Line #134 TearJerker/Castlevania2017


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7	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bloodytears_1_2.png]]
8	[[caption-width-right:320: [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes "She said to me... "If you would love me as a man, then live as a man... Travel as a man..."]]]]
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13	----
14	[[foldercontrol]]
15
16	[[folder:Season 1]]
17
18	[[AC:Witchbottle]]
19	* Lisa's first meeting with Dracula, where the two quickly warm to each other's company, becomes much HarsherInHindsight if you already know what happens to her. Indeed, not one minute later, it flashes forward 20 years to show Lisa being accused of witchcraft and burned alive, and with her dying breath, begging Dracula not to hurt anyone, [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre to be better than them.]] [[ForegoneConclusion Sadly, we all know]] [[KillAllHumans what comes next...]]
20	** And the reason why Dracula wasn't there to save her or even hear her dying plea for mercy toward her killers is because he was honoring her suggestion to [[WalkingTheEarth travel and see the world as a mortal]]. By the time he found out she was in trouble, it was already too late.
21	*** Just the way Dracula remarks on how men travel slowly might imply that he partially blames himself for not being there for Lisa. This idea is further backed up by how Dracula's plan [[FridgeBrilliance is secretly a suicide mission.]]
22	* Despite his visible tears, Dracula actually does a pretty good job keeping himself together as he [[RunOrDie warns Lisa's elderly neighbor to flee the country]] and even later when he [[TranquilFury addresses Lisa's executioners directly.]] However, once Dracula is alone back in his castle, he's ranting about raising his demonic army and smashing objects in his grief, showing how utterly broken he is after his wife's death.
23	* Later ''Alucard'' comes to ''comfort'' his father over what happened, all the while pleading with him not to give in to his wrath. [[ForegoneConclusion It doesn't work.]]
24	-->'''Alucard:''' ''I grieve with you...''
25	** And immediately afterward, Dracula lashes out and severely wounds ''his own son.''
26	*** This point is extra poignant if you've seen the end of Season 2, where during his fight with Alucard, Dracula smashes into Alucard's old bedroom and has an emotional meltdown when he realizes he's hurting his and Lisa's baby boy, showing he still loves his son... which makes THIS scene especially heartwrenching when you realize he's so blinded by rage, he doesn't realize what he's doing to his son.
27	* Dracula's final line as he sends out his armies to slaughter carries a sorrowful tone, as he knows it's not what Lisa wanted, but he can't bear not to do it anyway, because not only is she gone, he can't die and follow her.
28	-->'''Dracula:''' Kill, for the only true love I have ever known. Kill, for the endless lifetime of hate before me.
29
30	[[AC:Monument]]
31	* The death of the bishop can be a little sad, [[AssholeVictim not because he didn't deserve it]] but because neither Dracula nor Alucard were the ones to do the deed or even knew who the guy was.
32	* Trevor futilely begging with the Speakers to leave. He resorts to hiding them in the catacombs, and leading their would-be-murderers on a chase around the city to save the Speakers. He's ready to die for them before Sypha appears.
33	* Alucard's reaction when he learns he's been asleep for a year, while his father has rampaged against the humans, and that Trevor and Sypha can help him kill Dracula. He calmly gets dressed after ending the fight with Trevor, and tells them they have a chance to defeat Dracula. He doesn't sound happy or sad about it; Alucard is stoic and resigned. He clearly doesn't want to fight his father again, but his only other option is to let Wallachia burn.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Season 2]]
37	[[AC: War Council]]
38	* Lisa's pleading to the bishop that there is nothing evil, demonic or heretical about her medical tools or practice after he and his lackeys force themselves into her home. His response is to immediately order her to be taken to Targoviste for an inquisition and for her entire study filled with knowledge and instruments capable of saving countless lives to be burned to the ground.
39	--> '''Lisa:''' Please! He's come so far, don't make him do it! No, don't make him kill you all! ''Please''!
