Tear Jerker / Dragon Ball DC

Dragon Ball DC mostly maintains the lighthearted tone of Dragon Ball but when it gets serious, it tugs at the heartstrings just as hard.

---

Origins Saga

• While the trio of villainous Saiyans are introduced taking launching a slaughter on Thanagar, it's hard not to feel for them given what happens afterwords. They return to their planet to see it was destroyed. Raditz is devastated at the loss of his parents and Nappa weeps at the death of his comrades. The trio attempted to kill Rogal Zaar to avenge the death of their race but were no match for him. as he was about to kill them however, they are saved from death by an army of Parademons, only to be delivered to Darkseid.

• Vegeta's brother, Tarble, who is canon to DBDC and just like in Anime/Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! , he was sent to another planet by King Vegeta. After Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz witnessed the destruction of Planet Vegeta, Vegeta urges Radditz to go to the panet where Tarble was residing. By the time the trio has stepped on it, it was too late - Rohal Zaar has already caught Tarble and kills him in front of Vegeta who gets immensity pissed off because of it.

• Raditz's fate in Granny Goddness's Orphan Age Of Fear. He's restricted food and water, which for a Saiyan is much worse than to any other being. Raditz knew Kakarot was still alive would cry out for him to save him. This led to longer periods where he was denied any sustenance. Eventually this caused any hope of rescue to turn into hatred and resentment for his brother who was sent away to a better life while he was in hell.

Saiyan Saga

• Martha Kent had passed away by the time the saga started. Between this and Kakarot's rampage as an Oozaru, this left him an orphan. And he knows that he is the one who killed Jonathan.

• While rampaging on Earth, Raditz destroys Bludhaven. Among the inhabitants killed was Comicbook/Nightwing, Batman's adopted son. Nightwing had been trying organize the Batfamily and evacuate cities just before the attack happened, and he was killed in the blink of an eye.

• Nappa has nearly killed Aquaman and attempts to rip Hawkgirl's wings off. Aquaman, badly injured, tries to stop him;
  Aquaman: FACE ME MONSTER! Have you no pride!?
  • His words cause Nappa to pause for a moment, recalling how Darkseid had tortured him to remind he was nothing more than a slave who existed as an extension of his master's will.
  Nappa: I had that beaten out of me.

• Diana confronts Vegeta with a beaten Nappa tied with the Lasso of Truth, attempting to convince him to leave and take the other Saiyans with him. Surprisingly, Nappa tries to reason with Vegeta, saying that Lasso of Truth has shown him that they can have a better life, like before they served Darkseid. He words prompt Vegeta to kill him, dismissing Nappa as worthless for being unable to fight.
  Nappa: Vegeta… this rope… it let me see the truth… after all these years… we can have a better life… like the old da--

• Kakarot returning to face Raditz. He had come to grips with the side of himself that was a Saiyan and the hero who was raised on Earth and believes that others deserve a second chance. With his new strength his more than a match for Raditz, but having seen why his brother hated him he actually tries to reason with him. He had finally come to save his brother from Darkseid, but Raditz was too far gone to listen, going as far as using self destruct attack in attempt to kill Kakarot. Kakarot can only lament his brother's fate.
  Kakarot: Raditz… I'm sorry you were alone all those years…

Entity Saga

• Flash and Mera successfully gain the Butcher from War World, but fail to convince Broly to come with them. Even with Paragus siding with Mongul over his own son, Broly's blind obedience keeps him from leaving with the only friends he ever had in his life and instead returns to a life of slavery.

