History Heartwarming / Bioshock2

* Minerva's Den. We FINALLY get a major character, C.M. Porter, who 1) Isn't a complete ass. 2) Was smart enough to see through Ryan, Fontaine, Atlas, AND Lamb. 3) Resists one of the primal temptations and [[spoiler: shuts down the AI construct he made of his departed wife, knowing that it wasn't her or what she would have wanted.]] At the end we see this poor man's grief, and how he refused to let it break him or twist him like so many others in Rapture. [[spoiler: And the best part is that HE LIVES!]]

* Doubling with Tear Jerker: when you're exploring Ryan Amusements, you find a series of audio diaries from a woman named Nina Carnegie who was trapped in the park when she chaperoned a children's sleepover when Rapture's civil war started. Her first instinct to the starting panic and the lights going out is calming down the children and hiding them away as she investigates the chaos. She ends up dying of starvation because she gave all her food to the children. Where do you find her body? In a high-up corner where the Splicers can't get her, laid out on a rug with arms folded over her chest, surrounded by candles, gifts, and drawings of smiling children. The children knew what she'd done for them, and they honored her as best they could.

* Sparing [[spoiler: Grace Holloway]]'s life, and seeing [[spoiler:her]] amazement after you leave.

-->''Eleanor Lamb: "[[RousseauWasRight You taught me that 'evil' is just a word. Under the skin, it's simple pain]]."''

* This one is ridiculously minor, but it's still pretty striking. In the first game, there's a Splicer model and voice pack called Toasty, who's deluded himself into thinking he's TheCasanova, making flirty comments half the time, but switching to misogynistic comments as well when he realises the flirting doesn't really work. In the second game, that Splicer model comes back, but with changed lines. All the angry comments are dropped, and most of the flirty ones are too. Why? Because, whether it's real or just in his head, he says he's gonna be a dad! Even in the watery hellhole that is Rapture, he's just worrying about the nursery room and his wife. True or not, it's amazing to hear someone so excited about something so normal. Of course, this may cross over into {{Tearjerker}} too...

** In the good ending, you see Sofia Lamb drowning underwater. Her daughter swims in and gives her a breathing device. Keep in mind, during the last half of the game, she has been ranting that HumansAreBastards, and potentially the last moments of her life would have been a watery grave -- when her daughter, whom she'd thought betrayed her, saves her life, without Sophia's programming. [[RousseauWasRight There is good in the world after all]], Lamb.
-->''Eleanor Lamb: "You taught me that 'evil' is just a word. Under the skin, it's simple pain."''
* The Thinker is an advanced A.I. who isn't sinister or out to KillAllHumans. Instead [[spoiler: it impersonates its creator, who was turned into a Big Daddy, [[BenevolentAI in order to save him and help him]] to regain his old memories.]]

** The statues you encounter on the way can be either this or nightmare fuel: one of the statues, the one representing how you treated Stanley Poole either shows you killing him or [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/bioshock/images/b/b5/Stanley_statue_save.png/revision/latest?cb=20160131055137
helping him stand on his own two feet againThe one representing Gilbert Alexander is perhaps the most impressive: if you spared his life, [[http://images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/5/54/Gilbert_Alexander_good.jpg it shows Delta pulling a man out of a monster.]]

** Near the end of the game you can [[spoiler:see the world through the eyes of a Little Sister]] and one of the first things you see is [[spoiler:a [[http://images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/8/86/Daddy_Knight.png two story high golden statue]] of a Big Daddy in a heroic vein looking something like a knight Templar or a paladin. Also all of the other statues you pass during the mission are of Big Daddies being heroic- protecting people and defeating monsters.]] It's nice to know you're a hero to someone after all.
** The very FIRST thing you see is Delta, [[http://images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/d/d3/BioShock_Daddy_Knight.png pimped out in gold and white]] and looking like a comic book superhero. The statues previously mentioned are of Delta's actions throughout the game ("Daddy Meets Aunt Gracie", "[[http://images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/9/98/Stanley_Poole_Good.jpg Daddy Meets Uncle Stanley]]", "Daddy Meets Dr. Gilbert"). Of course, even if the player had killed the people depicted, the statues portray the kills as more of a "righteous fury" type of thing (you ARE looking through the eyes of a Little Sister, after all). The entire mission also doubles as a scary moment for some.

