History TearJerker / ReaperMan

-->'' “In the Ramtop village where they dance the real Morris dance, for example, they believe that no one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away—until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence."''

* The entire scene where Miss Flitworth invites Bill Door to spend the evening in the parlor, a room crammed with souvenirs from her late fiancé that smells of "long, dull afternoons". Then she ends up spilling much of her backstory to him, and the former Grim Reaper is left [[NoSocialSkills helpess as what to say]] to a lonely old woman with more on her mind than she lets on...

** Also: Miss Flitworth said that because you "don't waste a perfectly good feast," she still held the big wedding dinner even when her fiance had vanished. Imagine her sitting there, not crying, at this big party when everyone's whispering the worst about her fiance... Good lord.

* Reading the paragraph about the legacy of somebodies life being their true life long after they're dead certainly hits a different note after the passing of Pratchett himself.

** That she [[spoiler:offers the fine material of the dress as a whetstone for Death's replacement scythe]] in the same scene has so many different perspectives of meaning packed into it, it only makes it worse that it ''barely helps'', as little more than a stepping stone to the next, perfectly common thing they try.

* Death telling the new Death that he was fighting him because he cared about the people living on the Disc. This, [[CueIrony of course]], being the reason the Auditors of Reality fired him. Then there's Death going after the little girl whose time had run out because Miss Flitworth smacked him, Death taking Miss Flitworth to her fiancé in the afterlife, and finally Death confronting Azrael about why Deaths need to have compassion so they aren't just oblivion.

* Death telling the new Death that he was fighting him because he cared about the people living on the Disc. This, [[CueIrony of course]], being the reason the Auditors of Reality fired him. Then there's Death going after the little girl whose time had run out because Mrs. Flitworth smacked him, Death taking Mrs. Flitworth to her husband in the afterlife, and finally Death confronting Azrael about why Deaths need to have compassion so they aren't just oblivion.

* There's a scene which pretty much summarises Miss Flitworth's personality, in which she talks about how after her fiancé died she was expected to spend all her time moping around in a decrepit wedding dress weeping, but instead she got on with her life. At the end of the book Death opens Miss Flitworth's chests that no-one has ever seen inside and finds [[spoiler:it contains her old wedding veil; she still thinks about her fiancé]].

* Pretty much the entire last quarter of ''[[Discworld/ReaperMan Reaper Man]]'' was a tear-jerker for me, but it really hit home when Death told the new Death that he was fighting him because he cared about the people living on the Disc. This, [[CueIrony of course]], being the reason the Auditors of Reality fired him. Add in Death going after the little girl whose time had run out because Mrs. Flitworth smacked him, Death taking Mrs. Flitworth to her husband in the afterlife, and finally Death confronting Azrael about why Deaths need to have compassion so they aren't just oblivion, and I was crying my eyes out. Although really, anywhere Death reflects on the nature of his job is a tear-jerker for me, because that's something that really hits me.

** That she [[spoiler:offers the fine material of the dress as a whetstone for Death's replacement scythe]] in the same scene has so many different perspectives of meaning packed into it that I find at ''least'' a new one, usually another TearJerker, every time I read it. It only makes it worse that it ''barely helps'', as little more than a stepping stone to the next, perfectly common thing they try.
** That description alone brings a tear to my eye!

* There's a scene which prety much summarises Miss Flitworth's personality, in which she talks about how after her fiancé died she was expected to spend all her time moping around in a decrepit wedding dress weeping, but instead she got on with her life. At the end of the book Death opens Miss Flitworth's chests that no-one has ever seen inside and finds [[spoiler:it contains her old wedding veil; she still thinks about her fiancé]].

*** One more, when she [[spoiler: dies at the end. She becomes 18 again, the age she was when her fiancee died. She didn't REALLY move on, just refused to mope about it. But she waited for him, until the very end. And her belief that he, too, had been faithful to her until his death was entirely true.]]
** That she [[spoiler: offers the fine material of the dress as a whetstone for Death's replacement scythe]] in the same scene has so many different perspectives of meaning packed into it that I find at ''least'' a new one, usually another TearJerker, every time I read it. It only makes it worse that it ''barely helps'', as little more than a stepping stone to the next, perfectly common thing they try.
** That description alone brings a tear to my eye!

* The talk with the dying Windle about why it is important to be needed by others and how it resonates in the final scene where he spares the Death of Rats (and the Death of Fleas) rather to be alone.

*** One more, when she [[spoiler: dies at the end. She becomes 18 again, the age she was when her fiancee died. She didn't REALLY move on, just refused to mope about it. But she waited for him, until the very end.]]

* There's a scene which prety much summarises Miss Flitworth's personality, in which she talks about how after her fiancé died she was expected to spend all her time moping around in a decrepit wedding dress weeping, but instead she got on with her life. At the end of the book Death opens Miss Flitworth's chests that no-one has ever seen inside and finds [[spoiler:it contains her old wedding dress; she still thinks about her fiancé]].

* The talk with the dying Windle about why it is important to be needed by others and how it resonates in the final scene where he spares the Death of Rats rather to be alone.

** That she [[spoiler: offers the fine material of the dress as a whetstone for Death's replacement scythe]] in the same scene has so many different perspectives of meaning packed into it that I find a new one, usually another TearJerker, every time I read it. It only makes it worse that it ''barely helps'', as little more than a stepping stone to the next, perfectly common thing they try.