Tear Jerker / SF Debris

Star Trek

• In his third 'phase' of VOY reviews — the others comprising his early YouTube videos and the re-uploads tailored to Janeway as a cosmic fascist—he's begun to go easy on the VOY crew. In "Workforce Part II", he reminds viewers that "Evil" Janeway is but one of two interpretations of Janeway's character, and takes a minute to soliloquize on the scope of Janeway's plight:
  "People have their limits, period. Picard had his in "Family", or Sisko had his in "Emissary". Given the choice between watching your crew die one after the other—year after year—with home still decades away and a self-imposed isolation, or thinking that she could've resigned and taken a job on Earth with a husband and a pile of dogs, well... There's a lot of days where the former makes the latter look pretty damn good."
• After his review of "Dear Doctor", Chuck shows a clip on Benjamin Sisko from "In the Pale Moonlight" where he says that saving a huge number of people is worth a guilty conscience...and then a clip of Phlox from Dear Doctor saying how Captain Archer now has his respect for letting an entire species die.
• Janeway refusing to listen to Seven's request to save her father, who she's just reunited with in "Scorpion Part II".
• His coda for Enterprise in his review of "These Are the Voyages...". Going out of his way to point out that the excuses fans made over the years don't justify the series's quality because the issue was in the leadership: Berman had too much control and refused to change the series to match the times and that when Manny Coto finally took over and updated the show to match the era, the damage was done. And at the end of it, pointing out that because it was Star Trek it had the guarantee of running for a few years while better shows (even deliberately singling out Braga's Threshold series) didn't get one.
• The ending of his review of "Survival Instinct" where he laments how good Voyager could have been if the rest of the series did like this episode and made good use of it's characters, following up his monologue with a montage set to Disturbed's cover of "Sound of Silence".
• His review of "Endgame", the Voyager finale: he ends lamenting that the show had everything it needed to become a fantastic show, but never reached for it.
• At the end of his review of Star Trek Into Darkness, his lament of how mindless the film is and how much wasted potential it had.

Tributes

• Several of his tributes:
  • The tribute montage to TNG set to "Under Pressure" in the "All Good Things..." review.
  • The tribute for Data in Nemesis was much better then the movie allegedly gave to him.
  • The salute to the missing Doctor Who episodes, set to Paul Williams and The Muppets singing "Sad Song".
  • His dedication to the memory of Elisabeth Sladen at the end of the Seeds of Doom review.
  • The coda to his Star Trek: Generations review, a two-minute montage set to "Faithfully", that does more to honor the legacy of James T. Kirk then the entire film managed.
  • The coda to the Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" is a montage, set to "Say Something" by A Great Big World, of various beloved companions departing the Doctor's side.
  • His tribute to Leonard Nimoy set to "Baba Yetu".
  • His review of Code of Hero opens with a minute and a half long tribute to America's brave men and women in uniform and their sacrifices in defense of the ideals of the United States. Then it ends with Dinobot's death scored to "Eventide" by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, and the final salute: "For the fallen." Memorial Day is clearly deeply special to Chuck.
• The end of the Hogfather review, where he has an utterly beautiful soliloquy about Terry Pratchett's own appointment with the Reaper Man. It actually sounds like he's choking back tears at one point.
  • In his review of "Going Postal," he shows that this might be the case: He considers one of the greatest moments of his life the day he completed his collection of hardcover Discworld books, and still hasn't read the last Discworld book because he's terrified that once he puts it down, it'll all be over- there will never be another Discworld book to read.
• His somber reflection on the meaning of Veteran's Day in the Space: Above and Beyond episode "Sugar Dirt."
• The opening to the review of "Skin of Evil", set to "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan is a far more effective tribute to Tasha Yar than Star Trek: The Next Generation managed itself. He even bemoans how little Tasha footage he had to utilize.

