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Mass Effect/Tear Jerker: Difference between revisions
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*** This troper gets weepy at all of the above even including the point where Benezia declares she'd always been proud of her daughter, this despite the fact that this troper can't help but get the feeling the two hadn't spoken due in years due to a falling out.
*** Honestly, the sense of them having fallen out makes it even sadder. The first time they speak to each other in years, and what happens? Liara has to kill her own mother. Ouch.
* And then, there is Virmire... just Virmire. This was the first time
** "I'm sorry....I had to choose." "Its okay, Commander. I don't regret ''anything.''" Go ahead. Cry those [[Manly Tears]]. You know you want to.
** "Hold on, [[Take a Third Option|we're coming to pick you up, too.]]" "I think we both know [[Subverted Trope|that's not gonna happen.]]" Rest in peace, {{spoiler|Kaidan/Ashley}}, rest in peace.
** "Fight hard, {{spoiler|Lieutenant/Chief}}. Die proud!" "Aye aye, Commander."
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** Virmire... oh, Virmire. I didn't even ''like'' {{spoiler|Ashley}} up to that point, and because my Shep was {{spoiler|in a relationship with Kaidan}}, I happily {{spoiler|let her die}}. But then, when it actually happened... it hit me so hard. I didn't realize how much I actually had {{spoiler|grown to like her}}. And then when you talk to {{spoiler|the survivor and Joker}} afterward... it's just hard. And then on my last playthrough, I {{spoiler|killed off Kaidan instead}} for the first time. So I finished up some other missions and was like "I'm going to go {{spoiler|see if Kaidan has anything to say}}!" And then I rounded the corner on the second deck and it hit me all over again... :-(
** The music that plays during the debrief doesn't help. It's the same song that plays during a romance theme, but under some conditions, it'll keep playing even after the debrief as you're walking around the ship, replacing the usual Normandy theme. It gives you the feeling that something was irrevocably lost on that mission, and that nothing from here on out is going to be the same.
** Virmire will always hold a special place in my memories as well, not only because of the previously mentioned choice between {{spoiler|Ashley and Kaiden}} (Where's the [[Take a Third Option|third option]]? What do you mean there's no third option? There has to be a third option! There's always a third option!) But more so for your encounter with Wrex. I generally dislike moral choice options in video games because almost always the choice is so extreme and telegraphed there's no real question as to what the "right" answer is, it's not so much a moral choice as chooses to be moral or immoral. You've got a choice between either saving the girl's kitten from the tree and while you're at it you might as well cure her cancer and pay for her collage or shooting the kitten out of the tree, slapping the little girl across the face with it, and laughing at her tears. Choosing whether or not to be evil isn't a moral choice. But there I was on Virmire, gun trained on one of my comrades, having to choose between giving the [[Big Bad]] access to a nearly unlimited army of unstoppable killing machines or taking away the only chance Wrex has to save his people from a horrible genocidal bioweapon that has driven them nearly to extinction by taking their birth rates down to practically zero. It was the first time a moral choice in a video game really gave me a moral dilemma because the game didn't put a big flashing sign over one choice that said "This is the Right Answer! Get your Right Answer here!" It wasn't a [[Tear Jerker]] per se, but it was the deepest emotional conflict I ever found myself in in a video game.
*** This is even worse if you haven't done Wrex's Family Armor mission or have enough charm or intimidate points to make him back down, since there is ''no way to save him'' and knowing this is a punch in the gut. I was actually so upset that I couldn't save him that I used a cheat -- something I never do -- to give myself enough charm points to make him stand down.
* This troper nearly lost it in the final cutscene after defeating Sovereign. "Where's Shepard?" ...and then the camera cuts to that massive lump of Reaper, complete with heartbreakingly sad piano theme. Made exponentially worse by the fact that my party included my love interest, who truly did look like her world had come to an end. (Liara, in case you're wondering.) Even knowing that {{spoiler|[[Disney Death|Shepard wasn't really dead]]}} didn't soften the blow.
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** And, to add extra punch to Vigil, you know that his message to you, giving you the knowledge to end Sovreign's threat, is probably the last thing that he'll do before he shuts down. Although he's a VI, he still seems to be pleased to know that he'd not maintained his vigil for nothing.
** Hell, everything about the character and his story is heartbreaking. From having to [[Shoot the Dog|shut off the life support chambers to preserve power so at least a few would survive]] to the fact that he saw the surviving dozen scientists go to the Citadel and knew they'd probably starve to death on the deserted station. And then in the second game, when you find out that he shut down, it almost seems like suicide...
** And yet, there is something awe inspiring about Vigil. He is only a VI but he and the last Prothean survivors sacrificed everything in order to give a tiny glimmer of hope to stop the Reapers forever. At the conclusion of his speech this troper swore that the Protheans will not have died in vain while wiping [[Manly Tears]] from his eyes.
* "Sovereign is too strong. I'm sorry. [[Redemption Equals Death|It's too late for me]]. [[Driven to Suicide|Goodbye]], Shepard...thank you." Yeah {{spoiler|Saren}} was quite a bastard if you have read the pre-novels but given, that in the game only he's more of a [[Fallen Hero]] and is truly sorry about his betrayal, that really is a saddening scene. Even more so when {{spoiler|Sovereign takes control of his technology-modified body after his death}} and you see, that he really could not have been saved.
* The sidequest on Ontarom in the first game, where you meet Corporal Toombs, the only other survivor from Akuze, holding a Cerberus scientist at gunpoint. His half-deranged and agonized ranting is heartbreaking to hear as he simply tries to get closure and justice for what they did to him. One of the most potent lines in the exchange sums it up, when the scientist calls the soldier "Mister Toombs":
{{quote|'''Toombs''': ''Its '''Corporal!''' '''CORPORAL Toombs!''' You don't '''get''' to lie! Not anymore!''}}
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** In all honesty, this troper has a hard time taking the options that let the doctor and Toombs live - there's something that seems gratifying in Toombs getting the peace he's been denied for so long, and reading the text box of how he dies peacefully gets some tears of joy that he is free of his demons.
* When talking with Wrex about the genophage, there's this quality in his voice when he says that he can't change his people. He sounds so...''resigned'', so deeply, fundamentally depressed about it all. Its not obvious, and Wrex doesn't angst about it or anything, which makes it even worse. He's ''accepted'' that his species is doomed, and that they're going to go extinct, because that's what they are. It kind of quietly drives home just what it means to the krogan that their species has fallen from the height of power and turned into fatalistic mercenaries.
