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Tear Jerker / Fan Works
aka: Fanfic

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"And without my leg...I...can't do that anymore. My dreams are gone; taken from me so UNFAIRLY."note 

Fan Fiction. We can't ever be sure what is going in our own head when writing them, but if the readers wanted tears, they got their wish.

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  • Paradoxus (Winx Club, World of Warcraft): Since it belongs to the Angst flavor of fanfics, there naturally are quite a few heart-wrenching moments.
    • Daphne telling Galadwen her years as a bodiless spirit doomed to roam Domino's ruins. It was sad enough in canon but it's made worse here as Daphne has to renounce her family a second time to fulfill her duties as a nymph.
    • Trisha and Altalune meeting their deceased mother for the first time after traveling to the past. Trisha gets trapped in a PTSD episode of when Bloom died right there while Altalune runs away in panic and grief.
    • Altalune and Trisha parting ways after the former decided to stay in the past and Set Right What Once Went Wrong in the hopes of providing a better future for her younger sister. It doesn't help Altalune knocks Trisha out so she won't be able to do anything to prevent it. Nor the fact the two stranged sisters were finally starting to mend their broken relationship.
  • The fanfic series has just started, and while it's meant to be a comedy/drama, taking inspiration from King of the Hill, we already have a tearjerking moment in Toon City by Bearquarter2008. This happens before the pilot, with the fic called, A Hero to Look Up To. In this fanfic series, Jimmy looks up to Superman and sees him as his idol, in a similar way to how Tom Holland's Spider-Man looks up to Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and to those who have read "The Death of Superman", where the Man of Steel fights the beast dubbed, "Doomsday", it's hard not to feel bad for Jimmy in this situation.
    • In addition, the series will be exploring Jimmy's mourning for the Man of Steel and why he looks up to him.
    • Even worse, the author has stated he took inspiration from Tom Holland's Spider-Man for Jimmy's characterization in this fanfic series, so if you've seen Far from Home, you know how Jimmy will be coping with the loss.
  • The gigantic Star Wars/Star Trek crossover Unity has quite a few, the most powerful is Seven of Nine being trapped in the Borg hive mind when it reboots unexpectedly early as she tries to shut it down. Back in the real world she sings the ending of Puff the Magic Dragon (which she mentioned a few times as a song her mother always sang to her) and falls into a coma.
  • A combined Tear Jerker and Moment of Awesome occurs during chapter 26 of the Terminator/ Sailor Moon/Ranma ½ crossover fic Tunnel Vision when Ryouga makes a Heroic Sacrifice to take down Skynet. As always though, the Status Quo Is God and the Reset Button is hit hard by the end of the story.
  • An Avengers/Sandman crossover, ''"The Sound of Wings - Aliana Iskassa"''.
  • The Dragon and the Butterfly is a crossover between How to Train Your Dragon and Encanto. While the fic is mostly heartwarming (Hiccup and Toothless are taken in by the Madrigals), it portrays the abuse Hiccup grew up with at the hands of Berk (and Stoick) more realistically, meaning that we get a few moments where Hiccup struggles with self-doubt and other such tendencies to the point that it almost destroys some of his relationships such as when he almost ruins his budding romance with Mirabel. The fact that he carries survivor guilt for leaving his tribe doesn't help (even though Mirabel points out that they were fully prepared to kill Toothless and him).
  • Empatheia's House/Doctor Who crossover As The Crow Flies is intensely emotional without resorting to fan fiction's usual melodrama. It really rings out with a strange, haunting kind of sadness. But it doesn't really become a tearjerker until you realize the Doctor, having been trapped on Earth by the Q - yeah - is going to become House. This doesn't seem so bad until you think about how intensely miserable House has been most of his life. A more blatant one is when House steps off the "magic mountain" and the pain in his leg comes back. This is amplified by the fact that we now know this will be the Doctor's pain someday as well.
    • A somewhat Anvilicious but nonetheless powerful Torchwood/Doctor Who fanfiction, Ashes and Dust, has Jack dreaming of the Doctor abandoning him on Satellite Five, begging him not to leave him behind, an event which is only connected to the story via it's foreshadowing of the Doctor.
  • Brutal Mario has one when Mario kills Mega Man (transformed by Wily) in the stage Wily's Revenge
  • An untitled (but sometimes referred to as The Smeg is Out There) Red Dwarf/The X-Files crossover fic has two touching moments. First, after an alternate version of Kochanski (it makes sense in context) is killed by CSM, Lister finds his apartment and presses a Bazookoid to his head. CSM dares Lister to shoot, but Lister just coldcocks him instead saying (paraphrase) "I've learned a lot today, and it makes me feel better to know that in at least one universe, I did pull the trigger." This is later followed up after our heroes have parted ways (which includes Mulder getting a new tie from Cat, and Scully taking the talking toaster with her) when Rimmer finally reveals the location of Kochanski's personality disc, which would allow Lister to have her back, even though it would mean his own deletion. Lister erases the disc instead.
  • The Mad Scientist Wars has a few of these, most notably in Tales of Madness.
  • The very epic crossover fic between Fate/stay night and The Familiar of Zero named The Hill of Swords has, despite it's incredible moments of funny and awesome, a surprisingly large number of these. Whenever Shirou thinks about Saber and their promise that "[he] will always search, and she will always wait for him for eternity" is bad enough, but there's that one moment where, after having fought off an army of 70,000+ by himself, Shirou dies and arrives at Avalon and sees Saber there. However, just as they are about to embrace, Tiffania resurrects Shirou, dragging him away from the love of his life just as he had met her again for the first time in an eternity.
    "Ah," a soft voice beside me said in surprise. I had tried to move, and found that it was probably a better idea not to do that again. "You're awake," the voice, a quiet girly voice, noted.
    Awake? Was I asleep? The cotton began to clear, and I began trying to remember the last thing I was doing... It struck me. Images, sounds, memories; they came rushing back to me. The battle, my falling, the clearing in the trees I had found myself in...
    No.
    "You're very lucky that I found you," the voice assured me, sounding worried. "You were very close to death when I did."
    No. No. No. No. No.
    "Even while I was treating you, I wasn't certain you'd pull through," the voice continued. "You very nearly didn't."
    No. NO NO NONONONONO!
  • Chapter 8 of The Frozen Heart's Star was absolutely heartbreaking for so many Kirby fans, because Kirby's sacrifice from his frozen heart was very similar to the one in Disney's Frozen, where Anna sacrificed herself to save Elsa when she had her frozen heart, but in this case, it was Kirby who saved his friends... by slowly freezing himself to death. You can tell how sad the protagonist was with this one line:
    Cheyenne: Kirby, son... I loved you from when we first met as a mother-son duo. You helped me up when I started to feel in danger, you would save everyone from anything dangerous, you were a bundle of joy... until you got the Frozen Heart. We did the best of our ability to thaw you out of it, but it was too late now, and you were completely frozen into a statue. Kirby... thank you for everything you got us through, and thank you for being the bundle of joy you are, and most importantly... goodbye, son...
    • If you're a Frozen fan, you will find this scene familiar, but if you're a Kirby fan, you will cry reading this chapter, and we're very sorry for this.
  • The Sailor Moon/Doctor Who one shot The Last Light is, in its entirety, a carefully calculated fusion of Tear Jerker and Fridge Horror.
  • The Lucky Star / Multiple Crossover fic Other Worlds Than These has one in Chapter 15, when Konata chooses to leave the Lucky Star universe... and the actions she takes and people she hurts doing so. Don't worry though, the story has a lovely ending.
  • This Watchmen kinkmeme fill takes the Blair Roche murder, subtracts Grice's two dogs, and adds Dug. The result is... disturbing. The ending manages to be bittersweet, though.
  • In One and Only Son, Euphemia dies, just like in canon, but this time she was killed by Kinue, following orders of Nena Trinity. To see her begging Suzaku and Alexander (Soran) to not hate Lelouch before she dies is pretty sad. Not to mention Saji's freakout when he discovers that it was her sister who killed her.
  • In The Three Kingdoms, a mega crossover fanfic written by Dra2k 4 at DeviantArt where fictional beings and vehicles were transported at the real world in Dec. 21 2012, followed by a war. Then at Dec. 21, 2013, a war in a day happens, this time breaking the law that states for no one to die. Naluri and Sasaki travels back through time, make sure nobody dies or stays dead. They make sure that Doom and Magneto's plans don't work. Then there's the Past Naluri and Sasaki riding the DeLorean to go back through time. Future Naluri and Sasaki died when they stopped the attempt of time travel, in order to prevent overriding any changed in the timeline. In the end they do stop the on going war, but at the cost of two deaths.
  • In Game of Touhou, we have chapter 101. Tojiko, who is dying slowly, has the opportunity of making a Last Stand in the City of Flowers. After slaying Gengetsu, she finally is reunited with Futo. Futo is scarred, barely recognizable due to Gengetsu continuous torture, and dying. However, before dying, they remember their rivalry back then when they were serving Prince Miko and realize that in other times they could be good friends. After Futo expires, Tojiko uses her remaining forces to dig a grave for Futo and for herself, and finally lets herself die.
  • The entirety of the Sailor Moon/Buffy the Vampire Slayer story End of the Line. In an effort to protect their hometown from an apocalypse they'd foreseen, the Sailor Senshi draw magic out of everything fighting to create a barrier around their hometown. Unfortunately, due to survival of the fittest, they draw magic out of everything in the world. Then entire world starts dying, water no longer flows, winds stop blowing, etc. Several Slayers and witches in the New Council die immediately. Xander, Faith, and insane Willow manage to travel to Japan and stop whatever's causing the end of the world. Despite the seeming set-up, no one is portrayed as being villainous. Not that it saves them. Xander, Faith, Willow and all of the Sailor Senshi die tragically. The story ends with the wind returning.
  • The Danganronpa/Fate/stay night one-shot crossover Fate: Trigger Happy IF has Shirou take Makoto's role and when Junko traps Chiaki in the maze during the Tragedy, Shirou follows her and, thanks to Avalon allowing him to bare the brunt of all the damage meant for the Gamer, ends up saving Chiaki's life at the cost of his own. Just like towards the end of the Heaven's Feel route, by the end, Shirou barely able to remember who the grieving Chiaki even is and dies content that he saved her, passing Avalon and his dreams of saving everyone on to her before being welcomed into the afterlife by the Naegis and Kiritsugu.
  • Ultrasonic, a Miraculous Ladybug/Zootopia crossover, takes a depressing turn around Chapters 7 and 8, which, thanks to the How We Got Here approach of those chapters, ends up making earlier chapters even worse. To elaborate: A routine akuma battle ends in tragedy when Adrien is brutally killed and the Black Cat Miraculous is taken. In the aftermath, Marinette becomes obsessed with finding the Butterfly's hideout and avenging her partner. After she starts losing sleep (both due to nightmares and her searching), isolating herself from Alya and her grades start suffering, her parents (not knowing that she's Ladybug) are ready to take her away from Paris for a while to recover. Marinette refuses and runs away to one of the last places she thinks she can find the hideout, the Catacombs of Paris. After several hours of searching, she collapses and breaks down in tears, ready to tell Tikki she's giving up the Miraculous as soon as she de-transforms. It's at this point that she somehow gets transported to Zootopia and transformed into a white cat, with only Tikki for company. One year later, Marinette has gotten in trouble with the ZPD for shoplifting, been in and out of multiple foster homes and, thanks to her repeated late-night visits to the bridge where she first landed, is just one curfew violation away from juvenile detention. It's gotten to the point where Tikki is begging her to let go of what hope she has of finding a way home and try to rebuild her life here before she gets into worse trouble, and occasionally Marinette seems to make an effort, even getting back into drawing. And then the nightmares of Chat Noir's death return.
    • It gets worse when we find out that the Butterfly has somehow followed her to Zootopia and starts akumatising mammals. His first attempt, the eponymous Ultrasonic, ends with Ladybug failing to capture the akuma thanks to Judy's interference, and like what happened to Stoneheart, the akuma multiplies and starts transforming random citizens - including Judy, right in front of Nick. And no one except Chief Bogo believes Marinette about the situation.
  • Lightning Never Strikes Twice uses Takeshi Yamamoto's Alternate Character Interpretation as The Sociopath, who realizes very early he's not a normal boy by any stretch. It's very sombering when a five-years-old boy asks his mother what's wrong with him and wanting nothing more than feel something - even if it is sadness about his mother's passing.
  • A small one from the FoxTrot/Calvin and Hobbes Slash Fic Geniuses, which focuses on Calvin and Jason as college students—at one point, some frat boys who had been hassling Jason start messing with him and Calvin and end up stealing the latter's backpack. Calvin is mostly just angry at them rummaging through his stuff, but noticeably tenses up when the leader opens up the main compartment. That's when he pulls out Hobbes. Calvin's reaction is swift.
    Calvin: (blindly lunging at the frat boy) GIVE HIM BACK!
  • In Harmony Never Really Dies, Kaede's(and by extension, the rest of the class) whole ordeal. They have either been killed or executed for killing in gruesome ways and then suddenly wake up in a brand new world (Dream Land). And while said new world is very peaceful and the residents are very friendly, they are still highly traumatized by what happened to them.
    • Kaede's breakdown. She's finally adjusting to Dream Land and is on the path to forgiving herself for what she did(or rather, what she thinks she did) when her victim, Rantaro, appears. As soon as he reveals the killing game, she breaks down into frantic apologizes and sobbing.
  • In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine / Hetalia: Axis Powers crossover Redacted, Mr Puffin admits to Sisko that Nations weren't spared by the World War Three and its atomic horrors — one of the victims being Sealand. As soon as peace was declared, the Nordics looked for him but never found any traces of survival, leaving Sweden devastated. To make it sadder, Sisko comments on sixty-one years being a young age to die for a regular human, further emphasizing how short-lived Peter was among the Nations.
  • In Delusion, after getting to bond with the Elric brothers over alchemy, Albedo decides he trusts them enough to reveal his true nature as a homonculus — only for the boys to be immediately reminded of Envy and Lust and treat him as a monster. Albedo took a leap of faith and it backfired in the most ugly way possible.

    1- 9 
9
  • The 9 fanfic Fly, Fly Little Wing (it may be helpful to read its prequel), has 4 eventually dying from despair, in 7's arms, after 3 is killed by the Cat Beast. Listen to the song the title was based off, particularly the final couple of lines.
    "[7] sang again, louder now, for it to reach where ever her children played.
    "Mama loves you too.""
    • Adding to the tear-jerking is towards the end, the fact that 1, of all people, suggests praying for 4, and is apparently having trouble speaking himself.
  • Bleak But Hopeful is a fanfic for 9, written before the movie was released and back when people thought the feature film would end in a similar way the short did. It's told sort of through the point of view of the Fabrication Machine (known as 114-DOM in the story) as 9 comes to it and basically talks to it about what has happened.
    • Bleak, But Hopeful is in an archive, and you have to be a member of the forum to access it. But if you want to read the fic without having to register there, here's a PDF file for you.
    • Yet another fic written pre-movie, when everyone was under this belief, is Daybreak's Light. The fic actually begins with 9, all alone, wandering the desolate wasteland in mourning of his friends, and later collapsing in exhaustion. He believes himself to be hallucinating the other Stitchpunks, but is actually dying. The part where he finally dies and is reunited with the others in Paradise manages to give one tears of sadness then happiness within ten seconds.
  • Delirium, a fanfic for 9, has one part where we follow the memory of a little boy shortly before the machine rebellion, and then him as an adult. The transitioning paragraph says this:
    The next thing I remembered was standing at a train station, but I knew I was no longer a kid who tossed snowballs to fight. The noises in the background told me that war was no longer a game. A woman stood in front of me, her eyes shifting from my face to the train not far behind her. The crowd milling around us didn’t matter to me, it barely registered in my memory. This woman had always made sure I wore a jacket when it was wet or cold, reprimanded me when I did something I thought would be a good idea but was really stupid, told me she loved me even when I thought I was too old to hear things like that. My mother did not want to leave me.
  • This 9 one-shot follows 1's last thoughts before he gets his soul sucked out of him. What makes it especially sad is, who is he thinking about? 2. He spends the entire story thinking about 2, "talking" to him as if 2 could hear him, and telling himself he hadn't meant to send 2 out to die, he was hoping he'd come back later but he just couldn't say anything because of pride. It's a simple story, simply-written but it still hurts, especially the last line.

    A 
Ace Attorney
  • The excellent Ace Attorney fanfic Piano Man, in chapter 4. Edgeworth is the victim of an attempted murder by Kristoph Gavin and is gravely injured and about to enter surgery. Phoenix is by his bedside, practically sobbing his eyes out, while Edgey feebly tries to comfort him. That alone is a tearjerker, but then what Phoenix says:
    "I can't keep you involved in this, trying to nail Gavin, trying to get my badge back. This isn't worth it. I'd lose a hundred badges, a thousand, I don't care; they aren't worth anything next to you. ... You're my entire world. You're my heartbeat; you're in the marrow of my bones and under my skin, and—if I lost you—I wouldn't be able to go on."
  • Another excellent fanfiction, Trucy's Daddy, has Trucy Wright dying and Phoenix falling apart in grief and his return to normalcy, realizing that being Trucy's dad was better than being a defense attorney.

The Addams Family

Ah! My Goddess

  • The Grave in the Corner. Keiichi may have wished for Belldandy to stay with him forever, but at the end of the day, he was still mortal.

The Amazing Digital Circus

  • The "Confession Booth" series. In order to help the performers, Pomni and Caine set up a "confession booth" where they can freely air out their grievances without any problem, even avoiding the Magical Profanity Filter. At first the confessions are kind of funny (like Gangle yelling that she loves The Twilight Saga, Ragatha admitting she lied about liking Pomni's cooking, Kinger mistaking his own floating hands for some kind of stalker and Jax just swearing up a storm), but we quickly see our heroes' insecurities thrown to the forefront...
    • Gangle admits to having terrible self-esteem, thinking of herself as weird and wondering if she'd ever be taken seriously had she not ended up in the Circus.
      Gangle: Why can't I be normal?!
    • Ragatha's status as a Stepford Smiler and the Team Mom is heavily deconstructed here, with her fearing she'll reach her breaking point if she ever lets herself be sad and noting that, despite everyone constantly coming to her for comfort, she's always overlooked and ignored whenever she needs help.
      Ragatha: I'm so sorry for wasting your air.
    • Zooble's perfectionism is also deconstructed, as they vent that they sometimes look at their various, mismatched parts and have the urge to break them, believing that no matter who they end up being, they'll "always be a fuck up".
      Zooble: Can't I just be a person!?
    • Jax is at first content with just using the booth as his own personal swearing room, even calling it "heaven"... only to get a look at his paws and be reminded that he's still stuck in the circus and still trapped in the form of "a dumb rabbit", so it's little more than a Gilded Cage. He ends his segment angrily banging on the wall.
      Jax: I'll never get out of here!
    • And Kinger just... sits there. Staring out into space.
      Kinger: ...
    • The ending is both this and a Heartwarming Moment. Gangle and Zooble help each other by bonding together, while Ragatha, having finally aired her concerns, finally manages to let herself cry and say "no" when Pomni asks her if she's okay, prompting Pomni to give her a hug.

