Line #5 Tearjerker/MassEffect1


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9	Sad moments in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'':
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11	* The optional sidequest you get if you choose the Colonist background is just heartbreaking, as you have to deal with a girl who grew up as a slave taken from the same colony Shepard was born in - and is so mentally traumatized that she has to refer to herself in the third person because she can't think of herself as being the same person who was taken by the slavers. The most powerful moment is at the very end, if you convince her to take the sedative.
12	-->'''Talitha''': Will she have bad dreams?\
13	'''Shepard''': (''Answering "No"'') You'll dream of a warm place, and when you wake up, you'll be in it.\
14	'''Talitha''': She'd like that. It hurts when she... when ''I'' remember. Me. She wants to remember.
15	** This moment is so powerful that the assignment is named after it: "Citadel: I Remember Me."
16	** Asking Talitha how she escaped reveals that she was rescued by Alliance forces, and [[UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome she desperately tried to heal her deceased captors]]. Confronting her with this leads her to snap that this ''can't'' be real, because all of the bad things happened to ''another'' girl, "a stupid girl who deserves it."
17	--->'''Talitha''': It-- it happens to ''her''. Doesn't it? They see ''her'', so it's real. [[IRejectYourReality She doesn't want it to be real]].
18	** When Shepard revealed that they were a survivor from the same colony. Talitha breaks down and demands to know why Shepard isn't broken like her and wonders how they are able to stand up in spite of losing everything in the same brutal way as Talitha. It drives home the point that, given a slightly different set of circumstances, Shepard could have wound up the exact same way as Talitha.
19	** Shepard's entire family fought to the bitter end, choosing death over slavery. All of Shepard's family were at least at some point willing fight for their lives.
20	---> I fought, my whole family fought. And got hit by an artillery barrage for their trouble. If they saw me, they probably left me for dead.
21	** Even more of a Tear Jerker if you're playing a female Shepard, as the reference to {{Film/Aliens}} becomes that much more striking.
22	* If you have Liara in your party, Noveria is heartbreaking from start to finish. She starts out excited when the Elanus Risk Control guy at the Hanshan front-desk mentions Benezia's presence, manages to stay quietly optimistic at Peak 15, and then completely loses it when you finally confront Benezia in the hot labs.
23	--> '''Liara:''' What should I tell (Shepard), Mother? That you've gone mad? That you're evil? Should I tell (Shepard) how to kill you? ''What should I say?!''
24	** And later, when Benezia finally dies by the team's hands:
25	---> '''Shepard:''' Hang on, we have medi-gel--
26	---> '''Liara:''' Mother! ''Don't go!''
27	---> '''Benezia:''' Goodnight, Little Wing... I will see you with the dawn. (pause) No... light... they always said... there would be...
28	** If you replay the first game after having played the third and having talked to Liara about what Benezia had been like, and eavesdropping on the conversation between Liara and her father, you learn not only what she'd been like but where the "Little Wing" name came from, which makes it more touching.
29	* And then, there is [[WhamEpisode Virmire]].
30	** "I'm sorry....I had to choose." "Its okay, Commander. I don't regret ''anything.''" Go ahead. Cry those ManlyTears. You know you want to.
31	** "Hold on, [[TakeAThirdOption we're coming to pick you up, too.]]" "I think we both know [[SubvertedTrope that's not gonna happen.]]" Rest in peace, Kaidan/Ashley, rest in peace.
32	** "Fight hard, Lieutenant/Chief. Die proud!" "Aye aye, Commander."
33	** What makes it worse is the fact that they make you choose. What the hell?! Bioware outdid themselves on that scene.
34	** To make Virmire even worse, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXLVFnl3WcE Captain Kirrahe's speech.]] Every single member of his species you encounter in the game is more or less impassive, but he delivers every line with total conviction and determination. The worst part of it is the sentence Kirrahe says to Shepard at the end, all military bravado forgotten: "Good luck, Commander. I hope we will meet again." It just brings home the reality of the situation, that in all likelihood he and what's left of his Regiment will die in the attack. Makes saving him all the more satisfying.
