Sonic the Hedgehog/Tear Jerker

• The bad ending of Sega Master's Sonic 2. You have to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds in the game to free Tails; if you don't, Sonic never faces Eggman. Instead, he dashes alone until nightfall, only stopping to look up into the sky and see an image of Tails. The implication is either that Tails was forever held captive or that he was killed. The music doesn't help any either.
• The Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, the serious one, had several about Uncle Chuck- the best in my opinion being the end of Sonic Conversion, where he has his free will permanently, but still has to stay in Robotropolis.
  • This troper knows the episode you're talking about. What gets her is the ending to "Spyhog". when the others learn that Uncle Chuck is staying in Robotropolis. He refuses to argue, telling them to "Get those long faces back to Knothole. I have work to do!" Then, after Sonic leaves, he hugs Bunny and Sally and tells them to take good care of his nephew. *sniff* Ocular Gushers to the max.
  • What about one of the earliest episodes, when they first find him and can only temporarily restore his free will with a power ring? Who could forget Sonic deperately begging his uncle to snap out of it, ignoring his friends' pleas to hurry, Bunnie having to pull him away in tears, and the poor kid crying as they flee for home? The scene is so powerful, I knew once it was over that I was irrevocably hooked on the show from then on.
  • This Yank the Dog's Chain was almost mirrored with Sally in "The Void", after finally reuniting with her father and escaping with him out of the aforementioned portal, they discover his body is dying and turning into crystal without the Void's magic and he has no choice but to return. King Acorn kisses his tearful daughter on the forehead and asks Sonic to take care of her before he is dragged into the portal. Later, back in Knothole, Sonic is left to comfort Sally, still in tears over her loss.
  • Bunnie's tears when her body, which had finally been turned back to flesh and blood, suddenly reverts to its cyborg form.
• Even Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog had one with "Tails' New Home", when the fox eventually decides Sonic is his family.
• Sonic Underground had the triplets' adoptive parents being roboticized, and almost every time they ran across Queen Aleena.
• The whole character of Jules Hedgehog, Sonic's father. He is a robot. However he was once a hedgehog. After all the other roboticized people had been cured, he was left the Last of His Kind. He can't eat or sleep. Poor guy...
  • He's fine now.
  • Actually, I think the original troper wasn't referring to the free will, but rather his mechanical body. One of the semi-recent storylines had an alien race restoring all of the roboticized mobians to normal. But Jules had been roboticized because of a war wound that would have killed him otherwise. Because of that wound, he alone (besides the robians outright killed during the war with Robotnik) can never be Mobian again.
• Sonic Battle's ending. It was the first time this troper had seen that kind of ending in a game. He didn't expect THAT to happen, and he thought he had failed somehow, so he tried to search the webs for a better ending, only to find out there was none... Worse was that Sonic had a chance to save Emerl, and the reason he got killed was because he tried to be a nice guy to Eggman...
  • Sonic Battle made this troper cry with the death of Emerl and the heartwrending credits music. You just know Sonic Advance 3 was made just to cheer me up. The ending of Sonic Rush as well. And as terrible as Sonic 2006 was, and as Narmy as the plot was, watching the video of Blaze's Heroic Sacrifice was something indeed.
  • This troper whole heartedly agrees. Emerl's death has had a long lasting impact on this troper, it just never seemed fair... I mean... *sniffs* I'll be fine, I swear. along with the Chao's deaths... if I had one die on me, I was inconsolable, and I once heard an autistic kid who had his Tiggy Chao die and kept wanting it to come back... it was... horrible.
  • Agree. I got tears in my eyes with Tails' little speech at the end. "Maybe one day... if the world finally knows true peace... if this world no longer needs weapons or wars... if we can make this world a truly peaceful place when we're older... if we can make a world where there's only laughter..." Makes you think, doesn't it?
• The real ending of Sonic Adventure 2, with Shadow's Heroic Sacrifice, was quite the tearjerker for this troper.

Shadow: Maria... this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise I made to you.

• • What also makes it is the people of Earth realizing that they're saved, they're not going to die...and they all cheer him.
  • As narmy as the theme songs are in SA2, it's kind of sad listening to the full version of Unknown from M.E. Though there are obvious offenders ("But every time he looks for the sun can't find it") the worst line is rather difficult to make out the few times you hear it: "Freedom will be waiting when serenity is restored". We never really get the idea that Knuckles resents the whole 'guardian' thing in-game (a little in the original SA, but not here) but there are a few other lines that reference 'fighting for his destiny'. It's a little depressing to think that he may be fighting for freedom from his duties when it's quite obvious that it's not going to happen. (Of course, the lyrics switch focus so often that it's easy to forget the above)
  • SA2's ending nearly got to this troper, if not for Shadow's sacrifice, then for the heroes and villains' conversations with one another. Tails and Eggman's heart-to-heart, in particular...

