Tear Jerker / Sonic Frontiers

WARNING: Spoilers Off applies to all Tear Jerker pages across TV Tropes. You Have Been Warned!

'Til we meet again... thank you for everything.

Sonic Frontiers has one hell of a story to tell—one that will bring tears to the eyes like never before. These moments are the perfect examples why.

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Divergence prologue

• A brief flashback occurs in the beginning, with the Echidna Clan storming the altar to steal the Chaos Emeralds. A despaired Tikal, along with the Chao, are shown trying to get them to stop, but the Clan just shoves her and the poor creatures out of the way regardless. Pachacamac's lust for power is on full display, and we already know that it doomed him and his clan. You can even hear Chaos' scream of sorrowful anger as he transforms and begins to decimate them. To twist the knife further, given the lore that is dumped regarding the origins of the Angel Island civilization, it's more than possible that THE END may have manipulated Pachacamac into stealing the Chaos Emeralds, hoping to eliminate the last scion of the Ancients.
• The prologue ends with Knuckles—the independent powerhouse of the main cast—trapped and helpless on Ares Island. His scream of anguish just pours salt into the wound, and so does the Lonely Piano Piece that plays throughout Knuckles' sorrowful monologue.
  Knuckles: I do things on my own, and that's just how I like it. I don't need anyone else to get by. But sometimes...

Main Game

Sonic and Friends

• Sonic got his start with and has time and time again been shown to fight most of all to protect or save his loved ones and the innocent, starting with the animals in Sonic 1 onwards, and this game takes that drive to the very limit as each step Sonic takes towards freeing his friends is flooding his body with cyber corruption. By the time he saves Tails, it's being portrayed akin to a terminal disease consuming his body and eating away at him in an agonizing fashion, and he has to send Tails off on a mission so he doesn't see Sonic briefly collapse in pain. By the time he's dealing with the towers to finish the job, he can barely stand or drag himself further. When Sage demands an explanation for why he's still going, Sonic just takes a breath to steady himself, puts on a smile, and keeps going without a word. It's abundantly clear he knows he's marching to his death doing this, ^note Referred to as being "trapped between dimensions", but it's treated very much as a form of death, and Eggman openly remarks on it in such fashion when he sees what's become of Sonic but absolutely nothing will stop him from saving the people he loves.
  • The moment Sonic finally succumbs to it is equal parts horrifying and tragic. He tries with all the might that he can muster to keep going, but when he finally succeeds, the corruption reaches its limit and he just keels over, clearly in immense agony but holding himself back from screaming in defeat out of pride. After a brief struggle, his entire body just goes limp, his face frozen in pain. It's just Roger Craig Smith's realistic acting that makes things worse here. To twist the knife even further, while the gang mourns him, Eggman heartlessly laughs at Sonic's misfortune.
• Sonic and Amy's argument in one cutscene. It's brief, but it's saddening to see the sweet and loving Amy chew Sonic out for not trying to help a Koco find their true love.
  Amy: (to the wandering Koco, worried) Don't get too far ahead!
  Sonic: Maybe we should just let them wrap it up on their own.
  Amy: (irritated) We have to see this through!
  Sonic: We still haven't found Tails. We've been wrangling children and taking detours the whole way.
  (Beat. Amy gets even more angry at that statement.)
  Amy: Are you telling me... you would leave behind someone in need?
  Sonic: No. But...I'm also worried about you.
  • In the next cutscene, the hedgehogs are Forced to Watch as two Ancients reunite with each other, at the cost of their lives. Sonic even has to pull Amy back as she desperately pleads for the Ancients to stop.
    • When it's all over, when she and Sonic see the intimate Kocos, Amy is devastated. Major props to Cindy Robinson in that scene.
      Amy: (despaired) They were reunited... right before the end...
      Sonic: (comforting) ...They're together now.
• The general arc of the game’s story involves Tails, Amy and Knuckles deciding to make steps forward in their own personal journeys, with the knowledge that this will take them away from Sonic. Sonic himself is accepting, even encouraging, but after so many years of their relationship being a central part of the games, there’s a melancholic sense of finality for the foursome, but on the other hand they will always be friends no matter how apart the four will be.
• Tails and Sage's simultaneous stories of growing up in a family are played with melancholy about halfway through Chaos Island. When Sonic is told by Amy and Knuckles about their own wishes to pursue, he doesn't hesitate to tell them to go for it, despite knowing it would leave them far apart. With Tails, however, when he says he needs to strike out on his own and distance himself from Sonic, Sonic is actually wistful for a few moments and remarks that Tails grew up faster than he expected, clearly conflicted about being separated from his surrogate little brother. Ultimately though, he encourages Tails to follow his heart.
• After the grueling Final Battle against SUPREME/THE END in the Final Horizon Update, the battle ends with Super Sonic Cyber using all the cyber energy within him to put an end to the eldritch villain. And while it does the job and finishes the two off, it also treats us to an incredibly jarringly somber shot of Super Sonic, battered and bruised unlike any other fight he's been in after the final attack, unconsciously and limply floating through space in the aftermath before falling back to Earth, with the same music that played during Sage's sacrifice in the base game playing as he's falling. One wouldn't be blamed for thinking Super Sonic actually died before revealing he's alive.

