Tear Jerker / Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

As comedic as the series goes, that is not to say that it has a sizable amount of sad and outright heartwrenching moments that had the players choking up.

As a Tear Jerker subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• As the Heroes learn that the Sparks are the result of the fusion of Lumas and Rabbids, they are unable to recall any of their memories as Lumas before they were merged together, but they only recall their love for their mama, Rosalina and their fear of Cursa, whom they are trying to evade.
  • In the same scene, when Princess Peach states that Rosalina would never allow the fusion to happen, Starburst becomes distressed as it tells them that mama is in danger because of Cursa and pleads for them to help her, which Peach sympathizes with.
• Augie's backstory in the murals is pretty depressing, it tells of him having to live with being Unfavorite in his family while his brother Perfectus has achieved so much that he was favored by the father while Augie was only good at eating, and thus overlooked and neglected, it came to the point in time where him being overshadowed and the fact that he accidentally drove the family sun chariot into the neighbor's swimming pool during his brother's wedding, has him running away from home after a major fallout with his parents. It is very heavily implied that he never communed with his family ever since.
• Just the fact that the some of the Sparks are trapped in the Darkmess Dimension where their pursuer, Cursa lives and those are constantly on the run to avoid the monster and its minions is especially sad since they are young children who have minimal protection against enemies that want to hurt them and have taken refuge on other planets, only for them to be found by them and are either captured or barely escaped time and time again. There is no safe haven for them.
• The Rabbid civilians have suffered through so much fear of the abnormal weather change due to the Darkmess Tentacle, and especially with the mind-controlled Bob-ombs in their town, trapping them in their homes and being afraid of them. This is one of the few moments of the Rabbids where their distress is played much more seriously than they normally are, and it is surprisingly easy to feel for them.
• She may be a Spark Hunter, but Midnite is easily one of the most sympathetic cases; even though she turned on Edge and has imprisoned Rabbid Rosalina and later Captain Orion, but when it gets to the scene where she is defeated by the Heroes and cornered by Edge, who obviously has her Flying Blade in hand, she spares her life instead and we see the look on her face, from anger, to shock, to straight up sadness in her eyes before she leaves.
• Bedrock, to a lesser degree, also shares the same remorseful look when Edge does not bother to pursue her in vengeance for what she did earlier.
  • It gets even sadder for both of them as they are trudging back to Cursa with distraught and defeated looks, then they see Daphne who is more successful in getting three Sparks for Cursa to absorb, which made Midnite jealous and Bedrock annoyed. And then we see the fear on their faces as Cursa slams its hand on them and they are laying on the ground still alive, all while Daphne snidely smiles and shakes her head at them, with no sign of any pity for them.
  • Daphne could have at least given one Spark each to Midnite and Bedrock to help them out of the wreck, (she has three of them by the way, THREE! SPARKS!) but why she never bothered or even cared to assist them is anyone's guess.
• Rosalina's fate obviously takes the cake for being especially heartbreaking. She was playing with her Lumas and the Rabbids who arrived here, completely unaware of the danger looming over them until it was already too late. Rosalina quickly acted by putting herself between the Rabbids and Lumas and the monster attacking them. The energy blast sent the Rabbids and Lumas far away where they merged together and became Sparks. Then she is forcefully merged with Cursa and we see her wand being taken from her, which is her only weapon she uses to fend for herself. Even though she is resisting it, Cursa now seeks to suppress her resistance by absorbing the Sparks to destroy her hope and will. Rosalina has suffered so much in the past, from losing her mother, her Comet Observatory being inactive, and now this.
  • When Rosalina was helping the Heroes escape Cursa, everyone except Rabbid Rosalina takes advantage of the time to enter the portal, and Mario tells her that they need to leave, only for her to angrily object and refusing to, leading to Mario carrying her to safety. After that, Rabbid Rosalina is visibly heartbroken over her human counterpart, who is her idol, the person she was so desperate to meet and for her to see Rosalina in this state has her distraught over it. Even JEANIE, who is an AI who is logical for the most part, also feels this sadness while also beginning to understand determination, which becomes hope.
  • Mario himself is just as much in disbelief over Rosalina's situation. This is the same person who helped him save Princess Peach from captivity since they first met and she was the one who encouraged him during his quests, and he now witnessed her in a sorry state that he and Rabbid Rosalina were the last ones to escape.
  • This music track conveys the peaceful state that Barrendale Mesa is reverted to after the storm ends, but after The Reveal of what became of Rosalina, it plays after the heroes escape from Cursa during the story that JEANIE recounted, it quickly turns melancholic and gives sizable despair vibes before it steadily becomes more hopeful near the end of the cutscene.
  • We also see what happened to the Comet Observatory; the beacon is normally blue when it is at full power, but since Cursa took it over, it is an ominous purple, which legitimately distresses Beep-0 and Rabbid Rosalina of all people, which is described as the symbol of hope to the universe, the very thing that Cursa is trying to destroy.