** For this troper it's the brutal truth of what the genophage actually does. On the outside, it just sounds like a way to curb the Krogan's numbers by reducing their fertility, but then you read into it some more and find out that it's not actually making them less fertile in the sense of producing eggs and such; it interferes with the development of the fetal krogan, preventing every 999 out of 1000 from developing properly. It states that most krogan babies don't even reach the stage where they're stillborn. With the fact that not every krogan gets the chance to mate, the idea that even if you get the chance to try and have a kid and knowing that unless you're incredibly lucky the most you'll get is a stillborn son or daughter (and that's if you're lucky at all) is incredibly heartbreaking. Double because this troper wants to be a dad very badly in the future, and the idea of losing a child before they're even out in the world breaks his heart.
* I actually had to set down the controller for a moment and collect myself when I completed the Citadel: Homecoming assignment. Samesh Bhatia, whose wife was part of [[Redshirt Army|Ashley's unit]] on Eden Prime, pleads with Shepard for help. All he wants is to have his wife's body back to give her a proper funeral, but the Alliance is holding her body and refusing to give any explanation as to why. His reaction to the situation is hearbreaking, especially when you convince him to let the Alliance keep his wife's body for further testing. He just breaks down, telling Shepard that he misses his wife so much and he just wants her to come home.
{{quote|'''Samesh:''' [''after composing himself''] ...Let them run their tests. Let my wife saves lives, so that others are spared the loss I feel today. Goodbye. Thank you for finding me answers.}}
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== Mass Effect 2 ==
* Veetor goes / continues to be insane if you send him to Cerberus instead of letting Tali take him. But you have to be a real jerk to keep him with Tali pouting at you to let him go.
* Ashley's/Kaidan's rejection of you on Horizon. Seeing your former girlfriend/boyfriend/best friend completely disown you... Even this troper, who can make it through almost every other part of any game or movie without crying, almost completely lost it. Then reading Ashley's email for afters... Christ, that's sad.
** Even more sad is how they react just before meeting you. They chew out an ungrateful dockhand who's nasty to Shepard, and then, when Shepard is alone with Ashley/Kaidan, they walk over to you, smile, and shake your hand (or hug if you romanced). But they don't sound happy, and then they flip out. Then it hits you: You've been gone for two years: Ash/Kaidan had to cope with that for two years, a death so traumatic Kaidan equates it to losing a limb, and then you just drop out of the sky when they've tried to move on with their lives. Even without being with Cerberus, they've been severely emotionally damaged by what happened. The fact that you're with terrorists can truly be considered a betrayal, in their eyes.
** This troper didn't fare much better reuniting with Liara. For Shepard, it was only weeks, maybe days ago that they were together...and then you start to realise how much Liara's changed because of interim events. Like with Ashley and Kaidan, it's the whole concept of waking up one day to find that two years have gone by, and the person you loved has moved on without you. That was when it really hit me how much shit Shepard must be going through, even though, being in command, it couldn't be shown.
*** He tries, but if you pay attention near the end you'll notice even the usually stoic male Shepard can't help but get a little choked up.
**** The payoff is that if you remain loyal to your ''Mass Effect 1'' romance, before the Suicide Mission, Shepard picks up the photograph of your loved one and looks at it with a small smile, implying that there will be a bigger payoff in ''Mass Effect 3''.
*** The the reunion scene uses [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7bE3hUwylQ "Vigil"] from the first game. Thinking about the connotations of the track, even just the ''name'', gives one chills. Such loneliness... * sniff*
*** Luckily the Lair Of The Shadow Broker DLC finally shows Shepard letting everything out. When Liara visits she asks Shep to tell her how s/he truly feels. The options are either cautiously hopeful, frustrated, or truly scared. The way Meer and Hale deliver these lines is heartbreaking because it truly shows that even Shepard, under that cool commanding persona, can be just as frightened as the everyone else about the threat or frustrated that everything s/he is doing to stop the Reapers is in vain. Even more striking is that this is not a Paragade choice but strictly based on how Shepard truly feels.
** Getting back together with Liara in Lair of the Shadow Broker is a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]], but the conversation Shepard and Liara have on the Normandy afterwards has a moment that really cracked me up:
{{quote|'''Liara T'Soni:''' I spent two years mourning you. So if we're going to try this, I need to know you're always coming back.}}
** For me, that just really drove home how distraght, worried, and confused Liara has been over the last two years. [[Earn Your Happy Ending]] indeed.
* If you didn't tear up during Tali's mission {{spoiler|when she finds her father's body}}, you aren't human. Almost made me cry, and I even had a brief Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
** [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]? [[Tropers/Griffinhart|This Troper]]'s Infiltrator Shepard punched the ''Geth Prime'' at the end of the mission to death. On ''Insanity''.
** Not to mention her tirade against Shepard if s/he suggests colonizing a different world. It really drives home just what the Quarians are going through. Liz Sroka's voice-acting was superbly done here.
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'''Tali:''' Don't need? Shepard, if I don't wear a helmet in my own home, I die! A single kiss could put me in the hospital! Every time you touch a flower with bare fingers, inhale its fragrance without air filters, you are doing something I can't! }}
** There's a bit of [[Fridge Horror|Fridge Sadness]] in that statement, too. Back at the beginning of the game, {{spoiler|Jacob tells you that she was on the first Normandy when it was destroyed.}} So that line about her home being "one hull breach away from extinction?" That's not hyperbole; {{spoiler|''she actually watched it happen once.''}}
** That's not tears... Just got...[[Sand in My Eyes|sand in my eyes...]] * sniff*
** {{spoiler|Tali's breakdown upon finding her father dead on a geth-infested quarian ship, and the Paragon interrupt that lets you hug her.}}
*** Don't hug Tali during her loyalty mission. Can't do it (I don't blame you)? Don't worry, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk8_iHLSwMA this guy did it for you]. The scene is painful enough ''with'' the hug; not taking the interrupt takes the tear jerking [[Up to Eleven]].
*** As has been stated [[Mass Effect/Heartwarming|elsewhere on this wiki]], no one with a soul can resist giving her that hug, including the player who made that video. After recording the cutscene without the hug, he reloaded his save file to do it right.
