As this is a Moments page, only spoilers involving the series' backstory in Martyn's "Eyes and Ears" continuity will be marked. You Have Been Warned.
Considering the premise of the series is a Deadly Game which typically has an "Everybody Dies" Ending, it's unsurprising that the Life series contains many heartbreaking moments.
Season 1: 3rd Life
- After Cleo's death, Bdubs, not realizing she was on her final life, calls out for her in the Crastle, expecting her to be there. This is followed by Tango having to break the news to him that Cleo has been Killed Off for Real.
- After Skizz's death in his POV video, there's a flashback montage of the good times he had with others in the series while the audio is faded out, complete with a somber piano piece to really sell the scene.
- Doubles as Heartwarming. After Scott is hunted down and killed by Martyn and Ren in Season 1, he suddenly falls out of the sky into the lake just outside the Flower Forest's main base. The base is lush with plant-life, the farms replaced by a flower garden with a bench, and Scott notes that it looks exactly how he'd wanted it to, he just didn't have enough time to bring it to fruition on the actual server... and then Jimmy walks out of his house.Jimmy: Oh! You're here!
Scott: Jimmy...?
Jimmy: You're here, dude! This is...
Scott: Wh... where's here?
Jimmy: This is it!
Scott: This is it?
Jimmy: This... This is the end. This is it, dude. I was wondering when you were gonna turn up!
Scott: The after...?
Jimmy: This... this is... The end.
Scott: It's home?
Jimmy: Home. - While retreating to the desert base to stash away supplies, Grian finds the remainder of Joel's wolf pack wandering around aimlessly, with the one whom they're loyal to dead.Grian: Aw, no. These... Joel's... (wolf whimpers) ...Joel's dogs? Aww, no... they're wondering where their dad is.
- The ending of the season. Grian and Scar, who have been allies since the beginning, finally turn on each other, and Scar sides with Bdubs (the only other survivor of the epic battles that took place beforehand), costing Grian his second life. Feeling remorse over what he did, Scar then kills Bdubs in an effort to make it up to Grian, and begs Grian to kill him. Grian can't bring himself to do it, and the two fight to the death where their alliance truly began — the Red Desert, at Pizza's grave. Grian does indeed kill Scar, but there's no feeling of victory — just dread and loneliness. The Sole Survivor of the series, Grian decides to take his own life, and jumps off one of the Red Desert's mountains, dying on impact with the ground.
Season 2: Last Life
- The ending of Day 7 from Martyn's perspective. All of his friends in the Southlands are gone, with three out of four of them dead permanently. Unable to find the other Survivors, he returns to the remains of the Southlands to spend the night on his own. The episode ends with him reflecting on his status as the last one left, set to sad music.
- Scott turning Red at the end of Day 8. He'd spent the whole day knowing he was the Boogeyman, and knowing that if he did not kill one of his allies, he'd turn Red. He was honest with his allies immediately, and made it clear that he did not want to betray any of them. In the end, his Undying Loyalty is what did him in, and he's forced to leave the Survivors, including his closest allies Pearl and Cleo, behind, a fact he quietly accepts as he walks away.Scott: I'm sorry... It's the way it was always gonna be. I couldn't do it. I failed. [...] I'll see you on the battlefield. Girlboss, Gaslight, we'll see which G is the last one standing.
Pearl: (quietly) See you soon, Gatekeep. - In general, any time someone turns Red later in the season. Since you're no longer able to ally with Red Lives, a lot of alliances built up over the course of the season are broken as members are forced to leave and work to kill their former friends.
Season 3: Double Life
- After finding out exactly who he's partnered with, Grian makes some bitter remarks about the past.
- Grian killing Ren with a stalactite. At first, he was laughing, amused that it worked. But then the realization set in. Soulbound to Ren was BigB, Grian's secret partner, and the only thing he can do is apologize.
- Pearl's entire arc, when she's treated as an outcast and a devil when she only wants friends, but everyone keeps leaving her, starting with Poor Communication Kills with her own soulbound who chose to Screw Destiny.
- The finale, when Pearl and Scott are the only ones left, with even Tilly is gone, Scott talks about how he did not expect to end this way. He says that she deserves this win more than him, places down TNT and sacrifices himself for her. And in her last moments, Pearl finally forgives him:Scott: Pearl, you deserve this more. (places TNT)
Pearl: Ah! Excuse me, what do you mean? (takes out bow)
Scott: You do, but at the same way... Tilly death do us part, Pearl. (ignites TNT)
Pearl: Wait, Scott, what are you doing? Scott! What are you doing! SCOTT!!!
Scott: Tilly death do us part! (blows up)
Pearl: Scott! Oh no, what... Scott... Did he just sacrifice himself? For me? Scott... I guess, I forgive you after all.
