Tear Jerker / BLACKSOULS

Warning: Spoilers are unmarked on all "Moments" pages. You Have Been Warned.

"I'm sure it will."

BLACKSOULS and it's narrative can get intensely melancholic,there is little to no kindness or compassion in store for either Grimm or any of the other characters involved— a major aspect of the franchise echoed and well-known throughout the community.

The cruel musings of the greater forces toil at the characters in the stage, befitting of the series' long-running theme of twisting fairy tale stories.

Red Hood's Woods

• Red Hood and her whole ridiculously twisted backstory is slowly revealed throughout her journey in which the extent of the sexual abuse she endured from her grandfather is greatly showcased, all whilst her grandmother remained oblivious to this terrifying reality, Red Hood was only free of this once she was forced to become a killer and to take the life of her own grandfather by stabbing him to death.
• The death of Red Hood's seemingly innocent grandmother, who ran away from Red's gruesome but justified crime against her grandfather and in a panic, slipped, fell into a river and drowned.
  • Made worse as her form comes to haunt Red Hood, acting as the game's final confrontation, a manifestation of her guilty conscience, though made clear it is not actually her, it is apparent from Red Hood's demeanor just how much she regretted causing the death of her grandmother, the only one who was ever kind to her.
• The fact Red Hood had to find comfort and intimacy in Poro, a sentient dog, because she had no one else in her life at all.
• With context provided later through BLACK SOULS I that all of these events are just the twisted fantasies of Mary Sue, means none of these things served any purpose whatsoever, nor did they ever need to happen. None of the trauma and deplorable things Red Hood endured needed to happen or should have happened, they only did for Mary Sue's obscene enjoyment.

BLACK SOULS

• Grimm's predicament throughout the entire game. Revealed on Ending C to have been an author entrapped in this nightmarish world of fantasies by none other than Leaf, his first and longtime companion who is actually the God Mary Sue, who had read his stories in the real world and became enamored which his many tales, but saw it fit to change and twist them, creating the world of Elysium and the lost Empire, turning his own tales against Grimm and steering him into false pleasures and hopes just to watch him suffer, again and again, wiping his mind and manipulating reality around him, forever trapping him in an endless loop of outcomes through his immortality and temporal looping, watching his friends and lovers die by forces outside of his control. And she does it for no other reason besides just because she can. For her sadistic pleasure.
• All of the Bad variants of the Companion Endings. Defeating Cinderella and touching the fog together with a companion would normally grant you a surprisingly upbeat ending, but to most players, that will be ruined immediately, because although the game doesn't tell you, having Leaf's Ring in your possession (not even equipped, simply in your inventory) which is a requirement to get to the final boss and not disposing of it properly will turn every ending into a horrific twist ending where the heroines are all tortured and or killed.
  • Jeanne's has you and her return happily to her home kingdom where you happily accompany her to a party, only for this perfect happiness to be cut short as the kingdom gets torched and Jeanne catches on fire, suffering the same fate Grimm had brought her back from before, only this time, no soul is left behind. Grimm is left completely alone as the sole survivor, and the ending closes off with the still bone-chilling description closing statement.
  "A lone man is crying in the country that became ash. For the first time in your life, you truly curse, your undeath."
  
