History TearJerker / MassEffect2

*** And then there's the records of the extranet games he plays. Although the purpose of it was probably observation, there are just weird little hints of a personality, like the infraction report that states that Legion was reprimanded for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Think about it: Legion got an infraction for TAUNTING other players, an inherently human reaction. And then there's the note that, despite the fact he's logged several days into the game, he got an absolute crap score at a quarian dating sim. It's like it was trying to see what would make the quarians love them again, but no amount of consensus and research could find out what is required for the peace between both races which could come true in Mass Effect 3 if Shepard does not set up the conditions for peace and one race will end up extinct

---> '''Mordin''': No...not a murderer]]. Thank you, Shepard.
** The dead woman herself. She volunteered to be a subject for Maelon's experiments because she couldn't have children, and they killed her. We have no idea who she was, where she was from or what her name was, but she's a heartbreaking reminder that for all of Mordin's protests that the genophage killed no one, only limited fertility, it ''did'' kill people, and one of them is an unknown krogan woman who just wanted to have children who could live. One has to wonder how many others killed themselves for similar reasons -- or might have been killed for being infertile. The effect is amplified by Mordin saying a [[DueToTheDead prayer for the departed]] and citing taking an interest in a Salarian philosophy which claims [[BackFromTheDead you reincarnate after death and can then work to fix mistakes you made in past lives]], and by Paragon Shepard delivering him a nasty ArmorPiercingQuestion.
--->'''Shepard:''' Look at her, Mordin. Does it look like you saved her?\\

* How about the small details, the tiny additions that just hit you straight in the heart? On Tali's quest when you find the final recording of the quarian female speaking to her son. Or the fact that the way they played the recordings, the very last one you find (before the evidence) is the female quarian saying how happy she is that the project is going to be a success? Or finding the asari on Illium who won't help the Zhu's Hope colonists, and realising you knew both her daughters, and both died? Losing any member of your squad in the suicide mission, and knowing it was because of your own stupid screwup? [=ME2=] is loaded to the brim with tearjerkers.

* You may be morbidly curious as to how Shepard is able to die, considering how much Bioware played up the AnyoneCanDie angle. Well, it only happens if you screw up the suicide mission so badly that ''every single one of your squadmates die''. Once that's happened, Shepard will make the final leap to the Normandy, but Joker can't pull them up. The typical "End Run" theme [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al-VeZaTKSk turns darker and tragic]], while Shepard tells Joker to warn everyone else, and despite Joker shouting "''You'' tell them! You're not doing this to me again!". Shepard will lose their grip and fall to their doom. The anguish in Joker's voice and his face is palpable in the following ending scenes; he sounds almost broken when he speaks to the Illusive Man in Shepard's place. Seeing him looking at all those coffins is absolutely soul shattering, especially when he places his hand on the coffin with the "N7" symbol on it. The part that makes it is when Joker stands alone in the Normandy's hold, looking into space with a mixture of sadness, uncertainty, and determination as the music reaches its crescendo and the Reaper fleet mobilizes in deep space. The cutscene actually seems more like Shepard willingly lets go in order to save Joker. At that point, Shepard knows that Joker isn't going to willingly leave them behind but that Joker can't possibly pull them up between Joker's condition and the Collector's firing at the ship. Shepard knows that. So they let go to give Joker a chance to escape so that the message gets out. This is the second time he's seen Shepard die, and once again it happens as a result of something Joker did/couldn't do. Even though the worst ending is absolutely Shepard's fault, that kind of bookend can't have gotten past Joker's notice.

** Jack's death scene, especially if you romance her. It just...when she says [[TooHappyToLive "I should've known this would happen. I was too happy...too happy with you."]] It shows how she found true happiness and peace with Shepard, only to die so soon after gaining it. It's like fate, after all she's gone through, was giving her a final slap to the face.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlm_BaFwA24 Grunt's death scene]] was bittersweet at best. On the one hand, Grunt's death is just as sad as the others. But on the other hand, he dies the way all Krogan should die; he died fighting.
---> '''Grunt:''' Good fight Shepard..........Good Fight.........

** Particularly heartwrenching is that no matter who you lose, or what they mean to you, you don't have time to mourn. Even Miranda, the IceQueen herself sounds choked up when she has to tell Shepard, who is standing over the body of a friend, possibly even a lover that they have to keep moving.
** The worst is when someone dies offscreen while you're fighting the Human-Reaper. You hear that either all survivors have made it to the Normandy, or not at all. Then it cuts to the dead body of whoever died, surrounded by Collectors. Especially ball-punching if it was someone you were romancing; while most of them stand a good chance of surviving, Tali stands a pretty high chance of getting killed.

** If you don't upgrade the ''Normandy,'' the Oculus blast the ship and kill crew with each shot. And Jack is the first to go, taken out by an explosion in the engine room. That she doesn't even get a last fight, just unceremoniously killed like that, after everything that she has gone through... And of course, there isn't even time to mourn. And that goes for every death during the suicide mission.

** If Shepard is romancing Thane, there's a extra file on his dossier; It's a goodbye letter meant to be delivered to Shepard after his death from his diseace. That alone is depressing but it tips to heartbreaking once you read it further and he declares, that he'll rather face a machine-bound, long and painful death in the hospital bed than [[DeathSeeker get himself killed]] as he originally planned if that means he can be together with Shepard just a few months longer. The whole thing will make you wibble, but the final line is the killer: "I will await you across the sea."

