Fanfic/Tear Jerker

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Crossovers

  • The gigantic Star Wars/Star Trek crossover Unity has quite a few, the most powerful is Seven of Nine being trapped in the Borg hive mind when it reboots unexpectedly early as she tries to shut it down. Back in the real world she sings the ending of Puff the Magic Dragon (which she mentioned a few times as a song her mother always sang to her) and falls into a coma.
  • A combined Tear Jerker and Crowning Moment of Awesome occurs during chapter 26 of the Terminator/Sailor Moon/Ranma ½ crossover fic Tunnel Vision when Ryouga makes a Heroic Sacrifice to take down Sky Net. As always though, the Status Quo Is God and the Reset Button is hit hard by the end of the story
  • Even if a lot of the slash stories between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark are sad, there's one that had me bawling all over my pc the first time I read it. Even so, it stills make me cry every time. It's an Avengers/Sandman crossover and it's the biggest Tear Jerker I've faced in my life. "The Sound of Wings - Aliana Iskassa" You've been warned.
  • Empatheia's House/Doctor Who crossover As The Crow Flies is intensely emotional without resorting to fan fiction's usual melodrama. It really rings out with a strange, haunting kind of sadness. But it doesn't really become a tearjerker until you realize the Doctor, having been trapped on Earth by the Q - yeah - is going to become House. This doesn't seem so bad until you think about how intensely miserable House has been most of his life. A more blatant one is when House steps off the "magic mountain" and the pain in his leg comes back. This is amplified by the fact that we now know this will be the Doctor's pain someday as well.
    • A somewhat Anvilicious but nonetheless powerful Torchwood/Doctor Who fanfiction, Ashes and Dust, has Jack dreaming of the Doctor abandoning him on Satellite Five, begging him not to leave him behind, an event which is only connected to the story via it's foreshadowing of the Doctor.
  • An untitled (but sometimes referred to as The Smeg is Out There) Red Dwarf/The X-Files crossover fic has two touching moments. First, after an alternate version of Kochanski (it makes sense in context) is killed by CSM, Lister finds his apartment and presses a Bazookoid to his head. CSM dares Lister to shoot, but Lister just coldcocks him instead saying (paraphrase) "I've learned a lot today, and it makes me feel better to know that in at least one universe, I did pull the trigger." This is later followed up after our heroes have parted ways (which includes Mulder getting a new tie from Cat, and Scully taking the talking toaster with her) when Rimmer finally reveals the location of Kochanski's personality disc, which would allow Lister to have her back, even though it would mean his own deletion. Lister erases the disc instead. Awwww.
  • This Labyrinth/9 crossover.
  • End of The Line. All of it. It's classified as Angst/Humor, but it's much, much more. Just read it.
  • The Mad Scientist Wars has a few of these, most notably in Tales of Madness.
  • The very epic crossover fic between Fate/stay night and The Familiar of Zero named The Hill of Swords has, despite it's incredible moments of funny and awesome, a surprisingly large number of these. Whenever Shirou thinks about Saber and their promise that "[he] will always search, and she will always wait for him for eternity" is bad enough, but there's that one moment where, after having fought off an army of 70,000+ by himself, Shirou dies and arrives at Avalon and sees Saber there. However, just as they are about to embrace, Tiffania resurrects Shirou, dragging him away from the love of his life just as he had met her again for the first time in an eternity.

"Ah," a soft voice beside me said in surprise. I had tried to move, and found that it was probably a better idea not to do that again. "You're awake," the voice, a quiet girly voice, noted.
Awake? Was I asleep? The cotton began to clear, and I began trying to remember the last thing I was doing…. It struck me. Images, sounds, memories; they came rushing back to me. The battle, my falling, the clearing in the trees I had found myself in…
No.
"You're very lucky that I found you," the voice assured me, sounding worried. "You were very close to death when I did."
No. No. No. No. No.
"Even while I was treating you, I wasn't certain you'd pull through," the voice continued. "You very nearly didn't."
No. NO NO NONONONONO!

  • The Sailor Moon / Doctor Who one shot The Last Light is, in its entirety, a carefully calculated fusion of Tear Jerker and Fridge Horror.
  • The Lucky Star / Multiple Crossover fic Other Worlds Than These has one in Chapter 15, when Konata chooses to leave the Lucky Star universe... and the actions she takes and people she hurts doing so. Don't worry though, the story has a lovely ending.
  • This Watchmen Kink Meme fill takes the Blair Roche murder, subtracts Grice's two dogs, and adds Dug. The result is... disturbing. The ending manages to be bittersweet, though.
  • In One and Only Son, Euphemia dies, just like in canon, but this time she was killed by Kinue, following orders of Nena Trinity. To see her begging Suzaku and Alexander (Soran) to not hate Lelouch before she dies is pretty sad. Not to mention Saji's freakout when he discovers that it was her sister who killed her.
  • In The Three Kingdoms, a megacrossover fanfic written by Dra2k4 at Deviantart where fictional beings and vehicles were transported at the real world in Dec. 21 2012, followed by a war. Then at Dec. 21, 2013, a war in a day happens, this time breaking the law that states for no one to die. Naluri and Sasaki travels back through time, make sure nobody dies or stays dead. They make sure that Doom and Magneto's plans doesn't work. Then there's the Past Naluri and Sasaki riding the Dolerean to go back through time. Future Naluri and Sasaki died when they stopped the attempt of time travel, in order to prevent overriding any changed in the timeline. In the end they do stop the on going war, but at the cost of two deaths.
  • In The Dark, Spice Girls/Backstreet Boys Fic, Melanie almost getting killed from a bus accident, kidnapped by a torturer, and that's what can be shown.


1-9

Nine

"[7] sang again, louder now, for it to reach where ever her children played.
"Mama loves you too.""

    • Adding to the tear-jerking is towards the end, the fact that 1, of all people, suggests praying for 4, and is apparently having trouble speaking himself.
  • Bleak But Hopeful is a fanfic for 9, written before the movie was released and back when people thought the feature film would end in a similar way the short did. It's told sort of through the point of view of the Fabrication Machine (known as 114-DOM in the story) as 9 comes to it and basically talks to it about what has happened.
    • Bleak, But Hopeful is in an archive, and you have to be a member of the forum to access it. But if you want to read the fic without having to register there, here's a PDF file for you. [dead link]
    • Yet another fic written pre-movie, when everyone was under this belief, is Daybreak's Light. The fic actually begins with 9, all alone, wandering the desolate wasteland in mourning of his friends, and later collapsing in exhaustion. He believes himself to be hallucinating the other Stitchpunks, but is actually dying. The part where he finally dies and is reunited with the others in Paradise manages to give one tears of sadness then happiness within ten seconds.
  • Delirium, a fanfic for 9, has one part where we follow the memory of a little boy shortly before the machine rebellion, and then him as an adult. The transitioning paragraph says this:

The next thing I remembered was standing at a train station, but I knew I was no longer a kid who tossed snowballs to fight. The noises in the background told me that war was no longer a game. A woman stood in front of me, her eyes shifting from my face to the train not far behind her. The crowd milling around us didn’t matter to me, it barely registered in my memory. This woman had always made sure I wore a jacket when it was wet or cold, reprimanded me when I did something I thought would be a good idea but was really stupid, told me she loved me even when I thought I was too old to hear things like that. My mother did not want to leave me.

  • This 9 one-shot follows 1's last thoughts before he gets his soul sucked out of him.What makes it especially sad is who is he thinking about? 2. He spends the entire story thinking about 2, "talking" to him as if 2 could hear him, and telling himself he hadn't meant to send 2 out to die, he was hoping he'd come back later but he just couldn't say anything because of pride. It's a simple story, simply-written but it still hurts, especially the last line.


A

Ace Attorney

  • The excellent Ace Attorney fanfic Piano Man, in chapter 4. Edgeworth, the victim of an attempted murder by Kristoph Gavin and is gravely injured and about to enter surgery. Phoenix is by his bedside, practically sobbing his eyes out, while Edgey feebly tries to comfort him. That alone is a tearjerker, but then what Phoenix says:

"I can't keep you involved in this, trying to nail Gavin, trying to get my badge back. This isn't worth it. I'd lose a hundred badges, a thousand, I don't care; they aren't worth anything next to you. ... You're my entire world. You're my heartbeat; you're in the marrow of my bones and under my skin, and--if I lost you--I wouldn't be able to go on."

  • Another excellent fanfiction, Trucy's Daddy, has Trucy Wright dying and Phoenix falling apart in grief and his return to normalcy, realizing that being Trucy's dad was better than being a defense attorney.[1]

All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku

  • The penultimate installment of Richard Lawson's seminal Nuku Nuku fic cycle from the late 1990s, Transitions. In it, after achieving everything she'd hoped for through the previous three parts -- acceptance of her true nature by her friends, a young man who loves and wants to marry her, a purpose in life and more -- a minuscule difference from the expected results of a routine upgrade to Atsuko/Nuku-Nuku's systems reveals a terrible truth that everyone, including herself, has overlooked for years: that while her cyborg body may be immortal, her cat brain is not. And she's already older than most cats ever get to be. The story of how she comes to terms with her impending death, and tries to help her family do so as well, is both heartbreaking and inspiring.
    • The final installment of Lawson's cycle, No Longer Than Thy Love, has a truly tear-inducing moment as its climax, when Atsuko's little brother -- now grown up and with a son of his own -- discovers that what he thought was a dangerous rogue AI just might be another miracle like the one that created the sister he loves and still mourns a decade after her death.

Animaniacs

  • I'd like to nominate the Animaniacs fanfic Family. It's a telling of the Warners' origins, and it really is full of moving moments. For example, there's the moment that the Warners' mother dies from drug and alcohol abuse, and Yakko has to try and explain to his siblings why she isn't there anymore. To make matters worse, the siblings' father is a con artist and doesn't want anything to do with the kids. Then there's the part where Yakko and Wakko are put in a home and seperated from Dot after being caught stealing in an attempt to help their father. And then there's the saddening death of Yakko's mentor. All of you should check out this fic; the author is an excellent writer and comes up with a lot of background information.

Animorphs

  • A while ago I read an Animorphs fanfic that was so well written, it ruined the actual series for me. Everyone had already died, Rachel and Tobias were the last ones left as fugitives. The story ended with them bleeding to death and professing just how much they loved each other. Sadly, I have no idea what it was called or where to find it. :(

Artemis Fowl

  • The Artemis Fowl fanfic "The Sword of God": the part about how Butler died.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

  • The ending of the Avatar:The Last Airbender fanfic Guide Me Home. Thanks to identifiable Mommy Issues, when Azula shouts "You left me! Everyone left me! Everyone, but you most of all! You left me, Mom! You left me!" I just sob. It can be found here.
    • Ursa and Zuko are reunited, finally, after seven years and way too much suffering.
    • Ursa's Heroic BSOD after finding Zuko's wanted poster also qualifies.
  • In the Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic The Chong Sheng Trilogy, the story's second installment has a few of them: 1) Jet's death, which results in Katara getting her berserk on, and then going into a full-blown Heroic BSOD once she realizes what she just did. 2) Zuko's final showdown with Ozai, oh God. It's too good to even risk spoiling. 3) The author's OC Shen Lei confessing his involvement in Lu Ten's death. To Iroh's face. 4) And lastly, Pakku's death and the beginning of the third installment. His last words to Katara are "I'll say hello to her for you." Dammit, I'm sobbing all over again.