** In that loyalty mission there's also a part of the ''Alarei'''s [[Apocalyptic Log]] that [http://www.youtube.com/user/Ascerute#p/u/73/in1QtPf7mEA you can find]. (About 4:42) It's a female quarian who's recording a message as the geth cut into the room she's in. As the video ends, she says (to her own ''kid'') "Be strong for daddy! Mommy loves you very much!" as the geth blast into the room and shoot her.
** If you get the evidence and tell Tali that since her father is dead, he won't need her to protect him, her response - particularly the way her voice cracks, is heartbreaking.
{{quote|'''Tali:''' They'll strike his name from the manifest of every ship he ever served on! He'll be worse than an exile. He'd be a traitor, a monster to be held up to children in a cautionary tale! I can't let all the good he did be destroyed by this!}}
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*** Wrecked? It wasn't. It was pretty much the only unscathed thing there. Not [[Tear Jerker]], it's a [[Lampshade Hanging]].
*** It was a strangely appropriate ending to the poor old thing, half-frozen in a block of ice - [[Scrappy Mechanic|stuck in the level geometry one last time.]]
** Hell, the opening itself. This troper has never liked the design of the ''Normandy''; too much like a vajazzled private yacht, compared to (say) the stately elegance of the [[Star Trek|NCC-1701]] or the lean utility of a [[Battlestar Galactica|Colonial Viper]]. But the sight of her hulled and burning... "What did you do to my ship?" (And that's the first time this troper has ever ''called'' her "my ship". [[First Kiss|First]]/[[Last Kiss]], indeed.)
* A surprisingly potent one at the end of the game, when {{spoiler|Harbinger releases control of the Collector General, and it looks around before slumping in a dejected manner as the station explodes around it...}}
** {{spoiler|For me, it was the way that after the eyes stop glowing, he stands perfectly still, then gives this little twitch, then looks around. It's like, the General suddenly regained knowledge of who he was, and gets to truly take in everything around him for the first time in quite possibly his entire life, just in time to be blown to bits.}}
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*** Though, it's a bit hard to sympathise with him when he starts going on about eating salarian eggs...
*** Still, you can hear his voice giving out when he mentions the stillborns. It's pretty clear from his speech that he feels like he's got ''nothing left''. He's lashing out at the galaxy the only way he knows how.
*** What about the end of the quest, where you learn that {{spoiler|his student didn't get kidnapped, but allied himself to Krogans from his free will so he could try to find cure to the genophage? That doesn't sound too bad, but when your party fails to convince him that Krogans might start a rampage from ensuing power trip, Mordin pulls out his gun and shoots him}} if the player doesn't use a Paragon quick-time event and prevent him. Just listen his voice after that...he's so disappointed and crushed.
{{quote|'''Mordin''': Apologies, Commander. Misunderstood mission parameters. No kidnapping. My mistake. Thank you.}}
*** Poignantly, this is probably the only instance in the game where Mordin uses a personal pronoun (or a pronoun at all) while serious. He doesn't say "Made mistake." or some such, he says ''my'' mistake. It's something he can't quite distance himself from.
*** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: If you let Mordin {{spoiler|kill Maelon}}, then the above quote is absolutely heartshattering. After spending the entire mission trying to convince himself more than Shepard that he did not kill needlessly, Mordin {{spoiler|''murders Maelon in cold blood'' because once again, he had no other choice.}}
*** Knowing this, his line after using the Paragon quick-time provokes also to wipe eyes. It really shows how much of effect the mission had on Mordin. Again, the tone of his voice really tugs the heartstrings.
{{quote|'''Mordin''': No...not {{spoiler|a murderer}}. Thank you, Shepard.}}
* How about the small details, the tiny additions that just hit you straight in the heart? On Tali's quest when you find the final recording of the Quarian female speaking to her son. Or the fact that the way they played the recordings, the very last one you find (before the evidence) is the female Quarian saying how happy she is that the project is going to be a success? Or finding the asari on Illium who won't help the Zhu's Hope colonists, and realising you knew both her daughters, and both died? Losing any member of your squad in the suicide mission, and knowing it was because of your own stupid screwup? [[Mass Effect 2]] is loaded to the brim with tearjerkers.
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*** Considering the choice of selecting Miranda as your biotic specialist, when you see how she fails to protect your team despite claiming '''in theory''' any biotic would've been a fine choice suddenly reminds you of a previous conversation on the Normandy when she claims that when she does make mistakes, the consequences are severe. It's only when you experience it, you truly realize she wasn't exagerrating, and you break down for not taking her seriously.
*** Jack and Samara/Morinth? All of them pull some impressive biotic maneuvers prior to the suicide mission, Jack breaking out and then we have the battle between Samara and Morinth. Miranda? No, she just talks about it. Yes, as Miranda says, in theory every biotic should be able to do it, it would still be a flawed deduction if it doesn't actually lead to assigning someone Shepard ''knew from experience'' was able to get the job done. So Miranda being a "wrong" choice there is actually not that surprising in the end.
*** Oh, Miranda and her mistakes! During the pre-mission briefing, Miranda said the leader of distraction fire team is someone who can lead with experience! I picked Samara because I figured being nearly 1000 year old warrior space nun would be plenty of experience and Miranda said it was a good choice! That got Tech Specialist Legion killed and I realized that Samara spent most of her time alone! So I reloaded and picked Garrus and Miranda was dismissive, probably secretly accusing me of picking him just because he's my romantic interest! Well, screw you, Miranda! By disregarding your opinion, I got everyone out alive!
** Particularly heartwrenching is that no matter who you lose, or what they mean to you, you don't have time to mourn. Even Miranda, the [[Ice Queen]] herself sounds choked up when she has to tell Shepard, who is standing over the body of a friend, possibly even a lover that they have to keep moving.
** The worst is when someone dies offscreen while you're fighting the Human-Reaper. You hear that all surviviors have made it to the Normandy, then it cuts to the dead body of whoever died, surrounded by Collectors. Especially ball-punching if it was someone you were romancing; while most of them stand a good chance of surviving, Tali stands a pretty high chance of getting killed.
** If you don't upgrade the ''Normandy,'' the Oculus blast the ship and kill crew with each shot. And Jack is the first to go, taken out by an explosion in the engine room. That she doesn't even get a last fight, just unceremoniously killed like that, after everything that she has gone through... And of course, there isn't even time to mourn. And that goes for every death during the suicide mission.
