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Tear Jerker / Skulduggery Pleasant

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From Series 1:

  • Everything about Tanith being possessed, particularly everyone's reaction.
    Skulduggery: Are you okay?
    Valkyrie: No.
  • Skulduggery convinces Ghastly to become an Elder so that he can help Tanith. Later, Skulduggery tells Valkyrie that the remnant is permanently bound to her.
    Valkyrie: You lied to Ghastly.
    Skulduggery: He knows that. He just doesn't want to believe it.
  • Valkyrie's reaction to Skulduggery being pulled into another dimension. The fact that China of all people seems to have a Heroic BSoD afterwards is also rather gutwrenching.
  • The Broken Pedestal moment
    Valkyrie: What do we do now?
    Skulduggery: Well, we escape. I'm not sure how yet but-
    Valkyrie: No. What do we do now? We're partners. You're my best friend. I love you. You were my... I looked up to you. What am I supposed to do now?
    Skulduggery: *turns away* You need to find yourself a new hero.
  • "Valkyrie," Lord Vile said. His voice was a whisper.
    • Keep in mind that this - and possibly "Let her out" immediately after - is the only thing he has said in the series.
  • Fletcher's reaction when Valkyrie tells him she was cheating on him.
  • Skulduggery's "I would", when asked if there was anyone who’d be willing to give up the rest of their life to guard Darquesse.
  • Carol's death. She had grown up so much, she's got such crappy self esteem and all she wanted to be was special. No one even knows she's dead and she died thinking Valkyrie was the one murdering her. For extra depressing points, it sounds like she was the only one talking her sister out of a potential eating disorder.
  • Remnant!Tanith returns in Kingdom of the Wicked. Valkyrie begs her, without success, to turn herself in so they can help her. There are subtle hints that a part of Tanith still loves Ghastly. Last of all, Ghastly's reaction to Tanith killing Strom. This happens in a chapter entitled "A Happy Ending". Really, Landy?
  • By Kingdom of the Wicked, Valkyrie's only close friend is Skulduggery. And her reflection. Which is trying to kill her.
    Valkyrie: *laughing* My God, do I have any friends left?
  • Lord Vile kills Ghastly in the alternate universe. That's when you know that this version of Skulduggery is gone.
  • The way Dark Days starts.
    She missed him.
    She missed his voice, and his humour, and his warm arrogance, and those moments in his company when she realised that this was when she came alive-finally living, by the side of a dead man.
  • A lot of Last Stand of Dead Men is depressing, but one of the worst parts has to be when Skulduggery tells Dexter and Saracen that the Dead Men are gone
    Skulduggery: There is no Dead Men. Ghastly and Anton have been murdered. Ravel's betrayed us. Valkyrie is ...gone. [Title Drop The Dead Men have had their last stand]] and we've fallen. The three of us are all that remain.
    • Even more depressing is Dexter's realization that Skulduggery is right.
    "The sounds of war faded as that quiet, simple fact settled into Vex's mind...He looked at Saracen and Skulduggery, his friends, his brothers, and although they had history that would hold them together forever, he could feel the bonds between them start to loosen, and fall away. Suddenly Saracen Rue looked old and tired, and Skulduggery Pleasant came into focus as what he really was—a genius, a killer, a tortured soul, and the only truly dead man among them."
  • Ghastly and Anton's murder by Ravel.
    • Fletcher's reaction to Ghastly's death was utterly heartbreaking, especially considering how supportive Ghastly was.
  • Cassandra's second vision and Valkyrie's reaction to it. Desmond demands that Darquesse let Valkyrie go and Darquesse incinerates the whole family. Then Darquesse kills Skulduggery.
    Skulduggery: I made a promise.
    Darquesse: Until the end.
    Skulduggery: That's right. Until the end.
  • There is something highly depressing about Skulduggery calling Stephanie, "Valkyrie".
    Skulduggery: Stephanie, go home. You can't help us anymore. If we fail, you'll need to protect your family.
    Stephanie:No, I can-
    Skulduggery: I don't have time to argue. Valkyrie, please, for once in your life, do what I say.
    Stephanie: I'm not Valkyrie.
  • The entire conversation between Skulduggery and China at the end of Last Stand of Dead Men, which is more or less a Dying Declaration of Love from China.
    Skulduggery: You did terrible things hundreds of years ago. So did I. I'm no hypocrite. I can't hate you any more than I hate myself.
    China: *laughs* Skulduggery, darling, you do hate yourself.
    Skulduggery: Nonsense. I love myself. I think I'm hilarious. And you're not going to die.
  • Beryl, in tears, mentioning that Crystal thinks there's something wrong with Carol. Worse, it's implied that Fergus has figured out the rough outline of it, as she mentions that he's been obsessively reading and rereading Gordon's books - which, while they changed the details of events, are in their mechanics an accurate depiction of the magical world by an extremely diligent researcher. Given how common knowledge reflections are, it's possible that they're mentioned.
  • The little hints that Gordon never really got over Melissa.
  • In the Friday Night Fights short story, all it takes is one sentence to reduce Valkyrie to a sobbing wreck. I wish Skulduggery was here. Moreover, she constantly hears him in her head, and feels like she's betraying him every time she goes against his advice.
  • Lord Vile's very existence. Created from Skulduggery's Despair Event Horizon (which was actually orchestrated in an attempt to turn him into the Death Bringer) turning the great hero into an omnicidal maniac. "The Last Stand of Dead Men" reveals that the most horrifying mission for Skulduggery's closest friends was when Vile showed up and murdered a huge number of the mages they were with and then used their corpses to try and kill the rest. The few that survived were broken by it and Skulduggery remembers the whole thing. Even worse because Darquesse is that powerful Skulduggery has to rely on the part of himself he has nothing but shame and hatred for in order to save Valkyrie's life.
  • Landy tends to commit the most heart wrenching examples of Jossing any attempts at romance that there is. Tanith and Ghastly look like they're about to get together. Tanith gets permanently possessed (by the same remnant that took great delight in torturing her), dates Billy-Ray leaving Ghastly heartbroken and everyone reeling. Worse the two are still in love and look like they might over come this massive obstacle until Ravel betrays and murders Ghastly. Then the remnant is gone and Tanith essentially wakes up to find out the truth.
    • After books of teasing as to Skulduggery and China we have the requiem ball where the two seem to be heading towards a future together except Skulduggery finds out that China was the one who betrayed his family to Serpine and is responsible for their deaths and hates her. It's later heavily implied that China did so because she was in love with Skulduggery and was maddened by her jealousy and apologises while attempting to put right her wrongs
  • The ending to The End of the World. Ryan was just a fake personality created by Deacon, who finds out the truth and nevertheless spends the last few hours of his existence saving the world, and he reverts back after receiving a kiss from Valkyrie. What makes it all the worse is that the entire story has been from Ryan's perspective, which blends into Deacon's, and the gear-shift from 'genuinely decent kid' to 'cowardly sleaze-ball' is all the more heartbreaking. Valkyrie and Skulduggery's Tranquil Fury when telling Deacon to get lost is just the icing on the cake.
  • Stephanie's death in The Dying of the Light. She's not everyone's favourite character by a longshot, but she's been steadily growing into a better person, her own better person, and her last thoughts are of desperation to get back to the people that she loves. To add salt in the wound, the last thing she hears Fletcher say is that he isn't sure if he loves her because she's her own person, or if she's a carbon copy of Valkyrie. To drive it home even further, they find her body and realise just how close she was, what she heard. Fletcher teleports away and Valkyrie breaks down in tears.
  • Remnant free Tanith finds out about Ghastly.
  • The Second Test. Skulduggery's reaction to seeing his wife and child again. When he sees his wife, it's flat out denial. When he sees his child...damn. Fletcher sums it up best.
    Suddenly Fletcher didn't want to be seeing this. He didn't want to be seeing this at all.
  • Before his marvelous display of Loophole Abuse, Valkyrie's reaction to Skulduggery going to turn off the Accelerator was fairly gut wrenching.
  • Darquesse erases Gordon from the Echo Stone.
  • Clarabelle bursting into tears at the thought of Scapegrace and Thrasher leaving her. Scapegrace hugs her.
  • It's subtle, but Skulduggery starts rambling when he loses the hat that Ghastly made him in The Dying of the Light.
  • Melancholia's absolutely devastated reaction to Valkyrie telling her that she'll be freed but her magic will be blocked and her memory will be modified.
  • Thrasher's Disney Death, especially the part where Scapegrace asks him to call him by his first name.
  • Finbar being forced to kill the mercenary who'd kill him and Sharon. The short speech is the perfect blend between Sadness and Beware the Nice Ones. Doubles as a Moment of Awesome.
    "You're an evil man for making me do this. I hope you burn in whatever hell you believe in."
  • Valkyrie's breakdown after she kills Ajouga and the full weight of everything she's experienced falls upon her. Mentally in a very bad place, away from support, with only Darquesse for company, intent on pushing Valkyrie further over the edge, and Valkyrie can't fight her effectively because she's fighting Brides of Blood Tears at the same time.
  • Skulduggery describing the Jitter Girls when they were in a mental hospital and how their parents used to come and sing lullabies while they were screaming and out of their minds.

