Tear Jerker / Fairies of the Shattered Moon

UNMARKED SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Volume 4 Arcs: Mistral, Atlas, Menagerie

• Chapter 29:
  • Pietro's death. He investigates Teacher and Watts' manipulations in Atlas and discovers just how deeply the Gates have infiltrated the Kingdom. Unfortunately, he is immediately cornered by Watts. Realizing that his old colleague is now far too dangerous to fight against, and that he isn't going to escape the encounter, Pietro sends one final loving message in the sparse few seconds he has to Penny, refusing to put his daughter at risk against the monster Watts had become.
    "Atlas Government compromised. Find your friends. Love, Father."
    — Pietro's last message to Penny.
• Chapter 30:
  • Wendy's breakdown. The girl has been through hell and back multiple times, but after Happy confirms that Remnant is the future of Earthland she is thrown into tears, going off on her own and letting out a Skyward Scream at all she and her friends have lost without even realizing it.
• Chapter 32:
  • Winter's Heroic Sacrifice. With Gray unconscious and the rest of the group no match for Esper's Eclipse Etherious form, they attempt to escape on a stolen bullhead, but with all the power at their enemy's command, she'd bring them down before they could get away. Without hesitation, Winter gives Weiss one final hug, tells her she loves her, and uses a gravity glyph to pin her in the ship before leaping out to stall the Gate of the Maiden. She is quickly defeated and imprisoned, but she buys the others the time to escape.
  • Weiss' reaction to said Heroic Sacrifice. She demands that Penny turn them around, only for her friend to point out that they wouldn't stand a chance. Weiss knows this and yet after losing her mother, Klein, and being framed as a terrorist, she sobbingly continues to insist. Only when Penny points out that Gray, having been poisoned with Bane Particles, needed an immediate blood transfusion, does she yield. Even then, she breaks down in tears and swears, against all Fairy Tail edicts, that she'll kill Esper, not realizing that she is not only falling to very same dark emotions the Gray struggled with, but the target of rage is actually Ruby and Yang's mother/stepmother as Esper's true identity is Summer Rose.
  • The reveal of Summer Rose can be considered a huge tearjerker on its own as she is Ruby's primary inspiration for becoming a huntress as well The Lost Lenore for Team STRQ, with her supposed death being the final nail in the coffin for the team's dissolution. That she is actually alive and Salem's right-hand is a massive and painful betrayal of her friends and family who have nothing but good memories of her.

Haven Arc

• Chapter 36:
  • Sitara being barred from returning to the Celestial Spirit World by Ankhseram. Despite protests from Ozma, Virgo, Leo, and her father, the Celestial Spirit King, the god stands by his decision, with the only alternative he offers being extermination.
  • Even the moments afterwards, where Oscar gets to see his first predecessor bonding with her, grows bitter in thought of the two lovers being bitter enemies today in a Forever War. It's perhaps best capped off when the boy learns that she changed her full name, Sitara Astra Lumos Estrella Malina to S.A.L.E.M.
• Chapter 39:
  • The fallout of the attempt to restore Scarlet's memories of being Erza. Wendy, desperate to get one of her lost guildmates and blinded by her own faith in Erza, reassures the Nikos matriarch that the pain will be manageable over Carla and Ozpin's concerns of the spells origins. Scarlet, already wary of regaining whatever trauma made Erza forget in the first place and possibly losing herself, is encouraged by Wendy and Ruby to give it a shot. And then proceeds to get hit with every ounce of physical and emotional pain Erza ever experienced all at once, amplified by the memory of Kyouka enhancing her pain sense during her torture. Understandably, Scarlet breaks off the spell and in her panic accesses her magic to requip a sword that she points at Wendy, before dropping it in horror once she realizes what she's doing. Both she is left psychologically traumatized while Wendy is demoralized at realizing just what she was putting her friend through.
