History TearJerker / MassEffect2

*** Zaeed gets about as shocked here as you'll ever see him as well. "[[http://youtu.be/YY30-TYul3w?t=8m56s Looks like a lot of kids died in these experiments. I've done some bad stuff, but this...]]"

** The revelation that Tali's father did love her dearly and that all he did, the experiments, the parental neglect through his constant work, all of it was so his daughter could eventually and finally have a home again. The man made heartwrenching sacrifices for his girl. In Tali's own words, she didn't know what was worse - that she spent her life believing that her father didn't love her...or that he did, but never knew how to show it while he was alive.

'''Tali:''' Don't need? Shepard, if I don't wear a helmet in my own home, I ''die''! A single ''kiss'' could put me in the hospital! Every time you touch a flower with bare fingers, inhale its fragrance without air filters, you are doing something I can't!

--->'''Tali:''' (to Shepard) You have no ''idea'' what it's like! You have a planet to go back to! My home is one hull breach away from extinction!\\

* Another one on Tuchanka, a krogan is talking to his companion about a vid about the Citadel, wishing he could see it in person, while the second krogan berates him for looking at it because he's never ever going to get off his radioactive, warring DeathWorld of a planet. Same krogan also expresses interest in science (of the intellectual sort instead of the BOOM sort)and documentaries . Hearing the other (bigger) krogan crush the smaller ones dreams is hard to listen to. One hopes that the little guy gets a chance to tell Wrex that he's interested in being smart not just strong.

* The email from Corporal Toombs, the soldier experimented on from the last game (assuming you were able to convince him to stand down), where he's in complete disbelief that Shepard is working for the same group that used him as a lab-rat for years on end. It's worse if you have the Sole Survivor background. Imagine finding out one of your fellow soldiers is working for same people who killed everyone else in your unit and experimented on you.

*** Made even worse in the third game when you talk with Eve, one of the surviving female krogan who volunteered to this experiments. She mentions that some of the krogan women did, in fact, wandered off in the wilderness to get killed by the fauna after their children born dead.

** 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, which is also a heartwrenching moment on its own.

*** 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.

** 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.

** 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. 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.

*** Mordin's reaction is also memorable. He responds to seeing the cells with ''utter disgust'' that they would keep children in them.

*** 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.

** 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 from Samara's loyalty mission has lost her only child as the latest corpse in a four-century killing spree.

** 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 disease. 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."

* 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.
* If any of your squadmates die, during the final scene in the cargo bay you'll be treated to a panning shot showing their coffins, laid out in a row. The shot shows not only the losses you've suffered and the good lives have been lost, but also the implication that ''you could have saved them''. Even worse when you realize there's no way some of their bodies were recovered. ''Those coffins are empty.'' Devastating.

** 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 hitting him with a [[BrutalHonesty harsh truth]].

** Mordin's [[VerbalTic unique manner of speaking]], voicing his thought process out loud as he works through problems and questions, takes a whole new darker role here, practically telegraphing Mordin's conflicted emotions and multi-layered excuses for working on the genophage project ticking away one by one if confronts him about it. Most of the times, at the end of his spiels, he will take a breath in before giving a final, decisive conclusion in a terse manner, before moving onto the next topic, but here...he never reaches that point. Every time he almost reaches it, the he's hit with another cruel reality, forcing him to confront what the STG did, what ''he'' did, on Tuchanka. And every time, he goes off, giving scientific explanations, referring to statistics and scenarios that show that a Krogan resurgence would have been disastrous, that they ''had'' to upgrade the genophage...and yet nothing he says adequately justifies the atrocity he was a part of, and deep down, ''he knows it.''

** 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.

** When you realize that the whole time the [=VI=]'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''.

** Mordin's [[VocalTic unique manner of speaking]], voicing his thought process out loud as he works through problems and questions, takes a whole new darker role here, practically telegraphing Mordin's conflicted emotions and multi-layered excuses for working on the genophage project ticking away one by one if confronts him about it. Most of the times, at the end of his spiels, he will take a breath in before giving a final, decisive conclusion in a terse manner, before moving onto the next topic, but here...he never reaches that point. Every time he almost reaches it, the he's hit with another cruel reality, forcing him to confront what the STG did, what ''he'' did, on Tuchanka. And every time, he goes off, giving scientific explanations, referring to statistics and scenarios that show that a Krogan resurgence would have been disastrous, that they ''had'' to upgrade the genophage...and yet nothing he says adequately justifies the atrocity he was a part of, and deep down, ''he knows it.''

---> '''Mordin''': No... not a murderer]]! Thank you, Shepard.

--->'''Tali:''' (to Shepard) You have no ''idea'' what it's like! You have a planet to go back to! My home is one hull breach away from extinction!
--->'''Shepard:''' You've got a place here, Tali. Don't throw it away in a war you don't need.
--->'''Tali:''' Don't need? Shepard, if I don't wear a helmet in my own home, I ''die''! A single ''kiss'' could put me in the hospital! Every time you touch a flower with bare fingers, inhale its fragrance without air filters, you are doing something I can't!