The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The ending, when the Mirror of Twilight begins to crack and Link and Zelda realize that they will never be able to see Midna again.
  • When Midna is mortally wounded and Link runs with her on his back in wolf form taking her to Zelda as a melancholy piano piece sweeps in.
    • And when you reach Zelda, does Midna ask Zelda to help her? No. Despite being mortally wounded and close to death, the reason she wanted you to "hurry to Zelda" was so that she could ask Zelda to help Link, who had had the wolf-curse reapplied on him through Zant's evil magic. She may as well be on her deathbed, and Midna doesn't say a word about her own condition.
      • She is on her deathbed. She's a creature of darkness who has just gotten a full blast from a spirit of light. She fully asks Link if he could manage without her.

Midna: Link . . . you can . . . get there without me . . . right?

      • And so, Nintendo decided that particular scene was gut-wrenching enough. No, wait, Zelda performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save Midna. And the worst part is? Midna is protesting, practically begging Zelda not to do it...but she does anyway, with a serene, encouraging look on her face the whole time. And then she's gone. Dammit...
  • Queen Rutela. Especially the scene after she gives Link the Zora Armor.
    • "If you see him again, please pass on this message... Tell him he must not grieve his mother's passing. Tell him she wanted him to be brave and live on as the king of our people. And... Tell him his mother...loves him without end. Tell him... Please tell my son when he wakes... The music that plays during the scene doesn't help.
      • No love for the scene in the credits, where Prince Ralis is sitting at the edge of the river and the Queen is watching over him? And then Ralis stands up, and looks as if he swore he could've seen something. * sniff*
    • Twilight Princess cements OOT Link's downer ending: It's heavily implied that the spirit that passes his techniques to Link is the Link from Ocarina of Time, finding himself unable to move on with his life. Dammit, Nintendo, it's like you enjoy torturing him.
    • It's also heavily implied that the spirit is Link's father, or at least a closely-related ancestor (great-grandfather?), who regrets not being able to teach his son/descendant anything, so much that he won't pass on until he teaches someone all his hidden moves.
      • Taking into consideration the amount of time that has passed since OOT (~100 years), the two may be one in the same.
    • Well, if you have any residual tears, let them out now: it's been confirmed. At least he's able to move on after finally getting the chance to pass on his life lessons to his successor.
  • The look of absolute devastation on Yeto's face after the fifth boss (Blizzeta).
    • Although the reconciliation was heartwarming enough to make up for it.
  • If you decide to play the talk-to-all-the-cats game in the Hidden Village, the cucco says that they have short memory spans (or something like that) and if you leave the village before you've talked to all twenty, they'll forget you were ever there. This is clearly just meant to be a more creative way of saying "the game resets if you leave the area", but the way the cucco talks about how lonely the kitties are, coupled with the fact that they probably won't even remember playing with you can definitely bring one to tears.
  • How about when you return to Ordon village after being turned into a wolf, all of the townspeople are beating themselves up over how the children are missing, and Link is viewed as a monster.
    • This counts as definitely in-universe for Link. If you don't manage to avoid Rusl, imagine how Link feels when one of his closest friends slashes him with a sword? Makes me wish Link would later, once human again, point out that his wolf-self never moved to attack Rusl anyway and for all Rusl knew, didn't mean any harm. Not to mention pretty much all the [human] NPC's in the game treat Wolf!Link like a monster that has no soul when he just looks like your average wolf. Even if it's supposedly in self-defense, normally the player doesn't ever move to even use an attack near any humans, yet they still treat him badly.
    • Coro, the man in Faron woods who gives you the lantern, is one of the only humans who doesn't freak out when he sees Wolf Link. He actually calls him a good pup or something to that effect, it's cute.
    • He even lampshades the reaction Wolf Link gets from other humans. The other prominent one who isn't frightened by Wolf Link is Agitha, but she's... a little funny in the head.
  • When Link walks into Telma's bar for the first time after dispelling the Twilight, and Ilia looks straight at him and doesn't recognize him at all--the look on his face was likely pretty heartbreaking to some.
  • Okay more of a tearjerker caused by nostalgia but admit it, you shed at least one tear when you opened the door to the entrance to the temple of time and got hit by that music. Thank you, Nintendo, Thank you.
  • During the final battle when Ganondorf's giant glowing head is forming. The music returns as the fragments of the Fused Shadow surround Midna. Link, knowing what she's about to do, reacts in shock and begins to run toward her, reaching out, only for her to transport him and Zelda away with a smile.
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