Axis Powers Hetalia

Belarus: Who am I? Don't be kind to me! Don't look at me! Don't anybody look at me...!

  • There was this one fanmade video called Servant of Evil (based on a Vocaloid MV) where everyone was after Alfred and Matthew told him to switch places with him so he could escape to safety. The people eventually captured Matthew pretending to be Alfred and prepare to execute him and do so. Meanwhile, outside in the rain, Alfred could only cry as he knows what's happening to his brother.

Which tears will you choose?
(Italy just smiles and points to a teardrop... and it's Holy Roman Empire)

  • In Children of a Common Mother, Canada has disappeared from the world, both as a nation and as a landmass, with no one remembering that he had ever existed. The only person who even faintly remembers Canada is America. The scene he tries to prove that a country once existed next to him, England asked why does he care so much for someone who doesn't exist. It was America's reaction that tugged the heartstrings.

America: " I said, I don't know. I don't know why I care so much!"

    • In the same chapter, the scene where France walked in on a crying America.

" I-it's like a part of me got ... got cut out. The emptiness keeps gnawing away at me ever since I realized it was there. I don't understand it, I think ... I think I will when I've figured out what's wrong with ... with the world. I ... I-I just ... have ..."

  • The Denmark/Norway fanfic Secret Crowds brought me to tears for at least the first five times I read it. Norway's pain of having to deal with losing the Denmark he know and all the moral issues with their relationship is incredibly well written and heart tugging.
    • By the same author is the epic fanfiction A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes. It's another Denmark/Norway, crossed over with a Superman plot (but not at all what you're expecting.) All the emotions are so raw and developed for everyone involved, it makes you want to cry for many reasons.
  • This doujinshi. It starts with Canada and America as kids comparing heights, with Canada being the shorter one. Later on, America was trying to convince Canada (who is hiding in his house) to fight against England, telling him that he's grown up now. Canada comes out and we see that Canada is still physically a child, not much different than the child we saw in the beginning. The scene where England hugged the now physically grown up Canada and tearfully apologized for making him grow up too fast was just utterly heartwrenching.
  • Just the concept of Heta Oni, a fanmade mind screwy horror game based on Ao Oni, where the Axis and the Allies, along with Canada and Prussia, are trapped in a haunted house and they are trying to stay alive as they are hunted by a monster. We would find out that everyone except Italy ended up dying. And even after being sent back in time many times, the same thing still happened no matter what Italy did, all his friends would die and Italy would be left all alone again. Only for the process to repeat again.
  • Someone on the Hetalia Kink Meme requested a fic about a nation saying "S/he died and we did nothing" in regards to someone else. Anybody who's read Gunnerkrigg Court will know that any fill for this will inevitably be a Tear Jerker, and an anonymous filler fully delivered on that with a fic about France and his real-life Jeanne. If you aren't weeping for France and his lost Jeanne by the time you finish, you have no soul.
  • Greece/Japan is normally one of the WAFFiest and happiest couples in APH fandom, but the fanfic "Falling Without Knowing" averts this status hard by making them the Star-Crossed Lovers to end all Star-Crossed Lovers. The first three and half chapters lull you into believing that they'll find some way to defy their literal Star-Crossed Lovers status and reunite, only for Reality To Ensue in the last one and half chapters with a Downer Ending that WILL rip your heart out of your chest and crush it. When the author herself says that she cried while drafting this story, you know what you're in for. What makes this even worse/better is that the ending, in spite of Shooting The Shaggy Dog, isn't manipulative at all (no character deaths here - in fact, it probably would have been less sad if they had merely died); you can see why the ending was the most realistic one for them, but that doesn't stop you from desperately wishing that things could have somehow turned out differently for them.
    • Update: It turns out that the author was trolling her readers and that the soul-crushing Downer Ending mentioned above wasn't the real ending; in the true ending, Japan and Greece's unwilling sacrifices turn out to not have been completely in vain after all with the nations being given control over their lives and allowed to meet each other once again. The final scene? Japan and Greece's eyes meeting each other as a butterfly passes by. Earn Your Happy Ending, indeed.
  • How can someone talk about Hetalia tearjerkers without mentioning October Twenty-Fourth? An AU fic where Prussia tries to recover from a serious illness, all while his younger brother Germany tries both his hardest to help, and to keep on living normally. Germany visits him every single day in his hospital room, keeping him company, and, to put it lightly, things go downhill as he watches his brother wither, go insane, and eventually die before his very eyes. The writing's lovely, the characterization is perfect, and the ending is quite heartwrenching. Never Got to Say Goodbye, taken to its most moving extreme.
  • The Axis Powers Hetalia Doujinshi Der Erste Stern is a complete Tear Jerker, all four parts of it. There are no regrets to getting it, though the entire thing is just heartbreaking.
  • The Doujinshi Dolfin: Basically, Italy Veneziano experiences the acqua alta phenomenon and drowns as a country, despite Germany's efforts to save him. Twenty years later, in an attempt to bring Italy back, Germany goes back to the sunken Venice and meets a young Gondolier named Feliciano who looks a hell lot like Veneziano. They get closer, and things somehow go downhill from there.
    • Don't get me started on Dolfin. It is by far the best Hetalia doujinshi—or even doujinshi in general—that I've ever read. I sobbed from start to end, and then for another half an hour or so after. I still cry whenever I reread it. How Veneziano and Feliciano are so similar, yet in the end they're not the same... and the deaths of both characters, especially Feliciano's, when Germany was just finally getting over Veneziano... God, I don't think I could possibly express how hysterical this made me.
  • Here comes the candle, in which, due to economic problems, Arthur becomes the 51st state, is utterly heartbreaking. Very well written; it caused someone who's sat through some of the most famously depressing Vocaloid songs with a straight face to burst into tears. Arthur is depressed, Alfred is convinced that Arthur hates him, and the ending is tearjerkingly tragic. After a century of statehood, the American govenment declares that the citizens of the '51st state' will officially be full American citizens, as opposed to thier duel British/American nationality they had before. This shift causes Arthur to die. Upon witnessing this, Alfred has a breakdown, stating that he is "happy" while strangling himself to death. His final prayer is especially tear jerking:

Oh God...Oh God, please, please...

If you exist, take us far away...

...far, far away...

...To a place where we can press our ears to the earth and listen to the world spinning on without us.

  • I can't believe this hasn't been said yet, but the fanfic Gutters is one of the most depressing stories I've ever come across. After 'The Calamity', where nearly every one of their kind is presumed to be dead, Sealand and Denmark travel on foot across Europe to see if they can hitch a ride to Sweden and find the rest of their family. On the way there, having to deal with Crazy Survivalists, Netherlands' betrayal, and Denmark's rapidly deteriorating health, the two eventually form a very close bond, which make it a hell lot harder when Denmark stays behind in Poland to blow up the hunters chasing them to ensure that Sealand can arrive at Sweden safely. It gets even worse. After Sealand successfully locates the rest of the Nordics, they go back to the shore to find Denmark, who was now completely blind and lame. The six of them spend that night together in one bed, only for Sealand to wake up the next morning with Denmark dead. It all was so heavily foreshadowed, yet one can't help but keep hoping things wouldn't get worse up until the end. The actual ending wasn't a complete downer though, but heartless is the person who can read this entire fic without tearing up.
  • Though Debt is generally considered to either be sickening or horrifying for the most part, it's not without it's moments. Especially in the later chapters.
  • This. No words can explain it, just get a huge amount of tissues and read it.
  • This 9/11 tribute.

B

Babysitters Club

  • The excellent Baby Sitters Club fanfic When Forever Wasn’t Enough...dear GOD. Never since Bambi will you ever come across something that knowingly plays your emotions like a fiddle and yet you can fully appreciate it for that. There are a few chapters that can get you misty-eyed if you have ever gone through what most of these girls have, if only because of how true they are (such as Claudia’s insecurity about not getting high enough grades, or Abby realizing she’s gay and has a crush on Kristy)...but the moment that really gets the waterworks going? The suicide of Stacey, the chapters depicing the aftermath of it, and the chapters leading up to it, especially the chapter featuring said character right before their last chapter, where they display a warning sign for suicide (namely, giving away prized possessions). And then in the chapter featuring the suicide itself...apart from painfully illustrating the inner thoughts of the character as they are about to end their life, there are two songs featured which the character listens to as they die and go through their inner thoughts: “The Freshmen”, and “Come Home Soon”. As if this wasn’t sad enough, play these songs while reading said chapter...and then try listening to them afterwards without shedding a tear. I dare you.
    • I really don't cry at fiction, but this fic is the joint closest (with Jo's death in Spooks) I've ever got. It wasn't really Stacey's death that got me, but when they are sat in Claudia's room afterwards and want to buy some flowers, but realise that without Stacey they have no-one to be treasurer. There's just something about that moment that made me well up.

Batman

  • Chapter 10 of Batman Begins/Dark Knight fic Fear and Malice is actually painful to read. Beautiful, but holy crap. You've got a severely ill, scared little boy whose one desire is for his mother to visit him--after the woman ran off with a shiny new husband, mind you. She comes reluctantly at his father's request, refuses to comfort the kid, and is threatening to leave when her son nervously asks for a goodbye kiss. The response?

"I hate you, can't you understand that? I hate you. I can barely stand the sight of you, you filthy, disgusting little--it's a wonder your grandmother lets you live in the house." She paused, glaring steadily at him. "Do you think I even wanted you? You ruined me, you destroyed my reputation--no one wants an ugly, overweight whore who's tied down to a little freak with mental problems. You have no idea how lucky I am to have found Nathan--he loves me no matter what--
I love y--
Don't," she hissed, pointing a threatening finger at him. "Don't you dare say that to me.
And believe it or not, things still manage to get worse. Is it any great wonder Jonathan Crane became the Scarecrow?

Bleach

  • The Bleach fanfic The Night After has one in Chapter 16 where Gin, mortally wounded and having betrayed Aizen, carries Rangiku away to a secret location so that she will be with him as he dies. The scene is...M rated, let's say, but still very sad.
  • The Penultimate chapter of Bleach Fanfic entitled Bleach: Gift of our Fathers: Ichigo and Rukia are both trapped under the rubble of a destroyed building after defeating a demon-possessed Orihime, they both pretty much know they're about to die, so Rukia does the only think she can: she cuddles up to an unconscious Ichigo and mutters her last words, "Sleep... keep your strength... when you wake up... you will be somewhere better...I will find you again..." Ichigo proceeds to wake up and unknown amount of time later and finds a dead Rukia lying on his chest. After that, he snuffs it roughly a paragraph later, and then Yoruichi discovers their dead bodies.

Bridge to Terabithia

  • A Life Rescued, a Bridge to Terabithia fanfic, sounds in the summary like your average Peggy Sue fic, but it is actually very different and somewhat more realistic. Instead of Jesse's soul or physical body being sent back in time, it is only a thought. Spefically, a few words which will hopefully lead to Leslie's life being saved. In the past, younger Jesse suddenly gets sick just before leaving with Ms. Edmond's for the Portrait Gallery just after uttering the phrase that had been sent to him by his future self. This results in the trip being cancelled, and Jesse going with Leslie to Terabithia, therefore being present when she falls in and able to save her. If the scene of Jesse frantically giving Leslie mouth-to-mouth isn't bad enough, later on, when Leslie and Jesse are in the hospital, Bill Burke informs his wife that he'd tried to get Jess to let him take over resuscitating Leslie but he wouldn't let him, and all while he kept muttering a single phrase under his breath, presumably the phrase sent back in time. What is the phrase? "Can Leslie come with us?"
    • In that same chapter, there's this exchange between Leslie and her father:

Leslie: Did you say Jess saved me?
Bill: Yes, he did. He's a very good friend.
Leslie: * mutters something unintelligible.*
Bill: What was that, Les?
Leslie: Love 'im.
Bill: Yes, I know.

