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Tear Jerker / Spartacus: Blood and Sand

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Blood & Sand

  • Evil they may be, but you can't help but feel bad for Lucretia and Batiatus' attempts to have children.
  • Pretty much everything to do with the opal necklace Crixus gets Ashur to buy for Naevia. She can't accept it, and Crixus goes off in a huff before she can explain why. Lucretia then spots it in his hands and he pretends he got it for her, and then Naevia sees her wearing it while she catches them doing it. Sad for Naevia because she had to turn down a gift, knowing she'd have no way to explain to her mistress where it came from, and then Crixus believes she rejected him and she has to see her mistress then wearing it. Sad for Crixus because he believed the woman he was falling in love with didn't want him, and when he finds out, he realised he hurt her and probably wasted substantial winnings All for Nothing. Hell, it's even sad for Lucretia because she thinks Crixus took the time to buy her a gift, and she deludes herself that he's in love with her.
  • Everything that happens to Pietros after Barca's death. Made even worse by the fact that he dies believing his lover abandoned him to be raped and abused whilst he got to be free, when the viewers know that he was actually murdered by Batiatus.
    • Naevia likewise knows the truth, but cannot tell him, and all she can do is take care of his birds after his death.
  • Spartacus being delivered Sura’s body was particularly brutal, with him weeping over her as she die in his arms.
    • Especially as it was just when he thought he was going to be reunited with her, and seeing Sura's happiness in being able to see her husband again before she dies. Everyone else in the ludus, even the people who hate Spartacus, seem heartbroken too at the sight.
    • Hell, Lucretia, who was the most opposed to reuniting Spartacus and Sura, looks momentarily saddened. It's undermined when she learns that Batiatus rigged things as a way to keep Spartacus with them and in line, and she smirks with approval.
    • Oenomaus is approaching Spartacus, whip at the ready and knowing he was drugged. But when he sees Sura dying, he lowers the whip. Harsher in Hindsight with Gods of the Arena revealing that he had to find his own wife in a similar state.
  • Varro's death. What really sells it is Spartacus' reaction. After killing his best friend, he's back in his quarters. He's clearly struggling to hold in his feelings. Finally, he snaps and smashes every breakable object in his room until he's left pounding the wall until his hands are bloody. When Mira finds him, he's weeping like a child, and the episode ends as he cries on her shoulder.
    • And then Aurelia's reaction to the loss of her husband.
    Spartacus: "Varro asked that I see you taken care of."
    Aurelia: "Then return him to me."
    • Aurelia said this after selling herself to work for Batiatus. She gave her son to her brother to free him from debt. When Spartacus points out that he could give the money earned from his victories to her, she adamantly refuses any of his help. At this point, she admits to not caring whether she lives or die.
  • When Crixus and Naevia are parted in "Revelations". Special mention to Crixus weeping in despair that he has ruined them, and the parting shot of Naevia’s hand leaving his face as he silently cries in anguish.
    • Naevia's Traumatic Haircut (although we only see the aftermath). We spend half the episode thinking Lucretia's "bring me a knife" order means that she's been killed. Instead Lucretia just tortured her in a vindictive Slut-Shaming way. And there's no doubt she wanted Crixus to see what she had done right before Naevia was sent away forever.
  • While deserved, Batiatus's death is heartbreaking. The opening of Gods of the Arena twists the knife further, with his dreams of glory used as an Ironic Echo.
    • Especially his horror at seeing Lucretia stabbed and collapsing, and the way she reaches for her dead husband. They're both assholes, but you can tell they truly love each other.

Gods of the Arena:

  • Gaia's death. Unlike a lot of the other Romans, she was Spoiled Sweet and treated the likes of Naevia and Diona pretty decently. And she was killed just because Tullius wanted to use her to hurt Quintus and Lucretia. And then Titus wants to keep favour with Tullius, and has the slaves throw Gaia's body off the cliff, letting everyone believe she just got drunk and fell off. He even orders the slaves to scrub all trace of her from the villa and dispose of her belongings.
  • Melitta's death as well. An innocent woman caught in the crossfire of Lucretia's revenge. Even Lucretia herself is shocked by the accident.
  • Naevia helplessly watching Dionna's execution. Especially since she gave her the money to escape Capua, in the hopes it would alleviate some of her trauma. It also adds a Call-Back to Blood & Sand where Naevia had told Crixus she didn't enjoy watching the games.

Vengeance:

  • Aurelia's dying words telling Spartacus to stay far away from her son in case he dies like both his parents have from being close to him.
  • When Oenamaus is about to die in the pits, he hallucinates his younger self and Titus looking at him sadly. Fridge Horror occurs when you consider that Titus is the first person to ever believe in Oenamaus, his only parental figure, and probably the only person Oenamaus still believes in— and he's still just a guy who bought Oenamaus to bring glory to his house in a blood sport.
  • Lucretia has finally lost everything at the end of Season 2. Her husband is dead, her unborn baby is dead, her home is not her's anymore and she's had Ilythia try and kill her. She gives a rather dangerous C-Section to Ilythia and then throws herself off a cliff, having legitimately gone entirely round the bend...
    • Illythia has to watch Lucretia carry her newborn baby away from her and jump off a cliff with it. And that's seconds before she dies.
  • Mira realises that Spartacus no longer loves her after she tried to kill Illythia, and likely never did, and she was only Loving a Shadow. She has to accept this, and can only speak of hoping that the next woman he falls in love with makes him happier.
  • Mira's death in "Wrath of the Gods". Such a sudden and unexpected casualty in battle, especially since the axe was thrown at Spartacus and hit her instead. Spartacus carries her to the top of the mountain and is so focused on getting medical attention for her that he doesn't notice she's already passed. Naevia has to quietly shake her head to get him to realise. And poor Mira died believing she would always come second to Sura in his affections, not realising that just because he loved Sura it doesn't mean he didn't love her as well.

