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Subjective
TearJerker: Fan Fiction
  • This Troper just hit himself with one by making the mistake of reading the Calvin And Hobbes fanfic Reminiscence (see Fan Fic Recommendations) while listening to the Live version of Jam Project's "DRAGON" (see Crowning Music Of Awesome) The result being that he can no longer listen to either version of that song without tearing up.
    • This troper would like to attest that "The Encounter" from Kingdom Hearts 2 is just as good at magnifying the effect of that fic as well.
    • You call yourself a man? Howl, dragon soldier! Keep burning the flame of life!
    • There goes this troperette's self-control. This should be in Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming, though. The line that did it? "Hobbes is home". (And she was listening to The Time Has Come [Pikachu's Goodbye] as well.)
  • A while ago I read an Animorphs fanfic that was so well written, it ruined the actual series for me. Everyone had already died, Rachel and Tobias were the last ones left as fugitives. The story ended with them bleeding to death and professing just how much they loved each other. Sadly, I have no idea what it was called or where to find it. :(
  • If we're listing fanfic experiences that made me cry, listening to a podfic reading of ''"Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose"'' by Synecdochic... made me sob uncontrollably for almost an hour. In the car. It's Stargate Atlantis fanfiction, a fandom this troper never really got into, but managed to tear my heart out and stomp on it anyway.
  • The Neon Genesis Evangelion fic "The Second Try". All the tearing up can be summed up in one word: "Mama...?"
    • "Smile when you're happy. Cry when you're sad. And do both when you're happier than you've ever been."
  • A very different Eva fic, Shinji And Warhammer 40 K. Three words: "THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!" Granted, this is from a troper who watches Boromir die without a sniffle but tears up during the Ride of the Rohirrim, but still...
  • Another Eva fic, well more of a doujin, called 'Neon Genesis Evangelion , Re-Take" has so many parts which make me tear up it actually isn't funny... In the six volumes, i cried more than any other story i have read, published or fanfic... oh yeah, spoilers. ALOT

Volume 1: Shinji's confession of his feelings towards Asuka to Rei, with Asuka eavesdropping... "I...like Asuka. There's nothing that can replace her". Rei's suicide (and note) "the first time i touched (shinji's hands) i felt nothing. the second time... it was abit unpleasant? the third time they were warm... the forth time, I was happy... May i... touch them again?" especially seeing as when this was first said to Shinji before, by Rei...

Volume 2: Shinji's argument with Ghost Asuka: "I will fight to protect this moment... to protect this 'now'...". Then there is the entire Asuka sacrifice: "Nobody touches Shinji without my permission" (Asuka to the Angel)... "DON'T DO IT. I'LL KILL YOU. I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU" (Shinji to Gendo's orders to self-destruct Asuka's eva)... "I recieved something precious from you...that i'll never forget...thank you" (Asuka's last words to Shinji)

Volume 3: Fewer than the other two... Most comments made by Ghost Asuka

Volume 4: This entire volume is one entire tear-jerker for Ghost Asuka. The worst/best moments are when G. Asuka enters Shinji's unconsciousness: "I saw it when i entered...Shinji's psyche...Shinji's Dream... Shinji's wish (among the most heartbreakingly sweet image follows...). Ghost Asuka's unsaid reaction to Shinji's move to sacrifice himself for his friends... "So Stop! So don't say anything! So don't leave me! Please..."

Volume 5: The largest collection of Tear-Jerkers ever... Rei-G.Asuka, when G.Asuka asks why she is going to sacrifice herself for Shinji "I won't let...Shinji...die... I made a promise... with Asuka...". Rei, when nearly destroyed, continuing to shoot the enemies attaking Shinji "Center...the...target". G.Asuka's massive explanation to 'God'/Young Asuka as to why she hates Shinji... is just to long and sad, followed by Young Asuka's response "Don't you see... He just loves you. That's all". Then a phrase of 3 words is repeated twice. Possibly THE most moving words in the entire story "I forgive you" (The first is G.Asuka forgiving Shinji for killing her, before this story began, the second is Shinji to Misato in response to her self-hatred over the fate of her Arctic Expedition). Shinji out loud: "Ah yes...this is what i sought... thank you" before shattering this alternate reality, and walking to G.Asuka. When asked why he says "Because if i stayed, you'd always be alone". Then there is the entire last part of volume 5, with Shinji and Asuka by the Red Sea...

