Line #28 TearJerker/TheHeroesOfOlympus


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3	'''As a Moments subpage, all {{spoiler}}s are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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5	[[foldercontrol]]
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7	[[folder: The Lost Hero]]
8	* Jason is looking through Annabeth's collection of pictures. He asks who the blond guy with her and Thalia is:
9	-->'''Annabeth:''' That's [[PrecociousCrush Luke]]. [[KilledOffForReal He's dead now.]]
10	* Jason's genuine grief over his missing memories -- he has no idea who he is or where he's from, he's in a strange place with strange people who claim to know him, and he can't get rid of the persistent feeling that he's supposed to be their enemy instead of their friend.
11	* Esperanza Valdez died when Gaea locked her in her own workshop, then scared her eight-year-old son so badly that he used his powers in an attempt to save his mother. The workshop burned down, taking her life and leaving Leo to take the blame, both from his surviving family and the police.
12	** His aunt rejected him, screaming that he was a devil who killed her sister, and he later ended up in enough bad foster homes that he ran away six separate times.
13	** Made even more painful when he learns that the only reason Gaea went after Esperanza in the first place was because [[ItsAllMyFault Medea warned Gaea that Leo had an essential role to play in the Prophecy of Seven]].
14	* Piper's genuine terror over what might happen to her mortal father, whom Enceladus is holding captive in order to force her to betray Leo and Jason. By the time she rescues him at the end of the book, he's been driven near completely insane by what he's witnessed, and she ends up having to take his memories of the entire sequence of events in order to give him a chance at recovery.
15	* Thalia talking about what happened after Jason was taken away.
16	** Zeus made the capital mistake of cheating on Hera with the same woman twice, the second time being in his Roman form. To save his behind, he gave the kid the name Jason because Hera was the patron of the original Jason, leader of the Argonauts, and promised her his life. Repeat, Zeus ''sold his own son and threw him under the bus to switch Hera from erupting-in-rage to merely simmering in anger''. When he was two, Hera came to "claim" the life that was promised to her, and took Jason from Beryl. Though it's never explicitly stated how much of a choice Beryl had, she surrendered her son to what she believed was his death, which was the last straw in her already-fraught relationship with her daughter. Thalia ran away from home, and never told anyone, including her closest friends, that she once had a brother.
17	** Thalia's account of their family's trip to Wolf House is chilling.
18	--> '''Thalia:''' Mom told me to go back to the car and get the picnic basket. [[PromotionToParent I didn't want to leave you alone with her,]] but it was only for a few minutes. When I came back... Mom was kneeling on the stone steps, hugging herself and crying. She said -- she said you were gone. She said Hera claimed you and you were as good as dead. I didn't know what she'd done. I was afraid she had completely lost her mind. [[BigBrotherInstinct I ran all over the place looking for you, but you'd just vanished. She had to drag me away, kicking and screaming.]]... I never told anyone about you -- not even Annabeth or Luke, my two best friends. It was just too painful.
19	* Chiron and his promise: Never to tell anybody about the other camp of Demigods, because last time they met each other, the American Civil War happened. Just the fact that he knows, and no one else can, makes it harder.
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21	[[/folder]]
22
23	[[folder:The Son of Neptune]]
24	* Percy calls home for the first time in months and gets the answering machine. [[ActionFilmQuietDramaScene He's so visibly upset that both Frank and Hazel are concerned until a monster attacking their train interrupts.]]
25	** The scene where he calls Juno out for taking all those months from his life, and when he sees his father's shrine also counts. Contrary to the Greeks, the Romans were terrified of the sea. Percy is shaken by the knowledge that not only will he be unpopular here, the campers are ''scared of him''. Thankfully, he bounces back well, saying he has a feeling it isn't the first time he's been an underdog. Still, the reminder of Percy's chronic loneliness isn't nice.
26	* The later part of Hazel's childhood, particularly her death. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance Suffering intense bullying due to her race and dyslexia]], being held at a distance by her mother, and then discovering that said mother made a DealWithTheDevil and was about to let a very powerful SealedEvilInACan out. So she does [[SarcasmMode what any frightened kid would do]], and sacrifices herself to bury them all under enough rock that it took Gaea another 70-odd years to rise again. Her descriptions of the oil filling up her throat is so brief, and yet it gives the reader chills...