* The ending of Arrival. 300,000 lives, gone, in a flash. And Shepard pushed the button. While they did it with the best of intentions and bought the galaxy valuable time it still doesn't take away from that fact that 300,000 are dead and they're going to take the bullet for those lives. And this probably won't be the last time we'll need to sacrifice the countless nameless to fight the Reapers. Yes, for now, we can [[IDidWhatIHadToDo comfort ourselves in the knowledge that we've delayed the Reaper's invasion]], but it doesn't cushion the fact that Shepard's now a [[WhatTheHellHero mass murderer]]

-->'''Kolyat''': [[DisappearedDad You weren't there when she was ''alive''!]] Why would you be there when she died?!

''[[caption-width-right:350:"Square root of 906.1 is 30.1... It all seemed harmless..."]]''

** Tali's breakdown upon finding her father dead on a geth-infested quarian ship, and the Paragon interrupt that lets you hug her.

** If you get the evidence and tell Tali that since her father is dead, he won't need her to protect him, her response - particularly the way her voice cracks, is heartbreaking.

*** If you go against her wishes and present the evidence to the other admirals anyway, you get to see her HeroicBSOD as the trial crowd goes into uproar. Even without being able to see Tali's facial expression, her body language tells you everything you need to know, and it's absolutely crushing. And that's before you get to the FridgeHorror of this action all but ensuring that, barring a miracle, she'll die in the attack on the Collector base.

* Legion replaying the first memories of the Geth Collective to Shepard. It's absolutely '''heartbreaking'' if you stop Legion from uploading the Reaper data into the rest of the Geth collective in the third game. Tali stabs him, and if you don't take the Renegade interrupt, Legion asks before dying, "Does this unit have...." Tali tearfully replies, "Yes, you do."
--> '''Geth:''' [[DoAndroidsDream Unit has an inquiry. Do these units have a soul?]]

* In Mordin's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAiySGf0CPI loyalty mission]], you can have a conversation over the body of a dead krogan female. Mordin states his rage over the senseless loss of life that was going on in the facility, and whispers a prayer to the dead female. He sounds so ''distraught'' and passionate about his ethical issues and feelings of guilt and the sadness of what had to be done, and it's one of the most moving and well-written moments in the entire game.

** In the same mission, the speaker for Clan Weyrloc makes an impassioned, enraged speech about the piles of stillborn krogan children caused by the genophage. Even though the guy's a total JerkAss and tries to kill you immediately afterwards, you can hear his voice giving out when he mentions the stillborns. It's pretty clear from his speech that he feels like he's got ''nothing left'', and he's lashing out at the galaxy in the only way he knows how. It's hard not to be moved by the situation that all krogan have been left in, caused by events that happened centuries past. Shepard can attempt to talk down and emphasize with the clanspeaker, but he rejects them so fiercly you can practically feel his rage.

** In the same mission, the speaker of Clan Weyrloc makes an impassioned, enraged speech about the piles of stillborn krogan children caused by the Genophage. Even though the guy's a total JerkAss and tries to kill you immediately afterwards, you can hear his voice giving out when he mentions the stillborns. It's pretty clear from his speech that he feels like he's got ''nothing left'', and he's lashing out at the galaxy the only way he knows how. It's hard not to be moved by the situation that all krogan have been left in, by events that happened centuries past. Shepard can attempt to talk down and emphasize with him, but he rejects them so fiercly you can practically feel his rage.
-->'''Shepard:''' It doesn't have to happen like this. I can understand wanting to cure the Genophage-

** The end of the quest, where you learn that his student didn't get kidnapped, but allied himself to the Krogan from his free will so he could try to find cure to the genophage? That doesn't sound too bad, but when your party fails to convince him that the Krogan might start a rampage from ensuing power trip, Mordin pulls out his gun and shoots him if the player doesn't use a Paragon quick-time event and prevent him. Just listen his voice after that...he's so disappointed and crushed.

** The reunion with a romanced Liara isn't much better. For Shepard, it was only weeks, maybe days ago that they were together...and then you start to realise how much Liara's changed because of interim events. Like with Ashley and Kaidan, it's the whole concept of waking up one day to find that two years have gone by, and the person you loved has moved on without you.
*** The payoff is that if you remain loyal to your ''Mass Effect 1'' romance, before the Suicide Mission, Shepard picks up the photograph of your loved one and looks at it with a small smile.
*** The reunion scene uses [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7bE3hUwylQ "Vigil"]] from the first game. Thinking about the connotations of the track, even just the ''name'', gives one chills. Such loneliness... * sniff*
*** The Lair Of The Shadow Broker DLC finally shows Shepard letting everything out. When Liara visits she asks Shep to tell her how they truly feel. The options are either cautiously hopeful, frustrated, or truly scared. The way Meer and Hale deliver these lines is heartbreaking because it truly shows that even Shepard, under that cool commanding persona, can be just as frightened as the everyone else about the threat or frustrated that everything they are doing to stop the Reapers is in vain. Even more striking is that this is not a Paragade choice but strictly based on how Shepard truly feels.

** Getting back together with Liara in Lair of the Shadow Broker is a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}, but the conversation Shepard and Liara have on the Normandy afterwards has a moment that really makes you tear up:

* If you attempt to romance a squad member, they will at first try to back out. Garrus, Tali, and Thane all [[HeroicSelfDeprecation believe themselves undeserving of Shepard's affection]], and Jack tries to [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim fend Shepard off out a fear she'll hurt him]].
* Tali's mission when she finds her father's body.
** Not to mention her tirade against Shepard if they suggest colonizing a different world. It really drives home just what the quarians are going through. Liz Sroka's voice-acting was superbly done here.

