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[[caption-width-right:350:''"No Joey. You won't."'']]
''Blackwell'' deals with death, depression and regret on the regular and is well known for not pulling any punches when it comes to the more tragic moments. Remember to keep a box of tissues handy.

'''Warning: Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies to this page. Proceed at your own risk.'''

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[[folder: In General]]
* The ultimate fate of the Blackwell family. Patricia was driven insane by the powers she couldn't begin to understand. Her husband was miserable and died shortly after she did. Their son and his wife died in a car accident, leaving their five year old daughter orphaned and forced to first live with her mentally ill aunt and then move to various foster homes. Patricia's other child, Lauren isolated herself from her loved ones and fell into depression, later falling prey to the same force that killed her mother. The last in line, Rosa Blackwell died sacrficing herself for a world that mostly rejected her, with her only friend doomed to forget her.
* Pretty much Joey's entire existence. In life, he was a relatively successful tailor until he's forced to take a bullet for his best friend. He then goes on to haunt his own shop as a ghost, when Jocelyn and Madeline send him off... only for him to get pulled right back, bound to Patricia Blackwell who pretends he doesn't even exist, before succumbing to mental illness and spending the rest of her life in a hospital bed, with Joey stuck next to her. Finally she passes away and Joey moves on to Lauren, who, while reluctant about the whole medium business, at least acknowledges Joey's presence, but it's made even more painful for him when he falls in love with her and she never even bothers to notice. Then when Rosa comes along and Lauren settles down, she too goes insane and Joey spends another 25 years watching her wither away and die, before he finally moves on to Rosa. Then Rosa suffers the same fate as her predecessors, but with her dying breath gives Joey a well-deserved second chance at life, albeit with everyone he ever knew or cared about dead.
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[[folder: ''The Blackwell Legacy'']]
* The old letters Rosa receives from Bellevue Hospital after her appointment in the first game. Long story short: Patricia, Lauren's mother, went crazy and her family saw no other choice than to put her in a mental ward. Eight years later, she died, and Lauren started getting out of touch with her brother Jack, ignoring all his mails and phone calls. After a long silence between each other (and a series of events elaborated on in ''Unbound''), Lauren finally gave in and came to Jack and Maria's weddng. Rosangela was born three years later and Lauren took custody after her parents died in a car crash five years later.
* The backstories of the dead characters are very depressing.
** Rosa's aunt Lauren went insane and spent twenty years in an asylum in constant pain.
** Alli wanted to be a vet, and her ghost was saddened because all of the dogs at the park were afraid of her.
** Susan tried to commit suicide to get The Deacon to stop talking at her, losing her boyfriend and freaking out her family in the process.
** All three girls had long, full lives ahead of them... and it was just a chance encounter with a ghost accidentally summoned by a Ouija board that drove 2 to commit suicide and the 3rd to attempt it.
** Even The Deacon gets in on this - since he'd "got a whiff of sulfur" in the '60s (according to Joe Ghould in "Blackwell Convergence"), he'd been seeking out help from anyone that happened to talk to him... killing who knows how many victims in his desperate search for aid.
* After Rosa accuses Joey of harming her family he loses his composure and calls her out, telling her about his own perspective.
-->''"I was a ghost. Forced to haunt a complete stranger. I had no idea what was going on. (...) I was dead, cold, alone, and scared out of my mind. Nobody could see me. Nobody could hear me. Nobody except old Pattycakes Blackwell, and she didn't want to admit I was there."''
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[[folder: ''Blackwell Unbound'']]
* Every single one of Lauren's "I need a smoke" sequences
* The ending is especially hard-hitting if you've played the preceding game. Though Lauren succeeds in stopping the Countess from killing again (though considering she returns as a ghost in ''Blackwell Convergence'', that might have only stopped her temporarily), she starts thinking [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim whether she'll become like her eventually]] and, even though Joey tries assuring her he'll do anything to prevent that from happening, she decides to stop helping ghosts altogether and spend more time with her family. If you've played ''the Blackwell Legacy'', [[DoomedByCanon you'll quickly realize why]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Joey thinks that's a really bad idea...]]
* During the final confrontation with the Countess it is possible to accept her "help" which means Lauren doesn't even value her own life anymore.
* The ghosts' backstories.
** The entire case involving the C-Sharps - Cecil tolerated Isaac solely for the sake of his girlfriend, Isaac's sister. After her DeathByDespair (after being told she'd never sing again), Isaac refused to leave the stage without playing the duet they'd always closed a show with... but she wasn't there to play accompaniment.
** Mavis Wilcox was an extreme {{hikikomori}} whose fear and habits drove off a husband and got her all-but disowned by her son, only realizing she was dead after being asked to find the ''one'' gift he'd ever given her.

