Line #4 TearJerker/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers


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3	[[foldercontrol]]
4	[[folder: Season 1]]
5	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E3BeastOfTheTemple Beast of the Temple]]": Wheeler and Linka get a massive amount of ShipTease; during one scene, they even flirt openly. When the dragon catches up to them during the mission, [[ActOfTrueLove Wheeler risks his life to save the girl he loves]] and when they're reunited, she [[TheGlomp tackle-hugs him]] in relief. Later, they have some brief banter about the hug; she "[[{{Tsundere}} explains]]" that "it was either [him] or the dragon beast". Though she says it rather lightly, as if half-jokingly, Wheeler's face falls as soon as she turns away...and that's the way the episode ends. [[InnocentlyInsensitive Linka probably didn't think too much about that offhand comment]], but the rejection after getting so close clearly hurt Wheeler.
6	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E6TheConqueror The Conqueror]]": [[BigBad Zarm]] makes all the Planeteers, [[OnlySaneMan except for]] [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower Ma-Ti]], fight with one another and nearly succeeds in having them destroy some nuclear missiles. What the four kids don't know for quite a long time, is that by accepting Zarm's gauntlets and counsel, they betrayed Gaia, who consequently became mortal (and apparently lost a great part of her powers). Seeing Ma-Ti cry in helplessness and hearing Gaia's almost resigned voice is [[NoPunIntended heart-breaking]].
7	* "Population Bomb": Wheeler tries in vain to save Piebald and his family from dying with the rest of the mouse people, only for Piebald to tell him that his people are doomed and that all Wheeler can do is make sure that his race doesn't doom itself through overpopulation as well.
8	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E24And25TwoFutures Two Futures]]": Wheeler goes to an alternative future where he didn't join the team. He sees a dystopian world and the other Planeteers living different lives such as Ma-Ti being a beggar who uses his power to get passersby to give money to him. Wheeler then goes to Hope Island [[NightmareFuel/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers to find something even worse]].
9	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E26HeatWave Heat Wave]]": Gaia's life is in great danger, due to the greenhouse effect of [[MadScientist Dr. Blight's]] force field dome over Hope Island. After saving Linka and stopping the toxic fumes from being pumped under the dome, the Planeteers return to the island to find Gaia slumped against one of the crystals, and close to dying. Wheeler rouses her just long enough for her to tell him that they're running out of time, before [[DiedInYourArmsTonight she goes limp in his arms.]]
10	-->'''Gaia''' ''(weakly, with a pleading look on her face):'' You must save Hope Island. There is... not much time... ''(faints)''
11	[[/folder]]
12	[[folder: Season 2]]
13	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E1MindPollution Mind Pollution]]": Thanks to Verminous Skumm selling [[GRatedDrug designer drugs called "Bliss"]] to everyone in Washington DC, Linka's cousin Boris goes crazy. He jumps through a window after Wheeler slams it in his face, surviving with heavy injuries, including visible blood. Later, he swallows half a bottle of Bliss at once and collapses. Linka doesn't understand what happened, but Gi shoves her way over, takes his pulse, and sadly announces that the drug killed him. Linka's heartbroken reaction to it makes it even worse: she hysterically denies it, [[PleaseWakeUp shaking Boris's body in a futile attempt to wake him]] until Wheeler pulls her away. Once she admits the truth, [[CryIntoChest she breaks down on his shoulder]].
14	* "The Ark": As the Planeteers are carried off into space in the titular spacecraft, Kwame, Wheeler and Gi are sitting with their heads lowered, while Ma-Ti laments out loud that they'll never see Earth again. His voice cracking at the end makes it all the more heartbreaking.
15	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E17And18SummitToSaveEarth Summit to Save Earth]]":
16	** After Zarm turns Gaia into a very old mortal woman, she looks as if she were dead. No wonder [[EverybodyCries the Planeteers start crying]]; especially since it's heavily implied that [[MamaBear rescuing them from Zarm]] was the main reason for her arrival.