Season 4: Limited Life
- On Day 7, the Canary curse strikes for the fourth time, to much desperation and later, to everyone's resignation.
- It starts with Grian's quadruple kill with a TNT minecart. As the Boogeyman, Etho instantly tries to gun down the Bad Boys at spawn, ultimately chasing Jimmy down and killing him. At this point in time, Jimmy had just over an hour of life-time left, but for unknown reasons, he's only cut down by one hour and not two. While Etho regrets this, the only reason Jimmy survives even longer than this is due to whatever forces that prevented the deduction of the Boogeyman bonus hour... which makes him a literal dead man walking, living on borrowed time.
- After respawning, Jimmy instantly shouts to meet up with Scott to honour their agreement to give him extra life-time when he hits half an hour.
- Bdubs immediately and frantically volunteers to let Jimmy kill him for life-time.
- The Bad Boys then go onto Skynet to try to help Jimmy net some kills... only for every single Bad Boy other than Jimmy to get kills instead. And when push comes to shove, Jimmy somehow does the Minecraft equivalent of tripping over his own shoelaces and fall off Skynet trying to murder someone with a TNT minecart. It's hilariously pathetic, yes, but ultimately just... tragic.
- Most of the server (save for Cleo and Scar) are genuinely saddened or surprised, having had faith that he would be able to "beat the curse" for once, so to speak.
- Considering his subsequent Sanity Slippage and Roaring Rampage of Revenge, Joel doesn't take it well.Joel: I was gonna sacrifice myself for him so he wouldn't be the first out, and he's bloody gone and jumped off and the stupidity!
- Jimmy understandably doesn't take it well either.Jimmy: (out of character) Oh my go– I went through the TNT minecart. I was holding crouch! I wa– This is not even a play! How am I out first? Again? I tried to water-bucket off! Oh my gosh... This is so embarrassing. First out of the Life series again. I promise you, hand on heart, swear on everything, I don't even do this on purpose. I'm just bad at Minecraft. (presumably in-character) I– I hate myself. I hate– I hate myself. I hate myself!
Jimmy: (in the YouTube comments section) i'm sorry - What makes it even sadder is that even if he water-bucketed successfully, unless he Ender-pearled away in time, he would still likely be killed by the TNT minecart he sent rolling off the edge of Skynet.
Season 5: Secret Life
- Lizzie's re-rolled hard task on Day 5 is to get the entire server to sleep at night. After an initial failed attempt, she comes up with the idea of a sleepover party to get everyone to her house. After making all of the beds and even a cake, then running around the server to tell everyone, she returns to her base, excited to see a nameplate through the wall... and it's just her husband. Only one person showed up. Even with it being a ruse to complete a task, seeing all the work that went in with no payoff is pretty upsetting, especially compared to earlier days on the server where antics and hijinks could get everyone gathered around for silly reasons.
- The destruction of the Heart Foundation on Day 7. Since its creation, it was a peaceful organization where its members would run a lottery and gift the winner a heart from each member. That's it. No schemes or cover-ups, just a friendly group of people that would gift people hearts just because. And Scar burns it to the ground on Day 7, forcing its occupants to evacuate and look on helplessly, with the flames spreading too quickly for it to be remotely salvagable. Made worse by Skizz saying in chat, "The Heart is gone forever," making it clear that is not something they can simply rebuild from and that the Heart Foundation is truly dead.
- It's made worse by the fact that Scar's assigned secret task of the day is to be the "villain" of the server — while it was his choice to commit such an act of arson, he later seems to genuinely feel bad for the Heart Foundation over this.
- Despite happily taking Scott's Yellow life for more hearts, Gem seems genuinely distraught when he offers her his final life on Day 9 to give her more of a chance against Scar and Pearl. Even worse, it doesn't even work.
- The amount of sadness and frustration Scar has been harboring from his focus on his secret tasks from Day 4, combined with being driven into villainy by force as a result of his loneliness from lacking friends and alliances all the way up to Day 9 hits him and the audience very hard after he shoots Pearl off of the ledge in the final duel. What causes this scene so much grief is that Grian (who died earlier and was his ally in 3rd Life) posthumously gives him a few simple words that with Pearl gone, Scar is the winner of this season. It's more painful to watch when he bids farewell to his home, the Sunflower Valley just moments before his episode ends.
- As if the ending isn't already a downer, it gets worse in Martyn's "Eyes and Ears" continuity, which further details how Scar is left to Go Mad from the Isolation in the desolate wasteland the server has become, unable to receive any more secret tasks other than to "win Secret Life" over and over again, and being respawned in on half a heart if he ever tries to pull a Last Survivor Suicide... until the Watchers are done feasting on his despair and send him off to "recover" in preparation for Season 6.