Then finally is the last volume... Re-take After... which is set when the events of the last volume cause both Shinji and Asuka to forget their love, and return to fighting... This part has one Tears Jerker/CMOA... which is the ending vow from Asuka to Shinji, after they have finally regained their love... I'm going to quote the whole thing, because it is so beautiful... (it was originally in German, but i've got the translated version )"I promise you...until i die, i will touch no man except for you... until i die, i will talk with no man, except for you... from now on, i am yours. From the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Every single bit of me, with nothing left out... I can't remember the days we spent together, but it doesn't matter...I don't know anything about the thing called love... But if 'love' means keeping this promise until the day i die... then i promise to always love you, and nobody else but you, for as long as i live... By the honor of Soryu Asuka Langley" It is the best, most beautiful ending to the series imaginable, as the love circle has finally come around, as Shinji made the same oath to Asuka in volume 1...

I really can't say how brilliantly sad and happy this series made me feel... It is just great... Perfect...

  • For this troper, reading ''Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness'' ended in a sobfest of quite epic proportions, something that no fanfic has managed before or since.
    • Just the ending? This troper had to stop and get some tissues after Terry Boot tried to use the Killing Curse on Michael Corner because he didn't want his best friend to suffer anymore.
      • Virtually anything sad in that 'verse involving Terry and Michael tends to send me flying past tears and into self-protective shutdown... particularly the outtake Standing Witness, which is from Terry's point of view during and after the above-mentioned Killing Curse episode.
      • I have to agree here. That was the part that tipped me over the edge, and I cried fairly steadily through any part that involves Terry and Michael after that.
    • Definitely the entire Battle of Hogwarts, but it was the chapter AFTER that, where Ernie sacrifices his life for his wife and unborn child...that should have been a complete Narm, but actually came off as one of the most beautiful - and sob-worthy - things this troper has ever read where I broke down and sobbed at my computer. If you can get through Chapters 22-24 dry-eyed, INCLUDING the aftermath of the victory, you have no soul.
    • Seamus' speech in the second chapter broke this troper's heart. And then she read Colin's in the eighth.
    • Really, the entire Dumbledore's Armyverse is rife with them. This author is a sadist. Good, but a sadist. You'll be rereading JKR's Snape backstory and Harry's final walk into the forest just to cheer yourself up after this author forces you to take a long, hard look at what it means when teenagers go to war.
    • And really, DAYD will look like small potatoes by the time you finish its sequel Sluagh.
  • Haven't even read it, but this troper was crying her eyes out when a friend described a Harry Potter fic that's from Buckbeak's perspective... waiting for Sirius to come home... oh god, just typing that made me sob...
  • Titan Legends, the fanfic that's an alternate universe in and of itself, has three that this troper can name without going back to check. 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...
  • 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."
  • 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.
  • Without a doubt, The Bitter End is perhaps the most depressing and sad story set in the Ranma One Half universe, ever.
  • 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, and some other bits that this troper cannot read, as they are not "Haha, just kidding! Everyone lived happily ever after. The end!"
    • While it seems to have been removed from ff.net, this troper thinks they may have found it here for anyone who wants to read it. For instance, myself. *gulp*
  • The gigantic Star Wars/Star Trek crossover ''Unity has quite a few, but for this troper 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.
  • The Super Mario Bros Flash cartoon Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom 3: This troper became completely devastated at the part where Luigi dies.
  • The Axis Powers Hetalia fanfic Memory(Zikaron). Gives as it is about the Anthropomorphic Personification of Israel, with a focus on the suffering during World War 2, it's no surprise. This is THE Tear Jerker of the millenium.
    Belarus: Who am I? Don't be kind to me! Don't look at me! Don't anybody look at me...!
  • The Firefly fanfic Forward has a number of these, mostly centering around River, as the author makes a point to run her through the wringer at least once per "episode." They include several violent mental breakdowns on River's part, as well as River and Jayne being tortured by Niska, and one bit at the end of the "Mosiac" episode where River has an Out Damned Spot moment while trying to wash off the blood of all the men she'd killed the previous chapter.
    • One reviewer pointed out a particularly potent moment on River's part toward the end of "Business," when she starts shooting at the Hands of Blue that are about to capture her.
