Tear Jerker / MÄR

• The flashback of Jack and his mother learning of his fathers' death in "Jack's Battle Shovel in Action!".
  • This gets even worse when Jack having endured until the final battle of the 2nd War Games where he comes to face with Weasel, the Knight who killed Jack's father.
• Episode 4 "Lost and Found Babbo" starts with Ginta reminiscing about his mother.
• In episode 5 of the anime. When Alviss reveals that Babbo once belonged to Phantom, the commander of the Chess Pieces.
  Babbo: (horrified) It's, not true.
  • This really effects Babbo, while never shown outright, it's heavily implied he believes for a long time after this, that he's suffering Amnesiac Dissonance and is one lost memory being restored to being the heavily implied Ax-Crazy and vile Ärm that he used to under Phantom and he was never the pompous, yet heart-felt "gentleman" he always believed himself to be.
    • it's later revealed that Caldia's Orb pulled a Grand Theft Me on Babbo and he was actually the pompous yet heart-felt "gentleman" he believes himself to be, in fact was the previous Caldia Elder. This actually makes it worse for Babbo because 1) he was made to believe his entire identity was a lie through the Orb's antics and 2) the Orb used Babbo's power and physical being to commit atrocities while suppressing Babbo's own personality- the Elder that sacrificed his being to be a useful Ärm to the world.
    • This is made even worse by the sequel that reveals he was the father of The Hero Kai. So, Orb did not bastardize the legacy of a noble sorcerer, but this was the first time he ruined the reputation of a father.
• Episode 6, Edward's story. He explains that Princess Snow was the only child of a benevolent King and Queen. Her parents loved her very much, but Snow's mother eventually became ill and passed away. Then Snow's father married a new Queen, who turned out to be a selfish and greedy Wicked Stepmother. When the King died Snow's stepmother took control of the kingdom. Edward tried to protect Snow from her, but the new Queen's people eventually caught up to them. Forcing Snow to put herself into magical stasis while Edward went to go find help.
• Episode 10, The Reveal that Alviss tattoo isn't just decorative. It's actually a curse someone put on him.
  • The Chess Pieces mass attack on the cities of MÄR-Heaven. The remaining Cross Guard members all throughout the world are helpless against the Chess Piece army. Sadly Alan, who can hear what's going on, can't do anything to help due to having to guard the Training Gate for Ginta and the others.
• The beginning of episode 12, Ginta's mother is devastated over her son having gone missing. She even asks Koyuki if Ginta simply ran away from home. She then tells Koyuki about Ginta's father, who also up and vanished years before.
  • Halloween locking up Ian, explaining what his punishment for trying to fight Ginta against orders will be. Instead of being punished directly, Gido, the woman Ian loves would be punished in his place.
• The beginning of the War Games in episode 16 "The War Games Commence". Team MÄR and several Cross Guards, along with one of the guards' former leaders Gaira arrive to participate. Sadly, after the preliminary round's over. Ginta, Alviss and the others quickly learn that only Gaira survived the round.
• Episode 20, Ginta explaining to Babbo and Jack that he'd come to realize that it was his father who'd been summoned to MÄR six years ago. And that he'd died in the battle with Phantom.
• Episode 22 "Nanashi vs Loco and the Straw Doll!". During the battle, Nanashi notes that Loco reminds him of his dear friend Pirun. A young girl who Nanashi saved from the Chess Pieces, only for her to be killed along with everyone else when the thieves guild of Luberia was wiped out.
• Episode 24 "Phantom's Hidden Joy", Ginta's reaction to the "death" of his friend Tom. Which turns out was all just an act staged by Phantom and Peta.
• Episode 28 ends with the surprisingly sad death of Kannochi. Despite being a self-proclaimed psychopath, not even having a sympathetic backstory to explain his cruel personality. Ginta and the others feel genuine remorse when he expires. Kannochi even offers some parting words of advice for Ginta before he dies.
  Kannochi: Listen carefully. You aren't truly fighting the Chess Pieces until you battle against the Knight class. You haven't been up against the true enemy until now. You need to be prepared, Ginta.
  Ginta: Why are you, why are you telling me this? Kannochi?
  Kannochi: (as his body is almost completely melted) Do your best. See? Don't you think it's nice to waste away after saying such a thing to your opponent...?
• Episode 30, watching everyone (even Roland) plead with Alviss to stop fighting. All of them fearing he might get himself killed from shear exhaustion.
