Tear Jerker / Fate/Grand Order

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

"From the moment I was born, I've never been accepted by anyone!"

Fate/Grand Order may be a mobile game, but it's written by the Type-Moon staff including Nasu himself, so brace yourself for the waterworks.

---

In General

• Whenever a Singularity is destroyed, all of the Servants involved are recalled. This includes allied Servants, who warmly tell you that It Has Been an Honor before disappearing.
• Some Bond CEs descriptions bring some depressing stories.
  • Sanson's is called "My Life is Abominable", it's him sulking over the loss of life by the guillotine's invention.
  • Caligula's "Love is Not Here" is him narrating the reasons for his descent into madness while giving his blessings to Nero, doubling as Heartwarming.
  • Sieg's Bond CE "Nameless Death". Remember that homuculus maid that died during the assault on the Black Faction? Sieg does. To elaborate:
    She has no name.
    She has no memories.
    She has no dreams, desire, or destiny.
    The reason for her destruction was because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
    She is without grief.
    She is without hatred.
    For those emotions were not needed.
    Which is why I am sad.
    For there are none, not even she herself that remembers her name.
    Was she truly saved by holding my hand?
    Has she truly let go all resentment of this world?
    There is no answer...for all eternity.
  • Maximizing Anastasia's Bonds gave you a CE that detailed the last moments of her life. It went about just as much as history said, and it just brings as much tears.
    [OTMA]
    Olga
    Tatiana
    Maria
    Anastasia
    Put the first letter of each name together to form OTMA.
    That is our secret name.
    Even if we get married and give birth... Even if we are separated, the fact that we are sisters will never change.
    Let us stop fighting.
    Let us stop hating.
    Let us pray to God that we might live a good life―
    Yes, that's right.
    Of course, that never became true.
    It never became true.
    Ah... but there was something else that happened.
    At the time of our deaths, we were together.
    • And after reading all those, you realize that only Anastasia made it to the Throne of Heroes. She may have Viy and her Master now, but she'll never meet Olga, Tatiana and Maria again...
    • Her Bond 5 line drives the point home, as she begs her Master to always respond to her voice and never be where she can't reach, because she hates losing the ones she loves.
• Also on the topic of CEs, the initial set of CEs that launched with the game included some featuring the main characters of stay night, of course - there's one each for Shirou, Rin, Sakura and Illya in the 4* range, giving a buff to a card type or a lot of starting NP charge. At the 5* level is where it gets interesting - there are CEs for adult Shirou, Rin and Sakura, showing each years after F/SN and at the height of their skill in their chosen magecraft. But... there's no corresponding one for Illya. Illya simply doesn't survive long enough to get this kind of CE - she outright dies in UBW and Heaven's Feel, and even in Fate, she'll only live for about a year. So even though she gets Verdant Sound, in every permutation of F/SN she dies before reaching the potential shown in the 5* CEs. Just when you thought you'd put that realization behind you...
• In Berserker Lancelot's My Room dialogue, he only says three things: Hrrrgh! for conversation, Arrrthurrr! regarding his likes/dislikes, and Gala…had! regarding the Holy Grail. The first two are like growls, but the last one sounds like he is choking. Even in his madness, Lancelot's wish is for his child. (Mythologically, Galahad led the expedition to attain the grail.) Alternatively, he could be addressing Mash who is most likely in the same room. Maybe his wish was fulfilled that way.
• Related to Lancelot, the history of Sir Gareth in her profile. She was a diehard devotee of him — he was her hero who made her the knight she was, and when Agravain was making plans to apprehend him for his infidelity with the Queen, she refused to so much as testify against him. After Lancelot ran away in being caught out and Guinevere was left behind to be arrested, Gareth chose to refuse any armor or weapons at the day of the scheduled execution in a show of support for Lancelot and defiance of the peoples' decision. Despite his should knowing exactly what her appearance meant, Lancelot chose to kill her anyway, in an unbelievably brutal fashion, while she had no hope of defending herself and was visibly on his side. The final paragraph, however, is what really drives the nail in: she chooses to believe he didn't realize it was her rather than face the thought that he knew full well who it was and slaughtered her anyway.
• Most of Jekyll's lines can be heartwrenching to listen to, with some having a touch of Nightmare Fuel to them, due to his constant struggle with Hyde. ...Or really, just a good chunk of anything involving the unfortunate professor. His very first lines when summoned are him assuring you and (probably more so) himself that he isn't Hyde, which really sets the tone. His My Room lines include him implying he thinks It's All My Fault that his previous master died, being Afraid of Their Own Strength to the point that he refuses to let you touch him, doubting his usefulness, and loads and loads of other Heroic Self-Deprecation, with even a conversation simply about likes or dislikes having Hyde come out mid-sentence, showing how unstable Jekyll's control over Hyde really is; even when you remind him that it's your birthday, it doesn't invoke positive feelings in him, and in pretty much all of his My Room quotes he hesitates as if constantly holding Hyde back. His battle quotes are no better, with him either expressing that This Is Gonna Suck or his voice lowering into a rumbling growl and implying he’s already going through Sanity Slippage while saying You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry! when entering battle, beats himself up even more when defeated, is genuinely shocked when he wins, how he begs and pleads to himself to keep Hyde down in his Skill quotes, his EX quote is "This isn't my will!"; and most of all, how pained he sounds before using his Noble Phantasm, and his subsequent, very audible transformation from reluctant and gentle to murderous sociopathic Blood Knight, the animation showing Jekyll trapped behind Hyde, banging on some invisible surface, not helping things. Even his ascension quotes are pretty heartbreaking, with it being heavily implied that his mental state is actually getting worse instead of improving as one would expect, and if the original novella is any indication it’s possibly at least partially due to repeated use of the Psycho Serum. Or just the general fact that it's most likely he's going to be fighting as Hyde, so he's forced to witness Hyde's psychotic rampages and is unable to do anything about it, and has to live with the fact he’s more useful that way. Oh yeah, and you're doing this to him. Yet he shows nothing but loyalty to you, because he’s that damn happy that he can be useful to you. And all of this, to possibly one of the sweetest, most kindhearted Servants in the entire series, with innocent, even somewhat frail looks to match. Seemingly nowhere to be found is the irresponsibility or hypocrisy of his literary counterpart, or even the cheerful pluckiness of his self in Fragments Of Silver. Mamoru Miyano's performance especially sells it, with the breathy, soft voice he gives Jekyll that at times gives the impression that he's shaking and/or on the verge of crying, which can make the transitions to Hyde's loud, sharp, growling voice extremely jarring, though even Jekyll’s voice can sound a touch unhinged on occasion as he desperately tries to hang on. There’s also whatever he was repressing in his past life, and at the end of the day it’s hard to not just want to give the poor guy a hug.
  (After his Fourth Ascension) "I wonder since when... The darkness started to seem so sweet. I don't want light... I don't want the sun... "I'd"... Rather live in the darkness..."
• Listening to Assassin EMIYA's My Room lines can be very, very depressing: even if he came from another universe, he sounds like he still experienced things about as bad (or even worse) as his life in Fate/Zero:
  (at Bond Level 2) "You’re going to save the world? For your own good, you should abandon any naive notions you still carry."
