Minimonsters/Tear Jerker
Even in a comic full of hilarious hijinks, there's some sad moments sprinkled in-between:
El Veneno de Porcelana (Porcelain Poison)
- In one of the first pages, Victor has a conversation with his mother the day before starting school. His mother pleads him to make friends, since in Miedópolis they had to pay some kids to be Victor's friends. While admittedly funny, it also means Victor never really had friends in his previous hometown. Worse, it's pretty obvious he has zilch knowledge about the concept of true friendship and what it entails. It's pretty sad to think about.
- There's also a moment that marks Victor as a Jerkass Woobie: He has been trying to get Rattus Sapiens's plan to kill off the entirety of Villa Susto to succeed, which would make him absolutely despicable. However, he does this because he's just that desperate to go back home, and as he himself admits, his experience in Villa Susto has been less than pleasant, which is understandable to an extent why he doesn't give a crap about the town. He even breaks down crying after Frank (unintentionally) sabotages his plan to go back home. Anyone who would go to those lengths just to return to his normal life speaks volumes about how miserable Victor is, and how much he suffers for the whole "moving to a completely different lifestyle" experience.
El Perfeccionator (The Perfeccionator)
- This album introduces Henrietta, who quickly establishes herself as a Broken Bird in her introductory scene by crying in front of Frank's house. It gets worse once known why she was crying: She has a Super Powered Evil Side obsessed to take permanent control, and has to drive people away in order to get them safe. Add the fact she's an extremely Ill Girl who has been confined in her house most of her life, and you have possibly the greatest woobie of the entire series.
- Frank's entire Break the Cutie process: he gets teased for his physical appearance, gets rejected by the girl he just fell for (which wasn't even the real her, but her Super Powered Evil Side), suffers a serious emotional breakdown (and gets teased for it), and just when he was recovering by making the titular Perfeccionator to boost his self-confidence, this invention gets used by the Big Bad for her evil plans. At the end of the story, you just want to give him a hug.
- A particularly heartbreaking part is the reveal of his Inferiority Superiority Complex: He tries to keep his insecurities over his physical appearance under wraps due to him being The Leader of the Frank's Gang and finding solace in his invention skills (which, to make things worse, is a Bungling Inventor). This complex is played completely straight, and this quote shows how low his self-esteem really is:
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Frank: *witnessing Henrietta* A girl? Why is she crying? |
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- In the climatic fight, Frank tries to get Lupo to wake up and rescue them to stop Miss Hit. Unfortunately, Lupo wakes up too late to prevent Miss Hit for using the Perfeccionator, seemingly "killing" Henrietta as a result. Frank's Big No and subsequent sobbing is just hard to watch. As if things couldn't get any worse than they were...
- Thankfully, it turns out Henrietta is still alive, but still...
- Miss Hit's Alas, Poor Villain moment at the end, which seals her status as a Tragic Villain. Frank uses the truth mirror, and realizes that, no matter what she does, Henrietta is her true self. She becomes completely unresponsive (a far cry from her usual attitude) before Frank uses Piruja's potion to get Henrietta back. It gets worse when thinking about it: Miss Hit has been obsessed to become her own person instead of a "weakling" like Henrietta, and has been in deep denial about it. When confronted with the truth, Miss Hit is unable to process it properly, leading to the above-mentioned BSOD. And since Miss Hit is Henrietta's negative side, she may be as well the walking personification of Henrietta's self-hate! That's right, folks: Henrietta is such a Woobie, her Super Powered Evil Side is a Jerkass Woobie.
- On a positive note, there's the ending for both Frank and Henrietta.
Historias Para No Dormir
- While the third album is largely comedic, in the "Lupo y sus Hermanos" (Lupo's Siblings) story, we get a peek on Lupo's home life. It shows his family is very poor, with his parents and older siblings (who are teenagers, by the way) busy working. Lupo is stuck taking care of his little siblings and has to reject his BFF Momses' offer to play with him. Keep in mind Lupo is a kid/preteen. Is comparatively minor to other tearjerkers mentioned in this page, but qualifies for people who were/are in a similar situation.
- Luckily for him, Momses' decides to help him in taking care of them. Aww, how touching.
El Partido de Calabacesto
- Victor revealing his Face Heel Turn to Frank's Gang, starting with him rejecting their team's uniform. True, it wasn't a pretty uniform to begin with, but it's still quite the Kick the Dog.
- The aforementioned event is very similar to the previous tearjerker moment mentioned in the first album. It's clear Victor doesn't enjoy the betrayal, mostly due to the fact Morty's Gang is way worse than Frank's Gang could ever be, and gets put through hell. Worse yet? When he claims the deal he made with Morty, he cruelly tells him he never intended to keep the bargain and only used him to get Frank's brains, rendering his betrayal for nothing. While he deserved most of it, it's still quite sad.
- From this moment until Piruja returns, you can see Frank with a melancholic expression on his face. It's clear he's deeply hurt by Victor's betrayal, especially since they were playing at his house the day before and possibly feeling guilt for pushing him away due to his inventions failing as usual. Victor just rubbing it in his face was just the icing of the cake, which is so douchebaggy you'll be glad Victor is a karma magnet.
- You think Frank has it bad? Imagine poor Piruja! As if having to deal with her mom and a giant spider wasn't enough already...
- It's hard to not feel bad for Billy over what happens to him in this album. Morty manipulates Victor into cleaning the whole town dump so he and his family would get sick and he wouldn't be used as a replacement for Frank's Gang's team. Let me rephrase that: Morty was willing to kill an entire family over a frigging pumpkinball game. That's not crossing the line, that's polevaulting the fuck over it!
- Piruja's mom's Serial Romeo behavior becomes sadder once you see that Piruja doesn't have a dad. The implications are terrible, and she's clearly emotionally damaged by the experience, given how she clings to everything she comes across. She even gives her daughter a sad warning after she's rejected by Victor again.
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Piruja's mom: Oh, my poor Piruja! It's so hard to find a requited love, sweetie! That's why you'll have to settle down with whatever you get in life. |
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El Cazador de Monstruos & Extras
- When told about the Snow Mandrake, Henrietta wants to use it to forget Miss Hit. That already is bad enough, but the reason why she wants to forget it? She wants to stop hurting her Love Interest Frank. Just... ouch.
- Made worse that, in the end, Henrietta not only doesn't forget her, but Miss Hit knocks out Frank, with Henrietta profusely apologizing for it. The kid just can't win, really.
- An In-Universe example is present in the "Stephanie Queen" story, when Gus explains the plot of his mom's latest novel, "The Curse of the Scarecrow". It follows the typical horror movie plot of "monster who goes haywire scaring humans, with said humans defeating him once and for all", but from the minimonsters' perspective, it's the tragic tale of a friendly monster who got cursed and wanted to play with the humans, only for said humans to capture and ultimately kill him. Piruja, Mienai and Mr. Abra end up in tears.
- The last story in the album starts with Frank having a nightmare about being mocked by his friends Victor and Piruja for not having a pet. While the rest is hilarious, it shows Frank is deathly afraid of losing his friends, not helped by his abysmal self-esteem issues.
Meta
- The ¡Dibus! magazine's cancellation, meaning there will be no more Minimonster comics, is this for most people. While Word of God allegedly confirmed he's still working with the series, the fact many years have passed and the comic was Left Hanging when the magazine was cancelled is quite the downer for most fans, at least until the "Todo Minimonsters" collection was released years later.
- The collection had a lot of interesting characters and planned stories that never came to fruition due to said cancellation. Unless he plans to continue publishing, this truly marks the end of a promising comic series.