War of the Damned:

  • When Spartacus first enters Sinuessa in disguise, he picks up a ball a little girl had dropped and returns it to her, urging her to stay safe. After the city has fallen at the end of the episode, he sees the same little girl lying dead in the street, reminding him that innocent lives will still be lost in this war.
  • Sure, Tiberius isn't entirely sympathetic over the course of War of the Damned, spiraling down and across the Moral Event Horizon, but between being born and raised as an upper class Roman, desperately trying (and failing) to get his father's love and respect, and then having to personally kill Sabinus, his combination Morality Pet and best friend (with a dash of Ho Yay) during the Decimation... Ultimately, he's as much a creation of Rome's making as the rebellion itself.
    • To build on the element of Ho Yay, because there's a tearjerking element to it, it's also a part of the culture of the time - Even if Tiberius and Sabinus were attracted to each other, due to their social standing, they couldn't actually express it - Roman citizens were not supposed to have sexual relations with one another or they'd lose their status (as elaborated on the YMMV page). Ironically, while this could just be Alternate Character Interpretation, it shows the way that Rome has made slaves of its citizens, even as they fight a war against Spartacus's slave rebellion.
  • A citizen of Sinuessa asks the rebels for news of his sister, who is unaccounted for. It turns out that Nemetes has been keeping her locked up naked, to be used as a Sex Slave for his men. She is bloodied and bruised when Caesar comes across her, and actually begs him to kill her. He is horrified by the whole thing.
  • While it's an Awesome Moment when Gannicus calls Naevia on her shit, the pain in his voice as he confronts her about murdering Atius can be quite sad.
    "He was my friend, you mad bitch!"
  • Watching Agron get crucified is pretty heartwrenching, especially as its not made clear initially if he survives it or not. Dan really knows how to sell that screaming pain.
    • His's distraught reaction when he tries and fails to grip a sword afterwards. He always prided himself on his fighting skills and outright tells Nasir he believes that fighting is all he's good at, and now that too has been taken from him.
  • When Caesar and Kore reveal how much of a monster Crassus's recently killed son Tiberius was, Crassus goes from pained but vengeful to utterly broken.
  • Crixus' death is possibly one of the most heart-wrenching in the entire series. Not only is it awful seeing 'the Undefeated Gaul' brought to his knees and humiliated - by being stabbed in the back by Tiberius of all people - what truly sells it is the interactions between he and Naevia. She tries desperately to defend him, only to be subdued, and sobs helplessly, whilst Crixus spends his final moments gazing upon the woman he loves, silently trying to give her some support. It certainly helps that Naevia's grief in the scene is actually real; Cynthia Addai-Robinson was reportedly channeling her own grief over the recent passing of her father. The fact that Naevia is only allowed to live so she can be sent back to the rebels with Crixus' decapitated head just adds salt to the wound, too.
    • Nasir learning that Agron is probably dead is awful.
      • On a happier note, their reunion scene can cause tears of joy.
    • Saddened by the fact that Naevia, who had also just lost her lover Crixus and had been grieving with Nasir, is starkly reminded that Crixus is truly dead.
    • On that last note, Naevia later watching a woman tending to her newborn - she's clearly thinking of how she and Crixus had talked of starting a family when the war is over, and now those dreams are shattered forever.
  • The deaths of the protagonists in the final battle, when the viewer realises that Anyone Can Die.
    • Lugo admittedly goes out in a badass way, but he was one of the first Germans to pledge allegiance to Spartacus.
    • Castus dies in Nasir's arms, and says to Agron "would that I had been you for but a day".
    • Saxa bleeds to death in Gannicus's arms, and she can only note the irony of it. He is also saddened because, although he may have chosen Sybil over her, that doesn't mean he didn't love her as well.
    • Naevia goes out exactly the same way as Diona was killed. Gannicus, who'd seen her as a "mad bitch", is likewise distraught at her death.
    • Spartacus seemingly has Crassus defeated, but reality ensues when he is impaled from behind by three nameless Romans.
  • Gannicus, crucified, hallucinates that he is being applauded by a thronging Colosseum audience. For all their hatred of their enslavement, the gladiators cannot help but long for the glory of the arena and the adulation of the crowd.
  • Kore's death. Whilst one understands Crassus's reasons for having her crucified, it's heartbreaking seeing her nailed to the cross, watching Crassus with tears streaming down her face, looking so utterly broken. Crassus himself seems to be hiding behind a stony mask at the sight of his dying lover and it really brings home the realisation that, whilst he may have defeated Spartacus, he's lost everything he truly loves in the process.
  • The end of "Victory." The ending was expected. The credits montage of all the dead of the entire series, ending in Andy Whitfield's triumphant shout of "I am Spartacus!", was not.
  • As Spartacus lies dying, Laeta tries to rouse him, saying 'Spartacus' once, twice, a third time. Then we are reminded of a simple thing, lost beneath the legend that has been built up around that word:
    Spartacus: *weakly* Spartacus...That is not my name...
    • Not to mention how Agron just completely weeps in a way never seen in the series before. He breaks down, unable to comprehend that the man he's followed since the beginning is dying.
    • And a final twist of the knife. Although we see named characters like Agron, Nasir, Sybil and Laeta safe and well, they tell Spartacus that "many were lost" in the ambush in the north. The large crowd of people Spartacus sent away for their safety has become so small.

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