  • Dorothy's has you and her take over the kingdom and surrounding nations as their rulers, and live a happy life together, only for her to suddenly awake one night swollen in an abnormally sudden pregnancy that soon after kills her, giving birth to a smiling monster.
  • Miranda and Grimm live for the thrill of the fight, cutting down entire armies with ease, evading both the Black Trail and killing every new Demonic Princess, but after one final battle agaisnt the kingdom of Longaia, after losing themselves in violence, Miranda passes away from her wounds, leaving Grimm completely alone with his Curse of Undeath, lamenting her departure.
  • Victoria becomes Grimm's personal maid and fully embraces her nature as Succubus, Sadly, her dependence worsens exponentially as she comes to see Grimm even during the day, but when confronted about it, she completely snaps, pulling Grimm's eye out with a spoon and falling into complete delirium right then and there, citing "the voice of Mary Sue" as the thing consuming her. Grimm is forced to decapitate the woman he loves to save himself.
  • Elma finally gets to run her shop and her medicine sells well and is incredibly well-received, if not for some ill-fated rumors, fueled by Elma herself not opening up about the secret recipe. She ventures out once a week to get "ingredients", which upsets Grimm as there have been a spree of kidnappings of women in the area, but Elma promises to be safe. Grimm awaits her, only for her to never return that night, and instead, in the morning, for him to find the kidnapper on the loose had been captured and executed via noose. The kidnapper happens to be Elma.
  • Elisabeth takes over as the new Queen of the Lost Empire, with Grimm succumbing to her charm, unwilling or unable to stop her, choosing to stand by the side of the Demonic Princess who cherishes him so much. Grimm fought bravely in her name, only for Elisabeth to boast about always being victorious by his side, and for her to spontaneously and unceremoniously burst and pop like a balloon, ending her life right then and there.
  • In Goose's ending, the fog is cast out and every demonbeast is eradicated, however Grimm is not cherished as a hero for his feats and the world becomes cold. Grimm takes to living with Goose, even having a daughter with her. They both struggle to find a place to call home, but ultimately rely on each other for happiness. That happiness does not last as when Goose takes up a job as a mailgirl and never returns, Grimm comes to find her broken, desecrate corpse alone in the forest, with a face so crushed it is not even recognizable. And then the child on his back laughs, manically, followed by many others, with Grimm left completely broken.
  • Catherine takes Grimm as her personal knight, fulfilling each other's desires in secrecy through the little free time the two had. Only for Grimm to walk into the church and see the ritualistic whisperings of the Shub-Niggurath, The Old Goat of the Woods (revealed to be Baphomet in Ending D), and Catherine put on a pedestal as an offering. Despite cutting everyone down, Grimm could not reach her in time, and she is consumed as a sacrifice from which black mist and tentacles erupt, casting the world into chaos.
  • For Red Hood, Grimm and Red come to live together, though Red Hood seems to seek out something or someone. After some years elapsed, she and Poro both vanish, leaving behind a letter revealing their search for "the one behind it all". The specific ending in particular does not have a twist of sudden death or loss, but rather a proclamation.
  Red Hood: ...Too bad for you.
  Red Hood: I wont die. Until I cut off your head.
  
• Due to the nature of the cycle and the undoing of all Endings you may pursue by the hands of Mary Sue, Grimm is entrapped into pursuing unspeakable outcomes after cycling through the world and reality for so long. And to fulfill the criteria to enter the locked room in Alice's Library for Ending C, at Alice 02's own request, Grimm ends up having to kill all of his lovers (except Red Hood) to fill the library, one by one. They plead in agony and cry, some fight back, notably Dorothy and Elisabeth, but they stand no chance. They plead and scream out in agony completely shocked and betrayed, having their lives cut short.
  • This becomes doubly as tragic when acknowledging that their lives are not real. Dorothy suffers so, believing herself to have been have been a man, believing herself to have been betrayed by her every pupil, but if that is never seen or shown, then that simply has never happened. She lives a lie fed to her by Mary Sue, and her struggles too are fabricated, but she doesn't know that. There is comfort in the fakeness of the world, but Mary Sue cannot Create but rather only "Change", twisting something innocent into something so cruel and creating a life that in turn lives a fabricated false misery.

