Mobile Suit Gundam SEED/Tear Jerker

Gundam SEED

• In SEED Episode 40, during the Heroic Sacrifice of Uzumi Athha, who tells his little girl Cagalli that although she was adopted, he was so glad to have been her father before spiriting her off to freedom, Fiction Junction's Chariot of Dawn acting as a heartbreaking funeral march did not help to stop the tears from pouring down. Damn you Yuuka for your beautiful singing voice!!
• Also in Gundam SEED, there are the nearly-simultaneous Heroic Sacrifices of Mu la Flaga and Natarle Badgiruel in phase 49. And then Gundam SEED Destiny ruined Mu's completely... but that's for another time.
• She may have been the most controversal character on the show, but this troper still found himself crying for Flay Allster, especially after her soul apologizes to Kira and promises to watch over him from them on.
  • Another heartbreaking scene with Flay, much earlier in the series: (crying): "Bring daddy back!"
  • And her talk with Natarle, where she cries and tells her how sorry she is for how badly she treated Kira... *SOB*
  • It's incredibly subtle, but Fllay's rant when she and Kira break up always gets me. She asks how he can feel sorry for her, when he's the one suffering, the one who does everything he can to protect his friends and suffers when he can't. At first glance, it seems like she's mocking him, but then it hits you: Fllay's been manipulating him, and slowly falling in love with him in the process. Thinking Kira pities her throws her own actions into sharp relief, and the guilt is destroying her. Knowing this lends a new, heartbreaking quality to her last line "So how...how could you feel sympathy for someone like me?"
    • Kira's response: "Maybe this was all a mistake." His girlfriend is breaking down in front of him, and he's too emotionally drained to deal with it. Highlights how badly both their lives suck. Made even worse when Kira refuses to see his parents, noting that, "all they'd see is a soldier" and that he'd have to ask "why the hell they made me a Coordinator."

"This is what I do: I pilot a mobile suit, and when I'm not fighting, I help other people build mobile suits. Why? Because I can."

• • Perhaps one of the biggest reasons for why Flay's death was more tragic than she deserved was not just because she truly regretted her actions and behavior in the series, but because, in the end, she was never able to properly make amends with Kira or Sai, or anyone else, which is what she desperately wanted to do now. And, if that weren't enough, according to Word of God, Flay's spirit never actually appeared to Kira, meaning while we got to hear what Flay wanted to tell Kira, he never did. It's somewhat better, however, knowing that Kira still forgave and loved her regardless of her never being able to make things up to him. He's just that kind of guy.
• Nicol's death. Made worse when you realize that the episodes leading up to it foreshadowed it to high heaven.
  • Followed by Tolle's death. My God, poor Miriallia... *sob*
  • And the scene that follows that: Kira and Athrun beat each other down in what is probably one of the most brutal Gundam fights ever animated. All while sad music is playing. Here are two best friends, who still care for each other after all these years... and they're trying as hard as they can to kill one another, both out of rage at the loss of their comrades, and out of a feeling of sheer futility in trying to deny that they are enemies now.

Gundam SEED Destiny

• When Shinn unknowingly killed Captain Todaka, the man who rescued him after his (Shinn) family's tragic death. The fact that they showed how he rescued Shinn in a flashback after his death really made This Troper feel depressed... =(
• There's Stellar's death in Gundam SEED Destiny, in the arms of her beloved Shinn, who had promised to protect her.. And we also have her Famous Last Words: "... Shinn... I love you..." WAH! ;-;
  • This troper finds the moment just beforehand even worse. Shinn actually succeeds in Defusing the Tykebomb, and Stellar has a momentary fantasy of being reunited with him, and she looks so happy. Knowing what's coming makes that moment absolutely devastating.
  • The beginning of the following episode is also a real Tear Jerker, when Shinn carries Stellar's dead body in his arms and gently drops her into the depths of the snowy lake while uttering the words "Good night".
• Another of the few truly touching moments in Destiny was Meer dying after Taking the Bullet meant for her idol, Lacus Clyne, and Lacus crying after she reads Meer's digital diary and learns about her backstory.. The Famous Last Words spoken there are among the saddest in the whole franchise: "Lady Lacus... My life, my song... please don't forget them... I'm so sorry!"
  • And then we have her funeral, where she's mourned by everyone in Lacus's crew and her body's shot into space in a capsule.

Lacus: " Miss Meer, I will never forget you"

• It's only a Clip Show, but Episode 29 of Seed Destiny, "Fate" always leaves me feeling like I've just been kicked in the gut. Durandal and Le Creuset's ghost arguing over the human experience while we flashback over every, single one of Seed's most depressing deaths is bad enough, but it's only made worse because Le Creuset is narrating for most of it, and we're treated to the flashbacks from the end of Durandal and Captain Gladys' relationship. The episode is absolutely emotionally draining to watch, as it shows you just how far gone Le Creuset was, and actually leaves you rooting for the Chairman, while giving you a lot of insight into how he got to be that way. The incredibly sad music does not help, nor does Durandal's obvious depression. Probably one of my favourite, if saddest, Gundam episodes, and the one that got me hooked on Destiny.