35	---> '''Captain Kirrahe:''' Rest assured my people will not forget what you did here. You have made an ally of the salarian people.
36	---> '''Captain Kirrahe:''' We will work together again. I am certain of it.
37	*** Salarians with their short lifespans and even more fragile physiologies only do espionage and try not to do direct confrontation in war. So Kirrahe wasn't just throwing his squad (of spies and scouts) into the fire... they were going into a situation that they weren't trained for or accustomed to: make a big noise.
38	** Virmire is one hell of a tear jerker, while you won't lose Shepard on Virmire, there is a good chance that a lot of people will die on Virmire alone and at least one of them won't make it. Doesn't help matters about how the Council reacted over that mission that really shows the first cracks of Shepard's frustration over their situation. And in the following games, more cracks will form.
39	** Sacrificing Ashley or Kaidan is bad enough, but it's even worse if they're your love interest.
40	** The music that plays during the debrief after Virmire doesn't help. It's the same song that plays during a romance theme, but under some conditions, it'll keep playing even after the debrief as you're walking around the ship, replacing the usual Normandy theme. It gives you the feeling that something was '''irrevocably''' lost on that mission, and that nothing from here on out is going to be the same.
41	*** After the mission on Virmire, you will most likely walk around the Normandy before going off to your next mission, talk to the crew, buy/sell some equipment and upgrades, just go through the motions you normally do after a major Plot Mission. You will not be ready for the PlayerPunch you get when you reach Kaidan/Ashley's station and see that spot completely empty.
42	*** Replaying the early stages of the game after you've finished a full run, knowing what's coming, casts a feeling of poignancy heavily over every interaction that Shepard, Kaidan, and Ashley have as a trio. Kaidan and Ash are Shepard's first two permanent squad members and, as fellow members of the same military, the ones with the closest ties to Shep and to one another - no matter who survives, the friendship and rapport the three of them had is lost forever. Virmire really is the gift of tears that just keeps on giving. Made HarsherInHindsight in the following sequels that depending on the player's actions, they will also lose them as well as their friendship with the survivor crumbles with no fault but circumstances.
43	** Your encounter with Wrex. Having to choose between giving the BigBad access to a nearly unlimited army of unstoppable killing machines or taking away the only chance Wrex has to save his people from a horrible genocidal bioweapon that has driven them nearly to extinction by taking their birth rates down to practically zero is even worse if you haven't done Wrex's Family Armor mission or have enough charm or intimidate points to make him back down, since there is ''no way to save him'' and knowing this is a punch in the gut.
44	** The way Wrex stands away from everyone else and aimlessly fires his shotgun at the water as you apporach him does an excellent job to show his angst. Despite his complete apathy over his kind and simply prefers living in the moment as a ruthless mercenary, deep inside, he's grieving of what his people have become post-genophage.
45	* The final cutscene after defeating Sovereign. "Where's Shepard?" ...and then the camera cuts to that massive lump of Reaper, complete with heartbreakingly sad piano theme. Made exponentially worse if your party includes your love interest. Even knowing that [[DisneyDeath Shepard wasn't really dead]] didn't soften the blow.
46	** If one takes their LoveInterest, one can see that they are close to tears when searching for Shepard.
47	** Taking Wrex is moving too. The way he hangs his head when they find them, and the way he lets Anderson steady him, then look back. For such a reserved character, seeing him crack that way...wow.
48	* The space battle at the finale, whether you choose to save the Council or not both versions are extremely moving.
49	-->"It's the Alliance! Open a comm channel! This is the ''Ascension'', we are taking heavy damage. GUARDIAN systems are overwhelmed, kinetic barriers are off-line..."\
50	"Captain... they've closed the channel."\
51	''(Alternatively)''\
52	"It's the Alliance!"\
53	"''Thank the Goddess!''"
