Vorkosigan Saga/Heartwarming

"Aral Vorkosigan: Clay, boy. Only clay. Not fit to receive so golden a sacrifice."
 * Any time Miles Vorkosigan meets up with his father again after one of his madcap adventures. This troper was particularly choked up by The Vor Game's reunion.
 * Also in The Vor Game is the description of how big, powerful, dangerous Admiral Count Aral Vorkosigan, back when he was Lord Regent (and absolute ruler) of the Barrayaran Empire, would take a two-hour lunch every day--short of any crisis less serious than actual war--race home, spend five minutes bolting down a sandwich, then spend an hour-and-a-half down on the floor with his little crippled son who couldn't walk yet, talking and playing games and reading out loud.
 * Not only Miles, though. The moment in A Civil Campaign where Aral quite casually asserts Mark's status as his son is breathtaking.
 * To elaborate -  To be sure, he'd deliberately referred to Mark that way before; this was totally offhand.
 * Another magnificent thing about that scene is that Miles, in the midst of his own problems, still cares enough about his brother to be pleased that Mark had the chance to hear Aral say that.
 * Fridge Brilliance adds another layer to that: had no hesitation, in that angry moment, at referring to Mark as Aral's son. Aral must have emphasized it in the last two years, for the designation to come so easily to the lips of another Barrayaran -- granted, one who's close to him, but still.
 * The Vor Game is good, but for my money, The Warrior's Apprentice has the killer line. After Miles talks about wanting to make his life "an offering fit to lay at my father's feet":

"Aral Vorkosigan: "[Bothari] becomes whatever is required of him. Not a conscious process, I don't think. Piotr expects a loyal retainer, and Bothari plays the part, deadpan as you please. Vorrutyer wanted a monster, and Bothari became his torturer. And victim. I demanded a good soldier, and he became one for me. You. . ." his voice softened, "you are the only person I know who looks at Bothari and sees a hero. So he becomes one for you. He clings to you because you create him a greater man than he ever dreamed of being.""
 * Barrayar. Cordelia and Aral are discussing the psychopathic Sergeant Bothari, a sadistic abuse victim who, in the past book, came very, very close to raping Cordelia before he decided to rescue her instead. Cordelia wonders why Bothari seems to idolize her so much. Aral's response:

"Cordelia: Welcome to Barrayar, son. Here you go; have a world of wealth and poverty, wrenching change and rooted history. Have a birth; have two. Have a name. Miles means "soldier", but don't let the power of suggestion overwhelm you. Have a twisted form in a society that loathes and fears the mutations that have been its deepest agony. Have a title, wealth, power, and all the envy and hatred they will draw. Have your body ripped apart and rearranged. Inherit an array of friends and enemies you never made. Have a grandfather from hell. Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe certainly isn't going to supply it. Always be a moving target. Live. Live. Live."
 * Years later, Bothari reminds Miles that he has been promised a grave next to Cordelia's...at her feet, for he has been her faithful dog. And to Bothari, being accepted as Cordelia's dog is the greatest honor.
 * Considering at least some of Bothari's issues stem from his childhood raised among prostitutes, his abuse at Vorrutyer's hands, and his work as a rapist/torturer, the fact that he eagerly devotes himself to this woman, and is even able to be a decent father to his daughter makes his entire character development arc fit this trope.
 * Not to mention that his mother, who was a prostitute, "used to sell [him] to her customers".
 * For this troper, it's about a page after Aral's quote above, where Cordelia first sees her newly-born (and heavily fought-for) son Miles:

"The Countess attached herself to her husband's arm. "Lead on, love. Vorkosigans Victorious." Vorkosigans Convalescent, was more like it, Miles reflected, following. But you should see what the other guys look like."
 * Heartwarming or Awesome, it's a toss-up: In "The Mountains of Mourning," after disinterring an infant to confirm that she'd been murdered, Miles realizes he doesn't have anything with him to burn as the customary small sacrifice at a burial. He thinks: Peace to you, small lady, after our rude invasions. I will give you a better sacrifice, I swear by my word as Vorkosigan. And the smoke of that burning will rise and be seen from one end of these mountains to the other. To make good on the promise, he.
 * Even better is when Miles returns to the same village years later and finds that the poverty-stricken backwater has been transformed into a thriving community, and the mother of the murdered infant is now a teacher at the newly-built school.
 * Any part of A Civil Campaign that's not Crowning Moment of Funny is Heartwarming. Oddly enough, this troper was most affected by Mark's stumbling towards his shot at happiness with Kareen... and making it.
 * The ending of Mirror Dance, especially Cordelia's maternal smile of greed, since

""Would it be so difficult, to do a few days-even a few minutes-of acting? I'm going to have to dip some Dendarii funds anyway to pay for a dead ship, and buy a lady a new face. I could make it worth your time." He regretted his words immediately at the loathing that flashed across her face, but the look she finally gave him was ironically thoughtful. "You really care about that girl, don't you?""
 * Miles' efforts to get Elena Visconti to acknowledge and meet her daughter, who was the product of rape. Visconti first regards Miles' pleads with suspicion and disgust, but his heartfelt offers finally melt her.

