Line #33 TearJerker/SoulEater


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/death1.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Even Gods of Death experience sadness.]]
3	* Pick a Crona [[CharacterDevelopment character development]] moment. [[TheWoobie Any Crona character development moment.]]
4	* Crona's flashbacks of having the brutal Medusa for a mother who used them as a test subject. And the following scenes of Maka finally getting through to Crona.
5	** More about those flashbacks: When young!Crona was unable to kill a small dragon (a bunny in the manga), Medusa locked them in a pitch-black room for ''days'' as punishment. The worst part is, before she locks them in, Crona is crying and begging her not to do it. Medusa closes and locks the door without a word.
6	** When she finally lets them out, Crona has spent god-knows-how-long getting beaten up by Ragnarok, and when they see Medusa they run over to her, still crying and asking her to make him stop hurting them. They're so desperate for even a ''little'' love and comfort from their mother. What does Medusa do? When Crona mentions that they can't defeat the "little one," she throws them right back in the room and locks them in again.
7	** Oh, and "throws" isn't an exaggeration, she literally hurls them back in with a vector plate. The kid lands hard on the floor and it looked fairly painful.
8	* Maka telling Crona [[spoiler:that she'll be their friend, and they breaks down because no one has ever been friendly to them in their life, let alone make an attempt to befriend them.]] In the anime, the special end animation just drives it home.
9	* Tsubaki being forced to kill her own brother, Masamune, to avoid him killing even more people.
10	** The whole fight between Tsubaki and Masamune, and the flashbacks that go with it, along with the revelation of what Tsubaki is named after, cements her IronWoobie status.
11	** Combined with a [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming moment]], Black Star refusing to leave Tsubaki behind while being savagely beaten by villagers.
12	* Crona's reaction to being accidentally Maka-Chopped in Ragnarok's place in episode 26 counts. It's PlayedForLaughs, but they cower in the corner with their hands over their head, saying, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! I'll never do it again, I promise! Please don't hit me, please don't hit me, it hurts!" They don't seem to realize the chop was meant for Ragnarok and not them. Remember that this kid was raised by ''[[AbusiveParents Medusa]]''.
13	** There's another moment in this episode that's this mixed with FridgeHorror and is PlayedForLaughs - when Maka takes Crona up to the balcony. Crona looks out at the brightly sunlit city for a moment, then looks uncomfortable and whimpers, "It's...so bright..." making Maka and Marie laugh. The TearJerker comes in when you realize why they reacted that way: when they disappointed Medusa as a child, they'd get locked in a pitch-black room for days on end as punishment, and from what we saw, it's safe to assume that they mostly hunted souls for her at night. The poor kid ''isn't used to sunlight,'' or ''any'' light at all.
14	** And when [[spoiler: Medusa comes back]], you can clearly see throughout the episode just how much Crona doesn't want to betray their new friends but has to in fear of [[spoiler: Medusa, even though she is much weaker now]]. It really does drive home that Crona's relationship with Medusa is nothing more than abusive. They're even reduced to tears by the end of the episode.
15	*** Crona trying to delay some of Medusa's cruel orders but circumstances (finding that they're under constant surveillance by her) keep pressuring them to act on her demands. This is especially heartwrenching in that they shared a few nice moments with Marie, felt secure enough to not betray her, and then suddenly got forced to do Medusa's bidding and contaminate Marie's tea.
16	* Mifune's [[spoiler:death after the situation between him, Black Star, and honor comes to its jarring conclusion. And he then dies while Tsubaki is helping him back to Angela, turning into petals as Masamune did earlier on.]]
17	* In episode 15, the little ghost girl that helped Liz find her way out of the Nidhogg getting sucked up into Ragnarok with all the other captive souls.
18	--> '''Ghost Girl''': Goodbye, scaredy-cat lady...
19	** The look on Liz's face when she sees the girl disappear.
20	* The Clown chapters, when Maka's hallucination starts out as what looks like a cute flashback to her as a very little girl, talking to her Papa. We even see a similarly little Black Star. And then, out of the blue, Spirit falls to the floor and Maka can't get him to wake up. Another Maka with half a mask on her face turns up (the Clown causing this vision), and tells little Maka that her daddy is dead.
21	* Episode 48, with Shinigami [[spoiler: being shot by Asura to protect the bystanders, and Kid's reaction to seeing his mutilated father on the ground.]] His look of utter shock and distress is brief - because he [[YouKilledMyFather gets mad]] instead - but it's enough. You also have the fact that [[spoiler: Shinigami holds Spirit out of the way of a direct hit, when he could have used him to block the 'bullet', and it's made somewhat worse if you take the shots of Kid immediately before to mean that Asura was ''deliberately'' aiming for the boy.]]
22	* While many fans seem to feel that Maka's reaction to the Book of Eibon was unnecessary and dragged out too long, it ''does'' show the {{Badass Bookworm}}'s personal insecurities in a way that remind you she's still just a girl who doubts whether she's 'good enough' (Okubo contrasting the mundane and personal with the surreal and screwed up, as per usual). Given her great ambitions, it was to an extent a relevant reminder, if a heavy-handed one.
