History TearJerker / TheHungerGames

** His believes that when his mother says "maybe District Twelve will finally have a winner" that she is referring to Katniss not him. While he might be wrong about this, it does show how bad their relationship is.

--> Out of the corner of my eye, I see Peeta extend his hand. I look at him, unsure. "One more time, for the audience?" he says. His voice isn't angry. It's hollow which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me.\\
\\
I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the camera's, and dreading the moment I finally have to let go.

--> "Go on! Shoot, and we [him and Peeta] both go down and you win. Go on. I'm dead anyway. I always was, right? I couldn't tell that until now. How's that, is that what they want? I can still do this... I can still do this. One more kill. It's the only thing I know how to do. To bring pride to my district. Not that it matters."

** Katniss gets her own version in the film of Catching Fire, when she sees a young girl (implied to be from District One) who says: "I'm going to volunteer someday. ''Just like you.''"

* Thresh on hearing Clove's EvilGloating kills her quickly after she gleefully tells Katniss that she murdered Rue. He then tells Katniss, "Just this once, Twelve. For Rue" before running off with Cato's backpack.

** It's implied ('''especially''' heavily in the movie) that Foxface's self-poisoning was [[DrivenToSuicide intentional]]. She was reluctant to kill anyone, almost like Katniss, and didn't want to be killed, yet she had to cover up her suicide as an accident so that her family won't get into trouble for her trick. (If you want to know what might have happened to them, Haymitch and Johanna are two particular examples. And mind it these two are not the only ones -- they are the only ''mentioned''.) Ain't it heart-wrenching to know that your family isn't secure even after your death -- that is, ''never'' safe? Then again, it shows the cruelty and ruthlessness of the Capitol (doubling as (doubtly) unintentional HeroicSacrifice) and further (along with Rue's death) nails down the idea that President Snow's regime "must pay, must fall!"

* Seneca Crane's execution. This guy had to choose between either having no victor or having two, both of which would likely result in his death. Essentially he was backed in a corner, whilst still having the illusion of choice so that he could be held responsible for his actions.

* Even the official soundtrack contains some heartwrenching songs, including Music/MirandaLambert's "Run Daddy Run", which pretty much perfectly sums up what 11-year-old Katniss must have been feeling when her father died, her mother fell into despair and she was forced to take charge of the family and look after her sister.

* Even the official soundtrack contains some sad songs, including Music/MirandaLambert's "Run Daddy Run", which pretty much perfectly sums up what 11-year-old Katniss must have been feeling when her father died, her mother fell into despair and she was forced to take charge of the family and look after her sister.

* Even the official soundtrack contains some sad songs, including Music/MirandaLambert's "Run Daddy Run", which pretty much perfectly sums up what 11-year-old Katniss must have been going through when her father died, her mother fell into despair and she was forced to take charge of the family and look after her sister.
-->''Mama's been crying in the kitchen\\

I've been gathering the pieces of all these shattered hearts\\

-->''Mama's been crying in the kitchen
Sister's been afraid of the dark
I've been gathering the pieces of all these shattered hearts
And I don't care where you go to
I don't care where you land

** UpToEleven when you realise the last you hear of him, he's returned to drinking. For all we know, he's dead before the epilogue begins and hasn't even seen the children of Katniss and Peeta. He does help Peeta and Katniss with the book. So he knows Peeta's on his way to recovering, as well as Peeta and Katniss getting a chance to grow back together.

** Taken UpToEleven in the movie. After placing flowers on Rue's body, Katniss makes a farewell salute to those living in District 11.

!!!'''The Books:'''
[[folder:In general]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:''The Hunger Games'']]