54	* Vigil is a sad character, as well, despite being a VI. The [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic understated, downbeat music]] adds to the scene.
55	** And, to add extra punch to Vigil, you know that his message to you, giving you the knowledge to end Sovreign's threat, is probably the last thing that he'll do before he shuts down. Although he's a VI, he still seems to be pleased to know that he'd not maintained his vigil for nothing.
56	** Hell, everything about the character and his story is heartbreaking. From having to [[ShootTheDog shut off the life support chambers to preserve power so at least a few would survive]] to the fact that he saw the surviving dozen scientists go to the Citadel and knew they'd probably starve to death on the deserted station. And then in the second game, when you find out that he shut down, it almost seems like suicide...
57	** And yet, there is something awe inspiring about Vigil. He is only a VI but he and the last Prothean survivors sacrificed everything in order to give a tiny [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture glimmer of hope]] to stop the Reapers forever.
58	** In ''Videogame/MassEffect3'', we learn that Protheans VI's were [[BrainUploading complete brain uploads]], so Vigil was a borderline AI. There's a chance it was ''sentient''. One hopes he died happy.
59	* Choosing all Paragon and Charm options when confronting Saren paints things in a more sympathetic manner when you learn he was indoctrinated. Yeah, Saren was quite a bastard if you have read the pre-novels but given, that in the game only he's more of a FallenHero and is truly sorry about his betrayal, that really is a saddening scene. Even more so when Sovereign takes control of his technology-modified body ''after'' his death. Even if you choose to tell Saren he can still redeem himself, the fact that he either allows himself to remain controlled or shoot himself to escape shows that he really could not have been saved.
60	--> Sovereign is too strong. I'm sorry. [[RedemptionEqualsDeath It's too late for me]].
61	--> [[DrivenToSuicide Goodbye]], Shepard...thank you."
62	* The sidequest on Ontarom in the first game, where you meet Corporal Toombs, the only other survivor from Akuze, holding a Cerberus scientist at gunpoint. His half-deranged and agonized ranting is heartbreaking to hear as he simply tries to get closure and justice for what they did to him. One of the most potent lines in the exchange sums it up, when the scientist calls the soldier "Mister Toombs":
63	-->'''Toombs''': ''Its '''Corporal!''' '''CORPORAL Toombs!''' You don't '''get''' to lie! Not anymore!''
64	** Toombs's voice actor ''nailed'' that whole scene. You can hear the exhaustion and anguish in every line. And then the tearjerkers continue into the sequel, when you get his WhatTheHellHero email. And worse yet, if you offer to help him recover his psyche, he is no longer traumatized, just completely pissed off. And if you spared Wayne and not Toombs, turns out The Illusive Man finished the job for Toombs.
65	** He still doesn't understand ''even'' if you have the Sole Survivor background (both him and Shepard did suffer in the same unit, right?). Makes it even more gut-kicking.
66	** The worst part is what happens if you're forced to shoot him. The description afterward mentions how his face is still pinched in anguish and pain. Even in ''death'' Toombs can't find peace.
67	** If you opt to kill Doctor Wayne, there's a brief bit of post-mission exposition regarding Toombs that eliminates any hope of calm stoicism.
68	-->''He opens his eyes, and you gesture to the door. He won't be left behind again.''
69	** Then there's Shepard's responses if they were an Akuze. If you choose the Charm option (ask Toombs to let Shepard arrest Wayne) then the Renegade dialogue to Toomb's WhatTheHellHero response, Shepard lets forth a lot of pent-up emotion. Mark Meer gets a lot of flak, a lot of it justified, but he does this line brilliantly, mixing anger, sadness, disgust and resolution.
70	---> '''Shepard:''' You think I don't want revenge for Akuze?! Listen, Toombs. Arresting him ''hurts them more''.
71	*** Even before that, if you pick the Paragon option in the second dialogue wheel, Shepard says that they didn't see anybody and that if they did see him they would have gone back to help him. [[https://youtu.be/NWhBe20a4Gs?t=50 You can hear the guilt in Shepard's voice.]]