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[[folder: ''Blackwell Convergence'']]
* As always, the ghosts' backstories provide this.
** The first ghost of a failed businessman was depressing if only because he'd resolved to build himself back up... and then realizes that he'd died when he stepped out onto that ledge earlier.
** The Countess, of all people, gets one here, as you discover that the reason she went insane was [[spoiler: because she'd banished her spirit guide - this is made even sadder in "Deception" when you discover that she'd been tricked into it by Gavin and/or TheConspiracy he's a part of]].

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[[folder: ''Blackwell Deception'']]
* Joey's reaction to [[spoiler:Danny's death]]. He goes uncharacteristically silent, gets angry and storms out of the building.
* The ghosts as usual are very tragic.
** The first ghost, as much of a JerkAss as he is, also comes across as sympathetic when you find out that he'd stolen the money only after the bank had fired him after 30 years of working for them, ''and'' not long after his wife had died of cancer.
** The entire bit with Jeremy, since his having kept the photo of him and Rosa means he did care about her - but just never got around to saying it.
** All of Gavin's victims - the Haines family was torn apart by his brainwashing Penelope into disowning her family (and leaving everything to him), Tiffany was just a confused young woman trying to find a job she enjoyed, and Jamie, in the words of her professor, "She had a way of infecting you with her passion. When she loved something, she could make you love it too. But as I said, that passion faded with time. She stopped having a passion for much of anything, I think. Such a waste." Couple that with Gavin insisting she try being something she's not, and... well, the ending to that game was ''very'' satisfying to see.
* Joey's reaction to being informed that he's been banished.
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[[folder: ''Blackwell Epiphany'']]
* The meeting with Kendra, Lia Pierro's 8-10 year-old daughter who's unaware of her ghostly state. Even Joey, as much of a JerkAss as he can be, can't bring himself to tell her this straight-out like he'd tried with other ghosts. Oh, and it turns out she died because the conspiracy trying to kill Lia (and other members of her group) simply missed, and Lia was too paranoid to take her to the hospital.
* Tanya/Heather's death, when she took some valium and some whiskey after being blackmailed by a co-worker over her "working girl" past, which she'd disavowed so thoroughly that her death (slipping and falling in the shower due to her inebriation) actually split her soul in two. She only embraces her past after it's too late to help.
* Joey gets worked over ''hard'' in this game, finding out that his previous two hosts (Rosa's aunt and grandmother) went insane not because of him, but because of Madeline trying to take possession of them. Then there's the fact that he was responsible for freeing her to begin with, ''and'' the souls he and Rosa had brought to her for protection were subsequently consumed by the ghastly woman to fuel a possession of Rosa. Oh, and when he successfully evicted her from Rosa's body? Turns out that's precisely what let the Void fill her aunt's and grandmother's heads decades ago, and Madeline decided to take a genocidal approach after being denied. NiceJobBreakingItHero ''barely'' begins to cover it.
* And then the finale - Joey is unable to move on for reasons unknown after Rosa sends along the souls of ''every'' spook in the world. After some playful banter about enjoying their newfound free time, it turns out that Rosa's power was of the PowerDegeneration sort, and she knew it from the time she harnessed it. With her last bit of strength, and wanting to spare her friend from even the ''possibility'' of becoming like Madeline, she returns Joey back to life... with Joey approaching her with a PleaseWakeUp moment immediately after.
** Joey calling out to Rosa and [[YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious calling her by her name for the first time.]]
--->'''Joey:''' "Red? ...Sweetheart? ...Rosa?
* Joey admits that the memories of his "life" as a ghost started fading after he was [[BackFromTheDead brought back to life]] by Rosa. Which means he might not even remember his best friend soon.
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