• Chapter 41:
  • Cinder's flashback. We see how she used to be an incredibly sweet girl with dreams of being a Huntress not unlike Ruby. We also see the immense love she had for her father and how there actually was genuine affection for her stepmother Eleanor and her stepsister Drizella and Anna. It is incredibly sad and tragic knowing how broken the Tremaines are in the present and how monstrous Cinder has become.
  • Not to mention how Mercury shows zero sympathy for her. In fact he mocks her.
• Chapter 42:
  • In their conversation, Ozpin tells Jaune about a fairy tale that was inspired by the ancient Wizard himself: "The Man Who Runs." It tells the story a man who travels from town to town, training people he meets to fight an indestructible darkness and watching them die in the process, grieve for them, then having to move on and do it all again and again. As in canon, Oz puts up a stoic front, but he's definitely affected by the many lives lost in his war with Salem.
  That is my great sin, Jaune. I turn ordinary people into weapons. My weapons. And I cannot count how many have died in my name.
  • Scarlet is clearly afraid of her returning memories as Erza. Not just because so many of them are painful, but because she fears losing her memories as Pyrrha's mother.
• Chapter 43:
  • Raven's absolute terror of End. Whatever her failings, it is heartbreaking to see such a normally confident warrior suddenly horrified when she realizes exactly who Yang had brought into her camp or her panic when her tribe attacks him. When only she and Yang survive the blast that wipes out the tribe, she can only stare at the ruins of her camp and her people.
  • Yang's reaction when Raven flees through her portal and abandons her to End.
• Chapter 44:
  • Sure, she thoroughly deserves it, but for some, it can be pretty painful to watch Raven get a verbal thrashing for abandoning Yang and generally just running away all this time.
  • It's also at least implied that she really didn't enjoy killing the previous Spring Maiden, especially since the girl idolized her, according to Ozpin.
  • Oz, for his part, tries to lift her spirits when Raven realizes she's pretty much become him by saying that her actions still pale in comparison to his. He even says that her reaction to discovering Salem's Complete Immortality is rather tame compared to what others have done in the past. The old warrior really doesn't think highly of himself.
• Chapter 47:
  • End's life was one of pure misery before Salem freed him. He was denied any control over his own body from the moment Zeref created him, unable to speak, move, or let anyone know he existed and constantly unknowingly used as a battery by Natsu. When he managed to gain some influence over Natsu during the Alvarez War, he begged Natsu to achieve his purpose to kill Zeref and let all his suffering mean something, only for Lucy to unknowingly try to murder him. It is implied that her trying to rewrite the book of E.N.D was incredibly painful for End. His murderous grudge against Lucy and his hatred for Natsu are perfectly understandable as Gray and Lucy both later accept.

Jinn Arc

• Chapter 55:
  • Salem's life is incredibly sad with the kindhearted Spirit who just wanted to visit the human world suffering one tragedy after the next. Particularly devastating are the tragic loss of her and Ozma's four daughters, 3 of whom are named after her friends Lucy, Ruby, and Mira. Even bringing them up brings tears to Salem's eyes thousands of years later.

Post-Jinn Arc

• Chapter 56:
  • After Jinn reveals the Awful Truth and the history of Earthland/Remnant to the heroes, Ozpin has to suffer the Broken Pedestal treatment from Qrow, who feels just as betrayed as in canon, and while it's not as bad as in RWBY since everyone is more numb with shock and willing to give him the benefit of the doubt (plus Loke and Erza stop Qrow from punching him), it's Wendy showing empathy for all he's suffered and lost before giving him a hug that truly breaks him and he acts just like the young teen he looks like as starts sobbing in her arms.
  I didn't want them to die. I didn't want them to die. I didn't want them to die. I didn't want them to die...
• Chapter 57:
  • The reveal of Summer's past is one long slideshow of these. But topping the list is probably the moment when she tried to go back to her family right after her Ascension, saving Ruby and Yang from the Grimm at the cabin, only for the timeline to start breaking down because Ruby and Yang don't grow up to be the people who influence Salem to go against the gods if they know their mother is alive. In order to save her children and the world, Summer has no choice but to use Macro to erase their knowledge of her survival and go into hiding.