[[folder:''Catching Fire'']]
* The very premise of the book. Katniss and Peeta won the Hunger Games! They both survived, and from District 12, no less! They're safe now, and they've got all that food, right? No, they're both ''going back into the arena'', which is ''not'' supposed to happen. They won, they're supposed to be safe, and now...
** Even the jaded citizens of the Capitol, and Katniss' Prep Team, are upset. The last time Katniss sees her Prep Team, all but one of them are so broken up that they have to be excused, and Venia, the last of them, nearly makes ''her'' cry with her farewell: [[ItHasBeenAnHonor "We would all like you to know what a... privilege it has been to make you look your best."]]
** This becomes ''huge'' Fridge Sadness when you think about what this might have been like for some of the other Victors. Think having to fight strangers (with a maximum of one person you have even a chance of knowing) to the death is bad? These people are in a position to watch plenty of people they know, who might even be friends or neighbors, fight and die right in front of them, possibly after turning on their own friends in a desperate attempt to live. Even though some of them were planning an escape, it doesn't get much worse than that, not just for the main characters, but for the ''other'' Victors, who have already gone through such a traumatic experience and had several years - or even ''decades'' - to heal from it, only to be chosen to go back and '''do it all again!'''
** Like Katniss, Johanna Mason is a young ([[http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/20/i-was-destined-to-write-a-gladiator-game-a-conversation-with-suzanne-collins-and-francis-lawrence/ 21 years old]] according to WordOfGod) and recent victor and the only living female one from District 7, and therefore defaulted to go back into the arena. Unlike Katniss, she does not have any family or friends to comfort or help her cope after hearing she'll have to go back, heavily implied to have been killed by Snow sometime after her games.
** Katniss says in the first book, when she meets Cinna, that most of the stylists are familiar faces, that they stay constant over the years. Presumably, they thought when she won that they'd be seeing her again over the years, now that she'd be a mentor, maybe even they'd even "get a better district" after the success of the Girl on Fire dress, and now suddenly, she's going back in to the arena...
* Cinna! The last time we see him, he's with Katniss, just as she's about to enter the arena for the ''second'' time... and then a bunch of soldiers come barging in, knock him unconscious, and drag him out of the room before Katniss' eyes, with her trapped and unable to do anything about it.
* "I'm sorry, Mags. I can't do it." The fact that Mags committed suicide just to save Peeta is just gut-wrenching.
** Made even worse when you realise that Mags was Finnick's mentor, and that she volunteered so that Annie wouldn't have to do it.
* The female Morphling's death. Oh GOD. When she paints a flower on Peeta's cheek ''with her own blood'' and Peeta tells her it's beautiful...
* The beach scene, where Peeta tells Katniss that he knows both of them are planning on dying for the other, but it has to be him who dies for her. Not just because he loves her, but because she has people to go home to. And then he opens his locket and shows her the pictures inside- not her as you might expect, but Katniss' mother and Prim on one side and, of all possible people... ''Gale'' on the other. One of the most heartwrenching examples of IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy ever committed to paper because, unlike the usual examples, Peeta isn't just giving up on Katniss romantically to let her be with Gale, ''he's going to give up his life''.
-->My family. My mother. My sister. And my pretend cousin Gale. But Peeta’s intention is clear. That Gale really is my family, or will be one day, if I live. That I’ll marry him. So Peeta’s giving me his life and Gale at the same time. To let me know I shouldn’t ever have doubts about it.\\
\\
Everything. That’s what Peeta wants me to take from him.
** And when Katniss realises that he's not playing for the camera, these are his true feelings it gets even worse:
-->"No one really needs me," he says, and there’s no self-pity in his voice. It’s true his family doesn’t need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Haymitch, with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. [[LivingEmotionalCrutch Me.]]\\
\\
"I do," I say. "I need you."
* At the end of the book, after Katniss is rescued but Peeta is captured by the Capitol, Katniss goes briefly mad with grief at losing him, she attacks Haymitch and has to be sedated.
-->Other hands help Finnick and I’m back on my table, my body restrained, my wrists tied down, so I slam my head in fury again and again against the table. A needle pokes my arm and my head hurts so badly I stop fighting and simply wail in a horrible, dying-animal way, until my voice gives out.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Mockingjay'']]
* Katniss finding her prep team, who've clearly been tortured, in an underground cell.
--> '''Venia:''' Katniss is not going to hurt us. Katniss did not even know we were here. Things will be better now.
* ''SING''?
* Finnick's confession. He's been used as a sex slave for ten years because the Capitol will kill his friends and family if he doesn't go along with it. ''Nothing else is needed to make it a Tearjerker.''
** But there ''is'' something else. Katniss' reaction.
-->I want to interrupt the taping and beg Finnick’s forgiveness for every false thought I’ve ever had about him.
* Finnick and Annie reuniting in District 13, particularly if you reread the book. You know that they're so happy, but Finnick's going to die later -- the thought is just too sad.
* How Johanna was tortured in the Capitol. Basically the Peacekeepers drowned her in water and then electrocuted her.
** Made far worse when you realize that the chosen method was almost certainly not coincidental. In the moments leading up to her capture she says to Katniss something to the effect of "Death by electrocution is not how I want to go".
* Katniss giving Johanna the pine needles. "Smells like home."