    River: "You want her back? This is what you want? This is what you made, and you want it back? Not yours! Never yours, won't be again!"
    • Another reviewer admitted she started crying at the end of "Condor" when Mal talks to River about how he doesn't know when he finally decided she was part of his crew, but that at some point he decided that fighting for her, like fighting for the people of Miranda, was a cause worth dying for.
    • The ending of the fifth chapter of the "Adrift" arc, where River is fighting the Reaver horde and is hit by paralyzer darts. It ends with the "Riverthink" suddenly failing, and the last words of the chapter being River desperately apologizing to Simon as she falls.
      • What makes it even more potent is that the author normally ends a chapter with a few paragraphs of commentary. That chapter? Only his Catch Phrase.
    • River gets another gutwrenching moment in the epilogue to the "Silver" arc, which features her tearfully confessing to Book that she went after Colonel Dannet, one of the men who tortured her at the Academy, but who himself was deeply traumatized by what he put her through and was left an emotional wreck afterward. The Tear Jerker comes while she is flashing back to the confrontation, where she has the man at knifepoint, and realizes that she doesn't hate him, when she knows she should, and she keeps slamming him against the wall and screaming that she should and demanding to know why she doesn't want to kill him. He tells River it is because he doesn't believe she is a murderer, and she then has a complete emotional collapse as she realizes he isn't an evil person and that she has no idea what to do or what to think.
    The knife came away from his neck and clattered to the floor, and the sound shattered the spell. The dam broke, and the girl fell forward, sobbing, head pressing into his shoulder.
    Rishard Dannet did the only thing he could. His arms rose up and wrapped around the girl he'd helped break, and he held her tight as she collapsed, whispering in her ear that he was sorry for it all, that she was okay, and that everything was okay.
  • And, by the same author as above, 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."
  • Not complete without mentioning another Tear Jerker in Tiberium Wars. Specifically, the suicidal Zone Trooper charge at the end of Chapter 15.
  • When this troper read the Artemis Fowl fanfic "The Sword of God" and got to how Butler died, he burst into tears. He was on the verge for the whole segment, but that really set him off.
  • One of the very first fics I read, Poi Lass's Dialogue is, hands down, the saddest X Men fic I ever read. The realisation, at the end, that Bobby knows how screwed up he is and doesn't care... Breaks my heart every time.
  • This author wrote a Pokemon story based on the song "The Green Fields of France" as performed by Dropkick Murphys. I intentionally wrote it 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 Mc Bride confronts the characters and salutes them before fading away. One reviewer said they would have cried had they known whom Willie Mc Bride was.
    • This troper is a soulless animal, the type of person who sees Grave Of The Fireflies or Schindler's List and talks about the filmography. No Antidote by Falcon Pain still hit hard. 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.
    • All sorts of Pokémon stories can have Tear Jerker moments. This troper warns you though. The series that I'm linking to here are lemons, so bring your own Brain Bleach. Links are NSFW.
      • Luca's Saga, this ones 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.
    • This troper might also add a few to the list above, which are just as NSFW as the above two though, so be warned:
      • 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 or Frost's redemption.
    • The Ties that Bind by Saffire Persian gets this troper every time. 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.
  • 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.
  • A combined Tear Jerker and Crowning Moment Of Awesome occurs during chapter 26 of the Better Than It Sounds Terminator/Sailor Moon/Ranma1/2 crossover fic Tunnel Vision when Ryouga makes a Heroic Sacrifice to take down Sky Net. As always though, the Status Quo Is God and the Reset Button is hit hard by the end of the story
  • Daria Fan Fic definitly 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 Jerk Ass 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 Crowning Moment Of 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.
  • 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.
    • Darn you. Now I can't stop crying.
  • 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 becase things are simpler there. Goddamn it's heartbreaking.
    • This troper is a masochist. Link please?
  • This Merlin fanfic, which sort of... creeps up on you.
  • There's a fanfic on Deviant Art 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.
    • When this troper first read it, she thought that Scobee was the one complaining about the shuttle, which is perfectly logical. He's not. He praises it and sets its spirit free at the end.
    • That would be "Good Landing" by Royce Day (Sir-Talen on Deviant Art. Well, myself actually.) Thank you kindly for the ref.
    • I didn't see it on Deviant Art, but Google showed it in Sabledrake Magazine. Sent chills up my spine.
