effort is put into making Theodora a sympathetic individual, since we all know how things are going to end for her.

If you want one from Star Wars then look no further than Revenge of the Sith; again, most of the cast is dead, the Jedi are destroyed, the Republic is in ruins, and those few who constantly did the right thing are forced into exile.

A Song of Fire and Ice pretty much runs on this. By the most recent book, one of the author's favorite characters has apparently been murdered by his own men, the one even halfway decent claimant for the Throne has apparently been defeated and murdered by one of the most horrible characters in the series, another fan favorite has been dragged into the wilderness and captured by a nomadic raiding tribe...this is a very grim series.

The Enforcer ends this way too. Having already lost one of his best friends midway through the film, Callahan further losses his partner when she takes a bullet for him, and the end of the movie shows him walking away alone; I don't think it's coincidental he's still working alone in Sudden Impact.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has this to a lesser extent, since you learn in the penultimate level your best friend who's been fighting beside you for most of the game has really been a figment of your demented imagination because the real man died saving your life two years before. Treyarch pulls it out somewhat when you translate the military phonetics that appear at the beginning of each mission, which read "Reznov is dead...or is he did? There was no body. Is he who he says he is?" Considering it's heavily implied Reznov saved Mason and his CIA handler during a botched operation ten years later in Africa, it stops being quite so bad, but it's still legitimately devastating when you first find this out, especially since Mason's mind starts replaying every single time you fought together.

Halo: Reach gets this in spades; it's pretty much a game built on downer endings:

Jorge, your squad's machinegunner, sacrifices himself to destroy a Covenant ship, handing you his dog tags and throwing you out an airlock. Jorge believed he was dying to protect his homeworld, not realizing the Covenant you've been fighting up until this point are only scouts, and more jump in system immediately after Long Night of Solace explodes. Emile, the squad's resident hardass, comments his death was stupid, only for Carter, the team leader, to throw this out:

"He gave his life thinking he just saved the planet. We should all be so lucky."

Your next squadmate to get killed is Kat, the SPARTAN you spend the most amount of time with. She gets shot in the back of the head by an enemy sniper and killed instantly; that piano song I sent you from this game plays during her death, which has no audio after the sound of the shot. Carter, who grew up with her (and growing up as a Spartan is fairly close going through hell) catches her and holds her, while futilely firing her magnum at the soldier who killed her until the slide locks back and he throws it away in frustration. It's heavily implied calm, competent Carter is screaming in frustration while doing this.

Carter is mortally wounded while attempting to help the player character and Emile escape a collapsing human base. Emile and Noble Six (the player) bail out of his ship, but find their way blocked by a Covenant Scarab (think an AT-AT crossed with the tripod from War of the Worlds). Emile reports this to Carter, knowing there's no way they can get past it.

Carter keys his radio and calmly instructs his teammates to keep going, before finishing with "Noble One singing off" and ramming the thing.

Emile volunteers to stay behind and man an anti-ship gun, allowing his surviving teammate to escape with Cortana, sacrificing himself for his friend. However, his position is overrun before Six can escape. Emile kills several Elites before one runs him through on its sword. Emile twists around on the blade and yells "I'm ready, how about you?" before stabbing it in the face and they both fall out of frame.

Six dies having taken over Emile's place on the gun, allowing the Pillar of Autumn to escape. Eventually her position is overrun and you die; how long this takes to happen depends on how good at the game you are, but you will die at the end, guns blazing, as the Covenant glasses the planet. All that's left is your helmet.