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Tear Jerker / What is a Person Worth?

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Considering what happens in What is a Person Worth?, you are likely to cry.


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    General 
  • In general, seeing just how strained Lincoln's relationship with his family has become. After giving them a big "The Reason You Suck" Speech in chapter 4, he runs away from home and refuses to see them again. In subsequent chapters, every accidental meeting with one of his sisters end badly, with another "The Reason You Suck" Speech. His thoughts also show that he Took a Level in Cynic and has become disillusioned towards his family, to the point that he barely remembers the good moments and can only remember the bad ones. Fortunately, things start to change in chapter 10.
  • Opposite Lincoln is Lynn coming to terms with the reality of what her actions have caused, and blaming herself for what has happened to her family. After having convinced even her most sensible siblings and her parents that Lincoln carried some sort of bad luck omen, he only continues to endure the abuse and neglect of his family to the point where in Chapter 4 he royally chews out Lynn for having let him take the fall for her superstitions, a confrontation that escalates into her striking her own brother, fighting him, and then wishing he'd never been born. Lynn immediately feels guilt for her actions once Lincoln runs away, and must also cope with her injuries from the fight. Having driven him away, she completely shuts down as she abandons her passion for sports, is plagued by constant nightmares of Lincoln over fears that he'll never forgive her, and sits drowning in her own sorrows to the point where she will no longer eat or sleep. It's bad enough to see someone so energetic and so passionate so completely broken to the point where her sisters no longer recognize her, but that her depression begins taking a serious toll on her health and that the only thing that will snap her out of it is earning back the love of the one person she is too scared to face. Fearing for her well-being, it takes the desperate efforts of all the sisters to get Lynn on the road to recovery, allowing her to find the courage to make things right with Lincoln. And by the end, despite having protected Lincoln literally until she couldn't move, Lynn still can't forgive herself, something the author has stated would be a major plot element in a possible sequel.
    • The recent launch of the sequel confirms that Lynn, a full two years after the bad luck incident is still wrestling with her guilt, and continues to hear the voice of her doppleganger inside her head, for which the family has considered seeking out therapy for her. Despite Lincoln and the rest of the family having long since forgiven each other, Lynn is so ashamed of what she caused that she has given up sports altogether, blaming her lifelong passion for having prompted her poor attitude towards Lincoln before the now-infamous fight. Even Lincoln and the family believe she's been too hard on herself, and it remains to be seen how Lynn finally comes to terms with this unpleasant episode of the past.

    Chapter by chapter 

  • Lincoln being forced to walk home in his squirrel suit after missing his bus. During this he is chased into the town dump by a band of bullies from a rival town who's baseball team had lost to Lynn's and wanted to take revenge on them by attacking Lincoln. When he gets there he is forced to defend himself against three vicious attack dogs, and against all odds he fights them off, but not before he accidentally kills one of them by knocking it into a pile of sharp metal. Lincoln is horrified that he was forced into such a situation and never actually wanted to kill the dogs ganging up on him. It is no wonder that Lincoln feels the rage he does after all of this has happened, and why he blames his family for the fact that it did.
  • His real breaking point however comes when he discovers all of the furniture from his bedroom burning in a pile in the junkyard after being told his stuff had been sold off. Lincoln feels understandably worthless after seeing his family's callous disregard for him and his own needs, and vows to put a stop to it the moment he gets home.

Chapter 4 Truths and Lies

  • The entire fight scene. To see such a large and loving family utterly ripped to shreds after days of oblivious mistreatment towards their child is a truly frightening and saddening sight to see. Lincoln has unleashed an entire lifetime of resentment upon both his parents and his siblings for numerous offenses that made him feel as if he was nothing but a burden to them, and it is the abuse endured during the "bad luck" debacle that finally proves too much for him to bottle up any longer. And when the one sibling who triggered it actually threatens him for having insulted her pride, he completely loses it.
  • The utter helplessness of the siblings and their parents to stop Lynn and Lincoln from completely demolishing each other, with Lily crying as things quickly escalate out of control. By the time anyone attempts to intervene, the damage has already been done.
  • Lynn's furious declaration to Lincoln proves to be the last straw for him. Instead of reacting with more blows, he accepts it as confirmation of his worst fears, and amid a swirl of anger and sadness, he runs away from home and out of sight. It's only after he leaves that Lynn realizes just how badly she's screwed up.
  • Luna's fury at her entire family, and herself as she has literally watched her brother run out of their lives due to them having neglected his needs and treated him with such little concern as they did over the entire "bad luck" affair. Her words towards Lynn are particularly scathing, and she immediately gives chase in a futile effort to protect Lincoln from coming to further harm.
    • What makes her trauma even worse is that just minutes before, Luna had finally come to understand what Lincoln was feeling and resolved to make things right with him before he came home a beaten, battered mess who had come within an inch of his life fighting some junkyard dogs trying to get home. Before she can make any effort to apologize to him, he is far from being in a forgiving mood by this point and proceeds to verbally rip them to shreds before things quickly turn violent.

