History TearJerker / TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel

--> Sara: You...You... We haven't been risking our lives for pride all this time, have we?! [[NecessarilyEvil It was to save our homeland from poverty! To fill empty stomachs]]! [[AHeroToHisHometown To make children smile when we had next to nothing!]] ''[[WarIsHell That's why we chose to live our days drenched in blood and smoke!]]'' But now you've lost your way. Why have you thrown that resolve aside? [[TryingNotToCry If you're willing to abandon everything you stood for, then the colonel...Daddy won't be able to rest in peace...]]

* A minor one that involves the character artwork from the start menu of all things, compare the character portraits from the [[https://otakuoverdrive.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/legend-of-heroes-sen-no-kiseki-ii-15.jpg first game]] to the [[https://img.fireden.net/v/image/1450/72/1450726800075.jpg second game]]. Upon closer inspection, Rean is the only one to have his facial expression change between games, going from a [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/legendofheroes/images/b/bf/Rean_Schwarzer.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131013014930 confident smile]] in ''Cold Steel I'' to a [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/legendofheroes/images/d/dc/Rean_schwarzer_sen2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140912082754 more serious frown]] in ''Cold Steel II'' to a [[https://66.media.tumblr.com/5ae8e8b0ca218b3f6da2f48ee975ef3d/tumblr_odtnpyMh7X1siawg7o1_500.jpg melancholic look]] in a teaser for ''Cold Steel III'']]. It's minor, but it gives a more visual representation of how the events in each game are affecting him. He went from being a teen embarking on a new adventure to being thrust into a civil war that endangered the lives of his new friends to having to participate in an actual war serving under his newfound father whom one of his late friends tried to kill all within the span of a little under two years.

* The prologue of Cold Steel 2 has one near the end: a group of jaegers sent by Duke Albarea attack Ymir while Rean, Elise, and Toval are out fighting a Magic Knight. Several buildings are on fire and several frightened townsfolk are running in fear. [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Baron]] [[GoodParents Teo]] [[PapaWolf Schwarzer]] tries to fight them off, only to hesitate when one of them holds a child as a hostage. The screen then FadesToBlack just as a jaeger behind him opens fire. When Rean and the others get back they find him laying in a pool of his own blood and Lucia unconscious. They both survive but can you really blame Rean for going berserk over the sight?

** Class VII reveals themselves to have started learning curriculum ahead of the other classes because come the next school year, [[BreakingTheFellowship all of them will be going their separate ways]]. Alisa will be leaving to help the Reinford group, Elliot and Machias will transfer to a Heimdallr music and a political academy, respectively, Laura will be joining her father for some special training, Jusis will be heading to Bareahard to fill in for his father and brother, Gaius will travel back to the Nord Highlands, Emma will embark on a journey in search of Vita and uncovering the mysteries behind the Divine Knights, Fie will go in search of her old friends from Zephyr, and Millium will return to the Intelligence Division. Rean meanwhile will stay at Thors with Valimar. This ultimately culminates in the last free day of the year, where, after defeating Loa Luciferia, all of Class VII (starting with [[GenkiGirl Mil]][[OOCIsSeriousBusiness lium]]) starts to cry, letting out all of their sorrows of saying goodbye to one another. And just to add one final twist in the heartstrings, unbeknownst to the group, a spirit heavily implied to be Crow watches them from afar.

--> Sara: You...You... We haven't been risking our lives for pride all this time, have we?! [[NecessarilyEvil It was to save our homeland from poverty! To fill empty stomachs!]] [[AHeroToHisHometown To make children smile when we had next to nothing!]] ''[[WarIsHell That's why we chose to live our days drenched in blood and smoke!]]'' But now you've lost your way. Why have you thrown that resolve aside? [[TryingNotToCry If you're willing to abandon everything you stood for, then the colonel...Daddy won't be able to rest in peace...]]

* A meta TearJerker in the form of the passing of Creator/MiyuMatsuki, Claire's Japanese voice actor, in October 2015.

* From a meta perspective: Rean is the first ''Trails'' protagonist to fail to save his most precious person, that person being Crow. To compare, Estelle manages to bring back Joshua, Kevin manages to save Ries and in effect changes [[RedBaron his title]] to a more meaningful one, and Lloyd manages to bring [=KeA=] back to him.

* The town of Celdic, once a bustling town with the Grand Market being its great attraction, is reduced to nothing but ashes. The entire party, especially Jusis, cannot believe the atrocity that had happened to the town. And as a gut puncher, the market manager Otto, who has been helpful to Class VII, dies protecting the town. Everything about the scene is tragic, as all the townspeople's reactions are disturbingly realistic. Some lament how and why this happened, other are ''still'' screaming at the Soldats to stop long after they've left, and you get to see many grieving at the bedsides of their loved ones in the church's makeshift hospital, one of said comatose victims being a ''[[AdultFear child]]''. Becky and Hugo had family here, and she in particular takes Otto's death hard.

