Tear Jerker / Star Wars Expanded Universe

• Omri's Heroic Sacrifice towards the end of The Phantom Limb. Especially since he started becoming friends with C3PO.
• In The Screaming Citadel, despite everyone justifiably looking down on Aphra for being untrustworthy and manipulative, Luke — who had also looked down on Aphra for the same reasons everyone else does and even stated so at the beginning of the arc — stands up for her and affirms that she is his friend, something she is genuinely touched about. Keep in mind she had already threatened to use Luke as a bomb against the Queen earlier in the same issue. Sadly, in the climax of the arc, Aphra attempts to Screw This, I'm Outta Here once again, but this time, Rur points out that she really does feel guilty and has sadness in her heart, causing her to go back and save the others. The arc ends with everyone still disappointed in Aphra for still not having changed her ways, and even Luke rebuffs her, telling her to stay away from him and his friends.
  • Saw recalling Steela's death to Jyn in Rebel Rising, believing it was all his fault he got his sister killed since she only fell because of a gunship he shot down that crashed near her. Not only that, but he's bitter that Ahsoka couldn't save her, the Jedi couldn't save the Republic, and everyone saying that Steela had to die to liberate Onderon only for the entire galaxy to fall under another tyranny.
  Saw: Don't give them [the Jedi] another thought. Jedi think they can do anything, but where are they now? All dead. And before that? Sure, they helped, but not enough. [...] But they couldn't hold on. For all their power, they couldn't hold on, not when it mattered.
• In Bloodline, it is revealed that Leia, unlike Luke, does not forgive Anakin/Vader. Unlike Luke, Leia has always had a mother and father, so she's had no reason to want anything more than that in her family. And even in death, Vader's influence inadvertently ruins her life by ruining her reputation with the New Republic and taking her son Ben (and indirectly, her husband, Han) away from her. It's a contrast from Legends, where she had closure with a Force-ghost of Anakin, found her grandmother Shmi's diary when she visits Tatooine, and even tried to redeem his name by naming her second son (Anakin Solo) after him (she later realized it also ended up stressing him out as he felt he had to live up to the name). But here, none of that except for her son turning to the Dark-side to be like his grandfather, just like her other son, Jacen Solo aka Darth Caedus, in Legends happen. She at least accepts Padme, but she does not understand how someone so strong, smart, and caring could fall for such an apathetic murderer. And since it's been fifty years and no one that knew Anakin personally is alive anymore (except for Ahsoka Tano, Captain Rex, and Kix, but the likelihood of any of them meeting Leia is low given their respective circumstances), and no one other than Anakin knows the story of his tragedy, no one will ever know who he really was and why he fell.
• In Dark Lord of the Sith, it turns out that the Grand Inquisitor fell because he was angry that the Jedi would never let him learn from the greater Jedi Archives, as he believed that he was of a high enough stature to deserve it. When he sees a Jedi Temple Guard uniform on display, he begins to remember, but walks away, bitterly saying that he only remembers the lies of his past.
• It is revealed in Dark Lord of the Sith that Quinlan Vos survived Order 66, like in Legends. Unlike Legends, however, as far as we know, he's not accompanied by the people he loves and he probably won't get to live the rest of his life in quietness. His master, Tholme, has been long dead; T'ra Saa doesn't exist, and neither do his wife Khaleen and their newborn son Kortos; he might not even know who Vilmarh and Chak are. All he has to accompany him are the memories of his late master, late Padawan, and late lover.
• Pretty much everything in TK-462 is heart-wrenching and depressing. The short story follows the tragic life of the eponymous Stormtrooper. At the age of twelve, TK's younger sister was killed during a raid on his family's farm by rebels. TK's life only gets worse from there and the story ends with TK having killed a villager, only to be shot by the villager's daughter. In his dying moments, TK realizes that he's no different from the rebels that killed his younger sister and his last thoughts are about how the Cycle of Revenge will lead the little girl into becoming a Rebel.
• Terrifyingly enough, Wilhuff Tarkin's entire life. We saw him as a child, willing to share his food with his non-human servants... And as soon as his parents caught up on that, they "educated" such feelings out of him and instilled the Tarkin family values into him before leaving him with his uncle Jova, living of the wilderness to better learn the Tarkin's creed: that the universe is in chaos, and the only way to impose order is by strength. And every major event of his life after that is just another step in becoming one of the most reviled men in the galaxy, slowly tearing away his good intentions and his humanity until the day he cinically blew up a planet in the belief that would finally impose peace to the galaxy... And secure his way to power, as by now even his initial good intentions have disappeared.
  • The most emblematic moment comes right after the destruction of Alderaan, when he confronts the Death Star's chief gunner for hesitating for an instant in pulling the trigger on his own homeworld and is asked what he would do if ordered to destroy his homeworld: Tarkin has an Imagine Spot in which he revives a moment of his childhood with his uncle Jova when the Death Star fires directly at Jova as it destroys Eriadu, answers "I would do my duty. With pleasure", and has the chief gunner and everyone else who hesitated Thrown Out the Airlock.