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** Both of those conversations were [[Tear Jerkers]] for me as well, but there was another one on Illium for me. Having the conversation with the asari who lost her wife and daughters as a result of all the violence in the galaxy, getting her to open up and break down in tears about this terrible tragedy and the pain it still causes her, and convincing her to honour their memory by forgiving the aliens she holds responsible... only to overhear two racist asari thoughtlessly bitching about her and her family, because she's pureblood and she married an asari. "She's pureblood. They're all like that." Honest to God, angry and sad tears from my eyes.
*** Just to make this one a tiny bit worse: It's implied that Shepard may have met both of her daughters on the Citadel. One was the Presidium receptionist; the other worked for the asari Consort.
* Legion replaying the first memories of the Geth Collective to Shepard:
{{quote|'''Geth:''' [[Do Androids Dream?|Unit has an inquiry. Do these units have a soul?]]}}
** It's absolutely '''heartbreaking'' if you stop Legion {{spoiler|from uploading the Reaper data into the rest of the Geth collective. Tali stabs him, and if you don't take the Renegade interrupt, Legion asks before dying, "Does this unit have...." Tali tearfully replies, "Yes, you do."}}
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*** My eyes water every time I read that message. Every. Damn. Time.
* Two krogan talking on Tuchanka. One of them thinks that one of the children kept away with the female tribes for protection is his son. A surprisingly touching moment from the race best-known for mindless violence and a sterility plague.
** [[Fridge Logic]] makes it even more moving when he asks if he should apply for right of parentage and his friends says "you know you've sired a son - leave it at that." He's worried that his friend might be wrong about siring a son, and doesn't want him to be disappointed.
* Another one on Tuchanka, a krogan is talking to his companion about a vid about the Citadel, wishing he could see it in person, while the second krogan berates him for looking at it because he's never ever going to get off his radioactive, warring [[Death World]] of a planet..,
** Same krogan also expresses interest in science and documentaries - science of the intellectual sort instead of the BOOM sort. Hearing the other (bigger) krogan crush the smaller ones dreams was hard to listen to. One hopes that the little guy gets a chance to tell Wrex that he's interested in being smart not just strong.
* The salarian workers that you meet during Thane's recruitment mission, especially the first one. The shell-shocked way he says "we're just night workers..." just tugs at the heartstrings, and he follows it with the horrible story of what Nassana did, including how some people were jumping off of ledges to escape the dogs. As several characters have noted, you never get used to seeing dead civilians.
** And note that 'dogs' in this case are FENRIS mechs. At least with organic dogs, you could hurt them and maybe get them to back off. With mechs armed with tasers?
** Sometimes while you play, you're in danger of forgetting that not everyone in the Mass Effect universe is a gun-toting badass. Most are just normal people doing their jobs and not hurting anyone. Those workers bring you out of it fast.
* It seems half the Loyalty Quests are this. The other half are either [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Crowning Moments of Heartwarming]] or [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moments of Awesome]].
** [[Rule of Three|Or all three]].
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** It really says a lot when the Paragon action towards [[Complete Monster|the man who committed the atrocity]] is a ''[[Pistol-Whipping|Pistol Whip]]'' to the face.
** Bioware programmed a moving sequence sure, but Chris Lennertz's score makes it utterly devastating.
** I may be the only one to think this but I found Archer to be more upsetting. He cares about his brother and knows what he did was wrong but at the point Shepard shows up its too late to stop. "What I have done to David is unethical. If he dies it is unforgivable."
** Good lord, the '''entire''' Overlord scenario. From learning everyone but one scientist have been mercilessly gunned down by the rogue VI to learning the truth about the entire project had feelings of horror and sorrow tunnelling through my soul. Being a full Paragade let me unleash just how pissed I was through Shepard towards Gavin Archer and still take David away. Truly, the way Shepard delivered both his and my thoughts after a solid pistol whip helped me keep my tears at bay.
{{quote|'''Archer:''' No, leave him! He's too valuable! ''[Pulls out a gun and fires at Shepard]''
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** The conversation with Thane where he asks for your help has a few. Shepard can ask how a raw rookie could be hired for a contract killing. Thane theorises that someone saw that they have the same name, and thus the same skills, but he can't figure out why Kolyat would do it in the first place. Shepard can suggest 'To be closer to you, maybe?' to which Thane responds:
{{quote|[[Tear Jerker|That thought haunts me more than any other.]]}}
* Speaking of Thane, his breakup scene if you choose to end a romance with him. Good god, if there's ever a High Octane Tear Jerker page, that should be the first entry. There's a reason that most of the comments on the Youtube video of the breakup dialogue are variations of 'YOU MONSTER!'.
** There's an option to select "I can't love a dying man" on the dialogue wheel, and Shepard says, "I don't think I can do this. Love you now only to lose you later. I'm sorry." Thane is taken aback and says that they made no vows and [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|he wouldn't wish to be a burden to her]], and then the player can [http://www.youtube.com/user/redtadpole#p/u/5/eZw6Y0rJn1M change their mind].
* If you fail to track Kolyat during Thane's loyalty mission, he gets away with the hit. Thane becomes even more depressed and more of a [[Death Seeker]] now that he has absolutely nothing in the world to live for and hasn't even managed to put any good into it. Its heartbreaking to watch/hear his dialogue back on the ''Normandy''.
* This troper had a moment during {{spoiler|Legion's loyalty mission, when Legion realizes the heretics have been spying on the true Geth and gives one of the saddest lines I have heard in the game (from a supposedly emotionless synthetic, no less)}}:
{{quote|''' {{spoiler|Legion:'''}} How did we become so different? Where did we go wrong?}}
* Shadow Broker DLC: Where do we start?
** Reading the Shadow Broker's [http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Broker_Dossiers files on everyone].