• Kyle Rayner, Kakarot and Batman are lured to coordinates that they were told would have one of the Entities. They find nothing, and when Kakarot suggests it would be fun to investigate the planet below, Batman launches a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech while something very wrong occurs with Kyle's ring as the light turns from green to yellow.
  Batman: It's always a damn game to you. Our loved ones could be butchered by psychopaths back home, and you wouldn't even care!
  Kakarot: Hey, that's not true. What's gotten into you buddy?
  Batman: Don't you dare act like my friend. This entire situation is because of you. Luthor has a hold on the League, because of you. My son is dead, because of you. You could have led us. You were the first of us to really appear to the public, the people were looking for an idea of hope. Someone that could help change the world. But you... All you wanted was a good fight. You became a novelty, "Clark". Luthor was never challenged by and could grow under your nose. Diana had to pick up the slack, but she's fighting a political battleground. All these years, you've done good. But it's never been FOR the good, not really. The moment the Saiyans showed up, you let them kill a city. You let them kill the best Green Lantern in history, and now, when we would have needed him most, we're stuck with the rookie.
  Kakarot: I-I... That's not... No, I never meant to... I do want to help people, I just...
  • As Kyle's ring has turned yellow he tries to warn that he can't control, right before Sinestro shows up and takes, Kyle being too frightened to assert the will needed to use it. Sinestro uses the ring to expand the portal he used to escape his prison and allow Parallax to escape and possess Batman. When Kyle asks what happens, Sinestro explains that it was all Kyle's fault. Sinestro and Parallax used Kyle's compatibility with the power of fear and his possession of Hal's ring to restore enough power to escape, getting the final push they needed from the trio's argument, specifically their whispers influencing Batman, they escaped. Kyle had dreamed of helping others, and now he was told he had made things worse.

• Vegeta doesn't come as the type one would feel any sympathy for. Of the three villainous Saiyans he was easily the most evil. While Diana spared his life it didn't make him any less of a jerk and he took the chance he got to escape his prison. Hearing her compare him to the Spartans, Vegeta decided to look for the city believing he would meet warriors like the Saiyans. When he manages to find a citizen who directs him the location of the Spartans, and the fate, showing him that all was left were ruins. Walking through the ruins, Vegeta feels oddly nostalgic and at home, standing in the testament to a people's warrior pride the Saiyans never had.
  • Wonder Woman reaches her limit with Vegeta proclaiming Virtue Is Weakness and that only the evil are strong. Binding him with the Lasso of Truth she proclaims cruelty is driven by fear and forces Vegeta to admit what fear drives him. Forced to speak the truth, Vegeta does far more than confess his fear of Darkseid. By the end she goes from angry at Vegeta to pitying him.
    Vegeta: T-That... No matter how strong I become I'll never be stronger than HIM. For all my power, my pride, it is insignificant compared to the rock of his unyielding will. Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans. Nothing. Darkseid is.
    Wonder Woman: The lasso reveals all lies... even those which we tell ourselves.
    Vegeta: I was a boy and I saw my father, brother, my entire race, wiped out. My birth right, crushed and thrown into the wind. I faced the monster that did it. I was broken by him, and Darkseid was there to rebuild me in his image. You speak of strength through love. But after all the evil I've done, for the Saiyans and in Darkseid's name. No one could ever have love for me. I must be evil!

• Kakarot becomes the host of Adara during the fight Rogal Zaar and blasts him with massive sphere of energy. The blast is so destructive that Flash has to get everyone away from the blast radius. The Justice League thinks they've won since they have all seven entities, but Kakarot tells them that Rogal Zaar is still alive. Worse, Kakarot using Adara's power has exhausted him even more. Even has exhausted themselves so the only option is to open a portal to Earth. The portal to Earth will stay open for a couple minutes meaning Rogal Zaar will follow them through. Kakarot volunteers to stay. Kyle, Hawkgirl and Flash try to convince him to stay, but as he points out, Rogal Zaar is only after him. Kyle refuses to leave, and Batman actually pushes him through the portal to force him to leave.

• Batman's death. Rogal Zaar was about to kill Kakarot, but as his spear came down, Batman took the hit, and took a final look implying this was plan before the light faded form his eyes. Rogal Zaar spat is disgust that his weapon killed such a "honorless" enemy.

Super Saiyan Saga

• Lex Luther is talking with Mercy about Superboy's appearance, complaining about how the Super Saiyan state makes him unsettling to look at it, as though he's talking about a consumer product. He says this while Superboy is within earshot asking if his appearance is an issue and if he can help. Luther initially doesn't even acknowledge his presence and when he does he treats his adopted son's inquiries as an annoyance. The entire moment highlights how cruel Luther is when he's not putting up a facade for the cameras, and that he likely doesn't even see his adopted son as a living thing.

