Final Fantasy IV/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Final Fantasy IV has plenty of moments, but the one that got me was when Porom and Palom, two child-wizards, turned themselves to stone to save their allies from being crushed by the walls of a collapsing room. Even though we get some good news about them during a later boss fight, that moment is still a heartbreaker.
    • Made even worse when you remember they're only five years old.
    • And yet worse, for this troper in her playthrough of the DS version: Porom leveled up and learned new magic right after the Cagnazzo fight, and her level up animation is her clapping with joy and just the thought that she wasn't gonna get to try out this new thing she learned and...excuse me, I've got something in my eyes...
    • Also in the game there is the scene where Edge's parents kill themselves in front of Edge as he is begging them not to.
    • Hey, what about the sacrifices of Yang and Cid, within about 2 mins of each other and the party pleading for both of them not to go through with it.
      • Starting with Yang, who sought to stop the Tower of Babil's cannon from destroying the dwarves by using his own body to make it misfire. This makes the introduction to Edge, his inevitable fifth-slot replacement, sting a lot more.

Yang: Forgive me...
(Yang kicks the group out of the room and closes the door in front of them)
Cecil: Yang!? Yang!!
Yang: If you should see my wife again, tell her to live enough for us both.
Kain: Don't be a fool! Open the door!
Rydia: Yang!
Rosa: Please, Yang, don't throw your life away!
Yang: It's been an honor fighting with you.
Cecil: Open the door, Yang!
(commence final firing sequence)
Yang: Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!! *boom*
Cecil: Yang!

      • And then there's Cid, who jumped off the Enterprise with the FFIV equivalent of a tactical nuke with the intent of shutting the underground behind them and stop the Red Wings' pursuit. And just when you thought you had him back.

Rydia: They're closing on us!
Cid: Come on... Enterprise!
(cue a small explosion and smoke pouring from one of the engines)
Cid: The engines can't take this! Cecil, take over!
Rosa: Cid!
Rydia: What are you doing?!
(Cid runs to the siderail and pulls out the bomb)
Cid: Once you breach the surface, I'll seal off the hole with this!
Rosa: No, not you too!
Cid: I was hoping I'd get to see your kids someday, but someone's got to keep Yang company. You get yourselves back to Baron, talk to my boys when you get there.
Rosa: But Cid!
Rydia: You'll die!
Cid: And so young, too! (jumps of airship carrying hand-nuke) Bombs away! Try stopping this, Golbez! My once-in-a-lifetime unaided flight! *kaboom*
(cue shift of scene to the Enterprise overlooking the sealed mountain behind Agart village)
Rydia: Cid...
Rosa: (leans into Cecil) One after another...
Kain: Rushing to die like fools! (pounds fist into railing)
Cecil: We go to Baron -- for Cid.

    • -sniff-
      • In the Advance version, Kain gives us this line:

Kain: Everyone chooses death too quickly...

  • When Theodore AKA Golbez tries to use Cure on his dead father.
  • Tellah's death, made even more poignant when you beat the game and realize out of all of the Disney deaths and "Back from the Dead's", he's one of the only characters who actually stays dead through the end.
    • In the Final Boss fight, when Tellah shows up, you realize that it's probably his soul from the afterlife.