Animal Crossing

  • Animal Crossing Adventures:
    • The fact that Roll got abandoned by her mother and she was not noticed by the orphanage. This is brought up again in later arcs such as the Mother's Day Blues arc.
    • This abandonment is made even worse in the Mother's Day Blues arc, where Roll reveals that when her father left, her old mother accused her of causing this and neglected Roll, to the point where, at the age of three when Roll asked her mother on how to be accepted by her, Roll was tossed in the trash by her mother, even being told that she will always be trash. She was then found, and her mother was arrested.
    • The orphanage is brought up again in the New Change story arc, where the reader is introduced to Cream and Kalinka. After some time in the orphanage, the headmaster and her "minions" get arrested, causing the orphanage to be set for destruction. Three girls that were bullying Cream prior to the headmaster's arrest then apologize for bullying Cream, with the second girl revealing that she was jealous because Cream was smart, and the third girl reveals that she always attempted to take Cream's glasses was because she liked them. Cream forgives the three girls.
    • In the Befriending Sable arc, the explanation on how the Able Sisters lost their parents. This is particularly more crushing when you find that the story comes from the first three Animal Crossing games.
    • The Public Works Projects arc goes downhill with a triple argument, to the point that almost every villager in Animal Town argues with one another, until Roll puts a stop to this.
    • The journal entries that Marshal has in the Mr Grump arc. Then it goes From Bad to Worse: When Roll gets Bunnie to go to her house where Marshal is, Bunnie admits to Marshal that she was responsible for making Charlotte, a human girl, leave Castle, the town where Bunnie and Marshal came from, when Charlotte ended the friendship between her and Bunnie when Bunnie was going to host Charlotte's birthday party, even to the point where Charlotte turned away from Bunnie. What she says next when Marshal says that he can't believe it makes it even worse.
      "Believe it," said Bunnie, "She even told me that she had changed and that she realized that she couldn't live her life anymore in Animal Town. She had a real life to live and being there was only holding her back. We...were holding her back. Then she asked me to leave. I started at her, my hurt turned into anger. I just panted as tears streamed down my face. I said to her...You're a liar, a phony...a fraud...THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE! HOW CAN YOU DO A THING LIKE THIS! MAKE US FEEL LIKE THE MOST VALUABLE FRIENDSHIPS YOU'VE EVER HAD AND THEN TOSS IT INTO THE GARBAGE LIKE SOME SORT OF VIDEO GAME CONSOLE THAT DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE! YOU'RE AN INHUMAN MONSTER...she cut me off, glared at me fiercely...she screamed at me to get out and then turned around and gave me the same cold shoulder she had been giving me that day. I just looked at her bitterly and I told her...don't ever come back and...and...I HATE YOU!" Bunnie's composture crumbled as she broke down and began to weep as she buried her face into her hands.
      "Afterward, I didn't bother to show up for the party," said Bunnie once she had calmed down a bit, "I was too hurt and too angry."
    • After that point, Bunnie wailing at the top of her lungs when Marshal tells her that Marshal told Charlotte and she was the greatest friend he ever had and that he loved her, and Charlotte dashed away. This escalates to the point where Bunnie continues crying with no more tears left.
    • The entire fact that the above two events are actually an interpretation on what happens when a player does not turn on their Animal Crossing game for a long time. One can imagine how their closest villagers feel when that happens...
    • The entire Mother's Day Blues arc, from the previously mentioned abandonment of Roll, and Roll confronting her old mother at the jail.
    • The The Island arc. Think of it as the Public Works Projects arc but with two separate halves; the first half being that Isabelle is forced on a vacation after she overworks herself and yells at Roll a lot, and the second half being that Bunnie finds out that Rosie is dating Marshal. This results in Isabelle and Bunnie becoming roommates when both realize what they have to go through. Then, there is the part where Bunnie snaps at Marshal for dating Rosie. It goes From Bad to Worse; When Bunnie and Isabelle hit Roll's Berserk Button at the Dolphin Escape restaurant, Roll outright tells Isabelle that she is fired when Isabelle insults Roll, a fight ensues, and Rosie reveals to Bunnie that Marshal and Rosie broke up, causing Rosie to scold Bunnie for it. THEN the previously mentioned Charlotte-telling-Bunnie-that-the-friendship-is-over thing is brought up again. But then things get better in Bunnie's case with a heartwarming moment, but in Isabelle's case, Isabelle has a meltdown, but is soon calmed down by the majority of the characters, Roll included.
    • During the events of the Fashionista arc, when Roll invites Gracie for dinner and has to go through the entire process of explaining the abandonment again, Gracie reveals to Roll that after she was arrested at the age of seventeen, her parents told Gracie that they were going to send her to a military camp. Then she ran away from home and took the bus to the nearest city. She then had a job as fashion, only to be fired by her old boss when her old boss got jealous of the first design Gracie posted. Her old boss died, and Gracie proceeded to race to her house to tell her parents about her fashion...only to find out that her parents went on a train to see one of Gracie's fashion shows, but the train derailed and Gracie's parents died.
    • The Roll’s Birthday arc includes Roll wanting to write a letter to her old mother...but the letter is returned, and Isabelle has to break the news to Roll that her old mother is dead. Regardless of what Roll had to go through, it is still heartbreaking nevertheless.
    • The Valentine Romance arc. It is all too crushing to see Rosie run from Roll due to a misunderstanding. It is revealed that Rosie has a crush on Benjamin. Benjamin even feels bad for what happened to Roll. But on the plus side, Bunnie agrees to marry Marshal, and everything works out.
    • The Adjustments arc involves Roll and Kalinka running for mayor. When Kalinka wins, Roll realizes that she was not voted at all and runs off. Of course, Kalinka has a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
    • On April 1st, 2020, a user by the name of Glacierglass0415 left a comment stating that sadly, the author, Master Mr B, had passed away due to heart failure. This left the Turnabout Crossing arc unfinished on its second part, as well as putting a halt to a reboot he planned due to the announcement of New Horizons.
  • Through A Villager's Eyes:
    • Nat's backstory. Originally, Nat was going to tell this backstory to Gala, but after helping Blaire after she falls into the river, Nat decides to go ahead and explain the entire backstory. According to Nat's backstory, Nat originally had someone who he thought was the nicest guy (of course Nat would not name him), but one day, after two months, the person's personality took a downfall to the point of being possessive and bitter, eventually going out of control, so Nat confronted the person, and he flipped out on Nat and his mother, insulting Nat and his mother by saying that they were lazy and selfish (to which Blaire takes offense and questioning on what drives a person to barbaric extremes) and then the person simply never came back, causing Nat to distance himself from others and remain in his comfort zone, up until the events of the first chapter.
    • When Yuka leaves town, Nat lets her go. When it is time for Yuka to move, Nat is given Yuka's pic in a similar way as the pics were obtained from a villager with high happiness when they move away, with the only difference being that Yuka gives Nat her pic physically as opposed to sending it in the mail.
  • Mayor's True Love
    • The first chapter has the entire town going to complete hell due to the unnamed cruel mayor being mean to everyone and bossing them around to the point that they move and ordering Isabelle to work nonstop. This once-thriving town of Brinster soon turns into a wasteland of near extinction. Luckily, the second chapter has an unnamed traveler completely restoring the entire town due to using saplings and flowers that he takes as souvenirs. This leads to the traveler becoming the new mayor, and soon every shop becomes open once again, and villagers begin to come back. This joy is short-lived in chapter 5, when the cruel mayor tries to take the chair of mayor again, but the new mayor puts a stop to his plans and kills the cruel mayor, leading to a happy ending in chapter 7.

Animaniacs

  • Family. It's a telling of the Warners' origins, and it really is full of moving moments. For example, there's the moment that the Warners' mother dies from drug and alcohol abuse, and Yakko has to try and explain to his siblings why she isn't there anymore. To make matters worse, the siblings' father is a con artist and doesn't want anything to do with the kids. Then there's the part where Yakko and Wakko are put in a home and seperated from Dot after being caught stealing in an attempt to help their father. And then there's the saddening death of Yakko's mentor.

Artemis Fowl

  • The Artemis Fowl fanfic "The Sword of God": the part about how Butler died.
Attack on Titan
  • Eren's death in the show was already sad but somebody made a short amv, which makes the whole t'ing more heartrending than what the anime shows. The music and Armin's cries especially don't help.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

  • Guide Me Home. It can be found here.
    • Thanks to identifiable Mommy Issues, Azula shouts "You left me! Everyone left me! Everyone, but you most of all! You left me, Mom! You left me!"
    • Ursa and Zuko are reunited, finally, after seven years and way too much suffering.
    • Ursa's Heroic BSoD after finding Zuko's wanted poster also qualifies.
  • In The Chong Sheng Trilogy, the story's second installment has a few of them:
    • Jet's death, which results in Katara getting her berserk on, and then going into a full-blown Heroic BSoD once she realizes what she just did.
    • Zuko's final showdown with Ozai.
    • The author's OC Shen Lei confessing his involvement in Lu Ten's death. To Iroh's face.
    • Pakku's death and the beginning of the third installment. His last words to Katara are "I'll say hello to her for you."

    B 
The Baby-Sitters Club
  • The excellent fanfic When Forever Wasn’t Enough. There are a few chapters that can get you misty-eyed if you have ever gone through what most of these girls have, if only because of how true they are (such as Claudia’s insecurity about not getting high enough grades, or Abby realizing she’s gay and has a crush on Kristy)... but the moment that really gets the waterworks going? The suicide of Stacey, the chapters depicting the aftermath of it, and the chapters leading up to it, especially the chapter featuring said character right before their last chapter, where they display a warning sign for suicide (namely, giving away prized possessions). And then in the chapter featuring the suicide itself... apart from painfully illustrating the inner thoughts of the character as they are about to end their life, there are two songs featured which the character listens to as they die and go through their inner thoughts: "The Freshmen", and "Come Home Soon".

Batman

  • Chapter 10 of Batman Begins/Dark Knight fic Fear and Malice is actually painful to read. Beautiful, but holy crap. You've got a severely ill, scared little boy whose one desire is for his mother to visit him—after the woman ran off with a shiny new husband, mind you. She comes reluctantly at his father's request, refuses to comfort the kid, and is threatening to leave when her son nervously asks for a goodbye kiss. The response?
    "I hate you, can't you understand that? I hate you. I can barely stand the sight of you, you filthy, disgusting little—it's a wonder your grandmother lets you live in the house." She paused, glaring steadily at him. "Do you think I even wanted you? You ruined me, you destroyed my reputation—no one wants an ugly, overweight whore who's tied down to a little freak with mental problems. You have no idea how lucky I am to have found Nathan—he loves me no matter what—
    I love y—
    Don't," she hissed, pointing a threatening finger at him. "Don't you dare say that to me.
And believe it or not, things still manage to get worse. Is it any great wonder Jonathan Crane became the Scarecrow?

Black Lagoon

  • Diamond Eyes is one where Rock is killed and Revy survives...and now she's trying to kill herself with booze. The last line, "I don't want to miss him any more!" shows just how much pain she's in and how little she knows how to handle it.

Bleach

  • The Bleach fanfic The Night After has one in Chapter 16 where Gin, mortally wounded and having betrayed Aizen, carries Rangiku away to a secret location so that she will be with him as he dies. The scene is...M rated, let's say, but still very sad.
  • The Penultimate chapter of Bleach Fanfic entitled Bleach: Gift of our Fathers: Ichigo and Rukia are both trapped under the rubble of a destroyed building after defeating a demon-possessed Orihime, they both pretty much know they're about to die, so Rukia does the only think she can: she cuddles up to an unconscious Ichigo and mutters her last words, "Sleep... keep your strength... when you wake up... you will be somewhere better...I will find you again..." Ichigo proceeds to wake up and unknown amount of time later and finds a dead Rukia lying on his chest. After that, he snuffs it roughly a paragraph later, and then Yoruichi discovers their dead bodies.

BoJack Horseman

  • We get Clarity a short, simple, but rather tragic fic concerning an elderly Beatrice, during the one of the few bouts of clarity, remembering how she lived her life and feeling remorse at how things turned out but more at how she'll never be able to tell BoJack sorry.
    She is so, so sorry. She’s struck with fear, suddenly, that she will die without telling him. BoJack will never know that it wasn’t his fault. That he’ll be convinced, for the rest of his life, that he’s broken in the way she is. The way she told him he was.

Bridge to Terabithia

  • A Life Rescued sounds in the summary like your average Peggy Sue fic, but it is actually very different and somewhat more realistic. Instead of Jesse's soul or physical body being sent back in time, it is only a thought. Specifically, a few words which will hopefully lead to Leslie's life being saved. In the past, younger Jesse suddenly gets sick just before leaving with Ms. Edmond's for the Portrait Gallery just after uttering the phrase that had been sent to him by his future self. This results in the trip being cancelled, and Jesse going with Leslie to Terabithia, therefore being present when she falls in and able to save her. If the scene of Jesse frantically giving Leslie mouth-to-mouth isn't bad enough, later on, when Leslie and Jesse are in the hospital, Bill Burke informs his wife that he'd tried to get Jess to let him take over resuscitating Leslie but he wouldn't let him, and all while he kept muttering a single phrase under his breath, presumably the phrase sent back in time. What is the phrase? "Can Leslie come with us?"
    • In that same chapter, there's this exchange between Leslie and her father:
      Leslie: Did you say Jess saved me?
      Bill: Yes, he did. He's a very good friend.
      Leslie: *mutters something unintelligible*
      Bill: What was that, Les?
      Leslie: Love 'im.
      Bill: Yes, I know.

Buffyverse

  • Virtual Mutant, a website hosting many spin-off series in the Buffyverse and continuations. At the end of Buffy Season 8, Dawn is killed, as the Big Bad has taken over her body. It's heart-wrenching to read.
    • Oh, and Anya's Heroic Sacrifice in "The Offering". Especially how Xander keeps talking before he realises she's dead. Ow.
    • And, Willow's speech to Kennedy's Grave in "Buried", finally admitting she truly did love Kennedy, but never really told her because it felt like a betrayal to Tara - and now it's too late
  • In Faith: The Series, when Jonathan (who's dating Willow) shows up early to a meeting at Willow's house walks in on her and Amy making out. When he runs away, he runs right into Angelus and Spike who beat him to death.
  • In the final chapter of Echoes of the Fallen, Buffy dies fighting Glory, causing Xander (who's dating Buffy in this story) to awaken Magneto's powers and brutally kill Glory. The final scene of the story is Xander talking to Buffy's grave about how he's leaving Sunnydale because he can't stand the place without her in it.

    C 

Caillou

  • Emergency is based off the theory of Caillou having cancer and focuses on Boris trying to make Caillou happy before he dies and Doris feeling concerned about paying their debt.

Calvin and Hobbes

  • Pouncing Mistake. Basically, Hobbes is real and he accidentally sends Calvin to the hospital after one of his pounces.
  • The unofficial theme song, "My tiger, my heart":
    As sweet as a plum, as lovely as dawn, rolling its tongue over its gums:
    My tiger and me, as happy as could be, sat out on the porch as the whole of the sky clouds quietly over.
    And it starts to cry, softly, on my shoulder.
    We don't want to grow up, but we have to grow up. As sad as I am, I do understand. I do understand, it just makes me sad.
    My tiger, my heart — We're growing apart. We're trying to be friends, but it's hard sometimes to be friends with something that eats butterflies and pencil sharpeners, and I think it would be happier being free...
    My tiger, my friend, my little godsend. I know someday we'll be happy again.
  • This unofficial comic that involves Calvin taking pills that make him more academic, but also gives him a Lack of Imagination and Hobbes turns back into a plushie.
  • In A Special Place to Meet, Calvin as a teenager dies in a car crash.
  • In Let's Go Exploring!, Calvin (as an adult, but still) commits suicide-by-hypothermia.

Care Bears

Cardcaptor Sakura

Frozen even implies Sayoran is Driven to Suicide!

Carl²

  • The songfic Left Behind by Verizion Kittypet. Poor C2.

Case Closed

Channel Awesome

  • That Guy with the Glasses in Space is a TGWTG Dark Fic with a lot of gore and a lot of Tear Jerker moments, but the clincher is this bit between That Chick With The Goggles and Chester A. Bum:
    "Urgh!" she yelled and turned down to kick it away. Sheer shock registered on her face for the second time, "Chester?!"
    "Ya got change?!" the bum said eagerly.
    "Chester, don't you recognize me? It's me, Goggles! And you're..."
    (A bloody heap of bodies - or body parts - at her feet, blood spattering her clothes and hands. All she felt was the quickly-cooling blood on her face. The killing didn't even hurt her anymore.)
    "...you're dead"
    The image vanished and Goggles was left gaping.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

  • Cell Block F by the Island Hopper: Taking place after the 2005 movie, we find that not everything ended going as one had hoped for — especially for Charlie and Wonka in particular, as the latter lost everything thanks to jealous rivals...

Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars

  • Not complete without mentioning another Tear Jerker in Tiberium Wars. Specifically, the suicidal Zone Trooper charge at the end of Chapter 15.

Coraline

  • The Coraline fanfic Right Beside You has two moments: where Coraline tells off Wybie and then, after he lets her, she realizes that, without him, she has no friends and in the last chapter where the Beldam kills Wybie. Yeah, the Beldam kills Wybie! It turns out that it was a Disney Death, but that doesn't make it less heartwrenching.

    D 
Danny Phantom
  • Song Shots: First sad tears, then they turn to happy tears.
  • The moment in the Danny Phantom fic Ghosts in the Closet when you realize what happened to Danny. This being a major part of the driving mystery behind the story, finding out that he used his ghost powers to save a kid, despite knowing full well he'd be hauled in for government experiments or even killed for doing so was stunning, and really fit in with the overall tone of the story.
    Think he'll save that kid?
    Damn straight he will.
  • Any part of Phantom of Truth and it's companion pieces that isn't terrifying is easily this trope. Perhaps best summed up by Danny in chapter 9:
    Danny: "I was stupid, thinking you couldn't be like that... Why did it have to be you? Not some GIW crony, not a ghost, not some random sicko. It had to be Maddie Fenton. It had to be...mom..."

Danganronpa

  • "Danganronpa Survivor AU", an Alternate Universe fanedit that depicts Monokuma deciding to gather all the characters who survived the previous Deadly Games and pit them against each other in one last one. Everyone is understandably on edge—poor Himiko in particular breaks down crying immediately, sobbing "I can't do this again!"—and the edit ends with Makoto being found guilty for killing Yasuhiro and getting executed.
  • Doubling as Nightmare Fuel, this fanmade execution for Rantaro, "The Twelve Strikes to Midnight". Not satisfied with merely punishing Rantaro, Monokuma decides to torment him by dragging his twelve sisters into the mix—Rantaro is trapped in a glass chamber at the center of a giant clock with his sisters each representing the 12 numbers within. The clock's hand then starts swiping through, killing Rantaro's sisters one by one and forcing him to watch. He desperately tries to break out to save them, injuring himself in the process, and by the time he does only the youngest is left. He reaches out for her to ty and get her out...only for the clock's hand to kill her right when they're about to do so. Rantaro silently begins to cry right before a giant cuckoo clock opens up and impales him. Several commenters have pointed out that this is quite possibly one of the cruelest executions that a Danganronpa character could possibly go through.

Daria

  • Daria Fan Fic definitely loves this trope. Two good examples are in Doggieboy's 'A Little Vacation' , when Daria and the man she's falling for spend their last few moments together before the Ringbearers modify their memories and then reset the timeline so that they never met, and their experiences together never happened. Even more heartbreaking; in The Angst Guy's 'Winter In Hell' , Sandi and Quinn think they see a small white flash and think that it's Fluffy, Sandi's cat who ran off and got lost when her Jerkass brothers deliberately let the cat out. They find that it's a scrap of white paper blowing along the road. A fic that is both Tear Jerker and Heartwarming from beginning to end is Richard Lobinske's 'A Home At Summer's End' (from his excellent Post Canon series Falling Into College), where we see how the character of Bump, a homeless kitten, becomes Daria's pet.

Death Note

  • The Death Note fandom has a couple of pieces by Serria. "The Golden Son, Light" is about Light's depression prior to the series, through his mother's eyes, and at the end, she relaxes, but the reader knows why Light seems all right: He's decided to be Kira. But that moment's got nothing on "It Rains On The Living", when Sachiko attends Light's funeral and considers the wreck of her family. Basically, take Mama Bear rage and make it useless and impotent, and then add the bitterness of having lost everything. It really rubs your nose in the easily-overlooked fact that at the end of the series this woman has been through the death of her husband, the death of her son and the kidnapping and insanity of her daughter. What's she got left?
  • The same fandom has Bialy's pieces about several of the Wammy's boys. A couple standouts are "Evangelos" and "Where The Heart Is." The first is a brief, lyrical piece about seven halfway decent moments in Mello's life - the author calls it 'Mello in seven kisses' - and it's a heartwrenching examination of how he became who he is. In the second, Matt is searching for Mello, and he stops by Wammy's House to find his records. One-line character Linda meets him there, and thinks about him, and thinks about Mello, and thinks about how much Matt changed from the last time she saw him. And at the end, she discovers what became of them at the end of the series, and because she's a painter, she resolves to use that to tell their story. The whole idea that maybe they weren't completely gone...
  • The Death Note fanfic Daddy Eyes, especially the last line.

D.Gray-Man

  • In this AU D.Gray-Man fanfiction Of Gangsters and Willow trees, Kanda is a gangster who happened to stumble upon the dying boy Allen. A strange friendship is struck up and Kanda often goes to the hospital to visit him. Allen wistfully wishes to die under a nearby willow tree, as anywhere else is better than dying in the hospital. Then, at the end of the story, when Kanda tried to get out of his gang, they turned on him, badly injuring him and he dragged himself to the willow tree. His last thoughts (and the story's last words), as he laid dying under the tree, was:
    I'll have to apologize to Moyashi; I stole his freakin' death bed.

Digimon

  • This AU Digimon fanfiction that involves one of the characters on a plane flying back home from America...on 9/11.
  • Final Hope, another Digimon fanfiction, qualifies. It deals a lot with Hikari and Takeru, and at one point both of them seem to die, and the news reports it, and the chapter that follows, with the parents and other kids learning what has happened or reacting to the news is wrenching.
  • Challenge of Fatherhood, another Digimon fanfiction. The main idea of the story is based on the fact that Gatomon dies right after giving birth to the daughter of her and Patamon. Not only is Patamon left completely devastated, but he also has to take care of an infant on his own. Not to mention, it seems that every major original character in this fic has more or less tragic backstory. Especially the backstory of Neko, how BOTH OF his parents were killed when he was a baby, how they never came back so he had to grow up as an orphan, and later on how he was apparently destined to die.
  • One fic that ends in a tear jerker where the Digimon had to go back to the Digital World just like in Digimon Tamers. Except the Digidestined seemed like completely built to be woobies - these included a wheelchair-bound ill boy, a social outcast who was bullied relentlessly, a kid with a fiery temper, a foster kid with Abusive Parents, another girl with only one parent...so essentially, the Digidestined were saying goodbye to their only friends. Well, there was at least themselves.
  • I Will Never Leave You is about Ken being depressed....because Wormmon has died for the second time. Wormmon’s second death is as heartbreaking as the first, as he sacrifices himself to stop Demon. His last words?
    "Ken-chan..."
    "GranKuwagamon?"
    "The evil is gone...you are safe now..."
    "GranKuwagamon...don't go...please..."
    "Don't be sad... remember our promise...we will meet again..."
    "GranKuwagamon! WORMMON!"
    GranKuwagamon - no, Wormmon - had died in front of him for the second time in his life. He had broken down when that happened. Everyone tried to comfort him. Tried to convince him that Wormmon would return to the Village of Beginnings. But he never did. Ken knew that he wouldn't. Fate was against him and had refused to give him a third chance at happiness.
  • But, Just Why? has Ken being killed and his parents (who have now outlived both of their children) mourn his death along with the other Digidestined. How did he die? He was made to jump off a bridge, not by a villainous Digimon or another bad guy, but by KEN ICHIJOUJI HIMSELF.
  • Destiny is a fanfic about Juri/Jeri, who in her own show was ALREADY the biggest Woobie in the entire main cast, being the only survivor of a car crash that kills her father, stepmother, and half-brother. She has flashbacks to both her birth mother’s and Leomon’s deaths in the original series, and attempts to kill herself.

Disney

  • In this Disney fanfiction, Mickey gets to see Walt Disney again during some sort of timey-wimey situation...which was tear tugging enough, but it was trumped a few chapters later by the revelation of the identity of a mysterious benefactor: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character Disney lost the rights to and on whom Mickey himself was based.
    • There is a moment in this fic where Mickey and his friends hear Disneyland itself wail in anguish as Walt dies. Imagine for a second that you had to re-kill your father in order to save everything else. And for those of us who have always suspected that the Disney Parks are alive in some way to have to read about Disneyland screaming for its father...

Doctor Who

  • Think Reinette's death was depressing in "The Girl in the Fireplace"? Try reading it from the Doctor's perspective if the alternate telling fanfic On the Slow Path, or Two and a Half Centuries in Two and a Half Days as he ponders the ways in which he could, actually, if he really tried, save her - but can't because that would change history. Or how about earlier, as she's explaining to him about the castle she wants to have built - and he can't tell her she'll never see it completed.
    He could do it, tell her what's going to happen. That she'll never see the palace built, that she'll be dead in a couple years. That little Louis-Auguste, who was sailing one of his toy boats around the fountain yesterday, is going to see the monarchy destroyed. That his future wife is a vapid but charming Austrian countess who once gave the Doctor a first-rate set of lock picks in the very castle that Reinette hopes to have built. And that they are going to be executed in a public square, which he knows, because he stood and watched.
  • An alt.drwho.creative regular named B.K. Willis wrote an excellent series of mostly-hilarious stories where a psychotic Nyssa kept killing off Adric in various violent ways, while he kept working his way through all of the death-associated red tape and popping back up over and over again. In one particular story called "Friendly Hopes," Adric had been having the bad day to end all bad days and, after his latest death, seriously considered permanently passing on to the afterlife. Definitely a three-Kleenex moment.
  • The Ninth Doctor story Of More Value Than Many Sparrows. Even if you're ambivalent about the event itself, the Wham Line just tears your guts out as you realize they're about to watch the Twin Towers fall.
    Doctor: Stay here, Rose. Listen to me. It's not the future yet, but the future is coming. Can you feel it? The world turning under your feet. You can almost hear it. But listen to me, listen to my voice. Don't look up. Look around you.

