History TearJerker / TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime

* After you learn that [[spoiler:Grog is basically dead now]], you give Fado the medicine in exchange for his saw. In the following dialogue, Grog is referred to exclusively as 'punk'. And this is after he called you a good guy, a nice guy, the only guy who can help him.

** Also, if Link hadn't have defeated Ganon at the end, the Happy Mask Salesman would have stayed dead, meaning that [[spoiler: Termina would have been destroyed indefinitely]].

* ''Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'' when Link leaves the Kokiri Forest and says goodbye to Saria really got to this troper for some reason. Probably thanks to Link's silence (even though Link doesn't say anything in the entire game). A very powerful scene.
** The whole scene was very sad and touching, but what put [[@/TheNerdyNinja This Troper]] over the edge was how, after taking the Ocarina, Link, not knowing how to react, ''just runs off'' as fast as he can, not even looking back.
*** The look on her face after Link runs off is truly devastating.
** Even worse is before entering the Forest Temple, where you hear Saria has gone in alone and is surrounded by monsters, suggesting, though not stating outright, that [[spoiler:each potential Sage must die to become a Sage, and Darunia, Ruto, Impa, and Nabooru soon follow.]]
*** After each time you receive a medallion, the cutscene text says "[name of sage] awakens as a Sage and adds [his/her] power to yours!" ''Awakens''. That's as close to an outright statement as you can get in a Zelda game. Not to mention the weird things they do (appearing diagonally in the wall when the barriers are dispelled, turning into balls of light, etc.) that can only be described as ghostly.
*** It is possible that [[spoiler: they come back during their scene in the ending, given how all the ones besides Rauru (the original) returned to Hyrule.]] Whether that's the case or [[spoiler: they're just ghosts getting one last look at Hyrule]] though is ambiguous.
*** Perhaps becoming a sage requires [[spoiler: [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascending to a higher level of being]]. Maybe the limitations of the mortal shell have to be cast off. Which is a fancier way of saying they died, but they may not have undergone the usual process that others mortals do.]]
* Am I the only one who cried when they saw the Gorons in the Fire Temple the first time? Let's look back, shall we- a proud, happy, if not hungry race on the top of DeathMountain. They're very nice to you, allowing you to use their facilities and natural resources at no cost, and are very hospitable. You gain good standing with the chief, and are treated with the highest respects, calling you "Brother" and (almost) giving you giant ''hugs''- fast forward seven years when the majority of them are reduced to shriveled heaps of brown jello, muttering about not wanting to be devoured by a large fire dragon; needless to say, this troper used a walkthrough to make sure she freed all of them and beat that dragon to a bloody pulp.
** Read the manga. You probably won't feel the same way.
** Oh gosh, the MANGA. "Li...nk." * cries*
*** FYI, you can't beat the Fire Temple until they've all been saved, so there's no chance of leaving any behind.
**** In Master Quest you can get the hammer very early in the Fire Temple. If you do, you can always go to the water temple, get the longshot, beat it, get the fire arrows. Armed with the fire arrows, the longshoot and some creativity, you can beat the fire temple in less than 10 minutes, leaving most of the Gorons behind. (You save 3-4 tops)
**** As if any player with the slightest inkling of a soul ''would.''
*** Then there's [[spoiler: Link hallucinating Volvagia in the Desert of Illusion. "Li... Link.. It hurts, Link..."]]
** Darunia becoming the Sage of the Fire Temple. Many manly tears and a few unmanly ones were shed.

