Episode 1
- A subdued one in the opening scene when Souta opens his PC to work on a drawing... except he just stares at the blank screen. Hits way too close to home for all sorts of artists in real-life, not just the illustrators. WHY he has this block and hides his art from people who genuinely want to see it makes this moment even worse, but that's in another episode.
- Selesia has a minor breakdown as she realizes that she's a fictional character.
- Meteora's creator was already dead in a completely random and unrelated car accident. Becomes worse when you understand the reason WHY Meteora wanted to meet her Creator in the first place: Meteora, being an NPC from a JRPG, has less character depth than almost every other Creation(becoming similar in many ways to Altair herself). She was ultimately going to judge her stance on the world based on if her Creator made her world with love and care or not.
- Mamika has heard Altair's story from Souta and goes out to reach her, hoping to steer away from her path of vengeance. Altair wants to destroy the world that so casually rejected her creator, but Mamika is different. The new world has changed her for the better and given her the resolve to continue being the heroine she was meant to be, and now she has come to save Altair from her own sorrow. How does Altair respond? By stabbing her with her swords over and over again. That's right, Altair killed a sweet and innocent girl just to satisfy her own revenge.
- This is right after Mamika has Pseudo-Romantic Friendship moment with Alice, knowing that she would probably be killed. Hell, not too long before this, Alice remembered a time a friend of hers was killed by an enemy in her world. Now she has to face that again.
- Even in the midst of the above, Altair can come off as pitiful. Her ice cold facade completely breaks as she furiously rants about how Setsuna and her life was endless misery, abuse and torment when all she wanted was to be accepted. Just before Mamika's suicide attack, Altair completely snaps, tearfully shrieking that Mamika has no idea about the pain she and Setsuna have gone through and thus have no right to judge her.
- Sota attempts to talk with Meteora about his experiences with his old friend Setsuna without naming himself and her, out of shame. Meteora doesn't outright say it, but it's likely she knows Sota is talking about himself and she advises Sota to move on and prevent such failures from happening again. It doesn't actually help Sota, but he still appreciates the advice. Then it all goes to hell when Magane ambushes him and gleefully reveals she knows about him and Setsuna and is not afraid of using that knowledge to further her plans. Then, she blackmails him by exchanging phone numbers with him. Poor Sota looks like he is about to suffer a panic attack from all of this.
- From the episode 9 preview alone, Magane has subjected Souta to emotional torture to the point of him slouched on the ground and in tears as she runs her foot across his face.
- Mamika lives just long enough to die in Alice's arms. The poor girl just breaks down into tears and seeing Mamika dying, complete with going dull eyes and going limp. It's simply heartwrenching.
Episode 10
- Alice tearfully begging Sota to stop proving Meteora's innocence in Mamika's murder, as she genuinely believes that her vendetta and desire to avenge her friend are all she has left.
- Alice's confused reaction when she hits Meteora, after Meteora moves Sota out of the way: Alice's strike was going to hit both Meteora and Sota, and Meteora protecting him most likely gives her her first doubt on her own actions and reason for hating Meteora.
- Alice's horrified reaction after impaling Selesia. She actually wipes off some of Selesia's blood from her face and stares at it, as if she cannot comprehend what she just did.
Episode 11
- The secret history between Sota and Yuna Shimazaki is finally revealed. She was Sota's only friend in the real world and they both had the same interests. Unfortunately, Yuna's constant success made Sota insecure as an artist and let distance grow between them. In time, Yuna faced online bullying from people who accussed of plagiarism. Sota attempted to do something about it but felt he would only make things worse and, to his own horror, felt satisfied at her friend's failure. And you wonder why the poor kid is a mess.
Episode 14
- The new OP shows two new characters, one of which is Syo, Yuuya's rival. However, whereas all the other characters have backdrops relating to their character or show, Syo's has him grieving for his dead sister and friend, contrasting his hot-blooded pose in the foreground.
- If it hasn't sunk in for viewers yet, the reality that Mamika may be well and truly gone is hammered in by her lack of presence in the second opening. From the one shot of Aliceteria's distorted reflection, it appears that she is holding Mamika's scarf.
- Alice staring longingly at production sketches of Mamika in the ending theme. As well as Altair looking at a sketch of Setsuna.
Episode 19
- Aliceteria's final fight with Altair has two subtle comments from Aliceteria and Altair: 1) Aliceteria criticizes Altair for not seeing the beauty and splendor in the world, meaning that (thanks to Mamika and Sota) Aliceteria herself has finally started seeing the world in a good way, and 2) Altair's response saying she knows the world is full of beauty and splendor, just that this beautiful world had none to give her Creator, hence why she despises it so much.
- Aliceteria, realizing it was Altair who killed Mamika, summons all her strength to destroy her. Unfortunately, Altair had used her Holopsicon so that any damage she receives will be felt by the attacker instead. Next thing you know, Aliceteria gets killed by her own attacks. For extra insult to injury, even in her last moments, Aliceteria says that every knight deserves a happy ending, but Altair cruelly tells her that only happens to protagonists, and Aliceteria is anything but. Seeing his Creation die, Takarada can only cry that Alice died for nothing.
- Selesia's final words are HEARTWRENCHING. It doesn't help that the Background Music for this is the bittersweet "oldToday"
by mizuki, who had last worked with Hiroyuki Sawano on Aldnoah.Zero. And if the above isn't already sad enough, this happens right after she confesses to Charon that she has been harboring feelings for him for a long time, he bitterly notes how ironic it is that she has now become his enemy, and she laments with tears in her eyes what a horrible story they are in.- Additionally, everyone's reaction to her last words. Specifically, Meteora's. It's been noted that Meteora is normally a stoic person who appears cold and analytical, but here she looks like she's about to tear up when Selesia says goodbye to her. Throughout the series, you really get the sense that Meteora and Selesia became close friends.
Episode 21
- Seeing Setsuna was a terrifying moment for Altair. Altair shouted towards the Gods for using such a coward's move which the Gods agreed but the only way to stop her. What happens was Altair actually hesitating for once in her life and unable to dare lay harm onto the person claiming to be Setsuna. Altair was shaking, barely able to hold her sword while begging the person in front of her to stop speaking in that voice. All Altair could see was the Gods creating a Demon wearing her mother's skin.
Episode 22
- While the ending is more or less an Earn Your Happy Ending for Sota, Meteora, and Altair, there's still a sour spot for everyone else. Namely, the epilogue shows that Matsubara and Takarada have not recovered from watching their Creations die pathetically while having achieved absolutely nothing, and are actually showing signs of being in the midst of an emotional breakdown that they likely won't be recovering from any time soon.