40	* Sypha bidding her Speaker family good-bye. Since she, Alucard and Trevor were going to fight Dracula, there was no telling for her if she'd see her family ever again.
41	* Alucard drawing his parents' face in the dirt and sadly wiping each of their faces out, knowing he'll have to kill his father to keep his promise to his mother.
42	[[AC: Old Homes]]
43	* Dracula's rage over Carmilla asking why he didn't turn Lisa into a vampire if he loved her so much or if he just got too attached to a pet. As Alucard and the viewers know, Dracula is capable of being compassionate, but Carmilla [[EvilCannotComprehendGood either doesn't believe it]], or [[KickTheDog just wants to see how far she can push the vampire lord]].
44	* Isaac's backstory. A slave in the Holy Land, he loved his master for taking him off the street, and wanted to try and learn to read in order to help him, only to be whipped out of [[BlatantLies "love"]] and killing the man in heartbroken anger.
45
46	[[AC:Shadow Battle]]
47	* Trevor reveals that the Belmont mansion was burned down so long ago that he doesn't even remember his age when it happened, ballparking it to 13-15. Alucard is actually disturbed to realize that he had more of a childhood than Trevor.
48	** As they pass the tree Trevor used to play in when he was younger, he seems sad at seeing the worn out state of it.
49	--> '''Trevor:''' (''sighing'') Good night, tree.
50	* It's mostly played for humor, but Sypha and Alucard's merciless jokes about the Belmont family and their relics have to sting, especially since all the Belmonts - every member of Trevor's family - are ''[[HarsherInHindsight dead]]''. Trevor says nothing direct about it, but his replies are mostly "Shut up", rather than any returning quips. Alucard's suggestion that the Belmonts were chased out of France is particularly harsh.
51
52	[[AC:Broken Mast]]
53	* For anyone who has either witnessed or experienced grief and/or depression, Sypha's words about Alucard and Trevor might hit a little close to home:
54	-->'''Sypha:''' It's lonely even when you're standing next to him. It's strange.\
55	'''Trevor:''' How so?\
56	'''Sypha:''' I'm not sure... but it's like he's a cold spot in the room. It's not like your sadness.\
57	'''Trevor:''' [[BlatantLies I'm not sad.]]\
58	'''Sypha:''' Yes, you are. But I can shout at you or tease you and get a reaction that lets me know you're still in there. His sadness is like an icy well. It's bottomless. And it swallows up your voice and anything you try to drop into it.
59	-->'''Trevor:''' Am I really sad?\
60	'''Sypha:''' All the time. [[StoppedCaring You don't even notice it now.]] It's just how you are.
61
62	[[AC:Last Spell]]
63	* Dracula's sheer ambivalence about how exactly to go about his extermination campaign. He used to relish it, but even given how horrifying his goal truly is, it's hard not to pity him for how little he cares about ''anything'' anymore.
64	** Despite being the tallest character in the show, he seems so ''small'' when he sits in his chair and confides to Isaac just how ''tired'' he is of everything. All he can tell him is, "I'm tired". Lisa's death truly was the day he died as well.
65	** Every time Dracula sits down, he seems to just collapse into his chair, propping his head on one hand and staring into the fire, too paralyzed by grief to do much else.
66
67	[[AC:For Love]]
68	* Dracula throwing Isaac to safety and Isaac's desperation to get back and protect his lord. They're villains [[VillainousFriendship but there is no denying they care for each other.]]
69	* Alucard pointing out that all this madness and his father's campaign to rid the world of humans was pointless and just, "history's longest suicide note".
70	* Also, there's the [[ThousandYardStare shocked]] [[https://i.imgur.com/zyV9vdn.png look]] on Dracula's face when he realizes he's hurled Alucard through a wall and into his childhood bedroom.
