Tear Jerker / Underverse

Unmarked spoilers ahead!

No, it isn't...

• The prequel comics' Downer Ending. Cross has succeeded in taking X-Event!Frisk's soul, but at the cost of his entire world. Everyone he knew and loved is dead and to make things worse, him being a monster locks him out of using the OVERWRITE button and bringing them and his universe back.
  • Honorable mention goes to X-Event!Frisk's death. Despite everything he's said and done, watching him slowly bleed out on the floor, crying and begging Cross to forgive him is really hard to watch. X-Event!Chara's reaction to his younger brothers death just makes it extra heartbreaking.
• Underswap!Sans trying and failing to understand why X-Event!Chara would torture him and his friends.
• At the end of 0.3 Part 2, Underswap!Papyrus decides to stay behind with Underswap!Chara as their AU collapses. Not only to look after his human friend, but because he doesn't trust Ink and would rather die than be a pawn in Ink's plans.
• Outertale!Sans staying behind to fight Nightmare, Killer and Error to help Classic!Sans get away in 0.4
  Outertale Sans: Hey other me...You will never disappoint your people, Okay?
• The final fates of Underfell!Sans and Underswap!Sans in 0.4, who are both Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by XGaster.
  • Made even worse is the fact that as they both die, they see visions of all their friends. Underswap!Sans' friends all smile to him while Underfell!Sans is comforted by Underfell!Asgore, the very same king who was shown to have a hot temper earlier in the episode.
  • Then there’s the looks on both of their faces. Underswap!Sans looks shocked and terrified, while Underfell!Sans seems so ashamed of himself that he can’t bear to look his family in the eyes before Underfell!Asgore comforts him.
• At the end of 0.4, Classic!Sans is helpless to do anything about the horrible situation that has occurred, and X!Gaster simply teleports him back to his own dimension, and it is implied that X!Gaster has some sinister plans for the original timeline. Upon reuniting with his friends and family, Classic!Sans drops his locket.
• X-Event!Chara at the end of 0.4. Especially if you've seen the XTALE comic/animations. After being tortured until their mind shattered at the hands of X-Gaster, after all their plans and gambits, all of the self-justified misery they inflicted upon others. And right when their final victory of being able to bring back their universe is in their grasp, it's torn away and rendered All for Nothing. Their final frustrated scream of "IT'S NOT FAIR!" before they disappear is very justified.
• All of the timeline-flashbacks.
  • XTALE I, the first iteration of X-Tale created by XGaster. It's not sad in particular until the end, which hits you right in the guts as XTale!Asriel is erased, put into a set of Timeline notes by XAlphys, and then the whole timeline is reset again.
  • XTALE II gets even more brutal. XGaster murders his sons' closest friends (XTale!Asgore and XTale!Sans) in order to make the timeline more "interesting". XTale!Chara's devastated breakdown when he sees Asgore's body and Frisk mourning over Sans slowly withering away are hard to watch, to say the least.
  • In XTALE III, XGaster overwrites the timeline after merely two days. When XTale!Chara attempts to call him out for this complete lack of regard for other people's lives in favor of his own insecurities, XGaster merely dismisses him and continues the experiment anyway.
  • In XTALE IV, XGaster brainwashes XTale!Frisk into attacking, in this timeline, his best friend XTale!Muffet, in order to start a genocide route. After one of her spiders relays the truth to her, XTale!Muffet briefly becomes a Badass Bystander, restraining a still mind-controlled XTale!Frisk and telling XTale!Chara to stand up against XGaster for himself and his brother. Inspired, XTale!Chara does so and manages to use the RESET-button for the very first time. However, the damage has been done: XTale!Frisk vividly remembers and breaks into tears after XGaster's control over him is broken, while XGaster now has knowledge of XTale!Chara's power and prepares himself for "disciplining" his sons.
  • In XTALE V said disciplining is set into motion: XGaster erases everyones' memories of his sons, leading to them becoming outcasts. When they do finally manage to find an ally in XTale!Undyne, he kills and resurrects the rest of the cast as brainwashed amalgamates and easily fights their attempted rebellion off.
    • What's heartbreaking about this iteration of the timeline in particular is Frisk's becoming a cynic Shell-Shocked Veteran and abandoning Chara. In the previous timeline they at least had each other to lean on, but in this one Chara is forced to carry out their plans alone. Frisk isn't even seen in the finale, leading to the conclusion that he was either killed or knowingly let his brother walk into a fight he couldn't win alone out of sheer resignation.
    • Another sad part is that it's the last timeline that even sees an XAlphys that is not Brainwashed and Crazy. XAlphys tries her hardest to stand up to her superior XGaster, but once he's found out the truth, XGaster completely overwrites her into a loyal and soulless assistant. In other words, she is now a complete puppet for XGaster's devilish works. Making it even worse is that once in XTALE X she tries to write a entry attacking XGaster for calling XTale!Frisk and XTale!Chara an experiment instead of humans, but backs down due to fear of her lord finding out.