** In that loyalty mission there's also a part of the ''Alarei'''s ApocalypticLog that [[https://www.youtube.com/user/Ascerute#p/u/73/in1QtPf7mEA you can find]]. (About 4:42) It's a female quarian who's recording a message as the geth cut into the room she's in. As the video ends, she says (to her own ''kid'') "Be strong for daddy! Mommy loves you very much!" as the geth blast into the room and shoot her.

** Everything about Tali is a tear jerker. She secretly fell in love with Shepard during the first game, but couldn't bring herself to tell him, so she possibly had to watch him become romantic with another crew member. Then, she spends two years convinced he's dead. After you meet her on Freedom's Progress, a good portion of her squad gets massacred through no fault of her own. When you meet her on Haestrom, ''another'' squad under her command has been slaughtered. Then, after you take her onboard, she gets charged with treason, then finds out in one of the most painful ways that her father is dead, ''then'' learns he was breaking essentially every quarian law by building geth aboard his ship and has to choose between condemning her father or being exiled from the fleet. And this all happens to one of the sweetest, most likable characters in the game.
*** Taken UpToEleven when you speak to the members of the Admiralty Board and learn that Tali is only being accused of treason to determine whether or not the entire Migrant Fleet should try to take back their homeworld from the Geth.

* The ending of Kasumi's loyalty quest, where she gets her boyfriend's last message. The cocky and upbeat character is finally brought to tears. She even tries to hold the image of her boyfriend, Keiji.
* The DLC where you explore the wreckage of the Normandy. Collecting the dogtags, all the little flashbacks... a clear example of SnowMeansDeath.

** Not to mention being able to find the dogtags in the wreckage because they were ''glowing''. It was like you were collecting their souls and they were just waiting to be found and brought home. ''No one'' gets left behind under Shepard's command.

** When you find the destroyed crew section. Most of the time, Shepard's flashbacks are of the way the ship used to look. When they find the crew section? A picture of whichever squad member died on Virmire. One wonders if Shepard will ever forgive themself.
** It somehow manages to be even worse if you're in another piece of Cerberus Network DLC, the Cerberus Assault Armour. Something about wearing a Cerberus uniform to the crash site feels like defiling something sacred.
* A surprisingly potent one at the end of the game, whenHarbinger releases control of the Collector General for the first time in the entire game, and it looks around before slumping in a dejected manner as the station explodes around it... Doubly so if that was one of the ''original'' Collectors- in other words, a Prothean. After 50,000 years, he's finally free... only to die right after.
* In Mordin's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAiySGf0CPI personal mission]], you can have a conversation over the body of a dead krogan female, and Mordin states his rage and anger over the senseless loss of life that was going on in the facility, and whispers a prayer to the dead female. He sounds so ''distraught'' and passionate about his ethical issues and feelings of guilt and the sadness of what had to be done, and it's one of the most moving and well-written moments in the entire game.

** In the same mission, the speaker of Clan Weyrloc makes an impassioned, enraged speech about the piles of stillborn Krogan children caused by the Genophage. Even though the guy's a total JerkAss and tries to kill you immediately afterwards, you can hear his voice giving out when he mentions the stillborns. It's pretty clear from his speech that he feels like he's got ''nothing left'', and he's lashing out at the galaxy the only way he knows how. It's hard not to be moved by the situation that all Krogan have been left in, by events that happened centuries past.

** If you select Miranda as your biotic specialist, when you see how she fails to protect your team despite claiming '''in theory''' any biotic would've been a fine choice suddenly reminds you of a previous conversation on the Normandy when she claims that when she does make mistakes, the consequences are severe. It's only when you experience it, you truly realize she wasn't exaggerrating.

** The worst is when someone dies offscreen while you're fighting the Human-Reaper. You hear that all surviviors have made it to the Normandy, then it cuts to the dead body of whoever died, surrounded by Collectors. Especially ball-punching if it was someone you were romancing; while most of them stand a good chance of surviving, Tali stands a pretty high chance of getting killed.

''[[caption-width-right:350:"It all seemed harmless..."]]''

* Adding on to the tragedy is the story of Nef, the teenage girl whose murder Shepard and Samara investigate at the beginning of the mission. Nef was just a girl living on one of the worst shitholes in the galaxy when she had the grand misfortune of catching Morinth's attention. Morinth spent a period of time appealing to Nef's artistic and musical tastes and also got her addicted to a drug, Hallex, that made her more impressionable and open to suggestions. Nef's diary entries suggest that she was beginning to realize and struggle with the fact that she might have been a lesbian, with her final entry having her excitedly talking about her dreams of running away with Morinth to live an idyllic life with her after getting an invite to her apartment, wondering how "dumb trash from Omega" like her could be so lucky. For some players, the sticking point in putting Morinth down was that [[MoralEventHorizon she was planning to snuff out this poor girl's life from the word "go" and any kindness was just a means to lure Nef into her web.]]

** That Samara describes Morinth as the best and brightest of her daughters implies that she disagrees with the treatment of Ardat-Yakshi and loves/takes pride in Morinth trying to be an individual. But that she also realizes that Morinth had already taken one step past the point of no return and simply could not be saved. And that for all that, she wants to have children, to make the world better, she realizes that all she will ever give birth to (in all likelihood) are prisoners. And then after, when talking to Samara, she politely makes a wayward comment about putting the mission in front of feelings and such.

---> '''Archer:''' No, leave him! He's too valuable! ''[Pulls out a gun and fires at Shepard]''
---> '''Shepard:''' ''[Dodges and pistol whips Archer]'' You even ''think'' about coming after your brother and this '''bullet''' will be waiting for you! '''Then we'll see who's ''valuable'''''.

