View source for Thud!/Tear Jerker

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* Any time [[Badass Normal|Sam Vimes]] thinks about being a father counts, ''especially'' during {{spoiler|the dwarves' raid on the manor: ''"I'll kill I'll killyoukillyoukillyoukillkillkill"''}} Gives me ''chills''.
** The above scene is particularly chilling and tear-inducing if you're a parent.
** "So, that was the rule. Six o'clock, on the dot. No excuses. He had *nightmares* about being too late. Actually, he had a lot of nightmares about Young Sam. Most of them involved empty cots and darkness."
*** The above becomes even more Fridge Horror when you realize that the *only* reason Vimes was home to  {{spoiler|save Young Sam}} was that he'd made it a point to get home by six o'clock that day, even though everything in the city was falling apart.
* The sheer, unadulterated beauty that is the Guarding Dark, whose existence essentially confirms that Vimes has a Crowning Psyche Of Awesome.
** "Call me... the Guarding Darkness. Imagine how strong I must be." Does the trick. Every. Single. Time.
* When {{spoiler|Vimes falls into the underground river and Sybil goes to read to little Sam. Followed by the mini-tearjerker cutaways back to them during Vimes berserker rampage}}.
** When he's lost in the caves, brought to a beserker rage by the Summoning Dark, Vimes still manages to focus on his love for his son. [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|THAT! IS! NOT! MY! COW!]]
** Added to that was Sybil's quiet and never ending belief in Vimes. You can tell she's worried and scared but she sits calmly and believes in him. It's never said, but you can tell when she finally goes to little Sam, she's scared the worst has happened.
* {{spoiler|Helmclever}}'s death.
** Especially when afterwards, Vimes puts 'Helmclever was terrified that the Summoning Dark would come for him' together with 'I was the champion of the Summoning Dark' and is immediately terrified that he killed Helmclever, before Bashfullsson reassures him that he didn't.
* The deaths of the four mining dwarves, especially Setha Ironcrust's son. The poor bastard just wanted to feel like a real dwarf, working for the grags down in the dark, and they got left for dead in the cold and mud for overhearing a secret. Vimes has a mini-BSOD when he realises he was on the other side of the door from the dwarves. 
** Doubly so because Vimes is barely holding back a murderous rage, when four simple, terrible words — "They killed my son", calm him down instantly. [[Adult Fear|Because he knows exactly how that must feel.]]
** Bear in mind (though nobody in the room knows it), when Ironcrust asks Vimes of nothing but to track down the grags responsible and kill them, Vimes is  {{spoiler|the Champion of the Summoning Dark, the demonic avatar of vengeance. The fact that Vimes is then able to find the grags and ''not'' slaughter them speaks volumes more of Vimes' willpower.}}
* Think of the centuries of intermittent war and constant hostility between trolls and dwarves that followed the Battle of Koom Valley. So many lives lost to the [[Battle Cry]], "Remember Koom Valley!" Now add in the fact that {{Spoiler|it'd been meant to be the signing of a peace treaty.}}

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[[Category:Discworld]]
[[Category:Discworld/Tear Jerker]]