* Katniss and Peeta's conversation about colors. Oh God.
* The ''[[{{Nightmare Fuel}} very brutal]]'' death of Darius was a massive {{Tearjerker}}, even though he was mentioned in passing by Peeta. At least Lavinia passed relatively easy, as the Peacekeepers made the mistake of applying too much shock on her heart. On the other hand, Darius died when they cut off his body parts one by one. The whole time, the Peacekeepers kept demanding information, but since he was an Avox, he obviously couldn't say anything. He was just being tortured to death so Peeta could be traumatized.
* The DwindlingParty that is the Star Squad. The last one hits like a ton of bricks (see immediately below), but the others are not better. We barely know them, but we can pick up from the dialogues that they have as many loved ones as Katniss does who no doubt will be upset upon learning their deaths. Other than Leeg 2, Boggs, and Mitchell, every single one of them technically dies because of Katniss. [[SurvivorGuilt And she knows this]].
** After Leeg 2 dies, Leeg 1 dreads how her father will react upon knowing that one of his daughters is dead. By the end of the rebellion, he has lost his remaining daughter as well.
** Pollux sobbing over Castor's death after the group reaches Tigris' house.
** Cressida manages to pull herself together, but Katniss can't help but notice that she looks very pale, no doubt in shock over Messalla's death. We don't know how long they have been together, but judging by how well they coordinated to film the propos, it's probably far too long for Katniss' comfort. This is more pronounced in the movie, where Cressida momentarily stands still upon watching Messalla turn to cinders, too shocked to say anything, until Katniss has to physically yank her away before the floor transforms into death traps.
* Finnick's death. It's just so sudden and shocking, and then you learn that Annie is pregnant.
* Katniss killing the unarmed Capitol woman after leaving the Underground. She did it to prevent her from trying to alert the Peacekeepers, but it dawns on her later that the woman probably overreacted. Then she examines her house and finds men's clothes, leaving her to wonder if, somewhere out there, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the woman had a husband who is waiting to meet her]].
* The bit during the battle in front of the Presidential Palace where Katniss witnesses a woman being shot by the rebels, leaving her toddler daughter to mourn over her. [[FromBadToWorse Before she gets shot as well]].
* ''Prim's death''. A few sentences, and the entire series suddenly feels pointless.
* Katniss [[SanitySlippage descending into insanity]] after Prim's death. For the first several days after the incident, [[DumbStruck she never talks, never answering anyone's questions]]. Her doctor brands her as basically an Avox, if the cause of the predicament is not physical, but mental. And after she murders Coin, she is left alone in the Tribute Center for weeks, never contacting anyone, not even Peeta, as she tries to think the best way to [[DrivenToSuicide kill herself]]. She eventually manages to rebound, but not after years of therapy and being able to live peacefully with the love of her life -- Peeta -- and even more than fifteen years later, Katniss notes that there is nothing on Earth that can heal her completely. She is too ''[[ShellShockedVeteran broken]]''.
* Katniss and Gale's falling out as friends. The last time they speak in-story Katniss is struggling to see the boy she grew up with, hunted alongside and essentially considered family since his bomb idea potentially killed her sister and rendered her going into the Hunger Games for Prim's protection, and getting involved in this hellish war, meaningless. She can't trust his word that he didn't do it, and Gale himself is torn that he couldn't protect her family like he promised, let alone knowing she will probably never reciprocate his feelings. After that Gale moves on to a job in District 2 and Katniss to 12, and the epilogue never elaborates on their friendship. It's a stark contrast between their relationship in the beginning to say the least.
* During the climax, Coin rallies the remaining Victors she could get a hold of and asks them to vote on something: a Hunger Games with Capitol children as the Tributes. Reading that sentence alone might make you cringe, but she actually preceded it with her saying that many of the rebels want ''all Capitol civilians'' to be offed, which would prove detrimental to humanity's population and that this was the alternative. Even though Katniss is beginning to think that Coin set up Prim's death, she can't help but wonder if this was the exact situation the Capitol was in when they first began the Hunger Games. It kind of gives the Capitol a lighter shade of black, since it was their best alternative over genocide.
* The Victor's Purge where the non-rebel victors were tortured and murdered by the Capitol.
* Katniss [[DrivenToSuicide attempting to eat the nightlock pill]] right after killing Coin. Thank the heavens, Peeta stops her before she is able to.
--> Good night.
* Katniss and Buttercup both breaking down and ''crying'' together after Prim's death.
** That damn cat made it all the way home from District 13, but it doesn't matter. Prim is dead.
*** For the record, Katniss and Buttercup mutually hated each other up to this point. But they cling to each other because they're the closest thing they have to Prim at the moment.
* After the war, Katniss wanders around in front of town center of District 12 and finally learns the fate of the person who gave her the pin of the bird whom she came to symbolize: no, Madge Undersee did not make it, and neither did her parents.
* The book that Katniss and Peeta make at the end to honor the fallen. While it won't be bringing anyone back from the dead, it will keep them living on, forever. And that's more than Katniss and Peeta, and Haymitch and everyone else can hope for those who're already gone.
* '''The ending'''. It is truly a {{Bittersweet Ending}} taken {{Up to Eleven}}.
[[/folder]]

