History TearJerker / WanderOverYonder

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/untitled9.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:I'm just a little black cube of darkness...]]

** The ending teaches us something about Wander. "The helper seeks to help, because he knows what it is to be helpless." And Incomplete!Wander visibly recoils when Sylvia tries to re-merge him with Helpless!Wander. He also seems to be VERY insistent on leaving without the last Wander and claims that he's "better off without him".
** Another, more subtle moment in "The Wanders". When Sylvia refuses to merge Contrary!Wander, all the Wanders in the cave are visibly distraught. You can tell that they're upset that their best friend doesn't accept them for who they are.

** Also, Wander's HeroicSacrifice in the hands of the cube, who has now completely lost it and is lashing out at the crowd. Even though he survives, it's a pretty heartwrenching scene.

** More specifically, he fakes a phone call to Sylvia and tells Wander she told him she never liked him and wasn't coming back for him (while it's doubtful that Wander actually believes this, he's deeply affected by the mere ''idea)''. He swiftly follows this up by pretending to be sorry for being an "insensitive jerk" and telling Wander he'll give up his evil ways… ''if'' Wander comes over and gives him a hug (which he can't, because he's stopping the hole with one arm). Finally he makes Wander question who he is if he can't live up to his name anymore: "You're just a [[TitleDrop whole lot of nothing]]." It's startling because it's so far removed from Hater's usual cartoony mission of "[[NeverSayDie destroying]]" Wander--it's much more cold-blooded and personal. He doesn't want to kill Wander, he wants to [[BreakTheCutie break him]].

* Peeper's heartbreak when he learns that Lord Hater prioritized destroying Wander over the "No Planet Left Behind Bombapalooza" after promising to kick the habit. He interrupts the "wedding," and breaks down into InelegantBlubbering saying, "I thought we had something special!"]] It's not helped by Lord Hater saying that while Peepers is right, [[KickTheDog he doesn't care about Peepers's feelings.

* In "The Fugitives", [[spoiler: the heartbreak on Wander's face when he thinks Sylvia's abandoned him.]]
* In "The Good Deed", [[spoiler: Wander is so disheartened by his failed attempts at helping others that he lets himself sink into the mud as a missile heads for the sun.]]
* In "The Pet", [[spoiler: Sylvia thinking that Wander's been killed by the alien, when what she found was really the stuffing to a teddy bear given to the alien by Wander]]
** [[spoiler: And when she mourns him, she recites what he would have to say to her: "It's always sunny somewhere, Sylvia old girl. So keep your eye on the horizon and don't look back. Never look back!"]]
* In "The Box", [[spoiler: Wander thinking he has let Sylvia down for not believing he can overcome his temptation of opening the box.]]
* In "The Troll", [[spoiler: when the titular Troll is close to reaching the food stash of Baa-hala, Prince Cashmere begs Sylvia and Wander (who seemingly are doing nothing) to help. "We cannot afford to feed this creature again!" That word "again" implies that they've lost their food stash to the troll at least once before. And it must've injured their pride so greatly to not only lose their food, but their dignity to anybody so insulting. To add insult to injury, it's almost like [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything having a bully steal your lunch and call you names while he's at it.]]]]

* In "The Hat", Sylvia spends most of the episode being ''so sure'' she knows where Wander is, and when she finally gets there, after [[spoiler: receiving a call from a drowning Wander, it turns out she's wrong. And she's just devastated, falling back in despair, feeling she's too late to save her friend.]] To make matters worse, [[spoiler: the phone call was just Wander telling her he'd always love her, and then a gurgling, barely-heard "goodbye" as water covers his head.]]

* In "The Rider", [[spoiler: when Wander thinks that Sylvia would rather be partners with Ryder than him.]]

