Filia's ending, mixed in with slight Tear Jerker. She selflessly wishes for Painwheel/Carol to become a normal schoolgirl again. And while the Skull Heart recognizes this as a pure and selfless wish, it also knows that Filia's doing this to atone for whatever kind of cruelty she may have done to her before her amnesia, so it curses her to become the Skullgirl over time. When she goes back to school, we see a cured and mostly unscarred Painwheel/Carol be reintroduced to the class. Even with Filia slowly succumbing to the influence of the Skullheart, the final shot of the two of them smiling together brings a warm feeling inside you.
Although not exactly as touching as Squigly's relationship with Leviathan below, despite everything the game implies about him using her for himself Samson does seem to be genuinely looking out for Filia as well.
Samson: (After Ricardo attempts to harass Filia) No-one touches my host... No-one.
The same with Parasoul's ending. She narrowly stops Umbrella from becoming the Skullgirl, but at the cost at eventually becoming the Skullgirl herself. Now Parasoul is training Umbrella for the day her sister has to put her down.
Peacock forgiving Marie in her ending, and their last talk together.
A bit of Fridge Heartwarming is found in both Peacock's actual ending and the Dummied Out alternate one: In neither of them does she even think of wishing to revive Dr. Avian, which initially seems kinda sad until you remember that Avian, who made her the anti-Skullgirl weapon that she is now, would in no way want her to do so.
Squigly's relationship with Leviathan. Even in death, he stays with her, and protects her whenever the rise of a Skullgirl raises her from the grave. At the end of Squigly's story she goes back to death after the destruction of the Skull Heart, and he promises to stay with her, for as long as it takes.
In the final scene of Squigly's story, Fillia and Samson have given Squigly a proper burial, and carved a very heartwarming epitaph on the headstone.
Here lie Sienna "Squigly" Contiello and Leviathan. May they rest in peace, until we meet again.
One of Squigly's 'round win' lines has her saying this to Leviathan as she scratches under his chin: "Who's a good lil' dwagon monster~? Oh yes, you are; yes you are~" Adorable.
After Big Band defeats Painwheel in his story mode, he realizes she's not the monster she seems to be and directs her to Lab 8. And after the final battle, he explicitly mentions her as somebody who he intends to be a father figure for. He also ends up being such to Peacock, which also occurs in Beowulf's ending.
Beowulf, when he learns that Grendel was drugged, immediately announces it to the audience, because he respects both his fans and Grendel too much to keep profiting off a lie at their expense.
Beowulf, after finding out that his legacy was all a lie. Not only does his resolve become stronger than ever before, he swears that he'll fight not on just the people's behalf, but to avenge Grendel as well, regarding him as his partner through his disembodied arm. Made even better when Grendel's spirit manifests through his arm when Marie takes control of him, forgiving Beowulf and challenging him to settle things between them once and for all. Then again, that dialogue may have been intended to get Beowulf to forgive himself, seeing as it's implied Grendel knew it wasn't Beowulf's fault to begin with.
Beowulf: Just like old times. You get used and abused, and I stumble my way into the hero role. Grendel... Grendel: Forget the past. Let us settle this, as WARRIORS!
After the dust settles on the Skullgirl business, Annie decides to give Beowulf his acting gig on her show back. Not as a two-bit villain like before, however; rather, she's letting him be her new sidekick, in a 100% happy conclusion to the story that smashes the game's usual status quo of bittersweet-at-best endings to boot!
Valentine's line of "Atta girl" when Painwheel defeats her showing a bit of mentor attitude towards her and foreshadowing one of the endings.
The ending of Annie's Story Mode shares a similar tale: While the show itself may not be quite safe yet, Annie's heroic actions during Marie's rampage helped inspire some re-interest- and Aileen, as both thanks for reigniting Annie's passion and as one of the few who now know her secret, is offered a job as the new actor double for Annie (having secretly been scouted as such by Florence). Aileen accepts, on one condition: Annie apologizes for her harsh words to Peacock and Beowulf. Even with The Stinger of Double's latest disguise, it's a surprisingly heartfelt ending all the same.
The story of how 'Annie of the Stars' came to be. Several generations back, when the Renoirs completely controlled the media, Annie started her own radio show because she believed people deserved to have some actual entertainment that wasn't state propaganda. It worked so well that some of her fans ended up helping her start a TV series based on her life, cycling through crew after crew to keep up the appearance that 'Annie' was just an actress.
Umbrella's story mode, when it's not tearjerkingly sad, has plenty of heartwarming moments.
She makes friends with both Filia and Painwheel, and even helps the latter break free from Brain Drain's control!
Even though she has a very fair beef with the Renoirs over the terrible things they did to her family (directly or not), Cerebella still knocks out Eliza and lets Umbrella escape, believing that despite that, she doesn't deserve what Eliza had planned for her.
If there's one thing that her story mode makes clear, it's that Umbrella really cares for her big sister. It's why she wants to tag along and help her- so she doesn't wind up doing something stupid and dying like their parents (well, parent, but Umbrella doesn't know that). And in the end they do work things out and team up, defeating Marie and destroying the Skull Heart together.
The framing for this story mode, as revealed at the end: it's Umbrella recounting the day's events to Parasoul, Filia, and Carol, who are all having a sleepover together! Seeing the girls being girls together is incredibly adorable.
The Stinger reveals that King Franz, Parasoul and Umbrella's father, is alive! If seemingly a bit worse for wear, given that he seems to have been reduced to naught an ethereal flame of sorts. He tells Parasoul that he's proud of how both she's taken to her duties as ruler of the kingdom and how Umbrella's matured, and wishes to see her soon.
A piece of promotional art for Valentine's birthday shows a different side to her: rather than the usual fanservice or creepy medical imagery we've come to expect, the picture simply depicts Valentine sitting at home in front of her fireplace, toasting to the memory of the other members of the Last Hope. It's a sweet reminder that under her cocky and cold demeanor, Valentine really did love the Last Hope like a family and still holds them close to her heart, even after their demise.
It's the 10th anniversary trailer, and it declares, with sombre music that, after ten years of fighting, the Skull Heart is broken, and it shows Peacock seemingly stood over a collapsed Marie. The music then changes tone entirely as Peacock declares she said she'd be Best Friends Forever with Marie, Marie looks up... and the Skullgirls theme kicks in. Marie has just been announced as the final DLC character, since, while the Skull Heart is gone, Marie still lives...
A side effect of Marie being playable? She can team up with Peacock. Just listen to their tag-in exchange:
Peacock: Like old times!
Marie: I'll protect you!
Even more heartwarming? One of Marie's palettes... is of Peacock herself!
Marie has some very cute lines in general.
(vs Squigly) Your mother is proud of you.
(switching out with Peacock) Bestie!
(winning against Beowulf) Did you see my suplex? How was my form?
(vs Peacock) Mr. Hilgard says it's my turn on the TV.
◊, in a very cute moment reminiscent of father-daughter dances.