Chapter 5 To Find A Loud

  • The sisters and their parents scouting about the neighborhood in their desperate search for Lincoln, each one of them eventually breaking down over how badly they've betrayed his trust. Crippled from the fight, Lynn is quickly overcome with guilt and Lola is quick to blame her for having pushed Lincoln too far. When the family must abandon their search efforts for the night, she and Luna are the most overcome with grief.
  • Lincoln crying his eyes out for everything that’s happened to him at that point, still bleeding and bruised on the curb of the Santiagos' street, much to the shock of Ronnie Anne and Bobby who quickly take him in and tend to his injuries. The siblings are rightfully horrified when they find out just how bad things had gotten at the Loud House before Lincoln felt he had no other choice but to run away.
  • Bobby not telling Lori about Lincoln's whereabouts also counts, as he knows that doing so only risks endangering his friend's well-being even more and that for his sake, he must lie to his own girlfriend. Already confronted with the terrible likelihood that Lori played a part in the abuse, it crushes Bobby to know that he must risk betraying her trust and possibly putting their relationship on the line in order to protect him.

Chapter 6 Making Tough Decisions

  • Lynn's first nightmare definitely qualifies, as things start off as a typical day at home with her looking for a partner to play ball with. Enjoying this as quality time with Lincoln, she goes inside to look for him; one by one, her sisters all tell her they have no idea who Lincoln is. Thinking it to be some kind of sick prank, Lynn goes to Lincoln's room, and is horrified when it turns out to be an ordinary linen closet. Panicking, she confronts Lisa on their brother's disappearance and gets the same answer......And the revelation that Rita miscarried eleven years ago before her child's gender was even identified before leaving Lynn to absorb this all alone. Already grief-stricken, she is confronted by a sinister look-alike who reminds Lynn of her wish that Lincoln had never been born; she then shows her a flashback of two-year old Lynn intentionally hitting Rita in the stomach with a ball while she was pregnant with Lincoln, leading to his death. Lynn is traumatized and agonizes over her actions as her doppelganger mocks her mercilessly, and is only snapped out of it by Lucy who heard the athlete screaming and crying in her sleep.

Chapter 7 Getting Your Point Across

  • Lucy is on the receiving end of a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Lincoln during a chance encounter with him at the school library, during which he reveals his bitterness over the Princess Pony incident among other things, and tells Lucy straight to her face that he doesn't feel he can trust her anymore. Normally emotionally withdrawn, Lincoln's words prove a lot for her to have to stomach and she desperately tries to convince Lincoln that she is sorry, only to be told her word alone isn't enough to make up for it. Before leaving her to think about her failure to stand up for him when it counted most, he warns her to make sure the others do not try to make him come home before he is ready, or he will call the police on their parents. Lucy is emotionally wrecked by the end of this conversation, not having a chance to explain how bad things were at the house since he left.
  • Lucy later sits the entire family down to reveal Lincoln's warning to them. Everyone is understandably terrified at the idea of the authorities stepping in, as it would mean Lynn, Sr. and Rita could face jail time and their children separated and spread out with their parents unable to care for them. Lori and Leni are even afraid they could be sent to juvenile hall for their part in the abuse. With Lincoln having made crystal clear he has no intention of returning unless it is on his terms, everyone is in such disbelief that they all leave the room to take it all in. Several of them, Lynn included are too shocked to even react.

Chapter 9 Finding Target Ace

  • Lynn becomes completely despondent in the wake of Lincoln's disappearance, and it is only after she is approached by Pop-Pop that she finally lets the tears flood out as she takes all the blame for having torn apart the family, and fears that she'll never see Lincoln again because of what she said; she even states that she deserved what happened to her leg before finally sobbing into Pop-Pop's arms. When she finally calms down, she is still much too afraid to try searching for her brother, let alone look at him again. Despite Pop-Pop's best efforts to console her she remains despondent, and things only get worse for her from there.