** "[[spoiler:Only his saw is left. Hee hee.]]" Fucking Fado.
* Since ''Majora's Mask'', ''Ocarina of Time'' now has a ''huge'' downer ending for me. Let's review: [[spoiler:no one remembers anything Link did, he's effectively a ShellShockedVeteran in a ten-year-old's body, and even his best friend, the one with him through thick and thin, doesn't remember half of what they did together and thinks he'll be better off without her. Majora's Mask says he isn't. He really isn't. Add that to the fact that not only can he probably not go back to the Kokiri Forest, he's seen way too much to grow up like a normal Hyrulean kid, and he probably can't go live with any of the other species.]] Zelda, you're normally awesome, but wow, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero nice job breaking the Hero]].
** Honestly, this troper felt worse for Zelda than she did for Link at the end of ''Ocarina of Time''. The princess spends a good portion of her childhood and basically all of her teen years in disguise hiding out, with risk of being captured/killed by Ganondorf. All that waiting, only to part with Link, possibly the last person she can relate to [[spoiler:assuming the rest of the sages, including her pseudo-mother figure Impa, are [[DeadForReal dead for real]] ]]. Zelda sent Link back so he could regain the seven years he lost, but ''she'' will never get them back. It's also worth considering that Link gets sent back to pre-Ganondorf Hyrule where everything is still intact and dandy, while future-Zelda is stuck with a destroyed kingdom to rebuild. It's even worse when you learn in Wind Waker [[spoiler: that her Hyrule's eventually destroyed again thanks to Ganondorf's return]]. Downer ending indeed.
** "Link, give me the ocarina."...She looks so sad, and she just holds his hand in hers, knowing that she will never see him again, and she just wants one last moment with him. "When peace returns to Hyrule, it will be time for us to say goodbye...." My heart just shattered into a million tiny pieces.
** The ending of [=OoT=] was a huge one for this troper. The entire sequence was so beautifully done, with emotional scenes and perfect music. Seeing Link having to depart back to the past from Zelda (who it looked like was falling in love with him), seeing all the landscapes and realizing you had saved the world, the celebration of all the characters, the reappearance of the Sages on the mountain and then viewing Link as a 10 year old child once again with time restored. Then, most surprisingly, Navi the fairy (who had been quite annoying for most of the game), leaves Link in a very subtle scene of emotion as if to say; 'job done, now live your own life' and Link turns around and leaves the temple with the [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome epic and majestic]] close-up of the Master Sword.
*** And then of course, there is his reunion with a child Zelda that ends with the two just standing and staring at each other.
** There's a part in [=OoT=] that makes this troper feel awful. I want you to imagine a soldier who protects the princess. This soldier is strong, proud, and loves his job. Now, let's skip to where Ganondorf is chasing the princess. The soldier tries to fight off Ganondorf soldiers, and he fights to the end. Injured, he limps to a back alley. You pass him, and asks you if you got what Zelda wanted to give to you, and tells you, slowly, to go to the Temple of Time. You try to talk to him again. No response. And that's what happens when you explore around Hyrule after Zelda is kidnapped.
*** Also, if you never found him before? He died alone in the alley, never knowing if the princess was going to be alright. Good job, jerk.
* This troper set down his controller for a minute and just stared as the Great Deku Tree shriveled up at the beginning of Ocarina of Time. I was thinking "But...but...I saved you. I went in, I killed Gohma, I SAVED YOU DAMMIT!" That moment stuck with me so long that when I dealt the final blow to Ganon at the game's ending, I thought "And that one was for the tree."
** Although, in a sense, killing Gohma ''does'' save the Deku Tree, considering that it was implied that Gohma being inside of him was keeping him alive but tortured, and destroying Gohma [[MercyKill allows him to die in peace]].
*** Unless, of course, you look at it the way I did after playing through that multiple times. The tree always dies, no matter how fast or how slow you are to kill Gohma. Even if you sit there in front of the tree for days, it won't die until after you kill Gohma. With that in mind, how do you know that you weren't the one to kill the Great Deku Tree, and Gohma wasn't actually keeping it alive?
** Here's something that possibly makes it ''even more'' depressing... It's very strongly implied that the time Link gets sent back to is right before his original first meeting with Zelda. This means that in the Child-branch of the timeline, they can prevent almost all of the things Ganondorf did to cause the BadFuture of the Adult-timeline (and the Link to the Past timeline). However, the Deku Tree died ''before'' Link and Zelda's first meeting, so he's dead in ''all the timelines''. And given how the Kokiris (or at least some Kokiri-equivalent, like the Koroks in Wind Waker) don't appear again in the Child ''or'' [=LTTP=] timelines, it really makes you wonder what the heck happened to them.