* During "The Greater Hater", [[spoiler: Sylvia's anguished scream as Wander gets [[CurbStompBattle absolutely throttled by Dominator.]]]]
* Peeper's heartbreak when he learns that Lord Hater prioritized destroying Wander over the "No Planet Left Behind Bombapalooza" after promising to kick the habit. He [[spoiler: interrupts the "wedding," and breaks down into InelegantBlubbering saying, "I thought we had something special!"]] It's not helped by Lord Hater saying that while Peepers is right, [[KickTheDog he doesn't care about Peepers's feelings.]]
** Although the scene is mainly PlayedForLaughs.
* When Wander has to [[spoiler: drive Lord Hater away from him and Sylvia]] in "The Fremergency Fronfact", the entire sequence is heartbreakingly gut-wrenching... especially if you had to deal with this exact scenario before. Even worse, it's shockingly unnecessary...there's no reason why Wander has to be ''that'' cruel.
** Keep in mind that Hater basically has the mind of a small child here.
* A minor one but in "The Boy Wander" we have [[spoiler: Wander getting beaten up by Screwball during the latter VillainSong]]
* The ending of "The Wanders" teaches us something about Wander. [[spoiler:"The helper seeks to help, because he knows what it is to be helpless." And Incomplete!Wander visibly recoils when Sylvia tries to re-merge him with Helpless!Wander. He also seems to be VERY insistent on leaving without the last Wander and claims that he's "better off without him". Just what exactly happened to him that made him fear feeling helpless so much?]]

* In "The Axe", after Peepers is fired, there's a surprisingly heartbreaking montage set to a sad song where Peepers is looking around the ship and remembering all the fun times he had with Lord Hater.

* "The Black Cube" is one of the saddest, if not the saddest, episodes yet. After the humiliating incident in "The Battle Royale", the BLACK CUBE OF DARKNESS has hit rock bottom: he's stuck living in a seedy apartment, working a dead end job, his girlfriend left him, and everyone is either terrified of him or sees him as an object of ridicule. You ''will'' feel sorry for an eldritch, soul-sucking piece of SinisterGeometry after watching this episode.
** Also, Wander's [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]] in the hands of the cube, who has now completely lost it and is lashing out at the crowd. Even though he survives, it's a pretty heartwrenching scene.
** After the Cube [[spoiler:attacks Wander]], Sylvia, who has been trying to get Wander to give up the Cube this whole time, runs up to cradle [[spoiler: the soul-sucked Wander]] in her arms. With her head bowed she snaps, [[spoiler: "Look what you did to him. How could you? He was only trying to help!"]] The Cube shrinks back a little, clearly thinking she's addressing what he's just done. [[spoiler: She turns to reveal she was addressing the crowd, calling them out for pushing Cube to this point. She's standing up for him.]]
* The way Hater keeps trying to KickTheDog in "The Hole... Lotta Nothin'", It starts off as funny with all of the [[CallBack Call Backs]] and trolling, but then his methods suddenly start getting deep and off-putting...Luckily, karma gives the skeleton a huge shot to the chops at the end.

