Tear Jerker / Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

• Grimmson killing Irma Dugard. This comes moments after she shows Credence perhaps the first genuine instance of affection he's ever felt.
  • Irma being affectionate and kind to Credence, hugging him and telling him he was a beautiful baby and grew up to be a handsome young man.
• Leta revealing that she switched out her brother Corvus with another baby because he wouldn't stop crying. As a result, Corvus drowned when the escape boat that the other baby's mother was on capsized. Leta has lived with the guilt ever since.
  • Newt tries to comfort her telling that she didn't meant real harm to her brother, and Leta replies pitifully:
    "You never met a monster you couldn't love."
    • Newt's solemn and almost bittersweet expression can also be quite sad. While it's never stated if they had a romantic relationship with one another, it's clear that they both loved one another that way. When Leta acknowledges his feelings for her, it's almost as if he realizes that she never stopped loving him but due to his distance, she ended up falling for and choosing Theseus over him. He may have been falling for Tina, but it's obvious that he felt bad upon realizing that he too had a part in how their relationship ended up.
• Dumbledore gives his first ever mention to his sister, Ariana, while trying to empathize with Leta for her self hatred for causing Corvus’s death. When Leta asks him if he loved Ariana, he says not enough to have protected her. It’s been about thirty years since she died but it’s clear that accidentally causing her death is the biggest regret of his life and still haunts him.
  • Not only that, we see just how torn he is over his past with Grindelwald, still loving him yet not being able to condone everything Grindelwald had done. When looking at the Mirror of Erised, it's clear that he regards forming the Blood Pact as both a source of regret and a subconscious form of excuse to not directly fight Grindelwald. Although his inaction clearly can't be excused as it still caused many lives, it's still clearly worth sympathizing.
• In a way, whenever Grindelwald speaks about Dumbledore can be considered this. The film and Rowling herself doesn't hide the fact that he still loves Albus, but over the years, that love has been hardened and twisted into deep-rooted jealousy towards anyone who is close to his ex boyfriend and bitterness that the one person who is his equal and probably the only person he really cared for is against him. It's where he doesn't even hide how bitter and affected he is when talking about how he intends to deal with him.
• The look of utter devastation in Jacob's face when he realizes that another great war is coming.
  • Grindelwald's vision of World War II is this in general, featuring a tank, ruined cities, a veritable horde of people being led into trains, planes, and then a blinding flash of light, followed by a mushroom cloud.
  • Jacob's reaction really hits home when you remember he's a World War I veteran and knows exactly what Muggle warfare is like —and yet, this will be far worse than what he and his brothers-in-arms experienced or could have even imagined.
    "Not another war..."
  • The worst part is that it came to pass. Even the worst wizards in the world pale in comparison to what certain Muggles can do in terms of sheer cruelty and carnage.
• Jacob watching as Queenie defects to Grindelwald's side. Even more sad because her Sanity Slippage has turned into a full-on landslide. Jacob is sane enough to know that he would not survive crossing the Protego Diabolica despite how much he loves Queenie, because he was fully aware of the Fantastic Racism in Grindelwald's speech even though Queenie seemed to be oblivious to it. She did not understand that her demand for Jacob to walk with her would have been suicide for him.
  • Even worse is Tina's reaction. She can only let out a Big "NO!" as she watches her sister join the Wizarding World's greatest enemy.
    • Even worse for Tina? She's responsible for her sister defecting to the side of evil. Queenie mentions to Newt that Tina found out about her and Jacob and "didn't approve"; she thinks her sister, Newt, and the law are against her^note She's right about the law being against her, though! and can't see any other option to get her happy ending.
• Leta's death at Grindelwald's hands.
  • Theseus breaking down in Newt's arms after Leta's Heroic Sacrifice. They were months away from getting married.
  • The implication after hearing Leta's backstory is that her sacrifice may have been a case of Suicide by Cop.
  • Newt himself is also deeply saddened. Imagine being in his shoes. The woman who he never stopped loving even after all these years had just admitted that she still loved him and he had just realized that he too was at fault for how their relationship ended up. Only a few minutes after he realized that, she's killed without him being able to apologize or do anything to fix their relationship. The look on his face upon seeing her death makes him appear as if he's on the verge of tears himself.
  • Dumbledore's reaction to her death is also quite heartrending. The script even makes sure to convey just how heartbroken he was over her death and how he regretted not being able to prevent it.
• Nagini's going to have one long Break the Cutie and it begins in this film. She will eventually turn into a snake forever and witnesses Credence siding with Grindelwald, despite her having warned him and even pleaded with him not to. Given what we know about what later happens, perhaps Neville Longbottom killing her was merciful.
• Poor Queenie gets a (painfully realistic) sensory overload while lost in the streets of Paris and breaks down crying in the middle of the street. If she has an actual disorder (likely because she's a Legilimens), you can see why she loses her mind at the prospect of her boyfriend calling her crazy.
• After the Protego Diabolica escapes, Jacob is practically wandering Pere Lechaise, distraught over Queenie's defection—he can't do anything about the flames, and it almost looks like he doesn't want to.
• Nagini curled up in a corner after the Protego Diabolica is extinguished, clearly reeling from the loss of a deeply loved one just like Newt, Tina, Jacob, and Theseus—only unlike them, she has no one else to comfort her.
• As he explains how his Unbreakable Vow compels him to kill the one Corvus Lestrange IV loved the most, Yusuf Kama obviously struggles to not tell why he won't kill Leta, only for her to stoically push him to admit it: her own father never loved her.
• Poor Credence has been so worn down by his abusive upbringing and his circumstances that at the beginning of the film, he has trouble making prolonged eye contact even with Nagini, the girl he loves, and uses that same meek, submissive body language even around her.
• Dumbledore's conversation with Leta:
  Dumbledore: Regret is my constant companion. Don't let it become yours.