  (at Bond Level 3) "I know people who have… repeated this futile endeavor over and over. Who, you ask? Well, who indeed…?"
  (when asked about his dislikes) "Things I dislike? That goes without saying. I feel nothing but disgust at those who ignore the hard facts and think they can save the world with pretty words."
  (his Birthday message) "Have you ever regretted that you were born?"
• Most people tend to dismiss Brynhild as a psychotic woman who's destined to kill her lover. On reaching her Level 5 Bond dialogue, she'll mistake her Master as Sigurd reborn, but the delivery of the line sounded more like Brynhild regaining her emotions for a while, and then sounding absolutely crushed that it was her destiny to kill her lover, and no matter what, she couldn't defy that fate of hers, so that was basically the start of a countdown of an outcome that she really doesn't want to come to pass. Being called the 'epitome of Lancer suffering' isn't an exaggeration for Brynhild...
• According to Servant Materials, Atalante learned what happened to Medea so that she went from a sweet child she cared for to the bitter witch she is currently from Sasaki Kojirou. She ends up laughing so hard she faints from agony. On the surface, it may be Played for Laughs, but if you actually saw how close she was with Medea from the Fate/Apocrypha anime, it paints a sad case that might justify why Atalante fainted in agony: She was that close to the child Medea but she left her eventually, abandoning her to the hands of Jason's douchebaggery. She must've thought that Medea's descent into bitterness was her fault as well, and even more so since she has stated that she would like to protect all children, and yet she didn't protect that one sweet child...
• If Atalante hadn't suffered enough already from Apocrypha, her Alter version's NP quote after being fully ascended will really break hearts. She desperately cries out her beliefs weren't wrong, as if trying and failing to convince herself, before just devolving into a screaming mess. While Atalante Alter's lines and voicework often carry despairing tones as much as unbridled rage, here she sounds like she's seconds away from bursting into tears.
  "I am not mistaken. I must not be mistaken! Aaaa...AAAAAAAGH! Taurpolos, GOOOO!!!"
  • This is pretty much enhanced with the description of her Max Bond CE, which gave a good insight on how even in Apocrypha she fell into despair. It pretty much made her look like she's riding the same boat as Lancelot, using madness as a way to escape her immense despair.
    When I received this fur, I didn't know if I would ever need it, or even how to use it.
    I thought it was used to place a curse on someone else.
    ...But now I understand well.
    When you face an opponent that you hate with all your being, an enemy that you must win against at all costs.
    When you are burning with hatred, this fur becomes a Noble Phantasm.
    I want to become a beast.
    I don't want to feel anything, I just want to become a beast that only knows how to kill.
    I don't want to feel this sorrow burning in my chest, I just want to be a beast—
• Antonio Salieri's profile is just gut-wrenching. He was actually a decent rival to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with the two having mutual respect towards one another. But after Mozart's death, some people got really desperate and made up rumors that Salieri killed him, and it got to the point where people have largely forgotten his contribution to the music world and only remembered him as Mozart's killer. The rumors persisted enough that the Throne of Heroes recorded them as a part of Salieri, ruining his Saint Graph and leaving him only summonable as a Mozart-hating Avenger. If there's one thing this goes to show, it's that rumors CAN hurt.
• In one of his My Room lines, Avicebron mentions about his betrayal of Roche and acknowledges just how selfish he was before and that it'll be his permanent black mark in the Throne of Heroes.
  I killed someone once, in the Great Holy Grail War. That was wicked of me. That scar will last for eternity on the Saint Graph, surely.
• When asked about the Holy Grail, the normally lively and energetic Nero suddenly becomes somber and despondent, practically begging you not to ask her about it. Even now, the memories of Hakuno and their Heroic Sacrifice to stop Twice still pains her.
• When Okita was asked about the Holy Grail, she was overjoyed for one thing, but then realized it's not exactly how she envisioned it, causing her to burst in tears. Though the delivery might make it also look hilariously cute.
  "My sickness^note tuberculosis can be healed!? YAAAY! ... Eh? Skills obtained as a Heroic Spirit can't heal? Didn't you say my wishes would come true!? WAAAAH!!"
• EMIYA Alter when asked about the Holy Grail. Instead of stating his wish if he had one, he laughs. The man is so broken, he laughs at the thought of an omnipotent wish-granting device.
• Okada Izou's Bond lines are heartbreaking as his Master grows closer to him. He starts off distrustful of a weirdo who would hang around with a killer like him, until:
  Hey, if there is anybody you are not fond of, just tell me. Your enemy is my enemy. If you tell me to cut, I'll cut down anybody. This is what I can do...no, for me this is all I have. ...I'm sorry, Master. No matter how I try, all a manslayer like me can do is cut down others.
  • What's more, it's painfully obvious that Izou is not actually the self-proclaimed sword genius that he thinks he is, just a someone with a talent who's not too bright but is a big fish in a small pond, and he was executed young enough that he never really had a chance to grow as a person and overcome his arrogance. He's deeply suspicious of everyone and has an almost crippling inferiority complex that makes him think everyone is secretly laughing at him, and never fully seems aware of any of that... until you get close enough that he admits that the only thing he's good at is killing.
• Jason is a jerk, that's for sure, and his miseries that came because of it brought us laughter. But then there's his Bond CE, At Dream's End, basically showcasing how he died, crushed under the Argo's remnants. And the flavor text was basically Jason narrating about how it came to that and admitting that he was doing all those things wrong, bringing misery to himself. He wanted a second chance, and wanted to do it right next time... but he was denied of the chance. For once, this is a misery we might not laugh at, but actually cry for.
• Completing Caesar’s interlude unlocks a portion of his profile that reveals the wish he’d make on the Grail: to reunite with Cleopatra, and recognize both her, and their son Caesarion, as his.
  Caesar: “I don’t care about conspiracies anymore, just let me hold my son. My son.”
• Romulus-Quirinus has a short, but very somber line for Boudica, acknowledging all the pain and tragedy she suffered at the hands of Rome, and with him being the creator of Rome, he can't help but feel responsible for it.
  Romulus-Quirinus: Your anger is my sin, O Queen of Victory...
• One of Izo's death lines in his 5th anniversary costume have him lament that everything in these clothes must have been a dream because someone as inferior as him wouldn't ever have the opportunity to wear something like these. Another death line is him apologizing to his Master for ruining his best outfit. Both lines lean very hard into Izo's almost suffocating inferiority complex and highlight how being a Servant was one possible way to escape it, only for death to bring it all crashing down.
• Completing Lostbelt 6 will unlock some new voice lines for Fairy Knight Lancelot. One of them has her expressing joy for reuniting with Percival in Chaldea before realizing this is not the same Percival native to Fairy Britain. Considering how Lostbelt Percival had sacrificed his life to bring her sense of self back after transforming into Albion and was her adoptive brother, she had been hoping they would be together again in Chaldea but it is not to be.
  "I knew it. I was fully aware of it but..."
• Lostbelt Morgan’s general behavior, her stark contrast with her counterpart from Proper Human History, who is said to be endlessly ambitious and scheming. From the subdued, and rather withdrawn way she reacts to nearly everything, including Baobhan Sith whom she cares for dearly, and Altria her hated foe she admits to despising beyond what would be logical. All of it is painfully reminiscent of someone suffering from severe clinical depression. Considering her HORRIBLY depressing backstory, this isn’t remotely surprising. Thankfully, it may be possible for players to give her the love and solace she needs.
