History TearJerker / GrandTheftAutoV

* The fact that Ron is pretty much all alone and without ''anyone'' now when Trevor became a life coach. Keep in mind, he used to be a functioning person who had a wife until he met Trevor which caused him to become the nutcase he is today...now that Trevor's out of the picture, and assuming he and Wade don't hang out, Ron is ''by himself''. The fact that the protagonist is the only active friend he has now can be depressing.

** Subjective Tear Jerker, but there's a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS8Ge5tZNxA Youtube video]] (note: spoilers in the video) that features all of the post-game conversations the protagonists can have with [=NPCs=] and each other. One spot in the video shows the part where Franklin calmly makes peace with Tanisha getting married to her doctor fiancee the next day, hangs up the phone, ''then drives his car straight into the fucking ocean'' before cutting to black. It was probably supposed to be PlayedForLaughs and it's non-canon, but it can also come off as an incredibly depressing scenario where the usually logical Franklin has been DrivenToSuicide despite all of his newfound wealth and success.

* Take a look at some of the pictures around Michael's house. Michael and Amanda's wedding, Tracey and Amanda showing off their baking, Jimmy dressed up for baseball... Clearly they were once a happy family.

* Amanda and Michael in general when you really stop to think about. All the love between them seems to be gone, and their marriage is on a slipperly slope. His relatonship to his kids isn't much better. Fortunately things do seem to get better.

*** Oh, it's even worse. From Michael's distraught voice as he screams how Franklin was like a son to him, and that Michael practically let him stay at his house, to the [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141213071926/gtawiki/images/f/fa/Dead_Michael.png absolutely heartbreaking shot of Michael's bleeding corpse on the ground]] and Franklin looking like he's just fighting back tears when he sees what he's done. It hits home that they really did look to each other. The conversation that Michael and Franklin have before Franklin tells Michael that he's going to kill him worsens it all the more.

%%Image removed via crowner in the Moments Images Cleanup Thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=kiuohkh9

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gtavps41080p783_1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"You reptilian ''Motherfucker!''"]]

-->''And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me,''\\

'''All spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff per wiki policy]]. Read only at your own risk. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''

--> ''And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me,''\\

''My boy was just like me...''

** Johnny in general. Seeing our favourite badass biker a shell of his former self. Giving a downright ''pathetic'' attempt to stand up to Trevor, only to apologize almost immediately after. He's a broken man. Trevor might have done him a favor.

** Gets even worse when you listen to the dialogue of the surviving members of the Lost during the wake. They all blame Johnny for the state their gang is in, and believe that Billy would've been a better leader, refusing to believe the "rumors" that Billy was planning on selling the gang out.

** This also applies during the option where you kill Michael, as when Franklin told Trevor that he would be killing Michael, [[WhatTheHellHero Trevor angrily calls him out on this]], and in postgame text messages, [[ThisIsUnforgivable he says to Franklin that he is dead to him.]] For someone known to chase people down and fill their heads with buckshot just for ''annoying'' him, it speaks legions of how low Trevor thinks of Franklin that he doesn't make any active threats, only cutting Franklin out of his life completely.

* Michael coming home after Jimmy's drug trip to find Amanda and the kids have left him.

** Although it's just as horrible, even Ending A felt like you were doing [[TragicVillain Trevor]] a favor and putting him out of his miserable, lonely life. Ending B is just unnecessary and dowright dumb.

* Scattered around [[GangsterLand South Los Santos]] are [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131021125042/gtawiki/images/b/bb/AlphonseGraffiti-GTAV.jpg murals dedicated]] [[http://www.grandtheftwiki.com/images/Jose-GTAV-mural.jpg to deceased gang members]]. Unlike many parts of the game, these murals are done completely seriously, adding to the already hopeless atmosphere of the ghetto areas.

* After completing "By The Book", check the news and you'll see Tahir actually wasn't doing anything wrong. The FIB just made you kill an innocent man.
** Or at least, [[GovernmentConspiracy that's what they want the public to believe]].

* It's played for laughs, but when Trevor talks about how he joined the Air Force, he calls the person who grounded him a "witch". You get the feeling he honestly wanted to stay in the Air Force and that he would have been a great pilot for his country.

** Johnny in general. Seeing our favourite badass biker a shell of his former self. Giving a downright ''pathetic'' attempt to stand up to Trevor, only to apologize almost immediately after. He's a broken man. Trevor might of done him a favor.

