History TearJerker / Ninjago

** Just the entirety of Issue #4's opening panels: right after Garmadon has survived his fight with [[BigBad Lord Mogra]] he is left on death's doorstep and weakly tries to get up and find himself a place to recover, he then hears a familiar voice... Lloyd's, who comes to his aid, Garmadon responds to his son coming to save him with a few words that demonstrate that for all his prior abuse, harm and jerkass behavior in the Oni Trilogy [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he genuinely feels remorse for what he did to Lloyd]] and is fully aware he has no one to blame but himself. While it turns out that "Lloyd" was actually Min (a girl he had befriended) and he just hallucinated his son in his place, this one moment makes his situation even more tragic, especially since he implies that he feels his son might not love him anymore for the things he put him through and is conscious of the possibility being his fault.

** Issue #1 has Garmadon confront the embodiment of his sins and evil, "Shadow Garmadon", who doesn't hesitates to tell him that he's been a failure not only as an evil emperor but also as a husband to Misako and [[AbusiveParents as a father to Lloyd]], while Garmadon at first dismisses it since he still thought of himself as a conqueror, later actions would prove his flaws and sins being brought up truly managed to shake him to his core.

-> '''"Lloyd"''': Father. Father, can you hear me-- It's me
->'''Garmadon''': A-After all I've done... you haven't given up on me... Lloyd.

* Lord Garmadon is a wicked, evil villain bent upon conquering Ninjago, enslaving everyone into his evil dystopia and killing all those who stand in his way...not voluntarily, but because he was bitten and infected by the evil venom of the Great Devourer now deeply rooted in his blood, he cannot fight that dark side of him...and he can't even control it. He knows that what he is doing is wrong, but he can't help himself. So he feels compelled into doing evil things and commits evil acts by impulse while he ''really'' and truly doesn't want it to be that way. He struggles to be a good father to his son Lloyd (whom he genuinely adores) and lets him make his own choices and follow his own destiny, even if it means that the two are destined to battle in the future.

* Because he is the prophesied Green Ninja, Lloyd will one day have to fight his own father. It's clear that neither of them want this to happen, but the increasing control of the Overlord over his father made it inevitable.

* Lloyd refusing to speak to his mother after meeting her for the first time in his life in "The Stone Army."

** And the end of the episode only takes it even further. Despite the heroes trying their darned-hardest to prevent the final battle (with Lloyd even holding off on finishing him off as explained earlier), they fail to return the helmet to the Doomsday Clock in time. And for insult to injury, the heroes end up getting sent falling off the cliffside, with Nya being captured by the Stone Army, angering Jay and leaving Lloyd regretful for not finishing off Garmadon when he had the chance.

* Apparently, part of the Serpentine's reason for going underground was due to humans thinking that THEY were the enemy when they were just warning them of the evil Golden master. No wonder they're so bitter about the sealing bit.

** Zane's falcon perching on the statue of Zane unveiled by Cyrus Borg and the snowfall that follows. Don't be so surprised if you start crying.

* The first half of "The Invitation" is this, as it shows how the ninja are dealing with Zane's "death". All of them except Lloyd have given up on being ninja at all, and nearly decided to just end the team altogether.

* This line in "The Forgotten Element":
-->'''Kai:''' ''(to Skylor)'' Just tell me one thing. Was it his idea to make me fall for you, or yours? Because it worked.

** Speaking of his crew, while the shorts may be non-canon and do reveal he tricked most of them into joining ''Misfortune's Keep'' (Clancy willingly joined because he felt like he belonged), there are moments that show Nadakhan and the rest of his gang see each other as family. The Djinn even offers to bring them to Djinjago where they could live an easy life. This only twists the knife further when he betrays them for Delara's resurrection.

* Wu's nightmare in "Pause And Effect" where he is confronted by Misako, Garmadon, Morro, the Hands Of Time, and apparitions of the ninja, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech all of whom berate him for all the failures and mistakes Wu has made throughout his life up until the present day]].

* At one point, Lloyd's mother muses that she should have chosen Master Wu instead of Garmadon. Not only is this sad because Garmadon didn't ask for the reason she's reconsidering her choice since he was forced into evil, hating every second of it but in a roundabout way, she's ''wishing Lloyd had never been born'' because the person he became, for good or ill, was because who his father was and if Wu had been his father, it's entirely probable that there would be nothing of the Lloyd we know and love in the child who would have resulted.

* "Game of Masks". The episode starts with a flashback of Harumi's StartOfDarkness. It is revealed that her biological parents died during the Great Devourer's rampage and she was adopted into the Royal Family and endured what is implied to be a stern education, as well as having to spend most of her time locked in the palace, and she blames the Ninja for their "failed efforts" to stop the creature and Lloyd for releasing the Serpentine, who went on to release the Great Devourer.

* In the episode "The Fall", Cole seemingly falls to his death after Nya accidentally put the Destiny's Bounty in reverse. The [[LosingTheTeamSpirit subsequent aftermath of the tragedy sent ripples throughout the entire team and then some]].

--->'''Wu''': Goodbye, brother.

* The non-canon novel, ''Way of the Departed'', may not be canon to the story, but it does give some very depressing insight into Cole's character that isn't explored much in the show.
** Cole is shown tormented by ghastly nightmares where he is exposed to his own death over and over (by his head splitting open no less) and feeling cold, but remarking he shouldn't feel cold because ''he is not alive anymore''; though he ''is'' alive now. He's become distrustful of his own friends, even his best friend Jay, and doesn't confide in any of them about his nightmares and the fact he is losing sleep. Cole hides everything from them, deciding that it's better to abandon them and solve it on his own to protect them, not wanting to put them in unnecessary danger even though he ''knows'' that they would ''gladly'' come to his aid. He seems to regret this later on but seems affirmed by his decision to keep them safe.
*** [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Cole seems to have lost all interest eating cake]]. This is Cole, the glutton who loves cake to the ends of Ninjago and back. He even claims that cake tastes like ash in his mouth and that he no longer enjoys eating it, though eats it anyway for a chance of normalcy.
** Jay comes to wake up Cole for their morning training, only to find that Cole is no longer there and a simple note with no indication of where his best friend went.
** A couple of days after Cole abandons them, Zane is making an ice sculpture of Cole and notices that his emotion levels are low. He misses Cole. Another day, Misako seems to be bothered by the fact that they have contact with all the Ninjas, ''except'' Cole, who left without anything.
** Master Yang seems absolutely distraught over Cole's suffering. He and Cole have struck a sort of unlikely friendship as Cole is the only one he feels that he can freely communicate with. They have become friends and Cole became his one and only student. He effectively sent Cole to his death and Ninjago to their doom. The remorse he feels is immense and can only be apologetic to Cole, who bears the brunt of all the suffering.
** The senseless amount of agony Cole is going through this entire story. He basically walked the path to his own doom. He has become an insomniac and afraid to sleep because of the nightmares. Cole does end up falling asleep sometime in the story, but his mind is dragged down to the Underworld, the literal hell, while his comatose body is thrashing and shrieking in pain due to the rift on his face threatening to split it open. Seliel has to hold down his body, but even though she's begging Cole to wake up, he doesn't. He's trapped.