  • The moment when Ginta learns that not only did his "friend" Tom not die at Peta's hand. Tom is in fact the Chess Piece, Phantom.
• Episode 32, Rapunzel killing Hook after he'd lost his battle with Alviss.
• Episode 34 ends with the surprisingly heartbreaking death of little Aqua by Girom's hand. It's especially heartbreaking since Nanashi went so far as to make certain their match ended in a draw. In an effort to prevent Rapunzel from killing her.
  • Followed up in episode 37, with Nanashi putting Aqua's body to rest in the water.
  Nanashi: Rest in peace, Aqua. You deserved better.
• In the episode "To Caldia, the Land of Witches". The reveal that the woman whom Dorothy has been looking to kill is the Chess Pieces' Queen. Dorothy's own sister Diana, who's also Snow's stepmother. The queen of Lestava kingdom.
• Ash's explanation in episode 43 for why he joined the Chess Pieces.
  Ash: If I'm not on their side, how can I guarantee the safety of the children? Once the Chess Pieces are in charge of things. All the fighting will cease, and the world will be safe and at peace. That means no more children will have to die...
• From episode 45, Galian's explanation for why he left Nanashi in charge of Luberia.
• Episode 46 "The Knight Reborn: Ian's Revenge", Girom mourning Rapunzel after Ian killed her. True they were never very sympathetic, but listening to Girom scream and cry while holding the dead Rapunzel in his arms is surprisingly sad.
  • Ian paying a visit to poor Gido, may also count as Nightmare Fuel.
• Episode 54, after his already humiliating defeat at the hands of Chaton. Ginta and Dorothy get a bit carried away while teasing Allan and start sounding rather cruel.
• Episode 55, Alviss’ opponent Kouga reveals during their match that he had spent his entire life since childhood tormented by everyone around him for his "ugly" face. Kouga further explains that it's for that reason that he despises those people considered "good looking". The bitter man goes on to state that he is happily looking forward to when the Chess Pieces win the war, so he can make all the people who treated him badly suffer. While Kouga's motivations are still rather petty, it's not hard to at least feel some pity for the man.
• Episode 56, the Knight Pinocchio is a puppet given life by Diana who gives off a strong Ax-Crazy vibe. Turns out, he's really only following Diana's order so that he can Become a Real Boy and honestly seems to believe that Diana will grant him his wish if he wins.
  • While trapped inside Pinnocchio's Guardian ÄRM, Fastitocalon. Dorothy soon encounters its soul inhabitant, Poko. A former servant of Diana, until he accidentally stepped on her dress one day. Not only did Diana "feed" poor Poko to Fastitocalon. She went so far as to curse Poko with immortality, so Fastitocalon's acid would not digest him.
• Episode 95. All of it. The truth of Snow's existence is absolutely tragic and puts a lot of her words and actions up until that point in a much sadder context. Essentially, Snow was never supposed to exist in MÄR Heaven. She is a magically created clone of Koyuki, made by Diana to serve her plans. Diana was going to sacrifice Snow and Koyuki and use the connection between their soul fragments to rip open a portal to Earth so she could conquer it. Snow had been locked up and all alone as a child, and constantly had visions of Ginta and Koyuki in the other world and wished nothing more than be friends with Ginta. She wanted Ginta to rely on her the same way he relied on Koyuki back on Earth, but Snow just kept failing. By the time she realizes this, she experiences a Despair Event Horizon so bad she's willing to simply fade away and disappear forever. She's just a fragment of Koyuki's soul that was used and treated like an object instead of a person, destined to die to bring pain to others when all she wanted to do was help people. Ginta manages to pull her out of this despair with a Cooldown Hug and some kind words. Things get even more sad when she dies in his arms two episodes later after confessing her love to him.
  • This is what makes the anime ending so heartwarming at the end. Snow is able to merge herself back with Koyuki to form the one single being they were always meant to be, in the process giving Ginta the means to defeat the Orb and resurrect everyone. At the end, Snow, now living as one being with Koyuki gets to be with the guy she loves. Her entire character arc is tragically sad but manages to find a happy ending.
• The sheer tragic and repulsive implications for King aka the Orb's actions to possess Danna's body while the latter's soul unknowingly went to Babbo. Once he gets out of throne to finish the job, he kills the majority of Team Mär, his own men and proceeds to mentally torture Alviss and Ginta with the false knowledge that the Leader of the Chess Pieces is their beloved idol and own father respectively. All while using the body of a noble hero as a cold-hearted bastardization of his former self.