* In Johnny Klebitz' cameo, we are treated to seeing [[spoiler: [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome Trevor violently stomping his head in]], and when he leaves, Ashley just collapses at Johnny's body crying.]]

** The Lost in general, really. In just half a decade, they've [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen degenerated]] into a small enclave of dirt-poor, rapidly-aging desert methheads. [[spoiler:Trevor pounds the final nail in their coffin.]] It was sort of inevitable with the way ''The Lost and Damned'' ended.
** Gets even worse when you listen to the dialogue [[spoiler: of the surviving members of the Lost during the wake. They all blame Johnny for the state their gang is in, and believe that Billy would've been a better leader, refusing to believe the "rumors" that Billy was planning on selling the gang out.]]

* Despite the 3D ([=GTA=] 3 - [=VCS=]) and HD universe ([=GTA 4=] onwards) games not sharing any canon, it is sad to see [[spoiler: Grove Street now being run by Ballas.]]
--> [[spoiler:'''Ballas Member''': Hey, families got kicked outta here a long time ago!]]
* [[spoiler: In two of three MultipleEndings, we are forced to pick between killing Michael or Trevor. Now of course you can TakeTheThirdOption which gives you a GoldenEnding, but the fact remains.]]
** [[spoiler: Especially if you kill Michael, after he got his life around.]]
*** [[spoiler: Oh, it's even worse. From Michael's distraught voice as he screams how Franklin was like a son to him, and that Michael practically let him stay at his house, to the [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141213071926/gtawiki/images/f/fa/Dead_Michael.png absolutely heartbreaking shot of Michael's bleeding corpse on the ground]] and Franklin looking like he's just fighting back tears when he sees what he's done. It hits home that they really did look to each other. The conversation that Michael and Franklin have before Franklin tells Michael that he's going to kill him worsens it all the more.]]
*** [[spoiler: As if that wasn't enough, you can be contacted by both Jimmy and Amanda, both distraught at Michael's death and angry at Franklin for killing Michael.]]
*** [[spoiler: Even worse is how the mission is set up; it begins rather heartwarming, with Franklin and Michael standing under the stars reflecting on their exploits. For possibly the first time in the game, Michael seems to be truly happy and contented...and then he begins to realize what Franklin is actually there for.]]
----> [[spoiler:'''Michael''': You hypocrite! I shoulda clipped you when you broke into my house!......I'm all you've got! You made the wrong call!]]
** [[spoiler: Although it's just as horrible, even Ending A felt like you were doing [[TragicVillain Trevor]] a favor and putting him out of his miserable, lonely life. Ending B is just unnecessary and dowright dumb.]]
** One of the saddest parts, is the fact [[spoiler: Michael]] LOVED [[spoiler: Franklin]], and would do anything for him.
* [[spoiler: On the other hand, one might not feel so bad about killing Trevor [[{{MoralEventHorizon}} when you remember some of his actions...]] But being [[KillItWithFire burned alive]], screaming his head off, is a bad way to go even for him.]]
** [[spoiler: That Trevor's implied to be more surprised and hurt by Franklin's betrayal than anything else is rather heartbreaking on its own; he clearly trusted him completely.]]
---> [[spoiler:'''Trevor''': [[EtTuBrute YOU FUCKING JUDAS!]] ''YOU'RE JUST LIKE HIM!'']]
** Michael tries to make a joke about Trevor [[spoiler:always having liked gasoline. But it's clear that he is deeply heartbroken. The rant he goes into about what a lunatic Trevor was doesn't help—you get the impression that he's trying to convince himself as much as anyone else]].
** [[spoiler: Its made even worse when you realise that the fact that Trevor came despite expecting Franklin to try to patch things up between him and Michael. This pretty much means that Trevor WANTED to be friends again with Michael. Trevor is so heart-broken about this new betrayal that he doesnt even have it in himself to fight back.]]
** [[spoiler: This also applies during the option where you kill Michael, as when Franklin told Trevor that he would be killing Michael, [[WhatTheHellHero Trevor angrily calls him out on this]], and in postgame text messages, [[ThisIsUnforgivable he says to Franklin that he is dead to him.]] For someone known to chase people down and fill their heads with buckshot just for ''annoying'' him, it speaks legions of how low Trevor thinks of Franklin that he doesn't make any active threats, only cutting Franklin out of his life completely.]]
** [[spoiler:And, when Michael stops Trevor, Trev is just nothing more than a screaming, paraplegic mess, and it's only then are you given the option to [[MercyKill show him mercy.]]]]

