Heartwarming / Mafia III

Main Game

• Ellis and Lincoln's reunion is one which is full of humor as well as good natured ribbing. Foster brothers or not, they truly think of each other as family.
• The speech which Sammy Robinson gives when Lincoln comes home highlights how worried he was about him during the war as well as how proud he was for serving. Gangster or not, you can tell Sammy was a wonderful parent and someone Lincoln was proud to have known.
• Lincoln spares the life of Jesse, a member of the Dixie mob, after he gives up the location of Ritchie Doucet. This is genuinely surprising given how many people he's potentially killed in his quest for revenge as well as the fact the Dixie Mob is a collection of racists and slavers. Lincoln is still trying to hold onto his humanity, even with people like Cassandra egging him on.
• When Lincoln robs Grecco of a fortune in medical supplies bound for Cuba, you assume he's going to sell them in order to raise more cash for his mission of revenge. Instead, Lincoln takes them to Father James and gives them away for free. No matter how much he's lost in Vietnam and his vendetta, Lincoln still has a soft spot for the old preacher.
• Lincoln's acceptance of Nikki's lesbianism when she comes out to tell him. Having been kicked around for his race his entire life, Lincoln would still have been a man of his time had he rejected her for it. However, after a realistic minute or two of shock, he reacts to his long-time friend by telling her that he hopes she's happy with whoever she has managed to find.
• Pretty much the entire mission to confront Enzo Conti when it's not hilarious or being punctuated by gunfire and Stuff Blowing Up, after finding that Enzo and Sammy were good friends Lincoln decides to help Enzo go into retirement rather than kill him.
• When Lincoln first returns to from the war, he's given a heart to heart by another veteran.
• After completing Burke's optional side-mission of giving cars to the I.R.A., he reveals that The I.R.A. thing was just a cover story, he's actually selling the cars in order to give money to Nicki due to him having liver cancer. Burke may be a drunken fool at times, but that shows he does truly care about his daughter.
• When going after Tommy Marcano, Lincoln crosses paths with a counterfeiter named Alvarez that Sal and Tommy want very badly. Alvarez even points out that Lincoln could kill him and go about his day with no problems. But instead Lincoln saves Alvarez's life and smuggles him out of the city.
  • A follow-up conversation with Father James commends Lincoln on what he did and tells him he thinks he is a good person, despite knowing he was a criminal.
  • Similarly is the case of Stephen DeGarmo, Remy Duvall’s nephew who inherits the land Sal wants to build his casino on. Lincoln could easily just kill him and let the government seize the land. Instead he saves Stephen, fights through a swarm of guards and the cops, and takes him to Donovan to get him into hiding. And even though Donovan finds it more trouble than it’s worth, he still agrees to help (though most likely out of his friendship with Lincoln rather than any concern for Stephen’s wellbeing).
• If Lincoln is the best capo possible — dividing the mob territories of New Bordeaux equally between his three underbosses, keeping his word after promising rackets, and managing to earn not only their trust, but their loyalty through generous management — they each give a speech in turn congratulating him as the penultimate sitdown ends, acknowledging that it can't have been easy dealing with them, but he's a boss they're happy to work for. Lincoln then gives his own, stressing trust as the key to their success.
  Cassandra: (Laughing) I halfway figured Lincoln was gonna kill us all by now. What we done here — takin' the city away from Marcano, and doin' it without KILLIN' each other? We gotta be proud of that! I'll admit it, I had my doubts, but no mo'. You came through, just as you promised. And I'm lucky t' be a part of it.
  Vito: (In disbelief) Fuck. Fuck! Do you know how long I've been waitin' for someone to stand up an' be a man of his word? And in all my days, YOU, Lincoln Clay, are the first motherfucker to do it. Thank you.
  Burke: (Delighted) Holy Christ, how the fuck did we make it through this shite in one piece?! I thought for certain Scaletta'd have his throat cut by now. Ye did a bang-up job here, lad — goddamn dream come true. Can't wait t' see where we go from here.
  Lincoln: We're livin' proof that the ways of Marcano — the lyin', the backstabbin', the cheatin'... don't need to run in that direction. Those ways are as dead as he is.
  • After killing Giorgi and Sal at North Lake, the three then cheer him again upon his return.
    Cassandra: So we finally gon' to get our chance to make things right in this town — bring a balance to things. Wasn't certain we'd ever actually get here.
    Burke: Now THAT'S the kind of news ya never get tired o' hearin'!
    Vito: After all the bullshit, it's almost impossible for me to wrap my brain around the fact that we actually DID it! You're a fuckin' saint, Lincoln. An' I'm honored to know you.
  • If Lincoln chooses to rule the city with them together, he again makes it clear — it's their unity that makes them unstoppable.
    "We're not here 'cause of anything I did, or 'cause of what Y'ALL did. We're here because we stood TOGETHER. And as long as we stay strong, ain't NO ONE ever gonna fuck with us."
• Joe Barbaro's cameo at the end of the game, pointing out that he is still alive and was not horribly murdered as Vito believed.

