For a webcomic that focuses heavily on adult humor and gaming and nerd culture, Penny Arcade does have its moments of sadness.
- The last panel of the conclusion to Armadeaddon
. The guy standing with Gabe and Tycho in the photo is Jim, an old friend of theirs. Jim came back as a skeleton in the story arc, so Tycho is remembering all the good times they had with him back when he was alive. - "A Ring and a Prayer", when a despairing Sonic (in his Sonic Boom garb) begs Gabe, who is in tears, to shoot him at point blank range in the head if he really loves him. He complies. It's even more gut wrenching in light of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric becoming a critical and commercial flop.Sonic: Do it. If you ever loved me, you'll do it.
- Some of Tycho's words after the birth of his daughter are tearjerking and heartwarming at the same time."I need you to be thus armed because I fear your mother and I have played a trick on you; we have brought you to a place where hidden weaponry is sometimes necessary. In our defense, and I recognize that it may be insufficient, this was the only world available to us."
- Part 1 of the story arc Ripped From Today's Headlines, the last panel is pretty heartwrenching. Tycho holding his dead wife in his arms, realizing that he just killed her, and feeling really bad for it.Tycho: Oh my god. Oh my god. Please don't leave me.
- Gabe teaching his son about Online Safety can really hit home to any parent watching their kid grow up.
- The result of Tycho playing the heart-rending game That Dragon Cancer. Somehow, Gabe's glib reaction makes it worse.Tycho: A man has distilled his grief into a thick, bitter potion... and I have drunk deep. There is the man I was before That Dragon, Cancer, and now there is the wretched thing it has made of me...Gabe: At least it has dragons, right? You love dragons!Tycho: Get the fuck out of here!