Buffy Verse

  • Virtual Mutant, a website hosting many spin-off series in the Buffy Verse and continuations. At the end of Buffy Season 8, Dawn is killed, as the Big Bad has taken over her body. It's heart-wrenching to read.
    • Oh, and Anya's Heroic Sacrifice in "The Offering". Especially how Xander keeps talking before he realises she's dead. Ow.
    • And, Willow's speech to Kennedy's Grave in "Buried", finally admitting she truly did love Kennedy, but never really told her because it felt like a betrayal to Tara - and now it's too late


C

Care Bears

Carl Squared

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

  • Cell Block F by the Island Hopper: Taking place after the (remake) movie, we find that not everything ended going as one had hoped for- especially for Charlie and Wonka in particular, as the latter lost everything thanks to jealous rivals...

Command & Conquer

  • Not complete without mentioning another Tear Jerker in Tiberium Wars. Specifically, the suicidal Zone Trooper charge at the end of Chapter 15.

Coraline

  • The Coraline fanfic Right Beside You has two moments: where Coraline tells off Wybie and then, after he lets her, she realizes that, without him, she has no friends and in the last chapter where the Beldam kills Wybie. Yeah, the Beldams kills Wybie! But it turned out that was a Disney Death, but it doesn't make it less heartwrenching.


D

Danny Phantom

  • Song Shots: First sad tears, then they turn to happy tears.
  • The moment in the Danny Phantom fic Ghosts in the Closet when you realize what happened to Danny. This being a major part of the driving mystery behind the story, finding out that he used his ghost powers to save a kid, despite knowing full well he'd be hauled in for government experiments or even killed for doing so was stunning, and really fit in with the overall tone of the story.

Think he'll save that kid?
Damn straight he will.

Daria

  • Daria Fanfic definitly loves this trope. Two good examples are in Doggieboy's 'A Little Vacation' , when Daria and the man she's falling for spend their last few moments together before the Ringbearers modify their memories and then reset the timeline so that they never met, and their experiences together never happened. Even more heartbreaking; in The Angst Guy's 'Winter In Hell' , Sandi and Quinn think they see a small white flash and think that it's Fluffy, Sandi's cat who ran off and got lost when her Jerkass brothers deliberately let the cat out. They find that it's a scrap of white paper blowing along the road. A fic that is both Tear Jerker and Crowning Moment of Heartwarming from beginning to end is Richard Lobinske's 'A Home At Summer's End' (from his excellent Post Canon series Falling Into College), where we see how the character of Bump, a homeless kitten, becomes Daria's pet.

Death Note

  • The Death Note fandom has a couple of pieces by Serria. "The Golden Son, Light" is about Light's depression prior to the series, through his mother's eyes, and at the end, she relaxes, but the reader knows why Light seems all right: He's decided to be Kira. But that moment's got nothing on "It Rains On The Living", when Sachiko attends Light's funeral and considers the wreck of her family. Basically, take Mama Bear rage and make it useless and impotent, and then add the bitterness of having lost everything. It really rubs your nose in the easily-overlooked fact that at the end of the series this woman has been through the death of her husband, the death of her son and the kidnapping and insanity of her daughter. What's she got left?
  • The same fandom has Bialy's pieces about several of the Wammy's boys. A couple standouts are "Evangelos" and "Where The Heart Is." The first is a brief, lyrical piece about seven halfway decent moments in Mello's life - the author calls it 'Mello in seven kisses' - and it's a heartwrenching examination of how he became who he is. In the second, Matt is searching for Mello, and he stops by Wammy's House to find his records. One-line character Linda meets him there, and thinks about him, and thinks about Mello, and thinks about how much Matt changed from the last time she saw him. And at the end, she discovers what became of them at the end of the series, and because she's a painter, she resolves to use that to tell their story. The whole idea that maybe they weren't completely gone...
  • The Death Note fanfic Daddy Eyes, especially the last line.

Detective Conan/Case Closed

D.Gray-man

  • In this AU D.Gray-man fanfiction Of Gangsters and Willow trees, Kanda is a gangster who happened to stumble upon the dying boy Allen. A strange friendship is struck up and Kanda often goes to the hospital to visit him. Allen wistfully wishes to die under a nearby willow tree, as anywhere else is better than dying in the hospital. Then, at the end of the story, when Kanda tried to get out of his gang, they turned on him, badly injuring him and he dragged himself to the willow tree. His last thoughts (and the story's last words), as he laid dying under the tree, was:

I'll have to apologize to Moyashi; I stole his freakin' death bed.

Digimon

  • This AU Digimon fanfiction that involves one of the characters on a plane flying back home from America...on 9/11.
  • Final Hope, another Digimon fanfiction, qualifies. It deals a lot with Hikari and Takeru, and at one point both of them seem to die, and the news reports it, and the chapter that follows, with the parents and other kids learning what has happened or reacting to the news is wrenching.
  • Challenge of Fatherhood, another Digimon fanfiction. The main idea of the story is based on the fact that Gatomon dies right after giving birth to the daughter of her and Patamon. Not only is Patamon left completely devastated, but he also has to take care of an infant on his own. Not to mention, it seems that every major original character in this fic has more or less tragic backstory. Especially the backstory of Neko, how BOTH OF his parents were killed when he was a baby, how they never came back so he had to grow up as an orphan, and later on how he was apparently destined to die brought me to tears.
  • I found an Old Shame Digimon fic that, while badly written, ended in a tear jerker where the Digimon had to go back to the Digital World just like in Digimon Tamers. Except the Digidestined seemed like completely built to be woobies - these included a wheelchair bound ill boy, a social outcast who was bullied relentlessly, a kid with a fiery temper, a foster kid with Abusive Parents, another girl with only one parent...so essentially, the Digidestined were saying goodbye to their only friends. Well, there was at least themselves.

Dragon Ball

  • Waken, a Frieza-centered story by Vickychan It really says something when you fell sorry for Frieza. The worst part is not so much how it ends, but when it ends, for he's going to earth, and we all know what happened there...

Disney

  • In this Disney fanfiction, Mickey gets to see Walt Disney again during some sort of timey wimey situation...which was tear tugging enough, but it was trumped a few chapters later by the revelation of the identity of a mysterious benefactor: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character Disney lost the rights to and on whom Mickey himself was based.
    • There is a moment in this fic where Mickey and his friends hear Disneyland itself wail in anguish as Walt dies. Imagine for a second that you had to re-kill your father in order to save everything else. And for those of us who have always suspected that the Disney Parks are alive in some way to have to read about Disneyland screaming for its father...* sniff*

Doctor Who

  • Doctor Who: Think Reinette's death was depressing in canon? Try reading it from the Doctor's perspective if the alternate telling fanfic On the Slow Path, or Two and a Half Centuries in Two and a Half Days as he ponders the ways in which he could, actually, if he really tried, save her - but can't because that would change history. Or how about earlier, as she's explaining to him about the castle she wants to have built - and he can't tell her she'll never see it completed.

He could do it, tell her what's going to happen. That she'll never see the palace built, that she'll be dead in a couple years. That little Louis-Auguste, who was sailing one of his toy boats around the fountain yesterday, is going to see the monarchy destroyed. That his future wife is a vapid but charming Austrian countess who once gave the Doctor a first-rate set of lock picks in the very castle that Reinette hopes to have built. And that they are going to be executed in a public square, which he knows, because he stood and watched.

  • An alt.drwho.creative regular named B.K. Willis wrote an excellent series of mostly-hilarious stories where a psychotic Nyssa kept killing off Adric in various violent ways, while he kept working his way through all of the death-associated red tape and popping back up over and over again. In one particular story called "Friendly Hopes," Adric had been having the bad day to end all bad days and, after his latest death, seriously considered permanently passing on to the afterlife. Definitely a three-Kleenex moment.
  • The Ninth Doctor story Of More Value Than Many Sparrows. Even if you're ambivalent about the event itself, the Wham! Line just tears your guts out as you realise they're about to watch the Twin Towers fall.

Doctor: Stay here, Rose. Listen to me. It's not the future yet, but the future is coming. Can you feel it? The world turning under your feet. You can almost hear it. But listen to me, listen to my voice. Don't look up. Look around you.


E

(No entries yet.)


F

Final Fantasy

  • The Final Fantasy IX fanfic "Go Not Gently".
  • Summoning Courage, a Final Fantasy X fanfic featuring a very uncommon pairing (Baralai/Isaaru). It's not so much the first three chapters, but the last one.
  • Handle With Care and its sequel Mislabelled are a pair of Final Fantasy 7 fics that manage to be both mind-bendingly hilarious and gut-wrenchingly sad. In this fic, instead of burning down Nibelheim, Sephiroth destroyed Jenova and in doing so basically gave himself a psychic lobotomy. Severely brain-damaged and mentally ill, one day he mistakes a small trooper (Cloud Strife) for a chocobo toy. Although both stories are generally sweet and heartwarming, they are peppered with many heartbreaking scenes (Sephiroth confronting Genesis and Angeal after they abandoned him, Cloud's desperation during Sephiroth's freak out in the sequel, the interlude with Genesis telling Angeal why he left in the first place), the sequel takes the cake when Cloud is kidnapped. Sephiroth's breakdown without Cloud there to help him through day-to-day life is HEARTBREAKING and then when Cloud is rescued he gets the courage to finally ask if Cloud is really a toy. And that's not even looking at the alternate ending to the sequel, where Cloud is killed before Sephiroth can rescue him and Sephiroth kills himself because he can't face life without Cloud. At least they can be together in the Lifestream - only NOT, because Cloud is absorbed into it and Sephiroth is not, leaving him alone and waiting forever for any tiny bits of Cloud that remain... *sob*

Firefly

  • The Firefly fanfic Forward has a number of these, mostly centering around River, as the author makes a point to run her through the wringer at least once per "episode." They include several violent mental breakdowns on River's part, as well as River and Jayne being tortured by Niska, and one bit at the end of the "Mosiac" episode where River has an Out, Damned Spot! moment while trying to wash off the blood of all the men she'd killed the previous chapter.
    • One reviewer pointed out a particularly potent moment on River's part toward the end of "Business," when she starts shooting at the Hands of Blue that are after her.

River: "You want her back? This is what you want? This is what you made, and you want it back? Not yours! Never yours, won't be again!"

    • Another reviewer admitted she started crying at the end of "Condor" when Mal talks to River about how he doesn't know when he finally decided she was part of his crew, but that at some point he decided that fighting for her, like fighting for the people of Miranda, was a cause worth dying for.
    • The ending of the fifth chapter of the "Adrift" arc, where River is fighting the Reaver horde and is hit by paralyzer darts. It ends with the "Riverthink" suddenly failing, and the last words of the chapter being River desperately apologizing to Simon as she falls.
      • What makes it even more potent is that the author normally ends a chapter with a few paragraphs of commentary. That chapter? Only his Catch Phrase.
    • River gets another gutwrenching moment in the epilogue to the "Silver" arc, which features her tearfully confessing to Book that she went after one of the men who tortured her at the Academy, but who himself was deeply traumatized by what he put her through and was left an emotional wreck afterward. The Tear Jerker comes while she is flashing back to the confrontation, where she has the man at knifepoint, and realizes that she doesn't hate him, when she knows she should, and she keeps slamming him against the wall and screaming that she should and demanding to know why she doesn't want to kill him. He tells River it is because he doesn't believe she is a murderer, and she then has a complete emotional collapse as she realizes he isn't an evil person and that she has no idea what to do or what to think.

The knife came away from his neck and clattered to the floor, and the sound shattered the spell. The dam broke, and the girl fell forward, sobbing, head pressing into his shoulder.
Rishard Dannet did the only thing he could. His arms rose up and wrapped around the girl he'd helped break, and he held her tight as she collapsed, whispering in her ear that he was sorry for it all, that she was okay, and that everything was okay.

    • In "Hunt," Zoe has a single gutwrenching line, mostly because in the previous arc she'd been developing an intense, maternal protectiveness of one of the child refugees at the abbey, only to discover said child was a psychic Inducer who was influencing everyone, including Zoe, and actually a psychopathic murderer. She sums it up thusly:

Zoe: " She got in my head."

    • River's letter to Simon at the end of "Hunt." She tries to apologize for what she did and tells him how afraid she is of her abilities and how she was being used, and promises him that she will get better, but that she has to do it on her own. At the end of reading it, Simon breaks down and starts crying.
    • The very last scene of "Hunt" has Wash trying to comfort Zoe as she breaks down crying in the aftermath of having to kill Kathryn.
  • The Firefly story Everything Burns. Basic premise: Serenity's crew didn't make it back in time to save the Tams during "Safe."

First Encounter Assault Recon

  • Tabula Rasa is a First Encounter Assault Recon fic taking place in a AU post Project Origin. After getting some new team members, one of which is Alma Wade, the FEAR teams see videos and listen to audio recordings concerning Alma as a child. You know that she is a monster in-game, but to see evidence that Alma was a child ( She wanted to be a singer! ) makes you feel much more pity for her.

Fullmetal Alchemist


G

Gargoyles

  • There's a lot that's sad in Merlin Missy's Gargoyles series "Consequences" but Delilah's Heroic Sacrifice is absolutely heartwrenching, both in the thing itself and in the reactions from the whole cast.

Glee

Good Omens

Crowley: Listen, as much as I appreciate the offer, and only since it means there’s no torture involved for me, I’m not interested. I somehow doubt you’ll let me keep messing with people. I’d rather be in pain than bored, and your side is blessedly boring... Besides, after all that shit you just put me through, I really fucking hate you. And Aziraphale! Why the fuck would you bring me back to life and not him? What the fuck is wrong with you! What am I without him?

  • Prodigal Son and its remix, Safe Haven, about Crowley taking care of a broken Aziraphale who had been trapped in a Nazi concentration camp and has lost faith. Especially when Crowley sacrifices the relationship they had developed to encourage Aziraphale to talk to God and restore his faith. Incidentally, it's by the same person who wrote Manchester Lost.

Gorillaz

  • Gorillaz fic A Man Out Of Time, in which a teenage Murdoc, referred to as "Mud" to avoid confusion, travels in time, meets teenage Noodle, falls in love with her, and ends up selling his soul to save her life even though he can't stay with her:

"Do I ever regret this?" Mud asked quietly, his voice breaking. He looked up at his older self.
"No." Murdoc gently squeezed Mud's shoulders and let go. "But I'm not going to lie to you, it's not exactly a stroll through the daisies either."


H

Haibane Renmei

  • The Haibane Renmei fanfic "Before We Had Wings". It's a prequel to the Haibane Renmei series, showing the events that led various Haibane to Glie. And considering that it's strongly hinted that Haibane are the souls of children who died young...

Halo

  • In Enemy of My Enemy, when the Hunter pair is overwhelmed and killed, the last one's final thoughts are of the sweet little girl who reached out and befriended them. Also, Rukth's death can be quite heart-wrenching, as can Vtan's reaction to it: "A wail of sorrow [that] echoed across the battlefield... the Jiralhanae... felt an irrational prick of fear... Something had awoken; something terrible.

Happy Tree Friends

Harry Potter

  • Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness
    • Terry Boot tried to use the Killing Curse on Michael Corner because he didn't want his best friend to suffer anymore.
      • Virtually anything sad in that 'verse involving Terry and Michael tends to send me flying past tears and into self-protective shutdown... particularly the outtake Standing Witness, which is from Terry's point of view during and after the above-mentioned Killing Curse episode.
    • Definitely the entire Battle of Hogwarts, but it was the chapter after that, where Ernie sacrifices his life for his wife and unborn child. That should have been a complete Narm, but actually came off as beautiful and sob-worthy.
    • Seamus' speech in the second. And then Colin's in the eighth.
    • Really, the entire Dumbledore's Armyverse is rife with them. This author is a sadist. Good, but a sadist. You'll be rereading JKR's Snape backstory and Harry's final walk into the forest just to cheer yourself up after this author forces you to take a long, hard look at what it means when teenagers go to war.
    • And really, DAYD will look like small potatoes by the time you finish its sequel Sluagh.
    • The aftermath of the final battle, particularly Romilda's family not recognizing her and Pansy crying over her sister.
  • Anybody who could read Winter's Debt by La Guera and stay dry-eyed has a shriveled black coal for a heart. It's Draco Malfoy's account of how he found that he had a younger sister that had been kept hidden---and why she had been hidden. Some of the passages will haunt you...
    • "I have done far crueler things since then, but I have regretted none so much as that. I have slaughtered innocent women and children, and their screams have not haunted my dreams. I have raped and looted and tortured in the name of purification and felt not the slightest twinge of guilt. And yet the face of my silent sister contorted in grief as I trod upon her only plaything has never left me. It followed me as I lay in the bedchambers of virgins and prostitutes. It was with me on the day I watched Aurors kill my father. It is with me as I stand here now, and it will be with me when I go to seek Winter's justice."
    • "Even at the end, she had still been very much a child. When Death had reached out his arms to her, she had fled to the sanctuary of my father, wanting his comfort for the journey ahead."
  • Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Future Past: Harry "talking things over with Hermione" after Hermione's death as a way to clear his mind and think things through got right to me. Not to mention Luna's sadness when Neville isn't allowed to visit over the summer, and quite a few other things. Particularly the Glomp when he admits what he's been up to, fully expecting his friends to reject him in horror...
    • That was the one that hit me the worst. Harry has just come out of a coma, learned that Ginny had Tom Riddle's Diary which he had been keeping from Ginny to save her from the possession she went through in the original timeline (the books), gone down to the Chamber of Secrets with his friends, killed the Basilisk and destroyed the Diary. Then, when Ginny wakes up, Harry starts to cry, saying that he had feared she would die again. It comes then that everyone is able to use Occlumency, which was the prerequisite Harry had asked for so that he could tell them the truth. And so, Harry tells them that he is a time-traveler (and he had to use a method that required killing himself), that they fought Voldemort for years, that he saw all of them dead in the original timeline (Ginny, Neville and Luna died in an attack against Hogwarts and Hermione and Ron died many years later), that the only reason he kept on was to finally get revenge on Voldemort for killing them all, and in the end he confesses that he has manipulated them to some extent because he wants them to survive the war this time, and by the end of his explanation he fully expects his friends to leave him alone. Instead, Ginny cuts him off by hugging him and crying on his shoulder, immediately followed by the others, and the six stay there, practically unable to stop crying. And Harry's reason for crying is because he has just realised, without a speck of doubt, that the friends he lost in the original timeline, for whom he has risked everything and whom he almost preferred to survive even if they weren't friends with him, are back into his life. Dammit, Manly Tears...
  • An Analysis of a Mother's Love (Deathly Hallows spoilers). What was going through Molly Weasley's mind during her Crowning Moment of Awesome?
  • The Harry Potter fic Survivor has Hermione die in the final battle, then spends 4 chapters watching Harry complete his tasks so he can kill himself and join her. All the other characters are quite aware that's what he's doing, too. One of the most touching stories I've ever read, and absolutely the best, most mature Rons I've ever seen ("the one JKR thought she was writing", to quote one reviewer).
    • Anybody not utterly against Harry/Hermione would get choked up when Hermione goes down in the final battle... and Harry's just waiting to avenge her before joining her, with his friends helplessly watching.
  • [3], to be exact, the last few paragraphs.
  • Deadwoodpecker's Harry Potter fanfiction Backwards with Purpose is full of moments which just make me bawl, especially during the final chapters.
    • This flashback.

"You can't die, Luna," she whispered, her voice still hoarse from screaming. "We've got to go hunting Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. I've… I've been doing some research, and I… I'm pretty sure we can find them in Finland… Between the two of us, we'll find them, we will. But we can't if you die…"
"You don't believe in them," Luna said. Her voice was fading away and so was she. Still, she smiled that familiar, dreamy smile.
"Yes, I do," Hermione sobbed. "I really, really do. I promise. We're going, just as soon as you get better…"

    • Harry's reaction when Mrs Weasley doesn't knit him the jumper. And the part when he goes to Voldemort to die for the second time. Except this time he knows that the Hallows have been destroyed.
    • "Neville had been a champion and fearless when it came to defending his friends. This time around his life would not end in murder; he would not leave Hannah a widow less than a year after their marriage. He'd work with plants, have a bunch of round-faced babies, and live to be a doddering old man, and Harry would never, ever have to watch him die." Neville dies again in this timeline.
  • The seventh book of the excellent Harry Potter fic "Sacrifices Arc". Regulus Black dies before Snape admits that he loves him; it was just as sad for its aftermath.

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

  • This Hercules: The Legendary Journeys fic. Especially the part where an ailing Hercules is cared for by an angelic Iolaus. (I'm not being metaphorical with the word "angelic", BTW.) We finally learn what Iolaus had to atone for in "Revelations".

'"Close your eyes, Herc," Iolaus urged him warmly, stroking his hair. "And I'll tell you the story that Gabrielle told me that time I was wounded when we were trying to free Prometheus. Once, a long, long time ago, all people had four legs and two heads..."'

Homestuck

  • A Homestuck fanfic, entitled Into The Dark, focusing on Aradia's relationship with Sollux. There are comments from people who actually cried while reading it.


I

iCarly

  • Haunted. If you don't cry or cry inside when Freddie's ghost is telling Sam how much he loved her and how his last living thought was about his love for her or Valerie is brutally murdered by Missy for no reason at all you have no soul.
  • An iCarly fanfic, Bruised gets the tears rolling from the first flashback. It follows a charecter from iCarly at a counseling session and basically investigates the Backstory of the character. Even though the entire story is a Tear Jerker it's when you realise that The main charecter of the story isn't Sam as the story leads on but rather Carly.

"Nobody needs to be perfect, kiddo." The counselor says resassuringly, You smile as you wipe your eyes and head towards the door and whisper loud enough for only you to hear. "I do."