* This troper always felt bad for Malon post-TimeSkip, but until recently had never been to Lon Lon Ranch at night as Adult Link. While Ingo is asleep in Talon's bed, Malon stands in the middle of the corral, quietly singing Epona's Song...because she isn't ''allowed'' to sing it under Ingo's oppression. Winning Epona had never been quite so satisfying.
* A "happy tears" TearJerker moment was definitely the credits of ''Ocarina of Time''. First the beautiful music that plays as the game leads you through an abandoned Gerudo Fortress and Kakiriko village. Where did everyone go? They're having a great big party, celebrating their freedom after toiling for seven years under a CompleteMonster. Then, you get the misty-eyed moment of the Sages, who (as previously noted, are ''implied to be ghosts'') watching a newly-liberated Hyrule with big smiles on their faces (special mention to Talon and Ingo finally getting along like old buddies). But even that's not the end of it. In what has got to be one of the most beautiful ending scenes in VideoGame history, Link is returned the the Master Sword's pedestal as a child once more. Navi, her duty done, floats away, out of the window, and as Link turns to walk away, the camera pans on the Master Sword, pristine, as bells ring out. You were ''bawling'', admit it.
** Yes, and it's hard to ''not'' bawl ''[[UpToEleven even more]]'' when you see the scene right after it: The camera fades into the castle courtyard, where Zelda is still doing her window spying, when she hears footsteps quietly trekking toward her from behind. The nervous look she used take the glance over her shoulder immediately turned into surprise when she saw Link standing there, perhaps with an air of much greater maturity since she last saw him after considering [[TraumaCongaLine everything that had happened to him before he was sent back]]. The camera switches between the two of them just staring at each other before it finally decides to settle on both of them, and not once during these cuts do the characters remove their mutual gaze. Cue the freeze-frame and the slow fade into sepia tone, solidifying the fact that all the new experiences you just witnessed are now simply memories. To only add to the tears, do you want to know the only words that could be uttered during that scene?
-->"''The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time''
--->THE END"
* Navi's "let's do this together!" line, referring to fighting the last boss, made this troper shed a lot of tears. Especially if you remember what happened to her during the previous boss fight.
** Navi [[TheScrappy gets a lot of hate]] on the internet. That scene in particular is a large reason why this troper cannot and will never agree with the hate.
*** This troper agrees, though it didn't make him cry...
**** This Tropette ''hates'' Navi, but she will admit that that scene is a happy TearJerker to her.
* This troper doesn't feel as bad for Princess Ruto as she does for her father. Until you save Ruto as a child, he's a blubbering wreck. Then, in the future, it gets worse. [[spoiler: Not only does he lose her ''again'', but he is frozen at the time and powerless to stop it or even say goodbye]]. And, as if that wasn't enough, [[spoiler: she ''doesn't'' come back this time, and is hinted to have died in order to awaken as a sage.]] Imagine what the future must be like for him.
* During the end cutscene when every character in the game is partying at the Ranch, the brief shot of King Zora and Mido just sitting there sadly, having lost Ruto and Saria...
** OH GOD. This troper spent this entire page wondering how all these people could be so certain that the sages are all dead. Then I read this, and realized: they aren't sad because they fail at partying(my original reasoning), they're sad because the ones they love didn't make it... And having the Sages there in a scene that invokes memories of Return of the Jedi just makes it ''so much '''worse'''''...
*** The first time I played, I hadn't heard the "Sage by Death" theory, and thought much the same, but it makes even more sense, seeing this. Rauru, no real connection to the cast. "Link" the Goron, likely too young to grasp anything other than Darunia is gone. Impa, only connected to Zelda, who was likely too busy repairing a zombie-infested kingdom to attend a party, or even properly grieve. Nabooru, connected to the Gerudo only, who weren't really there, likely as their role as thieves. So that leaves only Mido and King Zora as the only ones who truly GET what happened, and are appropriately...devastated.

* A PlayerPunch/TearJerker, but in the Forest Temple, before you kill the last Poe, pause and look at what she's doing in the middle of the lit torches. That weird sound she is making is not laughter, but crying because [[WhatTheHellHero you killed all her sisters.]]

* It may not be as much of a sad moment for anyone else, but as Adult Link in the market, you can see a Redead standing in front of the Happy Mask Shop. This Troper likes to believe that it's the Happy Mask Salesman. She found it heartbreaking that he remains there, in front of his destroyed business...

*** In one case, it's a bit blunter than that. [[spoiler: Darunia goes into Volvagia's room to fight it without the hammer. He's not in there when you go in. Make of that what you will.]]

* A PlayerPunch/TearJerker, but in the Forest Temple, before you kill the last Poe, pause and look at what she's doing in the middle of the lit torches. That weird sound she is making is not laughter, but crying because [[WhatTheHellHero you killed all her sisters.]]

* During the ending credits, we're treated to a scene of just about every character seen in the game partying at Lon Lon ranch. Everyone seems to be having fun, except for Mido and the Zora King who are sitting by the front gate looking sad. And then you remembered that both of them has [[spoiler:had someone precious to them become a sage and leave them forever. Mido's longtime crush is gone for good, in spite of him trying to convince her not to, and the king lost his daughter and only child.]] Then they both look up to the sky, and which Sage lights appear in the sky first? [[spoiler: Saria and Ruto.]]

* [[http://fanboys-online.com/comics/20110609.jpg This]]. It's just its own comic in the Fanboys archive, so you're flipping through jokes about consoles and then WHAM.

