History Tearjerker / SFDebris

[[folder: Personal Life Life Inspired]]
* Chuck has repeatedly mentioned that he has children; twin boys, to be precise. However, in the "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E21RealLife Real Life]]" review, he takes a break from the Doctor losing his daughter in a holographic simulation of family life...to talk about how his sons were born ten weeks early and at two pounds each. He talks about how the second worse pain is when they stop breathing and you hope for them that they'll continue. Fortunately, they were able to beat the 49% survival probability.
** Knowing this, his off-handed comment in the "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E12TheBegotten The Begotten]]" review about his experience with childbirth suddenly hits a '''lot''' harder...
* In 2014, he confided that [[http://sfdebris.com/blog/index.php?entry=The-Ugly-Truth-%28But-the-Show-Will-Go-On%29 his wife]] suffers from mental illness and has been known to disappear for extended periods of time. Although the marriage is a very loving one, Chuck lives in dread of his wife ''not'' returning home. [[PapaWolf He's more worried about his children than himself.]]
** HarsherInHindsight: In the TOS episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E7WhatAreLittleGirlsMadeOf What Are Little Girls Made of?]]", he took umbrage with Nurse Chapel's admonishment of Spock over a (supposedly) garbled recording of her long-lost beau. "Have ''you'' been engaged?," she asked. Chuck shot back that if ''his'' wife left him for 5 years, he'd be grasping at straws and interpreting any, ''every'' voice as hers. This was closer to truth than we knew at the time...
* He's forced to touch on the history of his children's near death experience in his review of ''Series/Babylon5'''s "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E10Believers Believers]]". His voice just gets angrier as he's forced to admit that he can't blame the parents terrified of losing their son for their actions because he ''knows'' their fear.
** In a combination of "Mostly Funny but a little sad," he calls back to this episode when reviewing the ''Series/TheOrville'' episode "[[Recap/TheOrvilleS1E03AboutAGirl About a Girl]]", which touches on similar themes by absolutely refusing to delve into them, as he had already done them and didn't want to delve into them again. He makes it funny, but at the same time the sentiment is clear.
* The Restoration Project. Due to so many platforms shutting down Chuck has been forced to dedicate half the time he would have once used to new content to redo all his episodes, making them fit Youtube's guidelines. He has openly admitted that because of this the request videos list he has done will outlast him... he will never be able to do every video he's promised due to the sheer amount of work.
* His review of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks''' [[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E09CrisisPoint "Crisis Point"]], where he admits why he can't judge the episode fairly: he used to work at a school, and the idea that someone at his school was going home each day and fantasizing about killing everyone there just hit too close to home. It's a grim thought that he can't even take enjoyment in Mariner's over-the-top fantasy, because he spent years fearing people who might ''actually'' do such a thing.
* His 2022 supplemental on ''Film/TheDayAfter'', where he discusses the ongoing war in Ukraine and how it's brought fears of nuclear war back into public consciousness. While he does his best to combat misinformation and explain how unlikely it is to escalate, he also makes it clear how angry he is that we essentially forgot how terrifying nuclear weapons actually are and how easily things can escalate if the wrong decisions are made. It's also sad to hear how he considers himself a hypocrite for getting upset by it after basically doing nothing to help; most of his knowledge and research on it was for a book he was writing.
[[/folder]]

* Chuck has repeatedly mentioned that he has children; twin boys, to be precise. However, in the "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E21RealLife Real Life]]" review, he takes a break from the Doctor losing his daughter in a holographic simulation of family life...to talk about how his sons were born ten weeks early and at two pounds each. He talks about how the second worse pain is when they stop breathing and you hope for them that they'll continue. Fortunately, they were able to beat the 49% survival probability.
** Knowing this, his off-handed comment in the "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E12TheBegotten The Begotten]]" review about his experience with childbirth suddenly hits a '''lot''' harder...

* The end of his review of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' episode 10 [[http://sfdebris.com/videos/special/homura.asp showcasing the relationship and love between Madoka and Homura....]] set to 'Time After Time' by Music/CyndiLauper.
** In his review of episode 9 when Madoka is trying to reach Sayaka, Chuck's voice seems to break a bit when he says it's not working, as if he was hoping it would despite knowing that it wouldn't.
* The opening to the new ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' subseries, Music/JeffBuckley's cover of "Hallelujah" from ''Music/{{Grace}}'' played over the scene of a middle-aged Bruce shutting down the Batcave for the last time, is oddly affecting.

* His coda for ''Enterprise'' in his review of [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS04E21TheseAreTheVoyages "These Are the Voyages..."]]. Going out of his way to point out that the excuses fans made over the years don't justify the series's quality because the issue was in the leadership: Berman had too much control and refused to change the series to match the times and that when Manny Coto finally took over and updated the show to match the era, the damage was done. And at the end of it, pointing out that because it was ''Star Trek'' it had the guarantee of running for a few years while better shows (even deliberately singling out Braga's ''Series/{{Threshold}}'' series) didn't get ''one.''
* In 2014, he confided that [[http://sfdebris.com/blog/index.php?entry=The-Ugly-Truth-%28But-the-Show-Will-Go-On%29 his wife]] suffers from mental illness and has been known to disappear for extended periods of time. Although the marriage is a very loving one, Chuck lives in dread of his wife ''not'' returning home. [[PapaWolf He's more worried about his children than himself.]]
** HarsherInHindsight: In the TOS episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E7WhatAreLittleGirlsMadeOf What Are Little Girls Made of?]]", he took umbrage with Nurse Chapel's admonishment of Spock over a (supposedly) garbled recording of her long-lost beau. "Have ''you'' been engaged?," she asked. Chuck shot back that if ''his'' wife left him for 5 years, he'd be grasping at straws and interpreting any, ''every'' voice as hers. This was closer to truth than we knew at the time...
* His review of "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E23Endgame Endgame]]", the ''Voyager'' finale: he ends lamenting that the show had everything it needed to become a fantastic show, but never reached for it.