Chapter 10 An Act of Forgiveness

  • The girls watching Lisa's video feed of Lincoln sneaking into the house to collect his things before leaving with Ronnie Anne is tough to see, as they realize just how completely they've driven Lincoln from their lives. Lynn in particular does not take it well, taking full blame for having pushed Lincoln to this point. Even worse is the knowledge that even though they know he's nearby, visiting him is clearly out of the question as it may only drive him away further.
  • Lincoln and Clyde's entire fight with Chandler and his gang; it quickly escalates out of control when Lana intervenes after seeing Lincoln on the verge of being pummeled, only to be seized by the much larger boys and flung into a nearby lake where she suffers suffers several cuts and bruises. Lana is severely shaken by this and cries her eyes out as Chandler and his friends laugh at her. Seeing someone as tough and determined as Lana humiliated like this is a very unsettling sight, and Lincoln is so infuriated by this that he proceeds to absolutely destroy Chandler and his gang before rushing to his little sister's side.

Chapter 13 Making Claims

  • Lynn's fear of Lincoln in chapter 13 and how badly she kicks herself for being too cowardly to attempt an apology is pretty painful, especially since she might be unconsciously starving herself and avoiding getting enough sleep to punish herself. To say nothing of the mixed emotions Lincoln would probably feel if he found out that she was doing something that could cause her permanent harm since the story has demonstrated that while Lincoln is furious over his family's behavior and wants nothing to do with them, he doesn't want them to get hurt.

Chapter 14 Internal Pain

  • Lucy finally confronting Lynn on her behavior when she again refuses to come down to dinner, expressing her fear that the sister she knew is slipping away and has shouldered too much of the blame for the family's falling out with Lincoln. Still rattled from having run into Lincoln, Lynn feels that the guilt she feels is fully deserved and truly believes she will never earn Lincoln's forgiveness. She stands by this even after Lucy forces her to look at herself in the mirror; even Lynn no longer recognizes herself, with even Lucy saying she was becoming "more like her". Lucy does her best to convince Lynn that they all share in the blame, and that she can't bear to watch her older sister suffer. This heart-to-heart finally convinces Lynn to come down and eat, much to Lucy's relief, but it sadly proves to be only a brief reprieve for Lynn.

Chapter 15 A Not So Family-Friendly Discussion

  • Chapter 15's Nightmare Sequence has completely broken Lynn in a way nothing else has and the only person who can snap her out of her self-loathing is Lincoln who wants nothing to do with her.

Chapter 16 Three's Company

  • Luan's breakdown after Lincoln deconstructs her April Fool's Day antics is quite heartbreaking, in-universe and out.

Chapter 17 Upping The Ante

  • Lori is finally forced to resort to the worst and forcefully injects Lynn with a serum provided by Lisa to help her fall to sleep. Terrified of experiencing further nightmares, Lynn attempts to justify her behavior but Lori isn't having it, very clearly afraid that if Lynn continues to waste away in her sulking that it might come to a point from which she'll never fully recover. The younger sister attempts to fight her off, but is so weak from the lack of food and sleep that Lori easily overpowers her. Forced into submission, Lynn is brought to tears and begs Lori not to make her experience any more nightmares, pleading to be let go even after she is injected. She finally passes out, but Lori is clearly not proud of this and fears for what will happen if Lisa's treatment doesn't work. Thankfully, as far as her physical health goes, it does.

Chapter 21 New Perspective

  • Lynn's breakdown in Chapter 21 where she admits all her faults is pretty sad to read, even if it was necessary.
  • Lucy's poem book for Lincoln, which he reads aloud in front of herself, Lynn and his friends before finally breaking down and forgiving his younger sister. Everyone is on the verge of tears after hearing Lucy's heartfelt apology to her brother; even Ronnie Anne nearly loses it.

Chapter 22 Damaged Relationships

Chapter 25: A Sibling's Worth

Chapter 26: Epilogue

  • This chapter, the story catches up with the show in removing Marcus Santiago from the family; by killing him off! First Marcus Santiago is involved in a severe car crash and eventually succumbs to his injuries. Then, due to losing their father/husband, the other Santiagos are forced to leave Royal Woods and move in with the Casagrandes.
    • The blow is softened, though, by the fact that Mr. Santiago is alive and well in canon, as this chapter had been written before the press release revealing his continued existence. Despite this, the author decided to keep Marcus dead in the sequel.
  • Lynn still hasn't forgiven herself for the way she treated Lincoln despite having protected him nearly to the cost of her life. The author hints that a possible sequel, if it happens, would involve delving more deeply into this.

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