  Ruby, Yang, my beautiful girls. Mommy loves you. She loves you more than anything in the whole world.
• Chapter 60:
  • Qrow's depression after learning that Ozpin has been lying to him since he was a teenager is even worse then in canon. Here he shows suicidal thoughts. He even thinks about signing up with Salem despite thinking that she will kill him because of his semblance, in fact he that's one of the main reasons thinking that only good he could accomplish would be by dying.
• Chapter 61:
  • It's revealed that her terror at seeing her stepmother prepare to kill her father caused Cinder/Ella's Spirit Slayer Magic to act up and she ended up accidentally killing her father (who she deeply loved). She fled to her friends hoping to escape her stepfamily, thinking they can hide her, only for Ana and Drizzella to find her. Ana accidentally kills one of her friends, causing Ella's eyes to act up again, killing all her other friends. After that, she was subjected to three years of brutal and cruel training. It's no wonder Cinder is as damaged as she is.
• Chapter 63:
  • It's revealed that Summer loathes herself for what she has done so much that she actually physically hurts herself at times. Seeing the once cheerful and determined Summer reduced to that is heartbreaking regardless of how you may feel about her.

Grimmlands Arc

• Chapter 65:
  • Ruby, Weiss, and Blake's reactions to meeting Salem in the flesh. Blake is suspicious, Weiss icily rejects The Queen's genuine apology, and Ruby can only tearfully ask if her old friend had known that Summer was her mother before she'd killed her. Team RWBY has every right to be furious with Salem, but after seeing the flashbacks of how close they all were on Earthland, it can still bring a tear to one's eye.
• Chapter 66:
  • Salem at one point wanted to visit the human world more than anything else and was thrilled when she was first contacted by Mard Geer, who she'd thought was human. However, thousands of years of dealing with humanity has left her utterly cynical about most humans viewing them as stupid and foolish. Salem has no faith whatsoever that humans can be trusted to save themselves. She has no desire to rule over humans, but simply sees no other way to save the world.
  • What's almost as sad is that Ozpin, whose mission given to him by Ankh was to unite humanity in harmony, sees that mission as impossible to fulfill. It's further revealed that in the aftermath of the Great War, Ozpin as The King of Vale outlawed Faunus slavery, but the minute he gave back control to regular humans they immediately tried to repeal his reforms and exile the Faunus to Menagerie triggering the Revolution. Ozpin and Loke ultimately admit that the only way most humans would ever agree to become Eclipse Etherious is if they were coerced even if they were told that such a plan would save them.
  • Yang has completely disowned Raven and has come to loathe her just when Raven has started to genuinely regret abandoning her. At one point, she even goes so far as to threaten to kill Raven in a way that even her beloved Uncle Qrow is genuinely scared of her. It's made clear that Yang, who had for so many years had searched for Raven and was even willing to give her the benefit of the doubt in regards to her reasons for leaving, has no feelings whatsoever for her birth mother any longer and views her as a nothing but a coward.
  • Tai's reaction to seeing Summer again. He is completely torn. On the one hand, he is completely overjoyed to see the love of his life, but on the other hand, he quickly realizes that she is Esper Rosenflos and is responsible for most of what happened in Atlas.
  • Virgo always blamed herself for Sitara being abducted by Mard Geer and later exiled from the Celestial Spirit World. Her masochistic habits are implied to originate out of a desire to be punished for her perceived failure to protect her mistress who she seems to have been very close and devoted to. It's no wonder that Virgo was the first of the Zodiac Spirits to accept Salem's request to help form the Gates.
• Chapter 68:
  • Carla, desperate to avoid a fight with Yang, lies to her about her Future Vision, claiming that Summer will be fine when in reality Summer wasn't even in her vision. However good her reasons, Carla still took advantage of Yang's complete trust and faith in her friends to manipulate her, something she feels awful about.