Anime

• The end of his review of Puella Magi Madoka Magica episode 10 showcasing the relationship and love between Madoka and Homura.... set to 'Time After Time' by Cyndi Lauper.
  • In his review of episode 9 when Madoka is trying to reach Sayaka, Chuck's voice seems to break a bit when he says it's not working, as if he was hoping it would despite knowing that it wouldn't.
• The ending of the Full Moon 37-42 review.
  Chuck: Why was it so significant that I mention the Meroko's opening summation, with the pillow, the "don't sit so close", and all of that? Why bring that up? Because it's over now. It will never appear again in the series. We're in the endgame now, there's no room for that. We've seen a little girl with cancer that may lose the ability to do the thing that brings her the most joy in life. Living with a sour grandmother that keeps her in the guest house. Who has herself been repeatedly undermined by a rival out of petty jealousy. And none of it could get under her skin, because she had hope. (Mitsuki collapses at Eichi's grave)
• Again with Full Moon, episodes 43-46. Mitsuki has crossed the Despair Event Horizon, making her easy pickings for Izumi to manipulate her into committing suicide, set to the full lyrical version of Suicide is Painless. Then, happy tears for Mitsuki singing as herself to save Takuto from fading away, and for her grandmother to hear her sing for the first time.

Western Animation

• The opening to the new Batman Beyond subseries, Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" from Grace played over the scene of a middle-aged Bruce shutting down the Batcave for the last time, is oddly affecting.
• In his video for Justice League Unlimited's "Divided We Fall", he wraps up the episode with a montage set to Five For Fighting's "Superman (It's Not Easy)" - and the last clip is of Bruce finding Andrea's locket in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

Documentary miniseries

• In "Rise and Fall of the Comic Empire" Part 8, the fate of Mark Gruenwald at Marvel, a sensitive man whom it fell to to inform Marvel employees they had been laid off due to the company's troubles in the '90s, and to add insult to injury, seeing his favorite character, Captain America, subjected to the Heroes Reborn Rob Liefeld reboot. Gruenwald went home from work one Friday with the Liefeld penned preview issue on hand, didn't show up on Monday, and shortly thereafter was found dead from a heart attack. "And plus, it should be noted and I'm actually being serious here, Rob Liefeld made a comic so bad it may have killed a man!"
  • Also, in the series Afterword, on whether print comics could continue to be viable: "But I fear that Image may have the last laugh, with their number one book being of a creature lurching on year after year, unaware that it's already dead."
• This one mostly works so well due to set up. In his run-down of the events behind the scenes of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, he keeps bringing up how George Lucas threw himself into the films' productions to help fund Skywalker Ranch, every time mentioning the extensive library with 'A beautiful stained-glass roof.' At the end, Chuck reveals that George's devotion to the films, the business, and the ranch drove his wife to have an affair with the man who designed the stained glass ceiling he wanted so badly.
  "And now, every time he looks at the crowning monument of the ranch, he'll always be reminded of the man who took his wife from him."
• Talking about Gary Gygax can be a sad affair. This high school drop out who would always work hard to provide for his family but who had a passion for war games and a dream of making a game company of his own. When he found a collaborator who he could help form a product which would become known around the world, he worked corners and fought adversity to keep things going. But like Walter White, his newfound success caused him to make petty, selfish, short-sighted decisions until for the good of his game and his company, he would be forced out. A truly grand fall for a man many would rightly praise, but whose own faults cost him dearly.

Other Tv Series

• For the Stargate SG-1 episode "Point of View", talking about how science fiction allows exploring things we simply were not meant to experience. He goes into a deep dive on a Carter from an alternate reality, who had been engaged to her reality's Jack O'Neill, arriving in "our" reality to find Jack alive and well... but not her Jack. A Jack who doesn't know this Carter, doesn't love this Carter. Chuck points out how one can move on from loss, knowing that a relationship is over, whether it was a breakup or a death. Even if the one you love went missing, you can eventually accept that it is practically impossible for them to turn up again. But Alternate Carter is forced to look at someone who is the man she loved and lost in every way... except the one that matters most.

Video Game play throughs

• During the last chapter of Dragon Age II, he's trying to fix up his house so he can sell it. At the end of one part, part of his ceiling literally collapses right next to him. He promptly has a Heroic BSoD and ends the part without any of his usual commentary. The next few parts also deal with his house problems, and he freely admits on twitter that he's using the game review as therapy.
  • From the game itself, at the end of Part 5, where Hawke's mother has been killed by the blood mage serial killer. Chuck!Hawke just sounds broken.
    Hawke: (cradling her mother's Frankenstein'ed corpse) Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Kirkwall?

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