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Tear Jerker / Sweet Home (2017)
aka: Sweet Home

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     Webcomic 

Sweet Home (2017)

  • Cha Hyun's backstory is nothing short of heartbreaking. Once upon a time, he was a very popular and brilliant student that had a loving relationship with his parents and sister, as he was their pride and joy. One day, for no reason at all, a wealthy classmate decides to ruin Hyun's life by socially excluding him. It's implied that the bully, Daon Kim used his wealth and family influence to turn his classmates against him and get his close friends to abandon him. To make things even worse, Hyun received no support whatsoever from his family because the bully's father was the owner of the company Hyun's dad worked at. Even his little sister, Sua, distanced herself from him, to the point where she denied being related to him. Although his parents did talk to the school and the bully stopped picking on him after that incident, Hyun was still heavily traumatized and came out a different person. Hyun's breaking point, however, came when he saw the bully tell another student that if he jumped in front of a car, the bully would pay for his mom's surgery. Upon seeing this, Hyun got angry and pushed the bully in front of a passing car, which would have hit him if it did not stop in time. Hyun's father was subsequently fired. Additionally, the mother of the student who was supposed to jump in front of the car died, and even blamed Hyun for her death. No wonder Hyun is extremely anti-social and greatly resents his family at the start of the story.
  • In the flashbacks of Cha Hyun's backstory, we slowly piece together what type of person Cha Hyun's used to be and the trauma he went through that made him the person he is.
    • Chapter 3 showed a flashback of Cha Hyun's father angrily demanding to know who hurt his son and was angry at the suggestion of a settlement, but then when a mysterious person came in, he was shocked, and the flashbacks ended, it implied that he was threatening to take the settlement.
    • In the Chapter 5 flashback, we see Cha Hyun's beating the floor and bleeding while his bully is over him with a baseball bat in front of his classmates. The bully saw that Cha Hyun still had spirits, so he demanded that a student from the crowd watching come and continue the beating. The student with the glasses did not want to do it, but the bully asked if he was friends with Cha Hyun; the bully pointed out that the whole crowd, who looked both scared and ashamed, were all friends with Cha Hyun. The bully says that the student does not have to beat Cha Hyun if he does not want to, and he would not force him to do it. The bully then asks who you hang out with, implying that the student will be the next victim if he does not beat Cha Hyun. The flashback ended with the student raising the baseball bat and saying sorry.
      • But what makes this even more tragic is that the bully was right; we later learned that Cha Hyun was a popular, well-liked student who was always willing to help his classmates and friends. The crowd of students watching Cha Hyun being beaten was probably his friends and classmates he had helped in the past. Another thing that makes this very worse is that Cha Hyun's classmates were all afraid and horrified about what was happening to him; no one was indifferent or taking joy in his suffering; it was implied that the bully family was so powerful that he scared the classmates into doing nothing and forced them to watch him bully Cha Hyun and even join in. Imagine watching a friend who is always there for you be hurt by this bully for no reason and being forced to watch and do nothing because the bully's that powerful, and imagine being forced even to hurt your friend by that bully. It's easy to sympathize with Cha Hyun's classmates not being able to help their friend, and what's worse is that with Cha Hyun's Family stuff and him moving to the apartment building, it's unlikely that the classmates will ever see him or make amends with him, especially with the apocalypse in the story.
  • Jayhun's death. He goes down fighting a monster that he knows he can't damage because the only alternative is letting it kill everyone else on the first floor, and as he lays dying, right before he's killed, his last thoughts are of Jisu's smiling face, causing him to Go Out with a Smile.
  • Jay's final death. While they may have been a selfish Attention Whore, Hyun being forced to kill him despite his initially harmless appearance, combined with the flashes he gets of what they were like as a person, makes it a genuinely tragic death.
  • The Reveal of what happened to Hyuk and Eun's parents. Their mother died when they were children, and their father, determined to get their money back, left them in an orphanage to go work. At some point after that, he died as well, leaving the two of them alone in an orphanage with no one but each other.
  • The death of Dusik Hahn, one of the characters from the very beginning of the comic. After succumbing to his monster infection and blowing himself up along with several monsters, he manages to hold on long enough for Hyun to find him. The emotions caused by Hyun coming back for him when even his wife and son never did causes him to start crying, and his final words are trying to absolve Hyun of any blame he feels for whatever happened to his family. He then closes his eyes and dies, imagining his family coming back for him. There is no shortage of emotions throughout this comic, but this particular moment hits the hardest by far.
  • The ultimate ending of the series itself. Hyun gives his final wish to Jisu - for her to name her future song "Sweet Home" - before transforming into a monstrous knight version of his anime icon, Sir Ryan. Said monster saves the survivors from Monster Joon, but Hyun quickly loses his consciousness to the monster and it takes the Hyuk sacrificing himself by transforming to stop Hyun from slaughtering everyone. The series ends with about a handful of survivors left, all deeply saddened by the constant sacrifices of dear friends made to even escape the building. The Stinger also reveals that Hyun never gave in to his one true desire as a monster, and he is reborn as a Monster Human with some emotions left, crying profusely while listening to Jisu's song on a discarded MP3. It's sudden and abrupt and goes to show how powerful emotions really are in this setting.
    • Thankfully the Epilogue shows Hyun has survived his monsterization and meets up with Jisu and the survivors at a military base, and even is able to display emotions in his Human Monster state, including love for Jisu. While not as sad as the other examples are, the series ending on a happy note after everything and providing hope that Monsters and Monster Humans can potentially live peacefully should they not lose their emotions inspires a great deal of tear jerking hope and happiness for these tortured characters.