** Archer could be seen as a sad character too. He cares about his brother and knows what he did was wrong but at the point Shepard shows up it's too late to stop. "What I have done to David is unethical. If he dies, it's unforgivable." That's undermined by his near-immediate attempt to stop Shepard from taking him away, but he does eventually get it, going so far as telling the Illusive Man when he wanted to repeat the experiment to piss off.

--> '''Archer:''' ...30.1.
** The [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone disgusted expression]] he gets on his face upon seeing what he's doneto his own brother is what truly nails in the tragedy.
** When you realize that the whole time he's been screaming "PLEASE MAKE IT STOP" at you... David is an autistic and extremely sensitive to loud sounds. Now imagine being locked in a room full of people ''who never stop talking''.
** If you decide to take David from the facility, you're treated to a extended scene you wouldn't see otherwise. You focus in on his face, eyes pried open by clamps, tears flowing, the camera moving closer and closer as the mission draws to a close as he repeats the same equation over and over again, mimicking his elder brother's words as he spoke about what he had done to him...

* You may be morbidly curious as to how Shepard is able to die, considering how much Bioware played up the AnyoneCanDie angle. Well, it only happens if you screw up the suicide mission so badly that ''every single one of your squadmates die''. Once that's happened, Shepard will make the final leap to the Normandy, but Joker can't pull them up. Shepard tells Joker to warn everyone else, and despite Joker shouting "''You'' tell them! You're not doing this to me again!", Shepard will lose their grip and fall to their doom. The anguish in Joker's voice and his face is palpable in the following ending scenes; he sounds almost broken when he speaks to the Illusive Man in Shepard's place. Seeing him looking at all those coffins is absolutely soul shattering, especially when he places his hand on the coffin with the "N7" symbol on it. The part that makes it is when Joker stands alone in the Normandy's hold, looking into space with a mixture of sadness, uncertainty, and determination as the music reaches its crescendo and the Reaper fleet mobilizes in deep space. The cutscene actually seems more like Shepard willingly lets go in order to save Joker. At that point, Shepard knows that Joker isn't going to willingly leave them behind but that Joker can't possibly pull them up between Joker's condition and the Collector's firing at the ship. Shepard knows that. So they let go to give Joker a chance to escape so that the message gets out. This is the second time he's seen Shepard die, and once again it happens as a result of something Joker did/couldn't do. Even though the worst ending is absolutely Shepard's fault, that kind of bookend can't have gotten past Joker's notice.

--->'''Tali:''' They'll strike his name from the manifest of every ship he ever served on! He'll be worse than an exile. He'd be a traitor, a monster to be held up to children in a cautionary tale! I can't let all the good he did be destroyed by this! If you go against her wishes and present the evidence to the other admirals anyway, you get to see her HeroicBSOD as the trial crowd goes into uproar. Even without being able to see Tali's facial expression, her body language tells you everything you need to know, and it's absolutely crushing. And that's before you get to the FridgeHorror of this action all but ensuring that, barring a miracle, she'll die in the attack on the Collector base.
** Everything about Tali is a tear jerker. She secretly fell in love with Shepard during the first game, but couldn't bring herself to tell him, so she possibly had to watch him become romantic with another crew member. Then, she spends two years convinced he's dead. After you meet her on Freedom's Progress, her entire squad gets massacred through no fault of her own. When you meet her on Haestrom, ''another'' squad under her command has been slaughtered. Then, after you take her onboard, she gets charged with treason, then finds out in one of the most painful ways that her father is dead, ''then'' learns he was breaking essentially every quarian law by building geth aboard his ship and has to choose between condemning her father or being exiled from the fleet. And this all happens to one of the sweetest, most likable characters in the game.

*** And then there's the records of the extranet games he plays. Although the purpose of it was probably observation, there are just weird little hints of a personality, like the infraction report that states that Legion was reprimanded for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Think about it: Legion got an infraction for TAUNTING other players, an inherently human reaction. And then there's the note that, despite the fact he's logged several days into the game, he got an absolute crap score at a quarian dating sim. It's like it was trying to see what would make the quarians love them again, but no amount of consensus and research could find out what is required for the peace between both races.

* The wreck of the ''Hugo Gernsback'' and what Ronald Taylor did in the aftermath. Jacob Taylor's shock and anger on seeing what his father has become--this isn't the Ronald Taylor he remembers--and the plight of the passengers (and murder of the other crew)! And they have to kill some of Taylor's victims in self-defense, victims who have gone mad in a violent way.

* Tali's mission=when she finds her father's body.

** There's a bit of [[FridgeHorror Fridge Sadness]] in that statement, too. Back at the beginning of the game, Jacob tells you that she was on the first Normandy when it was destroyed. So that line about her home being "one hull breach away from extinction?" That's not hyperbole; =''she actually watched it happen once.''

* Tali's mission [[spoiler: when she finds her father's body]].

** There's a bit of [[FridgeHorror Fridge Sadness]] in that statement, too. Back at the beginning of the game, [[spoiler: Jacob tells you that she was on the first Normandy when it was destroyed.]] So that line about her home being "one hull breach away from extinction?" That's not hyperbole; [[spoiler: ''she actually watched it happen once.'']]
*** Additional Fridge Sadness if you're playing as a male Shepard and romance her later, specifically relating to the line "a single kiss could put me in the hospital!". She at first awkwardly makes a pass at Shepard, and is overjoyed when he returns her feelings, but after thinking about it more, she tries to turn Shepard down because [[IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy she doesn't think he could be happy in a relationship with a]] [[BubbleBoy Bubble Girl.]] Makes one wonder what was going through her head when she said that.
** [[spoiler:Tali's breakdown upon finding her father dead on a geth-infested quarian ship, and the Paragon interrupt that lets you hug her.]]
*** Not hugging Tali. Can't do it? Don't worry, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk8_iHLSwMA this guy did it for you]]. The scene is painful enough ''with'' the hug; not taking the interrupt takes the tear jerking UpToEleven. Some may feel hugging her at that point is patronizing and letting Tali vent is a better option, though.
*** As has been stated [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Heartwarming/MassEffect elsewhere on this wiki]], no one with a soul can resist giving her that hug, including the player who made that video. After recording the cutscene without the hug, he reloaded his save file to do it right.