* Trevor really suffers from abandonment issues, if "Mrs. Philips" is any indicator. [[spoiler: Trevor's mother returns and she asks him to get her a literal van full of Deludamol, presumably a pain killer of some sort. He does it without question, but when he returns to the trailer he finds it empty. He searches each room frantically, calling out to her as he does, but when he realizes she isn't there, he drops to the floor screaming, holding his hands to his head.]] It's a heartbreaking moment for him if there ever was one.
** After the scene in question, control will automatically switch over to one of the other two characters- switch back to Trevor quickly enough and he can be seen [[spoiler: sobbing for his mother on the couch in his trailer, taking something that may well be some of the Deludamol you just dropped off]]. While possibly not directly related, if you choose to huff gas immediately afterward, Trevor will pass out and wake up in an empty pool, and say the following, with obvious dejection in his voice-
---> '''Trevor''': [[spoiler: Man, that stuff is pointless, all it does is make me realize how awful everything about existence really is...]]

** What about the hint that [[spoiler: his mother was a hallucination? That's just heartache incarnate.]]
** Earlier in the game he starts blubbering when he has to [[spoiler:let Patricia Madrazo return to her husband,]] and, boy, was he clearly torn up about it.
*** Perhaps the saddest part of that scene was when Trevor pitifully asks, [[spoiler:"Why does everyone I love abandon me?"]] Who would have thought that you could feel so sad for such a violent lunatic?
*** Which makes it more understandable, though no less horrible, when the very next time he [[spoiler: meets Floyd, the encounter ends with a brutal murder. Floyd (and to a greater extent, Floyd's girlfriend Debra) was kicking him out, and he just couldn't take another perceived betrayal]].
*** This later becomes heartwarming when, if you proceed down the route towards getting a GoldenEnding, [[spoiler:The numerous exchanges between Trevor and Patricia hint at the relationship still existing, with Martin simply too afraid to tangle with Trevor again!]]

* [[JerkassWoobie Trevor]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds in general]], really. Think about his backstory for a while: implied abuse of an unspecified sort from his father, implied emotional and sexual abuse by his mother, the above-mentioned abandonment issues, loses his best friend first to a stripper and then to a bullet, finds out that friend has been alive and living in San Andreas, their friendship frays and tears throughout the course of the game, and in [[spoiler: 2 of 3 possible endings, he ends up either KilledOffForReal or back where he started with Michael really dead this time. Of course you can pick the GoldenEnding, too, but that's the only ending that's not a bummer for Trevor (other than the fact that he's now without a ride since Michael and Franklin drove off, and they'd just pushed the car he arrived in off a cliff).]] Still, yikes. No wonder he became an AxCrazy meth addict/dealer and black market weapons dealer.
* While the circumstances he puts himself in are less than sympathetic, Michael's situation is also quite sad. He managed to go from Northwest trailer-park trash to become a wealthy man and truly provide for his family, living in the game's version of Beverly Hills. But to do it, he had to betray his closest friends. What did he get out of it? At the start of the game, he's a lonely, jaded man struggling to accept his own faults and failures with an incredibly dysfunctional, spoiled family that wants nothing to do with him. The worst of it is that despite his own failings, he ''tries'' to make things right, but their spoiled and selfish attitudes combined with his own inability to connect with them just keep pushing his family apart. [[spoiler: Roughly halfway through the game, he's drugged and has his car stolen by his own son and comes back home to find his wife has taken his children and left him alone in his massive mansion. By the end of the game, however, he manages to get them back, make some real connection with them, fulfill his life's goal of getting in the movie industry and seems to be on the road to having the happy--if unconventional--family he always wanted.]]

** Subjective Tear Jerker, but there's a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS8Ge5tZNxA Youtube video]] (note: spoilers in the video) that features all of the post-game conversations the protagonists can have with [=NPCs=] and each other. One spot in the video shows the part where [[spoiler: Franklin calmly makes peace with Tanisha getting married to her doctor fiancee the next day, hangs up the phone, ''then drives his car straight into the fucking ocean'' before cutting to black.]] It was probably supposed to be PlayedForLaughs and it's non-canon, but it can also come off as an incredibly depressing scenario where the usually logical Franklin has been DrivenToSuicide despite all of his newfound wealth and success.
** As noted in the Trivia section, [[spoiler:Ending C was originally supposed to be a "Kill Franklin," ending, with Lamar taking Frank out. There are no specifics available as to how the scenario would play out, leaving Lamar's motivations, any possible heated exchanges and Frank's ultimate demise to fans' imaginations.]]