71	* The last part of the fight between Dracula and Alucard. Despite all the anger, determination, and willingness for both to see their goals to the end, it still dawns on them horribly that it's a father and son fighting each other to the death. Then, in the midst of their battle, they barge into Alucard's childhood bedroom. Once he realizes where they are, Dracula begins to break down in tears upon this realization.
72	-->'''Dracula:''' It's your room... ({{beat}}) [[VillainousBSOD My boy... I'm- I- I'm killing my boy...]] Lisa... [[HeelRealization I'm killing our boy...]] We painted this room. We... made these toys. It's our boy, Lisa... ...your greatest gift to me... [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone and I'm killing him.]] '''[[EmptyShell I must already be dead...]]'''
73	** The Japanese dub makes Dracula even makes him sound more pitiable, to the point he sounds like he's literally in tears.
74	* Alucard kills his father by driving a wooden stake -- made from a snapped-off post from his childhood bed -- through him. As Dracula's bloody tears run down his eyes, he and his son share their last words.
75	-->'''Dracula:''' Son...\
76	'''Alucard:''' Father...\
77	''(Alucard drives the stake deeper into Dracula's chest, then makes one last push as the stake exits through Dracula's back)''
78	** What makes their final words together even more heartbreaking is that it mirrors the hostile exchange they had before the fight started.
79	** As Dracula withers and rots, he reaches for Alucard's face, possibly to embrace his son one last time -- and then Trevor bursts in and decapitates him, no doubt adding to Alucard's trauma.
80	* Assuming he doesn't have the power of dominance in this continuity, the factor of Dracula's death after being incinerated by Sypha is saddening. All those moaning and screaming faces coming from black smoke is [[HeartbrokenBadass all that Dracula's soul is]] at the end.
81	* When Sypha burns Dracula's remains to ashes, the last trace of him that's left behind is his wedding ring.
82	* Dracula is finally defeated, but [[PyrrhicVictory Alucard expresses no joy in what has ensued.]]
83	-->'''Sypha:''' Is... is that it?\
84	'''Trevor:''' Alucard, did we... do it?\
85	'''Alucard:''' We did. [[{{Patricide}} I... killed my father]].
86	** And when Sypha says that it's all right to mourn the man that Dracula was, Alucard quietly says "He died a ''long'' time ago."
87	* Alucard visibly trembling as the trio exits the castle.
88
89	[[AC:End Times]]
90	* Alucard asking Trevor to make the castle his grave. He frames it as a way to ensure that his and Trevor's families' secrets remain safe, but it's clear that he just wants to die after having to kill his father.
91	* The last scene of this episode, and the season as a whole, is Alucard [[BrokenTears breaking down in tears]] since not only are both his parents dead now, [[SelfMadeOrphan but he has to live with the knowledge that he killed his father to save the world]]. ''[[TheWoobie You'll definitely want to give Alucard a hug]].''
92	** Perhaps most tragic is that this was the absolute best outcome Alucard could hope for: his long life ahead of him, completely alone. It's little wonder why he wanted to make the castle his grave.
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Season 3]]
96	[[AC:Bless Your Dead Little Hearts]]
97	* While it's played to be somewhat funny, just watching Alucard eat alone and then conversing with dolls he's made of his friends that he can converse with can hit a bit too hard when you remember his state at the end of season 2.
98
99	[[AC: Investigators]]
100	* A small HopeSpot appears when the Captain questions Isaac's logic of [[AndThenWhat destroying humanity in the name of Dracula and then on what to do after that]], and even gives him the idea that [[HumansAreFlawed humanity isn't all bad]] and he needs to instead teach ''kindness'' in order to understand this view. Isaac seems to understand too, especially with the Captain's respect of him being a practicing Muslim. [[FromBadToWorse Then after he leaves the ships, he's again heckled by guards over his creatures]]. [[ThenLetMeBeEvil Isaac decides "screw it" and continues his plans to destroy Humanity]].