17	** In a desperate attempt to save Gaia, the Planeteers return to Zarm's ship and run afoul of him. As Zarm is preparing to kill Ma-Ti, Gaia does something unprecedented – [[AintTooProudToBeg she begs Zarm to have mercy on the boy]], even though she knows Zarm well enough to realize it's futile. Throughout the two-parter, she barely reacted to whatever he did or said to ''her'', but the prospect of helplessly watching [[TheBabyOfTheBunch her youngest Planeteer]] get brutally murdered makes her desperate enough to plead for ''his'' life, despite being on the verge of death herself and knowing there's practically no chance it will do more than amuse her adversary.
18	* "The Great Tree Heist": Captain Planet is so badly wounded by Greedly that when the Planeteers try to bring him back, he can't manifest. This leads to the kids thinking he's dead; the conversation that follows – [[NeverSayDie inability to say "dead"]], denial and crying – is heartbreaking. Even worse is that four out of the five Planeteers have less-than-ideal family lives – three are orphans[[note]]Ma-Ti lost both his parents to anti-environmentalists, Kwame never knew his father, and Linka's father appears only during her childhood, with her mother never appearing at all,[[/note]] and one comes from an abusive home – and Captain Planet is implied to be their [[ParentalSubstitute surrogate/adoptive father]]. NOW go watch the scene.
19	-->''The Planeteers have just tried and failed to bring back Captain Planet.''\
20	'''Ma-Ti:''' Does... this mean...?\
21	'''Gi:''' Is he... gone?\
22	'''Wheeler''' ''(desperately):'' No way! Cap's okay! ''(in a cracking voice):'' He's gotta be!
23	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E23HateCanal Hate Canal]]":
24	** Two perfectly innocent (and rather cute) rats which Ma-Ti didn't want to scare end up mutating and go feral after eating Skumm's pollution-filled cheese.
25	** The group sees the rats turn just too late for Ma-Ti to get out of range before one springs and bites him. He collapses to the floor as the illness takes effect, already feeling the symptoms as Gi and Wheeler try to help him. [[NiceGirl Gi]] looks worried and upset, while [[BruiserWithASoftCenter Wheeler]] looks as though having to listen helplessly to Ma-Ti's cries of pain is physically hurting him. The boy's friends deal with an entire swarm of infected rats to rush him to the hospital. By the time they manage to get there with the help of a local pathologist named Risa, Ma-Ti is already in an advanced stage of the disease and the doctors can't really help him.
26	--->'''Risa:''' There's nothing you can do?\
27	'''Doctor:''' And if we don't find a cure soon... ''(shakes head)''
28	[[/folder]]
29	[[folder: Season 3]]
30	* "Greenhouse Planet": When Kwame, Ma-Ti and the President wind up in outer space, the remaining Planeteers get falsely accused of conspiring to kidnap the President and are arrested. After the powers of Earth and Heart bounce off the orbit, thus recreating a much weaker Captain Planet, he and Gaia see on the Planet Vision that the carbon dioxide leaking from Dr. Blight's machinery has put pretty much everyone to sleep. Upon witnessing Wheeler and the girls [[AlmostOutOfOxygen yawn out of lack of oxygen]], the Captain is downright terrified.
31	-->'''Captain Planet''' ''(in a pleading voice):'' [[BigNo No!]] No! Don't go to sleep!
32	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS3E11AFormulaForHate A Formula for Hate]]": A high school basketball player, Todd Andrews, finds out that he is HIV-positive, which of course concerns and depresses him. Then, Verminous Skumm uses this as means to take over the world by lying about AIDS so it will spread faster. Todd becomes a victim of bullies, his own best friend rejects him, and he lies to his girlfriend in an effort to protect her, causing her to think that he dumped her. Later, townspeople attack him, his mom and their living place, and his little brother gets beaten up. In the end, with the help from his coach, everyone feels guilty about treating him badly, and there is AnAesop that HIV-positive people need care and support, not scorn and harassment. However, despite the fact that everyone accepted [[TheWoobie Todd]], the episode's ending is {{bittersweet\|Ending}} at best: Todd will not have a chance to marry his girlfriend and have kids because he'll infect his potential kids with HIV, and he probably won't live very long if his HIV turns to full-blown AIDS; even if he lives to 1995, where the first HAART were used, he'll still have to spend the time and money for his treatment.