  • The Team STRQ reunion has gone to hell. Summer, after preventing Yang from attacking Raven, is then attacked by Raven and the two old partners and best friends engage in a fierce duel.
  • When Summer asks Raven what she thinks will happen after she has killed her, Raven resignedly states that she imagines Yang or Salem will kill her. Raven has evidently given up on ever receiving her daughter's forgiveness and is prepared to let Yang kill her.
  • After Summer defeats Raven, Tai comes over and Summer having lost all patience angrily screams at them that what they are fighting for is the destruction of Remnant, that they have no plan or alternative to Salem's, and that she is fully prepared to face justice for her actions after the Umbral Spirit King is defeated, but until then they need to get out of her way. Neither Tai or Raven have any real response or rebuttal to Summer's arguments.
  • The saddest part of the chapter however is Qrow. His brief joy at getting to see Summer the woman he loved back again is shattered upon seeing her and his sister fight. Utterly despondent and now having no idea what to do, he asks Summer to do her job and kill him.
• Chapter 69:
  • Summer and Raven used to be best friends. While they both still love one another, neither is willing to compromise on the stands they have taken. Raven admits that she loves Summer so much that if she compromised with her for a moment, she would not be able to prevent herself from joining Salem's side. In response, Summer reluctantly puts her to sleep with Macro.
  • Team STRQ has been completely shattered. The chapter ends with Raven in an enchanted sleep, Tai devastated, Qrow just barely pushed back from the edge of suicide and Summer resigned to being a monster.
  • Nora, who in many ways has been the emotional heart of Team JNPR, is distraught at having been forced to leave Ren and Jaune behind. Nora shows some of the same vulnerability we see in Volume 8 when she is separated from Ren and is showing an uncharacteristic amount of pessimism regarding the situation.
  • Summer has come to the conclusion that her compassion is a weakness, noticing how her hesitance to take more ruthless actions always makes things worse, even going so far as to wonder whether or not she may have to kill Qrow if all the plans she has made to counter his semblance don't work out.
• Chapter 71: Is filled with Tear jerker moments.
  • It's revealed that Natsu and End have switched places, meaning that Natsu is trapped in End's body and has been able to hear and see everything that is happening without being able to do anything about it. He has been in this position for fifty years.
  • Erza is defeated by End. Erza who has repeatedly brought hope to others feels despair as she put all her strength, power, and all her love for her family on the line and it wasn't enough.
  • Summer and Ruby's heartbreaking fight. Ruby at one point begs Summer to stay down and even asks Summer if she has to die to fix things.
  • Summer's horrified realization that she is killing Ruby and that everything she has done has always been for her daughters. Summer tearfully stands down and promises Ruby that whatever she wants to do she will support her.
  • Weiss is so overwhelmed by hatred that she ends up calling on the Umbral Spirit King's power and launches a massive attack that would have killed Ruby had Summer not moved her out of the way. In a cruel twist, the woman who Weiss hates the most ends up preventing her from killing her best friend and partner. What makes it worse is that Weiss misinterpreted Summer's actions as her being about to kill Ruby and thought she was saving her.
  • Summer's death is possibly the saddest in the story so far. She could have avoided Weiss's attack but that would have meant sacrificing Ruby something she refused to even consider. Summer feels no anger at Weiss only pity. She feels like she has failed all of her beloved daughters. Her final words to Cinder, Yang and Ruby are how much she loves all of them.
  • Yang and Cinder are absolutely distraught at their foster mother's death. Yang has just learned that one of her friends lied and manipulated her and after years of thinking her beloved mother had died she got her back only for one of her best friends and teammates to kill her. It's made even worse when Yang was alright with Weiss getting justice on Summer all she wanted was more time and Weiss didn't let her have that.
  • It's safe to say that Yang's friendship with Carla is dead after this. Had Carla not lied to Yang and the Devil Slayer had accompanied her mother when she left it's possible, even likely, Summer would not have died. In fact, Yang's faith in all her friends has been shaken as she notes that she sacrificed her arms for them and was willing to give up her mother and all she wanted was more time with her and they wouldn't give her that time.