• With the Samurai Remnant collab, it is now possible to reunite Iori, Takeda and most of their friends and enemies. There's just one little problem with this; The Iori we see ingame is explicitly the one from the Entreat the Darkness ending of his home game, where he sacrificed his morals and humanity in an attempt to wish for the world to be consumed by war so he could finally live out his Blood Knight fantasies, forcing Takeda to kill him. As a result, the other Samurai Remnant characters are understandably wary around him, despite his own amnesia. Yui especially is shown to be conflicted about the situation, as the heartbreak of witnessing Iori's true nature is still fresh in her mind.

Chapter 1 — Observer on Timeless Temple

• Fuyuki:
  • When you arrive in Fuyuki, you do so unconscious and the first thing you hear when you come to your senses is Mash threatening to kill you if you don't wake up.
  • Right as they finally start to warm up to you after leaving a very crude first impression, Olga Marie dies. Or rather, she was already dead upon Rayshifting to Fuyuki and managed to exist for a while as a soul, ceasing to exist outright when she's dragged back into the present by force by Lev Lainur in an act of supreme cruelty.
• Orleans:
  • Marie and Jeanne discussing how they both loved France, yet France killed them. Jeanne is concerned about the existence of her Alter Self. Marie tells her that of course Jeanne is confused—she doesn't have a darker self. But if an Alter Version of Marie were to appear, Marie would fight it, sure. But she would understand that it was the "less than 10% of herself" that hated France for killing her son, Charles. It was suspected that Louis-Charles, though officially declared to have died of tuberculosis, actually died from torture when he was 10. It gets even more heartbreaking in Fate/Requiem, where Louise-Charles is an Avenger who brings misfortune to those come near him.
  • The sadness that Jeanne has upon witnessing the destruction Jeanne Alter has wrought upon France is palpable in almost every scene where she's not fighting. From France's soldiers believing her to be the "Dragon Witch" to fighting the undead of her countrymen, it's clear she really just wants the fight to end. And yet, even to the end she still feels no hatred for either Jeanne Alter or Caster Gilles, only sadness and pity at what they've been made to be and become respectively.
  • How did Jeanne come to this sympathy? She asks Jeanne Alter if she remembers their family growing up. Jeanne Alter doesn't. Of course she was in the dark without this.
    • And of course Jeanne Alter didn't remember their family. Because she never experienced that family, as she was created by a wish on the Holy Grail to be the exact person she is because it was impossible for the real Jeanne to have an Alter version. Her very existence is a Tear Jerker.
  • The entirety of Marie's Heroic Sacrifice, holding the line so Georgios and Jeanne can get back to the rest of the party, defeating Sanson and telling him there was nothing to forgive regarding him executing her when they were both just humans, and facing down Jeanne Alter without fear or even anger.
    • Marie asks Amadeus to be told that she's sorry she never heard him play. Despite the denials on both sides, it's obvious that they both still cared for each other deeply.
    • And on a related note, the line of dialogue from Caster!Gilles afterward that Sanson's mind died with Marie and all he was good for now was cannon fodder.
  • Siegfried being sad he and Fafnir ended their constant battle the same way without a way to make peace.
  • An ominous one, when Mash and Amadeus speak to each other, one of the last things he tells her: "There's nothing more beautiful than a parting smile". Remember this when you get to Temple of Solomon...
  • Gilles is pretty tragic. He fell into despair after Jeanne D'Arc was executed. And when he got the Holy Grail, all he wanted was to resurrect her. The Grail couldn't fulfill his wish, so he wished for the birth of Jeanne Alter. And he was just as loyal to her as he had been to the original.
• Septem:
  • Since Nero is actually a living person in this chapter and not a Servant, she, fortunately, survives the removal of the Singularity. Unfortunately, she's told that she will forget the whole experience once her neck of history is restored to normal.
• Okeanos:
  • Asterios's Heroic Sacrifice, grabbing Hercules and using him as a Human Shield to help block Hektor's Noble Phantasm. His reasoning? Because despite his history, and being told all his life that he was a monster, Euryale and the crew of the Golden Hind never once treated him as one, and called him by his name, instead of "Minotaur." His only wish as he sinks to the bottom of the sea is that the group protects Euryale for him.
• E Pluribus Unum:
  • After all the efforts to save Rama and reunite him with his beloved Sita, it turns out that their curse of separation still prevents them from ever being together even as servants as Rama finally drops unconscious on the verge of death moments before seeing Sita, and she ends up sacrificing her life to save his.
• Camelot:
  • From the All There in the Manual story detailing the Camelot hijacking of the sixth singularity, the reason why not all Knights of the Round Table are with the Lion King is because the Lion King ordered loyalists to kill dissenters, their former comrades-in-arms. After the deed was done, the remaining knights were traumatized by what they had done, several of them use the Grail's blessing to deal with their consciences for sake of being loyal to a king they had betrayed one way or another. Tristan had to have a complete personality change because he empathized too much with his dead friends and Gawain became even more blindly loyal than he already was.
  • When the Knights were facing the Crusaders led by the impostor Richard I, Gareth held him down so the other knights could finish Richard off. Her brother Gawain was the one who dealt the final blow. The narration implies Gareth committed Suicide by Cop because she couldn't stand the pain of the crimes she had committed, but she couldn't betray her idol Lancelot.
    • We finally get to meet Gareth briefly during the Summer 2018 event, and this just makes it all hit even harder. This earnest and frankly adorable young woman ended up so broken by what the Lion King made her do in the singularity that she ultimately disfigured her hands through obsessive-compulsive cleaning, was completely unable to rest from guilt (which made her look half-dead and robbed her of her usual appearance and demeanor) and was eventually driven to suicide via a sacrifice of debatable-at-best value. Seeing her happy and dorky during summer makes you think about just how much of an ordeal that singularity must've been to produce that kind of change.
  • Bedivere was actually a living human all throughout the chapter. Merlin's magecraft concealed the fact until the final battle with the Lion King. The reason Bedivere was still alive was due to never following Altria's orders of returning Excalibur. Excalibur prevented Bedivere from aging for 1,500 years until he arrived in Avalon and was sent to the singularity by Merlin. However, his soul began to burn out over the years, and using Excalibur would mean further exhausting what little soul he had left. Death in the manner of his soul being destroyed would lead to his existence "falling into the void" with no afterlife and nothing to copy to the Throne of Heroes.
  • Bedivere defeats the Lion King with the last use of his "Noble Phantasm" and finally returns Excalibur as his body crumbles away.
  • Goddess Rhongomyniad, having regained her lost humanity from Excalibur, praises Bedivere, calling him "my last and most loyal knight." After all the effort Bedivere put in over more than a millennia, it's quite impactful to see his efforts be acknowledged by his beloved king.
• Babylonia: This singularity has a huge body count, each preceded by tearful scenes:
  • Ushiwakamaru's final stand against Gorgon to buy you time to retreat. Using her Noble Phantasm, she avoided all of Gorgon's attacks while closing in before attempting to deal a fatal blow. Gorgon, however, No Sells the attack and proceeds to wreck Ushiwakamaru apart. To make matters worse, it turns out Ushiwakamaru is just captured. After that, she was corrupted by Tiamat's mud, which made her and many clones of her fight you later on.
  • Leonidas throws himself into Gorgon's Noble Phantasm to protect your party, delivering his final words while slowly turning into stone only to crumble shortly after. In both of Ushi and Leonidas' sacrifice, Mash can be seen in holding back her tears.
  • Seeing Enkidu's (actually Kingu's) body bloody and crying was one of the last things players wanted to see. The fact that Kingu was betrayed by his own mother and the Lahmu, and left in this state doesn't help to lessen the pain.
  • The entirety of Ana's character arc; from the beginning, it's obvious that she's so doggedly attempted to attack Gorgon because she's Gorgon's Literal Split Personality. But as the Chaldeans are forced to do menial chores for Uruk just to get an audience with Gilgamesh, Ana starts to grow fond of its people, especially the nearly blind elderly florist she works with. The florist gives the protagonist the flower wreath she made for Ana, but Ana privately rejected it because she thinks she doesn't deserve it knowing who she really is. Ana then goes on sacrificing herself to subdue Gorgon, and the protagonist throws the wreath toward the chasm the two fell into in mourning. When Tiamat finally appears, full-powered Gorgon that came from the two Medusas' fusion shows herself in front of the heroes. She tries to scare them off and the protagonist silently fulfills her request to not be seen in her monster form. Putting the wreath on her head before she heads for battle, she dies crippling Tiamat's wing so Tiamat's advance is halted even just for a moment.
  • In a final display of loyalty to Ushiwakamaru like he did in his life, Benkei exorcises the final corrupted Ushi with his Noble Phantasm after throwing himself into her blade and preventing further aggression. Ushiwakamaru even gains a semblance of her previous self, and Benkei finally left with a smile. Considering that he might not even be the real Benkei, this act truly established his place in her closest circle.
  • The first Lahmu the characters come across is not violent. It's simply standing there raising its "hands" as your team smacks it around like a rag. It's implied to be Siduri, Gilgamesh's kind adviser seen throughout the chapter. She talks about how raising hands means "surrender", so here she is, as a Lahmu raising its hands. Ishtar and the protagonist realize this, but they don't say anything lest the team's morale shatter.
  • Also, the part where the Lahmu Siduri sacrifices herself to save the wounded Enkidu (actually Kingu). In her moments, she told him about how much Enkidu meant to both Gilgamesh and every people of Uruk, which really took a toll on him. Kingu doesn't know who she was, yet, he couldn't help but shed tears for her.
    Lahmu: —Be, happy. I pray, that you can, find happiness. My beloved, friend, Enkidu. We, the people of Uruk, have not forgotten, our gratitude, to you. You, gave to our, proud, lonely king, life. You showed, him the path to, becoming a great ruler. There was not, a single person who, did not mourn, your death. There is not, a single person who, has forgotten your passing... I, too. I too, was very, saddened. And so thus, I pray that, you may, find happiness, Enkidu. Oh beautiful, person, of green. Ahh— I'm glad. I'm glad, I was, able to, say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank, you—
  • Having gained an admiration for Gilgamesh that deviates from his original purpose, Kingu (in Enkidu's body) turned himself into a set of massive chains, binding Tiamat in order to buy the party and Gilgamesh some time to recuperate after Tiamat's mud breached the city walls. These are the same kind of chains that are able to bind the likes of Heracles, but they break shortly after.
  • Pretty much everything involving Gilgamesh and Kingu is an enormous tearjerker. Kingu being unable to fight Gilgamesh because Enkidu's body will not allow him to fight his friend, Kingu calling Gilgamesh by his full name until the very end where he calls him 'Gil' (which is what Enkidu always called him), Gilgamesh refusing to leave Kingu to bleed out and die because he doesn't want to see Enkidu's body fade away again, Kingu telling Gilgamesh that Enkidu's body still holds so many memories that Enkidu wanted to share with him, and Gilgamesh saying that he had to say goodbye to his friend twice now after Kingu sacrifices himself. This chapter is full of pain.
  • Later, Gilgamesh pushes you out of Tiamat's attack, gravely wounding himself even though he can still stand. He eventually dies after attempting to buy you some time to enter the underworld in order to pursue Tiamat. His return as an Archer Heroic Spirit a few stages later is a moment of awesome, where Gilgamesh finally gets serious and uses everything he has in order to defend whatever is left of Babylon.
  • Enkidu still has so many memories he wants to share with Gilgamesh, but Caster Gilgamesh's My Room Lines say he has nothing more to say to Enkidu, because he gave up that freedom when he took back his throne. If you were using the hope of them being reunited in Chaldea to get over the pain of Babylonia, Cas Gil goes ahead and crushes your heart even more.
    • Subverted. As stated in the Character Materials, Enkidu pesters him so much he can't ignore him.
  • The Reveal that no matter what you do, all the humans who died during the singularity will remain dead once history is corrected. At most, all the player has done throughout all the singularities was just change how those deaths happened. Gilgamesh spells it out before Uruk falls that no matter what happens, the dynasty will decline. At the same time, however, it turns into a bit of bittersweet happiness when he also points out that everyone who survived the singularity will survive when history is corrected, even if they were destined to die at that time in the original history, stating that the lives of the 500 Uruk people Chaldea's efforts saved when before he predicted everyone would die is a victory they should take pride in.
• Temple of Solomon:
  • Mash blocks Solomon's Noble Phantasm from killing you with hers, and ends up dying by taking the full brunt of its blast. That cutscene ends with her shield as all that's left behind.
  • Dr. Roman sacrifices himself by turning back into Solomon and using his Noble Phantasm to completely erase himself. In his last words, he tells the protagonist not to worry about him and just focus on defeating King Goetia.
  • Fou speaks to a dead Mash in the void and reveals that he's an alternate Primate Murder, the Fourth Beast, who never became it because its interactions with Merlin changed its perspective of humanity. Having this perspective reinforced by its time at Chaldea, Fou decides to use its accumulated energy to resurrect Mash and give her a normal lifespan, at the cost of no longer having intelligence.

Chapter 1. 5 — Epic of Remnant

• Shinjuku
  • At the start of the chapter, while Da Vinci is giving a briefing and prepping the rayshift, the protagonist suddenly has a flashback to how Dr. Roman would do the same thing before each of the Observer on Timeless Temple singularities. It's a surprisingly poignant reminder that the good doctor isn't there to support them anymore, and everyone else in Chaldea is having to fill in the gaps he left behind.
  • Even though he’s relentlessly trying to kill you out of hatred, Lobo is a very pitiable Avenger. As shown later in the chapter, Lobo is constantly thinking to himself, having thoughts about his current predicament and his past, remarking that he’d just like to go home and back to the way things were, but he can’t even remember what “home” looks like. After being defeated the last time, with Hessian blocking an attack for his sake, Lobo retreats, visibly bloodied all over, to die alone, thinking to himself one last time, and the last thing he sees before passing on is Cavall II, as a final reminder of his dead mate. Lobo’s arc is arguably the most heartbreaking aspect of the chapter.

• SE.RA.PH:
  • After Passionlip is released from BB's control, she and Meltlilith have a heart-to-heart between sisters. Meltlilith then uploads her memories to Passionlip, revealing what happened to her and the protagonist in the previous time loop. Passionlip breaks down crying, but Meltlilith angrily says that if Passionlip feels sorry or pity for her, their friendship is over. Passionlip responds by saying she's crying because Meltlilith's memories are so beautiful. Meltlilith smiles and promises that now the three of them will unite to defeat Kiara.
  • EMIYA Alter's gone through some messed up stuff, some of it even worse than what EMIYA's had to contend with. The protagonist is told his past and what happened to the fallen Shirou Emiya after killing everyone dear to him to end the Holy Grail War, beginning with Sakura and later even Illya and Rin (since this Shirou is the Shirou from the Mind of Steel bad ending from Fate/stay night). Then in his mercenary days, he stumbles into Kiara Sesshouin and her cult, leading to his fall into depravity.
  • When EMIYA meets Kiara again after killing Beckman and Macintosh, she gladly tells us what really happened to this Shirou Emiya. It began when Shirou found out about Kiara's cult, which by then had amassed thousands of followers. The cult is, as said by her, a commune where everyone is accepted and no evil except for its founder. Shirou came to their HQ and killed each and every innocent cultist there to reach the founder. They, who loved Kiara as their own mother, could do nothing except throw their bodies at him. Shirou still kills them mercilessly like one stepping on ants. But even after all that, Kiara just kills herself, still firm in her beliefs and ideology. Basically Shirou loses this battle of ideology, one of the worst possible defeats that can happen to a character in this franchise. This all happened because Shirou's the only one in that world who senses what Kiara would eventually become. The result is a bitter Counter Guardian, an emotionless machine bound to preserve humanity forever. So he guiltily sides with her as a Servant of the Beast.
    • The manga adaptation would imply that among EMIYA Alter's victims is his version of Taiga and goes into detail about his Materials line for Jaguar Warrior. It's revealed that Taiga had a son who passed away from an incurable disease and despite not being a religious person, Taiga began to to be influenced by the cult out of an incorrect belief that Kiara and her followers were capable of curing her son's disease. By the time her son died, Taiga fully embraced her place within the cult and was willing to shoot EMIYA Alter to protect Kiara.
• Shimosa:
  • The premise of this chapter. This chapter happens as male Musashi's is stuck in a cave dying, sickly and alone but still refusing to die till he faces his destiny which is revealed to be his destined fight with Kojirou.
  • The Inferno Chapter, featuring Archer Inferno AKA Tomoe Gozen. She ended up being a raging person that hated just about everything, even her own nation. All of it because her husband Yoshinaka was unjustly killed by his own siblings despite his Undying Loyalty and being an overall nice person, and then Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate, who claimed ancestry from the same Minamoto that killed Yoshinaka. Tomoe was basically venting towards the world that struck her innocent lover with such tragic injustice. When Musashi deduced her true name, the protagonist immediately remembered her role in Babylonia Singularity despite never meeting her personally. As the final blow is struck, Tomoe finally remembered her last sweet moments with Yoshinaka and died peacefully. And the protagonist is given the option to salute for her efforts at Babylonia, despite never meeting her personally before.
  • The last battle. The duel between Musashi and Kojirou is not supposed to have a witness and the outcome is already determined from the start. The winner is Musashi. After the duel, Musashi throws the protagonist from the burning tower with the last of her strength and apparently dies, just like Musashi's historical death.
  • Then, Kojirou meets the old man Musashi. Upon meeting him, Musashi says that he's sorry that he can't fight Kojirou because he doesn't even have strength to lift his finger. Kojirou merely says that he already fought Musashi and that Musashi is the winner. Old man Musashi then dies peacefully.
  • At the end of the chapter, the protagonist and Kotarou are preparing to leave but are sadden when Onui begs them not to leave them alone since Muramasa sacrificed his life to protect their world.
  • It turns out Musashi is now a Heroic Spirit and actually summoned to Chaldea. But as she's outside Chaldea, she can't come inside. The last message from her is that she will respond to your summoning anywhere and whenever she's needed. She says her goodbyes to the protagonist, as she wants to wander around in the 21st century and taste the udon of that age. Goodbye, Musashi.
• Salem:
  • Even though some of them don’t last very long, the deaths. More specifically, the hangings of Tituba, the Whateley family, Mata Hari, and Sanson, and Lavinia getting shot. In general, it’s both depressing and horrifying seeing the citizens of Salem descend into paranoid barbarism and cruelty, and several innocent people pay the price. What hits harder than the hangings themselves is the impact their deaths have on the ones who witness them. Abigail is traumatized seeing someone she felt as close to as family being killed, Lavinia has to see her parents and grandfather die due to unjust persecution, Mata Hari and Sanson sacrifice themselves to protect Chaldea and as penance for things they feel guilty of from their original lives. Finally Lavinia dives in front of Abigail to save her from being shot, and bleeds out in her arms.
  • The fact that all of these tragic events are orchestrated by Raüm and have been repeated through time loops (Chaldea arriving during the seventh iteration), specifically for the purpose of driving Abigail to despair so she can become the host of an Outer God. Yes, a Hellish "Groundhog Day" Loop targeting a twelve year old girl. That is ALL KINDS of messed up.

Chapter 2 — Cosmos in the Lostbelt

• Prologue:
  • The prologue hits you square in the gut with the reveal that you and everyone still working at Chaldea has been fired. Despite the sheer hell you, your allies, servants and the remaining Chaldea staff went through to save humanity, the original Chaldea, as an organization dedicated to correcting human history and stopping threats to its continued existence, has been completely disbanded. All of your summoned servants (with the possible exception of Da Vinci and Holmes) vanish thanks to the new guard shutting down the Chaldeas Summoning Program (and worryingly, it's not known if your Servants will even remember you or their memories of their time spent with you) and every single staff member has been replaced with new workers, in spite of your efforts to save humanity from certain destruction. Granted, while every single singularity's been corrected and humanity is saved (at least for now), your efforts broke a lot of Chaldea's established rules and regulations (and with the results of the Goetia incident and the Salem singularity as a whole, the masquerade is gonna be extremely difficult to uphold) and all of that unauthorized rayshifting could've led to less savory heads utilizing the same technology for more nefarious purposes, essentially making Chaldea just as much of a threat as the singularities, but it's no less distressing that the original staff has no choice but to be branded as criminals. In the end, humanity is its own worst enemy, and it's not difficult to feel more than a little worried about where things are gonna go from here. Thank goodness Da Vinci and Sherlock Holmes appear to have thought ahead.
    • This also falls hard on poor Ereshkigal: after meeting you in Babylonia, she finally - finally - can get the chance to be reunited with you and stick around for good after the Christmas 2017 event is over... only to be dispelled thanks to the summoning program shutdown and separated from her master once more.
