Star Wars: The Old Republic/Heartwarming

General

• One of the things that BioWare has done to add some depth to the story is having NPC's send letters to you at some point after certain quests. Some of them are quite touching.
  • For example, as a Republic player on Tatooine, one of the regional missions is to break up a slaving ring and free the slaves. After doing so, the freed slaves send a thank-you letter along with roughly 500 credits that they pooled together, saying that seeing you mowing through the enemy to come to their rescue was the first time in a while that they'd dared to hope.
• After doing the main quests on Tatooine (Republic side), a local named Galen Besk asks you to help a bit more (i.e. bonus quests). Despite just hanging around the entrance to the spaceport, he seems to know more about you than he should. When you finish the questline, you get a chance to ask him about how he knows.

Galen Besk: Some Jedi fight to save worlds. Some fight empires. Some put their lightsabers aside and help in smaller ways.

• A retrospective one in the "Deceived" trailer: Master Zallow is shown to press a Twi'lek gunslinger against a stone pillar with the Force - only to be engaged by a visibly pissed-off Darth Malgus. We later find out in supplementary materials that the Twi'lek, Eleena Daru, was Malgus' wife. That enraged attack on Master Zallow was essentially a successful attempt by Malgus to save the woman he loved.
• Any Romance arc for a companion, that first kiss and all the others after it are all heart-warmingly sweet, and shows how much the characters truly love each other.

Jedi Knight Storyline

• On Nar Shaddaa, convincing Agent Galen to go on living even after he was forcibly turned into a Power Guard. It gets even better when he helps you bring down Lord Sadic.
• After Kira's past as a Sith comes to light, most Jedi tell her that it's not what she was, but what she chooses to make herself that matters. For example, her Jedi master:

Kira: You need to know something, and I'd rather you hear it from me. I never told you about my childhood. I'm not who you think I am...
[Cut while she explains]
Bela Kiwiiks: So much about you is now clear to me, Kira, but you're wrong about one thing. You are exactly who I think: a strong, capable young woman. One day, you'll be a great Jedi.

• Doc, who has a pissed-off ex-girlfriend in every port, offhandedly remarks that he's been elbow-deep in medical journals, and discovered the profoundly unnatural factoid that Wookiees spend their multi-hundred-year lifespans mated to a single partner. Later, if you romance him, his hilariously-awkward marriage proposal includes the line "I want us to spend the rest of our lives together, like the Wookiees."

Jedi Consular Storyline

• If you bring Lt Iresso with you into the Healer's Temple on Voss during the main quest line, he'll offer to take your place and let the Mystics siphon his energy instead. Cue him collapsing in pain, but responding to to your voice; if you're romancing him, his sacrifice and your support is particularly sweet.

Trooper Storyline

• Fuse. You just gotta feel for the poor guy, traitor as he was. He followed his squadmates for what presumably was a case of the politicians throwing them out the window just because they were a political threat, then on Tatooine he discovers the Imperials were using his expertise to murder innocents in order to field test the bombs that he designed, and by the end of the arc he's asking you to forget about his own life and get the son of a bitch who turned his gear towards it. Saving him and the message he sends later... just touched this Trooper.
• For a male trooper if you pursue a romantic relationship with Elara. She will tell you that you are the only person that supported and treated her with any kind of respect since she defected to the Republic. The two of you will ended up getting officially married and talk about one day having children together.

Smuggler Storyline

• The Smuggler's story is very funny and full of adventure, but one thing that truly shines is how personal the story is. The story is about the Smuggler, sure, you get to make a lot of heroic things, but in the end it still is a story about a freighter captain and his crew. That's what's most interesting, the whole crew becomes your family, and the game makes you really attached to Corso, Risha, Akaavi, Bowdaar and Guss, which in turn, each have developed loyalty and caring for you, the rest of the crew and the ship. It's a really heartwarming seeing how close knit the characters become.

Sith Warrior Storyline

• Commander Rylon whole scene. First, you kill his captain, who is completely loyal to Rylon, then in his final moments discovers that his commander is actually an Imperial Spy. Then, Rylon starts to talk about how he already knew that Baras was going to kill him eventually, and that he would face his death with honor. The last thing he asks of you before the fight is if his son, who you met earlier faced his destiny (that is decided by you) with his chin up. It's really hard to choose the Dark Side choice. Then you have to fight him, to actually look that he was slain because he was loyal to the Republic. It's a true Tearjerker.
• Proposing to Vette before she has a chance to propose to you has her literally^[1] jumping with joy. It's so heartwarmingly cute.

Sith Inquisitor Storyline

Bounty Hunter Storyline

• At one point early on in the story, another Bounty Hunter will ask if your partner, Mako, is your little sister, and then say that she at least can't hold a real man's attention. One response is to say that Mako is the only person in the galaxy you care about, rendering Mako speechless.
• After one has earned considerable affection from Mako, she can be pursued as a romance option and married. Cue the next day as this Bounty Hunter was rolling about on Belsavis looking for a new base to open a taxi route at, and he reads his mail to see that Mako has sent him one along with a gift. The body of the message reads "Did you know Czerka Corporation has wedding registries? Well, they do. It was kind of fun to set one up even though no one's going to get us anything on there. Well, almost no one. I saw the best set of shape-conforming blast armor on sale. I think it'll look good on you, so really it's a present for both of us. Love you, big guy. Attached to the message was a gift item, which for me was a rank one military gear, fitted all-weather bodysuit. Purple drop, so marginally valuable, but it's not something that you, personally, can use. Not like say, actual armor or anything. But for this Mando'ad, it was very much the thought that counts.

Imperial Agent Storyline

• After gaining enough affection with Kaliyo, she gives you a mission to help her bail a friend out of jail. It turns out that this friend has a bounty on her head that Kaliyo wants to collect on, all due to a perceived slight. If you opt for the LS option and let the girl go, Kaliyo is pissed at you. The only option that doesn't result in a loss of affection is telling her that "You're better than this, Kaliyo." Given she's an Ax Crazy anarchist that rivals Jack in hating authority, the fact that this gets through to her is oddly touching.
• The romance storyline with Vector Hyllus has several such moments. At one point, during a 'private moment' with the female agent, Vector represses the bond to his hive so that they can get some true alone time. Possibly made even more heartwarming if the agent chooses the "This isn't you" response, and accepts him as a Joiner.
  • Later on, the female agent can suggest becoming a Joiner as well. Vector's reponse is beyond sweet.

Vector: It would mean giving up everything you are, everything you wish to become. We have no desire to see you do that. We love you. Will you marry us?

• Vector really does have quite a few heartwarming lines in the romance storyline, in his own Killik-y way:

Vector: There are patterns in your electric aura that are yours alone. They taste like frost and spices. We will remember them always.

• Vector gets a lot of these, period. There's his friendship with Lokin, which has the two of them being so reassuringly normal, which is a bit of a feat considering their respective natures. Nevertheless, they plan hiking trips and visits to the opera. At the end of their dialogue based mini-arc, Vector explains the nature of their friendship in a way that resonates with the themes of the Agent's story as a whole: No, he doesn't trust Lokin. Of course the good doctor always has an angle. But you don't have to trust someone to like them and be their friend.

1. ↑ (The actual definition of literally, not the "for emphasis" definition)