Stones Unturned

• The fact that Donovan is willing to come to Lincoln the same way Lincoln is willing to come to Donovan. Lincoln wanted Donovan to turn against his country and commit mass murder as well as other crimes to help in his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Donovan needs someone to help him take on an entire mercenary army as well as recover a nuclear weapon. Bash Brothers indeed.
• Lincoln invites Donovan for some Cajun food after the battle, only for Donovan to say it's too unhealthy. He then invites Donovan for ice cream as a Call-Back. Donovan turns that down too. They then debate what they will eat while showing their eternal friendship.

Sign of the Times

• Sign of the Times, despite being loaded with Nightmare Fuel, also carries with it a great deal of this category, in the form of rebuilding and renovating Sammy's Bar; from gutting the interior from the fire damage and after the Ensanglante messed with it to re-painting the outside including a beautiful two-stage mural that pays tribute to Sammy and his work to the grand finale, a toast to the urban philanthropist who, although ran the Black Mob, was truly a good man and could hardly even be called a criminal.
• One event the player can encounter while visiting the apartment safehouse is to find Anna and Father James up on the roof, stargazing. Lincoln's a little reluctant to agree with Anna how beautiful the night sky is, but after some prompting from James, he admits it is pretty nice.
• While investigating La Nuit Blanche, Lincoln meets Oscar, a fellow Army vet who was dishonorably discharged for being outed as gay (an automatic Section 8 in those days), could only get a job bouncing at a rowdy cult-run psychedelic nightclub where he has to endure constant homophobic bullying, and loses that job when Lincoln tears the place apart. Come "Sammy's Renovation", the Bouncer upgrades let Lincoln give Oscar an easy gig as the bar's new full-time security, and a snazzy suit to look the part; he's more than grateful for the fresh start.

  Oscar: Thanks for giving this broke-down vet a chance.
  Lincoln: Shit, if we don't look out for each other, who will?

• After fully rebuilding Sammy's bar, Lincoln holds a big party for everyone in the Hollow to celebrate the occasion. A heartwarming moment in itself but what really hammers it home is that when he's going around making small talk with the attendees, Lincoln is approached by an elderly woman who introduces herself as the mother of one of the girls Richie Doucet was employing at his brothel. According to the woman, after Lincoln brought the place down along with the rest of the Dixie Mafia foothold in The Hollow, her daughter managed to make a full recovery and expressed nothing but pure gratitude for Lincoln's actions.
• During Lincoln’s take down of Ensanglante he is doses with hallucinogenic “sky” in the hallucination Lincoln is seemingly pulled into a pool of blood to drown… only for Anna to pull him out and telling him to get back up.
• Lincoln burying Anna with Sammy and Ellis. Shows that for the brief time he knew her Lincoln saw Anna as family.

---