• Kakarot is suddenly living a peaceful life with Jonathan and Martha Kent, both alive, along with Raditz who is acting like a proper older brother. After some amusing antics with family, a surprisingly alive Bruce Wayne shows up for dinner. The surprisingly tender moment is broken when Bruce reminds everyone that Raditz destroyed Bludhaven and killed Nightwing. Kakarot walks Bruce out of the house, having no idea where the remark came from. After short argument, Bruce tells Kakarot to wake up. As Kakarot attempts to go back to his family, Batman warns him about the world needs him, while Jonathan tries to call him back in. Piecing things together, Kakarot realizes what he is seeing isn't real. He wants to go back to the family in the house, and he does, embracing the family, apologizing to Raditz for never getting to know him and acknowledges that what he is seeing isn't real. Turning Super Saiyan, he frees himself from the dream created by the Black Mercy. By the time he's freed, he's so enraged from sacrificing a perfect world he beats Mongul within an inch of his life.

Doom Saga

• Superboy initially stomps the villains he faces on the moon, but his attempt to defeat the Parasite by feeding him too much power causes him to think he's won when the Parasite is reduced to a blob. But what really happened was that Parasite had shapeshifted in a Blob Monster and swallowed Superboy. He tries to call Luthor for advice, who tells his son how dissapointed he is that he needs to call for help. He explains a weak spot Superboy can aim for if he can sense it that if he hits, will beat Parasite. But being completely surrounded by the Parasite's flesh, Superboy can't sense any weak point. Luthor tells the boy he's a failure and leaves him to his fate. Hearing his father give up on lets Superboy draw on reserves he didn't know he had to blast free of the Parasite, but after that he's completely spent. As the Parasite prepares to finish him off, all beaten child can do is call out for his father to save him. Luckily he does get the aid he needs.

• Compared to how Goku's heart virus was mostly a plot device in the original canon, this universe fleshes it out to show just how hard it would affect him and his allies, by instead showing it progressively worsen over time. Leo Quintum tells Kakarot that if he were to stop all physical activity, he would have five years to live at most, with its effects worsening with time and stress.
  • After a successful team up between the Saiyans and the Batfamily which was largely a fun ride with Kakarot befriending Cassandra Cain, Dick Grayson acting as the new Batman, and Gohan engaging in some funny antics with Damian, Kakarot leaves the victory dinner for the bathroom. He vomits up a ton of Blood from the Mouth and coughs, looking at his poor state in the mirror with a smile, but admitting he doesn't look so good. The credits sequences has him continue to cough incessantly until get to the preview for the next episode, telling the audience that he really is dying.
  • It's heavily implied that, just like in canon with Cell, his desire to train Gohan and Cassandra is to ensure that there's someone to protect the world in his stead once he bites the dust. Not just as a fighter, but as a paragon as well.
  • During a later battle in the White House fighting alongside Cassandra and Gohan, Kakarot's virus strikes within mere minutes and prevents him from fighting off Manchester Black's gang as effectively— which allows Black and Vertigo to psychically take over his body and create the "Kakarot Black" puppet.

• Gohan goes through a lot during the battle at the White House. First, he nearly loses Cassandra to Killer Frost. Next, he has to briefly fight off both his possessed mentor and the villains' strongest fighter. Said strongest fighter is Subjekt-17, an alien tormented by Soviet scientists from infancy, and one who managed to escape, only to be given right back to his captors by Lex Luthor. Hell, he doesn't even want to hurt anyone else— he just wants Luthor dead. However, Gohan, being a fellow test subject himself, expresses that his upbringing can't and shouldn't determine what he becomes, and that nobody deserves death since even people like Luthor can do good things if given the chance. This oddly resonates with Subjekt-17, who briefly considers redeeming himself and joining the side of good… just as Luthor coldly eviscerates him with an energy blast from behind.
  • But that last part gets even better: Gohan, who appears traumatized by what he's just witnessed, is ignored as Luthor twists the knife even further, callously kicking 17's corpse and going into a mad tirade of how all who dare to cross him even once will experience the same fate in the end, before switching right back to his usual charismatic facade, all as Gohan can't bring himself to speak or even look at Luthor. It's implied that Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 powers were nearly triggered by this.
  • Kakarot also points out that, as a clone of him and Luthor, Gohan's anger comes from the latter, and that engineering Gohan to have a permanent Super Saiyan state did nothing to help that. Of course, it's unlikely that Lex will learn anything from this conversation, given that we know what his core mindset is.