27	* Similarly, Gaea drowning Hazel and Percy in muskeg straddles the line between this and NightmareFuel. She traps Hazel in a vision of a perfect, sunny day in New Orleans with her mother- whose eyes are blank and mouth is gaping, because Gaea is speaking through her. She tells Hazel that she can [[LotusEaterMachine make it so she can live out all the years she missed right here, in the last moments before she dies]]. Grow up, marry her childhood sweetheart, die peacefully in her sleep instead of going back to the arduous life of a demigod. [[RefusingParadise She refuses and screams in the face of a goddess]] once she reminds Hazel that Percy is dying below her, and letting him die will mean throwing a major player right into the enemy's hands (not to mention losing a newfound friend who compared her to family just a few chapters earlier).
28	** While we don't see it, Percy's half of the equation was equally as awful. Afterwards, when he describes it to Hazel, he's either [[BrokenTears on the verge of tears or outright crying]] just remembering. The consequences stretch through the next book, where he has all the major symptoms of PTSD regarding it, to the point of having a hard time even being around large amounts of water, and fears that if he lets it get too bad, his powers might slip out of his control, or outright disappear. He mentions the fact that Jason can fly and Thalia can't, and she has a severe phobia of heights—so [[FridgeHorror he could actually be right.]] It's a gutwrenchingly realistic portrayal of [[MindRape somebody taking something that was always a source of identity and strength for him and twisting it to hurt him]]. And we don't know if Gaea [[BlackBugRoom showed him things while he was down there]], or [[BreakingSpeech spoke to him]], or if she just let him hang there, slowly suffocating and viscerally aware of his own inability to do anything about it.
29	* Ella. Poor, poor Ella. She exhibits behavior different from her harpy brethren, who steal her food. Not only that, because she read the Sybilline Books before they were destroyed, Phineas has attempted to capture her. She escaped him, sure, but simply mentioning his name sends her into a panic attack.
30	* Mars visits the deathbed of Frank's grandmother and has a talk with him, admitting that Frank wishing someone else was his father is normal, because "nobody welcomes war, not if you're sane." Mind you, this is ''Mars'' talking, respected god of the Romans and father of the founder of their city. Imagine ''Ares'', the butt of many a joke in the Greek pantheon and admittedly TheUnfavorite of Zeus and TheFriendNobodyLikes to everyone else.
31	* The revelation that Bianca chose to be reborn, and that this is why Nico is so protective of Hazel. Her death was heartbreakingly sad, but it was somewhat helped in later books when she would appear as a ghost to give Nico advice. It was also a comforting thought that Nico could go to see her in Elysium when he visited the Underworld and that he would likely be reunited with her when he died himself (this is sometimes the only comforting thing about how many demigods die in the series, which is that it's highly likely many if not most ended up in Elysium). But choosing to be reborn, she's now forever lost to a new life, with no memories of the previous one, of her brother who she loved so much, with no way of bringing her or those memories back. It's somewhat understandable she would make that choice given the tragic life she led, but it makes it no less tear-jerking that Nico has truly lost his beloved sister forever, perhaps more so than when she died. His determination to protect Hazel and avoid losing another sister makes it even worse.
32	** What makes it even worse is the way Nico found out- in the Battle of the Labyrinth, Nico seemed to accept Bianca's death and move on, but here, it's revealed he went to sneak her out of the Underworld when Death was imprisoned. He never truly got over her death and it seems unlikely now that he ever will. The hurt and loss he must have felt finding out she was truly gone, even in death, must have been overwhelming. No wonder he decided to bring Hazel back with him and is determined not to lose her.
33	[[/folder]]
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35	[[folder:The Mark of Athena]]
36	* Reyna's situation at the beginning of the book. Jason's her closest friend, she's spent months holding the Camp together without him, and now when he returns he acts distant, and clearly holds sympathy for the Greeks. She thought that she'd found a new partner in Percy, but it's clear from the moment Annabeth shows up that he isn't sticking around. And just when she starts to touch on common ground with Annabeth... the Argo II fires on New Rome, and she's left alone at the head of the pack, trying to keep the two camps from descending into all-out war.
37	* Jason getting knocked out by a mob of angry Romans after the Argo II fires on the city. He's trying to shield Piper and talk the crowd down at the same time, but ends up getting a brick to the face for his efforts. Considering the fact that he's been at Camp Jupiter since he was two, these are likely people he grew up with.