BLACK SOULS II

• Going through a specific door in the Mental Ward will mysteriously land you at the Witch's House from the first game, the house of the Dorothy, the witch Companion. Inside she will converse with Grimm normally, happily talking about wine and enjoying their time together. When prompted by her to join, you're prompted only with the answer "I can't come to you." This where the nature of the talk with Dorothy is revealed as a soul-crushing example of a Dead Person Conversation. She reassures you to not worry about the dead and only just pray for them, acknowledging her status as deceased. Furthermore, when asked by her if you'll do fine without her, if you choose "I cant" instead of "I'll be fine" her dialogue implies Grimm starts crying. She urges you on as a final goodbye. as the scene flashes and the ruins to the Witch's House are revealed, coated by the rain and utterly destroyed.
• At low enough SEN the Iron Maiden boss at the Pond of Bloody Tears is revealed to be Elisabeth Bathory, the Machiavellian companion from the first game. Fighting her alongside Red Hood and defeating her will have mother and daughter contemplate their real nature as nothing more than fabrications, something Red Hood has been dealing with herself in and off-screen. The real sadness is their acknowledgement of how their lives truly make no sense and that they have not fulfilled any purpose but to be toyed with.
  • This in turn is also the nature of every other Companion from I, who had similar if not exactly identical origins, as mere convenient twisted fairly tales Mary Sue spun on a whim, nothing more.
• The things that can happen to your Covenant partners/companions. If Jubjub isn't confronted and dealt with in time in correlation to the Progression^Explanationa mostly hidden and largely unspoken value that determines certain events, going up from 1 to 10 according to certain actions you take, mainly through the slaying of bosses, this value is only visible to the player through the torches on the northern wall of the Dream Library. of the run, every single active companion will succumb to absolute lunacy instilled by Jubjub and will suffer a horrendous fate, be it being brutalized, murdered by someone in some capacity or taking their own lives and that of others.
  • Among the many characters, the Goose that Laid Golden Eggs is not one of the characters affected by Jubjub's madness. Instead, an event plays out where Jubjub tries to invite the chick to the Sick Clock Tower, but refuses. She reluctantly gives her goodbye to her before flying off.
  • The above action is even worse if Grimm is heading towards End H, and given the reveals that Jubjub was playing as "Little Sister Alice", she was very obviously in the risk of falling too much of her role as "Little Sister Alice" while almost suffering the same fate as the Crawling One. Eventually, she decides to help Grimm escape from the Crawling One's garden, making it clear that she's done with the role of "Little Sister Alice".
• Speaking of the Goose, it's all but implied that she's Rich Bird Goose reincarnated if you feed Humpy Dumpty enough souls so that she could hatch. And it's very clear that she remembers all of the events in I, including her murder at Grimm's hands in End C, which is furthered during her 0 SEN event, which she says "So don't betray me this time, ok?". What's even worse, if you plan to fill up the Library for End B, you have to kill her to get her fairy tale. Talk about History Repeats...
• Every character from the main cast of I, with the exception of Red Hood who was absent from the majority of the Endings, Elisabeth and to an extent Victoria, is dead by the time II rolls around. Not even the most strongest companions such as Miranda, the powerful Reaper of the Black Trail or Jeanne the Holy Knight stood a chance.
  • Through exploration, you can find the Folk Tales of deceased characters Jeanne and Elma left behind, relating back to their deaths and how people perceived them. Jeanne's Folk Tale especially, is found in a flaming forest behind a lava waterfall...
• There's a chance that you can meet the Nameless Trader, Elma's father from I while exploring the Chaos Dungeon, and greets you with some stuff alongside the Storm Ruler that he offered if the Behemoth didn't kill everyone at Gothel Tower. After finishing browsing his wares, he'll ask the player to take care of Elma and disappears until you potentially meet him again in another floor. Considering that you can find Elma's Folk Tale in Lutwidge Town, this promise is downright impossible to hold up.
• In an example that ABSOLUTELY crosses into Nightmare Fuel as well, finding and entering the Poseidon Hotel from I (or what seems to be it, anyway) now very aptly named "The Terrible Tragic Hotel" at high SEN will net Grimm with absolutely nightmarish visions of all the Companions from I that he had to slaughter for Ending C to fill out the Library. All of them, fooled into believing they would have a night of intimacy with the man they loved, slaughtered, one by one, now being presented to you, one by one. And you get to hear their pleas and screams and cries, watch their mutilated corpses caked with blood, and the derailing of their mental states, all whilst being fed absolutely soul-twisting narration about the vile acts you've committed to get here. It all culminates with Grimm waking up to Red Hood checking in on him, in which case you can tell her of your deeds but she will claim it all to have been "A hallucination" and that "their deaths weren't your fault". Little does she know.
  • It gets even worse if you haven't encountered Red Hood enough throughout the map, in which case, you just wake up completely alone and have to confront those thoughts by yourself.
• A sign in the Chaos Dungeon shows an astoundingly high number of "Cycles" (that, sure enough, when you pass by it again will have increased accordingly) and dialogue by Mabel heavily implies Grimm has been there before. This is to say, god knows how long Grimm has been wandering, looking for Alice, and he doesn't even seem to remember.
• The revelations of both Red Hood and Grimm that come during End G at the hands of their creator, Mary Sue. When defeated, she spirals into a maniacal ramble, revealing that Red Hood 's physiology has been altered so she will only live to 20, which by that point is less than a year. It is simultaneously revealed and confirmed that Grimm himself was made as a glorified agony magnet, the "tragic hero"— it's, not just that those around him are ill-fated by themselves, but that his ''very presence and involvement is what's actually killing them,'' a "feature of his constitution". Even when Grimm immediately pummels Mary Sue through a wall and kills her for good, these aspects of reality cannot be changed.