* "The Show Stopper", the chained-up bunny people are the first species that Wander failed to save from Dominator's rampage of destruction, due to him being distracted by Hater's rock show throughout the while episode.
** Though WordOfGod claims that they managed to survive due to Dominator chasing after the main four instead of focusing on them.
* [[spoiler:Beep-Boop's HeroicSacrifice]] in "The Bot". [[spoiler: After betraying Dominator, he is ejected into space where he burns up in the atmosphere. As he burns, he takes one last look at the picture of him and Wander from the photo booth.]]
---> [[spoiler: '''Beep-Boop:''' I... am... Beep... Boop.]]
** [[spoiler: After this, Wander and Sylvia sit on the dock at night and Sylvia mistakes Beep-Boop for a shooting star. She asks Wander to make a wish. Wander smiles and says "Good luck Beep-Boop." The next scene shows the photo of Beep-Boop and Wander silently drifting through space, [[KilledOffForReal with Beep-Boop nowhere to be seen.]] ]]
** TheStinger just piles it on, showing [[spoiler: Beep-Boop's sand art of him and Wander being slowly washed away by the tides.]]
** What makes it sadder is that [[spoiler:Beep-Boop [[DyingAlone died alone]] and nobody ever knew the HeroicSacrifice he made (except maybe Wander and Sylvia; but unless he connected the dots when Dominator mentioned destroying "Bot-13" in the season 2 finale, Wander may believe that Beep-Boop is still alive).]]
** It becomes HarsherInHindsight (as if it needed to be) later on because [[spoiler:by the time of the finale, Dominator has destroyed every planet except the Secret Planet, which means his sacrifice was all in vain.]]
* "My Fair Hatey" wherein Dominator basically crushes both Hater and Wander's spirit. First via by laughing at Hater's misunderstanding right in his face, then via her VillainSong wherein she explains that she's "the bad guy".
** What makes this even more heartbreaking is the fact that this whole episode started with Hater actually asking Wander for help in his attempt to woo her, something that they both genuinely bonded over.
** Even worse? The song right before this was "You're the Greatest", a genuinely heartwarming ballad Hater sings for Dominator. In it, he even states that he wants to rule the galaxy with her and that SHE was The Greatest in the Galaxy, something he's never called anyone besides himself.
** This stanza from the titular song becomes HarsherInHindsight in a meta way when you know that the show isn't being renewed for a third season. Almost sounds like Wander's singing it for us as much as he is for Hater.
-->"''My Fair Hatey, don't you give up''
-->''It's not a total disaster''
-->''Hey, we gave it a go''
-->''Put on a heck of a show''
-->''And did a lot of fun stuff we'll get to laugh about after.''"
* In "The Waste of Time", [[spoiler:Old!Wander and Old!Sylvia spending 50 years on the same planet, and eventually disappearing after they prevent Wander from getting the Time Orbbles which led to the events of the episode happening in the first place.]]
** FridgeHorror from the same episode: [[spoiler:Wander has been confirmed to be much MUCH older than he seems-possibly even thousands of years old. And WordOfGod has confirmed that he never really aged much during the 50 years he spent with Sylvia-he was only wearing a fake beard and acting old to make Sylvia happy. In other words, Wander is most likely going to OUTLIVE Sylvia.]] This may well be one of the biggest tear jerkers in the entire series.
* The ending to "The Night Out": Sylvia belatedly realizes that she spent the night [[spoiler:with LORD DOMINATOR]], an [[spoiler:OmnicidalManiac who's been destroying the galaxy]] and actually had fun with her. On the other side, [[spoiler:Dominator has dismissed the idea of friendship and decides to continue her evil ways.]] The PowerOfFriendship is a definite NoSell.

* "The Flower" in its entirety. It ''opens'' with Wander and Sylvia viewing the devastated ruins of the galaxy they have thus far utterly failed to save from Dominator. The only sign of any hope is a single flower struggling to survive. The duo try desperately to nurture it back to health. For Sylvia, it's about keeping Wander from crying, because she is afraid that if Wander reaches that stage then that signifies that [[DespairEventHorizon all hope of saving the galaxy is truly lost]]. [[spoiler:The flower ultimately dies but, as Wander and Sylvia leave with their resolve still intact, [[RayOfHopeEnding the flower's spores spread over the dead planets and begin to grow]].]].

** Sylvia can't see the Phantomimes that are scaring Wander, [[CassandraTruth causing Sylvia to think Wander is just overreacting]]. [[spoiler:Fortunately, she eventually sees them and realizes that Wander was right all along]].

** [[spoiler:Wander's heartbroken cry when he thinks that Sylvia has been killed. Turns out it was a cruel trick by Dominator.]]
** [[spoiler:Wander's terrified, tearful expression when Dominator tries to impale Sylvia on her drill.]]
*** [[spoiler:Remember, she considered herself friends with Sylvia just a couple of episodes ago, and now she's more than happy to kill her in the most brutal way possible. All so she can break Wander's spirit. It really hammers home how much of a complete sociopath she is. ]]
** [[spoiler:Dominator mercilessly insulting Hater to throw him off his game. You can tell that she knows all his insecurities, and that she knows exactly how to get to him. ]]

