History TearJerker / MagicTheGathering

* http://talinthas.tumblr.com/post/150111624732/kaladesh-you-break-my-heart.
** For greater context, it's a lament by an Indian-American former fan of Magic about how they gravitated to the game because they finally felt that they had found a game where they could "feel like the hero", but now they feel betrayed twice-over. Firstly due to the change to Planeswalkers after the Mending[[note]]they seem to be mistaken that Planeswalker cards represent your ''player'', and not your ''allies''[[/note]]. Secondly, and more poignantly, due to Kaladesh, which had promised to promote itself as a well-researched "Indian Fantasy" setting without falling into SimSimSalabim territory, but which they feel has instead wound as being Indian InNameOnly, claiming the only things remotely Indian about the setting is that the humans look, ostensibly, Indian.

* How about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5W9t62t10I THE ENTIRE WAR OF THE SPARK TRAILER]]? it's about Liliana as she [[spoiler: watches a girl trying to save her younger brother during Bolas' attack on Ravanica, only for them both to be crushed by the falling debris. This pushes her to turn against Bolas....only for the dragon to keep good on his threat and make her burn from the inside.]] All to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNeLUngb-Xg&ab_channel=TrapMusicHDTV an even sadder and softer cover]] of an already tear-jerking song that perfectly captures [[TrappedInVillainy her situation]].

** [[http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/promises-old-and-new-2016-04-13 Promises New and Old]] gives some insight on why Nahiri's friendship with Sorin fell apart. The first time the Eldrazi escaped, Nahiri was forced to reseal the Eldrazi on her own since Ugin and Sorin didn't respond to her call for help. When she finds Sorin, she is overjoyed and almost speechless when she sees that he's alive, believing him to be dead since he didn't come to her aid on Zendikar. Sorin, however, brushes her off and makes the truth painfully clear to her — he didn't bother to help her or Zendikar since he had more concern for his own home plane, Innistrad. To twist the knife yet further, Sorin tells Nahiri to go bother Ugin instead and implies that he could easily have killed her when her spark ignited. This understandably breaks Nahiri's heart and sets her on the road that leads to her lashing out on her old mentor in Shadows Over Innistrad.

* From ''Strixhaven'', the cart [[https://scryfall.com/card/stx/67/confront-the-past Confront the Past]].

-->[[SurvivorsGuilt Why, Gideon? Of all people, why save me?

* The backstory of Basri Ket. He's a former initiate from Amonkhet who absolutely idolized Oketra, strictly following the God's teachings of solidarity since he was young. When the time finally came for him to complete Oketra's Trial, he successfully lead his crop to victory and, upon personally claiming Oketra's arrow to finish the Trial, was so elated at gaining his hero's favor that his spark ignited. After finally learning what he was, he eagerly returned to Amonkhet... Only to find the aftermath of the [[TheBadGuyWins Hour]] [[KillTheGod of]] [[ApocalypseHow Devastation]]. ''[[YankTheDogsChain Ouch]].''

* Nicol Bolas definitely deserves his punishment, and it's hard to feel sorry for him, but when you consider his FreudianExcuse, it can tug a bit at the heartstrings: The very first thing Bolas experienced in life was being trapped and unable to escape without the help of his brother. [[spoiler:Now, he is trapped again, but there is no help to be gotten from his brother. Nicol Bolas, who spent his first minutes trapped. Nicol Bolas, who was named by his brother before he named himself. Nicol Bolas, who above all else, never wanted to feel weak again, [[IronicHell is now trapped forever, reduced to what he considers an insect]]]].

* Nicol Bolas definitely deserves his punishment, and it's hard to feel sorry for him, but when you consider his FreudianExcuse, it can tug a bit at the heartstrings: The very first thing Bolas experienced in life was being trapped and unable to escape without the help of his brother. [[spoiler:Now, he is trapped again, but there is no help to be gotten from his brother. Nicol Bolas, who spent his first minutes trapped. Nicol Bolas, who was named by his brother before he named himself. Nicol Bolas, who above all else, never wanted to feel weak again, [[IronicHell is now trapped forever, reduced to what he considers an insect]]]].

* Nicol Bolas definitely deserves his punishment, and it's hard to feel sorry for him, but when you consider his FreudianExcuse, it can tug a bit at the heartstrings: The very first thing Bolas experienced in life was being trapped and unable to escape without the help of his brother. [[spoiler:Now, he is trapped again, but there is no help to be gotten from his brother. Nicol Bolas, who spent his first minutes trapped. Nicol Bolas, who was named by his brother before he named himself. Nicol Bolas, who above all else, never wanted to feel weak again, is now trapped forever, reduced to what he considers an insect]].

* Nicol Bolas definitely deserves his punishment, and it's hard to feel sorry for him, but when you consider his FreudianExcuse, it can tug a bit at the heartstrings: The very first thing Bolas experienced in life was being trapped and unable to escape without the help of his brother. [[spoiler:Now, he is trapped again, but there is no help to be gotten from his brother]].

* Nicol Bolas definitely deserves his punishment, and it's hard to feel sorry for him, but when you consider his FreudianExcuse, it can tug a bit at the heartstrings: The very first thing Bolas experienced in life was being trapped and unable to escape without the help of his brother. [[spoiler:Now, he is trapped again, but this time there is no aid to be gotten from his brother, since it's Ugin who's keeping him there]].

* As if to drive home the point that [[spoiler:Gideon is dead, the card "Rest in Peace" from his Signature Spellbook series shows a memorial to him, in the form of a giant statue of him in his "Oath of Gideon" pose.]]