* Depending on your actions, when [[spoiler: you are temporarily a Little Sister]] the statues you encounter on the way can be either this or nightmare fuel: one of the statues, the one representing how you treated Stanley Poole either shows you killing him or helping him stand on his own two feet again. The one representing Gilbert Alexander is perhaps the most impressive: if you spared his life, [[http://images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/5/54/Gilbert_Alexander_good.jpg it shows Delta pulling a man out of a monster.]]

** Fridge Brilliance/Horror - after what Lamb did to ''you'' with the very same plasmid, years ago, you'd have to be as much a monster as she is to inflict the same on another. "So," the game asks, "''are'' you?"

** In the good ending, you see Sofia Lamb drowning underwater. Her daughter swims in and gives her a breathing device. Keep in mind, during the last half of the game, she has been ranting that HumansAreBastards, and potentially the last moments of her life would have been a watery grave -- when her daughter, whom she'd thought betrayed her, saves her life, without Sophia's programming. There is good in the world after all, Lamb.
* The Thinker is an advanced A.I. who isn't sinister or out to KillAllHumans. Instead [[spoiler: it impersonates its creator, who was turned into a Big Daddy, in order to save him and help him to regain his old memories.]]

** Fridge Brilliance/Horror - after what Lamb did to ''you'' with the very same plasmid, years ago, you'd have to be as much a monster as she is to inflict the same on another. "So," the game asks, "are you?"

* Lutwidge spent years searching for Rapture, and when he finally found it, he got to see the worst of it. Then he escaped, and spent decades in the nuthouse lamenting the internal destruction of paradise. But finally, after thinking about all the wonders of ADAM and the little sisters in danger, he decides to bring some friends and rebuild Rapture as what Ryan couldn't accept that it had become - a world of magic and spirituality, made by children and cherished by men. [[YankTheDogsChain Unfortunately, Lutwidge couldn't beat his own Fontaine]].

* The Semi-Good ending is all one massive {{Tearjerker}}, but it also has a beautiful final act for Delta. He knocks Eleanor's arm away before she can absorb his conscience. He'd spent the entire game slaughtering armies of splicers, gunning down Big Daddies and Big Sisters, both harvesting and saving little sisters, cutting down people in acts of vengeance or choosing to walk away, and traveled across the crumbling ruins of Rapture [[PapaWolf just to save his daughter.]] It's not hard to see it as the actions of a being struggling with this new gift of free will and realizing the implications of Eleanor wanting to be like him, especially after she started harvesting little sisters herself. In his final moments, he decides to face death and give Eleanor the chance to redeem herself. To become someone better than him or Sofia. While she's heartbroken, Eleanor admits that his sacrifice gave her hope. Delta gets one last look at himself in the water, then one of Eleanor, the daughter he granted the same freedom she granted him, and finally dies. *Sniff.*

** In the good ending, you see Sofia Lamb drowning underwater. Her daughter swims in and gives her a breathing device. Keep in mind, during the last half of the game, she has been ranting that HumansAreBastards, and potentially the last moments of her life would have been a watery grave -- when her daughter, whom she'd though betrayed her, saves her life, without Sophia's programming. There is good in the world after all, Lamb.

* Doubling with Tear Jerker: when you're exploring Ryan Amusements, you find a series of audio diaries from a from a woman named Nina Carnegie who was trapped in the park when she chaperoned a children's sleepover when Rapture's civil war started. Her first instinct to the starting panic and the lights going out is calming down the children and hiding them away as she investigates the chaos. She ends up dying of starvation because she gave all her food to the children. Where do you find her body? In a high-up corner where the Splicers can't get her, laid out on a rug with arms folded over her chest, surrounded by candles, gifts, and drawings of smiling children. The children knew what she'd done for them, and they honored her as best they could.

* Minerva's Den. We FINALLY get a major character, C.M. Porter, who 1) Isn't a complete ass. 2) Was smart enough to see through Ryan, Fontaine, Atlas, AND Lamb. 3) Resists one of the primal temptations and [[spoiler: shuts down the AI construct he made of his departed wife, knowing that it wasn't her or what she would wanted.]] At the end we see this poor man's grief, and how he refused to let it break him or twist him like so many others in Rapture. [[spoiler: And the best part is that HE LIVES!]]