** [[spoiler:In this episode, we see Dominator at her most vulnerable. She's torn between her desire for companionship and her love for destruction. However, she is in complete denial about her loneliness, so much so that she covers her ears and threatens to destroy Wander when he simply brings it up, and would rather run off alone, with absolutely nowhere to go, rather than admit she is lonely. This episode makes it clear that as evil as she may be, Dominator still suffers from a great deal of emotional turmoil.]]
*** [[spoiler:Just watch the scene where Wander talks to her as she's trapped by the drill. She's defensive, panicky and practically clawing for a way to escape. Wander has forced her into a corner, emotionally speaking, and to see her in such denial over her loneliness is honestly heartbreaking, especially to those who have been in a similar situation.]]
*** [[spoiler: When Wander offers a second chance even after everything, the look in Dominator's face shows that for a brief moment, she legitimately considered it.]]
*** [[spoiler:In [[TheStinger The Stinger]], even as she's cursing everyone else and calling them dorks, Dominator is sniffling as if she's about to cry.]]
*** [[spoiler:After Dominator turns Wander down and leaves, Wander is understandably sad. Sylvia has to remind him sometimes an enemy is not a friend and he cannot change who they are despite trying to get on their good side, and insists he quit trying to reform Dominator.]]
** [[spoiler:There's also Sylvia's silent reaction after Dominator's ship explodes with Wander still inside, thinking that Wander died.]]
* [[spoiler: In the end, Wander ultimately fails to redeem Lord Hater.]]
!!Meta
* [[http://crackmccraigen.tumblr.com/post/140529754374/wander-over-yonder-over The confirmation that the show will not be getting a third season.]] Unlike, say, ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', the show isn't ending on its own terms, but because the higher ups think "80 episodes and 2 seasons were enough", even though the creators had many ideas for a third season.
** It has received a minor moment of Heartwarming, although not for the show itself. [[https://www.change.org/p/walt-disney-encourage-disney-to-make-wander-over-yonder-season-3 There was a massive petition]] to [[UnCancelled UnCancel]] ''Wander Over Yonder'' that got ''nearly forty thousand'' votes of support. And no matter how many times they're rebuffed, '''''[[{{Determinator}} they will not give up on making it happen, and the movement is going moderately strong to this day]]'''''. Just goes to show what a positive effect Wander has had on people.
** The fact that multiple viewers stopped watching the show all together upon learning the show was cancelled. They did ''not'' take this well.
* The death of Website/{{Tumblr}} user Goddess-Mettaton, who committed suicide after facing personal issues and receiving harassment in the ''Wander Over Yonder'' fandom.

* In "The Time Bomb", when Sylvia (in Time Bomb mode) angrily tosses Wander aside to beat up on Stok for insulting her. It turns out she only got a hold of a decoy, and Stok and Harvax were baiting her. And they leave her the dust as they laugh at how they easily fooled her. Sylvia looks on, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone crest-fallen]] that she chose to listen to [[PoisonousFriend such toxic influences]] over [[TrueCompanions Wander's wisdom]].

** It has recieved a minor moment of Heartwarming, although not for the show itself. [[https://www.change.org/p/walt-disney-encourage-disney-to-make-wander-over-yonder-season-3 There was a massive petition]] to [[UnCancelled UnCancel]] ''Wander Over Yonder'' that got ''nearly forty thousand'' votes of support. And no matter how many times they're rebuffed, '''''[[{{Determinator}} they will not give up on making it happen, and the movement is going moderately strong to this day]]'''''. Just goes to show what a positive effect Wander has had on people.

* In "The Rider," [[spoiler: when Wander thinks that Sylvia would rather be partners with Ryder than him.]]
* Wander in 'The Helper', trying SO hard to make people happy, and being the biggest example of 'Don't set yourself on fire to keep others warm'

---> [[spoiler: '''Beep-Boop:''' [[FamousLastWords I... am... Beep... Boop]].]]

* Peepers and Sylvia [[SpeakInUnison simultaneously]] hit each other with the same ArmorPiercingQuestion in "The Battle Royale." Cue emotional HeldGaze as the parallel sinks in.

* Peepers and Sylvia [[SpeakInUnison simultaneously]] hit each other with the same ArmorPiercingQuestion in "The Battle Royale." Cue emotional HeldGaze as the two realize they're NotSoDifferent.