* [[spoiler:Gideon saves Liliana by taking the price of breaking the pact onto himself, [[https://scryfall.com/card/war/14/gideons-sacrifice sacrificing his own life]].]]

--> [[Music/LinkinPark I tried so hard. And got so far. But in the end. It doesn't even matter.]]

* How about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5W9t62t10I THE ENTIRE WAR OF THE SPARK TRAILER]]? it's about [[spoiler: watches a girl trying to save her younger brother during Bolas' attack on Ravanica, only for them both to be crushed by the falling debris. This pushes her to turn against Bolas....only for the dragon to keep good on his threat and make her burn from the inside.]] All to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNeLUngb-Xg&ab_channel=TrapMusicHDTV an even sadder and softer cover]] of an already tear-jerking song that perfectly captures [[TrappedInVillainy her situation]].
--> [[Music/LinkinPark I tried so hard. And get so far. But in the end. It doesn't even matter.]]

* As said in [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/guild-order-part-1-2018-09-10 Guild to Order, Part 1]], The storyline of Guilds of Ravnica will be written in FilmNoir style. It means that [[DarkerAndEdgier the jolly and energetic place we used to see is no longer it]]. It'll be melancholic and dark, lack of the liveliness so many fans loved about Ravnica.

* ''War of the Spark'' cards reveal that they're ''still'' trying to kill each other on Ravnica, even as Bolas comes perilously close to taking over the Multiverse.

* As said in [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/guild-order-part-1-2018-09-10 Guild to Order, Part 1]], The storyline of Guilds of Ravnica will be written in FilmNoir style. It means that [[DarkerAndEdgier the jolly and energetic place we used to see is no longer it]]. It'll be melancholic and dark, lack of the liveliness so many fans loved about Ravnica.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5W9t62t10I The second trailer of war of the spark]] showed us a chilling image of Bolas's invasion to Ravnica. The first rough half of the video was played in reverse, starting with [[spoiler: Liliana disintegrating to ashes for braking the pact with Bolas. Then we see what happened before. We see Gideon about to collapse under a wave of Eternals. We see [[LovableRogue Dack]] die when an Eternal attacks him from behind while he waves his hand trying to do whatever that doesn't help him survive. We see corpses of a woman and her boy under collapsed debris, we see them running away from the Eternals after the reverse to the ForegoneConclusion of their death. Then we see it without the reverse after Liliana has decided to [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice her own life]], save Gideon and send the Eternals against Bolas, not without a heartbraking expression on her face.]]

* As said in [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/guild-order-part-1-2018-09-10 Guild to Order, Part 1]], The storyline of Guilds of Ravnica will be written in FilmNoir style. It means that [[DarkerAndEdgier the jolly and energetic place we used to see is no longer it]]. It'll be melancholic and dark, lack of the liveliness so many fans loved about Ravnica.

* The end of the ''Return To Dominaria'' Arc gives a major YankTheDogsChain moment to [[spoiler:Liliana. She's absolutely thrilled to have finally killed all her demon contractors, and seems to finally be developing into a more heroic character]]. Cue [[spoiler: Bolas arriving at the last second]], with the reveal that [[spoiler: killing her demons means ''he now has ownership of her soul''. If she tries to disobey him ''in any way'' she'll age into dust like that. All her CharacterDevelopment since joining the Gatewatch, only to find herself TrappedInVillainy]].

* In chapter 5, Jhoira learns about Karn's return and is overjoyed....until she learns about Venser's [[HeroicSacrifice fate]] way back in ''Scars Of Mirrodin'' from Ajani, who presumably heard about it from Elspeth. Ajani wisely leaves her to grieve in private.

-->'''[[spoiler:Josu]]''': You killed me. You killed them. It is you, Liliana. It will always be you. You are the curse of the House of Vess.

* And it gets ''even worse'' in the second chapter. [[spoiler:Liliana lays her brother to rest with the Chain Veil's power, but their reunion as his soul is freed right before he is laid to rest is hardly heartwarming. Josu reveals that ''she'' is the "Curse of Vess". Josu blames her for their family's downfall because their entire family perished trying to lay him to rest or to find her. He spends his final moment calling Liliana the "Curse of Vess".]] Gideon overhearing all of this, tries to express sympathy for Liliana. Sympathy she angrily rebuffs, deciding to channel her rage and grief and guilt towards ending Belzenlok instead.

* And it gets ''even worse'' in the second chapter. [[spoiler:Liliana lays her brother to rest with the Chain Veil's power, but their reunion as his soul is freed right before he is laid to rest is hardly heartwarming. Josu reveals that ''she'' is the "Curse of Vess". Josu blames her for their family's downfall because their entire family perished trying to lay him to rest or to find her. He spends his final moment calling Liliana the "Curse of Vess".]] Gideon overhearing all of this, tries to express sympathy for Liliana. Sympathy she angrily rebuffs, deciding to channel her rage and grief and guilt towards ending Belzenock instead.

** As bad as she can be, Liliana returning to her hometown for the first time in a century, only to find it falling apart and underattack from the Cabal's undead is pretty sad, as anyone whose ever come back to their home town to find it not the way they left it can easily relate too. There are even ghost stories about "the undead brother and the evil sister" giving you a pretty good idea why she didn't want to come back. The worst part of it all? [[spoiler: Her last demon-contractor is there, running the Cabal, and what has he done? Made Liliana's ''own brother'' into a lich in his army, just to ''spite'' her]]. Her reaction is a classic example of [[spoiler: EvenEvilHasLovedOnes]].