Eggman: When I was a child, I looked up to my grandfather for all the great things he accomplished in his life. He was my hero, and I wanted to be a great scientist like him! But...did he really mean to destroy us?
Tails: I dunno, but what I do know is...we all did it together!
Eggman: ...you're right. :)

• • For True Story, the boss music during the Sonic vs. Shadow battle, is narmy for sure, but if you can look past that, it's also very sad, since it paints a picture of Shadow's bleak despair. The stars don't twinkle, the moon doesn't shine, the stars don't twinkle, the moon doesn't shine...
• This troper liked Shadow the Hedgehog. Wanted to strangle Alfred Kahn for the voice-acting change, but could appreciate the game. And it's got it's own tearjerker: Maria's Heroic Sacrifice and death. "For all the people who live on that planet. Give them a chance...to be happy..." And what this game added to that already touching bit. "Please, Shadow, I need your help. Everyone's fate...depends on...YOU..." And then she launches him away. As for people who complain about Shadow's personality and his other issues, consider the shit he's been through. That's enough to give anyone trouble. Think about it: he was a week old tops when the ARK incident happened, had his memory frakked with to facilitate a grief -driven revenge, recovered only to plummet down and suffer amnesia-causing head trauma in a somewhat-botched rescue, had people keep trying to manipulate him and/or tell him he had no past during a time when all he could remember of his past was his name and part of Maria's death... Is it any wonder he has problems? On the subject of Sonic 2006, how about Sonic's near-total death? And in any game with Chao, when one dies or you delete one...*sob*
  • On the topic of Shadow, play either The Doom or Lost Impact, with the music turned up, and think about what * exactly* is occurring. Enjoy yourself!
  • The closing cutscene after the GOOD ending to Sonic Adventure 2 gives closure and underscores the tear-jerking nature of Shadow's heroic sacrifice. Three words: Rest easy, heroes. The pic shown after those words are on the screen reduces This Troper to tears without fail, every single time.
  • All of the endings have Shadow figure out who he is... and there's the Slightly-Hero:Hero Ending. Shadow realizes all the damage he caused, and for the first time, is actually pretty sad about it. And the one of the titles for the route you took to get to it? Shadow's Second Death.
• Cosmo's death at the end of season 3 of Sonic X. When she first died in the next-to-last episode, this troper just leaned back, smirked, and said, "Believe me, they'll bring her back. They'll pull some rabbit out of the hat. Everything'll be fine." Then Sonic comes after using Chaos Regeneration with a somber look on his face. I just said, "Don't worry, Tails, in about 5 seconds Sonic's gonna pop you a grin and tell you that she's alive and resting up in the infirmary." Then he opens Tails' palm and put a white seed in there. I stared uncomprehendingly at the screen for about 3 seconds. Then I just sat down and cried, and cried, and cried.
  • Tails thought the same thing. If his breakdown at first wasn't enough, that sequence with the seed has him blame Sonic for not managing to pull off one more miracle. And Sonic just stands there, not certain what to do, not able to give Tails the comfort he needs.
• Certain cutscenes later in Sonic Unleashed tend to be a bit on the emotional side as well.
  • Seeing Sonic's humiliating defeat in the intro made This Troper's young cousin cry. "He's OK, right?"
    • Chip's resealing into the Earth. To make things worse, Sonic is completely stoic.
• And before Shadow's death was the death of E-102 "Gamma" at the end of his story in Sonic Adventure. Though what really makes it is the music.
  • Gamma's death isn't all that sad, upon considering that the bird inside is finally free to be with its family. Although that's definitely touching.
    • It depends how you view Gamma's consciousness, is it composed of the brainwashed bird inside a lifeless robotic shell, or is it a sentient life sacrificing his new-found life for the sake of the being powering him? This comes off as even more powerful in the Sonic X version, where Amy bares witness to his Heroic Sacrifice. While happy that Lily is reunited with her liberated parents, after they flutter away, she immediately bursts into tears over the now decomposed robot shell on the ground (made EVEN MORE powerful in the formation Beta and Gamma have fallen, their hands collapsing on each other as if to represent unity).

Amy: You managed to free them. Thank you. We are friends from now on. Now you and your brother can live together again.

