Princess Sarah uses this trope to such good effect that it can reduce grown men to tears. You can easily say the entire series from episode 11 onwards is one big Tear Jerker (and there are moments even before that). Here's a very incomplete list:
- The death of Sarah's father, and her fall from princess status, symbolized by Miss Minchin cruelly tossing her tiara to the ground.
- Sarah's first night in the attic.
- Miss Minchin handing Sarah a bundle of letters with cold satisfaction - her last letters to her dead father, returned unread by the postal department.
- Lavinia reaching a new low in sheer villainy by inviting Sarah to her birthday party, only to ask her for a present in return - her precious doll, Emily, the only possession given to her by her father that she still owns.
- The entire episode entitled "Redemption In The Middle Of The Storm". This isn't subversion, it's a revolution.
- Sarah's near-fatal illness, and her friends' desperate attempts to save her life.
- Sarah and Becky being discovered by Miss Minchin while sharing a banquet, actually gifted to them by a kind neighbour on the sly, and Sarah being forced to sleep in the stable.
- The fire in the stable. There are no words.
- Sarah's leaving the Seminary after being physically and verbally abused by Miss Minchin. The entire sequence, right up to the point where she walks to the water and sees a family of ducks torn apart by the wave, only to come together again, is a lesson in how to write a Tear Jerker sequence. Lottie's crying out for her "Mama Sarah" the entire time as she watches from a window, and Sarah being able to do nothing but turn and walk away silently, adds to the pathos.
- In episode 27, when Sarah finds out that mounsier Dufarge has been fired, she immediately rushes to his apartment. If the heartbroken expression on her face she has while she's running through the city isn't enough to make you cry, then the music accompanying that scene will be.
