Rent/Heartwarming

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • "I'll Cover You." Heck, Angel and Collins' relationship is so damn heartwarming in general.
    • "I'll Cover You (Reprise)" is equally heartwarming and a Tear Jerker considering it's Angel's funeral, and Collins is singing back the promises he and Angel had made to each other.
  • The part of Mimi's energetic, celebratory "Out Tonight" in which she stops and sits, and sings about just why she just can't stay still "in the city of neon and chrome."
  • "Finale B."
  • Mimi trying to convince Roger to let go in "Another Day."

"There is no future, there is not past. I live this moment as my last."

  • From "What You Own", as Roger comes back to New York, comes this little gem:

"And when you're dying in America/At the end of the millennium.../You're not alone/I'm not alone/I'm not alone."

    • Followed by Roger and Mark embracing. N'awwww.
    • Well, they embrace in the film. In the original musical they're not supposed to actually see each other as they're not actually in the same location, just on the same line of thought.
  • A meta example: Following Jonathan's Larson sudden and heartbreaking death just before the off-broadway premiere, the cast did a special performance of the show for his friends and family. Anthony Rapp recounts that he and several others were crying too hard to sing at some points, but they all got through it somehow. The real Crowning Moment of Heartwarming/Awesome, however, has to be when they reached La Vie Bohéme. Until that point, they had been sitting down and simply singing their parts, as they wanted the focus of the performance to be entirely on Larson's lyrics and music - but when it came time to sing La Vie Bohéme, Rapp decided that they couldn't do the song full justice while sitting down. So he jumped up on the table and danced, and was soon joined by the other cast members. They did the rest of the performance with full blocking.
    • Also, after every subsequent performance, Rapp looked up to the sky and clapped - applauding for Jonathan.
  • "Seasons Of Love" says it all.
    • As one of the Marks in a production of Rent this troper was in said, this song is when Rent starts to feel like Rent.
  • The ending (alternate ending in the film), where everyone returns to the "Seasons of Love" lineup to sing the musical to a close....Including Angel, who pauses to hold hands with Collins before standing beneath his previously empty spotlight. Words fail to do it justice.
  • The ending of Rent is as tear-jerking as it is inspiring and warming and meaningful. "No day but today."
    • "Life goes on, but I'm gone, 'cause I die without you... I die without you..." After everything that the group's been through, they still manage to forgive whatever flaws they have, and it shows with how damn awesome this song is. This troper cried after watching her high school perform the finale.
  • While everyone's usually too busy crying their eyes out at Angel's funeral, the speeches given by Mimi, Mark, and Maureen are just so perfect, especially Maureen's final line:

You always said how lucky you were to have known us. It was us, baby. We were the lucky ones.


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