Young Justice (animation)/Tear Jerker

Young Justice the Animated Series

• In "Denial" when Kent Nelson dies and then sacrifices his ascension to save Kid Flash.
• The end of "Failsafe" with Miss Martian crying and the whole team traumatized.
• "Secrets" was very very dark. We find out that a guy calling himself Harm murdered his own sister to gain magical powers. In the end, it's discovered that Greta could only say the word "Secret", because "Secret" was the very last word she ever saw before she died.
• In "Misplaced" when Zatanna's father sacrifices himself to be the new Dr. Fate so Nabu will release his daughter -- especially poignant given she was complaining earlier how overprotective Zatara is and how much she was wishing for a little space from him.
• In "Coldhearted" when Kid Flash, who was disappointed he had to race a heart on ice to a little girl awaiting it for a transplant instead of being part of the first Justice League/Young Justice team up mission, makes it with 20 minutes to spare, but is told the girl died 12 minutes before he got there. Wally spent 15 minutes fighting with Vandal Savage. Those fifteen minutes could've made all the difference, and he was wracked with guilt over having wasted that time.
  • And then again when it turns out the "she died 12 minutes ago" was a ploy by the villains. The heart does get to the right girl, and she died on the operating table, which turns out to have been a ploy by Kid Flash himself to get Count Vertigo to do the Evil Gloating thing and causes sad-to-happy Mood Whiplash.
• Artemis' break down in "Homefront" when she realizes that despite everything, the rest of the team is going to be killed, and she's going to lose the family she's made for herself. She curls into the fetal position and starts crying- it's painful to watch.
• In "Image" Psimon showing M'gann her worst fears if her true form as a White Martian was revealed. All her friends rejecting her, J'onn banishing her from Earth to be alone on Mars and her very worst fear: Superboy walking away from her repulsed and saying he could never love her.
  • One of the biggest gut-wrench factors for that scene has to be the voice acting and how well the lines are delivered. Poor M'gann just sounds so heart broken and emotionally shattered as all of her fears are pulled out of her mind and dissected. It's hard not to yell Kick the Son of a Bitch when she turns the Mind Rape right back on Psimon.
• In "Performance", when Robin sees the "Flying Graysons" poster
• You can't help but feel sorry for Red Arrow in "Auld Acquaintance" when he finds out that he's actually a clone of the real Roy Harper and that he was programmed to infiltrate and betray the Justice League.
  • There's also the scene where he, paranoid, aims an arrow at Aqualad as he enters his room. After a brief Q&A to ascertain if he's the real deal, there's this line from Kaldur:

"The girl in Atlantis who broke my heart was named Tula, who is now with my best friend Garth. Meanwhile, my best friend on the surface now aims an arrow at my chest."

• Season 2, "Earthlings," while engaged in a happy jaunt through the thick jungles of Rann with his adopted big sister, M'gann, Beast Boy suddenly comes to an abrupt stop, freezing stock still and gazing ahead blankly. Miss Martian tries to figure out what's going on by linking with him telepathically, and then realizes he's staring at a small lake in front of a waterfall, just as he breaks down and starts to cry. It's then we learn Queen Bee killed his mother at a similar place on Earth, and Gar was the one that found her body. For such a young kid to have his mom taken away from him so violently like that... You can't help but feel for him.
  • Made even worse when you remember that M'gann looked up to Marie Logan as her role model back on Mars, and thus she also lost someone very important to her. Someone please give these two a hug...
  • Not only that, but M'gann probably feels largely responsible for Marie's death, given that Queen Bee probably killed her in retaliation for M'gann pulling a fast one on her near the end of Season One.
• In "Alienate", we find that Kaldur has defected and joined his father, Black Manta, as his apprentice, due in part to feeling betrayed by the fact that Aquaman withheld that information from him. However, the primary reason for this shift in alliance? Tula died on a mission as Aquagirl sometime during the five year Time Skip.
  • Superman trying desperately to save the Kroloteans who are about to be blown up. They refuse to listen and even shoot at him. In the end, the island is destroyed and they all die, and even though Supes comes out of it pretty much unharmed, Conner understands that he still feels devastated for being unable to save the Korloteans.
• We get two Tear Jerkers in "Salvage".
  • The first comes from Red Arrow, who has spent the timeskip searching desperately for the real Roy Harper, only for everyone who was helping him to give up because they believe him to be dead. His physical condition, while still miles ahead of an average person, is much, much worse than it was five years ago. He's been reduced to fleecing money off of robbery victims to get funds, and he can barely keep himself clean. When his friends try to get him to clean up his act, he brushes them off and runs to his run down safe house. Fortunately, the last scene in the episode is happier, with his wife Chesire introducing him to their daughter Lian Harper. So I guess that makes it three tear jerkers, at least one brings out happy tears.
  • Second, (and admittedly, not as bad as the first one) is Blue Beetle's reaction to the Golem's destruction. Once he realized that he could talk to it, he tries to get it to stop attacking a nuclear plant, and for just a moment, it looks like he's succeeding. Then an unseen villain who was watching blasts it to oblivion, destroying it. He just sits there for a moment, stunned by what happened and filled with grief.
    • And before that, Superboy saying "I can relate" when he hears the Golem's death wish. He's been where the Golem is, thinking of himself as an unnatural existence.
• In The Stinger to "Bloodlines," Bart's annoyed "Well, better get in character."
  • To go into more detail: The personality Bart's shown the entire episode is a facade used to hide the fact that he's come back in time to stop a Bad Future. He knows that it's a one-way trip, and he doesn't care. And finally, saving the Flash's life wasn't enough to change the future, and all he did was cure his friend - the episode's villian - forty years ahead of schedule.
  • Pretty much, you'll laugh your ass off at all of Bart's antics. Then, you watch it again and the dread slowly starts creeping up on you.
• In "Depth" viewers learn why Conner and M'gann broke up. Alone in the bioship they discuss that it was because Conner was alarmed of M'gann telepathically interrogating villains leaving them vegetables. She shows absolutely no remorse and that the ends justified the means. Conner thinks she's become no better than Psimon. The final straw was her telepathically wiping his memories so he wouldn't be upset at her. He did find out and felt betrayed. Connor: "After all we've been through how could you think I wouldn't recognize your touch inside my mind? Didn't you know what that touch meant to me? And to have you pervert it like that..." Conner's voice when he says that and M'gann's eyes filling with tears is heartbreaking.
  • Then there's Nightwing looking at the picture he took of himself and Artemis on her first day of school, right before he tells Wally about her "death". If the line "We'll laugh about this some day." doesn't make you tear up, nothing will.
    • And before that there's Artemis getting "killed" by Kaldur'ahm and Nightwing using cpr and trying to revive her. And Superboy coming up and saying he cant hear her heartbeat. And then the scene switches The Team all crying in mourning. With M'gann the most hit and Superboy wanting to comfort her but cant^[1].

1. ↑ Her boyfriend was also capture