  • This wrestling fic swings hard between this, Paranoia Fuel, and Nightmare Fuel, 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.
  • This troper's fifth Looking For Group fanfic, Warlocks and Witches, had a particularly tear-jerking moment when Cale dies in a particularly sudden and tragic manner that got even more of an emotional reaction from the readers than she had expected, including moving a friend who never cried at stories to tears. This troper was not expecting to get so much of a response.
  • For some reason, fanfiction of Paranoia Agent, of all things, cause this Troper to tear up. Maybe it's all the emotion and psychological things that get to me...
  • Two Worlds Combined. The Tower of Salvation. Words cannot do it justice.
  • In this Disney fanfiction, Mickey gets to see Walt Disney again during some sort of timey wimey situation...which was tear tugging enough, but for this troper 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.
This Troper diffently agrees and had something in his eye by the time I finsh the chapter, Karalora is a very good writer and certinly knows her history well
  • Bertie and the Bowler Hat. This troper just skimmed this and wanted to tear up when an elderly Bertie Wooster is found dead with a picture of the late Jeeves in his hand, mainly because that level of sadness is almost never seen in Jeeves And Wooster fanfics. Then it was topped by the very last sentence: "Mr. Wooster had given me the black bowler hat."
  • 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
  • This troper actually had 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 Wall Banger 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.
  • The Naruto fanfic "Blind" has several of these...including one in the middle that manages to be a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming as well. I'm not going to spoil that one for you, but 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.)
  • Even if a lot of the slash stories between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark are sad, there's one that had me bawling all over my pc the first time I read it. Even so, it stills make me cry every time. It's an Avengers/Sandman crossover and it's the biggest Tear Jerker I've faced in my life. ''"The Sound of Wings - Aliana Iskassa"'' You've been warned.
  • The Watchmen slash fanfic The Little Match Boy is nothing short of heartbreaking. Considering that it's basically a retelling of "The Little Matchgirl", you should have a pretty good idea of just how sad it gets...
  • 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. Trust me on this, you'll need a lot of tissues before it's over. Especially for the ending, which 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.
  • "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 compltely 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. Although to some it may be a bit cheesy, the last conversation they share is sob inducing, ending with each telling the other that they love them, 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.
  • Twilight Valley is alleged to have one. When Ducky contemplates suicide after being rescued from her imprisonment.
  • 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.
  • 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 what really set this troper off 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…”
    (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.
  • This troper found a Naruto 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.
    • It Gets 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.
  • This Hercules The Legendary Journeys fic. Especially the part where an ailing Hercules is cared for by an angelic Iolaus. (I'm not being metaphorical with the word "angelic", BTW.) 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..."'
  • While it wasn't as much of a tear-jerker 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 20s, 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 embarassing" but it was still kind of sad that he still didn't know how to feel when he saw his grandmother buried.
  • An Analysis of a Mother's Love (Deathly Hallows spoilers). What was going through Molly Weasley's mind during her Crowning Moment Of Awesome?
  • Haunted. If you don't cry or cry inside when Freddie's ghost is telling Sam how much he loved her and how his last living thought was about his love for her or Valerie is brutally murdered by Missy for no reason at all you have no soul.
  • 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.
  • An iCarly fanfic, Bruised gets the tears rolling from the first flashback. It follows a charecter 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.
    This troper burst into tears at
    "Nobody needs to be perfect, kiddo." The counselor says resassuringly, You smile as you wipe your eyes and head towards the door and whisper loud enough for only you to hear. "I do."
  • This Troper is continually surprised that people still favorite and leave reviews for the Mega Man Fanfic piece Whispers in Time, especially considering that it is now seven years old. Most of the reviews for this one make mention of crying or causing heartbreak, which is what makes this 'Fic relevant to the tear jerker thread. Considering that this story is essentially 8 different people retelling the same event, this troper would think people would get used to Mega Man dying after the fourth time. C'est la vie.