33	* "If It's Doomsday, This Must Be Belfast": Verminous Skumm plants nuclear devices in areas of ethnic conflict and gives detonators to one member of each side, hoping one person will set it off. When the Planeteers' initial attempts to get each opposing person to work for a solution fail, Ma-Ti uses the Heart Ring to call Gaia. She shows the various people what it would look like a decade in the future if the bomb explodes. It's quite depressing.
34	[[/folder]]
35	[[folder: Season 4]]
36	* "Planeteers Under Glass": While in a simulation featuring different biomes, simulating a few centuries in minutes, the Planeteers get trapped inside by Blight who changes everything into a hellish nightmare version of Earth. At one point, a simulated animal saves Gi from drowning, and they become friends until they get separated. Sadly, as Blight continues to make things worse, the group runs into Gi's new friend, only for it to die moments later.
37	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS4E22TeersInTheHood 'Teers In The Hood]]" is a dark episode as a whole, due to Gi's friend David being caught in the crossfire of the shooting that drives the plot. Gi spends the majority of the episode restless and agitated. Everything comes to a head when the shooter is outed in a tense standoff between the two gangs suspected to be responsible, leading Gi to fly into an absolute ''rage'' and try to ''drown'' the shooter. She comes very close to killing him, only to be stopped by Wheeler talking sense into her at the last minute. After spending an entire episode tense and fearful for her friend's life (and possibly terrified of what she nearly did), Gi bursts into tears and [[CryIntoChest cries into Wheeler's chest]] as [[CooldownHug he holds her and tries to calm her down]]. The fact that someone as compassionate and friendly as Gi could be driven to such drastic lengths is as heartbreaking as it is terrifying.
38	[[/folder]]
39	[[folder: Season 5]]
40	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS5E2Hollywaste Hollywaste]]": The emphasis placed on how much Dr. Blight's terrible actions reflect on her family. When most of the team apologizes to her for accusing her falsely, Bambi says that they shouldn't worry about it; she's ''used'' to being distrusted/mistreated because of her sister.
41	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS5E7NoPlaceLikeHome No Place Like Home]]": Marge's backstory is heartbreaking, when you think about it. She used to live a normal life, middle- or lower-class – until some higher-ups decided it would be a good idea to demolish the affordable houses to make place for luxurious, expensive apartments, which caused Marge and many others to end up homeless. Given Marge's appearance, it happened quite sometime ago, but she still gets teary-eyed when talking about it.
42	* "Numbers Game": Wheeler's nightmare has some comedic moments in how over-the-top it is... if you don't think about it too closely. Wheeler came from a broken home in which his [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] constantly told him that he was a failure and a loser. In the dream, his FamilyOfChoice, including Gaia and Captain Planet, have stopped caring about him or anything else, making Wheeler's worst fear – everyone he loves turning away from him – horribly real. Still funny?
43	[[/folder]]
44	[[folder: Season 6]]
45	* "Whoo Gives a Hoot?":
46	** The Planeteers attempt to stop Looten Plunder with a court injunction against clear-cutting an old growth forest where an endangered species of owl lives. They fail and [[DownerEnding the episode ends on that note]], with Plunder taunting them to try and stop him again. Still wanna [[RootingForTheEmpire root for the Eco-Villains]]?
47	** Special mention should go to Spot, the baby owl chick that ends up in the care of the Planeteers. While her final fate is unseen, it’s suggested that they should release her into another old growth forest and "with a little luck, she may survive". That line really sinks in that despite everything the Planeteers did, Spot is probably going to die anyway since her habitat was destroyed.
48	* "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS6E13101Mutations 101 Mutations]]": Dr. Blight's and MAL's [[CruellaToAnimals treatment of animals]] in the episode can be depressing enough to make any animal lover cry. Even before the start of the episode, Skippy the puppy died from birth defects at ''six months old''. We never see the poor pup, but yikes. You really feel bad for Joey. Also, many of the sicker dogs were implied to be euthanized, and Lady's puppy could have died in the fire if she didn't tip over that bucket.
49	[[/folder]]

Context TearJerker / CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers