History Tearjerker / DynastyWarriors

** If you were on a normal run or the first time, this might look a little normal, as they come really unprepared and lacking backup plans. But after you unlock the hypothetical route, this takes into a bigger TearJerker because Xu Shu was already there to offer his help that could save the day, yet ''you'' made Guan Yu ignore all those and lead to all those tragedies. In fact, this can apply to every second run of the historical route, which can make you lament "[[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot Why didn't I choose all those alternatives so this doesn't have to happen!?]] [[WhatAnIdiot I was so stupid...]]"

** Diaochan's ending has her deciding that she cannot be with Lu Bu and says her goodbye to him. She knows that she will bring him down because she is the poison to many men's hearts. Lu Bu accepts it and tells her to live on as herself not as poison or her father's pawn. After Lu Bu left, Diaochan thanks him and vows that she will continue to have him in her heart. Usually in most games, she would follow Lu Bu towards the ends of the earth. But here? She makes a painful decision not follow the man that she love and respect.
** In Xu Shu's ending, he becomes a vassal of Wei but he's not satisfied with his new way of life as his rank in court is very low. When he heard that Zhuge Liang became Prime Minister of Shu, Xu Shu is very jealous that he might not live up to his former friend and begins to regret his choice of not serving Liu Bei. Unbeknownst to him, Zhuge Liang actually honors him. Too bad Xu Shu never knew this.

** Cao Cao's ending also features his impeding death (albeit offscreen). After giving orders to let Liu Bei and Sun Quan fight each other in retaliation for Guan Yu's death, Cao Cao starts to feel unwell much to Xiahou Dun's concern. Upon his death, his son Cao Pi reads his last instructions to not to hold any public funerals for him and let the officers continue their duty. Then, Xu Chu is crying out to the sky and Cao Xiu drops to his knees, shaken with the loss of his uncle. The rest of the Wei officers are bowing their heads with grief and shaking their heads with disbelief while the soldiers and civilians join in the mourning. Then, Xiahou Dun asks forgiveness to his late cousin that he and rest of Wei soldiers give their final salute to him. This ending really shows how the people of Wei really have respect for Cao Cao.

** One would never expect Yuan Shu's ending to be tragic. His jealousy and stubbornness cost him losing his supporters most especially when he declared himself emperor. Even his most loyal subordinate, Ji Ling, sacrifices his life to help his liege lord escape. As Yuan Shu lies on his death bed, Sun Ce visits him and gives him the oranges which came from the boy who Yuan Shu showed kindness to him for his filial piety. At that point while eating the orange, Yuan Shu starts to show regret for his actions.

--> Thus the Three Kingdoms of Cao Cao, Sun Quan and Liu Bei... were eventually all conquered under the rule of the Sima Clan!

---> Thus the Three Kingdoms of Cao Cao, Sun Quan and Liu Bei... were eventually all conquered under the rule of the Sima Clan!

** This also makes Sima Yi's statement in his ending in ''9'' about telling his sons to raise worthy heirs very tragic. Shi dies without a son and Zhao chooses his oldest son, Yan, as his heir. Later, Yan establishes the Jin Dynasty after overthrowing the last Cao Wei emperor and reunites the entire land after conquering Wu. But [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom his decisions]] to give his male family members higher position and to keep his developmentally disabled son as his heir led to an ugly SuccessionCrisis that fractured China once again, making all the efforts of his and his father and all those who had been fighting for reunification pointless.

** The Battle of Wu Zhang Plains in general tends to have more grim, somber themes across the series, foreshadowing the upcoming tragedy and what is effectively the beginning of the end for Shu. ''7'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSIQxpcFoIsEntrusted Hope]] and ''8'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oGcUNIESyw Hopeful Pain]] are easily the biggest offenders in this regard.

** The Battle of Wu Zhang Plains in general tends to have more grim, somber themes across the series, foreshadowing the upcoming tragedy and what is effectively the beginning of the end for Shu. ''8'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oGcUNIESyw Hopeful Pain]] is easily the biggest offender in this regard.

** Previously in ''[=4XL=]'', there's also a similar scene where Sun Ce ends up [[TakingTheBullet covering Da Qiao from enemy arrows]] [[DiedInYourArmsTonight dying on Da Qiao's hug]]. While the English dub may have ruined it with a bit of DullSurprise, the Japanese version is more powerful because what came out from Da Qiao's lungs were a heartwrenching BigNo. Then his killers had enough ball to gloat on killing him, pushing Da Qiao into RoaringRampageOfRevenge...

