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Tear Jerker / SPY×FAMILY

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  • Twilight's driving incentive to keep doing spy work, and what inspires him to keep Anya, is his own backstory as a war orphan. He was left completely alone and helpless, surrounded by nothing but rubble and corpses, crying out for help that was not coming. Knowing that such a professional and competent person was, at one point in his life, even more helpless than his own child is harrowing. Even in the present day, this trauma drives everything he does, even when he's not consciously aware of it: when Murdoch hurls verbal abuse towards Yor and Anya, and the latter cries, it's enough to trigger him to try to punch Murdoch in the face before he even realizes what he's doing.
  • Mission 1, Anya's fear that Loid/Twilight might go so far as to harm her if he learns of her telepathic abilities. A situation both frightening, and heartbreaking.
    Anya: If he finds out I do telepathy, he'll make me leave...
  • In Mission 2, Franky lists all the unrealistic and ridiculous requirements Loid requires of a wife for this mission, and Anya can't help but overhear that one of these is not minding that Loid already has a child. Upon hearing this, she shyly pokes her head up from the side of the couch and asks if she's a burden who's "keeping the mommies away". Fortunately, Loid gives her a reassuring pat on the head and tells her everything's fine, but it's definitely an unpleasant thought for a child to grapple with that may hit a bit too close to home for some.
  • In Mission 4, Murdoch's harassment of Anya, climaxing in his answer of whether she loves her birth mother or Yor more, causes Anya to break down crying at the mere topic of her birth mother (whose identity and condition we still know nothing about).
    Anya: Mo...mmy? Mommy...
    • Why does the mere mention of Anya's mother cause such a devastating response from Anya? Because being as young as she is and only ever having known the lab and a succession of orphanages and failed adoptions until now, she's never even thought about the fact that, rationally, she must have had a real mother at some point... and realising it for the first time, Anya also realises that she doesn't even know who she is.
  • Anya breaking down in tears under the pressure of failing her dad and dooming the mission (and thus the world) while hearing all the mean things the other kids think about her is truly heartbreaking, even In-Universe.
  • In episode 12 of the show, when Anya tries to sneak into Loid's bedroom she's snatched by the collar and angrily berated by Loid, which causes her to burst into tears and threaten to run away. While it's eventually played for laughs and ends on a heartwarming note with Loid and Yor playing with Anya's stuffies to make her feel better, it's a grim reminder that while the trio is getting closer, they still largely consider themselves a "fake" family and they have not dropped all their barriers yet.
  • The Bad Future Anya saw through Bond, triggered by a flash of a happy family union being replaced by Anya and Yor looking despondent: a bomb went off which killed Loid, and Anya was the one to find his body underneath the rubble.
  • Handler reveals to Twilight that she used to have a daughter Anya's age. Combined with her War Is Hell speech, you can easily imagine what happened to her daughter. She gives a notably sad, wistful smile as she remarks how thankful she is that today's events ended peacefully.
  • A surprising one for Damian. During a phone call with one of his family's servants, the servant adds in after some noticeable hesitation that his father was concerned about his health after he was informed that Damian was punched during his first day of school. Damian privately calls his servant a liar because his father couldn't care less about his well-being.
  • Nightfall has been in love with Twilight for a long time, yet due to her being on a mission she missed her chance of being his wife for Operation Strix. The fact that Twilight seems to genuinely care for Yor as his "wife" just makes it even harder on her.
  • One of the first things Donovan talks about when he makes his first full appearance is how he considers everyone, even his own children, strangers and as a result he can't afford them any sympathy. He says this while Damian is standing right next to him.
  • It's often Played for Laughs, but the Running Gag where Anya imagines Loid randomly abandoning her after divorcing Yor paints a clear picture of how terrified she is of losing her newfound family and home. Even being put in real danger doesn't scare her half as much as the thought of being alone again - this is showcased as early as Mission 1, where despite getting a masterclass lesson on exactly the kind of mortal peril that comes with being Loid's daughter, she clings to him after he (in disguise) told her to leave, saying that she wants to go home with him more than anything.
  • In Mission 62.1 and 62.2, we finally see the context behind that early image of Twilight as a child crying among some bombed-out ruins. It was the result of Ostania bombing the city he lived in when they invaded Westalis, and he lost his childhood friends and mother to the destruction.
    • As his mother drags him away from the rubble, Twilight cries that he can't go to live with his great-uncle, because he still has school and the town fair. Eventually, the enormity of what has happened to Luwen settles in, and he's curled up in a corner thinking about how adults are liars (and so is he), in a heartbreaking echo to Anya's Running Gag of "X's a liar."