The Ancients and the Koco

• Later revelations about the Koco make Sonic and Amy's argument hurt more in retrospect. Given the context of their Ancient selves appearing and the explosions, what Sonic and Amy see is actually most likely a flashback to the day the Ancients went extinct at The End's hands. The Koco may not have been looking for their partner only to die, but instead have been searching for the place their real bodies died together. Given all the chaos surrounding them, the fact that they chose to face their ends with a final loving embrace likely rattled Amy more than anything.
• The truth behind the Ancients as a whole, slowly revealed as the game progresses. They were an advanced alien race and the original owners of the Chaos Emeralds before THE END appeared and began to attack them. They did everything they possibly could to survive against its onslaught, but failed. Left with no other choice, they decided to seal away all of their technology, memories, and even essences into Cyber Space, with the Koco becoming vessels for them, in the hopes that they would not be lost to history and that future generations could eventually find them and carry on their will. There's a beautiful sense of catharsis and justice when Super Sonic, Sage, and all of the Koco they've met rally together to finish the fight the Ancients once lost...and win.
  • As an added punch in the gut, Final Horizon reveals that the Ancients we saw in the game were only a fraction of the entire population, as the entire society consisted of four other tribes. The Ancients that we see were the most intelligent and technologically advanced of the society, and therefore were the only ones who had the fortune of escaping, meaning that THE END had essentially wiped out 80% of all of the Ancients beforehand, making the rather miserable scene of the Ancients mourning the loss of their planet all the more upsetting.
• Collecting some of Eggman's logs reveals that the Ancients were actually distant ancestors of Chaos, and the Chao by extension, their DNA having mutated over time to take on their present-day incarnations. By defeating THE END, you're also fulfilling Chaos's will and giving an extra sense of closure to the expansive story arc that began with him by avenging the injustices done to his kin, the reason he went so insane with hatred, anger, and sadness that his desire for revenge threatened to consume the entire world along with his own life in Adventure.
  • The above comes with its own implication; Chaos is his species' equivalent of Knuckles. The sole survivor of his people, tasked with a single, indomitable goal because he simply has nothing else. Just the emeralds, the distant offshoots of the distant offshoots of what he could consider family, and whatever ruins could provide an inkling of information about what he is. The only non-blood related friend he had was Tikal, and unlike Knuckles he wasn't seen by anyone else other than Tikal as his own person. Even Dr. Eggman acknowledged Kncukles despite using him to further his own goals. The Echidna tribe and Pachacamac took one look at Chaos and instantly declared him a monster, little more than a wild animal in the way of their lust for power, and proceeded to destroy the only friends and family he ever had right before his very eyes. Chaos wasn't just angry and saddened that his loved ones were getting hurt, he was scared that he would end up truly alone in the world, and all that stress just made him snap completely. His own fear of being alone resulted in him lashing out at everything and ending up sealed inside the Master Emerald, trapped in that awful emotional state for millennia, with everyone he knew dead by his own hand and no one left outside who cared about him, all alone.
• SUPREME’s fate in the Final Horizon Update is this: After being defeated by Super Sonic, the Titan is taken by THE END through some kind of cable attaching on its neck. What follow is horrifying: SUPREME starts to roar wildly and falls on the ground, using its arms like front legs and banging its head while being taken over. After that, it grows new arms on its back, and then… the boss title card change its name from SUPREME to THE END, signaling that the Titan has lost its identity and became a zombified puppet of the True Final Boss. And during the fight, it may flail its arms while clutching its head in pain, as if it's actively trying to fight THE END's control. It’s almost a mercy when Super Sonic Cyber manages to obliterate it.