23	* Patty and Liz being forced to write a last will and testament before leaving to fight the Kishin. That really drove home just ''how'' dangerous this mission is considered, and felt like a realistic element of sorrow. Then they realise they have no one to leave anything to...
24	* Not sure if soundtrack examples count, but just listening to "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvAgqyq7gE0 Salve Maria (Peace Be With You)]]" seems to be particularly evoking of sadness. It just gives that feeling of sadness and loneliness...
25	* In chapter 74 the Envy Chapter of the Book of Eibon delivers a harsh BreakThemByTalking speech to Maka. It's enough to reduce her to tears.
26	* Later, in chapter 96, there is [[spoiler: Maka and Soul]] meeting up with... [[spoiler: the fully {{Face Heel Turn}}ed Crona.]]
27	* Chapter 107: [[spoiler:As Kid activates his sanzu lines and gains more of his true shinigami powers, Shinigami-sama's mask cracks, and it is apparent that when his son reaches his full potential that he will die. Excalibur asks him if his confidence in Kid means that he does not fear death...and then he admits that he fears it just like everyone else. That, and imagining Shibusen without Shinigami-sama is heartbreaking...]]
28	** Translation for chapter 107 was very off. In fact, Shinigami-sama said that [[spoiler: he does not fear death, as he already gave all of his fear away. Which then tied into the reveal for chapter 108.]]
29	* Liz and Patty's reaction to [[spoiler: Kid's abduction]] in Chapter 56. Liz threatens to shoot [[spoiler: Noah]] and demands that [[spoiler: he let Kid go]], but [[spoiler: Noah]] simply leaves. Liz breaks down in tears, realizing that she and Patty wouldn't survive a fight with [[spoiler: Noah]]. Patty becomes frustrated and calls Liz a coward for not giving chase. Liz replies that while she also wants to [[spoiler: save Kid]], she can't let Patty come to harm as well. Patty tries to comfort Liz and wonders what they're supposed to do now.
30	* When Shinigami-sama meets with Sid, Marie, Stein, and Spirit to discuss [[spoiler: Kid's abduction]], although he does say that it's good to be silly sometimes (silly by Shinigami-sama standards, which are already silly), for all he knows [[spoiler: his son is being tortured or has been killed]] and everyone (especially Spirit and the Chupa-Cabra girls) is treating the meeting like a Superbowl victory party.
31	* While Tsubaki and her brother are battling it out, Black Star refuses to leave her side, even while a kid in the village is beating his head with a branch. And when the fight's over, Black Star's worried she's lost. He's begging her to come back, constantly chanting "Encore. Encore. Encore." This was the first time Black Star thought nothing about himself.
32	* The last panel of ch109 [[spoiler: shows Shinigami's mask cracking again, as Kid decides he will become a 'true shinigami'.]]
33	* Chapter 110. [[spoiler: RIP Shinigami.]]
34	* Chapter 112:
35	** [[spoiler: Crona decides to use the black blood and Brew to imprison the Kishin, so though Maka reached them she cannot bring Crona back.]]
36	** [[spoiler: This appears to work, when Kid and Black*Star manage to make Asura bleed....but the resulting flood of black blood across the moon appears to consume Marie, Sid and Spirit.]]
37	** Maka's reaction to the above, as [[spoiler: Black*Star and Kid hold her back from flying down to rescue her dad. With tears in her eyes, Maka just screams.]]
38	* Amidst the absurdity that is, apparently, the final chapter we have [[spoiler: Kid discovering his father's cloak. Excalibur's blunt explanation doesn't make it any less terrible that Kid ''didn't know'' what becoming a true Shinigami meant. Kid laments "all this to kill my father?"]]
39	** Kid [[spoiler: taking up his father's cloak.]]
40	* An anime only moment that should be mentioned. [[spoiler: When Crona leaves the Academy after refusing to go back to Medusa, Maka finds Crona in a large hole in the desert. Crona begins having a breakdown, confessing to putting Medusa's snake in Marie's tea and starts saying how stupid others are for trusting them. Maka then enters the hole, seemingly intent on punching Crona. Instead Maka merely tells Crona to stop hurting themself. Crona then begins to cry in regret, telling Maka about how much they hates hurting others. Maka then gives Crona a cooldown hug and asks if they can go home. Nakama and forgiveness for the win.]]
41	* Another anime only scene to note is [[spoiler: after Crona takes a hit from Medusa, they lie bleeding out all over the floor. Maka then starts to cry while Crona merely tells her not to cry and that they're happy for the first time because Maka was their friend. Even Ragnarok says something borderline nice. Crona later turns out to be not quite dead, but it's the thought that counts.]]
42	* In the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue to the anime, we get a nice happy ending for Medusa's ex-minions, who are all hanging out and enjoying their new freedom without her... [[spoiler:while a snake that looks just like Medusa slithers across a nearby tree]]. [[HappyEndingOverride Looks like their luck ran out]], because [[spoiler:that witch just won't stay dead]].

Context TearJerker / SoulEater