"Terrence: What am I to you, then, if not a monster? Ethan: We all remain children of the Father, however we may otherwise be orphaned. You are my brother, of course. Terrence: Of course...? Damn it, I'm the ultimate weapon, the super agent. I survived it all. How can you make me weep now?"
 * By Memory, the relationship had improved so much that some of the inherent burden the younger Elena had felt had vanished.
 * Any part of Memory with Simon learning how to live a normal life. Thirty years of playing the bland, colorless Spymaster thanks to his memory chip... he's got a lot of living to do. Lucky he's got a lot of awesome friends to help him catch up.
 * The "Letter from home" in Cryoburn shows how Miles' married life has developed, bringing to mind Cordelia's "Lots of little Vorkosigans" wish from back in Barrayar.
 * Ethan Urquhart of Ethan of Athos giving genetically-engineered telepath Terrence Cee the first real acceptance he's ever known, without thinking twice about it:

"I love you. But I lust after and covet so much more than your body. I wanted to possess the power of your eyes, the way they see form and beauty that isn't even there yet and draw it up out of nothing into the solid world. I wanted to own the honor of your heart, unbowed in the vilest horrors of those bleak hours on Komarr. I wanted your courage and your will, your caution and serenity. I wanted, I suppose, your soul, and that was too much to want."
 * Cordelia meets and falls in love with Aral, but they are on different sides of a war, and Aral is suppose to be a war criminal. She gets repatriated at the end of the war after being a POW. Her own people, in examining her for PTSD or adjustments find out her love of Aral. They think it's fake, and work to 'undo' the brainwashing. She does her own moment of awesome, escapes the security forces, and steals a ship to meet back with Aral.
 * The ending when she comes to see Aral, and meets his father. He's so drunk and heartbroken that initially he thinks she's a vision.
 * Diplomatic Immunity has not so much a Moment as a Crowning Cultural Background Noise of Heartwarming, for those who've read Falling Free. Between Graf Station's name, the finale of the zero-G ballet, and "Leo" being the most popular boy's name by roughly a full order of magnitude... The Quaddies really love their granddad.
 * The final scene of Komarr where Miles reels off his list of exes, and Ekaterin asks if she can get in line. And his response.
 * In fact this scene made me feel the start of A Civil Campaign were totally redundant and out of character. If they're flirting this hard before then why do they regress back on Barrayar?
 * Because Ekatarin was coming off her adrenaline high. After sober reflection, she'd decided that the risks of romantic involvements were too high. Was she deluding herself? Probably, but that was her rationale for backing off.
 * Taura and Roic at the end of "Winterfair Gifts". After all, there is no such thing as a horizontal height differential.
 * Miles' letter of apology to Ekaterin in chapter 11 A Civil Campaign. Particularly, this excerpt;

"Count Piotr: Not your fault, boy, not your fault. You were caught in the wheels of change and chance just like the rest of us. It was pure chance, that the assassin chose that particular poison to try and kill your father. He wasn't even aiming for your mother. You've done well despite it. We—we just expected too much of you, that's all. Let no one say you have not done well."
 * The epilogue of Barrayar, when Count Piotr Vorkosigan, who HATED Miles' existence as a mutant and a cripple who should never have been allowed to be born (and keeps this attitude for about five years) FINALLY starts to befriend him... Miles is just that charming.
 * The conversation that the very elderly Count Piotr and Miles had the day that Miles failed his first attempt at the Academy entrance exams. Rather than tear into Miles now that he's been officially proven unfit for a military career, one of the things that the old Count had most disliked about his 'mutant' grandson, Piotr instead insists that the exam proctor must have cheated because of course his grandson should have passed and offers to lend his influence to Miles' appeal, and upon Miles' confession that no, he genuinely flunked by carelessly breaking both his legs on the obstacle course says this:

"Kou: I know you! You trust beyond reason. Cordelia: Yes. It's how I get results beyond hope. As you might recall."
 * Both heartwarming and tearjerking is the fact that this is the last conversation Piotr and Miles will ever have. Because Count Piotr would pass away in his sleep that night from heart failure. Despite all the bad blood that had gone between them Miles at least had the mercy of hearing his grandfather say that he was genuinely proud of him before he died... and know that the old Count sincerely meant them, because at the time they spoke he would have had no awareness that he was going to die that night.
 * From A Civil Campaign:


 * The wedding planning scene in A Civil Campaign. At first it just looks like charming domesticity, but then you realize: they're in the Green Silk Room. The very same room where thirty-some years ago Emperor Ezar Vorbarra and Lord Aral Vorkosigan were plotting how to murder Ezar's son and start an interstellar war to hide his corpse among. The inception point of "the most wasteful political assassination plot in Barrayaran history" has now become a peaceful place where Ezar's grandson and his fiancee happily work out the details of their wedding party and how soon they can bring new life into the world. And then it hits the reader; Barrayar has made it. The barbaric, blood-soaked place that our heroes and their forebears have bled out their hearts and souls to try and save has indeed moved into the new era they'd always hoped for, a more peaceful and gentle age.
 * Even the antagonists of A Civil Campaign bear this theme out. Venal and corrupt as they are, they're cartoonishly harmless compared to people like Vordarian the Pretender and so are their actions. It's considered a horrific, political-career-ending-on-the-spot thing in ACC when one Vor Lord is caught sending several thugs to inflict a painful and humiliating yet entirely survivable beating on another ; thirty years ago, a similar family feud would have been fortunate to merely involve grenade launchers as opposed to full-on civil war.
 * Note also that every lethal antagonist in the series after this point is from off-world.