Doki Doki Literature Club!

Dragon Ball

  • Waken, a Frieza-centered story by Vickychan It really says something when you fell sorry for Frieza. The worst part is not so much how it ends, but when it ends, for he's going to earth, and we all know what happened there...

    E 
Eddsworld

    F 
The Familiar of Zero

Final Fantasy

  • The Final Fantasy IX fanfic "Go Not Gently".
  • Summoning Courage, a Final Fantasy X fanfic featuring a very uncommon pairing (Baralai/Isaaru). It's not so much the first three chapters, but the last one.
  • Handle With Care and its sequel Mislabelled are a pair of Final Fantasy VII fics that manage to be both mind-bendingly hilarious and gut-wrenchingly sad. In this fic, instead of burning down Nibelheim, Sephiroth destroyed Jenova and in doing so basically gave himself a psychic lobotomy. Severely brain-damaged and mentally ill, one day he mistakes a small trooper (Cloud Strife) for a chocobo toy. Although both stories are generally sweet and heartwarming, they are peppered with many heartbreaking scenes (Sephiroth confronting Genesis and Angeal after they abandoned him, Cloud's desperation during Sephiroth's freak out in the sequel, the interlude with Genesis telling Angeal why he left in the first place), the sequel takes the cake when Cloud is kidnapped. Sephiroth's breakdown without Cloud there to help him through day-to-day life is HEARTBREAKING and then when Cloud is rescued he gets the courage to finally ask if Cloud is really a toy. And that's not even looking at the alternate ending to the sequel, where Cloud is killed before Sephiroth can rescue him and Sephiroth kills himself because he can't face life without Cloud. At least they can be together in the Lifestream - only NOT, because Cloud is absorbed into it and Sephiroth is not, leaving him alone and waiting forever for any tiny bits of Cloud that remain...

Firefly

  • Everything Burns. Basic premise: Serenity's crew didn't make it back in time to save the Tams during "Safe".

First Encounter Assault Recon

  • Tabula Rasa is a First Encounter Assault Recon fic taking place in a AU post Project Origin. After getting some new team members, one of which is Alma Wade, the FEAR teams see videos and listen to audio recordings concerning Alma as a child. You know that she is a monster in-game, but to see evidence that Alma was a child (She wanted to be a singer!) makes you feel much more pity for her.
    • The Video and Audio logs include Alma's first word ("Papa!") which is quickly followed by "Help," which causes a young Harlan genuine horror. Then he describes Alma's nightmares, how the room shakes as she screams, how she is suffering, and how he wants to study her abilities to let her sleep peacefully. Then it cuts away to a light conversation with Alma in the car about how she wants to be a singer and a good mother and fix the world. Little did he know, Alma did more than that. She took it to an entirely new level.

Frozen

  • The Firebird: In this fanfic, the reason why the Firebird aka Prince Hans of the Southern Isles came to hate Christmas as an adult stemmed from a particularly notorious childhood incident. When Hans was a child, he loathed spending time with his entire family, as they often ridiculed him for being the youngest of 13 sons and the most forgettable of the large Westergaard clan, and even a brief amount of time often ended with him being the family's laughing stock, frequently at his expense. While his father lavishly showered his mother and older brothers with expensive gifts at Christmastime, Hans only got a box of cookies. Thinking it was something edible, Hans, in a combination of his childish naivete and the sheer joy of receiving a gift from his distant family, ate them, blindly unaware this was in fact another really cruel prank set up by his brothers, this time tricking him into eating dog food. To twist the knife even further, everyone, even his own parents burst into laughter, causing Hans to tearfully storm out of the room. Lars, the only one of Hans' 13 brothers who treated him with kindness, was unable to stop the torment out of fear that he'll be rebuked by his parents and brothers for standing up for Hans, but Hans felt betrayed, feeling that Lars could have stopped the abuse. However, Lars did in fact despise his brothers for pulling such a nasty prank, but was unable to intervene. Though after being transformed into the Firebird, it took an effort by Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff to finally convince him to join the Christmas celebrations. Plus, while he will never forget this incident, Hans met with genuinely good people who became lifelong friends and managed to avoid sinking further into despair.

Fullmetal Alchemist

  • The Fullmetal Alchemist oneshot Passing Hands is definitely a tear jerker (and twice as much for dog lovers).
  • Sun and Moon Collide makes the already tear jerking death of Maes Hughes even worse by having his widow Gracie die just ONE YEAR LATER, meaning Elysia (now a full orphan) and her adoptive older sister Arianna having to be adopted by Roy. We see the two girls at the grave of their mother, who was buried next to their father, with Elysia crying.

    G 
Gargoyles
  • There's a lot that's sad in Merlin Missy's Gargoyles series "Consequences" but Delilah's Heroic Sacrifice is absolutely heartwrenching, both in the thing itself and in the reactions from the whole cast.

Genshin Impact

  • Gemini Impact has two startingly heartbreaking Interludes:
    • Kujou Sara hanging on her Undying Loyalty to the Shogun and the Vision Hunt Decree in spite of knowing people losing their Visions will gradually lose themselves until they're nothing but Empty Shell, to the point that committing suicide is widespread among them. To make it worse, she's thinking about that because she's spending the afternoon with Arataki Itto whose Vision has been taken, and the Oni admits he's starting to show symptoms. In spite of Sara's internal reassurance that Itto won't be that affected because he's already quite simple-minded, she ultimately loses it when the Oni is unable to remember something she told him barely three days ago.
    • Nahida accidentally wanders in Aether's dream, and the Traveler offers to let her relive his memory of the fight against Osial. She first hesitates but decides to accept because she's currently under house arrest and that might be her only opportunity to have an adventure — and Aether is so infuriated to hear her mention her imprisonment so casually, "something that is" while the prospect of freedom is "something that isn't", that he decides to run to Sumeru when Inazuma won't be such a mess anymore.
  • Powdered Snow and Ground Chalk is from Albedo's viewpoint as he gets buried in an avalanche and naturally freaks over the possibility to not be rescued — only for it to happen, and the self-loathing homonculus is left baffled at the very idea of somebody worrying enough to do that. That plus the fact he berates himself for sobbing from shock after being stuck in the cold and the dark for so long point at his head not being a nice place to live...
    • Since the story is written from Albedo's viewpoint, Sucrose and Kaeya's emotions are just a glimpse yet it's enough to show they are devastated as they recover what they believe to be the Alchemist's corpse, wondering how they are supposed to tell sweet little Klee that her big brother won't get to play with her anymore.

The Ghost and Molly McGee

  • An Unpleasant Surprise, Molly's reunion with a old friend, Ashley Harris, from Dayton ends sour once she disapproves of her relationship with Libby. Two end up fighting over it until Molly finally gives up on her, ending their friendship. Molly ends up heartbroken over it once the reality of it sinks in. Scratch only makes it worse by asking why she's letting it get to her. Molly gives a saddened "she was my friend" before finally bursting out in tears.

Ghostbusters

  • In I'll Be Your Mirror, Egon thinks to himself about wanting to die and become one of the stars.
  • Your Brother ends with Egon's brother learning that he's dead.
  • In Sick Day, all the Ghostbusters are sick, and it's sad seeing them in such bad shape. Venkman isn't saying anything funny, Egon can't do experiments, and Ray isn't his usual cheerful self.

Glee

Glitch

Good Omens

  • The Sacred and the Profane pretty much exists to be this. The ending is the worst part for reducing readers to a sobbing wreck, but there's plenty of other bits to help.
  • Pray for Us, Icarus spends most of its running length being one heartwrenchingly sad moment after another with a human Crowley being unable to remember Aziraphale and Aziraphale being so emotionally devastated by his multiple tragic relationships with Crowley's past reincarnations that he keeps pushing Crowley away much to Crowley's utter confusion and sadness. Things gradually get better in later parts, but even the final part has shoot-you-right-in-the-heart moments like Aziraphale's self-loathing thoughts on how "it was always the things he loved best that he managed to destroy".
  • Manchester Lost is a hilariously funny Good Omens fanfiction, full of ridiculously awesome moments, moments that will reduce the reader to a helpless, gasping ball of mirth, and moments that will make you squee. However, there are quite a few heartwrenching moments in it as well, particularly the deaths of Aziraphale and Crowley. Sure, they get better, but Raphael and Crowley's reaction to Aziraphale's Heroic Sacrifice, Crowley's resigned acceptance of his own death, and Aziraphale's reaction to finding out that Crowley died, were genuinely heartbreaking. Even worse was Crowley's response to God's offer to make him an angel, unaware that Aziraphale was already alive again.
    Crowley: Listen, as much as I appreciate the offer, and only since it means there’s no torture involved for me, I’m not interested. I somehow doubt you’ll let me keep messing with people. I’d rather be in pain than bored, and your side is blessedly boring... Besides, after all that shit you just put me through, I really fucking hate you. And Aziraphale! Why the fuck would you bring me back to life and not him? What the fuck is wrong with you! What am I without him?
  • Prodigal Son and its remix, Safe Haven, about Crowley taking care of a broken Aziraphale who had been trapped in a Nazi concentration camp and has lost faith. Especially when Crowley sacrifices the relationship they had developed to encourage Aziraphale to talk to God and restore his faith.]] Incidentally, it's by the same person who wrote Manchester Lost.

Gorillaz

  • Gorillaz fic A Man Out Of Time, in which a teenage Murdoc, referred to as "Mud" to avoid confusion, travels in time, meets teenage Noodle, falls in love with her, and ends up selling his soul to save her life even though he can't stay with her:
    "Do I ever regret this?" Mud asked quietly, his voice breaking. He looked up at his older self.
    "No." Murdoc gently squeezed Mud's shoulders and let go. "But I'm not going to lie to you, it's not exactly a stroll through the daisies either."

Gravity Falls

  • A Rose Without Petals has Mabel in an abusive relationship. Nothing else needs to be stated.
  • Behind the Mask, a story about Pacifica's demons.
  • When Gravity Fails, a seemingly lighthearted, average story about a girl moving to Gravity Falls and helping the twins take down Gideon. Right? Nope. This story takes place in a timeline where Gideon Rises didn't happen. In turn, Gideon has transformed the once sleepy, beautiful town into a concrete jungle, clouded it with pollution, and destroyed the Mystery Shack. Dipper and Mabel started fighting on the bus ride home, and have had a complete hatred of each other since. They've been sent back to 'repair their bond'. Everything in the town has become gloomy and industrialized. It's pretty depressing...at least it's an awesome story.
    • The first chapter is an introduction, with both Ana (the OC) and Mabel mentioning how the rain seems to fit the sad, dark mood. Halfway through the story, Ana's parents have been brainwashed into making them leave the town. Her reaction? A repeat of the first line:
      Ana: It's raining. Of freaking course.

Guardians Of Gahoole

    H 
Haibane Renmei
  • The Haibane Renmei fanfic "Before We Had Wings". It's a prequel to the series, showing the events that led various Haibane to Glie. And considering that it's strongly hinted that Haibane are the souls of children who died young...

Halo

  • In Enemy of My Enemy, when the Hunter pair is overwhelmed and killed, the last one's final thoughts are of the sweet little girl who reached out and befriended them. Also, Rukth's death can be quite heart-wrenching, as can Vtan's reaction to it: "A wail of sorrow [that] echoed across the battlefield... the Jiralhanae... felt an irrational prick of fear... Something had awoken; something terrible.

Happy Tree Friends

Harry Potter

  • Winter's Debt is Draco Malfoy's account of how he found that he had a younger sister that had been kept hidden—-and why she had been hidden. Some of the passages will haunt you...
    • "I have done far crueler things since then, but I have regretted none so much as that. I have slaughtered innocent women and children, and their screams have not haunted my dreams. I have raped and looted and tortured in the name of purification and felt not the slightest twinge of guilt. And yet the face of my silent sister contorted in grief as I trod upon her only plaything has never left me. It followed me as I lay in the bedchambers of virgins and prostitutes. It was with me on the day I watched Aurors kill my father. It is with me as I stand here now, and it will be with me when I go to seek Winter's justice."
    • "Even at the end, she had still been very much a child. When Death had reached out his arms to her, she had fled to the sanctuary of my father, wanting his comfort for the journey ahead."
  • An Analysis of a Mother's Love (Deathly Hallows spoilers). What was going through Molly Weasley's mind during her Moment of Awesome?
  • The Harry Potter fic Survivor has Hermione die in the final battle, then spends 4 chapters watching Harry complete his tasks so he can kill himself and join her. All the other characters are quite aware that's what he's doing, too.
    • Anybody not utterly against Harry/Hermione would get choked up when Hermione goes down in the final battle, and Harry's just waiting to avenge her before joining her, with his friends helplessly watching.
  • Deadwoodpecker's Harry Potter fanfiction Backwards with Purpose is full of moments like this.
    • For example:
      "You can't die, Luna," she whispered, her voice still hoarse from screaming. "We've got to go hunting Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. I've...I've been doing some research, and I...I'm pretty sure we can find them in Finland...Between the two of us, we'll find them, we will. But we can't if you die..."
      "You don't believe in them," Luna said. Her voice was fading away and so was she. Still, she smiled that familiar, dreamy smile.
      "Yes, I do," Hermione sobbed. "I really, really do. I promise. We're going, just as soon as you get better..."
    • "Neville had been a champion and fearless when it came to defending his friends. This time around his life would not end in murder; he would not leave Hannah a widow less than a year after their marriage. He'd work with plants, have a bunch of round-faced babies, and live to be a doddering old man, and Harry would never, ever have to watch him die." Neville dies again in this timeline.
    • The moment when Harry finds out that the mysterious rune he's been studying isn't the rune for pain - which was what he thought it was, based on all his terrible memories and emotions associated with it - but was actually the rune for love.
  • The seventh book of the excellent Harry Potter fic "Sacrifices Arc". Regulus Black dies before Snape admits that he loves him; it was just as sad for its aftermath.
  • Bellatrix's backstory in The Spoilers Of War. Perhaps best summed up when Harry and Bellatrix are reviewing her memories.
    Young Narcissa: "No, I don't think I want [Andromeda] back. Now I get to be the oldest. And I'll be the one to get the best husband. And I'll get to live in the biggest Palace!"
    Young Bellatrix: "No you won't! I'll go and find her. Then I'll live in the biggest castle in the world!"
    Bellatrix: "I was right, you know. I did get to live in the biggest castle in the world."
    Harry: "You did?"
    Bellatrix: "Yes, The biggest castle in the world is Azkaban."
  • The final chapter of I Saw My Lady Weep. An aged Harry Potter is sitting vigil next to the hospital bed of his dying wife, Ginny. Nothing said by the doctors, or his children, can assuage the overwhelming grief he feels. And when she dies, he just lets his own life go and follows her into death. But what really causes the tears to flow is what happens when his son James finds his body.
  • The fanfiction Time Heals All Wounds is an extraordinary example of a buildup to a happily-ever-after which is suddenly wrenched away and leaves a gaping hole in you when you read it. Chapter 33, to be precise.

Hazbin Hotel

  • Winner, Baby: Angel Dust has redeemed himself enough to go to Heaven, but he doesn't want to go because it would mean leaving Husk. He doesn't have a choice; as he feels himself floating away, Husk sings a sad reprise of "Loser, Baby".
    Husk: You're a winner, baby, a lucky beauty, baby... (sniff) ...and you should know that I'll...
    Angel: NO! WAIT!
    Husk: ...always love you.
    Angel: Wait, wait! Husker! (the gateway between Heaven and Hell closes) No! Let me go back! Please...I need to tell him...I love you too...

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

  • This Hercules: The Legendary Journeys fic. Especially the part where an ailing Hercules is cared for by an angelic Iolaus. We finally learn what Iolaus had to atone for in "Revelations".
    '"Close your eyes, Herc," Iolaus urged him warmly, stroking his hair. "And I'll tell you the story that Gabrielle told me that time I was wounded when we were trying to free Prometheus. Once, a long, long time ago, all people had four legs and two heads..."'

Homestuck

  • A Homestuck fanfic, entitled Into The Dark, focusing on Aradia's relationship with Sollux. There are comments from people who actually cried while reading it.
  • Closing Time, a one-shot that takes a look at the kids post-SBURB from the perspective of a narrator that is in a relationship with each of them. Most of it is rather sad, but Jade's part is by far the worst, especially the way the narrator breaks up with her.
  • Seam by Seam which is a short AU where Earth and Alternia went to war, but Alternia still has human slaves long after. Rose is captured at a young age and has to grow up on that planet, eventually coming to terms that her time away from earth has changed her, her only friend, John, hasn't seen her for years and has grown up without her, her mother is long gone, and she's part of Alternia now.
  • DiablaVampire's Homestuck fanart gallery is just heart-gutting. It consists almost entirely of twelve pictures of the trolls, all saying a self-deprecating sentence each.
    Equius: D—> I'm weak.
    Eridan: i didn't mean to hurt her
    Tavros: i WASN'T STRONG ENOUGH
    Karkat: I'M SORRY, I'M A HORRIBLE LEADER.
    Sollux: ii doomed u2 all
    Kanaya: I Wasn't Good Enough
  • Similarly, this gifset of each of the trolls recounting the thing they feel most guilty about doing, presented with simple colored text on a plain black background.
    Aradia: i let her trick him into killing me and fell for it
    Tavros: i DIED AS PATHETIC AS i LIVED,,,
    Sollux: ii kiilled her.
    Karkat: I FUCKED THINGS UP.
    Nepeta: i nefur let him know how i was really f33ling
    Kanaya: I Could Not Save Our Race
    Terezi: 1 L3T 4LT3RN4T3 D4V3 D13
    Vriska: I killed Pupa.
    Equius: I let b100dcaste matter over my moirallegiance
    Gamzee: i KiLlEd My FrIeNdS :o(
    Eridan: i destroyed all of our hope
    Feferi: I couldn't avenge )(im.

    I 
iCarly
  • Crazy by thepandathatrawrs.
  • Haunted:
    • Freddie's ghost telling Sam how much he loved her and how his last living thought was about his love for her.
    • Valerie being brutally murdered by Missy for no reason at all.
  • Bruised gets the tears rolling from the first flashback. It follows a character from iCarly at a counseling session and basically investigates the backstory of the character. Even though the entire story is a Tear Jerker, it's when you realise that the main charecter of the story isn't Sam as the story leads on but rather Carly.
    "Nobody needs to be perfect, kiddo." The counselor says reassuringly, You smile as you wipe your eyes and head towards the door and whisper loud enough for only you to hear. "I do."

Invader Zim

  • A fanfic where Zim is poisoned and slowly dying. While Dib, Tak, and Gaz frantically look for a cure, Zim vows he'll stay alive long enough to see Autumn, his favorite thing about Earth. The biggest gutpunches in the fic are Zim being forced to shut off GIR so he won't have to watch Zim slowly waste away (and the entire time, GIR is sobbing and pleading for Zim to take GIR with him), Zim and Dr. Membrane discussing the afterlife (and Zim confesses he's terrified of the thought of going to a place like Hell), and finally, after all the hard work and sleepless nights everyone pulled, the group can see he won't last a day longer, so Tak uses one of her inventions to forcibly change Earth's climate so it becomes Autumn. Zim, who at this point has to be carried to the window to see outside, gives a satisfied smile, everyone admits he's a friend to them now...and then he dies not a minute later.
  • One story is a collection of songfics, all but one of which are all overly happy. This one is based off of "The One That Got Away", about Gaz being in love with Zim for a long time, and Dib exposing Zim, and Zim having to leave the planet, and Gaz regretting never telling him how she felt. The fact the lyrics are there, doesn't really help anything. Here's the link, don't forget your kleenex. IZ Songfics:The One That Got Away
  • The ending of Possessed. Dib and a brain-damaged Zim have escaped from their tormentors and are now free to live out the rest of their lives together in peace. Unfortunately, Zim being an alien, Dib has realized he will outlive him by hundreds of years and builds a robot duplicate to keep Zim company for the rest of his life. Due to brain damage inflicted on him by Membrane, Zim does not realize this for years, thinking the robot really is Dib. When he finds out, the robot takes him to the real Dib, who by now is ancient and old and too weak to move from the bed. He gives Zim his final goodbyes, tells him that he was "more family than anything I ever had", and thanks him for being his brother. Cue the waterfall tears.
  • Science Knows No Bounds. It turns out that years ago, Professor Membrane met Almighty Tallest Miyuki when she crash-landed in his backyard, took her in, and eventually fell in love with her as they worked together to create both Dib and Gaz. When she eventually died of old age, Membrane was so heartbroken that he went into denial, shutting out all memories of what she really was and pretending that aliens didn't exist in order to cope with the grief.

Ironman

  • An Ironman fanfic dealt with Tony Stark, in the aftermath of the Civil War, raising Steve Rogers' little girl. No, not an m-preg fic, no, not a bastard Cap left behind with Sharon Charter. A little girl who was Captain America's X-23, his Opposite-Sex Clone, and had been raised since birth to be a Child Soldier Super-Soldier. This child has a stoic face and robotic personality, having been giving nothing but routines and orders her whole life. She doesn't understand love, home, normalcy, and what's worse is we don't see this from Tony's perspective but HERS. She's so terribly confused and afraid at living with Tony and Jarvis, who are attentive and affectionate if flustered at raising a child. She doesn't understand and wishes to go back to the compound if only because things are simpler there. Goddamn it's heartbreaking.

    J 
Jeeves and Wooster
  • Bertie and the Bowler Hat: An elderly Bertie Wooster is found dead with a picture of the late Jeeves in his hand. It was topped by the very last sentence: "Mr. Wooster had given me the black bowler hat."

Joker Game

  • The story Lacuna is all about Sakuma dealing with the aftermath of Miyoshi's death, and that he hallucinates his ghost. It is only at the end that he tries to ask Miyoshi whether he or any of the spies would have gone to Sakuma's funeral if he died. But when he finally does that, even his ghost disappears.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

  • This fanmade theme for a hypothetical ending to Part 5/Golden Wind where Risotto overthrows Diavolo and becomes the new boss of Passione. The ethereal, melancholy strings heavily imply that he's Lonely at the Top because all of his teammates have died in the process of overthrowing the boss. And it's possible that in this scenario, Team Bucciarati is also dead.