72	** If you allow him to shoot the scientist, a relieved but still broken Corporal Toombs mentions how records say there were no survivors on Akuze/Shepard was the only survivor, then says "who am I to argue?", and kills himself. However, he is at least PeacefulInDeath this way.
73	* When talking with Wrex about the genophage, there's this quality in his voice when he says that he can't change his people. He sounds so...''resigned'', so deeply, fundamentally depressed about it all. Its not obvious, and Wrex doesn't angst about it or anything, which makes it even worse. He's ''accepted'' that his species is doomed, and that they're going to go extinct, because that's what they are. It kind of quietly drives home just what it means to the krogan that their species has fallen from the height of power and turned into fatalistic mercenaries.
74	** The brutal truth of what the genophage actually does. On the outside, it just sounds like a way to curb the Krogan's numbers by reducing their fertility, but then you read into it some more and find out that it's not actually making them less fertile in the sense of producing eggs and such; it interferes with the development of the fetal krogan, preventing every 999 out of 1000 from developing properly. It states that most krogan babies don't even reach the stage where they're stillborn. With the fact that not every krogan gets the chance to mate, the idea that even if you get the chance to try and have a kid and knowing that unless you're incredibly lucky the most you'll get is a stillborn son or daughter (and that's if you're lucky at all) is incredibly heartbreaking. In human scenario, it's like carrying a child for nine months (which by then a human mother already form a maternal bond with the life inside them as they do whatever they can to ensure a safe pregnancy and eventually a healthy baby) only to see it stillborn the moment it is born which will make any hopeful and expectant human mothers drive into despair as they realize that the same outcome will happen over and over again as they attempt to have a child. Those nine months will be AllForNothing. Finishing the third game and going back to the first game will grimly remind you that krogan women [[DrivenToSuicide committed suicide]] over this, with Eve/Bakara herself contemplating ending her life after her first stillborn. Complete sterilization or even straight-up assault to wipe them off for good become merciful and less heartbreaking than giving the krogans such false hope by screwing up the krogan fetal development that lead to their cultural deterioration. While the krogans had it coming due to their actions to warrant such retaliation from the other races, as a whole they are victims of the salarians' hat: namely their impulsive shortsightedness towards the arcing consequences of their actions and their detached attitude towards familial bonds.
75	*** What's worse: Later on in the series, we learn that, even WITH the Genophage, the krogan should be experiencing population GROWTH, not decline. It's just so many krogan are set in their ways, and determined to fight and die, that their population keeps getting thinner, and thinner, and thinner.
76	* The Citadel: Homecoming assignment. Samesh Bhatia, whose wife was part of [[RedShirtArmy Ashley's unit]] on Eden Prime, pleads with Shepard for help. All he wants is to have his wife's body back to give her a proper funeral, but the Alliance is holding her body and refusing to give any explanation as to why. His reaction to the situation is heartbreaking, especially when you convince him to let the Alliance keep his wife's body for further testing. He just breaks down, telling Shepard that he misses his wife so much and he just wants her to come home.
77	--->'''Samesh:''' [''after composing himself''] ...Let them run their tests. Let my wife save lives, so that others are spared the loss I feel today. Goodbye. Thank you for finding me answers.
78	* Replaying the first game is especially tearjerking while you're just walking around the Normandy. You see two random crew members, sitting together talking happily in the mess. And then it hits you, that these are the same two crew members who were killed by explosions on-screen in the intro of the second game. And what's worse is, you suddenly realise, aside from a dying scream, they never have had ''any'' lines. Two members of Shepard's crew and you ''never'' got to know them.
79	* The VI's final message on Luna.