!!!'''The Movies:'''

* "I didn't get to say goodbye." And the way she just brokenly says "Goodbye" as she's being pulled out of the room.
** Katniss saying her goodbyes in the first film, especially to Prim.
* Mags' death in ''Catching Fire'' if only for the look of utter despair on Finnick's face. The way he shouts her name as she disappears into the fog is just devastating.
* A real life example: the tragic loss of Philip Seymour Hoffman. As of typing, Mockingjay is nearly finished production and he had completed all his scenes for Part I and had 7 days left to complete Part II.
** The In Loving Memory card for him at the end of Mockingjay: Part 1 is this as well.

* The DwindlingParty that is the Star Squad. The last one hits like a ton of bricks (see immediately below), but the others are not better. We barely know them, but we can pick up from the dialogues that they have as much loved ones as Katniss does who no doubt will be upset upon learning their deaths. Other than Leeg 2, Boggs, and Mitchell, every single one of them technically dies because of Katniss. [[SurvivorGuilt And she knows this]].

** Like Katniss, Johanna Mason is a young ([[http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/20/i-was-destined-to-write-a-gladiator-game-a-conversation-with-suzanne-collins-and-francis-lawrence/ 21 years old]] according to WordOfGod) and recent victor and the only living female one from District 7, and therefore defaulted to go back into the arena. Unlike Katniss, she does not have any family or friends to comfort or help her cope after hearing she'll have to go back, heavily implied to have been were killed by Snow sometime after her games.

* The ending, but particularly Peeta's reaction after the reveal that Katniss had been playing up the romance aspect to keep them both alive during the games. Not to mention that Katniss herself realizes, that while she doesn't know quite fully if she may or may not actually love Peeta, does truly care for him, and the fear that she could be, and is, loosing him devastates her.

* The entire premise of the series is a [[TearJerker tear jerker]]. ''Every tribute'' in the Games has been taken from their homes and forced to ''kill'' others for ''entertainment''. It makes for good literature but, Heavens above, it's a ''horrible'' situation. Especially for the careers, who have pretty much been ''conditioned to kill'' for the sake of ''entertaining the people of the Capitol''. Sweet Heaven...it's an absolutely awful and [[NightmareFuel equally chilling]] scenario...it's just...ugh...

** It's implied ('''especially''' heavily in the movie) that Foxface's self-poisoning was [[DrivenToSuicide intentional]]. She was reluctant to kill anyone, [[NotSoDifferent almost like Katniss]], and didn't want to be killed, yet she had to cover up her suicide as an accident so that her family won't get into trouble for her trick. (If you want to know what might have happened to them, Haymitch and Johanna are two particular examples. And mind it these two are not the only ones -- they are the only ''mentioned''.) Ain't it heart-wrenching to know that your family isn't secure even after your death -- that is, ''never'' safe? Then again, it shows the cruelty and ruthlessness of the Capitol (doubling as (doubtly) unintentional HeroicSacrifice) and further (along with Rue's death) nails down the idea that President Snow's regime "must pay, must fall!"

* A real life example: the tragic loss of Philip Seymour Hoffman. As of typing, Mockingjay is nearly finished production and he had completed all his scenes for Part I and had 7 days left to complete Part II.

--> Goodbye then.