    • Mash has this the hardest of all. She breaks down and demands they go back to Chaldea when the crew has to escape the frozen facility. Mash wanted to go back, maybe because, all her life, it was all she knew. It was literally her home. But more than that, Mash wanted to go back, since the doctor's room was still there and she wanted to protect it because she's still hoping that he would come back. All this time, she has been taking care of his room. Remember, Mash is a designer baby, basically a homunculus. She has no "parents". She was made to be a tool. But it was Romani, it was only Romani who treated her as a human. Before he met her, she was just "Test Subject #...." – he gave her a name, he taught her how to read, he brought her Sherlock books, he brought her clothes, he brought her eyeglasses, he taught her how to take care of plants, on why strawberries' seeds are outside, of all the mundane things, even about Magi Mari. He taught her on how to become "human". He even fought to have her instated as a Master Candidate. Romani is, for a lack of better word, Mash's father. All this time, maybe Mash has been hoping that, somehow, he'll come back. He'll come back and his room would be there, untouched, waiting for him. And now, her other parental figure, Da Vinci, is gone. Yeah, she's still there, in her new body, but it was not the same Da Vinci she's known all her life, not the one she allied with to tease Roman, not the one who fought with them in Camelot. Worst New Years' Eve ever...
  • As Goredolf faces his death, he uses the PA system to beg for someone to save him before he starts to bitterly rant that nothing has gone right for him, that no matter what he did he was hated and seen as a failure. He used all his money to buy Chaldea to succeed for once and cries that he doesn't want to die without anyone praising or loving him. This speech reminds Mash and the protagonist of Olga Marie's last words and motivates them to save him when they hesitated before.
  • Da Vinci permanently dying is even more emphasized with the fact that her new self starts several of her menu lines the way her old self did, and then veering off to say something completely different. After three years of hearing her shop lines, it's jarring to hear her say something that's similar but not quite the same.
• Permafrost Empire - Anastasia:
  • The fact that nearly the whole humanity/pan history is gone. It becomes Harsher in Hindsight for not only post-Prologue events in-game become long-gone happy days when you were still in Chaldea, but remember it also affects everyone else on Earth; say, remember back in "Murder at the Kogetsukan" when we see Cain vow to change the Violet and Goldy families for the better after all the hell they went through? We never will know whether he succeeded.
  • The Minotauros catches a quick glimpse of Euryale from the memories of Asterios and smiles peacefully as he dies, remembering her as he envies his other self for being able to be with her.
  • Avicebron's sacrifice. Before death, he confessed and is clearly ashamed of his actions in the previous Holy Grail War he took part in, and right before dissipating, encouraged you to fight and restore the world. It also crowns both as a heartwarming and awesome moment since Avicebron's sacrifice by using his heart is what led to the creation of Golem Keter Malkuth, and thus gave you a chance of going against Ivan the Terrible.
    • A far more subtle one that comes earlier in the story, when mention of a raid possibly turning into a massacre is brought up, it isn't the crew at the Shadow Border, or one of the Yaga, or even the protagonist who brings it up. It's Avicebron, who speaks from his knowledge from the Proper Human History. What makes it far more sad is that Avicebron, alias Solomon ibn Gabirol, is Jewish, and lived during a time where Jewish persecution was not only common, but expected. During the time period he lived, the 11th century, everything from plagues to bad harvests and economic downturns were laid at their feet, and as Avicebron demonstrates the firsthand knowledge of, resulted in a million small hatreds turning into, in his words, "a brush fire".
  • We see in a flashback that Salieri did confront Mozart before Chaldea arrived, meeting a decaying Mozart that had worked himself ragged by using his Noble Phantasm for 2 months nonstop. Salieri is horrified and angered at how his rival was treated showing a sincere respect that has been buried by hatred. Mozart states he's been waiting for Salieri to arrive and offers his life to Salieri hoping to give his rival some peace. Salieri is shocked at Mozart's offer and asks if he wants the rumor that lead to Salieri's twisted spirit origin to be proven true, making it seem as if in that moment the true Salieri was voicing his disagreement over his friend's dying request.
  • Ivan the Terrible's ultimate end. The Lostbelt King had sacrificed both his literal and figurative humanity to create something resembling civilization in the Crapsack World he had no way to avert. He dreams constantly of happier days and of perhaps rebuilding civilization properly. When he finally awakens, he learns that his people have risen in revolt against him, enemies from another world have come to destroy what he has preserved, and even his own allies have schemed to dispose of him to take the reins of this world himself. In a furious rage he throws himself into battle against them all, but even his great strength isn't enough. Torn from his mammoth and giving up his title as Lostbelt King to one of his descendants after she proves herself strong enough to wield it, Ivan stubbornly clings to life in order to confront the protagonist one last time, demanding to know if they have the resolve to kill everyone in the Lostbelt for their own world and charging into battle for one last desperate gamble. In the end, he falls once more, and he can only look upon the protagonist's face of sorrow and remember his own wife, recalling how she too could cry for other's sakes and soberly admitting that perhaps it was the loss of their humanity that proved their world couldn't survive after all before he finally passes.
  • From Anastasia and Ivan's words you finally learn what you have to do with the Lostbelts to save Proper Human History: Unlike Chapter 1 where you merely need to fix the course of our history, in Chapter 2 you basically have to destroy the entire Alternate History altogether in order to save yours; yes, it means the friends/races you knew, the whole civilization they built within the Lostbelt, have to be erased completely. In other words, you effectively tell your allies in the Lostbelt to die for your cause. And this is just the first; you have another SIX to deal with. Simply said, the protagonist does not take it well, which leads to another Tear Jerker below......
  • Patxi's death. Patxi's life throughout was crappy due to how his society was structured (only the strong deserve to live and the weak deserve to die), having a senile mother who he spent most of his time taking care of, only to have his mother killed by the villagers after Patxi left his village to join the rebel faction (and Patxi left because he had no choice but to, considering the situation he was in). What's worse, the moment he was captured by Priest Macarius and the Oprichniki, he got a glimpse of how Ivan the Terrible looked like and despaired due to his monstrous form, realizing that going against Ivan the Terrible is a futile effort to begin with. His despair led him to reveal the rebel's secret base and the base fell down as the result. Even so, confronting Chaldea over what Patxi did, you decided to spare him and while trapped in Minotauros' labyrinth, you taught him how the world looked like in the pan history, basically gave him a culture shock as he never know how is it like to live in a world where everyone is free to live the way they want to. After being told by Anastasia that eliminating the Lostbelt would result in the destruction of the world he lived in (as above), he went into further despair but eventually realized and accept that you're fighting on, despite facing many odds that may seem futile to change, for the sake of restoring the world you so hold dear. When you went into a Heroic BSoD over the revelation, opening yourself to Yaga Rebels to open fire at you, despite their reluctance, Patxi ended up Taking the Bullet for you; and before dying, snaps you out and encourages you to fight on and never give up, and believe in your own convictions, despite whatever consequences you may have to bear.
  • The destruction of the Lostbelts becomes (somehow) even worse with the knowledge that there has likely never been any disaster that resulted in more loss of human lives. Regardless of their noble intentions, Chaldea have almost certainly caused the most widespread genocide in human history. In a truly cruel twist of irony, the only being that would probably be able to relate to such an act would be Goetia.
    • Even the Craft Essence, "Heretical Yaga", is both Tearjerking yet Heartwarming at the same time:
      "I'll never forgive you, for as long as I live. You know why? Because thanks to you, I now know there's another, happier world out there.
      So stand up, dammit. Stand up and fight for it. Go on and brag about how you can smile in your world, and tell us why it should be the one to survive.
      Be proud. Hold your head up high, and fight for your weak little world.