Invader Zim

  • I can't find the fic anymore, it might be gone now, but...there was an Invader Zim fanfic where Zim was poisoned and slowly dying. While Dib, Tak, and Gaz frantically look for a cure, Zim vows he'll stay alive long enough to see Autumn, his favorite thing about Earth. The biggest gutpunches in the fic were Zim being forced to shut off GIR so he won't have to watch Zim slowly waste away (and the entire time, GIR is sobbing and pleading for Zim to take GIR with him), Zim and Dr. Membrane discussing the afterlife (and Zim confesses he's terrified of the thought of going to a place like Hell), and finally, after all the hard work and sleepless nights everyone pulled, the group can see he won't last a day longer, so Tak uses one of her inventions to forcibly change Earth's climate so it becomes Autumn. Zim, who at this point has to be carried to the window to see outside, gives a satisfied smile, everyone admits he's a friend to them now...and then he dies not a minute later.
  • I was reading through fanfiction and I found this story that was collection of songfics, all but one were all overly happy, the one that makes me cry every time I read it is the one based off of The One That Got Away, about Gaz being in love with Zim for a long time, and Dib exposing Zim, and Zim having to leave the planet, and Gaz regretting never telling him how she felt. The fact the lyrics were there, didn't really help anything. Here's the lnk, don't forget your kleenex. IZ Songfics:The One That Got Away

Iron Man

  • An Iron Man fanfic dealt with Tony Stark, in the aftermath of the Civil War, raising Steve Rogers' little girl. No, not an m-preg fic, no, not a bastard Cap left behind with Sharon Charter. A little girl who was Captain America's X-23, his Opposite Gender Clone, and had been raised since birth to be a Child Soldier Super Soldier. This child has a stoic face and robotic personality, having been giving nothing but routines and orders her whole life. She doesn't understand love, home, normalcy, and what's worse is we don't see this from Tony's perspective but HERS. She's so terribly confused and afraid at living with Tony and Jarvis, who are attentive and affectionate if flustered at raising a child. She doesn't understand and wishes to go back to the compound if only becase things are simpler there. Goddamn it's heartbreaking.


J

Jeeves and Wooster

  • Bertie and the Bowler Hat: An elderly Bertie Wooster is found dead with a picture of the late Jeeves in his hand. It was topped by the very last sentence: "Mr. Wooster had given me the black bowler hat."


K

KaBlam!

Kingdom Hearts

  • Deae Ex Machina is 13 chapters, plus a prologue, of a funny, slashy Kingdom Hearts fic where the Nobodes are reborn as humans, and have wacky hijinks with the heroes and other characters. It also contains an Epilogue, which is almost 3,000 words worth of being punched in the stomach.
  • "You Don't Miss It Till It's Gone", one of the recommended Kingdom Hearts fanfics here has a couple of real kickers. Sora's fading away after going compltely insane, but finally being free of Antiform, leading to a Dying as Yourself moment in Kairi's arms, then later on on we have Roxas and Namine fading away together. Although to some it may be a bit cheesy, the last conversation they share is sob inducing, ending with each telling the other that they love them, then giving us this line.

And that was the last thing Naminé heard before the both of them faded back into their Others, their bodies fading away into strands of light, back into the seventh Princess of Heart and the Key to Kingdom Hearts.

  • While it wasn't as much of a tear-jerker as others, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic about a person who didn't know he had become a nobody got a bit depressing when one considered that he couldn't feel emotions and even though the guy was supposedly in his 20s, he had the mind of a naive kid. The nobody was being taught by a distant family member how to feel emotions again, but while being taught he was brought to his grandmother's funeral and wondered why everyone was so sad. This was more of an "...oh god this would be so embarrassing" but it was still kind of sad that he still didn't know how to feel when he saw his grandmother buried.
  • In the Kingdom Hearts fanfic, Fill the Moon, almost damn near everyone and everything gets a depressing backstory or miserable moment. The author seems to love dragging literally EVERYONE through the Despair Event Horizon or, by proxy, delivering an emotional gutpunch to the readers. "Highlights" include:
    • The adorable little OC protagonist, who is purity incarnate and barely thirteen years old, is impregnated by Zexion, who is understandably conflicted about the whole ordeal, considering his guilt for initially desiring a sexual relationship with her. The best part? The man who orders Zexion to do it? Her own father.
    • Oh, and not to mention, she almost dies because of the pregnancy, and spends about three to fourth months in constant, screaming agony that she tries to put on a happy face over her pain, so as not to make her family worry.
    • Zexion's Heroic Sacrifice is just AWFUL. Senayax pulls a Please Wake Up and everything, which, considering how brutally she has had her innocence stripped from her, just emphasizes the fact that a very scared little girl in a lot of pain just watched her lover die because one of her best friends tried to kill her father.
    • To anyone reading those above spoilers and openly weeping; yes, it is THAT kind of fanfic.
    • Oh, and some of the stuff that happens to Demyx is horrific. The scene where he literally tries to clean the castle with his own blood, not noticing the fact that the chemicals in the cleaner had worked his hands raw is a disturbingly realistic portrayal of PTSD. It doesn't help that even after Xigbar finds him and tries to help him, Demyx is adamant it's all his fault and begs for Xigbar to BITE HIM...because that's what his big brother did.
    • Oh god; there's a scene after the other Apprentices--including the baby's father, Zexion--find out that Senayax is going to die because of her pregnancy in which Lexaeus, who had already seen an experiment like this one fail, with fatal consequences is basically having a Heroic BSOD in front of Kingdom Hearts. Zexion comes out to find him and basically tears him a new one before breaking down in tears and begging for Lexaeus to help him. Lexaeus, who is normally the Organization's most emotionally stable member, basically tells Zexion that there's nothing they can do.
    • The part of the chapter in which Zexion tells his lover, Senayax, that she's going to die is one of the worst parts of a chapter that is basically the fanfic's Crowning Moment of Absolutely Goddamned Depressing. The only thing that Senayax says to him is just the sadness cherry on the misery cake.

"Zexion, if I die...can you promise to hold my hand?"

    • The worst part? The chapter's title is, of all things, Hope.
    • The next chapter isn't much better. Xemnas is having a My God, What Have I Done?-induced breakdown over inadvertently killing the girl who he considered a daughter when said daughter he condemned to death comes in. Frankly, the author just spells out the depressing for us, so I'll just leave a little segment for you to sob over here...

"Zexion told me I was gonna die soon." She said. "He wouldn't lie to me like that." Something odd and alien flashed behind her eyes, but it faded as soon as it had come, and it left a frightened little girl in its' place. "A-am I gonna die, Xemnas?" She asked. Xemnas didn't know what to say. She shook her head. "Cause I see'd Zexion coming back t'our room, an' then he just...he looked so sad. Like he'd given up. I knew he did, 'cause all he did was hold me an' cry until he fell asleep..." She shivered.
"I'm scared. I don't...want to be givened up on..." She broke down in tears, trying to stifle the sounds of her sobs as she looked up at them. "Please don't give up on me..." Xemnas pulled her into his arms from across the bed, desperately trying to cradle her close and stroke her hair as he sobbed with her. "No, no Yaya." He whispered. "We won't give up on you. I promise, I promise..." He felt Saix settle in beside them, holding his hand in his and stroking her hair with his other hand, and Xemnas could only think of one thing to say. "Daddy's here, Yaya," he whispered, voice hoarse with agony, "daddy's here. It's going to be all right, sweetheart, daddy's here..."

    • Larxene's backstory is almost as bad. While it's not as cry-your-eyes-out drama worthy as some of the other instances explained already on this page, seeing the normally snarky and caustic Larxene crying and having a nervous breakdown because of being raped and abused by her ex-husband for about three years is...jarring.

Kirby

  • This Kirby fanvid is deliberately played for over-the-top comedy... but isn't quite over-the-top enough. After the block holding him in is freed, a Gordo drifts off into the sky... and far beyond. The music-and-imagry combination is enough to make you mist up. And while the ending is more giggle-worthy than tear-jerking--initially--you quickly begin to feel bad for the little guy that he didn't get to see everying before getting boinked back to Pop Star by a stray asteroid.


L

The Land Before Time

  • Twilight Valley is alleged to have one. When Ducky contemplates suicide after being rescued from her imprisonment.

Looking for Group

  • Warlocks and Witches has a particularly tear-jerking moment when Cale dies in a particularly sudden and tragic manner.

Lyrical Nanoha

  • While not sad, as such, Noriko's speech after her entire family was killed in the Deva Series had me tearing up through sheer emotional powerfulness.


M

Mass Effect

  • This Mass Effect one shot fic called The Hundred Year Distance is bittersweet at best. To sum up the story in basic detail without any spoilers: It's about Garrus and Shepard spending their last days together, as they are near the end of their lifespan.
  • The Mass Effect fanfic Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained has just featured a rather poignant moment, in the opening to the eighth chapter. Kolyat Krios is trying to write a message to Thane, and can't find the words. It's simple, but it's so in character and right.
  • Like the above troper[1] I became misty-eyed writing a certain point in my Mass Effect 2 fic Pariah [dead link]. It shows a different angle on resident Complete Monster Morinth by introducing a character she can't control and turning everything upside down. This character dies via Last Stand/Taking You with Me and sacrifices herself to protect Morinth. The half point of the chapter finishes with a Died in Your Arms Tonight/Mercy Kill moment One reviewer drew this in reaction to that particular scene.

Mega Man X

  • Most of the reviews Whispers in Time make mention of crying or causing heartbreak.

Merlin

  • This Merlin fanfic, which sort of... creeps up on you.

Metal Gear Solid

  • Stray isn't depressing in its entirety, but it has its tearjerker moments. Particularly during the Shadow Moses section, when Big Boss has his final conversation and Last Kiss with "his" Ocelot, whose spirit is currently being channeled by Adamska.
  • Howling At The Moon is a fanfic recounting Sniper Wolf's life from slightly before Big Boss met her all the way to her death. You'd think that the tear-jerkiest moment would be her ever so famous death, right? WRONG. Chapter 4, at the very end, a sixteen-year-old Wolf leaves her home with FOXHOUND. The whole time, a fourteen-year-old Naomi is begging her, nearly in tears, not to go. The worst part of it is that Wolf mostly keeps her cool as she tells Naomi that she has to go, then breaks down when she's just a few yards down the road. And that's not even the tip of the iceberg.
  • The Metal Gear Solid fanfic Look Up. Starts out with Otacon and Snake stargazing some time after Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Otacon's being his usual Adorkable self about constellations... and then he realizes Snake's quietly dying beside him. And he keeps talking, refusing to break down until he finishes his last sentence. "Do you know what is is, Dave? Dave? ...It's Jupiter." The callback to the "Otacon ending" of Metal Gear Solid 1 is what clinches it.
  • Another Metal Gear Solid fanfic, the excellent Hold On. (Everything Otasune by that author is highly recommended.) Meryl's faked Otacon's death in order to get Snake to take out a mercenary group that's killing off members of New Foxhound. The scene in which Snake is shown Otacon's "body" is heartwrenching. After yelling "God fucking dammit, Hal!", spending several silent moments leaning against his "corpse", meticulously and tenderly cleaning the blood away from his mouth, and slipping Hal's glasses into his pocket, he says this, deathly calm: "Tell me where they are, and I will kill them." Later Otacon wakes up and is informed by Meryl of his faked death. He's so distraught by this that he ends up severely damaging his hands in an attempt to tear out the hinges of his cell door. Raiden discovers the faked death and correctly guesses that Snake will let himself be killed on his mission to take out the mercenary group, as without Otacon he has nobody left to live for. The fic ends happily, but man alive, will it wring out your heart.