* In "Rise and Fall of the Comic Empire" Part 8, the fate of Mark Gruenwald at Marvel, a sensitive man whom it fell to to inform Marvel employees they had been laid off due to the company's troubles in the '90s, and to add insult to injury, seeing his favorite character, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, subjected to the ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn'' Creator/RobLiefeld reboot. Gruenwald went home from work one Friday with the Liefeld penned preview issue on hand, didn't show up on Monday, and shortly thereafter was found dead from a heart attack. "And plus, it should be noted and I'm actually being serious here, ''Rob Liefeld made a comic so bad '''it may have killed a man!'''''"
** Also, in the series Afterword, on whether print comics could continue to be viable: "But I fear that Image may have the last laugh, with [[ComicBook/TheWalkingDead their number one book]] being of a creature lurching on year after year, unaware that it's already dead."
* This one mostly works so well due to set up. In his run-down of the events behind the scenes of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', he keeps bringing up how Creator/GeorgeLucas threw himself into the films' productions to help fund Skywalker Ranch, every time mentioning the extensive library with 'A beautiful stained-glass roof.' At the end, Chuck reveals that George's devotion to the films, the business, and the ranch drove his wife to have an affair with [[HarsherInHindsight the man who designed the stained glass ceiling he wanted so badly.]]
-->"And now, every time he looks at the crowning monument of the ranch, he'll always be reminded of the man who took his wife from him."
* During the last chapter of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', he's trying to fix up his house so he can sell it. At the end of one part, part of his ceiling literally collapses right next to him. He promptly has a HeroicBSOD and ends the part without any of his usual commentary. The next few parts also deal with his house problems, and he freely admits on twitter that he's using the game review as therapy.
** From the game itself, at the end of Part 5, where Hawke's mother has been killed by the blood mage serial killer. Chuck!Hawke just sounds ''broken''.
--->'''Hawke''': ''([[DiedInYourArmsTonight cradling her mother's Frankenstein'ed corpse]])'' Have I mentioned lately how much I '''hate''' Kirkwall?
* He's forced to touch on the history of his children's near death experience in his review of ''Series/Babylon5'''s "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E10Believers Believers]]". His voice just gets angrier as he's forced to admit that he can't blame the parents terrified of losing their son for their actions because he ''knows'' their fear.
** In a combination of "Mostly Funny but a little sad," he calls back to this episode when reviewing the ''Series/TheOrville'' episode "[[Recap/TheOrvilleS1E03AboutAGirl About a Girl]]", which touches on similar themes by absolutely refusing to delve into them, as he had already done them and didn't want to delve into them again. He makes it funny, but at the same time the sentiment is clear.
* At the end of his review of ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', his lament of how mindless the film is and how much wasted potential it had.

* For the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[https://sfdebris.com/videos/stargate/sg1s3e6.php Point of View]]", talking about how science fiction allows exploring things we simply were not meant to experience. He goes into a deep dive on a Carter from an alternate reality, who had been engaged to her reality's Jack O'Neill, arriving in "our" reality to find Jack alive and well... but not '''''her''''' Jack. A Jack who doesn't know ''this'' Carter, doesn't love ''this'' Carter. Chuck points out how one can move on from loss, knowing that a relationship is over, whether it was a breakup or a death. Even if the one you love went missing, you can eventually accept that it is practically impossible for them to turn up again. But Alternate Carter is forced to look at someone who is the man she loved and lost in every way... except the one that matters most.
* The ending of his review of "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E2SurvivalInstinct Survival Instinct]]" where he laments how good Voyager could have been if the rest of the series did like this episode and made good use of it's characters, following up his monologue with a montage set to Disturbed's cover of "Sound of Silence".

-->"People have their limits, period. Picard had his in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E2Family Family]]", or Sisko had his in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E01E02Emissary Emissary]]". Given the choice between watching your crew die one after the other--year after year--with home still decades away and [[HurtingHero a self-imposed isolation]], or thinking that she could've resigned and taken a job on Earth with a husband and a pile of dogs, well... There's a lot of days where the former makes the latter look pretty damn good."

* The end of his review of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' episode 10 [[http://sfdebris.com/videos/special/homura.asp showcasing the relationship and love between Madoka and Homura....set to 'Time After Time' by Music/CyndiLauper.]]

* His review of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'''s [[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E09CrisisPoint "Crisis Point"]], where he admits why he can't judge the episode fairly: he used to work at a school, and the idea that someone at his school was going home each day and fantasizing about killing everyone there just hit too close to home. It's a grim thought that he can't even take enjoyment in Mariner's over-the-top fantasy, because he spent years fearing people who might ''actually'' do such a thing.

* The Restoration Project. Due to so many platforms shutting down Chuck has been forced to dedicate half the time he would have once used to new content to redo all his episodes, making them fit Youtube's guidelines. He has openly admitted that because of this the request videos list he has done will outlast him... he will never be able to do ever video he's promised due to the sheer amount of work.

** The coda to his ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' review, a two-minute montage set to [[Music/{{Journey}} "Faithfully"]], that does more to honor the legacy of James T. Kirk then the entire film managed.