  • Cinder was only formally adopted by Summer a day or two ago and now she has lost the only one who showed her kindness after she was kidnapped by the Tremaines. What makes it even more heartbreaking is that she calls Summer Mom for the first time as she was dying.
  • The chapter ends with Yang roaring that she will kill Weiss. Team RWBY has been shattered.
• Chapter 72:
  • When Raven realizes that Summer is dead, despite trying to kill her shortly beforehand, she starts to cry. She has lost her best friend again.
  • Weiss starts to realize just what her revenge has cost her. Yang slashes off one of Weiss's eyes and moves in for the kill, having no interest in hearing what she has to say. Yang has clearly come to hate her teammate and Weiss realizes that she was foolish to think she couldn't lose anything else.
  • Blake manages to save Weiss and Yang gives her one chance to move, but Blake refuses and they both prepare to battle. The two partners have been split.
  • Salem's desperately tries to think of ways that Virgo's key could have shrunk and the maiden powers gone to Ruby that don't involve Summer (one of her dearest friends and advisors) and Virgo (her devoted maid) being dead.
  • Ruby reaches her lowest point this chapter. She has seen her mother die, her team fall apart, and believes that the world will be doomed regardless if she helps Fairy Tail or Salem so she decides to use the book to travel back to the past again despite Lucy, Wendy, and Salem all begging her not to, pointing out she will be erasing everyone from existence if she does that, including herself.
• Chapter 73:
  • Ruby the once cheerful, optimistic Wide-Eyed Idealist shows suicidal tendencies this chapter to such an extent that she is disappointed that she is not fading from existence much to the shock of Juvia, Jellal, and Mirajane who can't believe how Ruby has changed from the girl they met two years ago.
  • Jellal feels immense guilt over unintentionally leaving Erza as a single mother in a post-apocalyptic world and has to be talked out of confronting the White Witch by Mira. He also doesn't believe he has the right to call Pyrrha his daughter given that he has never been there for her.
  • While Fairy Tail puts on a brave face for Ruby, it's clear to her they are devastated over the Strongest Team being stranded on Remnant.
• Chapter 75:
  • Salem and Ruby make one last attempt at salvaging the negotiations. Unfortunately, they can't agree on what is best for the world and ultimately come to blows. What makes this situation so sad is that both Ruby and Salem want to save the world, neither of them hate or even dislike each other in fact they both still despite the situation consider each other to be their friend but their ideologies and world views are just too different.
  • This whole arc has been as devastating to Salem as it has been for Fairy Tail. She spends thousands of years desperately dreaming that she could one day reunite with her beloved friends but when it finally happens one of them ends up killing another of her friends and it's made clear that aside from Yang none of them want to work with her. What's more, Salem was so happy and delighted when Wendy agreed to join her but in this chapter, it's revealed that Wendy is manipulating her.
• Chapter 76: This entire chapter is filled almost to the brink with Tearjerker moments.
  • Happy has not had an enjoyable time the past fifty years. The only thing that kept him going was the hope of one day giving Natsu a body of his own.
  • Carla is guilt-stricken upon realizing the full consequences of her manipulating Yang and how she made the same mistake that so many characters in RWBY make, letting fear control their actions.
  • Juvia tells Yang she is sorry for her loss but refuses to move out of the way. When Yang demands to know how she would react if Weiss killed Gray, Juvia admits that she would probably do the same thing but states that Gray would never hurt Weiss like Summer. Yang counters that she was ok with Summer facing justice for that. All she wanted was more time, but Weiss ignored her pleas and nearly killed Ruby as well. Weiss can only meekly reply that she didn't mean to attack Ruby and that she thought Summer was going to kill her. Even to her own ears, however, she finds that response weak.