• Prickett. Oh sweet Lovecraftian Mother of God. Prickett. Widely recognized as perhaps the most tragic character in the series. She is heavily implied and alluded to, and believed by the community to be the real Alice, who has been stripped of her real form and turned into the Red Idol instead. By the time Grimm meets her in II, she serves as Red Queen, the ruler of Queensland. Initially happy and cheerful, going on a date and conversing with her repeatedly will have the cheerful Queensland music cut as she will deliver cryptic, depressing dialogue about just how much she loves and misses Grimm, describing herself as having her soul torn apart and defiled, unable to move on from what they had, finding comfort in the "empty whispers of love" of Grimm's untimely forgetting of his past, completely alluding to her real tragic identity. Prickett/Alice thoroughly blames herself for Grimm's current situation, a thought she expressed both in the flashbacks and during End H. The tragedy of the matter being she hasn't been at peace together with Grimm since even before the start of I, in which she is seemingly killed outright at the start.
  • If Grimm chooses to go to the movies with her, the movie "Tea Party for Three" will tell a story about Alice, the Black Rabbit and a "XXX" who lived together and formed a deep bond in friendship, facing many challenges in the Wonderland, working together to take down Jabberwock and the Red Queen. But when Alice inevitably fell in love with "XXX", the Black Rabbit turned jealous and prayed to God to set them apart, splintering the group apart and ending their tea parties forever. When the movie ends, you're presented with a crying Prickett.
  • Towards the end of Winterbell, it is revealed through the visions of the teddy bears that Prickett was at some point part of the Crawling One, likely absorbed by him when it took over as Alice. Through the same teddy bear flashbacks it is revealed she even tried taking her own life, repeatedly cutting and stabbing herself so severely she coated a whole room in her own black blood, unable to muster the will to go on, and the only reason she didn't die then was because of Node's kindness in interfering.
    • Likewise involving both Prickett and Node, their mutual acknowledgment for their love of Grimm, a love they cannot pursue, and their self-sacrificial plan to save him from his madness once and for all is just heartbreaking, to see how far they are willing to go in the name of love.
• Mabel's demise. Although at first when reaching the doors to the Grand Guignol and having your path blocked with a prison, she seems to have tricked you into being offered to the Grand Guignol, with her even vilifying herself before Grimm, acting just like the other vicious Great Ones like Sue and Baphomet. But repeatedly attempting to save her in spite of this leaves her completely stunned and shuts down her façade. She's was hamming it up so losing her would be easier. And no matter what you do, a frantic Grimm, even with his Eldritch God-slaying might cannot do substantial enough damage to the prison that contains her in time, being reinforced and made with the power of Change to entrap her, with him Grimm nearly breaking through but having the bars mend on their own before he can break them. A calm Mabel reassures Grimm and tells him about just how much he captivated her, dedicating her closing words on the wine she loves so much, that she could never get drunk on, but rather, on the atmosphere of it. The walls close in on Mabel immediately as she tells Grimm to close his eyes.
  • It doesn't help that Mabel was, throughout the later half of Grimm's journey through DLC 3 both through the Chaos Dungeon and Winterbell, Grimm's biggest helper and his main form of guidance. She was the only figure to be completely honest and upfront with him for the majority of the story, and the only Great One besides Kuti (who isn't all too involved in the main plot) and Node (who does love him but has had questionable actions towards him) to treat Grimm with humanity and consideration, consistently giving him guidance, knowledge, helping him grow stronger through her Shatranj and explaining the greater scheme of the world and the details of the war that brews and the concepts of the outside world. And yet she is taken tragically like so...
• Ending H. By the name of all that is sacred, End H. The final and conclusive ending of the series up until this point could not be any sadder. After confronting and defeating Lorde and his creation, the Grand Guignol, powering through potentially numerous do-overs, Grimm finds himself standing alone in Guignol's stage, untill he is quietly approached by Node, who brandishes a dagger. She raises it to her throat but cuts her hair own long hair off instead, and in a touching moment accuentuated by emotional music, proclaims her undying love and loyalty to Grimm to the bitter end even if they shall never be together, and unwilling to let him confront The Crawling One, sends Grimm away by blasting him through a vanishing door, choosing to take the overlord head on herself together with Dinah (Cheshire Cat) in her ultimate act of defiance, presumably being defeated, consumed or outright killed in the process.
  • Even if Node lied/omitted information from Grimm about his purpose and role, she was the one to help him from the start throughout the Wonderland and never saw to restrain or inhibit his growth or his pursuit of Alice, she was from the start one of the best and most reliable companions to him, helping him with all the Dream Library provided. Seeing her go out like this debatably unfulfilled but her true feelings spoken aloud is as awe-inspiring of her love as it is sad.
• What follows is Grimm's escape, continuously pursued by The Crawling One, and even by the Three Alices, Daughter, Sister and Mother. It is then Sister Alice stops the other two, and in a moment of non-compliance is revealed to actually be Jubjub, who had it in her to dissent her given role and help the undead make his escape, staying behind and fighting the other Alices out of an apparent mix of contempt but also out of genuine consideration. It all culminates with Grimm jumping in between rocks above a huge chasm of the currently collapsing Garden, but when he fails his last jump, Red Hood shows up to save him. She struggles with holding Grimm, overbeared, explained immediately after by the crushing realization that the Crawling One's deformed mass of a thousand Alices already has a hold on Grimm from beneath the precipice. You're prompted with the choice to hold on to make Red Hood happy in allowing her the chance to be with you, or to "save her". And regardless of what you pick, Grimm will spare her the same fate as him and cut his own arm off, falling deep into the abyss together with his obssessed pursuer. Cast into a nightmare again, surrounded and consumed by the naked flesh of "Alice". the titlecard "End Hell" is produced, one of the lowest points of the series. Grimm is crestfallen. He gives up, and begins to even forget his purpose and identity...
  • Until Prickett shows up. In perhaps the most emotionally built up moment of the entire series, under the shape of Alice, lovers reunite. The theme song of BLACK SOULS I, "Name, Alice" kicks in, in a Title Theme Drop unused since the original, as Prickett/Alice embraces Grimm from behind, speaking to him, lamenting what she has put him through and declaring her love for him, ultimately using everything she has to see her plan through and guide him towards the light. clasping his hand and leading him out of The Crawling One's grasp. Her last speech to Grimm as she bids farewell might just be the most emotional, beautifully poignant words spoken in the entire series, charged emotionally from the bottom of the heart of the one who has always loved him from the start.