    K 
KaBlam!

Kill la Kill

  • The RyuMako fanfic Fragile Thread is heartbreaking. It concerns Ryuuko's, a troubled high school student, newfound friendship with Mako, a happy go lucky bullying victim. However, the kicker comes in the end where, a revealed-to-be-suicidal Mako summons Ryuuko (who works as a prostitute) to her side to be with her in her last moments, leaving Ryuuko devastated in the aftermath of her death.
    Ryuuko: Mako, I hate you for this. I hate you, because I love you.
  • stop, come back, stay with me - (please) is another RyuMako that ends on a rather tragic note.
    Narration: Then it's just black, and the face of the one who gave her hope.
  • Endless Numbered Days that is all, especially the ending.
  • Severed is how the series could have really ended and it isn't a happy ending, as it implies that Ryuuko didn't survive her fall, as Satsuki failed to catch her in time. The fanart in which is Severed was based on isn't much better.
    Satsuki: “I loved you too, Ryuko.”
  • While the fic itself is disheartening, a certain line from Do You See How They Shine? really seals it, especially with it being spoken by Nui no less:
    "Time enough to regret, but not nearly enough to atone."
  • 'say something, i'm giving up on you'' can be devastating for those who don't expect it, especially in Part III, while Uzu (according to the FF.net version) holds her hand as she quietly passes away.
  • Rest started out rather sweet yet ends with a rather heartbreaking twist.
  • The fanfic Raindrops and, its sequel, Sunshine, which concerns a depressed Satsuki remembering the events up until her sister's death some time before and, in the sequel, we have her revealing to their friends that she is ill with leukemia, the which she dies of. However, the sequel also has a Bittersweet Ending with Satsuki and Ryuuko reuniting in death and their spirits into a butterfly before fluttering up to the sky so they can watch over their friends from beyond.
    • A Third in the trilogy, titled As the Wind Blows, deals with Mako and Shiro, now elderly, and the events leading up to their deaths of old age but both of their final chapters are bittersweet.
  • This fankoma.
  • Chapters 4 and 5 of Strictly for the Birds by BadMitt (Badmitton on FanFiction.Net). Chapter 4 has Nonon's feelings about what happened with Satsuki during Episode 19 and her guilt thereof and the chapter afterwards has Rei and one could only wonder how she might have felt with the things going on between Ragyo and Satsuki.
  • I Always Will has Uzu telling his son about his mother, a passed-on Ryuuko, while her ghost watches from afar.
  • Satsuki and Ryuuko's situation in Piano Notes. A line from Ryuuko can really nail it:
    "I don't want you to go."
    • To explain further, Satsuki is very critically ill by the time Ryuuko goes to visit her and they both know that their visit could have been the last time they get to see each other, as the former is going into surgery the next day and had a very high chance of not making it.
    • The alternative ending [2] is even worse, as despite it all, Satsuki still passes away but not before telling her sister that she loved her and made her happy.
  • Any fanfic where Ryuuko dies after the ending, due to her life fibers dying off, an example of this being everything could have been different.
  • Paper Cranes, especially the ending and Satsuki's letter before, she reveals why she kept the extent and diagnosis of her illness a secret, as she was dying of heart failure and, even if there were no donors available, the doctors offered to place her on a list for a heart transplant, to which she said no to, as she would die before one was available and she didn't want Ryuuko to kill herself so she could live.

Kingdom Hearts

  • The Riku-centric series Antipode explores Xemnas' characterization in Kingdom Hearts II, thereby reviving his status as a Tragic Villain. In short, he is Terra's Nobody, twisted by circumstances into a monster. He remembers not only his life as Terra, but every atrocity he committed under Xehanort's control. His only memories of emotion are those of hatred and rage towards the man who stole everything that mattered.
  • Deae Ex Machina is 13 chapters, plus a prologue, of a funny, slashy Kingdom Hearts fic where the Nobodes are reborn as humans, and have wacky hijinks with the heroes and other characters. It also contains an Epilogue, which is almost 3,000 words worth of being punched in the stomach.
  • "You Don't Miss It Till It's Gone," one of the recommended Kingdom Hearts fanfics here has a couple of real kickers. Sora's fading away after going completely insane, but finally being free of Antiform, leading to a Dying as Yourself moment in Kairi's arms, then later on on we have Roxas and Namine fading away together. The last conversation they share is sob-inducing, ending with both telling that they love each other, then giving us this line:
    And that was the last thing Naminé heard before the both of them faded back into their Others, their bodies fading away into strands of light, back into the seventh Princess of Heart and the Key to Kingdom Hearts.]]
  • While it wasn't as much of a tearjerker as others, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic about a person who didn't know he had become a nobody got a bit depressing when one considered that he couldn't feel emotions and even though the guy was supposedly in his 20's, he had the mind of a naive kid. The nobody was being taught by a distant family member how to feel emotions again, but while being taught he was brought to his grandmother's funeral and wondered why everyone was so sad. This was more of an "...Oh god this would be so embarrassing" but it was still kind of sad that he still didn't know how to feel when he saw his grandmother buried.
  • In the Kingdom Hearts fanfic, Fill the Moon, almost damn near everyone and everything gets a depressing backstory or miserable moment. The author seems to love dragging literally EVERYONE through the Despair Event Horizon or, by proxy, delivering an emotional gut punch to the readers. "Highlights" include:
    • The adorable little OC protagonist, who is purity incarnate and barely thirteen years old, is impregnated by Zexion, who is understandably conflicted about the whole ordeal, considering his guilt for initially desiring a sexual relationship with her. The best part? The man who orders Zexion to do it? Her own father.
    • Oh, and not to mention, she almost dies because of the pregnancy, and spends about three to four months in constant, screaming agony that she tries to put on a happy face over her pain, so as not to make her family worry.
    • Zexion's Heroic Sacrifice is just AWFUL. Senayax pulls a Please Wake Up and everything, which, considering how brutally she has had her innocence stripped from her, just emphasizes the fact that a very scared little girl in a lot of pain just watched her lover die because one of her best friends tried to kill her father.
    • Oh, and some of the stuff that happens to Demyx is horrific. The scene where he literally tries to clean the castle with his own blood, not noticing the fact that the chemicals in the cleaner had worked his hands raw is a disturbingly realistic portrayal of PTSD. It doesn't help that even after Xigbar finds him and tries to help him, Demyx is adamant it's =all his fault and begs for Xigbar to BITE HIM...because that's what his big brother did.
    • There's a scene after the other Apprentices — including the baby's father, Zexion — find out that Senayax is going to die because of her pregnancy in which Lexaeus, who had already seen an experiment like this one fail, with fatal consequences is basically having a Heroic BSoD in front of Kingdom Hearts. Zexion comes out to find him and basically tears him a new one before breaking down in tears and begging for Lexaeus to help him. Lexaeus, who is normally the Organization's most emotionally stable member, basically tells Zexion that there's nothing they can do.
    • The part of the chapter in which Zexion tells his lover, Senayax, that she's going to die is one of the worst parts of a chapter that is basically the fanfic's Crowning Moment of Absolutely Goddamned Depressing. The only thing that Senayax says to him is just the sadness cherry on the misery cake.
    "Zexion, if I die...can you promise to hold my hand?"
    • The worst part? The chapter's title is, of all things, Hope.
    • The next chapter isn't much better. Xemnas is having a My God, What Have I Done?-induced breakdown over inadvertently killing the girl who he considered a daughter, when said daughter he condemned to death comes in.
      "Zexion told me I was gonna die soon." She said. "He wouldn't lie to me like that." Something odd and alien flashed behind her eyes, but it faded as soon as it had come, and it left a frightened little girl in its' place. "A-am I gonna die, Xemnas?" She asked. Xemnas didn't know what to say. She shook her head. "Cause I see'd Zexion coming back t'our room, an' then he just...he looked so sad. Like he'd given up. I knew he did, 'cause all he did was hold me an' cry until he fell asleep..." She shivered.
      "I'm scared. I don't...want to be givened up on..." She broke down in tears, trying to stifle the sounds of her sobs as she looked up at them. "Please don't give up on me..." Xemnas pulled her into his arms from across the bed, desperately trying to cradle her close and stroke her hair as he sobbed with her. "No, no Yaya." He whispered. "We won't give up on you. I promise, I promise..." He felt Saix settle in beside them, holding his hand in his and stroking her hair with his other hand, and Xemnas could only think of one thing to say. "Daddy's here, Yaya," he whispered, voice hoarse with agony, "daddy's here. It's going to be all right, sweetheart, daddy's here..."
    • Larxene's backstory is almost as bad. While it's not as cry-your-eyes-out drama worthy as some of the other instances explained already on this page, seeing the normally snarky and caustic Larxene crying and having a nervous breakdown because of being raped and abused by her ex-husband for about three years is...jarring.
  • Lost Boys brings us a AU where the X-Blade was forged at Destiny Islands. HOW is this tearjerking? Not only is the small world destroyed, Sora sees Venitas kill his dad right in front of him, and he and Riku are thrown out to Traverse Town and are forced to grow up way before their time. They struggle for eleven years, which turns Sora into a bitter, suicidal, and mentally unstable young man. Riku copes better, but even he's gotten at least slightly depressed. And that's just what happens before the fic even takes off. Oh yeah, and Sora repeatedly gets caught in mental breakdowns where he either becomes a violent Jerkass or a blubbering pile of Broken Tears or both.

Kirby

  • This Kirby fanvid is deliberately played for over-the-top comedy... but isn't quite over-the-top enough. After the block holding him in is freed, a Gordo drifts off into the sky... and far beyond. The music-and-imagry combination is enough to make you mist up. And while the ending is more giggle-worthy than tear-jerking—initially—you quickly begin to feel bad for the little guy that he didn't get to see everything before getting boinked back to Pop Star by a stray asteroid.

    L 
The Land Before Time
  • Twilight Valley is alleged to have one. When Ducky contemplates suicide after being rescued from her imprisonment.

The Legend of Zelda

Life Is Strange

  • Perfectly Flawed is an AU fanfic where Chloe lost her arm, and her biological dad William STILL died, in the same car crash, and she spends two years in grief, but despite the Downer Beginning, it becomes heartwarming when Max returns and gives her a prosthetic arm.

Looking for Group

  • Warlocks and Witches has a particularly tear-jerking moment when Cale dies in a particularly sudden and tragic manner.

The Loud House

  • Pictured is To Stand On, in which Lynn is diagnosed with bone cancer, necessitating the amputation of her leg. She is heartbroken over the fact she won't be able to fulfill her dreams of being an athlete and doesn't want her family to see her in such a depressed state. Her family is just as heartbroken over her plight.
  • Lori's Birthday. Leni is depressed on Lori's 18th birthday because Lori had a twin that didn't survive; Leni was named for the dead twin, something that makes her feel like a worthless replacement and doubt that her family really loves her.
    Leni: She deserved a chance at life. It's not fair. What do I have to give that counts? That really counts? She would have been better! She should've been born!
    • From the same author and continuity, Chapter 16 of My Sister Leni features Rita telling a young Lori and Leni about the other Leni.
  • The Little White Lie. Lincoln finds out why he's the only sibling in the family with white hair and he doesn't take it well.
  • Whitewashed. Lincoln refusing to speak with his sisters after they destroyed his comic and washed his mouth with soap after he insulted them.
  • Runnicoln Away. Lincoln running away from his house after being treated badly by his sisters. Luna, Leni and Lucy are hit the hardest by this.
  • Pranking Pariah. Luan's April Fools prank ends up with Lincoln breaking his arm and Luan gets disowned by her siblings as a result.
  • In what appears to be a deconstruction of Lincoln's Butt-Monkey status, Inadequate features Lincoln falling into deep depression after he feels like a burden to his family and that nobody cares about him. Even going as far as to try to kill himself twice.
  • From Requiem's author, we have First Love, in where Lynn gets her first boyfriend, much to Lincoln's worry. It also has tearjerking moments:
    • Lincoln feeling sad and upset when Lynn spends less time with him, making him worried that she may no longer care for him.
    • After Lynn gets upset with her boyfriend, Lincoln checks her phone in order to find out what happened, of course Lynn doesn't take it kindly when she sees Lincoln reading her messages, which culminates in them getting into an argument and Lynn punching him hard, what finally breaks Lincoln is Lynn saying the only reason she stood up for him is because they are related, making Lincoln think that Lynn wouldn't care for him at all if they weren't siblings, causing Lincoln to lock himself in his room and cry like he never did before. The argument also results in the other Loud sisters to ignore Lynn the following day, and Lincoln to not leave his room for breakfast.
    • After Lynn breaks up with her boyfriend and apologizes to Lincoln for how she acted, she locks herself in her room to cry after all she went through.
  • What You Wish For, which sees Lori see a world where Lincoln was never her brother. Not only is Lori regretful of the circumstances leading up to this situation, but after she gets shot by the cops (long story, trying to keep this short), her dying thoughts were of never getting to see Lincoln grow up.
    • And then it turns out it was All Just a Dream. ...because she had actually passed out from a combination of the perfume and some nail polish remover; what's worse, had Lincoln not gone back into her room to apologize, she would have died for real.
  • Velvet Fist: This story focuses on Leni, who after four years of medication, which are apparently what make her ditzy, stop taking it after some influence from Lincoln and want to get revenge on her family, especially her parents and older sister. This fanfiction carries sad moments such as flashbacks from a party that Lori, Leni, along with Luna were invited, that gone horribly wrong.
  • And Lily Makes Ten, a story about the day Lily was born, where Lincoln is heartbroken over the fact he still doesn't have a younger brother and he admits to Luna how lonely he feels being the only boy in the family.
  • Trustworthy and its sequel, which is about Lincoln having enough of his sisters due to their teasing and mistreatment, as the Loud sisters tries to gain his trust again.
    • Lincoln getting humiliated at the Ace Savvy convention, while Lori records the entire thing and posts it online, and Lincoln later getting misblamed for breaking the remote control, when he in fact is innocent, followed by Lincoln retreating into his room, destroying the family photo he hangs on his door and then breaks down crying.
    • The Loud sisters realizing that Lincoln has ran away because of them, causing Leni to break down crying, followed by the rest of the Loud sisters.
    • Lori video chatting with Bobby, when they discuss the situation.
      Lori: I JUST WANT MY LITTLE BROTHER BACK!!!.
    • When Lincoln returns home with his sisters at the end of the first part, despite his sisters apologizing to him, he doesn't instantly forgive them, telling them that they have broken his trust and while he may forgive them eventually, it won't be anytime soon.
    • The flashback of young Leni being made fun of by other kids and Lori due to the costume she's wearing, causing her to realize she's been doing the same to Lincoln when he wore his Ace Savvy cosplay.
    • When Lincoln decides to forgive his sisters, he overhears Lisa making fun of him, while the other sisters laugh, which results in him giving them a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Lincoln then retreats to his room, crying.
    • After most of the Loud family manage to escape the fire caused by one of Lisa's experiments, they realize Lincoln is still inside the house, the older sisters find him unconscious near the stairs, when they get him outside, they quickly realize he's not waking up, the Loud sisters assume they have lost their only brother and they all break down crying. Thankfully he gets better and forgives them. Then someone made a fanart of this scene, and it is absolutely heartbreaking.
    • The reaction of the Loud siblings, when they realize they lost most of their valuable possessions in the house fire.
      • It's not just possessions. Izzy and El Diablo (Lana's lizard and snake respectively) are nowhere to be seen. Let's hope they just ran away like Lana thought...
  • What a Wonderful Loud takes Lincoln through what life would be like if Lincoln was never born.
    • The beginning, where everyone gets angry at Lincoln for suggesting pepper in the spaghetti, which leads to Lincoln feeling his ideas are worthless. Though he is later consoled by Leni, even after which he wonders what things would be like.
    • When Lincoln sees what things would be like if he was not around, nothing changes at first, which makes Lincoln feel particularly worthless. But then he sees that Ronnie Anne is a straight-up bully instead of the bruiser with a soft center that she normally is and Clyde now hangs out with a bad crowd.
    • Lincoln finding out that Leni is still not only unable to drive, and not only does she not have any friends, but Lynn Sr. yells at her for constantly failing, which leaves Leni in tears.
      Lynn Sr.: (angry) Young lady, you have just done your fifteenth driving test! So the answer is no! You have ruined my van many times!
      Leni: But dad, how will I ever get my driver's license if everyone has given up teaching me!?
      Lynn Sr.: (angry) You're going to have to work that out yourself! Unless someone wants to boost your confidence, my answer is NO!
      (Lynn Sr. walks inside the house, as Leni begins to cry)
      Leni: (crying) I hate this so much! I have no one to hang out with and no one to help me, all my other sisters are too busy doing their own things or doing thing together and I have no one!! I can't learn how to drive and I don't have anyone to help me with my fashion, why do I even bother trying to be a part of this family?
    • Worse is that without Lincoln, Leni would be the sisters' punching bag.
  • Guy Token, where Lincoln starts to feel unwanted in the house and runs way after failed attempts to help his sisters.
    • The sisters feel horrible for letting Lincoln feel that way. They immediately start to place missing posters of him around the city. There's even a moment where Luna is about to cry while hanging up posters, afraid they'll never find Lincoln.
    • Believe it or not, Lincoln gets it worse. He comes across two boys, Chris and Josh, who live on the street in a tent. He gets along with them at first and they become his second family... until they trick him into helping them rob a comic book store. After refusing to help, they coldly betray him, Chris even stating they'll make sure the cops find him first.
    • Lincoln manages to escape in time, but he's understandably scared. He immediately starts running away as far as he can, almost getting run over at one point, and found by the cops. He luckily manages to send them after Chris and Josh, but he's still scared and immediately wishes to be back home. He luckily finds Luna before things get worse though.
    • During the story, the song Outcast plays. It perfectly sums up what Lincoln's feeling for most of the story.
  • A Loud to Stay: Lincoln finds out he is adopted. To be expected, he does not take the news well. It only gets worse from there as he finds out that nobody knows anything about his biological parents since he was found abandoned under a highway overpass. Then, when he finally does manage to track down his biological mother, he learns that she was only 13 when she got pregnant with Lincoln, and the pregnancy was the result of rape!
    • Lincoln's real mother Lyla is also quite the Woobie; she came from an abusive household. Her father killed her brother Logan, after which she herself ended up living on the streets where she got raped. The reason she left Lincoln under the overpass was because she was disgusted with herself and at loss about what to do, but she deeply regretted this action every day since.
  • In The Dark. Lucy is injured in a car accident while trick-or-treating with Lori, Lola, Lana and Lisa. Lori has to deal with the situation alone, calming her younger siblings and accompanying Lucy at the hospital with the rescue services, especially Lana who thinks that she's responsible for the accident (since the whole reason they were crossing the street in the first place is because Lana had carelessly bolted across the street) and that Lucy will die because of her. At the end, luckily, we find out that there was more fear than harm, but still...
    • It doesn't help matters that Lana tells her parents and the rest of the Loud siblings who came with them that Lucy is dead when they show up at the hospital. Neither of them take it well at all.
  • From the same author as above, Million Dollar Loud features Lucy waking from an 18-year coma from a car accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down. She is understandably dismayed over how she is unable to do the simplest of tasks and cannot even move.
  • Blood & Sweat is about Lincoln neglecting eating and his social life in favor of overexercising in an attempt to get his body into better shape, leading to his health deteriorating and developing a bad limp in his right leg (also Nightmare Fuel). Lynn and Luna's reactions to all this (as they're the only ones who notice what's going on until things start to get really bad) is also heartbreaking, especially when they confront him for sneaking out at night to go on yet another run and desperately attempt to convince him that his workout routine isn't healthy at all, to no avail as he tries to do it again the next night. Then when Lynn catches him and they get into a fight, she freaks out when Lincoln suddenly faints with blood coming out of his mouth; he has to be rushed to the hospital as a result, and the whole Loud family spends the time that he's unconscious out of their minds with worry. When Lincoln wakes up and finally realizes how much damage he's been doing to his body, he confesses that he drove himself to such lengths because he thought Lynn was ashamed of him for not being as fit or into sports as she is, to her clear horror.
    Lincoln: But i-it's like nothing else mattered except working myself to the bone so I could stop being the nerdy toothpick of the family! For once I wanted to be worth SOMETHING! Not just be the comic book-loving geek! But I-I guess... Even when I try to improve myself... I'm always going to be a disappointment..."
  • Soil and Trouble is a tragic story about Lana suffering an accident while playing in the mud during a rainy day disobeying her parents' rules. She hits her head against a tree and is badly injured, ending up in a coma. While her situation does not seem that bad at first, it worsens after having a seizure which doctors diagnose as a sign of serious brain stem damage. Of course, this brings devastation to the entire family, but especially to her twin Lola. These moments stand out as particularly tearjerking:
    • One of the nurses attending Lana apparently lost her own child to a similar situation and can't help being reminded of it.
    • Lana has the seizure just as Lola was visiting her, and as doctors take the latter out of the room, she has a desperate argument with Lori, which ends with a doctor reprimanding them and forbidding them from visiting Lana again. The two sisters end up refusing to talk with each other, until Luan locks them up in the bathroom.
    • Lisa creates a plan to cure Lana involving nanites performing brain surgery on her. All her siblings are enthusiastic about the plan, but when her parents find out, they are not happy. While there is genuine concern, Rita essentially destroys Lisa's confidence by telling her that she and her husband would rather see Lana die peacefully than being affected by Lisa's experiment, and then telling her that they'll take away all of her scientific material, including textbooks. Lisa ends up wailing mournfully after her mother leaves. Lori is so outraged at this that she outright backtalks to her parents, doesn't care if they punish her by downgrading her cellphone, and decides to run away with utter contempt towards her mother.
  • Losing Him, a much darker take on the episode "No Such Luck". After being kicked out of his own house by his family, Lincoln is gunned down by a robber, right in front of Bobby. He is rushed to the hospital where the doctors are barely able to keep him alive. When his family comes to visit him there, Clyde (who Lincoln talked to just before getting shot) confronts them about how they treated Lincoln. As such, Rita and Lynn Sr. are promptly arrested for being Abusive Parents.
  • What is a Person Worth?, the first chapter alone makes it clear that the story will be a big tearjerker. Taking place after the events of "No Such Luck", Lincoln, understandably depressed about being forced to wear a squirrel costume, begins to wonder if his family even loves him anymore upon being kicked out of his own house and having his furniture sold. Hits especially hard when his sisters and parents treat him like a mere good luck charm, rather than a family member (or a human being, for that matter).
  • Idols and Anchors: Luna finds out that her idol, Mick Swagger has passed away, leading her into a deep depression.
    • When I Feel Doubt Creeping In takes a similar concept of Idols and Anchors and gives the story a darker tone. Where instead of an accident, Mick Swagger is assassinated and Luna gives up her music passion.
    • Chapter Three of The Loud House - Our Pasts Are Screaming Out Loud cranks it up to eleven. Not only is Mick shot in the middle of a fan meeting, but Luna is present, and she sees every second of the assassination. It gets worse when you see the drawing that follows the story: Lincoln trying to comfort his sister in the middle of the rain, both crying... and blood over Luna's clothes.
  • Rejection; a story about Luna dealing with the fact that Sam is not into girls.
  • Meeting a Loud, an AU where Lincoln isn't related to the Louds, opens with the very heartbreaking premise that Lincoln is the Sole Survivor of his family and that his foster home before the Louds was so abusive that having a 17-year-old boy touch his shoulder is a trauma button and he goes into panic mode when a perfectly calm and upbeat Lynn is holding a hockey stick.
  • While The Nightmare House (no relation to the Super Mario World ROM Hack) is mostly scary, some of the fears aren't just scary, but also rather sad. For some specifics:
    • Lori's nightmare when one breaks it down is, at its core, a sense of, "I'm not needed or wanted by my siblings."
    • Lynn's nightmare has her accidentally kill Lincoln with her rough behavior, specifically after she does a Lynner Takes All style mantra about not losing. She reacts appropriately to such a result.
    • Lana's nightmare has her turned, forced against her will, into a girly girl after being told that everything she is as a person is "wrong". Because her parents requested it.
  • Not Our Real Sister uses its Leni is Adopted AU setting wonderfully when Luna yells a Title Drop insult, it breaks Leni's heart.
  • Siblings of Doom! has its own page.
  • The Devices and Machinations of Lisa Loud has its own page.
  • Mystery of the Self-Loathing Loud is a total sob-fest:
    • The whole premise is that Lincoln finds a note dropped by one of his sisters, saying that she is "tired of being alive". He's understandably shaken up and terrified at the idea that one of his sisters is possibly suicidal. He even wonders if it could be Lucy or Lana.
    • Luna and Luan are both very sad at the beginning. The former is unusually laconic and playing her ukulele (something she claims to only do if she needs cheering up), later revealed to be because Sam dumped her. The latter is looking gloomy, being half-hearted when she laughs, not wanting to say why she was sad (it's later revealed to be because she was bullied at school), giving Mr. Coconuts to Lincoln (though, according to her, it was only because she needed time to concentrate on her studies), and even asking Lisa for a lethal injection. Thankfully, she was just being hyperbolic and both of them cheer up.
    • Lana crying upon finding out about the note.
    • Leni hitting Lori and Luna, crying a lot, and appearing to go into shock during the meeting. Later revealed to be because she knows Lori is the one who wrote the note.
    • Also during said meeting, the sisters accuse Lincoln of only investigating the note to boost his ego, while he accuses them of being too nonchalant.
    • It turns out that it was Lori who wrote the note, because she hates herself. Worse still, the fanfic has No Ending, it's unclear if she got better or not.
  • What Are You Hiding, Brother?: The Louds find out that Lincoln has started hanging out with the Royal Woods Rattlesnakes, the local biker gang, at their bar, but he refuses to tell them why. Fearing for his safety, Lynn Sr. and Rita ground him for a month despite Lincoln insisting that the gang isn’t dangerous, they don’t do drugs except for alcohol (and even then they don't overindulge in it), and that the only thing that he’s been drinking at the Rattlesnakes’ bar is the same kind of lemonade that’s drunk at the Loud House. The next day, Lori, Leni, and Luna find out that he snuck out of the house, so they head to the bar suspecting that he went back there. They do find him at the bar... during a birthday party being hosted for a young Hazletucky boy named Jason. When he returns home, Lincoln reveals to his parents and sisters that he had befriended Jason, who has terminal stomach cancer, over their love for Ace Savvy. Jason has always wanted to be a biker, but he won't live long enough to get a motorcycle license. Lincoln subsequently decided to reach out to the Rattlesnakes and asked them if they could help him make Jason an honorary member of their club for his birthday, to give him one last happy memory before he dies. As he’s explaining everything, Lincoln starts crying because he knows that his friend is going to die soon, leading Leni and Luna to let him cry in their chests, and Lynn Sr. and Rita deciding to reduce his grounding to three days.
  • Long Lost Loud is an Alternate Universe Fic told from Lori's first person point-of-view on the eve of her 50th birthday, looking at one of the few remaining photos of her long-lost brother. Lori flashes back to the events of “No Such Luck” up until Lincoln refuses to go to Dairy Land with his so-called “family” if he can’t not wear the squirrel suit. The Dairy Land trip helped the family finally realize just how badly they treated their brother, but by the time they got home to apologize to him they were too late. Not only did Lincoln run away, he unpersoned himself from the family by burning every photo, video tape, birth certificate, baby book, and every trace of his existence from the Loud House along with the squirrel suit, as well as deleting all of his pictures from the cloud. He also sent two letters to Clyde and Ronnie Anne explaining the whole situation, resulting in both of them being furious with the Louds, Bobby ending his relationship with Lori, and neither of the Santiago kids objecting when their mother decides to move them from Royal Woods to Great Lakes City. When the Louds decide to get Pop-Pop involved in helping them look for Lincoln, he really reams them out over what happened, and when Rita, Lynn Sr., and Pop-Pop went to the police to report Lincoln missing they had to use one of Pop-Pop's photos of Lincoln (the same picture that Lori still had). While the rest of Royal Woods never discovered what exactly happened, Lincoln’s friends spread rumors that they were involved in his disappearance so slowly-but-surely nobody wanted anything to do with the Louds anymore. The Thanksgiving after Lincoln went missing, Rita and Lynn Sr. decided to help themselves and their daughters get a fresh start by moving to Indiana. While the other sisters managed to adjust to the move pretty well, Lucy and Lynn started to get worse. Lucy fell into a deep depression, retreated even more into her shell, and didn’t make any new friends. She ended up having to go to therapy to help her deal with her problems. Meanwhile, Lynn fell in with a bad crowd and started abusing drugs in order to deal with the guilt over her major role in Lincoln’s disappearance. Things got so bad that Rita and Lynn Sr. sent her to a six-month stint in rehab, and even then she barely graduated high school and still abused drugs. It took her meeting her future husband and him helping her get a part-time job in her uncle’s sporting goods store for her to finally turn her life around. Oh, and what makes it even more sadder? Eight years before Lori’s 50th birthday, she and Lisa go to visit Pop-Pop’s grave, and they end up discovering that Lincoln, now known as Luke Carver, is alive. He explains to them that Pop-Pop helped him immigrate to Canada and be adopted by one of Pop-Pop’s old army friends, and Clyde knew about it too. He managed to get therapy for his depression, and is now the illustrator of a semi-popular comic in Canada. His only regret was not letting Ronnie Anne into the loop, but he found somebody else and is currently engaged to her. In the quarter-century that he’s been away from the Louds, he went from anger to apathy towards them and declares Pop-Pop as his only true family left, no longer wanting anything to do with his remaining birth family. After letting Luna in the loop, she, Lori, and Lisa all agree to keep it a secret because Pop-Pop knowing where Lincoln was the whole time would taint the Louds’ memory of Pop-Pop and Lincoln no longer wants anything to do with the Louds so trying to force a reunion wouldn’t do any good. This leads to the three of them convincing the rest of the family that they’re never going to find Lincoln alive so they should hold a symbolic wake for him to finally gain some closure. After Lori finishes her flashbacks, she puts the picture away and decides to go to bed:
    Last Lines in the Story: Farewell Lincoln, or Luke, or whatever name you’re using now. And wherever you are... I hope you are happy.

