Lord of the Rings is a bad example. It follows the heroes succeed bad guys die trope. Side characters dying is part of the trope to ramp up the stakes for the good guy heroes despite the heroes never being in danger.

Tolkien even went out of his way to make sure the bad guys die by having the scouring of the shire run by Saruman- something highly unrealistic given the previous world building. A demigod Maiar sets up shop bullying hobbits?