From Series 2:

  • Valkyrie's hallucinations of Ghastly and Sanguine in Bedlam.
    • The narration even uses Sanguine's first name.
  • Skulduggery killing the soldiers in Bedlam as they're being burned alive.
  • Valkyrie talking to Future!Alice.
  • Saracen's death. Bitten during a routine skirmish with Draugr, his magic allows him to survive for a few more weeks, providing them time to reunite with Valkyrie, who's new powers might be able to cure him. Valkyrie is captured and unable to meet up with them until long after his death.
    • The moment itself is just as bad as the build-up. Vex says he's tired of the food they're stuck with and drags Saracen out to go hunting.
    Dexter returned later that night.
  • In the Leibniz Universe, Valkyrie manages to bond with an enemy solider named Assegai, and joins her in killing Draugr attacking mortals to let off steam. Unfortunately she gets a harsh reminder of how mortals are treated in that world, and Assegai casually slaughters them as well. Their friendship doesn't make it much further.
  • Mevolent of all people proves Even Evil Has Loved Ones, allowing himself to be frozen in the Eternity Gate with the alternate universe version of his dying wife, locked in her final moments.
  • When Skulduggery and Valkyrie meet up with Omen's teach Uther Peccant, the man is somehow more antagonistic than usual and, more surprisingly, Skulduggery doesn't bite back. While it's hinted that they have a shared history that Uther is angry about, in reality they're estranged brothers, with Uther being his oldest sibling, resenting him for getting three of their siblings captured by their God of Evil father, and blaming Skulduggery for Ghastly's death. While there's still a familial love between them, and when Skulduggery first mentions him (not by name), he clearly deeply respects him, Uther clearly wants nothing to do with Skulduggery and when they're together he refuses to let Skulduggery hide his mistakes.


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