• Kakarot’s terminal condition and the effect this is having on him comes into sharp focus during the Kakarot vs the Justice League Tournament-Charity Event. Kakarot is clearly having the time of his life testing himself against his long time friends and seeing how much they have improved but the spector of his illness and the fact he is making his condition worse by pushing his body harder and harder. Though the Justice League are unaware of it the fun event between friends is in many ways the final gift Kakarot could have received.
  • Kakarot’s encounter with Vegeta and the end of the event quickly becomes this. At first they seem all set to have an epic clash akin to Goku vs Majin Vegeta in Dragon Ball but after the discussion where Vegeta makes it perfectly clear he is going to do his damested to kill Kakarot and Kakarot declares Bring It things go sideways. Kakarot tries to power up to Super Saiyan and promptly has a heart attack while coughing up blood as with the virus in play and having pushed himself way beyond his limits against the Justice League he just cannot go any further.

• When questioned by Vegeta Kakarot reveals his dying condition and that he was basically planning to commit Suicide by Cop with Vegeta, going out in one last blaze of glory so he could die fighting instead of a lingering decline and at the same time hopefully give Vegeta some closure by letting him settle the score between them. Only his body is simply to damaged for him even to /start/ the fight, his illness having taken any dignity away from Kakarot.
  • Vegeta’s reaction to learning what’s going on. He’s simultaneously enraged Kakarot would try to give him a victory, disturbed by the situation and deeply upset at the decline of his acknowledged Worthy Opponent. He outright refuses to accept their rivalry ending on a “suicide pact” and desperately demands that Kakarot find some way to beat the virus so they can end things properly before storming off and leaving Kakarot coughing up blood unable to stand.

• Hawkgirl’s death. She goes out in a epic final stand, pushing herself beyond her limits and managing to take out what seemed seems all the villains attacking her only for it to be revealed the Legion of Doom had a contingency in place ie ambush her when she’s weakened from the first fight and take her mace as a gristly trophy to prove that Justice League members can be killed. It’s specifically confirmed she had a child with Martian Manhunter at this point and part of her Determinator mindset is because she is hell bent of seeing her son again but it’s ultimately not enough.

• The sheer damage and suffering inflicted by the Legion of Doom’s grand plan at world domination and the Joker’s Last Laugh suicidal attack on the world happening at the same time. It’s Darkest Hour for the heroes with everyone reeling from the blows taken:
  • Kendra - Hawkgirl is dead leaving her recently born son a without a mother and Martian Manhunter grieving.
  • Mogo a peaceful and kind being who was spread through the Galaxy and brought to the Earth by Kakarot as part of his Big Good effect on the Dc setting has his Earth connection corrupted into a weapon by Poison Ivy that causes global destruction and brings a dying Kakarot that much closer to death.
  • Vegeta has his attempts to reform-build a heroic reputation on Earth damaged by the Joker deliberately goading the Prince into killing him and then gets blasted with Joker toxin for good measure.
  • Last and worst of all Gohan horrified by losing control of himself during the battle and nearly killing his adopted-beloved sister Cassandra in a Super Saiyan rage hits the Despair Event Horizon, decides he isn’t a person just a thing and leaves the Kent Family and Farm despite loving his time with them to return to Lex Luthor’s abusive and dehumanizing control.

• While it’s a minor detail easily lost in grand suffering of characters the story primarily follows Harley Quinn’s part in the Joker’s Last Laugh is surprising sad, thanks both high quality writing and Dragon Ball DC Harley’s voice actor killing it. At this point in the timeline Harley has much like her Comic-Live Action Movie-Cartoon incarnations more or less moved on from the Joker, “doing better”, but then in time for the Joker’s final act she backslides into old habits and ends up right where she started as the clown’s love sick and abused minion. Dick Grayson/Batman and Poison Ivy who both know her comment on this change and Poison Ivy in particular is horrified-upset that Harley is once again under the Joker’s thumb.
  • It’s heavily implied that part of why Harley dived back into the Joker’s influence is because she picked up on the Joker becoming an outright Death Seeker with the passing of the first Batman and desperately hoped that without the focus of his obsession around things could be different between them this time around, only for the Joker to be exactly the same brand of monster he has always been and indeed hit all new heights of evil by aiming to cause the extinction of humanity. The part where Harley (who sounds like she’s crying as she’s saying this) insists things aren’t *that* bad for her to Kakarot because the Joker hardly even hits her anymore is genuinely painful to listen to.