    • After fleeing Luwen to Kielberg to try and escape the bombing, some months later Twilight gets caught up in another air raid. Well-meaning bystanders sweep him up to take him into a shelter, but he is so scared that he bursts out of the shelter even as the bombing continues, running home screaming for his mother. He finds her corpse in the rubble. His screams of grief fill the screen, and with no one left to provide for him, the years that followed were hellish. As Twilight narrates, all that was left in his world were the things he hated, making it easy for him to pick up a gun and become a soldier in the war as soon as he was old enough to at least somewhat pass for an 18-year-old.
    • Mission 62.3 drives the knife even further in by revealing that his childhood friends survived the bombing of Luwen, only to be shipped out the day after they reunite for what was an ill-conceived mission and actually die for real.
  • Anya's general desperate need not to be abandoned, having been the result of human experimentation, having no parents, and repeatedly returned from foster care. She seems to think of herself as partially an item to be bought and sold, even saying that she's a "good bargain".
    • Mission 1: She cries and shakes him as Loid faints (out of happiness and relief after she got into Eden College), pleading with him not to leave, and promising to be good if he comes back.
    • Mission 2: At the tailor, she fears that she's getting measured to be sold. Loid's response that if she behaves, she wouldn't get sold isn't exactly reassuring, though even the hardened superspy had to pause and wonder where a child learned about human trafficking.
  • That Japanese Man Yuta pointed out that Anya refers to Loid and Yor as "chichi" and "haha", which is technically incorrect because these are the words used when you talk to other people about your mom and dad. A commenter realized that this means Anya has no context about how to talk about her own parents, only about other people's dads and moms, since she had none before the Forgers. Additionally, she often speaks in an imperative, forceful form, and addresses herself in the third person, because she may well have learned Japanese (or whichever language Westalians and Ostanians actually speak) from the words, manners, and thoughts of the scientists around her, as well as the foster homes she was returned from, and the orphanage, where people were all less than kind to her.
  • Mission 55: Yor was reluctant to accept Olga's offer to hug her baby Gram farewell with her literally bloodstained hands, only to relent when the latter reminded her that it's because she stained her hands with blood that the little boy now has a chance to grow up. When Director Mathew observes her lovingly nuzzling the baby's cheeks and her visible sadness at the mother and son departing into the sunrise, he coldly reminds her of how undeserving it is for professional murderers to desire domestic happiness:
    Do not be given to sentiment: we are disposabe pawns on the chessboard of history, nothing more.
  • Mission 70: The shots of the bus filled with sobbing, sniffling, terrified children. Their thoughts overwhelm Anya: wanting to go home, calling out for help, and crying for their parents. It all culminates in a disoriented Anya wobbling in her chair as Becky tries to get her to stay strong. Damian sees Anya's distress from a seat over and gets upset as well.
  • Mission 71: While Damian was very brave in volunteering to save Anya from the collar, he gets his own for the trouble. This sends him into a panic, crying, fearing that he'll get his head blown off, calling for his (neglectful) parents in his mind, so scared that he feels he might have a Potty Failure. Anya stops it by holding his hand and comforting him.
    • Yuri's Imagine Spot of how Yor would react to Anya's death is absolutely heartbreaking. As much as Yuri might hate Loid, even he can't deny how close his sister is to the little girl.
  • Mission 73: The opening is heart-wrenching. Billy was stretching the truth about his daughter and himself being Red Circus operatives - Billy's daughter, Biddy, was, and believed that her ideals and the ability to criticize what was wrong in Ostania were worth dying for, but Billy himself was just a civilian warning his daughter not to get involved in dangerous protests. Biddy died at the hands of the state, loyal to the end to her ideals, and this utterly breaks Billy Squire. It finally starts to make sense why a hardened terrorist like him draws the line at executing children.
    • Even more chilling is the fact that Biddy got off light by comparison. The man who recovered her body, broken and spotted with blood as it was, noted that Billy was lucky - most families couldn't even get the bodies of their children following the deaths of the Red Circus protestors, implicitly because there wasn't enough left of the bodies to recover, or they were buried in unmarked graves.