*** Perhaps becoming a sage requires [[spoiler: [[AscendedToAHigherPlanceOfExistence ascending to a higher level of being]]. Maybe the limitations of the mortal shell have to be cast off. Which is a fancier way of saying they died, but they may not have undergone the usual process that others mortals do.]]

** Yes, and it's hard to ''not'' bawl ''[[UpTOEleven even more]]'' when you see the scene right after it: The camera fades into the castle courtyard, where Zelda is still doing her window spying, when she hears footsteps quietly trekking toward her from behind. The nervous look she used take the glance over her shoulder immediately turned into surprise when she saw Link standing there, perhaps with an air of much greater maturity since she last saw him after considering [[TraumaCongaLine everything that had happened to him before he was sent back]]. The camera switches between the two of them just staring at each other before it finally decides to settle on both of them, and not once during these cuts do the characters remove their mutual gaze. Cue the freeze-frame and the slow fade into sepia tone, solidifying the fact that all the new experiences you just witnessed are now simply memories. To only add to the tears, do you want to know the only words that could be uttered during that scene?

*** Perhaps becoming a sage requires [[spoiler: ascending to a higher level of being. Maybe the limitations of the mortal shell have to be cast off. Which is a fancier way of saying they died, but they may not have undergone the usual process that others mortals do.]]

** Yes, and it's hard to ''not'' bawl ''[[BeyondTheImpossible even more]]'' when you see the scene right after it: The camera fades into the castle courtyard, where Zelda is still doing her window spying, when she hears footsteps quietly trekking toward her from behind. The nervous look she used take the glance over her shoulder immediately turned into surprise when she saw Link standing there, perhaps with an air of much greater maturity since she last saw him after considering [[TraumaCongaLine everything that had happened to him before he was sent back]]. The camera switches between the two of them just staring at each other before it finally decides to settle on both of them, and not once during these cuts do the characters remove their mutual gaze. Cue the freeze-frame and the slow fade into sepia tone, solidifying the fact that all the new experiences you just witnessed are now simply memories. To only add to the tears, do you want to know the only words that could be uttered during that scene?

** It does look like it's melted (or at least starting to melt) in the ending credits, which lessens the sadness somewhat, but it still seems rather unfair that the Zoras have to wait a bit to get their happy ending. However... something that possibly makes the entire Zora race seem like [[TheWoobie woobies]] is the fact that, in Twilight Princess, Zora's Domain ''also'' gets frozen over, so it happens to them in ''both'' the child and adult timelines.

** Here's something that possibly makes it ''even more'' depressing... It's very strongly implied that the time Link gets sent back to is right before his original first meeting with Zelda. This means that in the Child-branch of the timeline, they can prevent almost all of the things Ganondorf did to cause the BadFuture of the Adult-timeline. However, the Deku Tree died ''before'' Link and Zelda's first meeting, so he's dead in ''all the timelines''. And given how the Kokiris (or at least some Kokiri-equivalent, like the Koroks in Wind Waker) don't appear again in the Child-timeline, it really makes you wonder what the heck happened to them.

*** The first time I played, I hadn't heard the "Sage by Death" theory, and thought much the same, but it makes even more sense, seeing this. Raoru, no real connection to the cast. "Link" the Goron, likely too young to grasp anything other than Darunia is gone. Impa, only connected to Zelda, who was likely too busy repairing a zombie-infested kingdom to attend a party, or even properly grieve. Nabooru, connected to the Gerudo only, who weren't really there, likely as their role as thieves. So that leaves only Mido and King Zora as the only ones who truly GET what happened, and are appropriately...devastated.

* Zora's Domain. Each other area reclaims pretty much all it's former glory, but not there. You beat the Water Temple and you're told Zora's Domain will recover...eventually. So the Gorons are saved, the Gerudo have had their evil leader tossed, the Kokiri have the Deku Tree's protection back and Kakariko is now sans an eldritch horror, but Zora's Domain will remain a frozen wasteland for some time...that just seems rather sad, you know?

* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6XMKtjtvaM He's not moving anymore....]]]" Made even sadder by the fact that the vast majority of people will never know he was even in the game.

*** It's possible that they [[spoiler: ascend to a higher level of being. Perhaps the process of becoming a sage requires sacrificing the mortal shell to take on a different form. Which is perhaps a fancier way of saying they died, but they may not have undergone the usual process that others mortals do.]]