  • XTALE VI doesn't pull any punches: XGaster begins the X-Event experiment, forcing the X-Tale cast amalgamates to attack XTale!Chara over and over until he's too exhausted to fight back anymore, then proceeds to steal Chara's determination and injects it into his own soul with Chara howling in pain throughout the entire thing. All while XTale!Frisk and XAlphys stand there and watch, the former horrified, the latter indifferent.
  • XTALE VII continues from where VI left off. X-Gaster makes his sons fight against each other once again, with X-Event!Chara easily gaining the upper hand and killing XFrisk. In a a last-ditch attempt to save his brother from being erased by XGaster for good, X-Event!Chara gives up his physical form and inserts his soul into XFrisks body, resulting in the two of them becoming the X-Event.
  • XTALE VIII starts off on a lighter note, with XGaster and X-Event!Frisk seemingly having put their differences aside to build a new universe together, with XGaster acting uncharacteristically nice towards his sons, patiently teaching them how to use the OVERWRITE-button and giving them all that they need to build a creation of their own. However, as soon as said creation, X-Mettaton, is finished and presented to him, he goes right back to his old ways, callously belittling it as "hideous" and ordering X-Event!Frisk to destroy it. When XTale!Mettaton, as a misguided reaction to X-Event!Frisk's resulting anguish attacks him, XGaster brutally destroys him in front of his sons eyes and then blames the whole situation on him, accusing him of having tried to rebel.
  • XTALE IX already starts out on a bleak note, as XGaster has once again isolated his sons from all of their former friends and family. When X-Papyrus gets closer to them due to no fault of their own, XGaster imprisons them. When they finally manage to break out and try to get X-Papyrus to ally with them, they're already so far beyond the Despair Event Horizon that even X-Papyrus doesn't know how to help them. The true gut-punch comes after X-Event!Frisk tells XTale!Papyrus the truth about XGaster and the world around them out of spite, leading to him losing faith in all of them and tiredly asking them not to give him or the remaining X-Tale cast feelings in the next timeline, so they won't be hurt.
  • XTALE X is basically just a re-telling of the prequel comic from XGaster's point of view. So the viewer gets to experience all the heartbreak and betrayal from that story all over again, with the added bonus of seeing just how desperate and suicidal the X-Event really were all this time.
• Sans' condition in 0.5. His journey through the multiverse and the things he's seen completely traumatized him. He's given up on the fight entirely and is only able to muster up enough energy to tell Frisk what has happened. The last shot of the episode shows him sitting on a cliff and eating fries while the city behind him is crashing and burning.
• 0.5 confirms that the X-Tale cast really are brainwashed. They can't even speak for themselves anymore. Even worse: They're fully aware of what XGaster makes their bodies do, but are unable to do anything about it.
  • When X-Chara brielfy loses his temper and tries to attack Ink, XGaster uses X-Frisk to stop him. And then cruelly mocks X-Chara for making his brother so upset.
  • Ink is completely nonchalant about his betrayal of the other Sanses and the fact that he basically helped XGaster commit genocide. He truly never cared about them.
• Dream's speech in 0.6. Cross is incredibly tired and upset from XGaster's attempts to control him and the inadequacy of his struggle. Dream is able to remind him that despite the fact that he is a copy, his experiences can define who he is. That even though he betrayed everyone he loved for a futile gambit, he is still a royal guard, and that makes him strong.
  • Before this, Core!Frisk's attempts at cheering Cross up involves showing him the drawing of the entire family. Cross derides this moment as a mark of weakness before crumbling the drawing and throwing it away. Core!Frisk cannot help but feel pity for him.
• The beginning half of 0.7 Part 1 has everyone recover their memories from the countless genocide timelines Frisk forced them through. In a ironic turn of fate, all of them stand where Sans does in a normal genocide timeline, at the end of the Judgement Hall. Nobody believes in them anymore.
  • Additionally, Toriel's pose in the hall has a striking similarity to XToriel's when she recovers her memories in XTALE X. As XGaster later remarks to XChara, "You did the same thing when you tried to kill me."
• 0.7 Part 2 is generally more heartwarming, but there are still plenty of tears to spread around:
  • Geno had lived in isolation for a very long time, eventually letting it get to his head and becoming more extreme in his measures. Though he got better after escaping the Save screen whole, his experience and his trauma can still be seen when he is warning XGaster of the consequences of isolation.
  • Classic!Sans being utterly nihilistic to the point that he is pretty much ready to be erased from existence. He's completely pushed himself away from everyone and was found by Ink!Sans wandering the alleys in the now decrepit town.