History TearJerker / Buddha

* Devadatta: Only his mother loved him as he grew up, as he was a bastard. Then he is accused of demonic posession and cast out of human society. When he returns, he is used by an old woman as a spy. Eventually he meets Buddha, but instead of apprecating him as most others did, he became homicidaly jealous, trying to kill him. Eventually, this led to his own accidental suicide, still angry.

* Chapra and his entire story in Volume 1. Raised a slave, he meets and is freed by Tatta. Then he is adopted by a general and accepted into warrior culture; things are looking up. But then, his parenthood is revealed. His beloved is forced by her father to turn her back on him, his adopted father is cut out of society, and to top it all off, he and his mother are killed. A ShootTheShaggyDog story at it's finest.

* The very first story of the series tells of a rabbit who immolates itself so that a human would live.

** Buddha himself after Tatta dies. He has a heart-wrenching breakdown, described in the narration "Buddha was the most greif-stricken of them all. Not only had his people been exterminated, but in the end, it seemed that not a single word of his teachings had done any good. Not for the Shakya, not for Tatta, his very first follower."

* The destruction of the Shakya in Volume 8.

* The destruction of the Shakya.

* In book 2, Siddhartha goes into a trance and lives the life of a small bird. As he describes it to his parents, he tells them about his dear mate and their unborn children, killed by humans. ''She was so sweet, mother.''

* Chapra. Raised a slave, he meets and is freed by Tatta. Then he is adopted by a general and accepted into warrior culture; things are looking up. But then, his parenthood is revealed. His beloved is forced by her father to turn her back on him, his adopted father is cut out of society, and to top it all off, he and his mother are killed. A ShootTheShaggyDog story at it's finest.

* Chapra. Raised a slave, he meets and is freed by Tatta. Then he is adopted by a general and accepted into warrior culture; things are looking up. But then, his parenthood is revealed. His beloved turns her back on him, his adopted father is cut out of society, and to top it all off, he and his mother are killed. A ShootTheShaggyDog story at it's finest.

* Chapra. Raised a slave, he meets and is freed by Tatta. Then he is adopted by a general and accepted into warrior culture; things are looking up. But then, his parenthood is revealed. His beloved turns her back on him, his adopted father is cut out of society and he and his mother are killed.

* Chapra. Raised a slave, he meets and is freed by Tatta. Then he is adopted by a general and accepted into warrior culture; things are looking up. But then, his parenthood is revealed. His adopted father is cut out of society and he and his mother are killed.
** When it comes out that he's a shurda, his beloved turns her back on him.

* The very first story of the series tells of a rabbit wo immolates itself so that a human would live.

* Tatta. He grows up discriminated against, his family is burned alive, the woman who became as his mother and the boy who was as his brother are killed. And then he possibly has his sixth birthday. And then, after becoming the Buddha's first diciple, he forsakes his master's teachings and is killed.
** Buddha himself after Tatta dies. He has a heart-wrenching breakdown, to the affect of, "I must be the worst teacher ever; my old friend, my first disciple, has given up on my teachings and has died as a result of it. What's the point? I'm useless!"