*** Becomes even more of a tear jerker in ME 3, [[spoiler: when you talk to the dying soldier on Rannoch. His last name matches the one of the woman in this log and he ask you to tell his son how his father died. Even worse: in ME 1, Tali explains that quarians only have one child per family. That poor kid is going down the Trauma Conga Line.]]

--->'''Tali:''' They'll strike his name from the manifest of every ship he ever served on! He'll be worse than an exile. He'd be a traitor, a monster to be held up to children in a cautionary tale! I can't let all the good he did be destroyed by this!
*** If you go against her wishes and present the evidence to the other admirals anyway, you get to see her HeroicBSOD as the trial crowd goes into uproar. Even without being able to see Tali's facial expression, her body language tells you everything you need to know, and it's absolutely crushing. And that's before you get to the FridgeHorror of this action all but ensuring that, barring a miracle, she'll die in the attack on the Collector base.

* A surprisingly potent one at the end of the game, when [[spoiler: Harbinger releases control of the Collector General for the first time in the entire game, and it looks around before slumping in a dejected manner as the station explodes around it...]]
** Doubly so if that was one of the ''original'' Collectors- [[spoiler: in other words, a Prothean. After 50,000 years, he's finally free... only to die right after.]]
*** [[spoiler: Thankfully, we learn what the protheans ''actually'' look like when you meet Javik in ME 3, although this might make it ''more'' of a tear jerker moment, seeing as how it's apparently this genetically deformed monstrosity so twisted that even its own people wouldn't be able to recognize it... and it just gets abandoned.]]

** In that same scene, if you've already played through ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', one quote he says is even HarsherInHindsight: [[spoiler:"Had to be me. Others might have gotten it wrong."]]

** The end of the quest, where you learn that [[spoiler: his student didn't get kidnapped, but allied himself to the Krogan from his free will so he could try to find cure to the genophage? That doesn't sound too bad, but when your party fails to convince him that the Krogan might start a rampage from ensuing power trip, Mordin pulls out his gun and shoots him]] if the player doesn't use a Paragon quick-time event and prevent him. Just listen his voice after that...he's so disappointed and crushed.

*** If you let Mordin [[spoiler: kill Maelon]], then the above quote is absolutely heartshattering. After spending the entire mission trying to convince himself more than Shepard that he did not kill needlessly, Mordin [[spoiler: ''murders Maelon in cold blood'' because once again, he had no other choice.]]

---> '''Mordin''': No...not [[spoiler: a murderer]]. Thank you, Shepard.
** The dead woman herself. She volunteered to be a subject for Maelon's experiments because she couldn't have children, and they killed her. We have no idea who she was, where she was from or what her name was, but she's a heartbreaking reminder that for all of Mordin's protests that the genophage killed no one, only limited fertility, it ''did'' kill people, and one of them is an unknown krogan woman who just wanted to have children who could live. One has to wonder how many others killed themselves for similar reasons -- or might have been killed for being infertile.
*** The effect is amplified by Mordin saying a [[DueToTheDead prayer for the departed]] and citing taking an interest in a Salarian philosophy which claims [[BackFromTheDead you reincarnate after death]] [[TheAtoner and can then work to fix mistakes you made in past lives]], and by Paragon Shepard delivering him a nasty ArmorPiercingQuestion.

** [[spoiler:Maelon comes off as a real tragic figure. He sees those involved in the dispersal of the modified Genophage as [[YouMonster monsters]], [[IAmAMonster including himself]], is implied to be mad with [[DespairEventHorizon misery]] and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone regret]] and it's clear he's desperate to undo what he sees as a horrible mistake. Not to mention his [[BrokenPedestal disillusionment with Mordin]], his old mentor.]]
-->'''Maelon:''' [[spoiler:How was I supposed to disagree with the ''great Dr. Solus?'' I was your student! I LOOKED UP TO YOU!]]

-->'''Maelon:''' [[spoiler:Don't you see? We tried to play God and we failed!]]

-->'''Shepard:''' [[spoiler:You really think anything you did here is justified?]]\\
'''Maelon:''' [[spoiler:We committed genocide! Nothing I do will ''ever'' be justified!]]

