Tear Jerker / A Dance with Dragons

• The beginning of Dany's first chapter in A Dance With Dragons. Even Daenerys has trouble keeping her eyes dry:
  "What could a eunuch hope to find in a brothel?" she asked.
  "Even those who lack a man's parts may still have a man's heart, Your Grace," said Grey Worm. "This one has been told that your servant Stalwart Shield sometimes gave coin to the women of the brothels, to lay with him and hold him."
• In Sam's POV, Sam notices Jon's sad smile when they share their farewells and then we learn Jon's thoughts in this scene:
  The cold trickles on [Sam's] face reminded Jon of the day he'd bid farewell to Robb at Winterfell, never knowing that it was for the last time. "And pull your hood up. The snowflakes are melting in your hair."
• When Jon learns that his little sister Arya has seemingly been forcibly married to Ramsay Bolton, the most sadistic and despicable monster in the setting, it's impossible not to feel for the guy.
• Doran Martell grieving and misgiving, seeking comfort in gruff Aero Hotah, at a loss for words.
  "Until the Mountain crushed my brother's skull, no Dornishmen had died in this War of the Five Kings," the prince murmured softly, as Hotah pulled a blanket over him. "Tell me, Captain, is that my shame or my glory?"
  "That is not for me to say, my prince." Serve. Protect. Obey. Simple vows for simple men. That was all he knew.
• Jon Connington's chapters have him narrate about how he hopes he can see his home castle before he dies. When he does, he goes to the tower with the best view and takes it all in. Even worse when you remember he's dying of greyscale from saving Tyrion, so he could have easily died without ever getting this moment.
• Quentyn's thoughts before his ill-fated attempt to steal a dragon. "I should have kissed both sisters" is a rather innocent (for a Dornishman) take on Must Not Die a Virgin.
  • Quentyn's story in general. Two of his companions die before his first chapter even begins, he pushes himself to make increasingly amoral choices for something he doesn't even want, he arrives too late and is unable to convince Dany that he and his family are worth siding with, and all his suffering gets him, in the end, is a slow and painful death.
• Young Griff is treated as none other than Aegon VI Targaryen, the last son of Prince Rhaegar and Elia Martell. All is going according to plan until Jon Connington and Tyrion Lannister notice streaks of the Targaryen madness in him. This coupled with the fact that he is referred to by Quaithe as "The Mummer's Dragon" implies that he might be, at the worst possible result, a Blackfyre pretender, which does not bode well for anyone.
  • Although he could be exactly as promised: a proper prince with the finest claim, nothing but pure blood, and the finest teaching a prince could have. "The Mummer's Dragon" may simply refer to Varys' past as a mummer... And yet, for all the effort that was put into raising him, there is still the old saying about the Targaryens: every time one is born, the gods flip a coin to decide if he will be great or mad. Even more heartbreaking if it's all absolutely true, and yet could be ruined by the same thing that destroyed Aerys II.
• Kevan Lannister's loving recollections of his wife, right before Varys offs him. What makes this worse? Just before he died, he seemed to be stabilising the realm, helping raise Tommen the way he should have been from day one, and was starting to doubt whether he'd done the right thing under Tywin. Say what you will about his actions under the Lannisters, but he did not deserve to go out like that.
• Wyman Manderly's "The North Remembers" speech is both a tearjerker and a CMOA.
  "Foes and false friends are all around me, Lord Davos. They infest my city like roaches, and at night I feel them crawling over me." The fat man's fingers coiled into a fist, and all his chins trembled. "My son Wendel came to the Twins a guest. He ate Lord Walder’s bread and salt, and hung his sword upon the wall to feast with his friends. And they murdered him. Murdered, I say, and may the Freys choke upon their fables. I drink with Jared, jape with Symond, promise Rhaegar the hand of my own beloved granddaughter... but never think that means I have forgotten. The north remembers, Lord Davos. The north remembers, and the mummer’s farce is almost done. My son is home."
