Tear Jerker / MapleStory

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

”Damien... you’re my one and only brother.”

Character Storylines

• Zero's storyline has some parts:
  • The 6th chapter of Zero's storyline, where Cassius fades and dies after spending too long away from the temple. When you get back to the temple, all the npcs are crying.
  • The 8th chapter focuses on Alpha and Beta struggling with the idea that one of them is corrupted and is preventing the other from becoming a Transcendent, and that the corrupted one must be killed. Alpha realizes the evidence points to Beta and attempts to hide it from her...and she pieces it together herself and attacks Alpha, trying to force him to kill her in self-defense.
• Eunwol/Shade's storyline is basically one tear-jerker after another.
  • He wakes up in a world that isn’t his own and is distraught to think his friends might think he’s dead.
  • When Moonbeam hears that Shade is leaving the fox village for Maple World, she cries so hard that it causes rain in the village. To make things worse, from this point onwards the village is continuously raining even if you return, meaning that Moonbeam is constantly crying for someone she can’t even remember.
  • As Shade goes back to Maple World, he realises that nobody remembers him anymore - his former friends are hostile to him and Phantom outright attacks him. Thinking he can start anew in the fox village, he heads back only to realise that nobody there remembers him either. The villagers who had formerly took him in are now terrified and hostile towards him.
  • Moonbeam spends her days at the fox god’s statue, praying and hoping that her spirit will be returned to her. She’s completely forgotten that she gave up her spirit to save Shade from dying when he protected her, and their bond as ‘spiritmates’ is now completely gone. Even the mark of friendship Shade and Moonbeam made at the statue has been erased.
  • Shade uncovers the box of memories he and his friends had made together and realised he’s been completely erased from the photos.
  • Shade, despite all evidence, refuses to believe Freud is dead until he sees his grave with his own eyes. In denial and unable to cope, he sends a letter to Freud in a bottle across the sea in the vain hope he’ll receive it.
  • The reveal that Moonbeam’s spirit guardian is an exact replica of Shade is a mix of tearjerker and heartwarming, as it’s said that a Foxy’s spirit guardian takes the shape of the one they miss the most. To add to this, Shade later gains a skill that allows him to summon Moonbeam as a spirit guardian.
    Skill description: Your bond with the spirits has been maxed. Your yearning for Moonbeam summons the spirit guardian you got from her, and it takes her form. The memory of an uneaten liver nibbles away at your subconscious, appearing sometimes when you hit enemies.
• Eunwol writes a Lunar New Year letter to Moonbeam.

  Eunwol: Moonbeam, why do I have so many regrets? Now that I think of it, I was the happiest when I was with you, but at that time I didn’t know that because I was so obsessed with my past. Now my head hurts thinking about that time.

  Eunwol: Every time I fought, every time I used my skill, every moment... I thought once the deed was done, my curse would be lifted and I could finally go back to you. I was wrong. I try hard not to regret it, but it’s difficult.

  Eunwol: My name is Eunwol, Moonbeam. I’ve got small ears and no tail. I’m just a big... poor friend of yours. For now, I’d be happy if you could just remember me as someone who sent you this mysterious letter.

• The main Resistance questline, or at least the latter half added a few years after the class was released. Vita, the girl rescued during the opening tutorial, goes missing after a potion she made turns out to be poisonous. Upon reaching the Black Wings base, we learn she was a failed attempt to clone Orchid, with no special powers. Gelimer brainwashed her into a weapon and when she fails, he straps her to a bomb as part of a trap. Vita then activates the bomb so the player can't get close enough to be injured in the blast by trying to rescue her. Made worse if you are playing as a Resistance character in Black Heaven if you mention Vita to Gelimer, he either pretends to not even know who she is, or at least indicates she didn't matter to him enough to be remembered.
  • Xenon's story is quite tragic in retrospect.
    • He was originally childhood friends with the Resistance leaders, before being kidnapped and subjected to Unwilling Roboticisation. He changes so much that when he finally meets his friends again as adults, they can't even recognize him anymore. After his memory-spark and subsequent rebellion, Claudine slowly starts to realize who he is and tries to give him something before he leaves Edelstein: the dagger that he lent her when they were both kids. Made even sadder as Xenon has doubts if she has the right person as not even 'he' can remember who he was/is.
    • Later in his questline, after defeating his rival Beryl one last time, she finally admits defeat and acknowledges that he is the stronger one. She tells Xenon that since she has failed her mission, she will most likely be dismantled as he objects to this and tries to convince her to go back to Veritas with him, to no avail. Beryl bids him a final farewell and Xenon begs for her to come back. This event leaves Xenon so distraught that he actually questions if he really wants his emotions back, if they were able to cause him this much pain.