* Samara's mission. [[spoiler: She has to kill her own daughter, [[MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal because she's an out of control murderer]]. And that's mostly because of her genes, which are also partly Samara's genes.]] The way she is after it all...
** Adding on to the tragedy is [[spoiler: the story of Nef, the teenage girl whose murder Shepard and Samara investigate at the beginning of the mission. Nef was just a girl living on one of the worst shitholes in the galaxy when she had the grand misfortune of catching Morinth's attention. Morinth spent a period of time appealing to Nef's artistic and musical tastes and also got her addicted to a drug, Hallex, that made her more impressionable and open to suggestions. Nef's diary entries suggest that she was beginning to realize and struggle with the fact that she might have been a lesbian, with her final entry having her excitedly talking about her dreams of running away with Morinth to live an idyllic life with her after getting an invite to her apartment, wondering how "dumb trash from Omega" like her could be so lucky. For some players, the sticking point in putting Morinth down was that [[MoralEventHorizon she was planning to snuff out this poor girl's life from the word "go" and any kindness was just a means to lure Nef into her web.]]]]
** [[spoiler: Nef's mother is one of the most depressing parts of the quest due to how heartbroken she is over her daughter's murder and how little the people of [[WretchedHive Omega]] even care. [[AdultFear She had to witness as her shy daughter started acting oddly, taking drugs and spending near all of her time at a club until one day she never came home]], a terrifying situation that's made even scarier by the fact that it happens ''in real life.'' Her explanation as to why she hasn't gone into Nef's room since her death is heartbreaking and provides a Paragon Interrupt that carries the same kind of emotional guilt as Tali finding her father's body.]]
--->'''Diana:''' [[spoiler: Everything is the way she left it. The way it will always be. (starts sobbing) My baby is gone. She's gone and nothing will fix that.]]
** [[spoiler: That Samara describes Morinth as the best and brightest of her daughters implies that she disagrees with the treatment of Ardat-Yakshi and loves/takes pride in Morinth trying to be an individual. But that she also realizes that Morinth had already taken one step past the point of no return and simply could not be saved. And that for all that, she wants to have children, to make the world better, she realizes that all she will ever give birth to (in all likelihood) are prisoners. And then after, when talking to Samara, she politely makes a wayward comment about putting the mission in front of feelings and such.]]
** This line from Samara: [[spoiler: "There are three Ardat-Yakshi, I have three daughters. It is as it sounds"]] She delivers it very matter-of-factly but you can just tell she's absolutely crushed inside.

*** It's even worse when you consider both of them are in their early 40's, which for an asari is mid-teenage. Imagine two fourteen year old girls who are sent into what is essentially a nunnery to never see their mother again. Is there any other reason the final words Falere tells Samara before hanging up is "Catch her (Morinth). Just catch her"?
* You may be morbidly curious as to how Shepard is able to die, considering how much Bioware played up the AnyoneCanDie angle. Well, [[spoiler:it only happens if you screw up the suicide mission so badly that ''every single one of your squadmates die'']]. Once that's happened, Shepard will [[spoiler:make the final leap to the Normandy, but Joker can't pull them up. Shepard tells Joker to warn everyone else, and despite Joker shouting "''You'' tell them! You're not doing this to me again!", Shepard will lose their grip and fall to their doom.]] The anguish in Joker's voice and his face is palpable in the following ending scenes; [[spoiler:he sounds almost broken when he speaks to the Illusive Man in Shepard's place. Seeing him looking at all those coffins is absolutely soul shattering, especially when he places his hand on the coffin with the "N7" symbol on it.]] The part that makes it is when [[spoiler: Joker stands alone in the Normandy's hold, looking into space with a mixture of sadness, uncertainty, and determination as the music reaches its crescendo and the Reaper fleet mobilizes in deep space.]]
** Not to make it worse but... [[spoiler: the cutscene actually seems more like Shepard willingly lets go in order to save Joker. At that point, Shepard knows that Joker isn't going to willingly leave them behind but that Joker can't possibly pull them up between Joker's condition and the Collector's firing at the ship. Shepard knows that. So they let go to give Joker a chance to escape so that the message gets out.]]
** Even worse: [[spoiler:this is the second time he's seen Shepard die, and once again it happens as a result of something Joker did/couldn't do. Even though the worst ending is absolutely Shepard's fault, that kind of bookend can't have gotten past Joker's notice.]]

** Jack's death scene, especially if you romance her. It just...when she says [[spoiler: [[TooHappyToLive "I should've known this would happen. I was too happy...too happy with you."]] It shows how she found true happiness and peace with Shepard, only to die so soon after gaining it. It's like fate, after all she's gone through, was giving her a final slap to the face.]]
** Mordin's death scene is quite poignant, as he asks Shepard to [[spoiler: "Tell them... I held the line." This is in reference to the fact that he worked with the STG under Captain Kirrahe from the first game, who was fond of his epic speeches of awesome where holding the line was their job, at all costs.]]
** [[spoiler:Legion's]] death scene. [[spoiler:He may be a machine and thus it might be somewhat possible to bring him back to life again,]] but it's utterly heart-wrenching to hear him cry [[spoiler:[[BrainUploading "No carrier! No carrier! No carrier!"]]]]
*** A case of FridgeHorror when you realize that he was [[spoiler:Trying to upload his programs to the rest of the Geth collective; a vain attempt to survive. He cries out "No Carrier" because there aren't any nearby Geth stations or satellites to pick up the programs, so his programs; the very essence of Legion's soul, simply fade away. Legion dies not with a bang, but with a sigh. And to boot... since Legion operates much much faster than an organic, their death isn't the fast death others might get. When you can do a billion calculations in a second, even getting killed in a quarter second can be forever.]]

* Legion replaying the first memories of the Geth Collective to Shepard:

** It's absolutely '''heartbreaking'' if you stop Legion [[spoiler: from uploading the Reaper data into the rest of the Geth collective in the third game. Tali stabs him, and if you don't take the Renegade interrupt, Legion asks before dying, "Does this unit have...." Tali tearfully replies, "Yes, you do."]]
* Jack's story about [[spoiler:Murtock during her romance sidequest. The guy was a one-time partner of hers who, while on a criminal job, came back to rescue her when they got seperated instead of leaving her behind, only to get killed in the process. A couple of days later, she found a recording on their shuttle that he'd left for her in case he died; it talked about the future they were supposed to have, how he planned to build a home for them, about how he loved her and was sorry it wasn't going to happen. The crack in her voice and the clear tears that appear (clealry implying a ''massive'' amount of SurvivorGuilt) as she describes his dying message are the clincher.]]
* Jacob gets a tear jerker moment after his loyalty misson, even when playing as a Male Shepard. [[spoiler: After it is revealed that Miranda told him the location of the planet his father was on, he and Shepard have a conversation about Miranda. His final words are heartbreaking. "She...deserves a better man than I."]]