• Roose Bolton's proud and almost sad recollection of his trueborn son Domeric is one of very few times in the series Roose has shown any semblance of affection, and his bitterness that he cannot kill Domeric's killer because Ramsay is both his son and heir is made evident.
  • Also the fact that Domeric was pretty much the only good member of House Bolton who sought out Ramsay because he was so desperate for a brother is rather sad, especially how desperate Roose was to keep him away from what he already knew to be a monster.
  • Domeric was said to be Lady Barbrey Dustin's favorite nephew and as a dame without sons, the kid was very much the closest thing to a son to her. Roose's inaction to Domeric's assassination is what drives Lady Dustin to start conspiring against her brother-in-law.
• Ellaria Sand hears that her relatives are plotting vengeance and demands they don't because she's been through enough heartache already.
  Oberyn wanted vengeance for Elia. Now the three of you want vengeance for him. I have four daughters, I remind you. Your sisters. My Elia is fourteen, almost a woman. Obella is twelve, on the brink of maidenhood. They worship you, as Dorea and Loreza worship them. If you should die, must El and Obella seek vengeance for you, then Dorea and Loree for them? Is that how it goes, round and round forever? I ask again, where does it end? I saw your father die. Here is his killer. Can I take a skull to bed with me, to give me comfort in the night? Will it make me laugh, write me songs, care for me when I am old and sick?
• Tyrion's regret in believing his first wife Tysha was a whore.
  Sansa, Shae, all my women... Tysha was the only one who ever loved me. Where do whores go?
• The scene where Meera is crying by the campfire. Bran wants to go to her and comfort her, the way his mother used to for him. But he physically can't. His utter feeling of worthlessness at that point is heartrending.
• Every single one of Theon's chapters; if not for the bleak situation, then for his profound identity crisis. He thinks about how much better it would be if he just died, but is also desperate to redeem himself. Then there's fact that Winterfell has been cleared of Starks and was taken over by the Boltons, all the terrible things that happen to Jeyne Poole, and the overall tense and somber mood. It's just a very difficult story arc to read in general.
  There are ghosts in Winterfell, he thought, and I am one of them.
  And Robb. Robb who had been more a brother to Theon than any son born of Balon Greyjoy's loins. Murdered at the Red Wedding, butchered by the Freys. I should have been with him. Where was I? I should have died with him.
• "The North remembers." Thousands of Northmen heading for war change direction and march through blizzards worse than most people could conceive of not for glory, not to destroy an enemy, but to save the daughter of a friend who died several years ago. Why? Because said friend was Ned freaking Stark, that's why, and they loved him as much as we, the readers, did.
  • It's not his daughter, but an impostor, but still they march on unbeknownst. And we will never blame them.
  • This exchange when one of Stannis' knights starts to complain:
    Lord Peasebury: More dying everyday, and for what? Some girl?
    Morgan Liddle: Ned's girl.
  • Also the fact that some factions of Roose Bolton's allies (such as Lady Dustin) still think that what was done to the Starks was really fucked up and are trying to plot against the Boltons and the Freys — this is quite something considering that Lady Dustin hated Ned Stark's guts for leaving her husband's mortal remains at the Tower of Joy and Lord Rickard Stark for taking Brandon away from her by promising him to Catelyn Tully.
    • Between the factions there's also the Manderlys; just see young Wylla Manderly's protest to her grandfather regarding the Freys' presence in White Harbor, and you see just how moving her plea is to all the nonsense that is apparently happening.
• Davos right before he thinks he's about to be executed. One of the most honorable yet humble characters in the book this side of Ned Stark, he has striven to do right for the good of Stannis and the realm, something which has earned him nothing but the death of four of his sons and the continued scorn of other nobles who disparage his humble origins. In his final moments, Davos uses his new literacy skills to write letters to his two youngest sons and wife, telling them to go across the Narrow Sea, while writing Devan (who is back at the Wall with Stannis as his squire) to tell him how proud he is of him. This last thought pretty much sums him up
  I did not do so ill... I rose up from Flea Bottom to become a King's Hand, and I learned to read and write.
