History Tearjerker / TheWitcher3WildHunt

* Despite how monstrous he is, it is difficult not to feel [[CryForTheDevil sympathy for]] the Unseen Elder's plight. The [[VampireMonarch King of the Vampires]] reduced to a monster wearing rags and squatting in a cave, pained merely by communicating with others, [[AllPowerfulBystander not caring about]] the rest of the world, remaining in said cavern for many hundreds of years, waiting by the gate because he is homesick. [[YouCantGoHomeAgain A gate that may never even open again]].

* Despite how monstrous he is, it is difficult not to feel [[CryForTheDevil sympathy for]] the Unseen Elder's plight. The King of the Vampires reduced to a monster wearing rags and squatting in a cave, pained merely by communicating with others, [[AllPowerfulBystander not caring about]] the rest of the world, remaining in said cavern for many hundreds of years, waiting by the gate because he is homesick. [[YouCantGoHomeAgain A gate that may never even open again]].

For Geralt, it's all about making hard choices and living on with it, even if it's a hard pill to swallow. The same can be said for other Witcher characters as well.

* Despite how monstrous he is, it is difficult not to feel [[CryForTheDevil sympathy for]] the Unseen Elder's plight. The King of the Vampires reduced to a monster squatting in a cave, pained merely by communicating with others, [[AllPowerfulBystander not caring about]] the rest of the world, remaining in said cavern for many hundreds of years, waiting by the gate because he is homesick. [[YouCantGoHomeAgain A gate that may never even open again]].

* Despite how monstrous he is, it is difficult not to feel [[CryForTheDevil sympathy for]] the Unseen Elder's plight. The King of the Vampires reduced to a monster squatting in a cave, pained merely by communicating with others, [[AllPowerfulBystander not caring about]] the rest of the world, remaining in said cavern for many hundreds of years, waiting by the gate because he is homesick. A gate that may never even open again.

* Watching Geralt, the tough-as-nails badass with a gravel pit for a throat be consumed with sadness and frustration [[https://youtu.be/aior8jfINtI when he finds Ciri's lifeless body]], is one of the most difficult things to see in the entire series.

* The Ciri Dies ending, where Geralt has become [[DeathSeeker consumed with grief]]. His final mission is to go to the Crookback Bog and get his daughter's medallion back. When he does, he just collapses on a bench in the Crones' Shack with the wolven pendant grasped tightly in his hands while monsters close in on him. His fate is omitted from the final list, hinting quite clearly on what has transpired. [[spoiler: Although, the ''Blood And Wine'' expansion does make things better.]]

* Watching Geralt, the tough-as-nails badass with a gravel pit for a throat be consumed with grief and breaking down [[https://youtu.be/aior8jfINtI when he finds Ciri's lifeless body]], is one of the most difficult things to see in the entire series.

* In ''Hearts of Stone'' [[spoiler: just about all of Olgierd's backstory. Due to unfortunate circumstances he loses his estate and the right to marry the woman he loves. In desperation [[DealWithTheDevil he calls upon Gaunter O'Dimm to get them back]]. He does, but sacrifices his beloved brother to do so. It turns out to be all for naught, as the pact causes Olgierd to lose every ounce of his humanity and causes his wife to die in despair. Depending on Geralt's choice his story may end with his soul taken by O'Dimm to be tortured forever.]]
* Also in ''Hearts of Stone'', the fate of Professor Shakeslock. Shakeslock delved too deep into forbidden lore in search of the true identity of Gaunter O'Dimm, and so attracted the entity's attention. Shakeslock was rendered blind and trapped in a twenty foot wide chalk circle in his office, which he claims protects him from Gaunter O'Dimm's evil. Gaunter O'Dimm still manages to torment him with horrible nightmares every night. One night, he presented Shakeslock with a beautiful and witty daughter and over the months Shakeslock came to look forward to sleeping as being with his imagined daughter was the one thing that gave him pleasure... [[YankTheDogsChain and then one night he entered his dreams to find his daughter covered in boils of blood and pus, and she died in his arms]]. Gaunter O'Dimm can take everything from you and still find ways to take ''more''. And when Geralt goes to see him, the moment he imparts some advice on how to beat Gaunter O'Dimm and expresses joy at being helpful for the first time in a long time, a falling beam causes the professor to stumble outside the magic circle; he falls over a bottle and [[DeathByFallingOver breaks his neck in the fall]].

* While wandering the world, you can meet an old soldier, Nidas, intent on recovering a black pearl for his wife, promised to her ages ago. When the quest is over, he sadly describes his wife as suffering what is clearly Alzheimer's, and he hoped that the old, old joke between them would spark something in her. It didn't.

* Vlod is not entirely a good guy, he's dumb and stupid, and a creep to Shani, yet despite that there's something sad about the guy having the time of his life in Geralt's body at the wedding in "Dead Man's Party". He seems truly happy and at peace to embrace the little distractions and party atmosphere, and even Shani admits that while he respects no boundaries, he's not entirely a bad guy. Seeing him insulted and humiliated by Master Mirror and then banished into the afterlife feels quite undeserved and over the top. It gets especially sad when you learn that Olgierd traded his brother's life when asked to KillTheOnesYouLove by Master Mirror, and even in the afterlife Vlod remains ignorant of his brother's actions and continues to be his HeroWorshipper.