** Thinking about any of them too hard is a real downer. No matter the outcome of the final battle, Ganondorf's immortality renders it a forgone conclusion. If Link falls, Ganondorf wins the Triforce and goes on to wreak utter havoc for several more years. If he wins, he gets returned to his youth...except that in the "adult" timeline he leaves behind [[spoiler: Ganondorf returns and Hyrule is ultimately wiped off the map in an act of divine intervention.]] And in the child timeline - despite giving them fair warning of the danger - [[spoiler: the sages still manage to mangle Ganondorf's execution, leading ''two realms'' being placed in danger.]] And then there's ''Majora's Mask''. Oh God, ''Majora's Mask.'' It's like a goddamn Greek tragedy.

** Thinking about any of them too hard is a real downer. No matter the outcome of the final battle, Ganondorf's immortality renders it a forgone conclusion. If Link falls, Ganondorf wins the Triforce of Courage and goes on to wreak utter havoc for several more years. If he wins, he gets returned to his youth...except that in the "adult" timeline he leaves behind [[spoiler: Ganondorf returns and Hyrule is ultimately wiped off the map in an act of divine intervention.]] And in the child timeline - despite giving them fair warning of the danger - [[spoiler: the sages still manage to mangle Ganondorf's execution, leading ''two realms'' being placed in danger.]] And then there's ''Majora's Mask''. Oh God, ''Majora's Mask.'' It's like a goddamn Greek tragedy.

** Thinking about any of them too hard is a real downer. No matter the outcome of the final battle, Ganondorf's immortality renders it a forgone conclusion. If Link falls, Ganondorf wins the Triforce of Courage and goes on to wreak utter havoc for several more years. If he wins, he gets returned to his youth...except that in the "adult" timeline he leaves behind [[spoiler: Ganondorf returns and Hyrule is ultimately wiped off the map in an act of divine intervention.]] And in the child timeline - despite giving them fair warning of the danger - [[spoiler: the sages still manage to mangle Ganondorf's execution, leading ''two realms'' being placed in danger.]] It's like a goddamn Greek tragedy.

** Thinking about any of them too hard is a real downer. No matter the outcome of the final battle, the Ganondorf's immortality renders it a forgone conclusion. If Link falls, Ganondorf wins the Triforce of Courage and goes on to wreak utter havoc for several more years. If he wins, he gets returned to his youth...except that in the "adult" timeline he leaves behind [[spoiler: Ganondorf returns and Hyrule is ultimately wiped off the map in an act of divine intervention.]] And in the child timeline - despite giving them fair warning of the danger - [[spoiler: the sages still manage to mangle Ganondorf's execution, leading ''two realms'' being placed in danger.]] It's like a goddamn Greek tragedy.

* The official timeline has a branch in which Link fails at the end of the game. Think about that.

* Every single one of the chats with the newly awakened sages. It's utterly heart-wrenching, seeing these people, accepting their new roles, but with the remorse of the cost that it has for them.

** OH GOD. This troper spent this entire page wondering how all these people could be so certain that the sages are all dead. Then I read this, and realized: they aren't sad because they fail at partying(my original reasoning), they're sad because the ones they love didn't make it... And having the Sages there in a scene that invokes memories of Return of the Jedi just makes it ''so much '''worse'''''...

** Though canonically split into two timelines, a determinist understanding of time travel could nicely wrap up the previously mentioned tear jerkers, [[spoiler: if Shiek was actually Link all along. Hear me out on this one, Link goes back in time after defeating Ganondorf, knows all this stuff, and spends the next seven years learning the harp. The Zelda reveal is fabricated for Links benefit, more for mindfuck reasons than paradox issues. I came up with this theory when I first played it, and SuperSmashBros goes and ruins everything.]]

* During the end cutscene when every character in the game is partying at the Ranch, the brief shot of King Zora and Mido just sitting there sadly, having lost Ruto and Saria...

** Though canonically split into two timelines, a determinist understanding of time travel could nicely wrap up the previously mentioned tear jerkers, [[spoiler: if Shiek was actually Link all along. Hear me out on this one, Link goes back in time after defeating Ganondorf, knows all this stuff, and spends the next seven years learning the harp. The Zelda reveal is fabricated for Links benefit, more for mindfuck reasons than paradox issues. I came up with this theory when I first played it, and SuperSmashBros goes and ruins everything. ]]
*** Thank you for that unhelpful dollop of WMG.

* This troper doesn't feel as bad for Princess Ruto as she does for her father. Until you save Ruto as a child, he's a blubbering wreck. Then, in the future, it gets worse. [[spoiler: Not only does he lose her ''again'', but he is frozen at the time and powerless to stop it or even say goodbye]]. And, as if that wasn't enough, [[spoiler: she ''doesn't'' come back this time, and is hinted to have died in order to awaken as a sage.]] Imagine what the future must be like for him.