[[caption-width-right:350: [[EarnYourHappyEnding "The Rapture dream is over, but in waking I am reborn. This world is not ready for me, yet here I am. It would be so easy to misjudge them. You are my conscience father, and I need you to guide me. You will always be with me now, father, your memories, your drives. And when I need you, you'll be there on my shoulder whispering. If Utopia is not a place, but a people, then we must choose carefully, for the world is about to change, and in our story, Rapture was just the beginning."]]]]

** In the good ending, you see Sofia Lamb drowning underwater. Her daughter swims in and gives her a breathing device.

* The Semi-Good ending is all one massive {{Tearjerker}}, but it also has a beautiful final act for Delta. He knocks Eleanor's arm away before she can absorb his conscience. He'd spent the entire game slaughtering armies of splicers, gunning down Big Daddies and Big Sisters, both harvesting and saving little sisters, cutting down people in acts of vengeance or choosing to walk away, and traveled across the crumbling ruins of Rapture [[PapaWolf just to save his daughter.]] It's not hard to see it as the actions of a being struggling with this new gift of free will and realizing the implications of Eleanor wanting to be like him, especially after she started harvesting little sisters herself. In his final moments, he decides to face death and give Eleanor the chance to redeem herself. To become someone better than him or Sofia. While she's heartbroken, Eleanor admits that his sacrifice gave her hope. Delta gets one last look at himself in the water, then one of Eleanor, the daughter he granted the same freedom she granted him, and finally dies.

* While these are likely said to everyone who buys their products, the Sinclair messages sent to you in multiplayer are undeniably friendly and never cease to cheer this troper up.

* The intro with Eleanor and Delta has a very heartwarming dynamic to it, even in a place as twisted as Rapture. She climbs up from the little sister vent, shows Delta the doll of him she made, and takes his hand saying "lets go out to play!" And as soon as he hears her screaming, [[PapaWolf he comes running to save her from some Splicers]]. [[Tearjerker Sadly comes to a horrifying end]] thanks to [[BigBad Sofia.]]

* In Inner Persephone, in the Pediatric Wards, the player can find a set of locked doors. You can find a button to unlock them on a nearby pillar. Before you click on them, you can peek inside and see an Alpha Series standing near a rocking splicer, almost caressing their backs as though in comfort. Normally, the Alpha Series are UnstoppableRage personified (exception to those who succumbed into a coma) and it was nice to see them just showing a bit of their suppressed humanity. The player can click the button to unlock the doors, triggering their Rage. Although this is mostly a scripted event, one can almost believe that the Alphas Series are attacking the player as though they wish to protect the imprisoned splicers.

* Doubling with Tear Jerker: when you're exploring Ryan Amusements, you find a series of audio diaries from a from a woman named Nina Carnegie who was trapped in the park when she chaperoned a children's sleepover when Rapture's civil war started. She ends up dying of starvation because she gave all her food to the children. Where do you find her body? In a high-up corner where the Splicers can't get her, laid out on a rug with arms folded over her chest, surrounded by candles, gifts, and drawings of smiling children. The children knew what she'd done for them, and they honored her as best they could.

** Even better, Lamb constantly tells you how shifty Sinclair is and how he's only interested in profit. But he never betrays you, suggests the "good" option in several cases, and even tells you how there is a way to make you human again. In the end, all he wants is [[TheAtoner to do something good after all the bad he did in the past]]. Not only that, but he actually [[ShutUpHannibal proves Lamb wrong]].

* In Inner Persephone, in one of the Children's Therapy rooms, the player can find a set of locked doors. You can find a button to unlock them on a nearby pillar. Before you click on them, you can peek inside and see an Alpha Series standing near a rocking splicer, almost caressing their backs as though in comfort. Normally, the Alpha Series are UnstoppableRage personified (exception to those who succumbed into a coma) and it was nice to see them just showing a bit of their suppressed humanity. The player can click the button to unlock the doors, triggering their Rage. Although this is mostly a scripted event, one can almost believe that the Alphas Series are attacking the player as though they wish to protect the imprisoned splicers.