38	* Nemesis appears to Leo as his Aunt Rosa, who sent him into foster care after blaming him for the death of her sister. Made worse by the fact that Leo [[PowerIncontinence blames himself as well]].
39	* Leo pleads with Echo to come with them, but she insists on staying behind so that she can continue trying to free Narcissus.
40	--> Leo remembered what Nemesis had said about Echo and Narcissus ''Perhaps they'll teach you a lesson.''
41	--> Leo had thought she'd meant Narcissus, but now he wondered if the real lesson for him was Echo-- invisible to her brethren, cursed to love someone who didn't care for her. ''A seventh wheel.'' HE tried to shake that thought. He clung to the sheet of bronze like a shield.
42	--> He was determined never to forget Echo's face. She deserved at least one person who remembered how good she was. Leo closed his eyes, but the memory of her smile was already fading.
43	* [[YouAreWorthHell "We're staying together. You're not getting away from me. Never again."]]
44	* "''Tell her hello for me.''" "Hello, Hazel Levesque."
45	** Sammy's depressing conclusion that Hazel's gift diamond to him ''was'' cursed after all: he never saw her again, did he? Poor Hazel is on the verge to break down sobbing while she tries to explain she wanted to come back, she wanted it so ''much'', but Sammy just can't hear her...
46	* ''Nico’s eyes looked like shattered glass. Percy wondered sadly if something inside him had broken permanently.''
47	* Annabeth's story about the spiders in her bedroom when she was a child. Also NightmareFuel.
48	* Following the declaration of war between the Romans and the Greeks, the gods all go a bit wonky due to the schism. While most of them are hit very hard by this, Athena takes the cake. When Annabeth sees her, she resembles a slightly off homeless woman and (at least temporarily) disowns Annabeth because of her daughter's insistence that peace can be made between the Greeks and Romans. The experience left Annabeth shaken and gutted.
49	* Annabeth falling into Tartarus, and Percy falling with her because [[ThePromise he's promised that he's absolutely not going to lose her again.]]
50	* What the Romans did to Athena was also pretty horrible.
51	* On the way towards the Mediterranean, the group finds out that the fabled Pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar are indeed real, manifesting as an island with Hercules himself waiting there. Turns out he is quite a JerkassWoobie: He is at first understanding and says he will only give them a very easy task [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure because he knows what these quests are like.]] He's been stuck on that island for a good while: Back after his mortal essence burned away at the pyre, he was asked what he wanted as reward. He said he wanted to guard the gates of Olympus. [[JackassGenie His wish got him stranded on an island and unable to leave]] as everyone he knew, [[ParentalAbandonment including his father]], left him behind as they left the Mediterranean. He's broken by pressure from the massive expectations everyone has of him, and says that Dionysus, another demigod-turned-god (also his half-brother and fellow poster child for Hera's hatred of Zeus' children), is the only one that understands him. Then he figures out that Hera brought their group together, and all civility goes away, because he doesn't do what she says. Ever. So he sends Jason and Piper to take the other horn of Achelous, one of Deianeira's suitors who lost her to Heracles. They're trapped on the island with only each other for company.
52	* After being rejuvenated, the nymph Hagno happily talks about her projects for the future. When Percy gently tries to warn her the world has changed, she said Pan would never have let humans truly destroy nature - oh, and she would like to see the faun god again. Piper notes that Percy is about to say something but ultimately keeps quiet - probably remembering how Pan died in front of him because he was so old and tired to see his beloved nature ruined by uncaring mortals.
53	[[/folder]]
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55	[[folder:The House of Hades]]
56	* Everything about Nico. Not only had the poor kid just gotten out of the Greek Mythological Hell Pit, but now we find out that he's gay and has/had a crush on [[IncompatibleOrientation Percy]]. Percy who fell into Tartarus to stay with his girlfriend. Not only does he have to deal with the pain of knowing the person he loves most is going through the horrible trauma that he did, but Nico was born in the 1930s, when it was most definitely ''not'' okay to be gay. Considering this, one can only imagine how ashamed he must be. It also just ''adds'' to his feelings of isolation.
57	** The whole scene where this happened was just heartwrenching. Eros/Cupid, God of Love, is just goading Nico on, forcing him to reveal his true feelings about Percy, while all Jason can do is listen.
58	--->'''Nico:''' I had a crush on Percy. That's it. That's the big secret. Happy now?