** Alisa: She finds out that her father has been alive all this time, but it turns out that he's been leading the Black Workshop and working with Osborne after his supposed death (which, by the way, was caused by Sharon) years ago. And to put some more salt in the wound, he acknowledges that working in the Reinford Company and marrying Irina was simply all part of his plan and that he never cared for his family. In short, all of the drama that surrounded the Reinfords, including Irina becoming a workaholic, Gwyn being forced to leave the company, and Alisa resenting her mother, was all caused by the selfish ambitions of one man. And said man is the one who kills Laura's father and Alfin's brother by detonating the Courageous. Oh, and if you chose her as Rean's LoveInterest, not only does she see her boyfriend go through the TraumaCongaLine to end all Trauma Conga Lines, unlike every other romance option, '''her own father is responsible for it'''.

** Alisa: She finds out that her father has been alive all this time, but it turns out that he's been leading the Black Workshop and working with Osborne after his supposed death (which, by the way, was caused by Sharon) years ago. And to put some more salt in the wound, he acknowledges that working in the Reinford Company and marrying Irina was simply all part of his plan and that he never cared for his family. In short, all of the drama that surrounded the Reinfords, including Irina becoming a workaholic, Gwyn being forced to leave the company, and Alisa resenting her mother, was all caused by the selfish ambitions of one man. And said man is the one who kills Laura's father and Alfin's brother by detonating the Courageous.

** And in ''Cold Steel III'' it gets worse, since Rean failed to do it ''again'', as he can't do anything to stop Altina from (prepared to) getting killed or stop Millium to jumped in and take Altina's place instead.

* When Patrick and his cronies lose a battle with the boys of Class VII (minus Jusis and Crow), Patrick goes off on an extended rant against Class VII, targeting Rean in particular despite the latter's sportsmanlike attitude; calling him a nobody without a drop of noble blood. While the rest of the party is confident enough to take the rant with appropriate dismissal or at least disgust, Rean looks devastated, and his already fragile confidence takes a major hit. Later in the game, the player learns that Rean's deepest insecurities come from a lack of friendships and a general sense of not belonging that has plagued him his entire life, and Patrick unintentionally caused those insecurities to resurface.

* From a meta perspective: Rean is the first ''Trails'' protagonist to fail to save his most precious person, that person being Crow. To compare, Estelle manages to bring back Joshua, Kevin manages to save Ries and in effect changes RedBaron to a more meaningful one, and Lloyd manages to bring [=KeA=] back to him.

[[folder:Trails of Cold Steel I]]

[[folder:Trails of Cold Steel IV: THE END OF SAGA]]

** And in ''Cold Steel III'' [[spoiler:it gets worse, since Rean failed to do it ''again'', as he can't do anything to stop Altina from (prepared to) getting killed or stop Millium to jumped in and take Altina's place instead.]]

** Come the 4th game, Rean's smile [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rean_schwarzer_sen_iv.png is all but gone]]. [[spoiler: The events of the past 3 games have caught up to him in full force.]]

* Laura's romantic event. All [[ForcefulKiss questionable actions aside]], it was confirmed there that Rean is ''searching for a place to die''. Emma's romantic event had the same lines, as she yelled at him how frustrated she was with the whole situation and how she couldn't accept that Rean gave up on living. After everything that he has been through, it was finally confirmed that Rean was suicidal.

* In Chapter 2, we finally get to hear Sharon's full backstory. She was a ChildSoldier, similar to Joshua from the ''Sky'' games, but unlike him she ''[[YouAreNumberSix didn't even have a name]]'' until the Reinfords took her in. And she never told Alisa about any of this.

* In Chapter 1 of ''Cold Steel III'', you get to visit [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky the ruins of Hamel]], and the feels are just as poignant here as they were in ''Trails in the Sky''. From Agate recounting the events that occurred years ago to the faithful recreation of the town's layout in 3-D to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bOF9vkLvz4 somber remix of the original Hamel theme]], it's nostalgic and tear-jerking all packed into one. The fact that Hamel ended up being ''a lot of peoples'' dark and troubled pasts that sets in motion ''the entire series'' can be this.
* MemeticMutation aside, seeing Juna cry her heart out and blame Rean for the SSS, Crossbell's hope, reduced to nothing but fugitives and locked at Michelam Wonderland with only Randy and Tio being out and even then Randy's supervised by Thors II ends up becoming this. Enough that by the next day, Juna doesn't even want to get out of the bed. What clinches it is that after everyone closes their eyes at how powerless they are to even help her out, Rufus just calmly walks away like he's not even involved.

* Visiting Hamel. The music fits the atmosphere for the tragedy that happened and those that were killed.