* The scene where [[spoiler: Trevor and Michael have a standoff after the former sees the corpse of Brad in Michael's coffin. The look on their faces as they almost beg each other to pull the trigger right before Mr. Cheng's men show up is [[TearJerker heartbreaking]], especially if you remember how long they've been friends.]]
** [[spoiler: During the drive to the graveyard, the player hears Michael's explaining to Amanda how they were going to Los Santos after his last job in North Yankton, and how life would be a vast improvement once they left. In the time since then, Michael had become disillusioned with life after crime, and returned to his old calling as a professional robber, only for this choice to lead him to becoming a slave to the FIB, his family to leave him, and his best friend moments away from discovering one of his darkest secrets, one that could be the end of their friendship and their lives...]]
** [[spoiler: The subtext probably makes it even worse; despite the tension in the air, the harsh words and harsher feelings, and the fact that both of them are a hair's breadth away from killing the other, neither one of them can bring himself to kill his best friend.]]
*** As Trevor has pointed out, every time Michael brings up his family as to why he quit the business, Trevor says he has no family. [[spoiler:When Michael is pointing the gun at him, Trevor is goading him into shooting it. Michael says he has the most left to lose, and Trevor ''agrees'', cementing his status of being alone. It sounds like he legitimately wants Michael to kill him because he doesn't want to kill Michael, but the situation has pretty much forced him into it]].
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntxqZB31R6g "ADIEU: A GTA V Short Film"]] Is a summation of Michael's story shown to us [[spoiler:as he falls to his [[DrivenToSuicide death]]. The final seconds twist the knife further by playing a post-ending B phone call where Jimmy asks Franklin about Michael's disappearance, commenting that his mom is "majorly freaking out."]]

* If you choose Norm in "The Paleto Score", you can see throughout the whole heist that he [[HeroWorship idolizes Michael]]. [[spoiler:He is hit by a police car, leaving him to his fate. The tearjerker is, he cries his last words]]:
-->[[spoiler:"M...M, I made you proud, didn't I...? M...I-I did you proud, didn't I?"]]
* Although it's pretty hilarious to see Wade relaxing at the Vanilla Unicorn with two strippers for the rest of the game, it's a little heartbreaking whenever he asks you when Cousin Floyd's gonna stop by. [[spoiler:He never does find out about his brutal death]].

** Johnny in general. Seeing our favourite badass biker a shell of his former self. Giving a downright ''pathetic'' attempt to stand up to Trevor, only to apologize almost immediately after. He's a broken man. Trevor might of done him a favior.

** After so many years of GTA V and GTA Online, it perfectly encapsulates the now nostalgic nature of the game, the only Grand Theft Auto game to be released in the 2010s, which for many people, were their childhood and teenhood. It's safe to say that GTA V is what GTA SA was to many players back in 2004 and the pause menu music is the perfect representation of those golden years for many young players.

* When the ending credits roll after you complete final mission, it might not be sad unless you realized ''this is the last GTA game for UsefulNotes/PlayStation3''. If you are one of those who played GTA V between 2013 and 2014 (GTA V's first years, no less), you will probably feel nostalgic and a little depressed when you see the ending credits again, especially if you played it at a very young age.
** During the ending credits, the fact that several songs of the radios are played while we watching the landscapes of Los Santos and rural areas, only makes it incredibly nostalgic.
** Likewise, if you played GTA Online on its launch day and have been playing it ever since after upgrading to next gen, you are definitely going to feel nostalgic and miss the "golden days of GTA Online", which was when everyone was low-leveled, knew nothing about the game, had cheap cars, wore regular casual clothing and the bulletproof helmet was something no one was even thinking about. Many people say the downfall of GTAO started after the introduction of The Last Team Standing update, which included the infamous marksman and absolutely despised bulletproof helmets, succesfully murdering PVP and giving birth to the hated tryhards.

** Johnny in general. Seeing our favourite badass biker a shell of his former self, he got back with the girl he knows is bad for him, and gives a downright ''pathetic'' attempt to stand up to Trevor, only to apologize almost immediately after. He's a broken man. Trevor might of done him a favior.

** Johnny in general. Seeing our favourite badass biker a shell of his former self, letting Trevor walk all and giving a downright ''pathetic'' attempt to stand up to him, only to immediately apologize. He's a broken man. Trevor might of done him a favior.