** With the above in mind, everyone in Dynasty Warriors - Wei, Wu, Shu, Jin - basically died for nothing. It's especially stinging because Sima Yi's legacy has been that of more than a dozen imbeciles fighting tooth and nail over the throne, which put China in an even more chaotic position, arguably, than the Three Kingdoms. China wound up in a dark age from 300-600 AD, when the Sui Dynasty managed to FINALLY unite a fraction of China and attain some semblance of order. True reunification will have to wait until 618 C.E, when the Tang Dynasty was established.

* Sadly, if you read the history around which ''Dynasty Warriors'' and ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' are based on, you find that just 10 years after the land is united under Jin, [[spoiler: Sima Yan dies]], and a [[spoiler: 16-year civil war]] begins between the [[HereWeGoAgain various Princes of Jin...]]

* Go play Da Qiao's stage in Dynasty Warriors 7 XL and witness how happy she is with Sun Ce and how he claims they will be together forever. Then play Xiao Qiao's stage and see how sad and brokenhearted she is since it's been years since Ce [[spoiler: died]]. You'll feel terrible if you know your history and how he died and she was the last person to see him and knowing how she must feel that her husband is gone and she is left to live on.

* Guan Suo's, Yue Ying's, Xing Cai's, and Ma Dai's [[spoiler: death]] speeches in the final level of Jin the Capture of Chengdu, each one lamenting they didn't have the strength to fulfill the dreams of the ones before them that despite doing everything they could it was all for naught, especially if Shu's your favorite of The Three Kingdoms.

** The battle beforehand is also a complete tear jerker, things go from bad to worse as the battle rages on. Guan Ping's [[spoiler: death to buy the rest of his family some time]], complications continue to mount up as the Wu ambushes them, their own allies can't even come to their aid and Guan Yu's own men betraying him. It is especially heart wenching if you completed the hypothetical objectives as Xu Shu laments that he was powerless to prevent this tragedy.

** 7 has a more emotional response from Liu Bei regarding the deaths of his sworn brothers. When Zhao Yun tries to remind him that Wei is the real enemy, Liu Bei angrily brushed it off and wanted to go after Wu to avenge Guan Yu. Then, a messenger came and informed him that Zhang Fei was betrayed and beheaded by his own men who defected to Wu. Liu Bei’s response of his other sworn brother’s death is so heartwrenching that not only he stood and staggered a bit, he smashed his chair with his sword while yelling TheBigNo, dropped to his knees and screamed in anguish. It’s even sadder than his wife dropped to her knees when she listened to the messenger’s report on Zhang Fei.

* It was pretty heartwrenching in some Legend Stages though, in particular Ding Feng's... [[spoiler:He recalled the time when everyone he knew was alive and the scene was very cheery... but then cut to present and it's a snowy night in Dong Xing, and only Lianshi was around (it's gotten lonely), while Wu at the moment were filled with talentless hacks like Zhuge Ke. And despite knowing that they'd fall with those people, the only path for Ding Feng is just to move forward for the dead...]]

* While most, if not all of the bonus stages in ''8:XL'' are hilarious, Shu's "Find Red Hare" stage takes a surprisingly somber turn when the identity of the horse thief is discovered. [[spoiler:It's Lu Lingqi, and she "stole" Red Hare because she was desperate to have something to remember her father, Lu Bu, by. With Xiapi fallen and all of his soldiers either dead or defected, Red Hare is all that remains of her father's once proud legacy. She practically ''begs'' the Shu officers to let her go, but [[NoSympathy they have none of it]].]]

** Guan Yu's ending is the start of the Battle of Fan Castle. While making preparation and looking at his children, he vows that he would guard the land for his sworn brother and holds his spear up in the air. Then, the scene turns grey [[spoiler:which slowly pans to his spear-riddled corpse and fades into black with Guan Yu weakly whispering, "Brother"]].

** Xin Xianying witnessed her father expiring right in front of her and the PerpetualSmiler ends up sobbing. When compared with other ladies whose endings were at least either peaceful or happy ([not counting [[EsotericHappyEnding the downer future later]]), Xianying is the only female character who got a downright sad ending.

** Xin Xianying witnessed her father expiring right in front of her and the PerpetualSmiler ends up sobbing. When compared with other ladies whose endings were at least either peaceful or happy ([not counting [[EsotericHappyEnding the downer future later]]), Xianying is the only female character who got a downright sad ending.

** Wei Yan's ending happens when he heard of Zhuge Liang's death and feels that all hope is lost after Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang are gone. Despite Ma Dai's efforts to calm him down, Wei Yan rushes into the battlefield towards the enemy base. If you read history, the Battle of Wuzhang Plains is the last time we heard of Wei Yan and Ma Dai is going to kill him for disobeying Zhuge Liang's last order which is to pull back and retreat.