      ...Don't you dare lose to a world like this, a world whose only virtue is strength!"
  • Atalante Alter becomes so distraught over the idea of the Yaga being erased from existence that she forces herself to attack the protagonists but ultimately is unable to fix this dilemma, and dies crying out apologies to Chaldea for betraying them and to the Yaga for being unable to help them. It didn't help further to know that Atalante Alter knew this right from the start, and has been trying to hold back crying out loud every night, yet stayed strong and push on, all for the sake of Yaga's survival despite her actual reason for being summoned, and what she is supposed to do is completely the opposite of what she did throughout the chapter. No matter the continuity, Atalante just couldn't seem to get a bone thrown to her about her dream, and unlike Apocrypha, there was no Achilles to comfort her so she died not in peace, but in anguish. Right next to her continuously mourning Yaga rebels who tried their best to assure her that she did nothing wrong.
  • At the end of the Lostbelt just when he's about to disappear, Salieri plays a piano rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for the townspeople. Extra tearjerky and also heartwarming as this was Mozart's Last Request to him. Yes, a man whose existence as a Heroic Spirit is focused on hating one man ultimately fulfills a simple request to that very specific man. Even made more tragic by the fact that he plays it as the Yaga for the first time in their existence get to see clear night sky and stars before they are ultimately wiped from existence.
• The Eternal Icy Fire Century – Götterdämmerung
  • During his last moments Surtr quietly contemplates how he, a personification of fire and destruction, cannot ever express his love for Ophelia in a way that she would appreciate.
  • Scathach-Skadi's despair over the prospect of her world being erased. With Surtr gone, she can finally reign in the giants and allow humans to grow without losing her mystery... but Chaldea's goal means this won't happen. Skadi summons all her remaining power and love to stand against those who would destroy her world, and loses. All she can do is help fix the damage she caused and tell her subjects to sleep and never wake up again.
  • Gerda ignores Skadi's command and instead wanders outside, hoping to see the strangers she befriended. Even if she doesn't understand what's happening, the prospect of never seeing the protagonist, Mash, Fou, or Gordolf again upsets her. She disappears while remembering how she frolicked through the fields with Fou, hoping that someone from Chaldea will come to check on her one last time.
• S.I.N. (As expected of a storyline written by none other than Gen Urobuchi...)
  • Spartacus's Heroic Sacrifice to stop a meteor from Qin Shi Huang Di, which is highly reminiscent of The Iron Giant stopping a nuke. After asking for a Command Spell with a single word, that being "Jump", Spartacus uses Crying Warmonger to counter the meteor and completely obliterates it, at the cost of all his power. Before he fades, he tells the village children who admired him that as long as rebellion burns within them, he will live on in their hearts. The children resolve to grow strong and keep laughing until they become Spartacus for someone else.
  • Xiang Yu's demise. Even though he has nothing to do with the same guy in pan-history, after learning about his alternate self he decided to love and fight for Consort Yu, even going against his creator since she chose to rest eternally in the Lostbelt; and not even his heavy injuries can stop him, going so far as saying that it's the first time he fought for nothing else but a female. He finally goes down in battle and, like what happened 2000 years ago in pan-human history, dies before Yu and leaves her alone again. It makes you feel bad for doing so, discounting the fact that it's also the reason Yu decides to take revenge on the player and fuse with the local Tree of Emptiness.
    • Now available for your viewing pleasure.
• Yuga Kshetra
  • Asha's life is just one long Trauma Conga Line (even if she didn't notice) in this Lostbelt. The two Kali Yugas you and your team experienced results in the loss of her beloved dog and father, and she barely remembers them (at most she only remembered someone important was lost); by the time the team destroyed the local Tree of Emptiness they decided to tell her the truth (without mentioning the Lostbelt will be destroyed), and after asking you and Mash does a normal Yuga exist, she finally remembers her father, laying in the bed crying as the Lostbelt fades away. This is just half of it: The Craft Essence "Potrait of a Family" shows how big Asha's family used to be, how genuinely happy they were, and by the time the Lostbelt fades she is basically Dying Alone. It makes you want to punch Limbo in the face even more.
  • In order to mess with Arjuna Alter's perception of being a "perfect god", Ashwatthama sends Jinako and Lakshmi Bai back to the first cycle ever, and combining both of their Noble Phantasms to "construct" an immovable giant cube to withstand all of the cycles; the catch is, Jinako has to stay conscious throughout all the cycles, which (until your team deactivated it in the main timeline) lasted for thousands of years. Even though she's a NEET she can't withstand the loneliness throughout the years, breaking her mind so much that she forget everything except the "promise" she made before going back in time.
  • While the act of repeatedly resetting the world was utterly horrifying and reprehensible, the fact that it was borne out of what was likely a genuine desire to create a better world after the horrible tragedy of the war in the Mahabharata, combined with the fact that his perfect godhood left him incapable of knowing where to stop, means that Arjuna Alter's situation is also quite sad, especially given that the lostbelt would have probably been in a far less awful state if not for Limbo's manipulation. Ultimately, Arjuna Alter dies realising that not only did he fail to live up to his great rivalry with Karna, due to not remaining human, but also that the last remaining evil in the lostbelt that he had failed to excise was himself.
• Atlantis
  • This Chapter seems to just have it for Jason and majority of it isn't Played for Laughs:
    • You fight him this Chapter but he can't use his Noble Phantasm during that battle. Why? Because the Argonauts has been completely annihilated and he's the only one left. Without the Argonauts, Astrapste Argo has no power.
    • Just like in Okeanos, Jason doesn't take Heracles' death well in this Lostbelt either. Heracles had defended the other Servants from Artemis' arrows prior to Chaldea's arrival and despite his God Hand and Medea's assistance, Heracles was obliterated by the second strike.
    • Jason even calls himself a pathetic captain who lets his subordinates die. It just reinforces the fact Jason doesn't consider Heracles as a tool, but as a friend. And losing his friend was a huge blow to him.
    • He managed to recruit new members for the Argonauts in the chapter but they also fall one-by-one as the story progresses and once again by the climax of the chapter, he's the only Argonaut left standing before finally going down as he helps take down Chiron. Poor guy.
  • For the same vein, Drake's state as your team meet her is also quite jarring: being cursed from sailing again due to her toll on Poseidon and got her spirit core heavily damaged, she wants to help you but is physically unable to, and contents on setting a bar on the island. One of the most famous adventurer-on-sea is forced to be stranded on the land. Sure, she takes her failure much better than Jason even in death, but it's still sad to hear, by her words, that the woman who can make impossible possible is no more, especially after you recall the hell she went through back in Okeanos.
  • While she's the "de facto heroine" of this chapter, Charlotte is also the one who suffered as much as Jason. Already a servant with serious self-esteem issues (arguably even worse than Mandricardo), she spends most of the chapter doubting if she'll drag the team behind, and obviously falls for the protagonist since he/she doesn't look down upon her; later we learned she was Odysseus' servant all along and, after the team spends a bit of time saving her, she leaves the team (fully knowing that she won't rejoin the team again) and only showed up near the end, trying to assassinate Odysseus. The attempt failed, but her love towards the protagonist activates the nanomachines inside her (granting her a special Battle Continuation), resulting in a Mutual Kill. The catch is, those nanomachines damage her so much that she gradually loses her memories, including her intent of killing Odysseus, including her love to a certain someone, even when he/she is just in front of her, before vanishing from the Lostbelt.