My Little Pony

  • The Last Treasure.
  • They have yet to be reposted anywhere else, but one My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic thread on /co/ had an Anon ask "Which character makes you feel the most sympathetic when they cry?" Someone answered "Pinkie Pie. Can you even imagine, someone as constantly happy and upbeat as her, being reduced to tears?" Two writers rose to the challenge.[2] My body wasn't ready.
    • I may be overthinking this, but this AMV is both sad and heartwarming. It just seems to be about all the cynical adults who watch this innocent, adorable show about ponies and feel like kids again. "I'm never growing up."
    • The background character known as Derpy Hooves seems to attract a lot of sadfics. (Read these three in order for maximum effect.)
  • Growing Up. Just the fact that Spike is outliving all his friends, and has seen the deaths of many of them, including Fluttershy, Big Macintosh, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash. The descriptions of their deaths make things even worse. Moreover, it's implied that most of the other cast members are dead, including the Mayor, Zecora, the current Wonderbolts, Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, and Braeburn, just to name a few.
  • Forever is Forever. Applejack in heaven, period.

N

Naruto

  • The Naruto fanfic "Blind" has several of these...including one in the middle that manages to be a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming as well. I'm not going to spoil that one for you, but the premise of the story is that Sasuke blinds himself to prevent Orochimaru from taking control of him. (Alternate future fic--breaks off shortly after the beginning of Shippuuden.)
  • A Naruto Self-Insert Fic where a girl intentionally made her Self Insert a Mary Sue (She said so in the description.) who thought her two team members and her sensei loved her and was so confident they'd take a sword for her. Turns out, the two other members of the team absolutely hated her guts because she was so show-offy and smug. Then they tried to stop Hidan and Kakuzu, they literally didn't even try to save her as the others were trying to save their Sensei instead and literally threw her right in the way of Hidan's scythe and let him taste her blood so he wouldn't do that to them. Hidan then decided to break her legs and watch Kakuzu murder her sensei right in front of all three while the two members finally showed what they really thought of her and said "So you finally lose, miss perfect! and are then murdered. Hidan decides she wasn't worth his time and instead just stabs himself through the stomach so she'll bleed to death, rejected by her friends and for the first time in her life, tasting failure.
    • It Gets Worse because she actually survived and the Raikage thought she was behind the Akatsuki invasion and the loss of Yugito, and she would have been executed by his hand if not for the fact that someone else spoke up and saved her...and she had told that one person to "fuck off" earlier in the fic because she hated him.
      • For the love of God post a link
  • Team 8, Chapter 20. The death of what is probably the best written, most likeable, version of Kurenai in all Naruto Fanfics, qualifies. You spend the rest of the chapter thinking she's just hiding, but she isn't.
    • And to a lesser extent, Hinata, pretty much throughout the entire fic. The For Want of a Nail nature of the story has turned the entire Hyuuga clan from merely aloof to outright abusive toward her, to the extent that Hinata can't even conceive of anyone giving her a compliment without there being some kind of veiled insult behind it. Even from her own teammates! What the hell is wrong with those people?!?
  • Chapter 12 of the Naruto fanfic Who I Am has a strong tearjerker: Kakashi's Log: ...Sensei, I'm sorry. I'm a failure as a teacher. I know you'll never forgive me for everything I've done, but I'm sorry, and I always will be.
    • Just chapter twelve? For me? The whole goddamn thing. Especially the way Sasuke frets over Naruto. A far cry from the cold, unempathetic ass he is in canon. Even sadder is that it hasn't updated since January.
  • It's one thing to get a bit misty-eyed in the process of writing it, but my fanfic The Tyrant God (A Naruto fic that's an exploration of Itachi and Sasuke's relationship with a ... sexual bent, and follows canon as closely as I could recall) managed to make someone CRY, and they went on to leave a review saying that it was an amazing tribute to Itachi's character. Still reeling from the shock of it.
  • From this Naruto fic http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7115615/12/Shinigan , Naruto apologizing to Hinata for not telling her about the fox.
    • Naruto:"He sealed it...in me. Inside me. What I did there...was I pulled out some of its power. I wasn't fast enough to get that guy otherwise. I...I'm sorry I didn't, didn't tell you already, but...everyone else hates me for it. All the civilians...I just wanted...I wanted to have a friend...I'm sorry..."

Neon Genesis Evangelion

  • At Death's Door: It is based on Shinji as a dying old man, the last person alive to remember the Angel Wars. Everyone else has died, Rei, Misato, Asuka, Toji, Kensuke etc. And Asuka. And Shinji, can't tell any more if it was real or if it was all just "a life he constructed for himself, to prove his own existence?". And then he remebers the image of Asuka and that he had one loved her, but not her name... And as he is dying, he desperately tries to remember her name: He Does: 'Death smiled down at Shinji Ikari... and he smiled back. The old man opened his mouth, and breathed his last word."Asuka..."' DAMN IT IM CRYING AGAIN!!! It is wonderful, and heartbreaking and just...* sob* . Read it if you like A/S pairing. Or just tragic-romantic stories in general. Because you will NOT be able to find a NGE oneshot that tops this in sadness.
  • To the above troper. Making statements like that is just asking for a contradiction. And thus do I present Die With Me. It is NOT a tragic-romantic. It is just tragic. Kyoko's POV after the Unit 02 experiment. Here is the first paragraph: "I never paid enough attention to Asuka. My entire mind was on Unit-02. And now, I can concentrate on my beloved daughter. I hope she isn't still mad at me for ignoring her. No one but Asuka cares about me. The only person besides the doctor and my husband who comes to see us is that little girl. I think she just wants to tease Asuka. So Asuka must eat her dinner so the girl won't laugh at her." To those that don't know 'that little girl' is Asuka. Her mother has gone mad and thinks that the doll is her daughter. Yeah...
  • A very different Eva fic, Shinji and Warhammer 40 K. Three words: "THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!" Granted, this is from a troper who watches Boromir die without a sniffle but tears up during the Ride of the Rohirrim, but still...
    • .....Hah-Hah-hernk....HERESY! * bawls*
  • Another Eva fic, well more of a doujin, called 'Neon Genesis Evangelion , RE-TAKE" (pictured above) has so many parts which make me tear up it actually isn't funny... In the six volumes, I cried more than any other story i have read, published or fanfic... oh yeah, spoilers. ALOT.
    • Volume 1: Shinji's confession of his feelings towards Asuka to Rei, with Asuka eavesdropping... "I...like Asuka. There's nothing that can replace her". Rei's suicide (and note) "the first time i touched (shinji's hands) i felt nothing. the second time... it was abit unpleasant? the third time they were warm... the forth time, I was happy... May i... touch them again?" especially seeing as when this was said before to Shinji, by Rei...
    • Volume 2: Shinji's argument with Ghost Asuka: "I will fight to protect this moment... to protect this 'now'...". Then there is the entire Asuka sacrifice: "Nobody touches Shinji without my permission" (Asuka to the Angel)... "DON'T DO IT. I'LL KILL YOU. I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU" (Shinji to Gendo's orders to self-destruct Asuka's eva)... "I recieved something precious from you...that i'll never forget...I'm sorry" (Asuka's last words to Shinji)
    • Volume 3: Most comments made by Ghost Asuka
    • Volume 4: This entire volume is one entire tear-jerker for Ghost Asuka. The worst/best moments are when G. Asuka enters Shinji's unconsciousness: "I saw it when i entered...Shinji's psyche...Shinji's Dream... Shinji's wish (among the most heartbreakingly sweet image follows...). Ghost Asuka's unsaid reaction to Shinji's move to sacrifice himself for his friends... "So Stop! So don't say anything! So don't leave me! Please...Don't Make Me..."
    • Volume 5: The largest collection of Tear-Jerkers ever... Rei-G.Asuka, when G.Asuka asks why she is going to sacrifice herself for Shinji "I won't let...Shinji...die... I made a promise... with Asuka...". Rei, when nearly destroyed, continuing to shoot the enemies attacking Shinji "Center...the...target". G.Asuka's massive explanation to 'God'/Young Asuka as to why she hates Shinji... is just to long and sad, ending with "It's just proof than for him, anyone will do", followed by Young Asuka's response "No. He just loves you.". Then a phrase of 3 words is repeated twice. Possibly THE most moving words in the entire story "I forgive you" (The first is G.Asuka forgiving Shinji for 'killing' her, before this story began, the second is Shinji to Misato in response to her self-hatred over the fate of her Arctic Expedition). Shinji out loud: "Ah yes...this is what i sought... thank you" before shattering this alternate reality, and walking to G.Asuka. When asked why he says "Because if i stayed, you'd always be alone". Then there is the entire last part of volume 5, with Shinji and Asuka by the Red Sea...
    • Then finally is the last volume... Re-take After... which is set when the events of the last volume cause both Shinji and Asuka to forget their love, and return to fighting... This part has several Tears Jerker/Crowning Moments Of Awesome ... One is Asuka breaking up as she admits to Kaji that she doesn't want to return to Germany, but wants to stay in Japan. The next, at the airport "Bye bye, Shinji". And the best, which is the ending vow from Asuka to Shinji, after they have finally regained their love... I'm going to quote the whole thing, because it is so beautiful... (it was originally in German, but i've got the translated version. Also, please remember this is ASUKA SPEAKING!)"I promise you...until i die, i will touch no man except for you... until i die, i will talk with no man, except for you... from now on, i am yours. From the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Every single bit of me, with nothing left out... I can't remember the days we spent together, but it doesn't matter...I don't know anything about the thing called love... But if 'love' means keeping this promise until the day i die... then i promise to always love you, and nobody else but you, for as long as i live... By the honor of Soryu Asuka Langley" It is the best, most beautiful ending to the series imaginable, as the love circle has finally come around, as Shinji made the same oath to Asuka in volume 1... I really can't say how brilliantly sad and happy this series made me feel... It is just great... Perfect...
      • Most of the above can be found here. It's a four part youtube series of four the saddest Re-Take moments, with music. It isn't great, the music is occasionally off sync, but normally it is well done, especially the choice of songs. The quality isn't 100% (more like 95%) either, so it helps to know what is going on... Not everyone will agree on the choice of moments, also, especially Rei fans. But the scenes (s)he chose were good choices, for A/S fans, anyway.


O

One Piece

  • Icarus's Curse is about the friendship of Pell and Chaka. When they were younger, Chaka promised Pell if anything happened to him, he would pull him out of any sea that threatened to kill him. Then, flashforward to the scene where Pell was killed, Chaka was useless to prevent it.
  • Another One Piece one, where it was implied that Zoro was killed in battle and they never found his body. The rest of the Straw Hats had continuously searched for him, clearly in denial, even when the years passed and they had fulfilled all their dreams. The most heartbreaking moment was when Mihawk had found Zoro's treasured sword and gave it to Luffy and they were simply forced to accept that Zoro was gone.
  • Existence has Zoro fighting to not disappear from being erased from existence and all of his friends has forgotten him. The Big Bad has thoroughly enjoyed manipulating everyone and he sics an enraged Luffy on an already injured Zoro by tricking the Straw Hats into believing that Zoro had attacked Chopper. It Got Worse as Luffy accidentally stepped on the hourglass that contained Zoro's existence, effectively killing his swordsman without realizing it. The flashback at the end of that chapter made it even worse.

Luffy: "Hey Zoro? Would you stay with us forever?"
Zoro: " ... Sure, Captain."

Ouran High School Host Club

Kyoya: It's your fault she died.
long pause
Yoshio: I know.