     Miniseries 

Sweet Home (2020)

  • Myeong-ja lost her baby in a traffic accident. In her first appearance, she's wheeling an empty pram around, thinking her baby is still in it. That alone is bad enough, but then Episode Three gives us a chilling flashback to the accident. In the flashback, she's standing beside a pram — a pram that's badly damaged and covered in blood. Then she comes back to reality... just before The Beefcake starts beating her up and almost kills her.
  • Jin-ok's daughter's death. She's spent the entire time during the initial breakout worried for her safety, and then, just when her daughter appears and is about to run into the apartment and they'll be reunited, the bloodsucking monster from the first night appears and kills her.
    • Soo-ung the soldier's death. After Jin-ok trips, he selflessly runs out to help her, only to be slaughtered as well.
    • Despite the fact that the situation was completely out of his hands, Jin-ok blames Eun-hyeok for her daughter's death. Although he manages to maintain his calm facade in front of the survivors, he's shown having a slight breakdown later on as he cleans Jin-ok and Soo-ung's blood from his glasses.
    • Later, Sook-yeong and Yeong-sook (who themselves watched their father die) break down crying as they hug Jin-ok.
  • Sun-young, the shopkeeper's wife, having to kill her husband when he turns. The worst part? Right before she deals the killing blow is the only time he ever apologized for beating her.
  • Right before Sun-young goes into isolation, she sees Hyun and voices her remorse for letting him—a nineteen-year-old boy—go through the process of monsterification alone, even wishing she could've been there for him more. Neither of them leave with dry eyes.
    • After knowing that Hyun's parents died without apologizing to him for the bullying he'd experienced, you just know that her apology means the entire world to Hyun.
  • Jae-heon's death. One of the monsters gets into the part of the building where the survivors are gathered. Jae-heon fights it, losing an arm in the process, and drives it back into the lift. He then screams for someone to throw a Molotov Cocktail at both of them, while still fighting the monster as the survivors watch in horror. Eventually, Eun-hyuk has no other choice but to do it himself.
    • It's a testament to how nice of a person Jae-heon was that everybody is openly sobbing, but especially Hyun, who clearly blames himself for having been unable to warn them in time.
  • Jae-heon's funeral. When Ji-su sees his grave, all she can do is collapse in the next room and sob as she remembers the last time they ever spoke.
    Jae-heon: I'm scared and nervous. And I know it's crazy to say in a situation like this, but I do think I should say it. I want to be with you, Ji-su.
    Ji-su: Is that God's will, too?
    Jae-heon: No. It's my will.
    • Keep in mind that her last boyfriend died as well. The poor girl clearly thinks she's cursed by that point.
  • Sang-wook visiting Jae-heon's grave with the bottle of soju they'd planned on sharing.
    Sang-wook: Jung Jae-heon ... drink all you want. (pours the entire bottle over Jae-heon's grave)
  • Ji-eun's sudden death at the hands of the gangsters.
  • Sun-young being shot, execution-style, by Shin Ju-seop. As if to twist the knife in further, Eun-hyuk is Forced to Watch as she is murdered, and being The Leader, he clearly thinks the entire thing is his fault.
    • When she revives briefly as a monster, she clearly doesn't recognize friend from foe anymore, and attempts to stab Eun-hyuk, who doesn't even move out of the way ... only for Hyun to shield him and kill her himself, apologizing tearfully the entire time.
    • To make matters worse, she only had five more days to go before she could be cleared to live amongst the survivors once more.
    Sun-young: What's five more days compared to the thirty years of horror I've lived?