*** There's a ''massive'' [[Mood Dissonance]] when you go through Miranda's dossiers. Most of them are records of her conversations with possible partners on a extranet dating site which are mostly [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]. Then you get to the last one, and it's like a punch to the gut. {{spoiler|Miranda is completely barren, and the clinic that she went to can neither confirm nor deny if it was due to her genetic engineering.}}
**** Worse yet, the reason why she {{spoiler|went to the clinic in the first place: a "benign neoplasm of the reproductive system." A neoplasm is the anatomic term for a tumor. One hopes that whatever she had was truly benign instead of something pre-malignant that they caught early. Of course, the idea of Miss Genetic Perfection crippled by uterine fibroids [[Too Much Information|isn't any more]] [[Squick|pleasant to think about.]]}}
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**** The quote above reminded this troper of one thing and one thing only. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIXQkSA0YO4 "Across the sea,][[The Lord of the Rings|a pale moon rises.]] [[Manly Tears|The ships have come]] [[Tear Jerker|to carry you home..."]]
*** Most don't feel sorry for Jack. Put this in perspective. {{spoiler|When she was a baby, her mom went to the local medical facility because a doctor said that baby Jack needed a checkup. Apparently, all that doctor wanted was a reason take Jack away from parental custody since he is a Cerberus operative and Jack was exceptional. So the bastard lied to the mother, made up some sob story about how his kid had seizures due to biotics, told the mom that the government did this, and tricked her into releasing custody of Jack. Right after that, Jack was sent to Pragia.}}
**** That's a JBM all of its own. How can you NOT feel sorry for her? Psychotic as she is, she arguably had the most tragic of the backgrounds--a friendless one of constant rape, betrayal, death, and senseless loss. She was kidnapped practically right out of her mother's womb, for chrissakes.
*** Speaking of which, take Kasumi with you to Pragia. The normally upbeat [[Classy Cat Burglar]] is choked up and teary over [[Even Evil Has Standards|what was done to Jack.]]
*** Zaeed gets about as shocked here as you'll ever see him as well. "I've done a lot of bad things in my time, but this???"
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**** Poor, poor Anderson. Even if you don't pass him over in favor of Udina, leaving him a [[Butt Monkey]], the files on him reveal that the stress of being councilor has led him to drinking. Guy was like one bad day off growing a [[Beard of Sorrow]].
***** Even worse. It's not the stress of being the councilor. It's the stress of seeing the guy who murdered hundreds to screw him out of a respectable position and tried to sell the galaxy out to an [[Eldritch Abomination]] being painted as a misunderstood hero, or how said [[Eldritch Abomination]] was merely a myth despite blowing away most of the Citadel fleet two years ago.
***** And then there was Mordin's mission dialogue about the mission in Tuchanka which was expanded in the folder, how he was delivering the modified genophage and how he had to kill female Krogan and how Maelon was complaining about the ethics of the mission and he simply dimisses it. In fact when he talked about killing many, his major highlight in his life was the genophage deliveries, most of his acts of violence were part of the whole Genophage mission.
*** Oh God, the one on Garrus... {{spoiler|The entire chatlog with his sister Solana is painful to read, but the lines about his activities on Omega really felt like a kick in the teeth:}}
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Solana:''' You lose your C-Sec job, and what about that contract job you were doing up until recently? }}
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* If you chose to romance Thane, and he dies while leading the second squad on the suicide mission, his dialogue changes.
{{quote|'''Thane''': ''I hear it. The sea...you look beautiful, my siha....''}}
* The way the deaths during the Suicide Mission are all understated. Obviously, they can't stop for a long, protracted death scene, but still, it's jarring when we as the audience are conditioned to have that emotional moment where we can really process the death of a character we've grown attached to.
** Of particular notice is how, on the trip in, if the Normandy hasn't been upgraded, Jack is the first casualty, killed by a Oculus blast. Jack's a fighter, she deserved to be able to go out fighting, not an incidental death like that. After everything learned about her over the course of her loyalty mission, it's sad that she gets such an offhand death.
* the {{spoiler|Normandy SR-1 Crash Site. I had to leave before I drowned the keyboard.}}
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{{quote|'''Samara:''' In another time, in another life.}}
* Thane's pre-loyalty mission dialogue, when he said the memories of despair of the hardest to get away from. He was right, from the days when he was more concerned about an upcoming hit then playing with his son to the way he talks about his wife's funeral and how Koylat was extremely upset about how he could leave her to die and how he wasn't ever there, it was just completely devastating to watch. The Loyalty mission is even more important since if he fails to stop his son. He will live through such memories when he tries to remember Kolyat, how he will remember hearing about news about his son gunning down someone or worse, dies.
* Often overlooked as a shallow brute, gun for hire by many. Zaeed Massani is at his core, a tragic individual. Zaeed is the living example of what Garrus could have become if he did not have Shepard at his side. Betrayed and left for dead, Zaeed spent 20 bloody and brutal years seeking revenge against a man who he had once counted as one of the few friends he'd ever have. He's become so desensitized to dealing death that he's not at all afraid to die himself. Something that is core to being human. He's become so used to his lifestyle that it scares him to imagine a life where he can settle down. To the point where he'd rather ''kill himself''.
** The fact that some people write Zaeed off as a shallow brute [[Just Bugs Me]]. Yes, Zaeed was a ruthless bastard, and yes he's a goddamn murderer. But when you take the Paragon options on his loyalty mission and gain his loyalty, he shows a lot of depth in that he regrets a lot of the thing's he's done over the years being a brutal sunnuvabith. But even then, when he talks about the shit Vido had done with the Blue Suns organization, which Zaeed had originally intended to be rather honorable and fair, the anger in his voice at the stuff Vido did showed a more [[Even Evil Has Standards|decent side]] to the guy.
{{quote|'''Zaeed:''' This could be it. If this Illusive Man's money goes through, it's time to get serious about buying a property. Got to narrow it down to a place I can stand for more than a year.
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* The infected area on Omega is pretty horrifying, but there's one room that's just aweful. Two Turian plague victims were locked in a room together by the Blue Suns to try and halt the disease spread. What really makes this bad is the audio logs one of the Turians left behind.
{{quote|'''Turian:''' Daelus died last night. He's still talking to me though. It's good to hear his voice, the company is nice...Nobody should have to die alone...}}
* Another, far more subtle Garrus moment. When confronting Sidonus, if you take the what-seems-to-be "Paragon"-option and don't let Garrus take the shot. The increasing desperation in his voice with every missed opportunity, the look on his face, it all combined to make this particular trooper feel like one more person betraying him, even though I was set in my course of action. It was the very last line, though, that got to me. The broken way he tells you to "Just- go. Tell him to just...just ''go''." made me want to just ''hug'' the poor guy. The voice acting ''sold'' that moment. That entire mission overall, in fact, as you see the extent of just how much Garrus has changed and how broken that betrayal really made him.
