Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door/Tear Jerker
Tear Jerkers in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door include:
- Chapter 1: The Koopa skeleton holding a farewell note in Hooktail Castle. Koops believes it’s his father’s skeleton, though it turns out it’s not. It's Kolorado's father.
- After defeating Hooktail, she spits out Koops’ real father and they have a heartwarming reunion.
- Chapter 3: Jolene reveals that she was the mysterious X person who helped you discover Grubba's evil secret. Her motivation for this was because her little brother, Mush (aka Princh Mush, the first champion of The Glitz Pit), went into fighting to provide money for his poor family. Then Grubba made him vanish. She just wanted revenge for her brother's disappearance.
- Chapter 4: Vivian pulls a Heel Face Turn during the battle against Doopliss at the end of the chapter. She decides to help Mario because her sisters treat her like dirt and that he was one of the first people who was kind to her.
- One of the Trouble Center missions has you acting as a runner between Eve, a woman in Twilight Town, and Podley, her former lover. He's changed a lot since then, and pretends not to know her. But just as you leave the bar, you hear him whisper, "Oh, my Eve..." When you tell Eve that he's forgotten her, she acts like she understands and gives you your reward. And then you leave, and through the door you hear one of her children ask, "Mommy, why are you crying?"
- Chapter 5: Perhaps the biggest one in the game is Bobbery’s letter from his dead wife, Scarlette.
- Chapter 6: Bub, son of the wealthy Goldbob and Sylvia, doesn't really care that much he's rich and just wants an autograph from the train conductor because that's the kind of job he wants, plus the train conductor's reaction that a kid actually looks up to him as well.
- Grodus ordering TEC be disconnected, and his farewell message to Princess Peach.
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TEC: ...P...R...I...N...C...E...S...S...P...E...A...C...H...I...L...O...V...E...Y...O...U... |
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- Chapter 7: TEC barely manages to survive on backup power and weakly tells Mario how to escape the X-Naut fortress.
- Chapter 8: Princess Peach is possessed by the Shadow Queen and Mario is forced to fight her.
- Also, all the people you have met along your adventure start to cheer you on during the battle. They're on the edge of despair and plunged in darkness, but seeing the Crystal Star show up in their area reminds them of Mario's impact on them in his adventure, and it revitalizes their hope. It definitely reflects on the player too-- you've come so far, and seeing all these characters rooting for you and showing the progress you've made, is just amazing. It definitely counts as a Crowning Moment of Awesome and a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming all at once.