  • Davos even thinks how sad it is that he is going to White Harbor to ask them to fight for his King, even though this will mean prolonging the war for a people who have already lost much. It's very rare to see anybody who actually thinks in terms of the common people and shows Davos is one of the most decent men and more worthy of a high position than nearly all the other Lords.
• Cersei is a manipulative Ax-Crazy self-destructive fool who has screwed over many innocent people, but even so, her walk of shame is so degrading and disproportionate that one can't help feel bad for a woman who was renowned for her beauty to be treated this way. It's one thing to put her on trial for her actual crimes, but it's another to humiliate her to Make an Example of Them for other women who show the slightest ambition and instincts for self-preservation and survival.
  • What Cersei desperately tells herself as the crowd hurls jeers and insults at her:
    I am beautiful, the most beautiful woman in all Westeros, Jaime says so, Jaime would never lie to me...
• Daenerys's fever dream about her late brother Viserys, highlighting their strained and complicated relationship. Even though Viserys was so awful to her, they were each other's only family left in the whole world.
  Viserys' ghost: You never mourned me, sister. It is hard to die unmourned.
  Daenerys: I loved you once.
  Viserys' ghost: Once. You were supposed to be my wife, to bear me children with silver hair and purple eyes, to keep the blood of the dragon pure. I took care of you. I taught you who you were. I fed you. I sold our mother's crown to keep you fed.
  Daenerys: You hurt me. You frightened me.
  Viserys' ghost: Only when you woke the dragon. I loved you.
• There's something chilling and tragic about Leaf's answer when Bran asks where the rest of her people are.
  Gone down into the earth. Into the stones, into the trees. Before the First Men came all this land that you call Westeros was home to us, yet even in those days we were few. The gods gave us long lives but not great numbers, lest we overrun the world as deer will overrun a wood where there are no wolves to hunt them. That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns are all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us.
• Jon's thoughts when he receives the Pink Letter from Ramsay. He's pretty much stuck in Scylla and Charybdis situation, where whatever he chooses would be the wrong one. He takes a moment to think of his beloved lost siblings...
  Jon flexed the fingers of his sword hand. The Night's Watch takes no part. He closed his fist and opened it again. What you propose is nothing less than treason. He thought of Robb, with snowflakes melting in his hair. Kill the boy and let the man be born. He thought of Bran, clambering up a tower wall, agile as a monkey. Of Rickon's breathless laughter. Of Sansa, brushing out Lady's coat and singing to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow. He thought of Arya, her hair as tangled as a bird's nest. I made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell... I want my bride back... I want my bride back... I want my bride back...
  "I think we had best change the plan", Jon Snow said.
• Theon escaping from Ramsay and finding his sister Asha. GRRM actually reunites siblings for once. And Asha initially fails to recognize Theon, due to Theon's drastically changed appearance after suffering so much torture at Ramsay's hand — a flip from their interaction in A Clash of Kings.
• As part of an assassination mission for the Faceless Men, Arya dons the face of an ugly little girl with broken teeth, jaw, and nose. According to the Kindly Man, the girl's father beat her so often and so violently that finally she came to them to beg the gift of painless death, which they gave her.
• While sailing down the Rhoyne, the Shy Maid passes through the ruins of Chroyane, an ancient Rhoynish city. Tyrion can tell that it was once a beautiful place full of life and happiness, but now it is only inhabited by stone men. The formerly magnificent island palace, once the Palace of Love, has been called the Palace of Sorrow for a thousand years.
  The ruin was sad enough, but knowing what it had been made it even sadder. There was laughter here once, Tyrion thought. There were gardens bright with flowers and fountains sparkling golden in the sun. These steps once rang to the sound of lovers' footsteps, and beneath that broken dome marriages beyond count were sealed with a kiss.