101
102	[[AC:The Harvest]]
103	* Peering through the portal to Hell, Trevor and Sypha see Dracula... [[TogetherInDeath with Lisa in his embrace]]. It's understandable why he would be there after everything he's done, but Lisa's only sin was falling in love with Dracula.
104	** Unless the reason she's in Hell is because she ''chose'' to be, [[YouAreWorthHell because that's where he was]].
105	* When Taka and Sumi waltz into Alucard's room to seduce him, Viewers will instantly tell [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness something's up]] with them, but Alucard has spent so much time alone after killing his father that this sudden act of companionship and affection causes him to sheds a tear when they're making love to him.
106	** The scene becomes [[FromBadToWorse even worse]] when you recall just ''how'' lonely Alucard is. After almost a lifetime of isolation and grief, and months all on his own with his state of mind deteriorating, he finally encounters two young, kind and enthusiastic people that respect him, want to learn from him, and want to be close to him. You can see how taken aback he is when they kiss him. Of course they [[HoneyTrap betray him]]. Of course he's forced to kill whom he thought were his only friends. And of course it ends with him being reaffirmed in his belief that loneliness and isolation is the right and only way for him.
107
108	[[AC:Abandon All Hope]]
109	* [[DownerEnding The ending to the entire season as a whole]]. It's fitting that the episode's name is "Abandon All Hope", as while the immediate danger is over, [[TheBadGuyWins the only people to come out ahead are the bad guys]]. To whit:
110	** Trevor and Sypha stop the attempted resurrection of Dracula, but are left embittered, [[TookALevelInCynic Sypha especially]], by their failure to save even a single person in Lindenfeld from being sacrificed in the process and the revelation that their supposed ally, the Judge, was a serial killer who preyed on the villagers. [[WouldHurtAChild Including children]].
111	---> '''Trevor:''' We spent a couple of months living ''[[KnightInShiningArmor your]]'' life: adventures and victories. Now, we're living '''[[KnightInSourArmor MY]]''' life.
112	** Sumi and Taka betray Alucard out of misplaced paranoia, believing he's not teaching them enough and is lying about the castle no longer being able to teleport. This forces Alucard to kill them both in self-defense, [[CynicismCatalyst but it shatters his faith in humanity]] and he drives himself even further into isolation while deciding to use their corpses as a warning to anyone who comes too close to the castle to stay away from him. By skewering them on pikes outside the front door. ''Just like his father once did''.
113	---> '''Alucard:''' Well... I suppose I could have put up big signs all over the place. "Do not enter." "Danger of death." "[[TitleDrop Abandon all hope]]." Heh... That sort of thing. [[LikeFatherLikeSon But this seemed to work well enough... for dead old Dad]].
114	*** And even beforehand, after he kills the two, he only lays on the bed, covered in their blood and sadly saying "I never lied to you". Far worse is a later scene (before the reveal above) showing Alucard laying in his old childhood bedroom, curled up and weeping, still covered in the sheet that's drenched in Sumi and Taka's blood.
115	*** Wanna add more sadness to that scene? The spot Alucard's laying on? ''Where Dracula was burned by Sypha''. His ring is even still right there too.
116	** Hector is tricked into wearing a slave ring that makes it impossible for him to disobey Carmilla and her sisters and makes his Night Creatures loyal to them, and Lenore plans to make him her sex slave. While the end of Season 2 implied Hector was nothing but a "pet" to Carmilla, the end of Season 3 solidifies it. The only hints that hope isn't ''completely'' lost for Hector are the expression on his face as he examines his ring and Lenore's request that he be given free reign of Carmilla's castle.
117	** Hector's fate is doubly awful when you consider [[LaserGuidedKarma how poetic it is]]. A man who thought all humanity deserved and needed to be reduced to pets at the hands of vampires is reduced to a HumanPet at the hands of Carmilla's council, who at absolute best see him as a pitiful animal. It's clear for every second of that realization that Hector is ''horrified'' by the concept he himself touted as merciful.