* The Paragon decision to nudge Miranda into [[spoiler: introducing herself to her sister.]] Even as a Renegade, it's totally worth it, as it's the one time you'll see Miranda genuinely tear up.

** How about the email "Can you help?" from a (presumably) Horizon colonist named Robyn Reeve [[spoiler: after the Collectors escape with over a third of the colony's population]]. The obvious desperation and pain in the letter is pretty damn sad.

*** And, unfortunately, [[FromBadToWorse it gets even worse than that]]: [[spoiler: When you enter the Collector ship later, your party will mention that, due to the ship's main power being off, all the pods have cut out and show zero life signs. So all the abducted Horizon colonists are dead. And while you initially think turian ships disabled it, it turns out to be a trap by the Collectors, meaning they shut off their own power knowing it'd kill all the abductees.]] Thanks a lot, you alien bastards.

** The [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone disgusted expression]] he gets on his face upon seeing what he's done [[spoiler: to his own brother]] is what truly nails in the tragedy.
*** The real kicker is what he says next. He flat-out admits to his own lack of ethics, but pleads with you to let him take care of his brother, asserting that if they stop there, everything he did will be AllForNothing.
** When you realize that the whole time he's been screaming [[spoiler: "PLEASE MAKE IT STOP"]] at you...[[spoiler: David is an autistic and extremely sensitive to loud sounds. Now imagine being locked in a room full of people ''who never stop talking''.]]
** If you decide to [[spoiler: take David from the facility, you're treated to a extended scene you wouldn't see otherwise. You focus in on his face, eyes pried open by clamps, tears flowing, the camera moving closer and closer as the mission draws to a close as he repeats the same equation over and over again, mimicking his elder brother's words as he spoke about what he had done to him...]]

*** Hell, even a Renegade Shepard [[spoiler: is disgusted by what happened, despite letting Archer keep him, if only to prevent a war. Shows that EvenEvilHasStandards.]]

** You spend a decent amount of time trying to stop the "VI" from Uploading itself offworld. It becomes FridgeHorror when you realise it's not trying to infect other systems, but [[spoiler: David, trying to get away from the noise.]]

** Kolyat's [[WhenYouComingHomeDad bitterness towards his father]] [[CallingTheOldManOut comes pouring out]], and the results are not pretty.

* During [[spoiler: Legion's loyalty mission, when Legion realizes the heretics have been spying on the true Geth and gives one of the saddest lines in the game (from a supposedly emotionless synthetic, no less)]]:
--> '''[[spoiler: Legion:''']] How could we have become so different? How can we no longer understand each other? What did we do wrong?

** There's a ''massive'' MoodWhiplash when you go through Miranda's dossiers. Most of them are records of her conversations with possible partners on a extranet dating site which are mostly SugarWiki/FunnyMoments. Then you get to the last one, and it's like a punch to the gut. [[spoiler:Miranda is completely barren, and the clinic that she went to can neither confirm nor deny if it was due to her genetic engineering.]]
*** Miranda's also may earn a FridgeHorror moment when you realize [[spoiler: her father made her to be flawless. We know he's greedy, controlling, and manipulative so it is possible that he created Miranda to be unable to have children as another way to control her. Which means her father actually thought ahead that he didn't want his daughter to be able to become pregnant and possibly pass on her "flawless" genes.]]
*** [[spoiler: The alternative is no better. Miranda mentions in her loyalty mission that she had multiple older sisters, but her father got rid of them, the implication being that there was something that made them "imperfect" in his eyes. Miranda's sterility would not have been noticeable until puberty at the earliest, and her father may have known about it long before Miranda herself. Her sterility may have been the "imperfection" that led her father to declare her a failure like her older sisters and try again, which in turn led to Oriana.]]

** Samara's is even worse, just how the stupid quirk of genetics has ruined her life and her daughter's lives. They're going to be prisoners for a thousand years and Samara herself has given up everything to hunt down her rogue daughter. Also there's something sad about learning Morinth's real name, like she was trying to escape the fate forced on her at birth. It makes their confrontation even sadder. [[spoiler: Morinth never uses her real name. ''Samara'' calls her Morinth. Whoever Mirala was, she's long gone to the both of them.]]

*** Gets a CallBack in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. [[spoiler:If Shepard maintains her romance with Thane up to his eventual death, the message ends up in her inbox afterwards. Painful.]]
** Jack's dossier. [[spoiler: When she was a baby, her mom went to the local medical facility because a doctor said that baby Jack needed a checkup. Apparently, all that doctor wanted was a reason take Jack away from parental custody since he is a Cerberus operative and Jack was exceptional. So the bastard lied to the mother, made up some sob story about how her kid had seizures due to biotics, told the mom that the government did this, and tricked her into releasing custody of Jack. Right after that, Jack was sent to Pragia.]]

*** To be clear: the goal of the Yucca Mountain Project isn't just to create a universal "keep out" sign. It's a project to design something so clearly terrible that even the most curious and stout-hearted compassionate truth-seeker ten thousand years from now will instantly turn and walk away, deeming the place either not worth their time or too dangerous to risk getting closer. And it has this goal because the thing that instant visual turnoff warns them away from? It's a dumping ground for toxic waste, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the unwanted ruins left behind by human hubris]], that destroys everything that tries to get close and is better left to rot. Oh, ''Jack...''