59	** And this scene:
60	--->'''Jason:''' You know, no one's going to judge you.\
61	'''Nico:''' Really? That would be a first. I'm the son of ''Hades'', Jason. I might as well be covered in blood or sewage, the way people treat me. I don't belong anywhere. I'm not even from this ''century''. But even that's not enough to set me apart. I've got to be- to be-
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63	** He's so ashamed he can't even ''say the word''.
64	*** Hazel, Nico's half-sister, ''also'' grew up in the 1930s, dying in 1942. Even if he were to accept Jason's more modern sensibilities toward homosexuality, he'd have every reason to believe his sister wouldn't.
65	*** And the fact that he's had this conversation before, with ''Percy'', who started out saying Nico would be accepted at Camp Half Blood, but eventually admitted that Nico would never really fit in. And that was ''just'' about Nico being the son of Hades — Percy didn't even know Nico's entire circumstances.
66	** It's implied Bianca may have known Nico was gay, and that she accepted him for it. This makes everything about her death and subsequent choice to be reborn, meaning Nico will never see her again, so much HarsherInHindsight.
67	* While fighting the ''arai'', Annabeth gets cursed. She starts wandering around blind, panicking, thinking Percy's abandoned her. Worse, when Percy tries to touch her, he ''can't''; it's like trying to catch smoke, and he's forced to watch. What stuns Percy most: it's a curse from ''Calypso'', who's still trapped in Ogygia and bitter about still being stuck. Pretty much the entire Curse scene was this with NightmareFuel.
68	* The confrontation with Akhlys becomes this if you take it from Annabeth's perspective. [[FanNickname Dark!Percy]] rearing his vicious head was [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant bad enough already]]. Then you remember that Annabeth has seen this all happen before, the anger, the fear, the festering bitterness—with ''Luke''. Her begging Percy not to touch that power again goes from upsetting to gutwrenching. The poor girl was probably seeing every bad thing in the original series happening over again, another boy she loved losing himself, and probably blaming herself for not seeing it coming and preventing it.
69	%%* Leo and Calypso. Full-stop.
70	* Annabeth overhearing Bob and Damasen talking about how long it's been since they've seen the sun. The way Damasen especially sounds is sad and hopeless because he's been in Tartarus for so long that he's lost hope to ever see the surface.
71	-->'''Damasen:''' Yes. It was yellow. When it touched the horizon, it turned the sky beautiful colors.\
72	'''Bob:''' I miss the sun. The stars, too. I would like to say hello to the stars again.
73	** As a matter of fact, Damasen's backstory can be considered a Tearjerker too when you realize he's only in Tartarus because he was trying to avenge his farmer friend.
74	** Annabeth recognizes the look of despair on Damasen's face. Her dad, Dr. Frederick Chase, wore the same look when he admitted to Annabeth that he still loved Athena, but knew he'd never see her again. This spurs Annabeth to try and convince him to help.
75	** When Bob's getting ready to sacrifice himself to let Annabeth and Percy get to the Doors of Death, he tells Percy to "Tell the sun and stars hello for me." Zoe Nightshade from the previous series was turned into a constellation when she died. Zoe was the daughter of Atlas, who was the son of Iapetus/Bob. It might be unintentional, but Bob was essentially telling Percy to say goodbye to his granddaughter for him. And the very last line of the book is Percy doing exactly that.
76	--->"Bob says hello."
77	* Coach Hedge's backstory. When he was still an active-duty Protector, his mother contacted him in a panic. Hedge chose to get the kid he was protecting to Camp Half-Blood first, then try and help his mother. He never saw her again. The kicker? Hedge chose to find his mother second because he couldn't fathom the idea anybody would try to hurt a kindly old cloud nymph. And he's admitting all of this to Frank because his wife Mellie is about to give birth...''at Camp Half-Blood'', which is on the cusp of an Roman invasion, meaning Hedge is at risk of repeating the worst moment of his life ''again''.
78	* When Jason is "devoured" by Sciron's turtle, Hazel hears Piper wailing all the way from the ship, over the sound of the alarm bells.
79	** Even worse if you read ''Trials of Apollo'' and go back to this. [[spoiler:When Jason actually dies, Piper lets out multiple screams exactly like this one... it's just not a trick of Hazel's Mist this time.]]
