YMMV / Give Us Forever

• Awesome Moments:
  • Erin, Grete, Dani, Emma and Tyravana outwitting and escaping the clutches of the mad Ezekial—particularly notable as the Badass Normal types manage to escape the clutches of an angel.
  • The final battle between Aleviel and Hardestadt is appropriately awe-inspiring and massive, with the two clashing at the very top of reality where Amatsu-Mikaboshi lurks above on the threshold of the Teraverse, striving to get in and devour everything. The battle is emotionally charged and on a scale unlike anything in the series before, with both sides clashing billions of times a second with even a stray blow potentially able to wipe out the Teraverse underneath.
• Catharsis Factor: Seeing Urizen/Ezekial realize how much of a pawn he always was and have a pathetic breakdown before being casually killed by Malachor, given his cruel arrogant behavior in both this story and A Matter of Pride even if he comes back later. Not so much after we fond out his behavior was due to brainwashing and when he is freed he falls apart due to remorse.
• Creepy Awesome: Baba Yaga's not exactly malevolent and she's quite grandmotherly, but she does have a very sinister vibe about her—but she's also got an unmistakable air of mystique and power. Plus, she's ancient.
  "I have been known by many names, in many tongues. I was old when this world was fashioned, old when even the world was new. I was known by many names before the spoken word. Young Lucifer once knew me well. Even he was wary in my woods."
• Cry for the Devil: Every major villain at the end of Burden of Tomorrow:
  • Aleviel succeeds in everything she's intended to do, but she's estranged herself from Hardestadt and Lucifer in the process and essentially made herself a pariah. The final scene with her has her feeling as alone as she did in the Garden before Lucifer found her, alone with nothing more than her regrets and the sins that have tormented her all her life.
  • With Malachor's awful history is revealed, it's a blessing when he finally dies as he's always intended to... and then Mr. Z proceeds to resurrect him, hinting the entire process is about to start all over again.
  • Dasrian is one of the least "evil" antagonists fought so far, and he's driven by a sense of absolute, unwavering loyalty to Malachor who saved him from the Court of the Broken (where Dasrian was being used as a Sex Slave by his own father). Being forced to resurrect his master after he's earned his long-desired peace is a harsh stab against him.
  • Even Ezekial, who starts off as a prejudiced asshat against Belial and becomes the monstrous, obsessive Urizen, turns out to have had no culpability in his own fall as he was corrupted by the Black Sun and twisted against his will into becoming a monster. When control finally returns to him, he can do nothing but rock back and forth and weep brokenly.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • The context aside, the reveal of Alineia, and Koschei and Baba Yaga being her caretakers counts. Alineia's clearly been raised well with a very sweet disposition and she's excited to see her brother for the first time, and the clear affection her guardians have for her helps to humanize Koschei and Baba Yaga both.
  • Hardestadt's friends decide to stick with him even in the knowledge of his past misdeeds, as that doesn't define who he is now and how hard he's fighting.
  • Azmodan, Karai and Jibrill's relationship continue to be a source of adorably heartwarming moments. Even in spite of the continued divide between Heaven and Hell, Karai unhesitatingly offers a hand to Jibrill in the end to ensure she isn't alone to deal with everything that's happened.
  • Bittersweet as the end is, Hardestadt still saves his mother from throwing herself to her death, and even if he can't forgive her for what she's done, he still loves her in the end.
• Magnificent Bastard: Koschei the Deathless, Hardestadt's nigh-immortal old companion, and the ancient entity Baba Yaga decide to put Hardestadt through a grueling test to see if he is truly worth being a hero after his past as the monstrous Dragon. Baba Yaga and Koschei push Hardestadt to his utmost limit through a series of tests, putting innocents in danger and forcing Hardestadt to push himself to ensure not one soul is harmed—before revealing nobody but Hardestadt himself were ever truly in danger in the tests. Baba Yaga and Koschei's final test for Hardestadt is the revelation of his younger sister Alineia, whom they save from certain death, having Hardestadt demonstrate he truly is noble by refusing to kill Alineia even when her existence threatens the Teraverse itself. Satisfied, Koschei gives his own life to plug the hole endangering the Teraverse, happy to die having proven his old companion a hero once again, as Baba Yaga returns to her woods with everything having gone to her exact design.
• Shocking Moments: In the last few chapters of Shadow of the Dragon, with Hardestadt is revealed to have a sister who's also the strongest being in the Teraverse and the Big Bad of the story turning out to be his mother Aleviel.
• Tear Jerker:
  • We finally get thorough clarity on Hardestadt's backstory as the Dragon, and it's heartbreaking. Hardestadt's attempt to build a supernatural utopia named Arcadia was massacred to the last by humans even after they were promised peace, resulting in Hardestadt snapping and dedicating himself to the violent subjugation and destruction of mankind as the only way peace could be obtained. Hardestadt turned on his own friends—his betrayal being the reason Koschei is so ruthless in the present day—and eventually murdered one of his closest. Said friend? Was the original Hardestadt Delac, who eventually came through to the Dragon in his dying moment and made him pledge to take his name. Hardestadt has been fighting with that memory for centuries since, and this story makes it clear he never will stop fighting.
  • Koschei's death is of the bittersweet variety; Hardestadt is forced to kill him, but Koschei is in complete peace as he does so, finding it in himself to trust what's to come to his old friend.
  • Malachor being forced to kill his sister and lover Danaria, under his father's control. Malachor's father then has the gall to blame him for killing her, forces him to look at her corpse, and uses magic to force him into that emotional state forever while telling Malachor that he never loved him ever.
  • Malachor being resurrected in the end of the story. After his peaceful death, it's a harsh Yank the Dog's Chain moment for a character we now know is a Tragic Monster.
  • Aleviel and Hardestadt's final battle is halfway between this and Awesome Moments. As epic as the scale of everything is, Hardestadt is clearly torn apart by everything his mother's forced him through and the countless times she's broken her promise to protect him, and his raw anguish is driving every single blow he directs toward Aleviel as he lets all his bottled emotions go.
  • Aleviel's very last scene, paralleling her introduction in the Garden: utterly alone, with nothing but her sins and torment to keep her company.