• • Speaking of Sonic Adventure music, Sadness is truly Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• As bland as this troper found Princess Elise to be and how much she has no taste for the Sonelise pairing (when it's two-sided at least) the final cutscene of Sonic 2006 drives her to the verge of tears by combination of the bittersweet atmosphere and moving background score present. Then again, this troper is naturally sentimental...
  • Seconded on this one. Despite the absolute trainwreck Sonic 2006 was, that cutscene, as well as Elise's surprisingly beautiful theme playing over the credits, made this troper cease his raging for a moment, and actually shed a tear, both for the scenes themselves, and all the wasted potential going into the game.
  • I watched an LP, and they made a good point of that scene, asking, "How come the death of her father, her friends, and basically everyone in the research lab didn't make her cry, but ONE GUY who she only knew for a day or two made her cry?" I agree completely with their opinion, but hey, Your Mileage May Vary.
  • Hey, you're not alone in feeling bad for Elise. She may be a boring character, but I had spent the entirety of Sonic's story actually enjoying the scenes between him and Elise, because they were good friends. It's quite clear that because of her royal duties Elise has had very few friends in her life- if any at all- so seeing her only friend die in front of her is a bit much, but then she realizes that the only way to set things right is to lose the one person who likes her for who she is, not what. And she's spent a better part of her life trying not to cry to uphold her father's last wish, and in that last scene she's crying and Lacy Chabert actually does a convincing job and I just can't help but feel bad for her!
    • The final scene of Silver's story. Silver and Blaze have defeated Iblis and Silver attempts to seal Iblis inside himself to prevent it from resurrecting itself once again. Unfortunately, he's rejected by Iblis. Blaze offers herself as a the vessel, since her soul is already filled with flames. As she does so she commands Silver to seal her in another dimension using Chaos Control. He refuses to, not wanting to lose her, and the two share a touching moment before Blaze floats into the sky, as her body disappears. Before she does a final blast blows away the volcanic soot-clouds allowing sunshine into the world for the first time in 200 years. Silver merely stares up at the sky as the credits begin rolling. Combine that with the awesome song that plays during the credits and you've got yourself a really sad ending. It's made even worse by the fact that Blaze is the only character who doesn't appear in the Final Story.
    • Actually, thinking about it, Sonic '06 had a LOT of parallels between stories about friendship/abandonment. As stated above, there's Elise gaining a friend in Sonic, then having to lose him for the fate of the world. There's Silver, who has to watch Blaze, his only friend who he spent his entire journey die/disappear/travel-to-another-dimension for the good of the world, and then there's Shadow, who finds out the whole world will eventually turn against him, and the person responsible for his capture was none other one of his only two friends E-123 Omega. At least Rouge tells him she'll never turn against him even if the world does... A lot of a good a dead friend does 200 years in the future though. DAMN, when you really think about it, it looks like Sega was trying to build an entire game out of the Despair Event Horizon.
    • To be fair, the statement about the world turning on Shadow was likely false. After all, Mephiles is a liar, as shown when he calls Sonic the Iblis Trigger (which is true), but tells Silver the wrong way to stop Iblis' revival. Keep in mind that he was trying to recruit Shadow to his side when he told him that he'd be betrayed.
    • This was passed without Sonic's Death? SHAME ON YOU! However, it brought up The Power of Love between Sonic and Elise, so I can see why this pass was made, especially if you hate Sega. So you were crying when he was brought back to life, right 9-volt?
• Hate to admit it, but Shadow the Hedgehog did actually make me cry. Which part, you may ask? At the end, when the President says "Even though we tried to destroy him, he still saved us." Based on the context of the scene, the line is referring more to Prof. Gerald, but when I heard it, I instantly thought of Sonic Adventure 2 and how Shadow sacrificed himself to fulfill Maria's wish despite his former Humans Are the Real Monsters attitude. That one line perfectly captured Shadow in that moment, and basically brought back memories of how my poor 12-year old self reacted to the end of SA2 the first time, so I was a bit of an emotional wreck over the ending. The piano tune over the credits didn't help matters either.
• During the credits of Sonic Unleashed, the song "Dear My Friend" always got to this troper. It's almost kind of a Mood Whiplash since the rest of the game seemed kind of light-hearted, (with Aside Glances, all kinds of little gags during the cutscenes, the cartoony-looking villagers, not to mention the funny promo short: "Night of the Werehog,") then comes the Bittersweet Ending. What really brings it out is the fact that the song is supposedly in Chip's POV, and you know him and Sonic will never see each other again.
• Sonic the Comic has its fair share of this but almost undeniably the worst one is Johnny's untimely death.
• The beta Game Over music from Sonic Spinball sounds really depressing for some reason.