Swiss Army Tears/Playing With

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Basic Trope: A character's tears are able to solve the problem at hand.

  • Straight: Bob is knocked out during a fight, Alice's tears cause him to awaken.
  • Exaggerated: A single tear brings everyone who died during the series back to life, restores areas destroyed in battle and causes the Big Bad to instantly make a Heel Face Turn.
  • Justified: The character who cries is a magical being whose tears are widely showed in myth as having healing properties.
  • Inverted: Due to Bizarre Alien Biology, Alice's tears are actually a very powerful poison.
  • Subverted: Alice lies on Bob's corpse and sobs her heart out. Sadly, Bob is still dead...
  • Double Subverted: ...at least until the tears start seeping into Bob's many wounds. Cue Power Glows.
  • Parodied: Alice's tears revive people... as zombies.
  • Deconstructed: People with Swiss Army Tears are rounded up and 'farmed' for their tears, which become a common active ingredient in many pharmaceuticals. Disease and other ailments become a thing of the past, at least, for those who can afford the treatment, at the cost of these people being held and doused in pepper spray.
  • Reconstructed: The powers of said tears are magical in nature and can't be accessed by just anyone.
  • Zig Zagged: Even though the show hangs lampshades on it repeatedly, Bob's tears don't always work, which props a lot of invoking and Conversational Troping when the characters start realizing it... even when they KNOW most instances from that point on are not actual applications of the trope.
  • Averted: Alice's tears never come close to Bob's corpse.
  • Enforced: "How are we going to heal Bob after the fight with the Big Bad?" "Maybe we should give Alice the ability to heal people with her tears. The shippers will love it!"
  • Lampshaded: "So she has magical tears? That's cool, I guess."
  • Invoked: "Oh no, Bob is hurt! Someone cry on him!"
  • Defied: Alice is knocked out in a fight. Bob knows his tears would probably help her, but he wouldn't be caught dead crying.
    • Alternatively, villain carves Bob's eyes out so he wouldn't cry resurrecting tears!
  • Discussed: Bob pretended to be dead/unconscious to set up a joke.
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played for Drama: Bob pulls off a Heroic Sacrifice and dies in Alice's arms. She begins to cry, but he still remains dead.

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