Blackadder/Tear Jerker

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    • S2 Blackadder's Christmas Carol
  • S1
    • E01 The Foretelling
    • E02 Born to Be King
    • E03 The Archbishop
    • E04 The Queen of Spain's Beard
    • E05 Witchsmeller Pursuivant
    • E06 The Black Seal
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    • E01 Bells
    • E02 Head
    • E03 Potato
    • E04 Money
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    • E01 Dish and Dishonesty
    • E02 Ink and Incapability
    • E03 Nob and Nobility
    • E06 Duel and Duality
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Tear Jerkers in Blackadder include:

Blackadder Goes Forth

• After years of fighting an utterly pointless war and almost getting out of it, Blackadder, Baldrick, Lieutenant George, Captain Darling and hundreds of other men go over the top of the trenches, set to an incredibly poignant version of the theme music. They don't visibly die, but just fade away to be replaced by a modern day shot of a poppy field overdubbed with birdsong.
  • Especially poignant considering the fact that poppies are the traditional flower to remember WWI. After the fighting, especially at Flanders' Field, the earth was so stirred up by the men fighting and charging across it that poppy seeds, which had been laying dormant, bloomed all over it. This always gets to me as the final symbol, especially how something so horrible can produce something so beautiful ... which still isn't worth the price we paid for it. That a comedy show can make this point in a couple of fade-out frames is nothing short of amazing.
  • What particularly makes the ending tragic is its sharp contrast to the finales of the first and second season, in which the entire cast is killed off, and their deaths are played for laughs.
  • When Blackadder said 'good luck, everyone' in that... emotional manner. Not only he did restrain himself from making some jokes when the others told him that they were scared- he did actually say Good luck, everyone. Black-bloody-adder, for God sake, he was concerned about somebody else!
    • Extra-poignant is the fact that those were his last words.
  • Another thing that got me, in that same episode, is when Darling is sent to the front. Really, you have to see it for understand.
    • The image of Darling crying and begging on his knees when the driver comes in and casts one of the most ominous shadows ever to the sound of war drums in the background is probably the most sad-but-super-chilling moment in the whole series. They threw in that bit of laughtrack after General Melchett says "Goodbye, Kevin Darling." Ruined the mood of the scene a bit.
      • The worst part of this was that Darling knew what it meant, but General Melchett sincerely believed that it was all a jolly jape and he was doing him a favour by sending him to the front, signing his death sentence thinking he wouldn't really want to miss the "fun". Darling begs and pleads, but can't make a dent on Melchett's fantasy world.
  • When Darling said he'd never get to marry Dorris. Although because it was being viewed with a younger brother, no weeping happened...
  • 'Made a note in my diary on the way here. Simply says: "Bugger".'
    • Darling's fate was perhaps one of the hardest because, even though he wasn't a very sympathetic character through most of the series, he was so close to making it through the war, and had no idea what was going to happen to him, unlike the others whose lives mainly revolved around trying to get out of 'going over the top'.
    • Blackadder's reaction to Darling's arrival in the trench makes the whole plot thread even more poignant; here is a man whom he has mocked mercilessly throughout the entire series... and yet when he arrives in the trench, rather than sneer at him for having to leave his desk job to join the push, Blackadder goes along with the fantasy that Darling volunteered, deciding not to kick him while he's down.
  • When the guns fall silent and they think they are going to be ok.

Captain Darling: We lived through it. The Great War. 1914 to 1917.

• • These 3 words.

George: No really, this is brave! Splendid! Noble! ...Sir? Blackadder: Yes, lieutenant? George: I'm... scared, sir.

This was especially hard-core considering George's flamboyantly upbeat attitude and eagerness for battle for the whole show and he's the first person to admit, in a sincere non-joking way (unlike how Blackadder had been doing the whole time), that he didn't want to die. And he's smiling while he says it.

• • The first time that Lt George has ever sounded unsure of himself.

George: I mean, I'm the last of the tiddlywinking leap-froggers from the golden summer of 1914!... I don't want to die!... not overly keen on dying at all.

• • Blackadder hears out one last plan from Baldrick and, instead of insulting it, says "Well, it'll have to wait..."
    • He doesn't actually hear it out; there isn't time. But he does say that whatever it is would have been better than his plan of pretending to be mad.

Blackadder: ...After all, who'd notice another madman 'round here?

• • The Audio version of this scene, lacking the slow fade to the poppies, instead has a few lines from the episode. One each, actually.

George: We've had some good times, some damnably good laughs, eh? Baldrick: I thought it was going to be such fun Darling: But, eh, I don't want to go... Blackadder: Good Luck, everyone.

• Baldrick's rant innocently asking why they can't all just stop fighting and go home, and what would be wrong about that.

Baldrick: Why can't we just stop, sir? Why can't we just say "no more killing, let's all go home"? Why would it be stupid just to pack it in, sir? Why?

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