118	** Isaac continues to grow in power and by the end of the season, he's killed enough innocent people to make an entire army of Night Creatures and has access to a magic mirror that will allow him to send that army anywhere. And he shows no signs of stopping his mad conquest even though he's seen proof that not all of humanity is bad.
119	** The only person who gets an even remotely happy ending is Saint Germain, since while he's reunited with his lost love, he's now stuck in the Infinite Corridor with her. [[WeWillMeetAgain Though this may only be temporary, if his parting words to Trevor and Sypha are anything to go on]].
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Season 4]]
123
124	[[AC:Murder Wakes It Up]]
125	* In the weeks following the mess in Lindenfeld, Trevor and Sypha travel through Wallachia, fighting with night creatures, vampires and humans gone mad - and you can see how they are slowly burning out from the constant struggle. And, to make it worse, there are still people trying to bring Dracula back, trying to render all their previous efforts null.
126	* Sypha's breakdown to the point where she starts spouting profanity and lashing out at Trevor is both a darkly comedic and sad moment, a marker for how low she felt after Lindenfeld. Trevor's astonishment seems to highlight just how concern he is for her.
127	* [[FromBadToWorse Alucard has gotten even worse since last season]], if that were even possible. ''More'' corpses are displayed on spikes outside of Dracula's castle, meaning more people came to try and kill him for whatever reason. Alucard himself is completely disheveled, unwashed, [[TheAlcoholic drowning his sorrows with wine]], and barely registers the dried-up, rotting and half-eaten corpses of Sumi and Taka as he steps outside [[LastDisrespects to take a piss in front of them]].
128
129	[[AC:Walk Away]]
130	* It's a brief moment but when [=FlysEyes=] eats a berry for the first time, he mutters in shock, "Memories..." It's a stark reminder that all of Isaac's Night Creatures were once human.
131
132	[[AC:You Don't Deserve My Blood]]
133	* Carmilla, surprisingly, gets a genuinely sad moment just before she died. Before Isaac charges her, Carmilla looks longingly out the window. Then, when she turns and tries to deliver any graceful last words, Isaac [[ShutUpHannibal cuts her off by attacking]], reducing her to a spiteful "Fuck you! ''I win''." While Carmilla's been a SmugSnake and a genuinely horrid person all this time, that along with the single [[TearsOfBlood bloody tear]] she sheds gives a real sense of how her dreams have completely crumbled around her, her madness and ambition leaving her alone.
134	* While it was best for them considering the circumstances, Striga and Morana assuming that Lenore was killed before Carmilla was and abandoning the castle without a hint of considering to see if that was really the case. Especially poignant given how throughout the season Lenore felt like her "sisters" were starting to push her aside and look down on her in general.
135
136	[[AC:The Great Work]]
137	* As infuriating as she has been this entire season, the full reveal of how broken Zamfir is can raise some sympathy for her. She is the last surviving noble of Targoviste, which was basically Ground Zero to Dracula's rampage. The viewers got to see some of it in "Witchbottle", but Zamfir had to experience it, ''live'' through it. Then afterwards, she took the dead bodies of her city's royal family and smuggled them in the Underground Court, putting up every treasure and drop of holy water she could find as clumsy defenses and clinging to some rumors that the family had magic in them. If they "slept" long enough, then they would return and restore Targoviste to all its "glory." While it's muddied with typical aristocratic arrogance, Zamfir is clearly hoping for the tiniest chance that somehow things will go back to the ways they were before.