* The Collector ship attack. The attack itself was too frightening and chaotic to count (and, uh, rather darkly funny at one point) but the ''after'', when Joker is picking himself up and ''everyone is gone''. Dragged away kicking and screaming- literally- or killed trying to defend themselves, the ship, and the crew. Your efforts saved the ship, but was too late to help anyone else. And after, while Joker just watched his girl be attacked a ''second time'', watched people- some of which he knew or even cared about- be taken or murdered horribly, and is clearly not doing well for it, the first thing Miranda does is light into him for it, attacking and blaming him. This ''particular'' trooper would have ''loved'' a 'Shut the hell up, bitch' dialog option. Alas, it was not to be.
* Even if you rescue Kelly from the collector base, when you talk to her, she [http://youtu.be/v3OyfP9IXPg spins out into a thousand yard stare and recounts her experience in a similar way to how Thane recalls his memories]:
{{quote|'''Kelly:''' I can't get the memories out of my head. Trapped. Suffocating. It's oozing into every pore. Faint sobs echoing in the confined space.}}
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* This troper used to walk past the Houses of Parliament every day. When I saw the Reapers [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtfJpa_feMw attacking London], the scope of the invasion and the attack really hit me. And then I thought: GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY CITY!
** Not just London. Any human being can have a strong reaction to the Reaper invasion of Earth. While playing the demo, as the Normandy escaped the planet and the shot pulled back to show more of the Reaper fleet landing on Earth, this troper actually yelled: GET THE HELL OFF MY PLANET!
*** Have a chat with Wrex during the ultimate battle for Tuchanka. "I AM URDNOT WREX, AND [[This Is Sparta|THIS! IS! MY! PLANET!]]" [[Punctuated Pounding|Punctuated with shotgun blasts.]]
* It's just a brief moment in the demo, but running into the Virmire survivor before Shepard goes in to talk to the defense committee. It's especially a [[Player Punch]] if they were your character's love interest. Kaidan, you're killing me here:
{{quote|'''James Vega:''' You know the commander?
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* Grunt's {{spoiler|[[Last Stand]] against the Rachni, especially if you've already lost people and are expecting it. Can then turn into [[Mood Whiplash]] [[Tears of Joy]] if you earned his loyalty in the second game and he shows up drenched in blood but alive just as you're about to leave.}}
* Even ''Shepard'' turns out s/he's not weathering the initial, devastating attack well-the first time you leave the Citadel, s/he actually has a ''heartwrenching'' [[Nightmare Sequence]] about that kid who was killed by the Reapers. Through it all, he's hearing voices, the voices of people who have died. [[Survivor Guilt|to get Shepard where he is right now.]] The Virmire survivor will be heard most often, whispering Shepard's name or saying what they said on the radio [[I Regret Nothing|before they died]], but anyone who died is fair game. Extremely sad ones are {{spoiler|Tali or Legion, if Rannoch is not completed peacefully, since you'll be hearing them begging you not to commit genocide on their race.}} Or {{spoiler|Mordin's [[Ironic Echo]] of "had to be me, someone else might have gotten it wrong.}} Even people Shepard may not have killed him / herself, like {{spoiler|Eve}}, will speak.
** An enterprising Youtuber compiled the various voice clips [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=q4pqgBw_exw here]. See how long you can make it through.
* The very fact that it's this game where we see that Shepard is finally being ground down by everything happening in the war. For the past two games s/he's basically been an unstoppable [[Badass]] that didn't seem to be affected by anything, and now you finally see him/her starting to break down under the stress.
** For female Shepards, Jennifer Hale's performance after {{spoiler|the fall of Thessia}} is almost painful to listen to. The weight of everything finally taking a noticeable toll on Shepard is played beautiful, so justified, so strained, and the moment when Joker talks about being the one charged with looking after Shepard-- the voice actors brought the A-game and then some.
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*** An inappropriate level of Fridge Humor to that -- has Anderson ever been depicted sitting down in a game?
* Also, Anderson's {{spoiler|last words to Shepard. The fact the he chooses to call Shepard "child" or "son" (depending on gender) also really reinforces the whole father-figure dynamic... perhaps that Shepard was the son/daughter Anderson always wished he'd had, given his relationship with his own sons seems to be less than perfect. The Shadow Broker files mention Anderson's sons seeking his approval/recognition - and here he's chosen to give it to Shepard. In any case, acknowledging Shepard in such a way makes the line that much more heartbreaking.}}
** {{spoiler|Calling femshep "child" is almost more sad in a way, as he's probably one of the few/only people who would see her in such a light after everything she's done. It reminds us of her vulnerability.}}
{{quote|{{spoiler|Anderson: "You did good, [child/son]. You did good. I'm proud of you."}}}}
** Even worse, the cut dialogue (at least with female Shepard) has Anderson asking her {{spoiler|if she would like to settle down now that her work is done, assuring her that she would be a great mother and how proud any child would be to have her as a mother.}}
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* Wrex reminiscing {{spoiler|after you cure the genophage}} how, long ago, in the arena of Kalros, his father had tried to murder him, as an example of how the genophage had reduced the krogan to animals.
** The whole Krogan mission, seeing the ruins of the Ancient Krogan city, their art, their history and that they once had the ability to build wonderful structures... and all of that has been lost in the wake of the genophage.
*** They lost that all even earlier, when they had their planet-wide nuclear war millennia ago. But the genophage, and even the technological uplifting before that made it difficult for them to even try to get back what they had lost.
* An elcor diplomat on the Citadel asks you to help get some elcor troops back to their homeworld to defend evacuating civilians. When you do it and go back to him, you can ask how many got away. His answer: A simple "Not enough." He doesn't specify his tone. He doesn't need to.
** The whole conversation with that elcor suddenly puts their method of speech into a different place. Up till now they were kinda funny. Now it feels like the man is screaming and nobody around him can hear it.
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* After rescuing Admiral Koris the first thing he does is checking if he can still save his crew, only to hear geth communication on the radio. You can see he is devastated, only hoping they found rest on Rannoch.
* The memories that play during Shepard's trip into the geth server are heartbreaking. They pretty much turn the Geth from savage, faceless killing machines into "[[Tron: Legacy|profoundly naïve, yet unimaginably wise]]" ''children'' who don't understand that their parents are fighting over '''whether or not to get rid of them.'''