Lyrical Nanoha

  • Noriko's speech after her entire family was killed in the Deva Series.

    M 
Marvel Cinematic Universe
  • A doll woke up. He couldn't remember anything.
  • Life In Reverse has Thor discovering that Loki didn't die when he jumped into the Void and was on Midgard all along. When he comes to help the Avengers against Thanos's imminent arrival, he discovers Loki was hiding from him because he thought Thor would kill him for being a Frost Giant, the Avengers consider him a potential threat to his baby brother, and Loki refuses to come back to Asgard with him as he never felt he belonged there.

Mass Effect

  • This Mass Effect one shot fic called The Hundred Year Distance is bittersweet at best. To sum up the story in basic detail without any spoilers: It's about Garrus and Shepard spending their last days together, as they are near the end of their lifespan.
  • The Mass Effect fanfic Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained has just featured a rather poignant moment, in the opening to the eighth chapter. Kolyat Krios is trying to write a message to Thane, and can't find the words. It's simple, but it's so in character and right.
  • Mass Effect 2 fic Pariah. It shows a different angle on Morinth by introducing a character she can't control and turning everything upside down. This character dies via Last Stand/Taking You with Me and sacrifices herself to protect Morinth. The half point of the chapter finishes with a Died in Your Arms Tonight/Mercy Kill moment]] One reviewer drew this in reaction to that particular scene.

Mega Man X

  • Most of the reviews Whispers in Time make mention of crying or causing heartbreak.
  • This oneshot where the original Mega Man writes a series of letters to Mega Man X as he rests in his capsule, detailing such things as the ultimate fates of Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, he and Bass settling into a Friendly Rivalry, the pain caused by the emotional upgrades Dr. Light gifted to him before his death, and his hopes to see X at the end of his 30-year diagnostic stasis, even as he's certain both he and Roll will break down long before then. Needless to say, he's unsuccessful, with the last entry ending with him counting the days X has before coming out, one decade into X's stasis.
  • Aftermath gives us a theory as to what could have happened to Axl after the ending of X8. It doesn't end well for him.

Merlin

  • This Merlin fanfic, which sort of... creeps up on you.

Metal Gear

  • Stray isn't depressing in its entirety, but it has its tearjerker moments. Particularly during the Shadow Moses section, when Big Boss has his final conversation and Last Kiss with "his" Ocelot, whose spirit is currently being channeled by Adamska.
  • Howling At The Moon is a fanfic recounting Sniper Wolf's life from slightly before Big Boss met her all the way to her death. You'd think that the tear-jerkiest moment would be her ever so famous death, right? WRONG. Chapter 4, at the very end, a sixteen-year-old Wolf leaves her home with FOXHOUND. The whole time, a fourteen-year-old Naomi is begging her, nearly in tears, not to go. The worst part of it is that Wolf mostly keeps her cool as she tells Naomi that she has to go, then breaks down when she's just a few yards down the road. And that's not even the tip of the iceberg.
  • The Metal Gear fanfic Look Up. Starts out with Otacon and Snake stargazing some time after Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Otacon's being his usual Adorkable self about constellations... and then he realizes Snake's quietly dying beside him. And he keeps talking, refusing to break down until he finishes his last sentence. "Do you know what is is, Dave? Dave? ...It's Jupiter." The callback to the "Otacon ending" of Metal Gear Solid 1 is what clinches it.
  • Another Metal Gear fanfic, the excellent Hold On. (Everything Otasune by that author is highly recommended.) Meryl's faked Otacon's death in order to get Snake to take out a mercenary group that's killing off members of New Foxhound. The scene in which Snake is shown Otacon's "body" is heartwrenching. After yelling "God fucking dammit, Hal!", spending several silent moments leaning against his "corpse", meticulously and tenderly cleaning the blood away from his mouth, and slipping Hal's glasses into his pocket, he says this, deathly calm: "Tell me where they are, and I will kill them." Later Otacon wakes up and is informed by Meryl of his faked death. He's so distraught by this that he ends up severely damaging his hands in an attempt to tear out the hinges of his cell door. Raiden discovers the faked death and correctly guesses that Snake will let himself be killed on his mission to take out the mercenary group, as without Otacon he has nobody left to live for. The fic ends happily, but man alive, will it wring out your heart.

Miraculous Ladybug

  • Bring Me Home is a standout among the many angsty fics taking place after Hawkmoth's defeat and unmasking, usually as Gabriel Agreste. The following night, Ladybug waits at her usual meeting place hoping to finally unmask herself and confess her feelings to Chat Noir. But he never shows up, because Adrien, ashamed with himself for never realising his father was his enemy, has taken his ring off and can't bring himself to contact her. Five years later, Ladybug is still waiting on the roof every single night, her civilian life has become a mess and Marinette's friends can't help but worry about how much she's withdrawn since high school. Marinette even acknowledges that Chat would be disappointed with his Lady if he knew what her grief had turned her into, but she can't bring herself to give up without knowing whether or nor he's even alive. One night, shortly after she moves in with Adrien following her apartment building burning down, Adrien confronts her about this and urges her to stop pushing people away without explanation. She runs from the apartment in distress, transforms into Ladybug and keeps running until Tikki forces her to change back and tells her the same thing. As she walks back home, she passes the park where Theo's statue of the heroes still stands, and climbs on the pedestal to touch Chat's cheek.
    • Later that night, after returning to the apartment, Marinette breaks down in front of Adrien and admits to being Ladybug. In turn, Adrien finally sees just how heartbroken she was by his absence and admits that he was Chat Noir. After he reveals that he still has his Miraculous, kept locked in a safe in his room, she realises that he always had the choice to come back to her and yet chose to let her sit hurting for him for five years. The resulting outburst is... actually kinda cathartic depending on how much sympathy you still have for Adrien by this point, but it's still pretty heartbreaking.
  • Don't Go Breaking My Heart is one of the saddest rejection fics out there, not least because Adrien has no idea that he's broken Marinette's heart until he visits her as Chat Noir a few days later.
    Chat Noir: So who do I have to go have words with for making my princess cry?
    Marinette: It wasn't his fault. He has no idea that I love him. I just wish it didn't hurt so much. (Chat puts his arms around her) I wish I hadn't fallen for him. I wish it didn't hurt. I wish I could think whenever I saw him. I wish I had known sooner I didn't have a chance when he was already in love with someone else. I wish Adrien Agreste had never given me his stupid black umbrella! (Cue a silent My God, What Have I Done? from Chat.) I wish I had never fallen for how strong he is all the time. He smiles so freely when he thinks nobody can see. He loves physics and genuinely likes tutoring the rest of us when we struggle. He's so kind despite everything that should say spoilt rich kid. He's brave. He's loyal. I just wish he was just a friend, just a classmate to me. Why did I have to fall for the one guy who I never had a chance with? He asked me to meet him a café a few days ago and I was so excited. I was just happy to hang out with him. I like hanging out with him. And he was acting so nervous! I've never seen him like that. When I asked what was up, Adrien started talking about this girl. The way he just lit up while talking about her... I've never seen him like that. He looked so happy. It was all I could do to keep smiling. And when he finally asks for my advice, you know what I told him?
    Chat: What?
    Marinette: I told him to tell her. I told him to go and find this wonderful girl and tell her how he felt. I bet she's amazing. I hope she knows just how lucky she is.

Miss Saigon

  • The oneshot Eat Too Much Ice Cream. Seven-year-old Tam gets sick, and asks for his mother. He still has no idea that she's dead, or what happened during the events of the show.
    Tam: Was she pretty?
    Chris: Kim, your mom, was beautiful. You have her eyes and her mouth and...(Single Tear) Your mom was the bravest and kindest person I've ever known. You're so much like her.
    Tam: Did - did she love me?
    Chris: More than...anything.
    Tam: I want her. (starts to cry) Why isn't she here?
    Chris: She isn't here because of how much she loved you.
    • And after that line: "Tam doesn't understand, thinks he would prefer to have her here over her loving him so much."

Monster Hunter

My Little Pony

  • They have yet to be reposted anywhere else, but one My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic thread on /co/ had an Anon ask "Which character makes you feel the most sympathetic when they cry?" Someone answered "Pinkie Pie. Can you even imagine, someone as constantly happy and upbeat as her, being reduced to tears?" Two writers rose to the challenge.note 
    • This AMV is both sad and heartwarming. It just seems to be about all the cynical adults who watch this innocent, adorable show about ponies and feel like kids again. "I'm never growing up."
    • The background character known as Derpy Hooves seems to attract a lot of sadfics. (Read these three in order for maximum effect.)
  • Growing Up. Just the fact that Spike is outliving all his friends, and has seen the deaths of many of them, including Fluttershy, Big Macintosh, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash. The descriptions of their deaths make things even worse. Moreover, it's implied that most of the other cast members are dead, including the Mayor, Zecora, the current Wonderbolts, Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, and Braeburn, just to name a few.
  • Forever is Forever. Applejack in heaven, period.
  • The Best Medicine, by zaptiftun. (Because there are others by that title.) The death of Sun Drop.
  • ** Background Pony. The whole premise is Lyra Heartstrings being cursed to be forgotten by everyone who meets her. It gets sadder from there.
  • The concept album Here On The Moon, by 4everfreebrony. What if, in the episode "Party of One", Pinkie Pie decided that her friends didn't love her anymore and went to go live on the moon?
    It's time to say goodbye
    Cause I've learned how to fly
    Don't wanna see you anytime soon
    All tension's thin out here
    In this cool atmosphere
    So I'll be living here on the moon
  • Pound and Pumpkin Cake's Adventures (and Misadventures) in Potty Training:
    • During a tiff with her brother, Pumpkin calls him a "turd" and flushes him down the toilet. But then, she's so wracked with guilt that she calls herself a turd and flushes herself down the toilet as well.
    • After getting the flu, Starlight feels like she's The Load and gives up, not only on her studies, but on friendship in general.
    • One chapter involves Apple Bloom stealing Pound's diapers and putting them on because her parents both died when she was a toddler and she was desperately trying to remember them.

    N 
Naruto
  • The Naruto fanfic "Blind". The premise of the story is that Sasuke blinds himself to prevent Orochimaru from taking control of him. (Alternate future fic - breaks off shortly after the beginning of Shippuuden.)
  • A Self-Insert Fic where a girl intentionally made her Self-Insert a Mary Sue (She said so in the description.) who thought her two team members and her sensei loved her and was so confident they'd take a sword for her. Turns out, the two other members of the team absolutely hated her guts because she was so show-offy and smug. Then they tried to stop Hidan and Kakuzu, they literally didn't even try to save her as the others were trying to save their Sensei instead and literally threw her right in the way of Hidan's scythe and let him taste her blood so he wouldn't do that to them. Hidan then decided to break her legs and watch Kakuzu murder her sensei right in front of all three while the two members finally showed what they really thought of her and said "So you finally lose, miss perfect!''" and are then murdered. Hidan decides she wasn't worth his time and instead just stabs himself through the stomach so she'll bleed to death, rejected by her friends and for the first time in her life, tasting failure.
    • From Bad to Worse because she actually survived and the Raikage thought she was behind the Akatsuki invasion and the loss of Yugito, and she would have been executed by his hand if not for the fact that someone else spoke up and saved her...and she had told that one person to "fuck off" earlier in the fic because she hated him.
  • Who I Am:
    • Kakashi's Log in Chapter 12: "...Sensei, I'm sorry. I'm a failure as a teacher. I know you'll never forgive me for everything I've done, but I'm sorry, and I always will be."
    • The way Sasuke frets over Naruto. A far cry from the cold, unempathetic ass he is in canon.
  • From this Naruto fic Shinigan , Naruto apologizing to Hinata for not telling her about the fox.
    Naruto: He sealed it...in me. Inside me. What I did there...was I pulled out some of its power. I wasn't fast enough to get that guy otherwise. I...I'm sorry I didn't, didn't tell you already, but...everyone else hates me for it. All the civilians...I just wanted...I wanted to have a friend...I'm sorry...
  • A ficlet where Naruto dies on the bridge is pure Tear Jerker but the worst is Sasuke's reaction.
    Sasuke: I want you to train me. I need to get stronger, I need to get faster and I need to learn how to use these eyes of mine.
    Kakashi: Back only a day and already thinking of training, take a break.
    Sasuke: No, I need to get more powerful.
    Kakashi: I'm not going to train you Sasuke. I'm not your sensei anymore, not that you ever truly acknowledged me as such anyway, and I don't feel like fuelling your self destructive obsession. So no, I won't help you.
    Sasuke: You have to! I-I need to be stronger. If I'd been stronger or if I'd been faster, I could have stopped him... I-If I had mastered my eyes, I could have seen him and stopped him before... Before he died.
    Kakashi: You, you're not talking about Itachi... Are you?
    Sasuke: If I'd been stronger or faster, I could have beaten that ice user before he had too... If my eyes were more powerful I could have seen the senbon, could have dodged better or countered or... If I'd been better... If I'd been better, he wouldn't have had to die. If I'd been better they would still be here... Everyone dies because I'm weak. I-I need to get strong, I need to make sure no one else dies... I can't, I can't have anyone else die on me.
    ** Links to the chapters in the collection featuring the above mentioned story [3], [4], [5] and [6].
  • From the first part of Alternate Beginnings of an Uzumaki we get Naruto searching a graveyard until he finds a grave with "Uzumaki" on it.
    Naruto: "My name is Uzumaki Naruto... Are we family?"
  • The entirety of Chapter 26 of Yet, mad I am not.
  • In chapter 38 of 108 Earthly Temptations, Sekanji Terasawa finds herself explaining to four years-old Tsunade and Orochimaru reviving the dead would be disturbing their rest and as such it's better to let them go. Orochimaru's answer is childish and utterly heartbreaking: "But I love you".

Neon Genesis Evangelion

  • ''At Death's Door'': It is based on Shinji as a dying old man, the last person alive to remember the Angel Wars. Everyone else has died, Rei, Misato, Asuka, Toji, Kensuke etc. And Asuka. And Shinji can't tell any more if it was real or if it was all just "a life he constructed for himself, to prove his own existence?". And then he remebers the image of Asuka and that he had one loved her, but not her name... And as he is dying, he desperately tries to remember her name: He Does: 'Death smiled down at Shinji Ikari... and he smiled back. The old man opened his mouth, and breathed his last word."Asuka..."'
  • ''Die With Me''. It is NOT a tragic-romantic. It is just tragic. Kyoko's POV after the Unit 02 experiment. Here is the first paragraph: "I never paid enough attention to Asuka. My entire mind was on Unit-02. And now, I can concentrate on my beloved daughter. I hope she isn't still mad at me for ignoring her. No one but Asuka cares about me. The only person besides the doctor and my husband who comes to see us is that little girl. I think she just wants to tease Asuka. So Asuka must eat her dinner so the girl won't laugh at her." To those that don't know 'that little girl' is Asuka. Her mother has gone mad and thinks that the doll is her daughter. Yeah...