Sage and Eggman

• Shortly after Tails speaks about going on his own, it's shown that Sage has been watching them from afar, and acknowledges that the two are like family. The poor girl even cries as she wistfully wishes she could have that kind of relationship with Eggman.
  Sage: Such a beautiful friendship. A family born of love and not genetics—everything I want... I wish I'd never seen this. It was so much easier accepting the future when they were simply enemies.
  • Starting with this scene, Sage spends the remainder of the game flickering between her black and grey color scheme and a white and blue one, pictured above. This serves to emphasize her exceeding her programming (growing up), and her transition away from solely being an enemy, but is also used when she is showing strong emotion or conflicted feelings.
  • A flashback sequence showing all her interactions with Eggman then occurs, punctuated by a sad Image Song ("Heart and Soul")—sung by her Japanese voice actress, Megumi Hayashibara—that sounds straight out of Evangelion. As the song and the flashback ends, Sage is shown shedding a Single Tear before the camera pans away from her, punctuating her lonely existence.
• In a cutscene during Ares Island, Eggman mentions bringing Sage "home", and mentions Orbot and Cubot, who Sage realizes would be her brothers. This simultaneously brings heartwarming tears for Sage, and sad ones for Orbot and Cubot, because Eggman clearly sees Sage as the favorite "child", and mentions in multiple Egg Memos that the other two are effectively The Unfavorite. In Sonic Colors: Rise of the Wisps, the pair claim Metal Sonic as their "Big Bro", meaning the two fall into Middle Child Syndrome.
• In Egg Memo 17, Eggman speaks for the first time since Adventure 2 about Maria, and wonders if Sage is like her. However, he also expresses that he himself was treated as The Unfavorite compared to Maria, even after her death, and it still bothers him.
• Just before the Final Boss of the base game, Sage has to make a Heroic Sacrifice in order to help Sonic defeat THE END. But, being an AI under Eggman's command, she can't do that without his direct input. Sage manages to talk Eggman into it, causing Eggman to begrudgingly allow Sage to help Sonic. However, it's clear that he hates letting her do it, since he knows it's going to be a Heroic Sacrifice, but lets Sage go anyway, saying, "Be careful... dear daughter." Jeez.
  • Though Eggman has spent Egg Memos 13 through 19 (which are implied to take place before Sonic reaches Ares Island) coming to terms with seeing Sage as his daughter, he Cannot Spit It Out to her directly. She spends the whole game craving that recognition, and the closest he comes is clearly being saddened when he lets her go "fulfill [her] function." In the Golden Ending of the base game, the first thing he says to her is to give her that acknowledgement: "That's my girl."
  • After THE END is defeated in the base game, Eggman sees the shooting stars across the sky, and all he can do is futilely reach for the sky before he slumps over in sorrow. Even if she was an Artificial Family Member, Sage's death really hits him hard. Luckily, you can rectify this with the Golden Ending, where Eggman manages to recover her data, and with the Final Horizon update's ending, where she doesn't have to die to help stop THE END.
  • The credits song following this is Dear Father, an Image Song from Sage's point of view about the game's events and her connection to Eggman. Like the above example, it becomes a mix of sad and heartwarming with the base game's true ending where she's restored.
    Father, I wanted to make you proud
    Father, I will keep you safe
    I wish I could've found a way to stay with you forever
    Then maybe we... could be a family born of love
  • When one listens to the song carefully, they may find it hauntingly familiar. It's the same song that played during Sage's flashback sequence after witnessing Sonic & Tails come to their big decision. It's only now that the true meaning of the song can be revealed - it signifies Sage's growth into something more than an AI, foreshadows her sacrifice, and with lyrics is a heartfelt message to her creator and father, thanking him for everything.
  • The song hits doubly hard for anyone who's lost their own father in real life.

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