138	-->'''Trevor''': ''{...}'' you're defending two dead bodies.\
139	'''Zamfir''': They ''will'' wake. Their majesties will awaken from their royal sleep and save us all.\
140	'''Sypha''': YoureInsane\
141	'''Zamfir''': Of ''course'' I'm insane!\
142	'''Sypha''': The fuck what now?\
143	'''Zamfir''': ...I went insane the day Dracula hit the city. I saw his face in the sky. It was like the devil himself punched the world. How could you not lose your mind, seeing hell touch your home? I sleep for two hours a night and wake up screaming ever since it happened.\
144	'''Sypha''': [[CrazySane So you're not so crazy that you don't know you're crazy]]?\
145	'''Zamfir''': They. Will. Wake. ''{...}'' They will wake. They will save us all, and ''everything'' will be set right. Everything will be as it was. ''{...}'' I saved them. So they will save me.
146
147	[[AC:The Endings]]
148	* Combined with NightmareFuel but Vlad and Lisa's souls being forcefully put into the Rebis, causing them to scream in agony and all Alucard could do is watch in horror.
149	** And then watching Trevor having to put down the horrific creature their souls had been put into. He actually turns away so he doesn't have to watch his parents ''die again.''
150	* [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove Trevor's last line to Sypha]] before he goes on to face Death alone, as he's sure he's very likely not going to make it out alive.
151	-->'''Trevor:''' I love you!
152	-->'''Sypha:''' Trevor... I know!
153	-->'''Trevor:''' You'd better know. [[FacingTheBulletsOneLiner Just remember, Trefor is a terrible name!]]
154	* When whipping Death, a FreezeFrameBonus flashes the image of Sypha, showing that she is very much in his thoughts before his (assumed) death.
155	* Saint Germain's entire arc in this season. He commits murder, allies with vampires and night creatures to bring Dracula back from the dead, all so he can force Dracula and Lisa's spirit into a [[MacGuffin Rebis]] with which to control the Infinite Corridor, and finally see his true love again. Only to discover that the supposed alchemist guiding him was Death in disguise, manipulating him for the purpose of having more souls to consume from the resulting genocides. After realizing what he's done, he sacrifices himself to give Trevor a chance to defeat the spirit. The last thing he sees before he dies is his love, staring at him from the Infinite Corridor... [[AllForNothing before she turns away from him, leaving him to bleed out and die alone in agony]].
156
157	[[AC:It's Been a Strange Ride]]
158	* [[AlasPoorVillain Lenore's death]]. She crosses the DespairEventHorizon out of [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone severe guilt at what she'd put Hector through after coming to genuinely like him]], the realizations that there's nothing to her life any more after losing her sisters and power, and that continuing to live just mean spending an eternity in a GildedCage under Isaac's rule; also coming to terms with her nature as a vampire ultimately causing harm to someone she cares about. With that, [[SuicideBySunlight she walks out to see the sunlight for the first time]] after apologizing to him for everything, and spends [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HwO2sCy4ao her last moments]] fondly smiling at Hector before dissolving to ashes.
159	-->'''Lenore:''' Is that all there is to it? (''[[WhenSheSmiles genuinely smiles]] when she sees [[YouAreNotAlone Hector has joined her outside]]'') [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther Hector, you]] ''[[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther are]]'' [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther a silly man!]]
160	** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZp_IKRWdXE mournful, birdsong-backed theme]] that plays as Lenore steps out and perishes in the sunlight makes this scene especially heartbreaking, despite [[RedemptionEqualsDeath everything she'd previously done]].
161	* After two weeks, Trevor's presumably dead, causing Sypha to distance herself from everyone for two weeks. And when she tries to leave to go find The Speakers, Alucard tries to persuade her to stay and help build Belmont. It's very clear she's trying her best not to cry the whole time. [[DisneyDeath Thankfully, Trevor turns out to be alive]], but the whole scene still stings.
162	* Lisa and Dracula deciding that it's best to stay away from the castle, hoping to give their son some closure and let him move on with his life. While it's probably best for Alucard, it still stings that he'll never know that his parents are alive; and more importantly, that his father is sane once more.
163	** There's hope for the future however as Lisa says they might visit him later. Immortals live a long time.
164	[[/folder]]

Context TearJerker / Castlevania2017