  • Come Mission 75, we see that for all her courage, the trauma of what she's gone through does eventually catch up to Anya: she begins to break down and sob even as she tries to claim she's okay, before bawling in her mother's arms. Also, as the other children are being happily reunited with their parents, Yor tells Damian that she saw his mother being driven to the scene, and Melinda runs over to him as soon as she arrives. Anya reads her thoughts and listens that she's so happy her son is safe. Yet when Damian asks her not tell his father that he cried during the ordeal, she gladly tells him she won't, but the mention of Donovan triggers what is essentially a schizophrenic reaction. Although Melinda acts lovingly on the outside, further mind probing reveals how conflicted she actually is about Damian, alternating between wanting to love him dearly for being her son, and then absolutely hating him for being a burden and curse on her. Given the mention of Donovan is what starts these thoughts, this hate may be due to Damian being sired by Donovan, which indicates that Melinda may feel trapped in a loveless marriage... or worse.
    • Before Melinda's arrival, there's a brief moment between Anya and Damian as they watch their classmates' parents come pick them up until it's down to just the two of them. Once again, the conversation leads to Damian accusing Anya of wanting to befriend him just to get in his family's good graces... but unlike before, he no longer rebukes her out of haughtiness, but confesses that he thinks he's not even worth sucking up to, given the cold and loveless treatment he receives from his own family. The fact that such a young, innocent boy has already developed a lonely, cynical and self-deprecating outlook in life is a saddening sight in and of itself, but the worst part? His assessment is mostly correct (and then some), given how little his father regards him period, how cold and distant his brother is toward him, and the complicated feelings his mother has toward him.
  • In Mission 78, Sylvia is awakened by her dog after she oversleeps when she turns off her alarm clock and it's shown that she lives in an filthy apartment and wears clothes that smell or look dirty, and after she gets the intel reports and debriefs the agents on their assignments, she gets into an argument with her superior about how her workstation is a mess. When she gets back home she acknowledges that her apartment is a filthy mess, and notes that she used to live in a cleaner, tidier apartment but living alone makes a person not care about cleanliness. This thought causes her to reminisce, the memories manifesting as a phantom image of her late husband and daughter, full of joy before the war.
  • Short Mission 11 as a whole is a subtle one. First, with the special illustration in Anya's old orphanage: Anya is standing alone in a barren corridor, facing away from the viewer, looking at the orphanage doors. There are worn toys and trash littering the floor. The colors are grey and muted. Then, in the chapter itself, it is revealed that Anya has misspelled her own name in the sign for her room at the start. After Loid points this out, Anya has a sudden look of realization. The last shot of the mini-chapter is the usually-cheerful Anya laying on her bed and staring into space, then saying her own name out loud as if she is telling herself something. Without a lot of drama, this chapter highlights Anya's bleak past and fractured identity. It's clear that, even at her young age, Anya has a lot of secrets, and they are very unlikely to be happy ones.
  • In Mission 91, the employees of the Berlint City Hall are asked to volunteer for a yearly event honoring wounded veterans at a local park. As Camilla gripes that she has to do manual labor, and the others do their part the best they can, Millie is more hesitant, and both Camilla and Sharon tell her that just showing up is progress, and when Yor asks if Millie feels sick, she's told that the event reminds her of the fact that her father was killed during the war. Later, when Millie gets into an argument with the Lady Patriots, the organizers of the event, Melinda Desmond - who is also a member of the Lady Patriots - shows up and stops one of the other members from slapping Millie, and after Yor and Melinda warmly greet each other, Millie blames Donovan for starting the war and getting her father killed, only to be corrected by the Director that the war was started by Donovan's predecessor. However, Melinda adds that it was her husband that kept the war going for as long as it did, and apologizes to Millie for her father's death, and acknowledges that were her husband or children killed she too would feel resentment toward whoever was responsible.
  • Chapter 93 introduces Damien's big brother, Demetrius. It soon becomes clear there's something very wrong with him, from having his father's perpetual Thousand-Yard Stare and apparently being so emotionally dead inside that Anya has trouble reading him apart from occasional recognitions that he has no idea how the people around him think or anything resembling emotional context. And it's shown that he wasn't born like this, he used to have the same emotional range as Damien - and he's already this broken as a middle schooler. Just what happened to the poor kid?
  • Mission 95 gives a more comprehensive view of the rest of the students in Anya's class and other classes in her age group, and some of these kindergarteners/primary schoolchildren behave in troublingly grown-up ways. They make snide and classist remarks, jockey for power, and cosy up to interesting (Anya) and powerful (Damian, Becky) classmates to serve their families' interests. Anya and Damian are the only ones reacting most childishly and naturally for their ages. The goings-on at the event look like they belong better with a cast of young adults. Similar to much of history, it seems children in Ostania - at least those born to the elite, like the princes and princesses of old - are not allowed to actually have an innocent childhood.

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