    O 
One Piece
  • Icarus's Curse is about the friendship of Pell and Chaka. When they were younger, Chaka promised Pell if anything happened to him, he would pull him out of any sea that threatened to kill him. Then, flashforward to the scene where Pell was killed, Chaka was useless to prevent it.
  • Another One Piece one, where it was implied that Zoro was killed in battle and they never found his body. The rest of the Straw Hats had continuously searched for him, clearly in denial, even when the years passed and they had fulfilled all their dreams. The most heartbreaking moment was when Mihawk had found Zoro's treasured sword and gave it to Luffy and they were simply forced to accept that Zoro was gone.
  • Existence has Zoro fighting to not disappear from being erased from existence and all of his friends has forgotten him. The Big Bad has thoroughly enjoyed manipulating everyone and he sics an enraged Luffy on an already injured Zoro by tricking the Straw Hats into believing that Zoro had attacked Chopper. It went From Bad to Worse as Luffy accidentally stepped on the hourglass that contained Zoro's existence, effectively killing his swordsman without realizing it. The flashback at the end of that chapter made it even worse.
    Luffy: "Hey Zoro? Would you stay with us forever?"
    Zoro: " ... Sure, Captain."
  • The Peggy Sue New Game Plus sends the Straw Hat Pirates back in time, in their younger bodies. For Brook, it means going back in the Florian Triangle, aboard a dilapidated ship full of bones and deprived of any presence. The skeleton almost loses his grip on his sanity when he briefly considers the possibility of his new crew and friends being a mere hallucination born out of his loneliness. Thankfully, he quickly understands he's actually in the past, and his friends are somewhere in the world.

Osomatsu-san

  • ALL of "I, With A Reputation For A Follow-Up Suicide", what with the subject matter being that every single one of the brothers ends up killing themselves, but the real breaking point comes when Osomatsu kills himself and Ichimatsu is the last of the brothers still alive...
    [Ichimatsu] would have been perfectly content with letting the flames consume him, but as he had come to realise, fate hated him. That's how instead of being dead and buried next to five other brothers he regained consciousness beside the burning building in his distraught mother's arms.

    The only items salvaged from what used to be their home were five hoodies. They were coated in a thin layer of ash and were slightly singed at the edges, but other then that miraculously untouched.

    Hugging them to his chest, Ichimatsu felt his eyes sting and his chest hurt. Pink, yellow, green, blue, and red all swirled together until finally the dam broke. Tears flowed like twin waterfalls down his cheeks as he sobbed relentlessly. The weight of everything came crashing down from the start of it all when he held Todomatsu's hand until it turned cold, to the sight of Osomatsu horrifically burned and mangled after being pulled from underneath the collapsed ceiling.

    They were all gone.

    Even his make-believe brothers that seemed to always be by his side were nowhere to be found, and at that moment, Ichimatsu had never felt more alone.

Ouran High School Host Club

  • The one-shot fic Castle Down, detailing the life of Kyoya's mother. It starts off with Yoshio more or less raping her on the wedding night and just keeps going downhill from there until she is inevitably Driven to Suicide. The most powerful part, however, is probably the final two lines of dialogue, spoken by Kyoya and his father after his mother's funeral.
    Kyoya: It's your fault she died.
    (long pause)
    Yoshio: I know.

    P 

Persona

  • Persona 3: Fairly English Story Had a fantastic one in the already tearjerking. Fortune Full Moon - Akihiko got there in time to take a bullet for Shinjiro and died.

Phineas and Ferb

Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare

  • Dear God, the co-authored universe penned by authors Stwolfgang Ambrose and ZePeaWithZeGoggles. It follows several characters as the consequences of the war unfold, further compounded by several bits of Fanon sprinkled in. All of them start off serious, but not entirely sad or even freakish... but then, cue Mood Whiplash after several chapters.
    • First off, when each character enters the war, they're a few years short of adulthood, making a lot of the things below worse than they normally are.
    • The entire arc of Pete and Allison, the tried-and-true story of a wartime family. Despite the fact that the plants in this universe are psychologically engineered to be war machines (see below), Pete struggles to get back home safely. By the time this starts to show, it's seemingly too late to go back, until he comes up with a ploy involving Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated and a Backup Twin. It works, but at the cost of the stress of keeping up the facade and a few harrowing hours for Allison.
    • As noted above, plants in this world are essentially war machines which have achieved sapience. While they still possess a great deal of humanity, Pete's remarks when he first meets Desmond show that he, and perhaps many others, don't even know what many facets of normal life are. Once the war does end, an extension to the series shows that these warmongering traits have caused the plants to descend into infighting. It can also be inferred that this is why Kendrick is portrayed as a sociopath before his brother talks him out of it.
    • Ane inadvertently reliving his Harmful to Minors experience that caused him to renounce his loyalty for his father and run off to join LEAF and become a successful commander.
    • A few chapters after his flashback, Ane and his squad are deployed to a neighborhood that was conquered by the zombies. He winds up finding his old home, only to bump into someone else: his father. The ensuing battle shows that he hasn't changed one bit from the time he killed a human over a petty argument and dismissed it as a regular response from his anger.note  As he derisively beats Ane down and continues to berate him for not deserving the role of commander in his eyes, Ane enters a trance of his own and crushes his father in his maw. When Ane realizes what he's done, he runs to Sarah for comfort, only to be punched aside as she teleports back home without him, forcing his other squadmates to come with her. Traumatized, abandoned, beaten, and utterly devastated, the chapter ends with one poignant line:
    "I wanted to cry, but I never have, and I never will."
    • After that, the knife gets twisted even further: Sarah breaks down from the overload of emotional baggage, feeling simultaneously betrayed over the Accidental Murder, and regretful for abandoning the poor Chomper to begin with. The only solace available is Mystic trying to calm her down, promising to get Ane back.
    • Everything about the Hodges siblings screams this trope. The two brothers went to war and had their personalities irreversibly converted to the point where their pre-war personalities seemingly disappeared: Peater became a deconstruction of The Comically Serious with extreme consequences, and Kendrick became more devoted to the war than anything else, which develops into sociopathic tendencies (lack of empathy and by-the-books elitism) over time. Their sister, Icee, has to watch all of this unfold, including the four-year Time Skip during which both were MIA and nearly has to go up in a Heroic Sacrifice when Kendrick's instability comes to a head. Thankfully, Icee and Peater get better, but Kendrick initially does not, first evidenced by bickering with Icee over whether or not he even cares about Peater to begin with, and then later when he, upon reuniting with Peater, tries to stab him not realizing the latter had become The Atoner, leading to Icee's almost-Heroic Sacrifice.
    • Hershel, being The Engineer and thus spending lots of time out of combat (to the point where Word of God states that it's thrown off his otherwise remarkable accuracy), seems to initially get a free pass from most of the trauma the others go through. However, when investigating a Z-TECH lab and discovering terrifying weapons laying around, along with an agenda for the in-progress Zombot attack, the stress gets to him. He starts hallucinating Mystic, one of his closest friends, as dead from multiple stab wounds. This would normally be pure horror if not for the fact that one, Hershel straight-up removes his Toxic Pea helmet to cry before realizing it's not real, and two, he knows he's undergoing psychosis, and there's nothing he can do but follow the real Mystic's voice until they escape. Also, it's very much possible that he's hallucinating that particular image because it's somewhat implied that he, like Ane and Sarah, loves Mystic.
    • The finale, with the battle against the Zombot. Let's just say death and revival are a particularly unnerving experience that involves Break Them by Talking... and when this happens to Ane, it doesn't even work the first time, sending him into a coma deep enough for the others to think he's dead.
    • A stinger reveals that Ane and Sarah somehow had a child during/after the whole mess. Just one look at the circumstances are enough to prove that this, in a subversion of Babies Ever After, will not end well. The two aren't married, are only twenty... and the story in Development Hell dealing with the child(ren, Word of God says they have another a year later) is called "Bonding at a Moment of Chaos." Yeah...

Pokémon

  • Blue's Raticate is a gameverse Pseudo-Canonical Fic about the death of the titular Pokemon, told from Gary's perspective.
  • Fractured Stars (see also Fan Fic Recommendations for the entire trilogy). It starts going downhill around chapter 9 in terms of sadness; by 12-14, you're in impact-crater-like depths of despair. "In fact...I...I don't think anyone cares about me anymore."
  • A Pokémon story based on the song "The Green Fields of France" as performed by Dropkick Murphys, which was intentionally written to invoke a tear jerker and to get people thinking if war is really necessary. The end includes a scene where the ghost of Willie McBride confronts the characters and salutes them before fading away.
  • No Antidote: It's not merely watching a kid essentially falling apart mentally. Not even the highly-hinted twist. It's someone forced to care about something falling apart.
    • The end of chapter 4, in which the kid reaches the Despair Event Horizon, gives up on trying to live his life and entrusts himself to his Pokémon.
  • All sorts of Pokémon stories can have Tear Jerker moments, including lemons.
    • Luca's Saga: this one's long and it's all happy for a while, but then some terrible things happen and people die.
    • Her Biggest Fan: depressing right from the start this time, even worse at the end.
    • Journey to another World: The story itself isn't really that sad, until you realize that the main character is actually hallucinating the entire thing in a comatose dream.
    • Don't Beg: A short one-shot which, despite the lack of any real backstory, manages to be a very moving piece of work.
    • The two biggest works by XD-385, Chronicles of the Chosen One and the Forbidden Love saga (including its sequel): The characters may be predictable, and the fights are usually overpowered, but there are more than a few tearjerker moments in each, particularly Ashton's death and Frost's redemption.
    • The Ties that Bind by Saffire Persian: If you're not sobbing hysterically by the time you find out your Charizard is dead, you definitely will be in the final scene where you are scattering his ashes over all the memorable places from your journey.
  • Pedestal. Letting the actual consequences of the Tournament sink in is...horrifying.
  • Five Days Of Midnight is a fanfiction that starts out light enough..and then everything just goes- watching Ash panic when Misty, Brock and the others vanish is awful enough, but when he finds what he thinks is Misty's dead body, encased in magic!ice it's just way too much. but there are enough CMOH and Crowning Moments Of Awesome to make it way worth the read.
  • sixteen tons, a story of Byron's depressing childhood growing up in the poor mining town of Oreburgh City. He starts out as a bright-eyed child with dreams of leaving the town and starting a better life, but that optimism is slowly crushed as the years go by and things only get worse. His older brother dies in a mining accident, he has to start working in the coal mines at 12 to support his family, his baby sister dies of an unspecified disease because the family can't afford the medicine she needs, his father suffers a crippling injury that leaves him unable to work, and when he's 24, his wife abandons him and their two-year-old son, Roark. In the end, when the mine is shut down, Byron never leaves the city, instead volunteering to become its Gym Leader. There's a glimmer of hope, however, in that anyone who has played Pokémon Diamond and Pearl knows that he becomes the Leader of Canalave City, meaning he'll eventually escape Oreburgh one day.
    • Other sad Pokémon stories by the same author include: eden, where Courtney realizes Ruby will never love her the way she loves him and abandons her beloved garden to search for a new purpose, halcyon days where Kris gradually loses her memories and sense of self due to a brain tumor (with the ending implying the same will happen to Lyra), and poison where Red gives up on being a hero and goes home after Giovanni convinces him that no matter how hard he tries, he can never undo all the evil in the world.
    • queen of hearts provides an origin story for Domino, the Team Rocket agent featured in Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns. She was a neglected child who was taken in by Giovanni after her mother was murdered, and raised as a member of Team Rocket. While she is one of his favorites, he's more like her boss than her father, and she desperately wants him to love her like he loves his son Silver. Deep down, she wants a normal life, and most of all, to be loved by someone.
      But I don't want to be loved for the role I play, says a strange voice in the back of her mind. I want to be loved for real. I want a father, not a boss. I want a mother, not a babysitter. I want a home and a family and everything I've never, ever had–
  • This "You Are My Sunshine" comic, which has a hatchling Charmander being adopted by a Venusaur. As the Venusaur raises the Charmander into a Charizard, it finds itself growing elderly, and eventually passes away with its Charizard child by its side. The last panel is of a tree stump surrounded by the Venusaur's favorite flowers and with a heart burned into the center.
  • The Wallet has Ash casually mention Brock, whom Clemont and Serena have never heard of. Ash digs out his wallet and shows off a picture of Brock. When Clemont and Serena ask to check out the other pictures, they realize that Ash has traveled with numerous people before, none of whom he's ever mentioned. Then it starts to sink in that after Ash gets his next and final badge in the Kalos region, he'll move on and they'll just be another picture in his wallet.
  • In one Recursive Fanfiction based on the Creepypasta Pokémon Black, Red's mother overhears her son telling Ghost "You can have all the souls you want but you can't have my mom!"
  • A Cubone and a Phantump both lose their mothers, and decide to wait together for them. They end up waiting their whole lives. The second panel shows them as a Marowak and Trevenant, and the third shows Trevenant's empty tree trunk overgrown with vines and Marowak's skull resting at its base.

Portal 2

  • Test Of Humanity.
    • Just seeing the normally cheerful and bumbling Wheatley in a suicidal depression in "Ch. 12" of the story is heartbreaking.
    • The end of "Ch. 16" and most of "Ch. 17", especially when Chell is begging him to get up.
    • GLaDOS torturing Wheatley in "Ch. 16".
  • Soft Shock takes the 'Wheatley comes back to apologize' story and subverts it hard.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

  • Most of Souls Beyond Time is so packed with tears it makes ocean water seem unsalted, even if it's set in a world without contracts or witches.
    • Kyoko's father still ends up attacking his family. Nobody dies, but Kyoko blames Mami for it (as Kyoko had been sleeping over at Mami's place). Kyoko ends up breaking up with Mami, driving her to the brink of insanity.
      The blonde collapsed, her legs falling out from under her as what had just happened began to sink in. No more lunches on the roof sharing treats, no more family dinners, no more nights under the city lights. The cold that began eating away at her heart was something she hadn't felt in a while, a familiar but unfriendly sensation that made her body start shivering. Tears had come first, then the laughing, endless, raucous laughter devoid of joy or sentiment. And then her mind relinquished its feeble attempt to keep her sane. The laughter turned into moans and soon she was nothing but a sobbing heap on the stones, trapped in a coil of her own reality. It was a moment, much like her family's death, that would stay with her forever; a moment in time, inescapable... the moment when she lost the last light in her world.
    • Sayaka manages to get into Hitomi's pants one night while drunk. Both are suitably mortified, driving a rift between them that doesn't properly heal for months.
    • Homura dying in a plane crash at the end of Tinder and Madoka being so overwhelmed with grief she can't stand up. On Christmas fucking Day.
      • Homura comes back. After trekking halfway across the planet from the freaking Middle East to Japan. It's also implied she's come down with something, and slugging it out through India and the like with little to no access to food or shelter has taken a toll on her already-weak immune system.
    • Hitomi seems to be worse than her anime counterpart. Her telling Sayaka of her plan to confess to Kyosuke in three days time seems more like a Breaking Speech. She sounds like the freaking Joker!
      Sayaka: I... but Kyosuke and I-...
      Hitomi: Are just friends. You two are only friends. You have passed up every chance to change that, to tell him, and yet you've shirked the courage needed to do so at every turn. I have watched you flounder, and while my feelings are most likely younger than yours, they are no less passionate about making him my own. In three days time I will confess to him, of that I am more than intent; I am determined.
      Sayaka: But why? Why tell me any of this? Why not just do it?
      (Hitomi's expression saddens)
      Hitomi: Because I love you Sayaka. You're like a sister to me, you and Madoka, and I want to see the both of you happy. I've waited so long to tell him because I thought that one day you'd be happy with him and I'd be able to move on... But I just can't wait any longer, especially since the accident.
      Sayaka: The... h-he's going to be fine...
      Hitomi: He's not, Sayaka. His life, and anyone who spends their life with him, is going to be impossibly difficult, and I don't want to see two people waste away in denial when they both could be happier. I don't... After what happened with Homura, and then Kamijo's accident... And seeing you there day after day doing nothing... I'm not standing by any longer.
    • By Kindred Pyre, Madoka's starting to believe she's cursed everyone around her.
    • Nagisa's Please Wake Up moment with her mother, and the funeral for her.
    • Sayaka absolutely losing her shit at Kyosuke and Hitomi. In Inferno. Kyosuke for being an oblivious douchebag, and Hitomi for telling Sayaka to give up on him when he managed to heal. It ends with Sayaka telling her oldest friends "fuck you" and stalking off, leaving even Kyoko completely speechless.
  • The Hitomi Trap (Warning: Explicit).
    • Hitomi getting hit by a truck and Sayaka contracting to save her.
    • Just after Sayaka learns that the witch she had recently killed was Candeloro (read: Mami Tomoe) and that she will eventually become a witch herself, Hitomi walks into the room. Sayaka is, of course, a wreck. So she unintentionally murders Hitomi with a sword. She then loses her mind, and forces Homura to reset the loop after Homura had successfully killed Walpurgisnacht. Ouch.
      • The very last line in the final chapter.
        Never forget. Never forget what you did to me. Always remember how you killed me. Forever.
      • To increase the impact of Homura being forced to reset, she was described as having braided her hair for old times' sake.

    Q 
(No examples yet.)

    R 
Ranma ½
  • Without a doubt, The Bitter End is perhaps the most depressing and sad story set in the Ranma ½ universe, ever.

Redwall

  • Also includes fanart, but regardless; the tributes from the fandom upon the death of Redwall creator Brian Jacques, particularly this one.
  • A Redwall Fic called Vengeance Quest. It starts with a young squirrelmaid seeing her father brutally killed by a wolverine...but that's not the sad part. She grows up filled with hate and revenge...still not the sad part. She tortures a stoat from the wolverine's hoard to death for information...still not the sad part. Meanwhile, some time ago a young subcaptain in the hoard was horrified at the wolverine's methods and left, leaving her fiercely loyal superior and good friend, Keirn (whom she also loved), behind. She left in the direction of the squirrel...and that, while gutwrenching, still isn't the sad part. The sad part is when you remember what that stoat's last words were: "Keirn...I'm so sorry..."

Red vs. Blue

  • Save and Restore has Delta desperately trying to create a simulation of York after his death while stuck in York's armor. After numerous failures, he finally succeeds in creating a glitchy but still sentient copy of York, and the two talk as the armor finally shuts down.
  • Noradrenaline has Grif and Simmons both be fatally wounded during the Reds and Blues's Last Stand aboard the Staff of Charon, and the two slowly die from blood loss while holding each other. It ends with the Reds and Blues holding a funeral and burying them together.
  • Mechanical Failure has Simmons slowly die when his cybernetic body parts start failing, while Grif sticks by him until the end. The sequel, which has Simmons be resurrected as an AI, is equally heartbreaking, but in a much happier way.

Rugrats

  • Prerugrats reveals why Chuckie conisders being put on the bottle to be the worst thing in his life— he associates it with Melinda's death.
  • One of the possible endings to The Babies Who Floated Off into Space involves Chuckie having exploded and the rest floating off into space, never to be seen again.

RWBY

  • RWBY: Reckoning shows Darrel revealing his origins to Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and Sun. Coupled with the fact that he's failed to save Blake from getting a broken leg, the stress of the entire situation finally gets to him. Even though Ruby and Yang promise to listen to him, he just lashes out, and runs off. As one reviewer put it, Darrel may have promised to make things better in the universe of RWBY, but in actuality, all he's done is make it worse.

    S 
Sailor Moon
  • Cyber Moon, a very long Sailor Moon fanfic, has an interesting way of avoiding Death is Cheap: Sailor Saturn and OC "Dragon Saturn" have the power to resurrect, but each can only resurrect a given person once, so the third death is permanent. This finally comes into play near the end when Yuichiro is killed for the third time while protecting his and Rei's young daughter.
  • Cosmic Warriors has Naru Osaka being attacked by a mysterious man, she is saved and seems to have only minor injuries. Two chapters later, it is revealed Naru was raped that night either before Usagi arrived or while Usagi had been knocked out. Usagi weeps on the hospital floor after hearing the news.

Scooby-Doo

  • Time Heals sees Shaggy look back on his relationship with Daphne and how it ended.
    • Shaggy has panic attacks that Scooby has to help him through.
    • It turns out the reason that the gang were going to Hawaii in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was so that Shaggy could propose to Daphne and that the events of that series pretty much ended their relationship.
    • Daphne telling Shaggy that she's leaving. It's handed so realistically - it hurts both of them so much, but they agree it's for the best.
    • The reason that Shaggy moved into his residence was so he could start a family with Daphne. Ouch.
    • The revelation that Scrappy's mother Ruby Doo, Scooby's sister, died a week after giving birth to him. Nobody could figure out why, they just assumed she was too weak.
    • The iconic Mystery Machine has broken down after sixteen reliable years on the road. Rather than consign it to the scrapyard, Shaggy keeps it in his backyard, where it sits slowly rusting away.
    • Scrappy loses it when told of Daphne's departure. With his mother dead, then Velma gone and now Daphne, he's lost the only female role models in his life. The story pretty much confirms that Daphne is the closest thing he has to a mother. Now watch the scene where he cries upon seeing her comatose in 13 Ghosts - he's reminded of his late mom.
    • Daphne saying goodbye to Shaggy and the dogs at the airport. It's offset with a gag of Scooby blowing his nose nosily on her handkerchief.

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong

  • Any story in which Shen Yuan comes out as a transmigrator is guaranteed to hurt for Yue Qingyuan. The poor man cared for (and maybe loved) Shen Qingqiu since they were starving, enslaved street urchins, desperately trying to make amends for unwittingly abandoning him in spite of Shen Qingqiu's well-deserved anger and contempt. Then Shen Qingqiu fell sick and his personality suffered a drastic change, but Yue Qingyuan can live with that because his treasured friend-potential crush seems to finally grow closer with him... only to learn that no, this isn't truly Shen Qingqiu forgiving him but someone else wearing his face and taking over his life. For all matters and intents, Xiao Jiu is gone, and Yue Qingyuan will never get to reconcile with him as he wanted to.

The Secret Show

  • In How to write a TSS story?, the story-within-a-story "Losing a Beloved" ends with the Tragic Stillbirth of Victor and Anita's daughter. While the title may have given away that someone close to them was going to die, it's nevertheless shocking and heartbreaking when Anita realizes she can't feel the baby move anymore. Even more so when she and Victor have to come to terms with the reality of what's happened. Even the readers In-Universe are sad after finishing the story.

Sesame Street

  • Evremonde's "Sanctuary". (Yes, Sesame Street.) Anything to do with the death of Mr. Hooper is a tearjerker by definition, but oh, that last line.

Sherlock

Sherlock Holmes

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Sonic the Hedgehog

South Park

  • Lex Talionis is one of the most depressing fanfics ever written, but the tears will definitely start falling when you find out that Stan killed Cartman on purpose to save his one true love.