** One shows two quarian scientists running tests on a geth platform, trying to figure out what's caused the change in its behavior (as in ''refusing to be turned off''), while the obviously confused geth keeps saying it's still capable of serving and asking what it did wrong so it can correct the problem.
** To some people on the Autism Spectrum, including this troper, it is very reminiscent of what can be a daily problem - only taken to huge proportions. That just makes it all the worse.
** Another shows a quarian fighting to protect a geth platform from a group of quarian soldiers. The geth states outright that, even in spite of the quarian's insistence, it had deemed the situation too hazardous to his (the quarian's) life, and therefore would surrender itself to the soldiers. The quarian tries to stop it, but is killed by other quarians by some manner of explosive. What makes it particularly heartwrenching is that the geth platform ''survived the explosion'', and its first action (while visible damaged, no less) is to ask the quarian if he's alright. And because geth are fully capable of simply moving from platform to platform and thus are largely immune to traditional 'death,' the idea of actual death is completely alien to it.
*** ''Creator Magara, what is your status?...........Creator Magara?''
** Legion commenting on the Quarians who protested the attempted genocide against the Geth and actively tried to protect them from the rest of their race. It notes that, while the Quarian have largely forgotten about these protesters, the Geth have ''never'' forgotten their sacrifices.
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*** {{spoiler|If playing as a Colonist, this becomes even more of a [[Tear Jerker]] as this was likely how ''Shepard'' survived Mindoir. [[Not So Different|S/he used to be a simple farmer.]] The parallel goes even further if you're also an Infiltrator - only Shepard and Legion use the Widow}}.
* The fall of Thessia and how devastated this leaves Liara. Made worse in that {{spoiler|they withheld the fact they had a Prothean Beacon, which also contained information that could have prepared the galaxy against the Reapers. Javik later admits the Asari were the ones the Protheans believed would end the cycles. He may have been lying to motivate her though}}.
** There's also how the asari Councilor, Tevos, has a visible [[Heroic Blue Screen of Death]] at the news. She'd been so sure that Shepard was contacting her with good news, greeting the communication with a smile and then...
*** Made even worse by the fact that the Councilor had finally put her full measure of faith in you. She fully expected you to get the job done, and you let her down.
** And then after she disconnects, Shepard quietly says, "I'm...sorry." I don't know how Meer did, but Hale sounds so defeated.
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** It's even more of a gutpunch if you take the conversation route normally reserved for the non-blue paragon {{spoiler|when Wrex confronts you at the Citadel}} and Shepard insists that nobody died as a result of his actions. {{spoiler|Wrex}}'s response? "Everyone but {{spoiler|my unborn son}}!" Nice going there, you nice-talking {{spoiler|'''baby killer'''}}.
* If he escaped during {{spoiler|[[ME 1]]'s 'Bring Down the Sky,' Balak}} makes an appearance on the Citadel, with a gun to Shepard's back. He still places full blame on Shepard for the deaths of {{spoiler|the batarian colony in 'Arrival,'}} and also verifies the theory that the {{spoiler|Hegemony had been destroyed from within by indoctrination resulting from the Leviathan of Dis}}. But the tearjerker of it? {{spoiler|He's the only reason what remains of the Hegemony military is still capable of fighting. He's been feeding them intelligence on the Reapers from the Citadel, and he's the ''highest ranking officer left in the Hegemony''}}. Sparing him (and convincing him of Shepard's side of the story) will cause him to {{spoiler|give Shepard the full support of what remains of the Hegemony's forces. The sound of hopelessness in his voice is a stark contrast to the bombastic self-assurance he'd shown previously, and being confronted with the reality that the person in his sights isn't to blame for the death of nearly his entire race nearly breaks him.}}
* The scene where you're in the hospital on the Citadel, talking to the Virmire Survivor as they lie there, unconscious and badly hurt from Mars. This troper had Ashley as his VS, and listening to Shepard talk to her, knowing that she probably can't hear him and not knowing if she was going to be okay or not made this troper die a little inside.
** You can buy her a book from the Sirta store. You know, the one by Alfred Tennyson, her favorite poet. It has no impact on gameplay whatsoever but it's nice to be able to show you remember such minuscule detail.
** It's just as heartbreaking with Kaidan, when Shepard tells him [[Please Don't Leave Me|he can't die]], that the Alliance, and Shepard himself, really needs him. Particularly heartbreaking after how the huge chasm between them during their arguments on Mars.
* Ashley/Kaiden {{spoiler|nearly getting killed by Eva Coré at the end of the Mars mission.}} The whole scene is just so brutal and hard to watch, ''especially'' if you're in a romance with them. It was even worse for this troper because I had no idea it [[Failure Is the Only Option|was impossible to stop Coré from reaching her shuttle.]] As soon as the Illusive Man said {{spoiler|"Dispose of him."}} I freaked out for a minute because I thought {{spoiler|my failure had just gotten my Shepard's [[Love Interest]] killed.}}
* If you are in a romance with Liara, she will come to your quarters right before {{spoiler|the assault on the Cerberus base}}. Before she and Shepard get their thing on, they both lie back, [[Holding Hands|hold hands]] and look at the stars, and she comments on how easy it could be for a single ship to simply get lost out there, and for someone to potentially find a place with just peace and happiness. Later on, before the mission {{spoiler|to rush the Citadel beam in London}}, you can approach Liara for a final chat, during which she will telepathically share a fantasy in which the two of you share a kiss while floating alone amongst the stars. Probably the most deeply romantic moment in any game ever.
** "It can also be a way to say farewell" Cue massive amounts of tears.
*** In the very end, {{spoiler|as I watched Shepard die, as I watched myself die,}} I could only think one thing: {{spoiler|"I'm sorry, Liara. We'll never get to see those little blue babies."}}
* After Thane's death Shepard says something that hints that the strain of what s\he is going through is so much s\he becomes a [[Death Seeker]].
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* {{spoiler|Miranda's}} [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXRx2JXicu4&feature=endscreen&NR=1 death.] ''Especially'' [[Last Kiss|if you romanced her.]]
** {{spoiler|N-Not everything...Nobodys perfect...At least Oriana's safe...}} She really did change during her time with Shep...ARRRGH WHY BIOWARE!?!