    • Even though it's revealed later on that it wasn't actually Sun-young, but Ui-myeong pretending to be her, the sight of the gangsters setting her corpse on fire is still a massive tearjerker, especially for the survivors who had grown quite close to her.
  • The Season 1 finale is full of these:
    • Yeong-sook sobbing when the other survivors kill the green slime monster that saved his life, leading to an argument with his sister. Made worse when it's revealed that he had been hoping the monster was their father, come back in monster form because he missed his children.
    • Byung-il dying after he shields Hye-in's body from Ui-myeong's bullets:
    Byung-il: (smiles) I told you I was a man of action.
    Du-sik: It's not your fault, Hyun-su-yah. It's okay. It's okay. You're going to be okay.
    • The fact that Du-sik was so worried about turning, only for it to be revealed that since a monster's final form is what they most desire, the only thing that even changed about his appearance was the fact that his legs were working again.
    • When Hyun-su awakens after his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Ui-myeong, he finds himself unable of recognizing who Du-sik is. However, when he attempts to touch the old inventor's corpse, he briefly remembers their relationship, starting from when Du-sik invited him into his home and gave him his signature weapon. And when he speaks, Hyun sounds so much like a lost little kid that you just want to give the poor boy a hug.
    Hyun: Who ... who is he? Why am I crying? My heart ... it hurts so much.
    • The death of Gil-seob. He's just resolved a dispute between the children by encouraging them to stick together before passing away the next day as the kids tearfully plead with him to get up. When the survivors find that he'd uncovered a doorway to an underground tunnel network, Eun-hyuk tells Gil-seob that he can rest peacefully now.
      • Just the fact that Gil-seob never finds out what happened to Yu-ri, although that in itself might be a small mercy, considering how fond he was of her.
    • The deaths of Yu-ri and Sang-wook. As both of them lie wounded, Yu-ri worries that the last thing she'll remember is how she killed a person. Sang-wook pleads with her not to think about it, and reassures her again that what she killed was no longer a person. The two pass away holding hands.
      • Keep in mind that the reason they were trying to leave in the first place was because Yu-ri's asthma was getting so bad, her inhaler couldn't even help her anymore. Ui-myeong pretending to let them leave before shooting at them was just extra cruelty from the writers.
      • At least Jae-heon and the others got semi-decent graves. Yu-ri and Sang-wook die a few feet away from the compound in the wreckage of a totaled car.
    • Eun-yu realizing Eun-hyuk was lying to her about returning when she remembers his words about promises and starts screaming at the other survivors to let her go back for him before the building is shot down.
      • After an entire season of Eun-yu treating him coldly, she finally breaks down here and starts calling him "Oppa! (Big brother!)" again.
    Eun-hyuk: When someone is sure of keeping a promise when it's hardly possible, there's a very good chance that it's a lie.
    • Eun-hyuk sitting alone in the control room as his little sister screams for him. He puts on her headphones to block out her voice, and stares happily at the family photo she'd hidden in her Walkman as the building crumbles down around him.
      • Earlier on, while talking with Yi-kyung, Eun-hyuk states that the idea of a safety camp is completely ridiculous because having too many people in one area, any of whom could turn at any moment, is even more dangerous. With The Reveal that he had started to turn, he was probably thinking of the danger he posed to their group and had been planning on leaving them when the first symptoms of his monsterification appeared.


Alternative Title(s): Sweet Home, Sweet Home 2020

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