Spyro the Dragon

  • In chapter 24 of The Legend of Dwayne and Lisa, Dwayne and Lisa are fighting an Advanced Husk that the Sorceress has sent to kill them, but it turns out that this Advanced Husk is actually their mother, Chara.
    • Dwayne tearfully begging for his mother to not die.
    Dwayne: But... maybe we can help you! Find some way to get her magic out without killing you!
    Chara: No, son, it's not possible, I can already feel her magic overriding my spirit. Your... mage friend must remove the magic which gives my decaying body life.
    Dwayne: NO! Mom, please! There has to be a way! A way for us to be together again! Please!
    Chara: I want that too, son, but I know it's not possible. I love you and your sister more than anything, but my time is over, please son, let me rest and join our ancestors in the afterlife.
    Bianca: She's right, Dwayne. There's nothing we can do for her now. If we leave that spell in her, she'll just go right back to attacking us. I have to remove the black magic from her.
    Dwayne: OK.
    Chara: Thank you, Dwayne. At least... I got to see my children before... I left this world. I will always watch over you two... and tell your father... that I never blamed him for what happened to me.
    (Bianca begins to work her magic as Lisa starts crying into Chara's side)
    Chara: There there, I will always be with you. I love you both. (dies)

Star Trek

  • Go read the Star Trek (2009) fanfic Atlas, specifically chapter 4. Now try not to choke up when Kirk gets his orders for the Enterprise. While it loses quite a bit of impact without the other three chapters behind it, it is still a gut-punch (of the extremely awesome variety) all by itself if you know anything at all about the backstory.
    • Even more gut-wrenching is the second to last chapter in the "Atlas and the Dogs of War" chapter. And both the end of the first chapter and all of the second part of the "Claiming Atlas" Chapter.
  • A Meditation on Leaving. It's written from Spock's perspective just before he leaves for Gol. Rare is the fic about Spock that manages to be angsty and in character, but this one manages it. It's written beautifully. Especially tear-jerking is this What Is This Thing You Call "Love"? moment:
    "Is this love?" I asked him once as he lay full length on me, the warmth of his body augmenting mine, his lips sending flame along the webwork of my nerves, his hands gently tearing away uncounted centuries of Vulcan conditioning.
    "It's what I've always called love, Spock," he answered. "The only kind I know." And he drew me down into the furnace of passion and silence.
    I should have seen my undoing in that silence. For in the end, how easily he gave up everything he should have fought for. The ship, his command. Me.
    "We can be together on Earth," he said.
    "I cannot live with a shadow of the man I knew," I told him.
    "It must not be love, then," he said.

Star Wars

  • Mind Wiped, about the very end of Revenge of the Sith when C-3PO has his memory wiped.
  • Resist Order 66 retcons the Clone Troopers from calmly killing their generals to being brainwashed and forced to do it. Each of Aayla's men made sure to shoot her non-fatally then convinced themselves she was dead long enough to get her into her ship and have her droid record a message before sending it off. In the message, Commander Bly is noted as looking seconds away from breaking down and crying as he begs Aayla's forgiveness.

Street Fighter

  • I'm your biggest fan: The part where Abel dies protecting Fei-Long and his subsequent reaction to it is so sad. All in all, it's beautifully written.
  • There was a fan video that began with Ryu getting ready to enter the World Warrior championship from SFII. Fast-forward to 20-30 years later, and Ryu is now stuck being a really boring businessman. He stops his current work for one moment in order to look at a picture of himself from his glory days, and gets really choked up upon doing so.
  • This alternate take on Shadow Lady, a Secret Character in the game and a Palette Swap of Chun-Li forcibly turned into a robotic minion of M. Bison. Chun-Li died 15 minutes after giving birth to a baby, so it was unclear as to who the father of the child is, as she was dating Ryu and Dan Hibiki at the same time. It's later revealed that she wasn't properly buried as her body was stolen. In reality, her corpse was picked up, cyborgized, and experimented on for the sake of turning her into a pawn against Interpol. Fast forward 30 years later, she Came Back Wrong as an ultra high-tech cyborg killing machine developed by Shadaloo. When the task was completed, they turned her into a living weapon, complete with a new name and transformed her into M. Bison's right-hand henchwoman. Before her transformation into Shadow Lady, Chun-Li routinely foiled Shadaloo's plans at every turn, so it's apparent that her cyborgization was done in retaliation for her foiling many of their plans. And unlike Shadow (a cyborgified Charlie Nash), who escaped shortly after being transformed, Shadaloo added a Restraining Bolt to her programming so she remains fully obedient to Shadaloo at all times, essentially becoming a Dark Action Robot Girl. Since then, Bison, who had been looking for a potential new test subject for creating a prototype super soldier for Shadaloo after Shadow fled, found this in his arch-nemesis Chun-Li. Shadaloo had vastly improved on the conversion process since then, and it was only fitting that the one constant pain in Bison's side be given this 'honor'. Designed to be the ultimate anti-Interpol weapon, she was sent out by the heinous Shadaloo leader to gather information on her former allies so they too could be turned into mindless cyborgs like Chun-Li and Charlie Nash were. It's unknown how much of Shadow Lady's body is organic and how much is mechanical, but it's speculated that most of her body, apart from her brain is full of servos, wires, circuit boards and motors. It's possible that M. Bison may have used the same technology on her that was used to create Cyber-Akuma. Even her iconic Odango Hair are now Robot Antennae, as it's speculated that she is receiving orders from Shadaloo and that she is being controlled via remote control; and being a brainwashed Cyborg, it's highly possible that she speaks in Machine Monotone, Robo Speak and speaks of destruction, all with a Computer Voice. And given that she no longer breathes, her face is given a breathing apparatus, making her a female Darth Vader Expy, so expect her voice to either sound metallic or machine-like as well if possible, which is tied to the mask; she's also gone from Raven Hair, Ivory Skin to being an eerie pale-skinned snowy-haired Robot Girl. As Shadow Lady, her formerly cheerful personality was obliterated, her body's physiology altered so it experienced no emotion apart from being an soulless and emotionless killing machine and serving as M. Bison's right-hand; and in essence, she is essentially a completely different person inhabiting her body and mind, and serves as nothing but a weapon against Interpol - she has all the moves, the beauty and the sexyness of Chun-Li, but she is now Shadow Lady, so she's only following the orders of M. Bison. In a short period of time, this what-if version of Chun-Li goes from a strong-willed woman to a completely submissive gynoid working for one of the most notorious gaming bosses. What's sad to see that if her child (who may have been grown up by now) decides to fight her, they don't know that their mother has been revived as a brainwashed, mechanized, cyborgized and roboticized machine. Also, neither Ryu nor Dan are aware that their former date has been revived as a Brainwashed Robot Girl. Even if her allies ever managed to revive her, she would have to deal with the guilt of being a tool for Shadaloo, not to mention the fact that being a minion for Shadaloo wouldn't magically go away overnight should she become a good person again. Aside from retaining a few moves from her non-cyborgified variant, she has built-in high tech weaponry, and all of this arsenal is built-in to her robotic body, like the T-X from the Terminator series; this also showcases her brainwashed and robotic nature. Shadow Lady shoots homing/heat-seeking missiles from her back, thrusts forward with a drill, encases herself in a electric barrier (that also deflects attacks and stuns opponents), miniaturized Vernier thrusters in her feet that enable her to jump much higher (and allow her to kick more rapidly, and possibly, serve as Rocket Boots) and fires a large beam (Big Bang Laser) from her palms. It's also been implied that deep down, the old Chun-Li is still there on some level, and is at least partially aware of what she has done. In her ending however, she manages to overcome Shadaloo's brainwashing, regain her original memories as Chun-Li, and join forces with Shadow in taking down Shadaloo. Despite this, she retains her robotic parts even after the brainwashing broke.

Super Mario Bros.

  • Nintendo Old School Revolution is a Flash animation done in the style of a movie trailer, where Luigi rallies up the rest of the Nintendo heroes, as well as other acquaintances such as Sonic the Hedgehog, in order to get revenge on Sony and Microsoft for killing Mario. It's a very powerful video as it's symbolic to what modern-day gaming has become: Sony, Microsoft, and all of their fans being treated with god-like respect while Nintendo and their fans are constantly bashed and mocked everywhere on the internet, most gamers hating everything that doesn't have guns and/or extreme violence, and most gamers choosing to own a PS4 or XO rather than a Wii U or 3DS.

Supernatural

  • Deterioration of Reason has OC!Gabriel in the hospital watching Castiel who was dying. Gabriel was given orders to end Castiel's life, even if following the command would break his heart. There was a brief recollection Gabriel had before doing the deed that simply drove his anguish further home.
    "Am I getting too heavy for you Gabriel? You worry too much, brother." A gentle chuckle, the warmth of brilliant sapphire blue eyes -
  • The fic Twist and Shout is fairly infamous among the fanbase for emotionally destroying anyone brave enough to read it. A certain Elvis song becomes an instant tearjerker, as well as:
    See you then.

    T 
Tales of the Frog Princess
  • If You Could Have a Second Chance, from the Tales of the Frog Princess section. This entire fic is one big Tear Jerker. Emphasis on Zoe's death, especially since the last thing she ever did was tell Francis she loved him.
    • In Chapter 4, when Francis realizes he can't use the stone to bring Zoe back to life after all...
    • Not to mention Zoe's parents' reactions to her death.
    • Happy tears when Francis instead uses the stone to go back in time, and sees Zoe alive again.

Tales Series

Team Fortress 2

  • Respawn of the Dead. Early in the story, Heavy gets stuck in the fence, and it's played for laughs. Then much later, the team is fleeing, and he gets stuck again. They can't get him out, and are forced to leave him to the zombies. Poor Medic's distraught, as he's already had to kill his pet zombie, and can't bear to leave his beloved to die. He is convinced to do so, and he and Heavy share a Last Kiss before he is pulled away. The clincher may be the words Medic screams at the others: "YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HIM! I WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU ALL, IF ONLY IT WOULD HAVE SAVED HIM!"
    • Early in the story, the BLU Spy succumbing to zombification, whilst wanting his mother and to go home, which leads to this line...
    "His eyes shot open wide, and suddenly he could see his home, in a small village, his mother calling his name with open arms, and the sun was so bright and everything was yellow and green and warm... And then he was home."
    • Pyro's death, especially considering how he had spent most of the fic as Medic's Morality Pet.
  • ''Transcripts from a Series of Therapy Sessions''. It really has to be read to be believed.

Teen Titans (2003)

  • Titan Legends, the fanfic that's an alternate universe in and of itself, has three. All are spoilers, but, in order, Noel being manipulated into betraying the Titans and going insane, the ending of the Zap Pack arc, and the ending of Boogeymen IV.
    • The last one in that list is made even worse when you find out the Lord of the Night had taken over Noel's mind against his will at the time, and what trying to fight it must have done to him afterward in Silent Night. Thank God for the memory wipe...
  • "He Took it Hard". Think The End of Ends, except only one chapter, doesn't rip off Super Paper Mario, and actually makes Beast Boy's angst feel tragic. You actually see the other Titans, namely Cyborg, trying to cheer him up, and Beast Boy's depression spiraling into full-on attempted suicide. It's thankfully followed by some happy tears when Cyborg and Terra save his life, the other Titans actually help BB out of his depression, if only a little bit, and Terra and Beast Boy actually take another chance at their relationship.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

  • By the same author of the Firefly fanfiction "Forward": Perfection, a Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles fic that explores the screwed-up mental state of future John Connor, while also exploring a possible John Connor/Allison Young ship. Anyone who's seen the episode "Allison From Palmdale" knows how this one is going to end, but the real hitter comes at the end of the story.
    John: "Welcome back, Cameron."

The World Ends with You

  • Proof Of Life: it's just a tearjerking moment after another. Basically, Joshua gets stripped of his status as the Composer for the rules he broke and gets a time limit of seven days after which he will die, Mr. Hanekoma gets erased, and Neku stays with Josh until the very last moment. Just the description alone of how Joshua's health gets from bad to worse as the time goes it's enough to get you teary-eyed. And let's not even begin with the epilogue...

Thomas & Friends

  • Behind Your Shed, I Never Move Again is an absolutely heartbreaking story about Smudger's life as a generator. If you didn't feel bad for him before, you will now.
  • Thomas Abridged has an absolute truckload, especially when the darker points of the plot start to hit home:
    • The Narrator's description of Henry's crash from Chapter 19:
      [James] reversed back onto another track, ready to give [Henry] a piece of his mind.
      "HENRY! YOU BLITHERING IDIOT! YOU- You...you-" He stared.
      Because for the first time, Henry the Green Engine wasn't responding to a jibe made by him.
      In fact, he wasn't responding at all.
      "Oh no." James whispered.
    • "Toby and the Stout Gentleman." It deals in the introduction of the tram-engine Toby, and his faithful companion Henrietta as they work on a slowly dying remote mountain rail line. Both of them are well aware that the old line is closing down as more and more goods and people are being moved by the roads than rail, but the entire time Toby keeps that fragile smile on his face, up until the very end. When the line finally closes, he bids farewell to Henrietta, and backs into his shed for the last time.
      Engines can sleep forever, if they so wish.
    • Carlin's departure from Sodor at the end of Season 4 is quite moving, which is made all the more sadder when even Percy, who's usually the last one to get emotional, starts sniffling.
    • Even more so for BoCo's departure in "Double Teething Troubles", especially when he and Edward talk for the last time. And then it turns to downright tragic when he's murdered by 'Arry and Bert on his way to the Mainland. Even the narrator seems saddened.
    • The death of Bertram/Smudger in Part 3 of Magic Railroad.
    • Duke's Heroic Sacrifice in Part 8 of Magic Railorad.
    • The ending of "Edward's Brass Band".
    • The end of "Three Cheers For Thomas", with The Fat Controller saying goodbye to Britt Allcroft and David Mitton, The Ffarquhar and Wellsworth branch lines getting closed down and Duck, Donald and Douglas deciding to leave the steam team behind due to the three of them being fugitives and The Steam Team thinking of the old Sodor to help them through Seasons 8-16.
  • In O Mother, Where Art Thou?, David Rider is so saddened when it appears that his mother has died in his long absence that he decides to kill himself. The moment he comes to that decision, and his final goodbye to Emily, is heartbreaking. Of course, he doesn't actually go through with it, but still...

Time Squad

  • No Matter The Cost, Otto mysteriously goes missing from the satellite and while freaking out trying to find him Larry and Tuddrussel get called to a disturbing mission, they figure out that they must make sure Otto's parents get killed. They are terrified as it is, watching Otto's house burn and knowing that they can not save his parents, the horror escalates when they come to the realization that no one is going to get Otto, who is a baby in this time, out alive. The most heart breaking moment is when Larry goes into the burning house to rescue a baby Otto, he runs into his mother who is weakly trying to protect Otto from the flames but is about to lose consciousness. She gives him up to Larry, without a word about saving her, she resigns to her fate with saying to her baby, "I'm so sorry, Otto..."

Tolkien's Legendarium

  • These Gifts That You Have Given Me. The foregone Downer Ending: Annatar betrays the Brotherhood, everyone dies. It's heartbreaking. The tears don't stop after Celebrimbor's death, either. He's so broken by Annatar's betrayal that he refuses to listen to Námo's call. But he listens to Curufin's.
    Not knowing if his son could hear him, not knowing if his voice would be more welcome than that of Mandos, or of Sauron, [Curufin] called to [Celebrimbor]. He called him by the names that his son no longer recognized, he called him as he would have called in childhood. Come home, come home, come back to me.
    And Celebrimbor heard him, though the past had been ripped away and the meaning scoured out of words, still in his very core he heard him, for in the time before language, that voice had meant home, and comfort, and a name -
    He turned, he reached out for him, he answered the call.
    Father?
  • Us Two. Amras finds the twin sons of Dior... too late.
    • Elurín's Death by Despair when he learns his twin is dead, and his last conversation with Amras.
      Elurín: I'm scared. What if Eluréd has gone so far ahead I can't find him?
      Amras: Then look for your adar note  or naneth note . [...] My brother will be where you’re going, too, little one. He will help you.
      Elurín: What's his name?
      Amras: He's Ambarussa, too.
      There was the merest ghost of a smile, and then Ambarussa was the only one there.

Total Drama

  • Cheater: Bridgette, one of the show's kindest and sweetest characters, is Driven to Suicide when EVERY contestant turns against her for being manipulated by Alejandro into cheating on her boyfriend with him during Total Drama World Tour. She faces untold amounts of insults, bullying, unwarranted hatred, ostracism, malicious rumours, and general venom spewed in her direction from even her former friends (and ex-boyfriend) for the incident, with her pleas for forgiveness and attempts to explain herself being dismissed by even the nicest people. It's every bit as heartbreaking as it sounds.

Touhou Project

  • The Touhou Project fanvid Alice Dere.
  • Touhou Tonari focuses on Yuyuko's backstory how it must have been like for her when she was alive. And even if you knew it was comming, her crossing the Despair Event Horizon still hit's really hard.
  • Fanfiction: Goodbye Chen is where it has Yukari and Ran dying of illness and Chen being left alone.
  • This fankoma is in the site's "Heartbreaking" pool for a reason. To elaborate, it concerns Yukari encouraging Rinnosuke to pursue his feelings for Reimu, despite having feelings for him herself. In the end, her heart is shattered when she is shown to have outlived them.
  • We also a heartbreaking take on a "Maribel-Yukari" theory from KrazyKatQueen (otherwise Known as "Chenkari") in the form of Regret, which has a dying Renko telling Yukari (once Maribel) that she forgives her, after the latter apologizes for her absence.
  • The animation Absolute One-Way Street gives us another heart-wrenching take on the "Maribel is Yukari" theory in which Maribel accidentally becomes Trapped in the Past and has to take The Slow Path back to her time, growing into Yukari and becoming inescapably entangled with Gensokyo in the process. When she finally reunites with Renko (who is completely unaware that her only friend is gone) mere seconds after she left, she sends her away to protect her from the same fate.
  • While this is a fanwork, Cool&Create's S Complex puts a really tragic spin on the less memorable Aki sister, Shizuha. She loves her sister dearly, but feels left out and lonely because Minoriko is constantly being invited to feasts. Harsh words are said, and Shizuha's heart is broken.
  • Double Scarlet tells a story about the Scarlet Sisters. At the beginning, Flandre and Remilia are lonely, so, with the help of Patchouli Knowledge, they go conquering lands and make friends with Sakuya Izayoi and Hong Meiling after besting them in battle. Over time, though, Flandre becomes more distant from Remilia, and is locked up in the basement. Patchouli shows Remilia a picture depicting the sisters holding hands that Flandre drew. Overcome with guilt, Remilia runs into the basement and shares a tearful and apologetic hug with the sister she's been ignoring for some time.
  • The fancomic Red Sky of Japonesia, where Shikeiki passes judgement on Remilia for her crimes against her sister, has a massive double whammy in its second half: first, Eiki Shiki defeats Remilia in danmaku combat very thoroughly, completely shattering Remilia's facade of being an arrogant, in-control vampiress and causing her to scream for help in exactly the same way her sister did while locked in the basement, and making her realise the weight of what she did to her own sister; the second whammy comes when Flandre interrupts Shikeiki's judgement to forgive her sister of the crime of locking her away out of fear of her power to destroy, absorbing Shikeiki's danmaku barrage and giving her sister a tearful hug. It's difficult to hold the tears in after that.
  • This image provides a good clue to how Flandre really feels mixed with a small dose of Nightmare Fuel. It really makes one start to question her insanity.
  • A remix of the ever-popular Cirno's Perfect Math Class song turns something cute, playful, and cheerful into a depressing scenario of a grown-up Cirno being Put on a Bus and sent into the big city, getting a job, and parting from her childhood friends. Fed up with work, she wishes for her old life and her friends to come back to her. Growing up really sucks, doesn't it?
  • A yukkuri's story has never been more heart wrenching.
  • The final stage of the fangame Concealed the Conclusion, where it is revealed that Reimu is dying, and when she dies, all of Gensokyo will go with her. After battling through countless foes, Marisa, perhaps Reimu's greatest friend, has to face her down in one final danmaku duel.
  • Gensokyo being home to many races, there are naturally countless fan works dealing with the inevitable regarding the characters' lifespans.
    • The End of the Maiden's Illusion. The mood is then ruined at the end when it's revealed it's all a script Nitori's presenting to a very much alive (and quite annoyed) Reimu.
    • The "Tragedy of Long Life" pool is 99% Sakuya, Marisa, and Keine dying, and Remilia/Meiling, Alice, and Mokou (respectively) grieving.
    • Quite a few doujins and pics exist of Sakuya passing on and Remilia and the rest of the Scarlet Devil Mansion having to move on without her.
      • Speaking of which, this image.
      • For those of you who are tired of a Sakuya dying, and like their tear jerker with a side of nightmare fuel; try this.
    • Yuri couplings get them, too. A video of one with Alice.
      • Patchouli and others do not seem to try very hard to get their stuff back from Marisa. Leave it to fans to make Marisa's own rationalization that she won't live long enough for them to miss anything that much more depressing.
    • Amida Kuzu's long line of Mokou doujins includes one where she inevitably outlives Keine.
      • Speaking of Mokou and Keine, Chiisana Koi no Uta more or less shows how much an immortal can grieve when they lose a mortal loved one.
    • COOL&CREATE puts a tragic twist on the shy kappa Nitori, when she falls in love with a human.
    • You may know "DREAM" shows that the Prismriver Sisters must have grieved when Layla reached the end of her mortal life.
  • And of course the Maze animation.
  • Gensou Koumuten. Perhaps the most tear jerking ones is Flandre breaking apart and Rumia's imperfect metamorphosis.
  • From the doujinshi Lovely Dream:
    • The story is as follows: Reimu, as part of her duties as the Shrine Maiden of Hakurei, must marry an unknown man and bear a child in order to maintain the Hakurei bloodline. What makes this feels-inducing is that the story is told from the point of view of Marisa, who considers Reimu a best friend in this story, and must deal with Reimu growing up and having less time to spend with her.
    • Very early into the series, Reimu's mother passes away. The look on Reimu's face is heartbreaking.
    • Not only that, the story hints that the shrine maiden's life is very short and needs to have a child early in order to ensure the bloodline and the safety of Gensokyou continues.
  • From the 1.5 hours or so of fanvid of doujinshi Touhou Little Reimu is one of the most tearjerking, heartfelt stories ever encountered.
    • In the author's own words, "This is a story of when Hakurei Reimu was still young and the man-eating youkai (Rumia) was big." It can be split up into two parts: the heartwarming story of a newly formed family and the emotional spiral out of control as Rumia's man-eating instincts take over, leading to the death of the elder Hakurei miko, memory wipes, and a load of DAMN YOU YUKARI!!
    • Luckily, there is the sequel, that ends up with a Bittersweet Ending: Rumia regaining her memories and adult-like appearance and fighting against Reimu. After Rumia is defeated, she begs Reimu for forgiveness for having killed her mother years ago before she fades away. And all the while Marisa (Reimu included) and the others are bawling their eyes out. Ouch.
      • Mercifully, the final episode ends on a much happier, albeit still slightly bittersweet note: Reimu shatters reality with Fantasy Heaven to resurrect Rumia, and they and Yukari all get to say goodbye to Reimu's Mother. In the end, Reimu and Rumia are holding hands.
    • Now has its own page, for the interested.
  • The fanmade arrangement of Flandre's theme U.N. Owen Was Her "495 GO! Little Sister Emotion" sounds chirpy and has a saccharine video, but then you read the lyrics.
  • The fangame Touhou A Live Fantasy Chapter: Lots of people die, and that's BEFORE the end of the scenario. Also some in the earlier chapters. Everyone save Shang, Alice, and Reisen die aboard the Momento Mori. Kaguya is assimilated by liquified humans at the end of Mokou's chapter, anyone fed the Slave Drug is turned into a zombie that requires specialized air tanks to live, and to power Patchouli Robo; the Marisa Yukkuri sacrifices itself using its' filling to make fuel. Also the humans whose flesh makes Yagokoro Rapid Drugs (Fully heals party). And the humans who are hooked up and drained of their life force.
    • Also in the Fantasy Chapter, Mima experiences what Oersted did, and just like him, she snapped.
  • Some fans make Junko's situation even worse by showing her as never having gotten over her son's death.
  • The music video for the SOUND HOLIC song Prière frames Remilia's implied past and her deepest fears in a nightmare: She and Flandre were victims of child abuse as vampire children, until the scarlet moon gave her the strength to bloodily free themselves from imprisonment. It then depicts her having almost accidentally killed Sakuya during a bloody rampage, and her sorrow and regret at having nearly killed someone dear to her in anger. The music video also implies that Flandre bears severe emotional scars from that dark past, and still stays in the Scarlet Mansion basement anyway because she loves her sister that much.
  • Poor, poor Yuuka. While most fanworks tend to portray her as Ax-Crazy or as a Sadist, others depict her as a gentle and kind woman, fitting of her title of "Youkai Moe". The problem is that a good number of said fanworks tend to have Yuuka thought of as the former by most people, when all she wants is someone to not be afraid of her. This can range from lonesome parties, kids running away on Halloween when she's just offering candy, to the point where there's an entire pool on Danbooru dedicated to pictures of people avoiding Yuuka like the plague. While more often than not this is Played for Laughs, it can still be rather disheartening to see people shun her when she just wants a friend...