  • I'd like to nominate the Animaniacs fanfic 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. All of you should check out this fic; the author is an excellent writer and comes up with a lot of background information.
  • 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.
  • The Haibane Renmei fanfic "Before We Had Wings". It's a prequel to the Haibane Renmei 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...
  • The Final Fantasy IX fanfic "Go Not Gently" made this troper cry on so many occasions it's not even funny. There used to be a website for it, but I think it's gone down... In any case, definitely a must-read if you like Final Fantasy IX... or even if you don't.
  • Evremonde's Sesame Street fanfic "Sanctuary". (Yes, Sesame Street.) Anything to do with the death of Mr. Hooper is a tearjerker by definition, but oh, that last line.
  • This troper doesn't know what the hell this means, or how to classify it, since she wrote the damned thing, but a few scenes in "Two Guys, A Girl, And An Aversion To Sunlight" made her cry waterfalls just writing them.
    • To clarify, this troper was writing for the above at the same time as she was realizing she had serious issues with depression, and could probably use treatment. Despite resisting making a canon character into an Author Avatar, she still admits that certain scenes written now hurt to read.
  • "Kindle a Light" is about the life of the original Silk Spectre, which is tragic enough as it is. The ending is a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming.
  • Go read the Star Trek 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.
  • 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... This troper isn't even that crazy about Anzu, and she blubbed.
      • Also: Earrings, which is, essentially, a story about not being able to acchieve your dreams, no matter how much you want and believe in them.
  • Another Yu Gi Oh fanfiction, Lessons by Periphery, has a few tearjerkers crawling about. The gang are put through hell and back by being dumped in a rainforest, 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 sister, the formerly Ill Girl, Serenity (who only has eye sight because Yugi gave his three million yen prize money at Duellist K Ingdom 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.
  • This Death Note fanfic. For a oneshot series centred mostly around characters who only get a passing mention in the 'How to Read' guide, it is pretty gutwrenching. They even managed to have an emotional moment for NEAR of all people. The first chapter featuring A (the most minor of minor characters) is very sad, the one featuring Matt is a tearjerker. But that definitely doesn't beat Sayu's chapter. Dear lordy, Sayu... as if the poor girl wasn't already the Woobie.
  • 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?
  • This Troper once read an untitled (but sometimes referred to as The Smeg is Out There) Red Dwarf/The X-Files crossover fic that 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. Awwww.
It should be noted that the rest of the fic is fall down pee in your pants hillarious.
  • The Nine fanfic Fly, Fly Little Wing (it may be helpful to read it's prequel), has 4 eventually dying from despair, in 7's arms, after 3 is killed by the Cat Beast. What really got This Troper though, was listening to the song the title was based off, and 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.
  • A Meditation on Leaving. It's a Star Trek fanfic 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 without a hint of Character Derailment or Wangst. 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.
  • This Labyrinth/9 crossover.
  • Glee: Rescue Me is a great Puck/Quinn fic in general but the part that gets me is when anything about the six-word stories are brought up. Particularly the Hemingway short story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn". And Quinn's one: "I've changed my mind. Please rescue me."
  • Another Glee is Controlled Chaos. The first chapter and the flashbacks in the middle chapters come close but it's the last chapter that'll have you sobbing.
  • 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. Trying to summarize it is rather hard without spoiling anything, but there were parts that really hit a chord with this troper.
    • 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.
  • 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...it tears this troper into little tiny pieces. (The author has a gift for moments like this, in several fandoms, actually.
  • Persona 3: Fairly English Story Had a fantastic one in the already Tear Jerking Fortune Full Moon - Akihiko got there in time to take a bullet for Shinjiro and died.
  • I can't provide a link, but there's an author by the name Slash Firestorm, who has an epic called Sinners. I'm not going to get into the plot, but 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.
  • 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.
  • This troper teared up in this One Piece story Icarus's Curse, which was 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.

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