• As stoic and confident as she is, but Edge herself manages to be sympathetic in a way. She was created by Cursa to be the commander of the Spark Hunters and her free will grants her critical thinking skills to be a capable one as a leader is expected to be, but once she witnessed how horrid Cursa is to the Sparks when draining them of energy, she tries to tell her friends about it, but instead of going with her, they shunned her from the group which forced her to permanently leave them to save the Sparks from them.
  • If you have been closely watching how Edge develops as a character, from how she acts in certain scenarios to her knowing who the Spark Hunters are during your first playthrough, you likely will not be viewing her scenes the same way again when you realize what she has been through and let's not forget the fact that she has a very shady past with the Spark Hunters.
    • While the brief tension between her and Beep-0, especially with her becoming very angry at him for prying into her business was unsettling, but when you add the fact that she has a shady past that she left behind that is slowly catching up to her, and her losing her old friends, her wanting to save the Sparks from a horrible fate that Cursa would subject them to, and then tagging along with the Heroes who have with a similar goal which she knows she cannot do it alone and needs help. Then we get to this scene where she realizes she is being confronted about her history, you can hear her let out a near-panicked gasp in a before she asks why he asked that; it really shows that Edge is feeling hurt and distrusted by them and her being quieter about her concerns, with a few exceptions, is really telling.
  • After Darkmess Edge is defeated, you can see Edge with her back turned towards the screen and away from the team in obvious guilt and Beep-0 is worried for her. As Edge admits that Cursa created her and adds that she was the commander of the Spark Hunters, you can tell just how uncharacteristically dejected she sounds as she explains the whole story to them why she left. She even states that she never told them about it because she was afraid that they would not have a reason to trust her if they knew that about her. For someone this gruff and distant on the outside, Edge is, in fact, a sad desperate young girl who is so ashamed of her past that she fears being turned away by a group who shares the same goals as her and wanted to show that she is a good person who left an evil group she once led (with friends who turned their backs on her for daring to think differently) and does her best to rescue the Sparks from her former friends. Edge does not openly express her emotions, but anyone who looks closely will notice that Edge really does have feelings like everyone else. It is really distressing to see a normally fierce and confident hero suddenly reveal her moment of vulnerability at this level.
    • When you take into account that her old friends betrayed her when she tried to reveal the truth about Cursa to them, it is also strongly implied that she is not only worried about being forced off the team as a result, but also afraid of losing her new friends (and valuable allies she needs to save the Sparks) as she did with her old ones. It was only fortunate for her that she was accepted by her new friends to avert her original fears, to help her feel better.
• The state of Melodic Gardens by itself is depressing, it was once the harmonious planet where it’s biophonies with the assistance of the Wondrous Beast and it had the beautiful tale of how its warden, Allegra gained the trust of the people that lived there and helped them discover the mythical Lost Melody. Everything was going well, until the Dark Star, later known as Kanya arrived and messed everything up for them and the Wondrous Beast vanished, resulting in the biophonies falling silent. Kanya also flooded the labyrinth to prevent anyone from reaching her HQ. Worst of all, Melodic Gardens depends on playing melodies to survive and it is confirmed by Allegra and her subjects that the planet will fade away to nothingness if it remains silent long enough.
  • When Kanya implies to Allegra that she did something to the Wondrous Beast, who is obviously Allegra's best friend, Allegra becomes very agitated and runs off to find him.
• After the Heroes managed to reach Allegra, they see her looking so sad as she comforts her imprisoned Dorrie and looks really sad and silently pleading them to help her friend.
  • The Heroes's reactions qualify as well, Mario and Luigi are obviously devastated, Edge also shows a moment of empathy before it turns into anger over how low Kanya went to treat the poor Dorrie, Princess Peach and even Bowser of all people are looking on sympathetically, and Rabbid Mario loses all restraint and completely breaks down crying, and Rabbid Luigi is subtly on the verge of tears as well and it is clear that he is having a very hard time holding himself together and they both hug Bowser to seek comfort, who becomes shocked and annoyed as Peach smiles at how sweet Bowser was being, even when he is not returning it.
• After Cursa is defeated and Rosalina is finally saved, Beep-0 is still mournful that they could not save all the Sparks who have already fallen victim to the fiend. It does get better when Rosalina demonstrates that energy cannot be destroyed but altered and managed to restore them.
• The ending of Rayman in the Phantom Show, also crosses over with Heartwarming, where Rayman has to say good-bye to Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Peach, and in addition, they are one of the few Rabbids who were friendly with him as his past experience with the rest of the Rabbids in their home series have almost never been great. It is a tough goodbye for Rabbid Mario, who tears up and hugs Rayman since they have to part ways and Rabbid Peach was apathetic at first before handing Rayman her gift as Rayman gives Rabbid Mario his gift, which makes their good-byes more bittersweet.