For me, it was always Optimus Prime from The Transformers movie.
Bridge to Terabithia
!Leslie!<
I think, due to lack of diagnosis and medication, plus age - I was barely double digits - Aeris/Aerith in FF7.
I had no spoilers. And it wasn’t so much the death itself, it was the fact that I had fucking FARMED shit for her. She’s healer coded? I already had a history with RPGs, and healers are worth their weight in gold.
I think all that time and effort invested really solidified it.
Also, I had phoenix downs. WTF?
Just like Jesus, He didn’t even really die. He went away for a few days and on the third day he rose again so that all may follow him and enjoy everlasting life.
Rob and Catelyn Stark in the Red Wedding. So traumatizing!
Ka’Dargo in “Farscape Peacekeeper War”. They were on their way for Moya to pick them up. The worst of the fighting was over and BAM.
At least he went out as a warrior.
Dumbledore
I was pissed that Snape was the stupidly obvious traitor all along. Weak, bad writing, angry at childish plot “twist”.
Well…
Snape is the best part of the latter books. He’s well rounded, motivated, and a fully fleshed out character.
The rest of the world and half the people in it feel like cardboard shuddering in the breeze by that point.
The plot twist was that Snape wasn’t a traitor, and killed the dying Dumbledore to save Draco Malfoy from becoming a murderer.
Oh yeah, he was totally my favourite character by the end.
… And prevent the fancy wand choosing Draco.
Personally, I felt more sad over Dobby’s death.
Of all the deaths in the series, I thought Fred’s hurt the most.
Aragog gets no love
I used to be able to read during car rides. While going on holidays, I read the half blood prince to my family. The whole car was in tears and I had to take a break. Dad was driving; no clue how much his vision was impaired…
I started reading Dragonlance novels around 10 years old. When I got my hands on the third main one (IIRC), one of the main characters who’s a knight died and that impacted me for quite some time.
Sturm Brightblade, in the second book _Dragons of Winter Night _
When the older character in the first(?) book dies, it hit me like a ton of bricks the first time around.
I probably haven’t seen The Neverending Story in 25 years, but I still think about Artax from time to time. Fuckin’ Swamp of Sadness…
For real. That moment in that movie is basically telling you that you cannot save your best friend from crippling sadness and depression. The horse and the boy love each other but it doesn’t matter in the end.
I was allowed to watch that movie waaay too young, and I know it’s the same for others my age, but I was pissed when I learned that one of my friends let her 5 year old watch it because she’d seen it when she was 5, and apparently forgot or didn’t care that the horse dies?? Like how can you forget that?? And then the 5 year old heard us talking about the movie and the FIRST thing she says is “Remember the horse?” in this sad little voice. Way to traumatize your kid.
Thank you! This traumatized me as a child, my dad used to have to fast forward that part because it was so upsetting for me.
The 80s were so brutal. We had a kids movie that starts with the main character’s horse dying from sadness.
Dangit! Two people now have totally eclipsed what I was gonna add with something that just takes more wind out of my sails!
I definitely need something to cuddle now.
Well, at least your username fits.
It was so traumatizing, death by depression. But, overall, as a little fruity kid about the same age as Bastian when it came out, TNS was the closest thing to affirmation of my own little fruity existence I could find. We easily traumatized fruity kids don’t usually get represented well in action films.
Fun fact: Artax can speak in the novel.
AAAANDD ITS SO MUCH WORSE TOOOOOO 😭
More recently, victor aguilar.
First time I saw Wash die in firefly was brutal.
More recently, after watching better call Saul I am heartbroken over Mike’s death. Particularly for Stacey and Kaylee.
Howard’s death hurt me the most out of all of them. Not sure why.
I guess because he was an innocent guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. They just wanted to fuck with the guy just a little but instead they tore him down and destroyed him. It just feels bad.
And for a huge portion of the show he was the only ally they had.
Mike Ermentraut was an amazing character. They built him so well as a fully 3 dimensional broken man who still held on to a sort of moral code, warped as that was.
The actor was excellent and portrayed ‘old-man strength’ perfectly. The pain he held inside but never even seems to really understand was written on that bumpy face. But you knew and really believed that he struggled to show his kind of love to the remnants of his family. Mike died as a fully human being.
Mike: Walter shut the fuck up and let me die in peace
Walter: doesn’t shut the fuck up, to nobody’s surprise
Mordin Solus from Mass Effect.
“Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong”
“Too many. Lost shields. Sorry, Shepard. Tell them… I held the line.”
And I had to reload an old save.
I was going to post Shephard, but no, Mordin was the worst.
I haven’t the constitution to play “evil”, so saught out the evil equivalent as video… also heartbreaking.
Artax from The Neverending Story
Artax
Made me cry:
Gotta be Schindler’s List. That movie was so goddamn sad, and I just started sobbing when I saw that splash of red color. You know when. Ooof. A masterpiece I will never watch again.
For a more recent example, I watched the second season of Arcane. Lots of sad scenes, but anyone else who has watched it knows the most heart-wrenching one:
spoiler
Cried manly tears when Isha sacrificed herself to save Jinx.
Left me disturbed:
Another Spielberg movie, Saving Private Ryan. Didn’t cry when the Nazi soldier sloooooowly stabbed Mellish to death. But afterwards, I had nightmares about it for months. Cripes, what a brutal death scene.
are you sure that what made you cry in Schindler’s List is “fictional”?
I still need my Suspension of Belief, here, or I’ll hate people even more. I came out of the cinema enraged and ashamed and so- well, just prickly I guess.
Tinkerbell and all of her friends dying in Tinkerbell and the Neverbeast.
If you know, you know. If you don’t, it’s an ‘unconventional’ explanation.