P

Persona

Pokémon

  • Fractured Stars (see also Fan Fic Recommendations for the entire trilogy). It starts going downhill around chapter 9 in terms of sadness; by 12-14, you're in impact-crater-like depths of despair. "In fact...I...I don't think anyone cares about me anymore."
  • This author wrote a Pokémon story based on the song "The Green Fields of France" as performed by Dropkick Murphys. I intentionally wrote it to invoke a tear jerker and to get people thinking if war is really necessary. The end includes a scene where the ghost of Willie McBride confronts the characters and salutes them before fading away. One reviewer said they would have cried had they known whom Willie McBride was.
    • No Antidote by Falcon Pain: It's not merely watching a kid essentially falling apart mentally. Not even the highly-hinted twist. It's someone forced to care about something falling apart.
      • Going by reviews, the teariest point appears to be the end of chapter 4, in which the kid reaches the Despair Event Horizon, gives up on trying to live his life and entrusts himself to his Pokémon.
    • All sorts of Pokémon stories can have Tear Jerker moments, including lemons.
      • Luca's Saga: this ones long and it's all happy for a while, but then some terrible things happen and people die.
      • Her Biggest Fan]]: depressing right from the start this time, even worse at the end.
      • Journey to another World: The story itself isn't really that sad, until you realize that the main character is actually hallucinating the entire thing in a comatose dream.
      • Don't Beg: A short one-shot which despite the lack of any real backstory manages to be a very moving piece of work.
      • The two biggest works by XD-385, Chronicles of the Chosen One and the Forbidden Love saga (including its sequel): The characters may be predictable, and the fights are usually overpowered, but there are more than a few tearjerker moments in each, particularly Ashton's death and Frost's redemption.
    • The Ties that Bind by Saffire Persian: If you're not sobbing hysterically by the time you find out your Charizard is dead, you definitely will be in the final scene where you are scattering his ashes over all the memorable places from your journey.
  • Goddamn, how is Pedestal not on this page? The Tournament had me alternately bawling, squealing and sobbing. Letting the actual consequences of what's happening sink in is.....horrifying.
  • Five Days Of Midnight is a pokemon fanfiction that starts out light enough..and then everything just goes- watching Ash panic when Misty, Brock and the others vanish is awful enough, but when he finds what he thinks is misty's dead body, encased in magic!ice it's just way too much. but there are enough CMOH and Crowning Moments Of Awesome to make it way worth the read.

Portal 2

  • Test Of Humanity . Just seeing the normally cheerful and bumbling Wheatley in a suicidal depression in "Ch. 12" of the story is heartbreaking.
    • The end of "Ch. 16" and most of "Ch. 17", especially when Chell is begging him to get up.
      • Heck, GLaDOS torturing Wheatley in "Ch. 16" ends up reducing him to a mess of incoherent sobs.
  • Soft Shock takes the 'Wheatley comes back to apologize' story and subverts it hard.


Q

(No examples yet.)


R

Ranma ½

  • Without a doubt, The Bitter End is perhaps the most depressing and sad story set in the Ranma ½ universe, ever.

Redwall

  • Also includes fanart, but regardless; the tributes from the fandom upon the Author Existence Failure of Redwall creator Brian Jacques, particularly this one.
  • A Redwall Fic called Vengeance Quest. It starts with a young squirrelmaid seeing her father brutally killed by a wolverine...but that's not the sad part. She grows up filled with hate and revenge...still not the sad part. She tortures a stoat from the wolverine's hoard to death for information...still not the sad part. Meanwhile, some time ago a young subcaptain in the hoard was horrified at the wolverine's methods and left, leaving her fiercely loyal superior and good friend, Keirn (whom she also loved), behind. She left in the direction of the squirrel...and that, while gutwrenching, still isn't the sad part. The sad part is when you remember what that stoat's last words were: "Keirn...I'm so sorry..."


S

Sailor Moon

  • Cyber Moon, a very long Sailor Moon fanfic, has an interesting way of avoiding Death Is Cheap: Sailor Saturn and OC "Dragon Saturn" have the power to resurrect, but each can only resurrect a given person once, so the third death is permanent. This finally comes into play near the end when Yuichiro is killed for the third time while protecting his and Rei's young daughter.

Sesame Street

  • Evremonde's Sesame Street fanfic "Sanctuary". (Yes, Sesame Street.) Anything to do with the death of Mr. Hooper is a tearjerker by definition, but oh, that last line.

Sherlock

Sherlock Holmes

Sonic the Hedgehog

  • The Sonic the Hedgehog fan comic Ghosts of the Future. Before you get to know the characters, the opening slaughter doesn't have quite the same impact, but once the universe is established, there are tearjerkers every time Sonic thinks of the friends he lost... such as when he uses Tails's Emerald Radar for the first time, and finds that Tails left a message on it... but the clincher was during the Arabian Nights issue, where he has to apologize to Amy through Morgianna, and the line, "Amy... I know you're not really her and all, but I gotta say this..." Sniff...
    • And it really plays rough with your heartstrings toward the end of Issue 6. Shadow's Arabian Nights counterpart is forced to Mercy Kill Blaze's counterpart to save her from a Fate Worse Than Death. As he cradles her dead body, he tells a distraught Silver to go home, find his version of Blaze, then "look into her eyes and tell her, 'I love you.' Do it while you still can. Do it for me," while tears run down his cheeks. Just to twist the knife further, when Silver tries to fulfill his promise, Blaze shuts him down, tearfully asking why he hasn't told her what's been going on, then tells him that she doesn't want to see him any more. Ouch.

Star Trek

  • Go read the Star Trek fanfic Atlas, specifically chapter 4. Now try not to choke up when Kirk gets his orders for the Enterprise. While it loses quite a bit of impact without the other three chapters behind it, it is still a gut-punch (of the extremely awesome variety) all by itself if you know anything at all about the backstory.
      • Even more gut-wrenching is the second to last chapter in the "Atlas and the Dogs of War" chapter. And both the end of the first chapter and all of the second part of the "Claiming Atlas" Chapter.
  • A Meditation on Leaving. It's a Star Trek fanfic written from Spock's perspective just before he leaves for Gol. Rare is the fic about Spock that manages to be angsty and in character, but this one manages it. It's written beautifully. Especially tear-jerking is this What Is This Thing You Call Love? moment:

"Is this love?" I asked him once as he lay full length on me, the warmth of his body augmenting mine, his lips sending flame along the webwork of my nerves, his hands gently tearing away uncounted centuries of Vulcan conditioning.
"It's what I've always called love, Spock," he answered. "The only kind I know." And he drew me down into the furnace of passion and silence.
I should have seen my undoing in that silence. For in the end, how easily he gave up everything he should have fought for. The ship, his command. Me.
"We can be together on Earth," he said.
"I cannot live with a shadow of the man I knew," I told him.
"It must not be love, then," he said.

  • We allowed to add our own fic? If so: "Circular Death" (on Livejournal and on Fanfiction.net). Star Trek reboot setting with lots of original series reminiscing; the five times Spock Prime knew he'd die, sometimes correctly sometimes not. I was going for a Tear Jerker effect, and ended up crying over it myself.

Star Wars

  • This Star Wars fanfiction, about the very end of Episode III when C-3PO has his memory wiped...just...just read it, you'll see what I mean. *sob*

Street Fighter

  • I'm your biggest fan The part where Abel dies protecting Fei-Long and his subsequent reaction to it is so sad. All in all, it's beautifully written.

Super Mario Bros.

Supernatural

  • Deterioration of Reason has OC!Gabriel in the hospital watching Castiel who was dying. Gabriel was given orders to end Castiel's life, even if following the command would break his heart. There was a brief recollection Gabriel had before doing the deed that simply drove his anguish further home.

"Am I getting too heavy for you Gabriel? You worry too much, brother." A gentle chuckle, the warmth of brilliant sapphire blue eyes -


T

Tales of the Frog Princess

  • If You Could Have a Second Chance, from the Tales of the Frog Princess section. This entire fic is one big Tear Jerker. Emphasis on Zoe's death, especially since the last thing she ever did was tell Francis she loved him.
    • In Chapter 4, when Francis realizes he can't use the stone to bring Zoe back to life after all...
    • Not to mention Zoe's parents' reactions to her death.
    • Happy tears when Francis instead uses the stone to go back in time, and sees Zoe alive again.

Tales (series)

Team Fortress 2

  • Respawn of the Dead. Early in the story, Heavy gets stuck in the fence, and it's played for laughs. Then much later, the team is fleeing, and he gets stuck again. They can't get him out, and are forced to leave him to the zombies. Poor Medic's distraught, as he's already had to kill his pet zombie, and can't bear to leave his beloved to die. He is convinced to do so, and he and Heavy share a Last Kiss before he is pulled away. The clincher may be the words Medic screams at the others: "YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HIM! I WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU ALL, IF ONLY IT WOULD HAVE SAVED HIM!" *SOB*
    • Early in the story, the BLU Spy succumbing to zobification, whilst wanting his mother and to go home, which leads to this line...

"His eyes shot open wide, and suddenly he could see his home, in a small village, his mother calling his name with open arms, and the sun was so bright and everything was yellow and green and warm... And then he was home."

Teen Titans

  • Titan Legends, the fanfic that's an alternate universe in and of itself, has three. All are spoilers, but, in order, Noel being manipulated into betraying the Titans and going insane, the ending of the Zap Pack arc, and the ending of Boogeymen IV.
    • The last one in that list is made even worse when you find out the Lord of the Night had taken over Noel's mind against his will at the time, and what trying to fight it must have done to him afterward in Silent Night. Thank God for the memory wipe...

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

  • And, by the same author as above[3], Perfection, a Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles fic that explores the screwed-up mental state of future John Connor, while also exploring a possible John Connor/Allison Young ship. Anyone who's seen the episode "Allison From Palmdale" knows how this one is going to end, but the real hitter comes at the end of the story.

John: "Welcome back, Cameron."

That Guy With The Glasses

"Urgh!" she yelled and turned down to kick it away. Sheer shock registered on her face for the second time, "Chester?!"
"Ya got change?!" the bum said eagerly.
"Chester, don't you recognize me? It's me, Goggles! And you're..."
(A bloody heap of bodies - or body parts - at her feet, blood spattering her clothes and hands. All she felt was the quickly-cooling blood on her face. The killing didn't even hurt her anymore.)
"...you're dead"
The image vanished and Goggles was left gaping.

Touhou

  • The Touhou fanvid Alice Dere makes me want to cry because it reminds me SO much of my own Incompatible Orientation crushes. Granted, she does fair a bit better than me on that merit... but then it ends up as a Mayfly-December Romance , which doesn't help at all.
  • Koishi Komeiji's Heart-Throbbing Adventure Part 7 - Before this, it introduces Kochiyah Sanae to be a sadist against youkais. And then her past is introduced.

Transformers

  • For all the Transformers fans out there who want a good cry should look no further than Oni-Gils Rise and its spin off works
    • In chapter 21, Thundercracker is shot down, the pain of his bond to Starscream and Skywarp being violently severed causes the blue seekers bond mates to colapse. An extra layer of sad is spread on with Nova thinking- 'They had lost their wingmate, their bondmate, and I was the one responsible.'
    • If you thought 21 was sad, 26 is even worse: Starscream is mortaly injured while he rescues Nova from captivity in Ratbats estate, and dies in the arms of his rescued son and Skywarp, his last remaining bond mate. The worst thing is Nova cant even remember his father because of mental blocks set in place by Ratbat and dosent quite grasp the inportance of Starscream until the red seeker sends him a data burst of memories and emotions (all of them about Nova growing up) The last thing Starscream mutters to Nova is 'Rise up', the Decepticons rallying call. I was a gnats wing away from breaking down while reading this at my work camp.