** Wei Yan's ending happens when he heard of Zhuge Liang's death and feels that all hope is lost after Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang are gone. Despite Ma Dai's efforts to calm him down, Wei Yan rushes into the battlefield towards the enemy base. If you read history, the Battle of Wuzhang Plains is the last time we heard of Wei Yan. Even though the game didn't adapt his mutiny and betrayal, Wei Yan's fate is him going LeeroyJenkins and rushing to his death.

** Wei Yan's ending happens when he heard of Zhuge Liang's death and feels that all hope is lost after Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang are gone. Despite Ma Dai's efforts to calm him down, Wei Yan rushes into the battlefield towards the enemy base.

* The Battle of Yiling in Wu's storyline in ''9'' is actually PyrrhicVictory for them. While they did managed to defeat Liu Bei, Gan Ning is fatally injured much to Ling Tong's shock who tells him not to die. As Gan Ning dies, Ling Tong breaks down into tears while Sun Quan watches and quietly apologizes to them. Then, the next cutscene shows Sun Quan visiting the Sun family grave and dropping down to his knees as he tearfully begs his father, brother and all of his retainers who have died on what he should do.

** Dian Wei's ending is the aftermath of his death where Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan and Xu Chu are mourning for him and drinking. Seeing the empty chair beside him, Cao Cao couldn't take it anymore so, he stands up and looks at the sky. He remembers Dian Wei's HeroicSacrifice and vows that he wouldn't forget him.

** Cao Cao's ending also features his impeding death (albeit offscreen). After giving orders to let Liu Bei and Sun Quan fight each other in retaliation for Guan Yu's death, Cao Cao starts to feel unwell much to Xiahou Dun's concern. Upon his death, his son Cao Pi reads his last instructions to not to hold any public funerals for him and let the officers continue their duty. Then, Xu Chu is crying out to the sky and Cao Xiu drops to his knees, shaken with the loss of his uncle. The rest of the Wei officers are bowing their heads with grief and shaking their heads with disbelief while the soldiers and civilians join in the mourning. Then, Xiahou Dun asks forgiveness to his late cousin that he and rest of Wei soldiers give their final salute to him. This ending really shows how the people of Wei really have respect for Cao Cao.

** His death in ''9'' (albeit offscreen) has his son Cao Pi reading his last instructions to not to hold any funerals for him and let the officers continue their duty. Then, Xu Chu is crying out to the sky and Cao Xiu drops to his knees, shaken with the loss of his uncle. The rest of the Wei officers are bowing their heads with grief and shaking their heads with disbelief while the soldiers and civilians join in the mourning. Then, Xiahou Dun asks forgiveness to his late cousin that he and rest of Wei give their final salute to him. This ending really shows how the people of Wei really have respect for Cao Cao.

** Guan Yu's ending is the start of the Battle of Fan Castle. While making preparation, he vows that he would guard the land for his sworn brother and holds his spear up in the air. Then, the scene turns grey [[spoiler:which slowly pans to his arrow-riddled corpse and fades into black with Guan Yu weakly whispering, "Brother"]].
** Zhuge Liang's ending is his impeding death at the Battle of Wuzhang Plains where he oversees the battlefield on top of the mountains. After [[PassingTheTorch he bestows Jiang Wei as his successor]], he quietly passes away and is greeted by the spirits of the three oath brothers.

** Guan Yu's ending is the start of the Battle of Fan Castle. While making preparation, he vows that he would guard the land for his sworn brother and holds his spear up in the air. Then, the scene turns grey [[spoiler:which slowly pans to his arrow-riddled corpse and fades into black with Guan Yu weakly whispering, "Brother"]].

** His death in ''9'' (albeit offscreen) has his son Cao Pi reading his last will while Xu Chu is crying out to the sky and Cao Xiu drops to his knees, shaken with the loss of his uncle. The rest of the Wei officers are bowing their heads with grief and shaking their heads with disbelief while the soldiers and civilians join in the mourning. Then, Xiahou Dun vows that he and rest of Wei will fulfill Cao Cao's wishes as he and the soldiers give their final salute to him.

** ''9'' levels up his turmoil where after calling out on Jiang Wei for his futile campaign in the north, Liu Shan sighs that his officers are fighting on a hopeless war where many people will die and confides to Xingcai that their kingdom remains driven on an outdated dream. The sad part is that he cannot explain to them properly about this.