Wizard of Earthesea always stuck out to me as one of the few coming of age stories in which the main character severely fucks up. He makes a HUGE mistake, owns up to it, and deals with it. Nobody kisses his wound and makes it better, he betters himself. It's a story about bootstrapping life and dealing with your problems head on, I've never read another big story that deals with that idea. The base conflict in the book is Ged's fault and nobody elses.

She keeps at it in the later books. Ged's end of life is the polar opposite of wish fulfillment fantasy, and meaningful in its own right.