* The fires of Palaven. They're visible from Menae, Palaven's moon, a chunk of just orange that looks a little larger than Earth's moon when viewed from Earth's surface. Which means all of that is ON FIRE. And that's where Garrus's family lives.
{{quote|'''Garrus:''' See that blaze of orange? The big one. That's where I was ''born.''}}
* {{spoiler|Lieutenant Victus'}} [[Heroic Sacrifice]] was pretty bad--but it's not until Shepard returns to the Normandy and {{spoiler|speaks with the Primarch, his father}} that the true meaning of that event strikes him. It evokes King Theoden from the ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' movies:
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'''Garrus:''' Never }}
** Hale sounds on the edge of tears herself and then Garrus gives this little gasp like ''he's'' holding them back and your heart breaks for both of them.
* As you're walking through the base in London, near where Liara is, you can listen to a Alliance doctor talking to a civilian woman over the radio. She's hiding with an unconscious soldier who is bleeding out but their field medic was killed in action. The doctor guides her through applying medi-gel, but the soldier dies anyway. Moments after that, she sees Reaper forces approaching. She doesn't want to be discovered and turned into a husk, so she takes the dead soldier's gun and kills herself, despite the doctor's desperate pleading. All while you listen. You can hear her voice progress from near-panic, fear, then finally to resigned calm as she says goodbye to the doctor.
* Because someone had to: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3A6I_0DwbY&feature=related Samara's suicide]. And then Shepard makes it a [[Senseless Sacrifice]] by ''killing her daughter anyway.''
* After the mission to Tuchanka, Shepard has another nightmare, of him/herself chasing after the small boy who died on Earth. During this though, it is the first time Shepard begins to hear the whispers, whispers of those who had died to get Shepard to where s/he is today, starting with Ashley or Kaidan, whomever died on Virmire, you hear [[I Regret Nothing|their last words]] before they died. After Shepard wakes up, you can talk about them with Liara. If Ashley died, Liara attempts to cheer you up, but if Kaidan dies, the lines are just...utterly heartbreaking.
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* EDI once asks Shepard about human behavior, brought on by [http://youtu.be/gqd8TzHqEWE seeing feed of people on Earth imprisoned by Reapers]. Reporting another prisoner's escape attempts would extend a prisoner' life, but there were few instances of this, and some prisoners fed false information to the Reapers, at the costs of their own lives, to help people they didn't even know. Shepard is visibly struck by this.
** In this troper's opinion, the paragon dialogue and EDI rewriting her (she has an intelligence, she is a she not an it!) own programming such that she would die to save Joker was, for me, heart breaking - definitely a Tear Jerker, just not sure whether it was joy, pride or something else.
* Shooting and killing {{spoiler|Ash or Kaidan at end of the Priority: Citadel II mission.}} It's actually something that's very easy to avoid, you can avoid it ever coming up simply {{spoiler|by coming to visit them in the hospital, when they send you a message saying they want to talk to you.}} It can only come up if you {{spoiler|completely ignore them, when they're trying to mend fences with you about the incident on Horizon.}} Even without that, you can talk your way out of it, and only have to kill them {{spoiler|If you just say screw it and try not to explain that you're pointing a gun at a Councilor.}}
* Coming across Cortez grieving while listening to a recording of the last conversation he had with his husband. He was working construction south of a colony when the Collectors attacked, and Robert sent a message to him urging him to save himself. Cortez did, but six months later is still devastated by it.
** You find him in his place, watching the message and silently crying.
* If Legion died in the Collector base, a sort of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIdE0MNOiAI&feature=plcp&context=C475b94bVDvjVQa1PpcFPHC6lGjpj4TTgm4iiVd3nBKe8kn9-sK1E= backup] of it serves the same role. It remembers ''nothing'' of its time with Shepard and has a general attitude of being less willing to trust organics or phrase things in more human ways - it doesn't call anything beautiful, for example. Shepard repeatedly calls it Legion and is told "We are not Legion" every time, which really starts to get to him/her - as s/he says, "Legion was my friend!" - but it never makes any attempt to reach out. Poor Shepard.
* You can walk in on Garrus talking to his father and sister over the commlink while they are trying to find a way off the planet in the middle of the Reaper invasion, and his sister has a broken leg on top of it all. The sheer desperation of the scene is overwhelming to what essentially amounts to background chatter. Fortunately you'll later find out that they made it.
* If you couldn't save the geth, you can go talk to EDI and Joker and step into a conversation where EDI questions your decision, at least partially out of self-protection. What's heartbreaking about this scene is that EDI eventually accepts the necessity. She is a synthetic organism and has just seen an entire race of them get wiped out... and, regardless of the implications on her own fate, she admits that it may not have been the wrong choice. You can hear her grow up years in these moments.
* If you talk to Joker after Thessia, he does his typical [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyvuPivNDpk blithe humor] thing, and you can [[Too Soon|call him on it]]. [[OOC Is Serious Business|This is when Tiptree comes up]]. It's also when Joker admits that he is forcing out jokes to [[Big Brother Instinct|try and make YOU laugh]], because [[The Atoner|he has to make up for getting you killed]]. And the worst part is that no matter which reply you choose, you snap at him... and then don't apologize. To this person who is doing ''everything he can'' (little though it may be) to make your life easier. ''What the hell, Shepard.''
* Oddly enough, {{spoiler|the destruction of the Reapers qualifies, at least to some people. After all, they [[Blue and Orange Morality|think they're doing the right thing]]. Moreover, they are all that's left of many species. Destroying them is destroying what they were made from. Third, wiping them out is genocide, plain and simple. This troper wished that there was a "reprogram" option for the Reapers, so that they would surivive, and maybe even help}}.
** That said, {{spoiler|each one of the Reapers is responsible for genocide the scale of which no being alive has ever witnessed. There are no innocent Reapers. And the genetic material from the Reapers could likely be retrieved from the Reapers, most of which died intact. Even then, it's a better fate for all those individuals than perpetuating the same recurring mass murder that ended them. Sometimes, [[Blue and Orange Morality]] isn't enough of a justification...}}
* In the Forward Operating Base in London, at one point you walk past some soldiers huddled around a radio, listening to the latest status reports--one of which is that one of their outposts has been ''completely wiped out'', and that the defending forces will likely run out of food supplies in the very near future. It really gives a sense of dread and foreboding for what is to come.
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