  • Weiss is stunned and crushed upon realizing just how much Yang, her once-beloved friend and teammate, has come to hate her and regrets not paying more attention to Gray's warnings about the cost of revenge.
  • Yang has become completely disillusioned with Fairy Tail. She sacrificed so much for them and from her point of view, they are all betraying and abandoning her. Not only is she disillusioned with the members but with its ideals of relying on your friends since that kept her from being there to help Summer when she needed her. What makes this all the more heartbreaking is that of all the members of Team RWBY, Yang embraced those ideals the most and loved being a part of the guild.
  • The only way Fairy Tail has to counter Salem's Eclipse Etherious Form is to summon the Celestial Spirit King and to do that Lucy has to break Loke's key. While Lucy promises to find it again, the odds of that happening are very bad given that no one on Remnant has any way of identifying/knowing a Celestial Spirit Key and would simply assume its a stylized key. They may very well have lost Loke for good this chapter.
• Chapter 77:
  • Salem and the Celestial Spirit Kings heart-wrenching battle. They both still love each other deeply but that isn't enough to overcome their differences. Salem at one point offers to find a way for him to fully manifest as an Eclipse Etherious so that he could rule the world rather than her. What's more is that she wants to be a family with him again. While the Celestial Spirit King is tempted, he sadly declines the offer and they begin to battle. It's noted that both of them are crying as they do so.
  • Just bringing up Virgo causes Seram's Madness to take over Salem. She is distraught over the death of her beloved maid as much as she is by Summer's maybe even more so.
  • Mercury is so broken by his father's abuse that he can't accept the idea that anyone could care about him with no ulterior motives and that caring only brings pain.
  • Weiss tearfully tells Gray that she made a horrible mistake. She has clearly come to regret killing Summer and how it destroyed her friendship with Yang. Revenge didn't bring Weiss any satisfaction or joy only more pain.
  • Yang has become so crushed by what has happened that she now believes that the only reason that her family want her back is because they see her as an asset.
• Chapter 79: The Battle of the Grimmlands has ended and everyone is miserable.
  • While Salem's faction are technically the victors, as they have forced Fairy Tail to flee and have gotten both Lucy and Wendy, none of them feel like celebrating.
  • End is heartbroken when he realizes how scared of him Happy truly is and sadly apologizes to him before leaving. End also feels ashamed of his loss of control and, accepting just how broken he truly is he, decides he needs leave to sort out his issues as he is as much a danger to his own side as to Fairy Tail right now.
  • Happy is crushed by Summer's death and while he understands why Weiss did it, he feels anger as well and also understands where Yang and Cinder are coming from.
  • Salem is in tears this chapter and is being forced to realize that it will be impossible for her side to win without using lethal force. She at one point asks End if there is any hope and even if they win will there be nothing left.
• Chapter 80: Fairy Tail picks up the pieces.
  • Erza is unable to use her arms and legs anymore. Erza, one of Fairy Tails strongest and most indomitable members, is virtually helpless now. She doubts that she can lead Fairy Tail anymore and has to get a You Are Better Than You Think You Are Speech from Ruby.
  • Weiss is a mess of self loathing. She fully understands and accepts the consequences of her actions and all the pain she has caused Ruby and Yang and how her selfishness nearly caused her to kill Ruby and drove Yang away. What she finds even more disgusting is that it turns out that she actually does feel some satisfaction at killing Summer. Despite all the pain and the fact that she nearly killed Ruby doing it, she still feels satisfaction, something which she finds completely revolting and causes her to believe that she is a monster until Ruby corrects her by saying she is only being human.
  • Ruby desperately wants to help Yang, but she just doesn't know what to do and doesn't understand her sister. She understands Yang's fury but not why she didn't go with them, and also accepts that time isn't going to help but only make things worse. She tells Blake to try and talk to Yang but if she can't get her to listen then that's that.
  • Salem reluctantly gives the Gates permission to kill Fairy Tail members if they have to. She has clearly given up on reconciling with her old friends. The gloves are coming off its all-out war from this point onward.