** Geralt's reaction makes it all the worse. Standing over the corpse of Vesemir and a distraught Ciri, all he can do is quietly utter: "I can't cry, don't know how" in his usual monotone. Even Ciri, beside herself with grief and shame, snaps out of it and [[HeWillNotCrySoICryForHim embraces Geralt in response]].

** Geralt's reaction makes it all the worse. Standing over the corpse of Vesemir and a distraught Ciri, all he can do is quietly utter: "I can't cry, don't know how" in his usual monotone. Even Ciri, beside herself with grief and shame, snaps out of it and [[HeCantCrySoICryForHim embraces Geralt in response]].

** Geralt's reaction makes it all the worse. Standing over the corpse of Vesemir and a distraught Ciri, all he can do is quietly utter: "I can't cry, don't know how" in his usual monotone. Even Ciri, beside herself with grief and shame, snaps out of it and embraces Geralt in response.

* "Wild At Heart", a quest you can pick up, involves a hunter named Niellen, who asks you to find his wife, Hanna, who wandered off into the woods and never came back. You track her down pretty fast... [[spoiler: She's been ripped apart by a werewolf. And since this is The Witcher we're talking about, it's all downhill from here. You track the werewolf to its lair under an old cabin and fight it for about a minute, but before you can finish it off, Hanna's sister, Margaret, runs in and stops you; it turns out ''Niellen'' is the werewolf and Margaret knew, but she still fell in love with him and planned to lead Hanna out to his lair so she would see him change prompting her to leave him, then Margaret could have Niellen all to herself. She just never counted on Niellen getting loose and killing his own wife, and Niellen is NOT thrilled about this revelation at all. The quest can one two different ways here, and neither of them are a happy ending. You can finish the job and stop Niellen before he kills Margaret, but she'll be left with no one and possibly hating you forever. Or you can let Niellen slaughter Margaret in revenge and then MercyKill him since he won't put up a fight any more. [[PlayerPunch ...You still feel like a badass, nigh-immortal monster slayer now?]]]]

* When talking to a Doppler who'd helped Ciri while she was in Novigrad, Zoltan urges him to shift to look like her. If Geralt agrees, the Doppler does so – only for Geralt to immediately regret that decision when he realizes [[WhenYouComingHomeDad just how much time had passed since he last saw his daughter]].

* [[spoiler:Roach losing her ability to communicate with Geralt. She laments that she has so much more to tell him, then her speech start's changing into hors-ish in the middle of the sentence.]]

* Combined with {{Heartwarming}}. If you allow Ciri to return to Skjall's grave, she finds that he's simply been thrown in a pit. Ciri promptly reburies him respectfully. When the villagers come to harass her over it, she proceeds to PUNCH ONE IN THE FACE then give a massive TheReasonYouSuck speech about Skjall's heroism. Not only saving her but leading the Wild Hunt away from the village. The villagers then have a collective MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment when they realize that not only did they dishonor one of their clansmen but they led to his death. They agree to leave the grave alone from that point on.

** The voice-acting and VisualEffectsOfAwesome [[https://youtu.be/C8OdJZQ8NLI?t=2m3s shine through in this scene]] - pay close attention to Ciri's eyes, which are bloodshot and welling with tears as the pair have their final in-game conversation, possibly in-universe as well, and she's practically begging him to stop her from leaving.

* In ''Hearts of Stone'' [[spoiler: just about all of Olgierd's backstory. Due to unfortunate circumstances he loses his estate and the right to marry the woman he loves. In desperation [[DealWithTheDevil he calls upon Gaunter O'Dimm to get them back]]. He does, but sacrifices his beloved brother to do so. It turns out to be all for naught, as the pact causes Olgierd to lose his personality and causes his wife to die in despair. Depending on Geralt's choice his story may end with his soul taken by O'Dimm to be tortured forever.]]

* "Wild At Heart", a quest you can pick up, involves a hunter named Niellen, who asks you to find his wife, Hanna, who wandered off into the woods and never came back. You track her down pretty fast... [[spoiler: She's been ripped apart by a werewolf. And since this is The Witcher we're talking about, it's all downhill from here. You track the werewolf to its lair under an old cabin and fight it for about a minute, but before you can finish it off, Hanna's sister, Margaret, runs in and stops you; it turns out ''Niellen'' is the werewolf and Margaret knew, but she still fell in love with him and planned to lead Hanna out to his lair so she would see him change and she would leave Niellen, and Hanna would have him all to herself. She just never counted on Niellen getting loose and killing his own wife, and Niellen is NOT thrilled about this revelation at all. The quest can one two different ways here, and neither of them are a happy ending. You can finish the job and stop Niellen before he kills Margaret, but she'll be left with no one and possibly hating you forever. Or you can let Niellen slaughter Margaret in revenge and then MercyKill him since he won't put up a fight any more. [[PlayerPunch ...You still feel like a badass, nigh-immortal monster slayer now?]]]]

* Geralt and Keira discuss the fairy tale ''Cinderella''. Turns out it was turn... Cinderella was a princess who got eaten by a water monster and all that was left behind was a single shoe.

--->'''Ciri''': Yes. (''voice breaking slightly'') You'll not try to stop me? Take me to the Blue Mountains by force?