Gunslinger Girl/Tear Jerker
- Numerous portions of Gunslinger Girl, especially the backstories of the titular assassins, make almost any reader cry, cringe, or both. Triela's past in Snuff Film in particular made this troper wonder how much of a blessing the Conditioning is in a lot of these cases. Of course the mental disintegration of the kids is not easy to watch either -- and neither is Angelica's eventual death after she protected her handler from a bomb attack. They really drive the point home by letting her tell that Fairy Tale to cheer up her handler, right before she dies. Doubly so as she doesn't even remember who he is, telling him the story that he told her.
- Triela's eventual discovery of how she and her handler came to the "Social Welfare Department", and how they choose to face her approaching mortality.
- This scene from "A Day in the Life of Claes"
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Claes: "Have you ever been tremendously sad, but the tears won't come out?" |
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- Especially at the end with a rendition of "Scarborough Fair".
- Henrietta fulfilling her earlier suicide pact with Giuse at his request. After getting fragged at her hands during a rampage, he has her finish the job and, as she does so, puts a bullet through her head.
- This was made more poignant by the fact that 1; Giuseppe, had enough with his guilt, had loudly declare that he won't let his guilt define who he is, that could mean his relationship with Henrietta could improve again in the future. 2; Henrietta had fragged him by mistake, not because of any ill intent or revenge toward Giuseppe, but because she can't discern him from the enemies during her trauma-induced berserk moment. Wait, now I get it. If Giuseppe really paying attention toward Henrietta's mental condition, he should know that Henrietta had trauma concerning people with balaclava.... Oh well, too late to do anything about it now.