Tear Jerker / Avatar: The Last Airbender - Smoke and Shadow

• Everything Ursa is dealing with. Her youngest daughter becoming distant towards her in light of recent events. Her oldest daughter nowhere to be found, probably cold and alone wherever she is. To top it off, Ursa's past coming back to haunt her in the form of PTSD.
• The origin of the Kemurikage is both frightening and tearjerking at the same time; they’re the ghosts of mothers whose children were kidnapped by warlords. They died of broken hearts, turning them into ghosts consumed by sadness and grief. They haunted the warlords as vengeance, but their thirst could not be quenched for a long time.
• Zuko, despite trying his hardest to be a good Fire Lord, really struggles to be the ruler he feels he needs to be and is a lot worse off for it.
  • Also, despite how much he wants to improve his relationship with his sister Azula, he really laments he wouldn't know what it would take to make her happy. Considering Mental Illness is barely handled properly in Real Life today, how to cope with it in a time most likely far before modern medicine can only make it seem next to impossible to help her.
• A subtle one-panel, but when Aang and Katara have to be separated to handle two issues at once, Katara tells Aang that this is a challenge of being the girlfriend to the Avatar. Aang looks down, possibly realizing the first time of the hardships he will be in for.
• Ursa and Iroh finally get a chance for a heart to heart, resulting in:
  Ursa: How did you get over the death of your son?
  Iroh: I'm not over it. I'll never be over it.
• At long last, Mai finally gets her chance to take on Azula, which almost happened back at the Boiling Rock. It's still quite upsetting to see how damaged their friendship is now, and Mai has a LOT of grievances against her ex-best friend, who turned out to be rather toxic when they were kids. Azula made Mai do a lot of bad things that Mai still feels guilty for, and all Azula does is just sneer at her.
• Poor Kei Lo's realization that Mai is still not over Zuko.
  • Perhaps even more of a brutal shock at the end when he breaks it off with her. We don't hear their exchange, but when he leaves, Mai is burying her face in her hands.
• A subtle one, but despite Azula disavowing Ozai just like Zuko did, she's still embracing his mentality and teachings of ruling with fear and power. It shows Azula almost like a ghost of the past ways of life in conflict with Zuko's desire to change the Fire Nation for the better.
  • In addition, the book goes to show that Azula's not mentally healing right or if at all. Despite Zuko complementing on how much saner she's looking and sounding, the fact that half of her panels have Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises, and her manner of speech and strategics is on par with the Azula of old. The key word is "of old", because Azula's regained sanity is the same as it was before and likely just as prone to snapping again under one bad day.