"I'm sorry. Because of me, you've suffered so. I shouldn't have ran away. Like now, I should've been by your side. But at least, I can finally save you. I'm sorry. I can't be with you anymore. Forget your memories and interactions with me. They will be, as but a dream most fleeting."

"So walk, run, don't stop, and don't look back. If its you, I'm sure you can make it through."

• The last sequence of the series. An unknown amount of time has past since Grimm and Red Hood succesfully fled Wonderland, and Mary Sue's curse upon Red Hood holds true. The game concludes with Red's 20th birthday, with her bedridden. The final shot of the game is a still of Grimm sitting by Red Hood, in her last moments of her life, her self-described "happiest day of her life".
  • What follows are 3 minutes— 3 ENTIRE minutes— of absolute contemplation, with nothing but the still image of Grimm holding Red Hood's hand, sitting by her side as life fades away from her, to nothing else but the backdrop of an absolutely soul-rending piano melody, as the screen fades into black and white. And to signify this isn't geeting a do-over like the rest of the endings... There is no popping back into the Dream Library by the white bunny's side. The gears have stopped. It's straight to the main menu. End Heartbroken.

Red Hood: Mmm...

Red Hood: Today is the happiest day of my life.

Red Hood: I only wish it could last forever.

Grimm: Yeah

Grimm: I'm sure it will.