Quests, Blockbusters, and Events

• Poor Jane Doe's story and her reaction when she finds out she's dead.
• The first Maplestory blockbuster, Black Heaven, has many of these moments.
  • Black Heaven Act 3: Just when you are about to land on Black Heaven's deck, a forcefield stops you and traps the Resistance instructors. You manage to escape, but the Resistance instructors, and possibly more, are gunned down by Black Heaven's artillery. Claudine's reaction just seals it.
  • Black Heaven Act 5: When One-Eye tells you the story of how he and Three-Hands escaped from a group of other "defective" robots (as in, those labeled defective by Gelimer because they were developing emotion) who were set to be destroyed doing so with the help of one who didn't escape. It's pretty sad.
  • Black Heaven Act 6: Lotus has broken free from Gelimer's control, reunited with his sister and has found reason to continue living on in his human body. However, Gelimer decides that Suu has outlived his usefulness and kills him in Orcid's arms.
• The second blockbuster, Heroes of Maple, also has plenty of moments.
  • Heroes of Maple Act 1:
    • It’s both sad and heartwarming to see Afrien hold on for so long against Damien’s corruption despite how much it hurts, all to deliver a message to his long-dead friend Freud’s successor.
    • It’s easy to miss due to all the button mashing required to clear this stage, but at the side of the screen, when Evan asks Shade how he and Aran became so close, Shade says they became friends again after a battle in the sky. Aran asks, ‘Again?’, reminding Shade that Aran and the rest of the heroes have forgotten his existence. His melancholy expression when he replies, “Nothing, I was just talking to myself” is heartbreaking.
  • Heroes Of Maple Act 1.5:
    • Damien goes to see his brother Demon. He explains his motives for joining the Black Mage: he was the one who killed their own mother by accident when Demon was away at war, and Damien joined as a commander believing this was the only way to right his wrongs.
    • Demon tearfully begs Demon to quit being a commander, knowing the power will corrupt him. Damien refuses and attacks him before teleporting away, expressing his regret as he does so.
  • Heroes of Maple Act 3:
    • Luminous realises he screwed up by calling Phantom’s revenge for his dead lover Aria ‘petty’ and Phantom is obviously hurt and angry. This leads to the two of them fighting for real.
  • Heroes of Maple Act 4:
    • Arkanium reveals he was the one who had killed Damien’s mother, meaning all those years of torment and Damien’s entire reason for joining Black Mage has been rendered moot.
    • Damien has been so consumed by power that he no longer remembers his family and what he was fighting for in the first place.
    • Demon has to destroy the spirits of his ancestors possessing his brother's sword, or they'll just find another host and the whole fiasco will start over again. He’s noticeably hesitant to do this as destroying the spirit also means that Damien dies as well. When Damien recovers enough of his original personality to beg Demon to give him a Mercy Kill, Demon goes through with the act. He is last seen carrying off his brothers corpse with tears in his eyes.
• In the Strange Stories event, one of the three stories features Edward, a snow child, the child of a snow spirit and a human. Unfortunately, he has the ability to transform into a Yeti whenever he gets a bit emotional, and while transformed, he has gone on a rampage on a certain village, which causes the villagers to be hostile toward Edward and want to get rid of him. Only Bitsie, the daughter of the village chief, wants to help Edward, whom she sees as her friend. Three of the four endings to this story are bad endings, since Edward doesn't get a happy life.
  • If you choose to help the villagers and fuel their suspicions, Bitsie decides to run away with Edward to a place where he won't be persecuted.
  • If you choose to help Bitsie but go against her in the end, Edward decides that he can't live as a human, so he goes out to live with the Yetis and knows that he will become less and less human.
  • If you choose to help the villagers but defend Bitsie at one point, Edward will ultimately die in the snow. As if the villagers' callousness weren't enough to break your heart, Edward accepts his fate quite tragically and lies down on the snow, and you (the player, not the character) get to watch him be completely covered and covered by snow, while nobody else knows where he has gone.
    Edward: I was born in the snow... I guess it's only fitting that I return to it in the end...