Twilight

  • Luminosity. It goes into the psychology behind having someone whom your life really, truly and completely revolves around dying.
    • Demetri is a bad guy. There is no arguing this point. However, regardless of what he is doing, regardless of the fact that he did it, being forced to know and live the five and a half years of his mate's life that he destroyed, and then trying, desperately, to pretend it wasn't so...
    • Elspeth has effectively been Mind Raped irreversibly, to the point that, well...

I wasn't sure whether to say "Yes, Mama" or "Yes, Your Highness", so I simply nodded and went with Jake out of the compound.

And now Bella knows she will never get it back.


U

(No examples yet.)


V

(No examples yet.)


W

WALL-E

  • The WALL-E short story Where Fires Begin. Very short and philosophical, but holy heck; it can be sob-inducing if you understand what's happened.
    • Darn you. Now I can't stop crying.
  • The WALL-E fanfic "Hold my Hand" is just PACKED with these...The premise alone is sad enough: WALL-E is breaking apart and has no more spare parts for himself, so he and EVE go far away to find more. Trust me on this, you'll need a lot of tissues before it's over. Especially for the ending, which has WALL-E being shot at so that his most important inner parts are destroyed. He and EVE spend his last hours alive dancing together, until WALL-E finally dies in EVE's arms.

Warhammer 40,000

  • A short Warhammer 40,000 fanfic, about two Ogryns named Gav and Bob. Manly. Fucking. Tears.
    • Here it is, complete with /tg/'s reactions
      • "Bob wuz a good friend. He liked to fight. He liked potato skins. He was a good soldier fer da Empruh. Now he's wif dah Emprah."
      • "Gav couldn't eat another potato skin. It didn't taste good anymore."
      • The saddest thing about this linked story? "HTTP 404 Not Found". ...BAAAWWW!!
        • Rejoice! Here's a working link. Also, Gav's continual habit of making dear friends with his innocence and love of the Emperor only to have them die or worse on him is heartrending, but the end when he finds himself as the bodyguard of an Inquisitor? With a ragtag group of new people that like him right away? Manly Tears, man. MANLY. FREAKING. TEARS. Tears of joy!

Watchmen

The West Wing

  • The West Wing fic Background is still the only fic that's ever made me cry.

With Strings Attached

  • Several in With Strings Attached:
    • Chapter 17, “Just an Earthbound Misfit,” Paul's drunken day of despair (one of many) as he struggles with not having any magic and being completely alone while the others soar around him.
    • The Bittersweet Ending, as Ringo learns he cannot take his life-changing magic back home... but he still hugs Shag and Varx for giving him the chance to experience it.


X

X-Men

  • One of the very first fics I read, Poi Lass's Dialogue is, hands down, the saddest X Men fic I ever read. The realisation, at the end, that Bobby knows how screwed up he is and doesn't care... Breaks my heart every time.


Y

Yotsuba&!

  • Good Old Days, a very short Yotsuba&! fanfic. We all know how innocent, outgoing and dependent on her father Yotsuba is. Youtsuba grows up; and in turn outgrows all these. Gone is the little six year old we all knew and loved, replaced with a deadpan, apathetic teenager. Worse still that it's in Mr. Koiwai's point of view.

Young Justice

  • Hammurabi's Robin is basically a retelling of the B:TAS episode "Robin's Reckoning" in the Young Justice universe. During the climax, which consists of Robin dangling Zucco off an office building while the team tries to convince him not to drop him, pretty much everything out of Robin's mouth is a Tear Jerker.

Superboy: That would make you like him, and you hate him too much for that.

Robin: Maybe it would be worth it. Maybe I could make it look like an accident. Maybe he tripped. Maybe he fell. Or the line—maybe the line was cut, and there was nothing I could do—

Kid Flash: Stop it. Just stop it. You aren’t a murderer, and you can’t do this, Robin, just stop—!

Robin: I’ve already seen him walk away once! I’m not— I won’t watch it again! Why does he get to live, anyway? He’s the reason good people are dead. Everyone loved them, and they’re gone, and it’s all his fault. Why should he get to keep breathing if they had to die!

    • And right then, Batman shows up and almost instantly convinces Robin not to go through with it. As the rest of the team handle Zucco, Batman gives Robin a hug, while the boy just clings to him and apologizes. The whole fic is even harsher than the episode it's based on, because at least in the animated show, Robin was an adult. Here, though, he's just a kid who misses his parents.
  • Go The Distance has five times someone mistakened Wally as Barry and Iris's son. Wally's biological parents in this story are either abusive or neglectful and one scene shows Wally feeling tremendously guilty for even wishing that Barry and Iris were his real parents. The way he beats himself over it and convinces himself that Barry and Iris don't want him was heartbreaking.

“I’m a horrible son,” he croaked.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

  • A scene in Le Diz's Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction Akh. You wouldn't think that a fanfic with the major purpose of keeping Atem from dying could be packed with one Tear Jerker after another, but it is. It so is.
    • In particular the beginning of chapter two, with most of the gang in hospital and an in-his-own-body Yami stressing the hell out over not being allowed to see Yugi while Anzu tries and fails to calm him down. Then he manages to get past her and find his way to Yugi's room and see him for the first time since the accident. In intensive care. Buried in every type of medical keep-you-alive device known to mankind. When Yami damn well breaks down, so do the readers.
      • It gets worse a few paragraphs later when Atem creeps back into the room after dark for no reason other than to climb into the intensive care bed with him and begs him to be strong, because he needs him back.
    • Then there's Scribbler's Forget Everything I Ever Told You...
      • Also: Earrings, which is, essentially, a story about not being able to acchieve your dreams, no matter how much you want and believe in them.
  • Another Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction, Lessons by Periphery, has a few tearjerkers crawling about. The gang are put through hell and back by being dumped in a rainforest, when they thought they were being sent off to duel a crazy woman who still holds the fact that Seto beat her in a game of chess when he was eight against him, wants revenge, and to this end has kidnapped his brother (long, long story). What makes the whole story a tearjerker is the fact that Yugi isn't even in a lot of the story because he's somewhat preoccupied with trying not to die, the stress of his friends trying to deal with this, right up to the moment where his heart stops, takes up a good third of the story, but by far the worst scene is when Joey gets a call from his sister, the formerly Ill Girl, Serenity (who only has eye sight because Yugi gave his three million yen prize money at Duellist Kingdom to Joey to pay for her operation):

'Serenity: Tomorrow. Could you tell [Yugi]... tell him I can see the buttons on the telephone. And the trees outside. And the stupid news on TV. Tell him I am so, so grateful.

  • Another Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction, Phoenix by Mittens no Hikari that also involves Serenity. It's only a two chapter story, but after Yugi's house burns down with him and his friends inside, you better believe the entire second chapter is a tear jerker.
  • "Loss and Blame." It's all about the effects of Yami losing Yugi in Doma.

Z

(No examples yet.)


Other

  • There's a fanfic on Deviant Art that looks for the first few paragraphs like a normal and even fairly cool story about a group of people gathering to warmly greet the crew of a returning space shuttle. One guy seems to be unduly complaining about the shuttle being unsafe. But then it's revealed that the shuttle is the Columbia and everyone who appears in the story is a ghost, including some astronauts who died in earlier disasters. And the guy who was complaining? He was Gus Grissom, Commander of Apollo 1. As an even bigger punch to the gut, the man he's talking to is Dick Scobee, the commander of the Space Shuttle Challenger on its last, doomed flight.
    • That would be Good Landing by Royce Day (Sir-Talen on Deviant ART. Well, myself actually.) Thank you kindly for the ref.
    • I didn't see it on Deviant Art, but Google showed it in Sabledrake Magazine. Sent chills up my spine.
  • This wrestling fic swings hard between this, Paranoia Fuel, and Nightmare Fuel, but the current newest chapter, 18, where Kane has convinced Rey Mysterio that he has died and is in Hell and Rey's begging and pleading reaction after all he's been put through apparently bouncing between two crappy realities...especially while Kane is STILL torturing him during it...just holy crap.
    • Chapter 19 is up...apparently the final chapter and major downer ending...Rey puts a comment from his friend Batista from earlier together with what's happening, and thinks he's caused the damnation of him as well, and completely gives up, just waiting to fall sleep in the hospital bed which will send him back to be tortured by Kane. A sequel is promised with a title that implies things may not stay so bleak though.
  • A pretty bad fanfiction where a Big Bad kidnapped two people, made one into a robot and the other into a cyborg and wiped their memories. Then the cyborg fell in love with a girl who didn't run and another kid who followed them...then the Big Bad caused a bomb in the organic robot to detonate when they confronted him. Kid survived cause he was pushed out the way, but the girl was blown up too bad to survive, and the cyborg survived...cause he was protected. Then he came too and noticed the Big Bad plotting to make his love interest into a cyborg like him and he just finally snapped, ripped all the implants out, strangled the obsessed genius with his bare, unmodified, and bloody hands before the chip controlling his nervous system cracked, gave him a major spasm and caused his hands to lock around the doctor's neck until he died. Then finally he got out, trashed the life-support equipment hoping his girlfriend would Disney Death but instead she saw his bloody face and said "I'm glad you fixed yourself" before passing away...and then the dude faints and is sent right to the hospital. The utter absurdity is that he wound up blocking the trauma out when the paramedics and firemen pulled his twisted body out so he didn't at even remember the girl he loved or even being a cyborg and only the kid who got pushed out the window at the right moment really remembered.
    • Honestly this was better than the other ending...the girl had a Disney Death, but the guy just collapsed and never got up because he used all his strength to strangle the doctor because he thought he killed the kid and the girl.
  • I can't provide a link, but there's an author by the name Slash Firestorm, who has an epic called Sinners. I'm not going to get into the plot, but there's one point where the main character's group is crossing the desert, and they get attacked. In order to protect and save his love interest he gives up most of his lifespan.
  • I can't remember the name or the series, but it was set in one of those games where you can have wildly different levels of civilization coexisting. In it, a primitive seagoing force (in wooden, oar-powered ships) is repelled by a modern force (metal boats, that ram the wooden ones as missiles won't take and lay down machine-gun fire. One of the survivors, completely broken by the attack into a childlike state, pityfully asks what's going on several times, before one of the soldiers gives him a Mercy Kill.
    • Note - You might be talking about the game Civilization.
  • How Can It This Be, Spice Girls fic, the first half appears to be a WAFF, but the second goes for a Mood Whiplash after the women learns what had happened.
  • After Case Report, the narrator starts to break down after talking about the events in, "Case of The Missing Technology", to Josh, espcially when she could tell Melanie C saw what happened to her body... or what was left, comparing it to the 2014 reboot of RoboCop. Since she was present, Melanie C pretty much wants the narrator kill her to end the pain as unable she to do so herself. The narrator doesn't through with it as she was thought about those who would miss Melanie C, even if they understood the reasons.
  1. ↑ Editor's note: this is referring to the troper who wrote “The Tyrant God”, whose entry is now listed below under the N section.
  2. ↑ Keep in mind the fan interpretation that Pinkie Pie has Medium Awareness.
  3. ↑ Editor's note: "above" being the Firefly fanfiction "Forward", listed in the F section.
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