Spoilers Off applies to all Tear Jerker pages, so all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Heart of Fire
- In the 10th chapter, Kathryn has a vision in which her parents are dying. Her delirious mother keeps yelling for the physician to "bring her her baby back", and her father, apparently knowing that Kathryn can see and hear him, says "I'm sorry." They caused their little girl to run way from home by abusing her in a misguided way to protect her, and they don't get a chance to see her one more time or tell her face-to-face how sorry they are.
- Kathryn is left in a serious Heroic BSoD by this experience. She actually starts considering herself an abomination who unintentionally killed the Knight of Gondor and could kill someone else if her powers wreak havoc because of her emotional outbursts.
- Kathryn, shaken by the vision she has of Smaug in the 13th chapter, discovers the mummified dwarves whom Thorin Oakenshield's Company will discover sixty years later. The knowledge that he'd cause death and destruction — even more than he did when he conquered Erebor — in order to get her back shatters the companionable trust she has built with Smaug.
- When Smaug realizes what Kathryn saw in her vision by noticing how frightened she's of him, he feels hurt that the only person who matters to him has lost her trust towards him. This is accentuated by her having discarded the Mithril necklace he gave her in the previous chapter.
- Smaug allowing Kathryn to leave Erebor and enjoy her freedom until she returns to him. This is the most selfless thing he has done so far (which is saying a lot). Even though this was meant to be a cunning gambit, he's still filled with sorrow over letting his greatest treasure leave him to the point that he seals himself inside Erebor and slumbers for six decades. Once Kathryn has finished singing one last song for him, she realizes that she has grown to love him.
- Tauriel is killed by Smaug while she's helping Bard with his plan to slay the dragon.
- The entire ending is one big cryfest. Kathryn fails to prevent Smaug from being hit by Bard's Black Arrow. She tries to save him by using her Raw Magic, only to overexert herself and die on Smaug's snout. He then prepares to follow her to death, but he's denied the solace of having her body next to him when Fankil takes it away.
Heart of Ashes
- When we return to Gandalf in the 12th chapter, he's helping Lake-men to rehabilitate Dale to make up for all their suffering from Lake-town's destruction and the Battle of the Five Armies, of which he blames himself due to starting the quest to retake Erebor. He also mourns Kathryn, believing her to be dead and blaming himself for it as well as for not being able to keep his promise to her and make sure Smaug remains alive. He's also afraid that Elrond will never forgive him for Kathryn's death.
- In the 13th chapter, Kathryn sees in a dream the breakdown Smaug had when she left him alone in Erebor. It leads to her apologizing to Smaug for the sorrow her departure caused him.
- Smaug revealing that he's been trying to impregnate Kathryn without her knowledge hurts and angers her, for she thought he would always be upfront with her, especially with such a big decision.
- When Freyja reveals that Smaug has been killing people around Emyn Muil and all along planned to conquer Erebor back, Kathryn thinks she could have stopped him if she hadn't let her love blind her to his evil side.
- The death of Freyja. The timid and abused girl has just traveled a long journey to rescue Kathryn from Smaug, only for Kathryn to tell her to leave before Smaug can find her. As she walks down the stairs crying, Smaug discovers her and rather unceremoniously kills her by biting her, just because he swore Andraya he'd kill the witch and her daughter if he ever saw them again.
- Kathryn and Smaug's talk in the epilogue. Kathryn is so heartbroken because of Smaug's recent actions that she tells him that even though she'll stay with him in order to keep everyone safe from him, she cannot offer him her love. Feeling regret for the first time in his life, even if only because his actions have hurt her, Smaug ends up finally saying out loud that he loves her in his desperation not to have her reject him. He ends up promising her that he won't try to have his revenge and conquer Erebor back. With a lot of reconciliation to work on, they set out to live in isolation, without Kathryn saying goodbyes to Elrond, Gandalf and Faervel.Smaug: Kathryn, I have done many things in my life, all of them to satisfy my own wants. But for a long time, all I have done, I have done for you. It is in my nature to take what I want and to guard it with everything I have and however I can. I will not apologise for who I am. You do not want that, no matter how you may pretend to. And I cannot change what I am; a dragon will not be brought down so. But… I want you. I want you more than anything else in this world. I tried to keep you before, but all it did was bring us to this. I don't want you here out of obligation, I want YOU! A dragon never gives up their treasures, and you are my greatest treasure! But you're more than that, you are my mate, my one, the one I will bind myself to. Yet you still turn your back on me?! YOU have broken ME! My life was fine until you entered it, until you changed everything for me; now all I can think is of you, all I want is for your happiness. You make me do things that hurt my pride and drive me MAD just for a taste of your affections! I would do anything for you, be anything for you! Is that not enough?! I love you!
Heart of the Inferno
- Kathryn has had three miscarriages during the last decade. All of them were devastating experiences both to her and Smaug, and they needed a lot of time to recover from them. Though the fourth pregnancy is going well, they're still wary about something going wrong.
- On the third miscarriage, Kathryn insisted on being there to witness what Smaug does to the bodies. When he gently scorched the body and watched with Kathryn as the ashes were swept away by the wind, he was close to shedding tears.
- Kathryn giving birth to Kolstros and Vervenia nearly kills her, and it's only Gandalf the White's interference that saves her life. During her brief period in the afterlife, Smaug stops feeling her through their bond and is afraid he has lost her again.
- After the Fellowship is broken, Aragorn tells Kathryn that he has failed as their leader.
- When Kathryn becomes an unwilling guest in Erebor, she remembers the Lonely Mountain as the home and safe haven it was to her while it was still Smaug's domain. She then has to accept the sad truth that the restored dwarf kingdom where everyone scorns her is no longer the home she remembers.
- Dwalin treats Kathryn and her twins hatefully because of their connection to Smaug, but his anger is partly explained by the death of his respected king Thorin Oakenshield, of which Dwalin blames Smaug and the dragon-sickness lingering on the treasure.
- When Faervel finally goes to see Kathryn following her imprisonment, they argue over his act of "betraying" her by forcing Smaug to let her be detained in Erebor. He ends up throwing away his haughty demeanor and confesses how overwhelmed he was to see the friend he considered to be dead. He then goes on to confess that everything they went through in Vathvael opened his eyes to the sins of the mortal world, and he has chosen not to accompany his kin to the Undying Lands because he feels he's unworthy of it.