80	--> A burst of white noise over all frequencies nearly deafens you. Your hardsuit's heads-up display interprets it into a series of 0s and 1s:\
81	01001000\
82	01000101\
83	01001100\
84	01010000\
85	They repeat again and again, blanketing all frequencies, until the lights on the final VI cluster flicker and die.
86	** Why is this sad? If you decode the binary, you realize that it's screaming HELP. Over and over and over, desperately. [[YouBastard And you just stood there and listened as it died]]. Worse in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' if you choose the dialogue option that reveals that the "VI" was actually an AI named Hannibal, who may have only been trying to defend itself when the Alliance realized what it had become and attempted to kill it.
87	** In [=ME3=] it is finally revealed that your [=ME2=] friendly AI, EDI, is actually built from the remains of the Hannibal system, softening its death somewhat.
88	* ''UNC: Geth Incursions'' has you going out and destroying Geth outposts in the Armstrong Nebula. When you complete the mission, this message appears. It seems to indicate the Heretics regret what they lost when joining Saren and the Reapers.
89	-->As the last geth falls. you hear music come across the room. On the monitor, a quarian stands before a hushed crowd warbling a mournful a capella of worlds and innocence lost. [[DoAndroidsDream The recorded song is dispatched to the geth worlds beyond the Perseus Veil. The transmitter shuts down.]]
90	* If the player chooses the Spacer background for Shepard, you eventually get the assignment Citadel: Old, Unhappy, Far-Off Things (If the name of this assignment sounds poetic, it's because it is. It's a line from [[http://www.bartleby.com/101/528.html The Solitary Reaper]] by William Wordsworth). While it's not as big a tearjerker as I Remember Me, poor Lieutenant Zabaleta is worthy of pity. He was sensitive, and the batarian raids on Mindoir scarred him enough that he had PTSD and turned to drinking to try and forget. But people like Shepard's mother still remember him and want to help.
91	* The death of the Thorian. While its life was spent committing MindRape and inflicting BodyHorror, it ''was'' [[AKindOfOne one of a kind]]...
92	* A more direct example can happen if You run out of anti-Thorian grenades; if you don't ration them ''really'' carefully it's entirely possible that you'll have to end up killing a number of colonists that spend most of your time on Feros helping. If you did the water, food, and electricity missions first it's even worse; you spent your time getting the colony up an running again only to have to kill the people you were trying to help. Luckily, you can actually smash them into unconsciousness. With a good shield and fast reactions, you only need to run up to the colonists and pistol-whip or rifle-butt them into harmlessness. The game, of course, does not expound upon the potential brain damage.
93	* The death of Admiral Kahoku. Sure, he was a minor character and it all happened in a relatively insignificant side mission, but finding him motionless on the floor, with the sad music starting when you interact with his corpse and the devastated comments from your Squaddies.....it left a bitter taste in the mouth. Especially when you consider that he just wanted to uncover the reason for the senseless death of his unit..... The mission also ends with tremendously mournful music. To make it worse, you can later hear an announcement in the Citadel elevators that he left behind a large family.
94	* The Signal Tracking quest ends with you finding out that an AI is stealing from one of the Citadel casinos. When you discover this, you get to talk to it and find out a lot of information about it and its backstory and reasons for theft. It's the creation of another AI, but its "parent" was created by a criminal; after the criminal noticed and deleted the parent AI, the child AI got him sent to prison by falsifying financial information relating to him and letting C-Sec notice. It's been hanging out on the Presidium skimming credits from one of the quasar machines in Flux ever since. It got a bunch of systems that could function as makeshift explosives installed so it could [[TakingYouWithMe kill any organics who discovered it in a murder-suicide]], because it knows an organic would never let it live; [=AIs=] are extremely illegal on the Citadel. When it has enough money, it intends to get itself installed into a spaceship and go find the geth so it can live with other synthetic life. It doesn't actually want to hurt anyone; it just doesn't believe there's another way. You have no choice but to kill it. It doesn't die screaming for help, like Hannibal above, nor does it return later; it's just gone forever. In a clever way, this side mission also lays out the foundations of chief reason of the main conflict of the entire series by this line below:

Context Tearjerker / MassEffect1