80	* In the final chapter of ''House of Hades'', Percy tries to thank Nico for guiding the others and for indirectly saving his and Annabeth's lives by being nice to Bob and convincing him that Percy was a friend, even though Percy never gave him a second thought. Percy's trying to live up to his resolution in Tartarus to start treating the people around him better--he specifically singles Nico out among those. But Nico is being distant and dismissive towards him, and Percy's inner monologue goes on a bit, noting how much Nico has changed over the years and lamenting the fact that he's never been able to understand Nico and he doesn't know why. By this point, the ''reader'' knows it's because Nico had a crush on Percy, and there's evidence that, despite what he says, he's not really over it and has a hard time dealing with Percy being oblivious, being with someone else, and just the fact that he grew up in the '30s/'40s and is ashamed of liking dudes. The tragedy comes from the fact that Percy ''wants'' to understand Nico and do right by him, but Nico just can't let that happen.
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:The Blood of Olympus]]
84	* Hades telling Nico that few of his children are happy (hoping that Nico will be an exception). You know he's right, and you can see how much it hurts him.
85	** Doubly tear-inducing because of the contrast with the rest of the series; outside of this moment and maybe a couple from the previous series, none of the gods really seem to care whether or not their children are happy. They care that they survive and bring their parent honor, yes, but not whether they're ''happy''.
86	** It's a CallBack to ''The Last Olympian'', too. When Hades cursed the Oracle of Delphi, he meant it to last until his children were no longer scorned and ostracized. Hazel's first life was miserable, Bianca was happy for the short time she was a Hunter, then died miserably because she felt guilty about leaving Nico. This is something that's been weighing on Hades for a long time.
87	* Might not occur at first, but consider this. Nico is actually glad to realize that whatever happens, he will be with his father when all is said and done. Hades has the same assurance, knowing that his children will come to his realm no matter what. But none of the other gods or their children have that- heck they might not even want to (see Thalia and Zeus' case.)
88	* In ''The Blood of Olympus'' Nico thinks of the Plato story that once men and women were conjoined but split by the gods because they feared their strength and that was why men and women fell in love. He then asks himself what that means for him.
89	** Even worse if you know the original story: there actually were both homosexual and heterosexual couples. But Nico comes from a time when homosexuality was actually ''illegal'', meaning most likely [[{{Bowdlerise}} the homosexual pairs were deliberately left out of the myths]]. It makes you think once again how harder coming from the past is making it all for Nico.
90	* Similar to the forced coming out in ''House of Hades'', Percy's confession to Jason that [[DeathSeeker he intentionally endangered himself in battle]] rang a little too true to a lot of readers. While it's unlikely that anybody reading this ever used divine power to choke and torture a goddess, the obvious desperation and self-blame is achingly familiar.
91	--->'''Percy:''' Thing is, as I was choking just now, I kept thinking: this is payback for Akhlys. The Fates are letting me die the way I tried to kill her. And...honestly, a part of me felt like I deserved it.
92	* The ending of ''The Blood of Olympus'': amidst all the heartwarming EarnYourHappyEnding for almost everyone, Reyna ''doesn't'' get one, though she at least gets respect from Athena, Bellona and Pegasus.
93	* As heartwarming as the final chapter was, Leo doesn't have a way to tell anyone that he's alive after all, so his friends will still think he's dead. We also don't know how much time passes in Ogygia, so even if Leo and Calypso find a way back into the mortal world, it could be years and years since the Final Battle (and Leo's 'death') and Leo could potentially and unintentionally outlive his friends in that aspect.
94	** Even worse, Piper's last thoughts before the start of the final chapter leave it open to interpretation whether the final chapter ''even happened at all''. Which means it's possible Calypso is once again out there waiting for a hero who will never return for her.
95	--->It might even be possible to tell a new story in which Leo was still out there. Somewhere...
96	** Fortunately in ''The Hidden Oracle'', the first book of the sequel series, it is revealed Leo did come back to life and rescue Calypso, but now she's mortal and has none of her magic.
97	* Apollo cowering before Zeus as Zeus pins the blame for all that happened in the series on him and Hera. Jason even points out in his narration that Apollo looks like a scared teenager(perhaps to diminish Zeus's anger), and when he tries to stand up for his half-brother, Zeus gets pissed off (read: ''[[AbusiveParents Jason is actually wondering if his dad is going to kill him]]'') at Jason as well. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Despite having said he was proud of him]] moments [[MoodWhiplash before this.]]

Context TearJerker / TheHeroesOfOlympus