As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Tearjerker moments in Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic.
- The opening song for Prison of Plastic, Molly is cooking and gets no help from her family. Lorelai brushes past Molly and takes the plate of pancakes, while Martin has his headphones in and pushes into Molly. This causes her to drop the plates she was trying to clean, shattering them on the floor. The reflections in the shards are of her friends and Naven, worriedly looking at her.
- Molly, getting sick of Lorelai skipping work, breaks into her bubble and tells her she should be cleaning and doing her task. In a bratty move, Lorelai states they should ask their dad to decide. When Molly points out that he always takes Lorelai's side, the older smugly declares that, unlike Molly, he actually loves her. That statement brings Molly to tears and all she can do is turn around and leave. And while Lorelai herself immediately squashes down the guilt she feels and tries to keep playing, her dragon creation feels too much pity for Molly and cannot bring itself to continue the game.
- The reveal of how the Neo Trio was first formed: Phoenica, like Molly, lost her mother and was burdened with a massive responsibility at a young age, which in this case was becoming a magical girl. She was hoping rumours of someone at school could talk to ghosts could give her another chance to talk to her mother. The story does lean into heartwarming though, as by coincidence, Molly had the exact same idea, and the person they were both looking for was Trixie. Trixie was not able to make contact with either of the girl's mothers, but the three became friends after this incident.
- Trixie's inner monologue about her perceived inadequacy, believing that if she can't fulfill her "role" as the brave one of the group, she has no worth.
- Molly has a panic attack when she feels the need to apologize for getting (rightfully) mad at Lorelai, blaming herself for getting her friends in trouble and feeling the need to cover for everything her family does.
- Molly has an emotional breakdown when she realizes that there's no salvaging her relationship with her sister, who cares more about her interest and fun time than the good of her family. Molly hopes Naven's classes would help her talk better and connect with Lorelai. It is not until getting to know her that Naven came to realize that some things can't be fixed through words alone, something he wishes Molly never had to face at a young age.
- Molly internal monologue, where she espouses how she came to realize that everyone, kids and grown-ups alike, has absolutely no idea what they are doing. The world doesn't care if you're perfect or screw everything up, life isn't fair and some people can get away with their failures making everyone else suffer.
- Naven wishes he could help Molly and take her away from her horrible home life, but knows he couldn't. As a CEO, if he were to do anything illegal, it would affect his status, company and employees.
- When Giovanni threatens Martin, to his face, that he will steal his most prized possession, Martin thinks he’s talking about the toy castle he made that day. He really doesn't give a damn about his kid.Martin: Someone's gotta be the bread-winner of this family!
Giovanni: ... what about Bear Trap? (...) She works hard too, right?
Martin: Oh, uh... yeah, I guess?- He even casually brushes aside Lorelai's world as something that'll just disappear once she's done playing. He shows no regard for the inhabitants or items there, breaking it to examine for new ideas and saying whatever he breaks wasn't important anyways.
- Rick Shades' backstory. His Soulmates epithet made him strong as a young boy while he was surrounded by friends, and that piqued the interest of Ocean Country’s leader. At twelve, the same age as Molly, he was "Harvested", an Ocean Country custom where those with powerful epithets are kidnapped and forced to fight in battle after battle until they faced the leader himself. The leader uses the attempts of the strongest to make himself stronger, or in Rick’s words, the Harvested citizens were "farmed for experience points". Rick made up a new persona so that facing his friends wouldn't hurt so much, and lost on purpose to make them like him a bit more, getting hurt over and over again. Many of his friends ended up dying, and he became so weak from his lack of friends that he was on the chopping block. He finally escaped with the powers of his remaining friends, until the range limit for his powers came into effect, making him lose all of them, and he nearly drowned on his way to the beach. The worst part is, Rick never knew that his epithet has a range limit, so he thought that the reason why he lost his connection to his friends was because they all decided to abandon him at the same time.
- Even though Lorelai has been bratty and cruel for much of the story, her ending Break the Haughty moment is downright heart wrenching. Upon believing she killed Naven by mistake, she absolutely falls apart, and when he turns out to be okay, he confronts her about her festering emotions surrounding Calliope's death. All the previous hints from throughout the book — her obsession with fire safety, her tower having elements of their old home, an offhand mention that Lorelai's epithet is so powerful that she can inscribe in her sleep, and the unknown source of the fire — culminate in the reveal that the older teen not only misses Calliope, but she's convinced that her epithet is the cause of her mother's death, and is absolutely terrified that she could do the same to her baby sister. And Naven can say nothing to console her, because these are realistic fears: she very well could have been the one who started the fire that killed her mother, and her abilities are powerful enough that she could accidentally murder a loved one without even trying.Naven: You’re afraid, aren't you? That it could happen to Molly. Or Vincent. Or any one of them, really. That’s part of the reason you lock yourself away in these bubbles, isn’t it?Lorelai: ...I hate it. The more I use it to hide away, the stronger it gets... I was in control when I was little, but now the worlds just exist on their own. And they just... go on and on, and I don't know where! I don't know where... What if... what if I hurt someone again and I don't even know? I’m too strong... this magic is too strong...
- Her screaming at herself as asks herself if it was her fault their mother died that night.
Lorelai: (sobbing) Give me an answer... Give me an answer, god damnit! Was it me? ... Did I kill mom? - By the end of the book, the relationship between Molly and Lorelai is severely damaged, with Molly's last real conversation with Lorelai's ending with her screaming that she hates her, while Lorelai spends much of the book after that having a Heel Realization that quickly expands into convincing herself that everything terrible that has happened to the family is unquestionably her fault, and that she's undeserving of ever regaining her sister's love.
- While it's heartwarming and awesome that Giovanni "kidnaps" Molly from her family in the end, given her…current living conditions in the toy store, it's kind of sad when such a normally evil measure is actually preferable, enough that Naven has actually contemplated this option as well prior to the whole mess, stopped only by his reputation as a CEO.