** Ronald Taylor's final letter to Jacob, telling his son how proud he was of him. He explains that the reason he took up his job was so that he could finally settle down comfortably with Jacob and his mother. The final punch was that he wished for Jacob to find comrades he could rely on in the Alliance just like he found Hugo Gernsback. [[spoiler:Considering what you find out about him during Jacob's loyalty mission, it makes it that much more tragic.]]

** The one on Garrus... [[spoiler: The entire chatlog with his sister Solana is painful to read, but the lines about his activities on Omega really feel like a kick in the teeth:]]
----> [[spoiler: '''Solana:''' You lose your C-Sec job, and what about that contract job you were doing up until recently? ]]
----> [[spoiler:'''Garrus:''' Yeah, it ended badly. ]]
----> [[spoiler:...]]
----> [[spoiler:'''Solana:''' Damn it, you haven't even bothered to sync up for video chat since you lost that damn job. If you're so ashamed to look me in the eye, then why are we even talking?]]
*** For those who're a bit behind, he's refusing to [[spoiler:sync up for video chat with his sister]] because a gunship ''blew off half his face, which was patched with prosthetics meant for a species with less in common with him than a camel spider.''
*** It's so sad, when ''you'' know perfectly well what Garrus has been doing -- trying to help the innocent and punish the guilty, usually in hilariously ironic manners. But then you realize just how much he's sacrificed... not only a comfortable, respectable, and likely rewarding (from an emotional point of view, not just money) position as a C-Sec officer, but also his entire family. His [[spoiler:mother is ''dying'' and his entire family thinks he just abandoned them to run off and be some merc for hire]]. And then you find out that he and Mordin secretly [[spoiler:worked out a deal with the STG to fund the clinic where his mother's being treated, so she can get the treatment for free]]... well, that is just a giant SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} for both Garrus and Mordin.

* The ending of Arrival. [[spoiler:300,000 lives, gone, in a flash. And Shepard pushed the button. While they did it with the best of intentions and bought the galaxy valuable time it still doesn't take away from that fact that 300,000 are dead and they're going to take the bullet for those lives. And this probably won't be the last time we'll need to sacrifice the countless nameless to fight the Reapers. Yes, for now, we can [[IDidWhatIHadToDo comfort ourselves in the knowledge that we've delayed the Reaper's invasion]], but it doesn't cushion the fact that Shepard's now a [[WhatTheHellHero mass murderer]]]]
** [[spoiler: How Shepard just stands overlooking the Galaxy map. And then the system turns red. Guilt much? It's even worse because you can try to ''warn'' them - try to save ''somebody'', even if it's not everyone, even if it's only a handful of handfuls, but the message doesn't get out.]]
*** It's worse if Shepard has the colonist background. Humans and batarians already have a hostile relationship with the other, and for Shepard the hate is personal, everyone they ever knew was taken their parents included to live and die as slaves to the batarians. [[spoiler:Yet despite all this, a Paragon Shepard will STILL try and warn these people what's coming so they can evacuate. The amount of effort that Shepard must have put into trying to be the better person is nothing less than saintly. And Kenson ruins EVERYTHING, turning what could have been a CMOH into... this]]
*** It's even worse yet. If you read the description of Aratoht, it says "Population 90,000 (free), 215,000 (other)." Yes, more than two-thirds of the population are '''''slaves''''', and you can bet a good chunk of them are human, which is especially wrenching for the Shepard who fought in the Skyllian Blitz.
* When you first meet Garrus [[spoiler:AKA Archangel]] in ''Mass Effect 2'' seeing how much he's changed and how cynical he's become is a real punch in the gut. This is especially heavy on MoodWhiplash because it goes from joy from realizing who [[spoiler:Archangel]] really is, to sadness when you see how much he's changed, to all out crying when he gets injured. Seeing him on the floor in a pool of his own blood is heartbreaking, and it just ''gets worse'' when you get his Shadow Broker file and realize what else was going on before you found him.
** What strikes most about the reunion with Garrus is just how ''tired'' he sounds when you finally get him face-to-face. He's so exhausted by everything that's happened to him in the last little while (physically and mentally) he just doesn't have it in him to be happy to see Shepard again.

* Bioware even manages one for ''a minor enemy'' of all things. During Mordin's loyalty mission, you encounter a spokeskrogan for Clan Werlyoc, who's infamous among the fanbase for his monologuing. However, with the right dialogue choice he drops the line; ''"No human, you understand nothing! You have not seen the piles of children that never lived!"'' Mordin states the genophage alters fertility rates... and prevents the development of the foetus' nervous system. That means the genophage results in a lot of eggs with dead krogan babies in them. To put that into perspective, horrific as it is, it's like if so many human babies were stillborn their corpses could be piled high; THAT is what the krogan have been enduring for ''centuries''. Even the fanatical bloodthirsty spokeskrogan sounded sad when he uttered that line. No wonder Mordin had a change of heart about the genophage.

*** It's worse if Shepard has the colonist background. Humans and Batarians already have a hostile relationship with the other, and for Shepard the hate is personal, everyone they ever knew was taken their parents included to live and die as slaves to the Batarians. [[spoiler:Yet despite all this, a Paragon Shepard will STILL try and warn these people what's coming so they can evacuate. The amount of effort that Shepard must have put into trying to be the better person is nothing less than saintly. And Kenson ruins EVERYTHING, turning what could have been a CMOH into... this]]