Tear Jerker / The Silverscale Arena

Due to the nature of this fanfic, a lot of mourning will be had over these Arenas. Even outside of it, there's still strife. Unmarked spoilers below!

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General

• Any character's death can become this if you were particularly invested in that character.
• Anyone who returns for an Arena only to die once more, especially if they managed to make it pretty far since it means that they might participate in a future Arena and most likely die once again.

Season 1

December 2020

• Throughout the fic, we get hints that this version of Megatron may be a brutal Blood Knight who makes no bones about how he handles things, but he is also TIRED. He's very clearly distraut by how many Decepticons have died for his war, advising Lilith not to make the same mistake.
  • It's also made clear that he has traits from his IDW self. Namely, being forced to mine away due to the corrupt system of Functionism. Given the stern and even intense way he reprimands Lilith for her Suicidal Pacifism, the system left enough scars for him to be be VERY adamant nobody suffers by it again. His Motive Rant illustrates this nicely.
  • After Lilith's death, we have THIS lovely description of his current life:
    Picture this.

    You’ve been doing the same job over and over again for Primus-knows how many years and you only enjoyed it for the first five. You never had a weekend. You were betrayed more times than you were befriended. You were locked into a coma in the middle of the sea after witnessing the death of your race literally explode in your face because of a friend-turned-eternal enemy. In that coma, you spent all of it being tormented by your failures. You’re so averse to the mere concept of relaxation, you hired Gigatron to a position of power, which is like sharing office space with a hungry alligator who is somehow also a more intelligent and spiteful Donald Trump.

    And THEN...the moment you’re allowed at least a few days out of those many years where you can not just relax, but enjoy life as you know it, it all gets torn away from you, because the universe doesn’t think you deserve anything, after all of the sacrifices you made. What do you do?

    You don’t get sad. You don’t cry. You certainly don’t give up. You steel yourself. You get even. You get angry. You search fruitlessly for an entire day for the one who did this to you and you will not stop until you have that perpetrator’s head on a pike.

    And what after? You remember your original goal. You pretend to those around you that you are not fettered, even if the loss if hurting like Hell deep down. You should be used to it, but you never are. You just feel so tired. But you have to keep going. No matter what. Because it’s all you know how to so much as live a minute.

    This is what it's like to be Megatron. Forever.
• Lilith having to confront that she might have to kill to ensure the safety of her friends back at home. She admits to Megatron she's worried, due to the nature of her powers, she'll descend into something horrible. Thankfully, he's willing to snap her out of that by confiding in his own philosophy, turning this into a Heartwarming moment.
• At the beginning of Chapter 6, the remaining teams take a moment to reflect on the losses of their teammates. While Knotz and Clif are more concerned about the beating they got from Baskerra, Sean Bean's just glad to have survived for as long as he has, Megatron and Lilith's scene of mourning of Ed is followed by Megaton signing to Lilith to cheer her up, and Dracula not caring about anyone else, the others take their losses hard:
• Veigar is clearly devastated by the death of River, whom he's grown attached to throughout the fanfic. It's to the point where when he asks to team up with Mina and Samalla (who themselves are mourning the loss of Ripley), he has none of the bravado in his tone that he usually has.
• As Pete and Fisto are in a campfire, Pete talks about how at least they have each other... right before he turns around and see that Fisto was killed by Vlad's bats overrunning him.

  Pete: "Guess... it's just me now..."

• And Judy's reflecting on how she lost all of her teammates in that fight. It doesn't last long before Acererak possesses her. Kick the Dog at its finest.
• Lilith's death near the end. What makes it worse it that, while it's quick, we're given a Hope Spot where Megatron tanked the blast of the meteor that fell down on them both...only for the Dreamkeeper's body in his claws to slowly crumble to dust.
• The deaths of Mina and Veigar shortly after their team up causes Samalla to stop caring about anything, instead just focusing on winning the Arena. She's then unceremoniously run down by Megatron.

January 2021

• Veigar's death in the Bloodbath emotionally devastates River and she spends the rest of the Arena trying to avenge him.
• On the third night, the remaining contestants end up in the Rotten Vale. While most of them wake up with no issue, they find several others, including some of their teammates in the muck barely alive. before anyone can help them, a wall of smoke obscures their vision allowing the Vaal Hazak to eat them and The Batman Who Laughs. All the while the rest are forced to hear them get killed.
  • This includes Gotrek seeing the remains of Felix and Nicholas reduced to Berserker Tears after seeing a headless Horick among the undead.
  • And then after that, the Vaal Hazak has an undead army consisting of the recently felled contestants to attack the survivors, which causes several teams to put down some of their own teammates. It all ends when River uses her own body to pull a Mutual Kill on the beast, hoping she gets to see Veiger soon.
• After the Vaal Hazak fight, the remaining contestants are given a moment to let what happened sink in. While some of them get over it without much issue, others aren't as lucky:
  • Rox goes into a Troubled Fetal Position blaming herself for her teammates' deaths.
  • Malakai tries to lift Gotrek's spirits up, not that it seems to help much. There's also the implication that Gotrek has willingly kept some of the Effluvium inside him, hoping it'll put himself down at the loss of his friend..
  • When Sarah is crying over Shockwave and Zodd's deaths, Ed asks if she wants a hug in a dead serious tone.
  • Judy having to live with the knowledge that she's the last member of her team again.
  • Mami is also mourning the loss of her team, with the reasons she hasn't turned into a witch yet is because of Hibiki's words and seeing the strength she saw in Gotrek when he fought through the undead horde and came out unscathed. Not that her sanity improves much...
  • And Mila goes on a rampage while raiding Nicholas's camp after Taron's death. It gets to the point that Tilroo has to disorient her to stop her.
• During the Klendathu Drop Gotrek decides to stay behind and fight off the massive swarm. With Malakai having no choice but to leave him behind. At the very least, it's implied even among the Arachnids, he's died a glorious death.
• When Bardin and Bob are faced with a Tanker, Bob throws Bardin into the airship just before the Tanker melts Bob. The usually Skaven-hating dwarf is left confused and remorseful.
• Tilde is so close to escaping Klendathu along with her new allies, with Sarah reaching out...only for a Tanker to melt the Dragon Maid away graphically with acid..
• And then after that, Sarah witnesses Ed getting dragged out of the ship by Ridley and thrown into the horde.
• Sarah's sudden death by Ridley's tail through her back. It's mostly Nightmare Fuel, but it's still distressing to see her die in such a manner.

Season 2

Season 3