Transformers

  • For all the Transformers fans out there who want a good cry should look no further than Oni-Gils Rise and its spin-off works.
    • In chapter 21, Thundercracker is shot down, the pain of his bond to Starscream and Skywarp being violently severed causes the blue seeker's bondmates to collapse. An extra layer of sad is spread on with Nova thinking- 'They had lost their wingmate, their bondmate, and I was the one responsible.'
    • In chapter 26, Starscream is mortally injured while he rescues Nova from captivity in Ratbat's estate, and dies in the arms of his rescued son and Skywarp, his last remaining bondmate. The worst thing is Nova can't even remember his father because of mental blocks set in place by Ratbat and doesn't quite grasp the importance of Starscream until the red seeker sends him a data burst of memories and emotions (all of them about Nova growing up) The last thing Starscream mutters to Nova is 'Rise up', the Decepticons' rallying call.
  • In Transformers Animated: Cybertronian Genesis when Soundwave dies. He gets better, but still.
  • The ending of Best Laid Plans. Yeah, Demolisher and Sideways practically have thirty seconds each in the film, but their relationship develops throughout their two years on Earth in an impressively realistic way...and then they die. In some of the most unimpressive death scenes ever.
  • Lost Voices. Oh GOD, Lost Voices. To elaborate, Sam is killed by drunk drivers while inside Bumblebee, who is also badly injured to the point where he ends up in stasis for a fortnight. At the funeral, a grieving Ron blames the Autobots for his son's death even though what happened had nothing to do with the war against the Decepticons, and a later chapter makes it clear that he still hasn't forgiven them for what he sees as their failure to protect Sam. When Bumblebee finally awakens, the Autobots are forced to tell him about Sam's death, which upsets the poor Bot so much he secludes himself for several weeks. Bad enough, right? It gets worse. While out driving one night after the accident, Bumblebee comes across the idiots who caused Sam's death, and realizes with horror that they intend to drink and drive again, having learned nothing from what happened last time. This makes him so angry that he actually slaughters them. The human authorities demand that he be punished, which causes the Bots more angst as they debate whether or not to terminate Bumblebee, who happens to be the last child ever created by the All Spark... which all turns out to be moot when Bumblebee kills himself by letting his spark fade away. There's a small heartwarming moment when Judy goes Mama Bear on the chief of police (who was stupid enough to claim that the drivers who killed Sam were innocent boys), but that doesn't make the ending any less heartbreaking.
  • Pondering, Pondering: Basically, Makeshift takes Optimus' place in the Autobot base in order to gather intel, and discovers the latter's relationship with Ratchet. Unable to understand why Ratchet is allowed to get away with talking back to Optimus, Makeshift takes it upon himself to break the medic - and succeeds. Seeing the suffering poor Ratchet goes through is heartbreaking, especially since he ends up broken to the point where he constantly has anxiety attacks and is willing to do anything he's told if it means he won't be abused. The kicker? Unlike the readers, Ratchet doesn't know that his torturer is really Makeshift - from his perspective, Optimus has turned into an abusive bully for no reason.

The Twilight Saga

  • Luminosity. It goes into the psychology behind having someone whom your life really, truly and completely revolves around dying.
    • Demetri is a bad guy. There is no arguing this point. However, regardless of what he is doing, regardless of the fact that he did it, being forced to know and live the five and a half years of his mate's life that he destroyed, and then trying, desperately, to pretend it wasn't so...
    • Elspeth has effectively been Mind Raped irreversibly, to the point that, well...
    I wasn't sure whether to say "Yes, Mama" or "Yes, Your Highness", so I simply nodded and went with Jake out of the compound.
And now Bella knows she will never get it back.

    U 

Undertale

    V 

The Vampire Diaries

  • In The Vampire Diaries story Disaster, Jill has to compel Elena to go home and stop trying to get her to come back. You can tell it's not something that she wants to do, but something that she feels that she has to do to Elena safe from Klaus.

Vocaloid

Voltron: Legendary Defender

  • This animatic set to "Pierrot", which deconstructs Lance's Plucky Comic Relief status by showing him cheering up his crewmates when they're hurting, all while refusing to show them how he's hurting. Fortunately, Keith sees it and gets him to open up.

    W 

Walking with Dinosaurs

  • Thought that the death of the Ornithocheirus in the Giant of the Skies episode was depressing? This remake of Death of a Dynasty has a Quetzalcoatlus die alone,...with a broken wing....in the remake, during the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event. All surviving pterosaur species died alongside the last non-avian dinosaurs in the aftermath of the asteroid.
  • Another Death of a Dynasty remake takes the Tyrannosaurus Rex mother's already heartbreaking death and takes it up to eleven. Unlike in the original episode, the father T.rex is not driven away by his mate and instead stays to help her look after their young. But they still get into a fight with an Ankylosaurus, and not only is the mother still fatally injured, as in the original, but her mate is also killed by the same Ankylosaurus. This means that not only do the babies still suffer the same fate as in the original, but they watch BOTH of their parents die.

WALL•E

  • The WALL•E short story Where Fires Begin. Very short and philosophical, but holy heck; it can be sob-inducing if you understand what's happened.
  • The WALL•E fanfic "Hold my Hand" is just PACKED with these...The premise alone is sad enough: WALL•E is breaking apart and has no more spare parts for himself, so he and EVE go far away to find more. The ending has WALL•E being shot at so that his most important inner parts are destroyed. He and EVE spend his last hours alive dancing together, until WALL•E finally dies in EVE's arms.

Warhammer 40,000

  • A short Warhammer 40,000 fanfic, about two Ogryns named Gav and Bob Here it is, complete with /tg/'s reactions
    • "Bob wuz a good friend. He liked to fight. He liked potato skins. He was a good soldier fer da Empruh. Now he's wif dah Emprah."
    • "Gav couldn't eat another potato skin. It didn't taste good anymore."
    • Gav's continual habit of making dear friends with his innocence and love of the Emperor only to have them die or worse on him is heartrending, but the end he finds himself as the bodyguard of an Inquisitor, with a ragtag group of new people that like him right away.
  • Warhammer 40k Group. Every post about the Emperor.

Watchmen

With Strings Attached

  • Several in With Strings Attached:
    • Chapter 17, “Just an Earthbound Misfit,” Paul's drunken day of despair (one of many) as he struggles with not having any magic and being completely alone while the others soar around him.
    • The Bittersweet Ending, as Ringo learns he cannot take his life-changing magic back home... but he still hugs Shag and Varx for giving him the chance to experience it.

WordGirl

  • This particular fanfic by the name of ''Freak''. It tells the story of how Miss Power came to be by showing that she was bullied as a kid by her classmates because of her green snakelike eye, and how she was inspired to use hatred to defend herself from the bullies, and how she ran away from home. It shows how she became the Miss Power that is featured in The Movie.

    X 
X-Men
  • Poi Lass's Dialogue. The realisation, at the end, that Bobby knows how screwed up he is and doesn't care...

X-Men: Evolution

  • A Time to Burn Bridges, by Artemis's Liege, is already sad in its premise: it's about Rogue returning to her home to arrange the funeral of her adoptive mother Irene, one of the few people to ever truly care about her. There's a subtle compare-and-contrast explored about the way Irene treated Rogue versus the way Mystique betrayed Rogue after using her to defeat Ms. Marvel and then realizing she was too traumatized to exploit any longer.
    • Whenever Rogue thinks about Ms. Marvel, she hastens to mentally add "not Carol," Carin afterthought. She does this because she feels so guilty about her role in nearly killing Ms. Marvel that she can't bear to think of Ms. Marvel as a real person. It's especially heartbreaking when Rogue tries to convince herself she doesn't care about hurting Ms. Marvel, when she so obviously does.
      • If that isn't bad enough, the story is brimming with nostalgia and longing for a simpler time as Rogue walks through the house, revisiting her home and reawakening forgotten memories. She's tempted to stay in the house longer and reminisce, but she doesn't because the memories are too painful and just remind her of Mystique's manipulations. And at the story's conclusion, Rogue burns her childhood home to the ground in order to prove to herself that she's moving on and leaving the past behind.

X-Men: First Class

  • Stars From Home: Scott has a lack of self-worth that leads to a few of these moments. When Charles won't have the cat indoors, Scott sleeps in the garage. He apologizes and quickly reassures Charles that he never took anything with him. He understands why Charles wouldn't want a good blanket left in the garage overnight, but assumes it's okay for him—he doesn't matter as much as a blanket.

    Y 
Yotsuba&!
  • Good Old Days, a very short Yotsuba&! fanfic. We all know how innocent, outgoing and dependent on her father Yotsuba is. Yotsuba grows up; and in turn outgrows all these. Gone is the little six-year old we all knew and loved, replaced with a deadpan, apathetic teenager. Worse still that it's in Mr. Koiwai's point of view.

Your Lie in April

  • His Lie in April As if the original story wasn't a tearjerker enough, this fic turns that up to 15. Namely:
    • When Kousei finally takes his own life by overdosing, after three episodes of head trauma.
    • Also, Kaori attempting to take her own life by overdosing like Kousei; she is, however, stopped by her friends.

Young Avengers

  • A whole GENRE of sadfic was born with the heartbreaking idea that Wiccan magicked Hulkling into falling in love with him.
  • One fic on fanfiction.net is about Tommy and Billy during House Of M.
    Tommy: She's going to set it back you know.
    Billy: Yeah, she is.
    Tommy: What's going to happen to us?
    Billy: We'll go back too.
    Tommy:...Will we remember?
    Billy: I don't think so.
    Tommy:...
    Billy: Still scared?
    Tommy:..Yes.
    Billy: Then I'll take it all next time.
    Tommy: But what if you become like Mommy? What if you destroy everything?
    Billy: ...Then I guess you'll have to be fast enough to stop me.

Young Justice (2010)

  • Hammurabi's Robin is basically a retelling of the B:TAS episode "Robin's Reckoning" in the Young Justice universe. During the climax, which consists of Robin dangling Zucco off an office building while the team tries to convince him not to drop him, pretty much everything out of Robin's mouth is a Tear Jerker.
    Superboy: That would make you like him, and you hate him too much for that.
    Robin: Maybe it would be worth it. Maybe I could make it look like an accident. Maybe he tripped. Maybe he fell. Or the line — maybe the line was cut, and there was nothing I could do—
    Kid Flash: Stop it. Just stop it. You aren’t a murderer, and you can’t do this, Robin, just stop—!
    Robin: I’ve already seen him walk away once! I’m not— I won’t watch it again! Why does he get to live, anyway? He’s the reason good people are dead. Everyone loved them, and they’re gone, and it’s all his fault. Why should he get to keep breathing if they had to die!
    • And right then, Batman shows up and almost instantly convinces Robin not to go through with it. As the rest of the team handle Zucco, Batman gives Robin a hug, while the boy just clings to him and apologizes. The whole fic is even harsher than the episode it's based on, because at least in the animated show, Robin was an adult. Here, though, he's just a kid who misses his parents.
  • Go The Distance has five times someone mistakened Wally as Barry and Iris's son. Wally's biological parents in this story are either abusive or neglectful and one scene shows Wally feeling tremendously guilty for even wishing that Barry and Iris were his real parents. The way he beats himself over it and convinces himself that Barry and Iris don't want him was heartbreaking.
    "I'm a horrible son," he croaked.
  • Derailment: When Superman saves in extremis Superboy's life by exposing him to sunlight, the clone bluntly asks why he didn't let him die - because Superman hates Connor, right? Even worse, the teen doesn't blame Superman for rejecting him, instead thinking something's wrong with him since Superman is good, so when he thinks you are a monster, you has to be. This little speech utterly shames and horrifies Superman.
  • Now We Can Be Diamonds Together has Lian drawing Steven Universe fanart for her dad. Will is naturally so proud of her, he decides to post the drawing on Internet to let everyone see and appreciate it. Except that some fans bluntly call the art ugly, accuse Lian of being braindead and insult her ethnicity. She's a three-year-old girl. Sometimes, you really have to wonder what's wrong with people.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

  • A scene in Le Diz's Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction Akh. You wouldn't think that a fanfic with the major purpose of keeping Atem from dying could be packed with one Tear Jerker after another, but it is. It so is.
    • In particular the beginning of chapter two, with most of the gang in hospital and an in-his-own-body Yami stressing the hell out over not being allowed to see Yugi while Anzu tries and fails to calm him down. Then he manages to get past her and find his way to Yugi's room and see him for the first time since the accident. In intensive care. Buried in every type of medical keep-you-alive device known to mankind. When Yami damn well breaks down, so do the readers.
      • It gets worse a few paragraphs later when Atem creeps back into the room after dark for no reason other than to climb into the intensive care bed with him and begs him to be strong, because he needs him back.
    • Then there's Scribbler's Forget Everything I Ever Told You...
      • Also: Earrings, which is, essentially, a story about not being able to achieve your dreams, no matter how much you want and believe in them.
  • Another Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction, Lessons Learned by Periphery, has a few tearjerkers crawling about. The gang are put through hell and back by being dumped in a rain forest, when they thought they were being sent off to duel a crazy woman who still holds the fact that Seto beat her in a game of chess when he was eight against him, wants revenge, and to this end has kidnapped his brother (long, long story). What makes the whole story a tearjerker is the fact that Yugi isn't even in a lot of the story because he's somewhat preoccupied with trying not to die, the stress of his friends trying to deal with this, right up to the moment where his heart stops, takes up a good third of the story, but by far the worst scene is when Joey gets a call from his formely ill sister Serenity (who only has eye sight because Yugi gave his three million yen prize money at the Duelist Kingdom to Joey to pay for her operation):
    'Serenity: Tomorrow. Could you tell [Yugi]... tell him I can see the buttons on the telephone. And the trees outside. And the stupid news on TV. Tell him I am so, so grateful.
  • Another Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction, Phoenix by Mittens no Hikari that also involves Serenity. It's only a two chapter story, but after Yugi's house burns down with him and his friends inside, you better believe the entire second chapter is a tear jerker.
  • "Loss and Blame." It's all about the effects of Yami losing Yugi in Doma.
  • LittleKuriboh's Spirit. Yes, you read that right.
  • One of the takes on the 5D's game Stardust Accelerator has Rena in the place of the amnesiac Player Character and the tragic interpretation of the game's later stages. Rena, already emotionally and psychologically beaten discovers at the worst moment that she's a clone, modelled after a girl that died in a hit-and-run. The original Rena begged for the man who came to her aid first to stay by him, something he does until her final night. Rena, alone in the hospital, forces herself tos tay awake all night to see the sun rise one more time, something she did with her father as a child, and finally passes away shortly afterwards. Alpha-Rena, the clone, was created by Godwin as Rena's dying wish for him to do something to lessen her parents' suffering as much as possible. Those parents moved before the project was completed. Alpha-Rena discovered she was a clone through one of the others and her automatic fear of death following Rena's passing caused her to run away in a blind panic, winding up in the state of the story's beginning. What makes this worse is that she's wondered about any family that could be waiting among other things. She's gone through the same traumatic incident twice, only this time, there's no escaping what she's been searching for.

    Z 
(No examples yet.)

    Other 
  • The fanfic Good Landing (alternate link) by Royce Day (Sir-Talen on DeviantArt) that looks for the first few paragraphs like a normal and even fairly cool story about a group of people gathering to warmly greet the crew of a returning space shuttle. One guy seems to be unduly complaining about the shuttle being unsafe. But then it's revealed that the shuttle is the Columbia and everyone who appears in the story is a ghost, including some astronauts who died in earlier disasters. And the guy who was complaining? He was Gus Grissom, Commander of Apollo 1. As an even bigger punch to the gut, the man he's talking to is Dick Scobee, the commander of the Space Shuttle Challenger on its last, doomed flight.
  • This wrestling fic swings hard between this, Paranoia Fuel, and just plain scary, but the current newest chapter, 18, where Kane has convinced Rey Mysterio that he has died and is in Hell and Rey's begging and pleading reaction after all he's been put through apparently bouncing between two crappy realities...especially while Kane is STILL torturing him during it...just holy crap.
    • Chapter 19 is up...apparently the final chapter and major downer ending...Rey puts a comment from his friend Batista from earlier together with what's happening, and thinks he's caused the damnation of him as well, and completely gives up, just waiting to fall sleep in the hospital bed which will send him back to be tortured by Kane. A sequel is promised with a title that implies things may not stay so bleak though.
  • The wrestling fic, Hello Again, has Molly Holly lose a title vs. career hardcore match against her former protege, the WWE Divas Champion, Natalya. She also gets a public apology from Jerry Lawler for all the jokes he's made about her during her career, Gail Kim cries on her shoulder and ends with a reunion in her dressing room with her former boyfriend, Spike Dudley.
  • A pretty bad fanfiction where a Big Bad kidnapped two people, made one into a robot and the other into a cyborg and wiped their memories. Then the cyborg fell in love with a girl who didn't run and another kid who followed them...then the Big Bad caused a bomb in the organic robot to detonate when they confronted him. Kid survived cause he was pushed out the way, but the girl was blown up too bad to survive, and the cyborg survived...cause he was protected. Then he came too and noticed the Big Bad plotting to make his love interest into a cyborg like him and he just finally snapped, ripped all the implants out, strangled the obsessed genius with his bare, unmodified, and bloody hands before the chip controlling his nervous system cracked, gave him a major spasm and caused his hands to lock around the doctor's neck until he died. Then finally he got out, trashed the life-support equipment hoping his girlfriend would Disney Death but instead she saw his bloody face and said "I'm glad you fixed yourself" before passing away...and then the dude faints and is sent right to the hospital. The utter absurdity is that he wound up blocking the trauma out when the paramedics and firemen pulled his twisted body out so he didn't at even remember the girl he loved or even being a cyborg and only the kid who got pushed out the window at the right moment really remembered.
    • Honestly this was better than the other ending...the girl had a Disney Death, but the guy just collapsed and never got up because he used all his strength to strangle the doctor because he thought he killed the kid and the girl.
  • An author by the name Slash Firestorm has an epic called Sinners. There's one point where the main character's group is crossing the desert, and they get attacked. In order to protect and save his love interest he gives up most of his lifespan.
  • A fic set in a game where one can have wildly different levels of civilization coexisting. In it, a primitive seagoing force (in wooden, oar-powered ships) is repelled by a modern force (metal boats, that ram the wooden ones as missiles won't take and lay down machine-gun fire. One of the survivors, completely broken by the attack into a childlike state, pitifully asks what's going on several times, before one of the soldiers gives him a Mercy Kill.
  • This Writing Prompt on Reddit is about a fictional interview that makes you sympathize with the poacher who killed the very last Western Black Rhino. This is one of the few things that succeeds at making you feel bad for a poacher. As it turns out, he is a father who tried to prolong the life of his sick daughter. You will never look at a poacher the same way again. It ends with him saying these final words in the prompt: "That Rhino was how I was going to help her get better. It's very hard to see the cultural, "moral", or ecological significance in something when the one thing that matters most is slipping away."
  • Despite the Hell's Kitchen Roleplay being upbeat, it's got it's fair share of heartbreaking moments.
    • In Season 1, there's Jake's elimination. Throughout the season, he had been an underdog, sometimes managing to pull off upset victories against some of the stronger chefs. However, during the second black jacket episode, he crashed hard during service, and even still the other four had a hard time finding the energy to put him up. When Jake was eliminated, it was clear that his elimination hit the final four hard, as they had grown attached to him and had a level of respect towards him.
    • Season 2 had a few moments, such as Jangue's bullying behavior towards Danny and Ewan's medical elimination. The latter is even more significant as Ewan genuinely appeared to be the only one capable of defeating Jangue, and it seemed that all hope was lost.
    • Season 3 had the back-to-back eliminations of Pory and Brynn. While Pory was already an Ensemble Dark Horse, Brynn was initially one of the most hated chefs of the season, before her relationship with Pory endeared her to many.

Alternative Title(s): Fanfiction, Fanfic

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