  • After completing Atlantis, you get the usual CE which is a portrait of the new Argonauts (Jason, Orion, Paris, Charlotte, Achilles, Bart, Mandricardo, Hector and Drake). And of course, there's also a montage of the Servants who had helped you and sacrifice their lives to get you to Olympus.
    (portrait of Drake) As the first guiding hand, that woman entrusted their lives to the sea.
    (portrait of Chiyome) Using even the curse residing in her body, that woman rampaged to her end.
    (portrait of Charlotte) Even though she whittled away everything except for assassination, that woman continued to make every effort.
    (portrait of Bartholomew) Doing what he could not do in life—- he safely delivered hope.
    (portrait of Achilles) Even with his weak point shot and pierced, that man continued to run.
    (portrait of Hektor) In order to gain the briefest amount of time, he answered those hopes.
    (portrait of Mandricardo) As a lone person, as a friend, he swore to become his ally.
    (portrait of Paris) Without hesitation, he chose to become a sacrificial lamb. He accepted that it was the right path to take.
    (portrait of Orion) He loved the moon, and he shot down the moon.
    (portrait of Jason) He saw it all, he fought it all, and then he bid farewell to it all.
    —Each and every one of them ran with all their might, leaving nothing behind in this sea.
    And thus, the deadly sea was surmounted. The destination that awaits you is the dazzling underground city.
    • Even if it isn't explicitly written, the protagonist suffered so much in this chapter that their breakdown is imminent: being beaten here and there since entering the Lostbelt (including a heavy beating from Kirschtaria), only being saved by look-alike-Romani but realized it's not the one they knew (Mash had a little breakdown herself for it); and he/she is forced to watch every allied servants get themselves killed just to get him/her entering Olympus. Now, sacrifices aren't rare in past Singularities/Lostbelts, and they all do it by their own will without blaming Chaldea, but it's the first time he/she is forced to see it all by himself/herself, and it's everyone, including someone called him/her "friend"; it's so bad that when it's Paris' turn, the second choice of the dialogue almost equals to you begging him to stay (you just lost Mandricardo moments ago) and in the end only the initial Chaldea team is left alive. One can only pray if someone friendly can give a therapy for the protagonist......

• Olympus
  • After a pitched battle, a surviving Olympian soldier demands to know why Chaldea thinks they have the right to invade and destroy the paradise the Gods have given them before bitterly vowing that they will all meet their ends in Olympus. He is cut down by Musashi shortly afterwards.
  • As the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite has the authority to choose what is worthy of either, which she previously showed to the other Heroic Spirits by mind controlling them into killing each other. When Chaldea goes up against her, she does this again and for the protagonist, it manifests as an endless loop where everyone they've lost—from Patxi all the way to Chaldea's deceased staff—are alive. Even when they break free from it, they still wish that they could have stayed just a little longer. It's practically the first time, we actually see how they felt about everyone they've met and had to lose.
    Protagonist: But... in this dream... there are people here... who shouldn't be. They're right here. I still want to talk to them. I still want... to be with all of them.
  • Zeus's death becomes this with the revelation revealed by Hikaru Sakurai, as they reveal that, contrary to what he states just prior to his death, he does genuinely care about humanity. As per her own words,
    "As a consequence of the Lostbelt mechgod Zeus piling up all of the gods' functions (Authorities) in his own body, he was far more energy-intensive than any other ship, and thus had the shortest lifespan. Goddess Hera was the only one who knew this, and this memory was lost in the process of her assimalation into Europa. Mash's downcast face when she saw Zeus's lifescale was because the almighty Zeus also had the worst lifecycle, which made her understand he was a literal machine pushing itself to its limits to serve the people of Olympus. It was a moment of pity, respect, and sadness for the fact that, despite being like this, Zeus will never be anything more than an enemy to humanity."
  • After a long time, Musashi's luck finally runs out in Olympus. After defeating Zeus Chaos tries to invade the Lostbelt, resting on her achieving full Emptiness to close the crack, forcing Chaos back to its dimension. But the attack also burns out her spirit core, and if the player followed her story all along^note to make it short, part of the reason she's a Dimensional Traveler is because her home universe was destroyed and she wasn't even registered on the Throne means that this Heroic Sacrifice completely removed her from all histories and all realities. It's even worse if you have her: after clearing the Lostbelt Her data in the Saint Graph page only shows a cold "DATA LOST". It truly hammers home that Musashi is completely gone.
  • The citizens of Olympus slowly succumbing to despair as their world falls apart and the Gods, who once answered their prayers for peace and preservation, are nowhere to be found, given that Chaldea went around killing them off left and right. The narration sums up this depressing situation well:
    Narration: The sounds of destruction echo throughout Holy Vessel Ring Cronus Crown, Great Orbital Shrine Olympia Dodona...The cacophony of destruction reverberates through every district in Olympus...Both the Crown and the shrine, once thought immutable and eternal, were falling apart before everyone's eyes. Even the great crystal mountains had begun to fracture. Rubble rained down upon the city. People huddled on the ground, not even daring to look up at the sky. The heavens had begun to collapse. Olympus itself groaned horribly, straining at the seams. The death cries of an entire city echo across its districts. People huddled together in branch shrines, believing the destruction would stop once the gods heard their prayers...but to no avail. The rubble continued to fall, crushing some of the branch shrines and the districts surrounding them. Most people prayed fervently for this disaster to come to a swift end. They prayed, and hoped, and believed that the gods would protect them. They believed that their friends and family who had suffered painful deaths would soon come back to life. But, in time...some people waiting for their loved ones' return began to realize the truth...No one would be revived. No one was protecting them. The Cronus Crown's collapse would continue unabated. There would be no revelations from the Great Orbital Shrine. And the gods would remain silent. For now, at long last, there were none left in Olympus. As time passed, and more people realized that the events they were experiencing portended their Lostbelt's destruction...they fell silent one after another, despair and resignation shutting their mouths tight. It was the first pall of silence, devoid of even a single prayer, that had fallen over Olympus in ten thousand years.
  • As Olympus collapses, Adele and Macarios stay behind with Europa to bid farewell to Chaldea. After they leave, Macarious tearfully admits that although they got their wish for a new tomorrow even if it meant their deaths, he secretly wishes they could live and see further beyond the new future, and more importantly, see the two of them fully grown up as adults.
  • After completing Olympus, you get the usual memorial CE which has Kirschtaria, Caenis, Musashi and the NPCs allies Adele and Macarius. The fact that Kirschtaria and Musashi, who sacrifice their lives to save humanity, are in this CE shows that their efforts will never be forgotten.
    • It's even worse when you find out Kirschtaria isn't the SOB you thought he was: His whole plan was to take advantage of the Foreign God to turn the whole Humanity (or what's left of it) into human/god hybrids so that humanity will survive (albeit at the cost of erasing Proper Human History) after turning against the Foreign God; and unlike many mages in the Nasuverse, he (after his Dark and Troubled Past convinced him Humanity is worth saving) does care about Humanity, even going so far to save his fellow friends/Crypters by going through the First Chapter with them six times (even though everyone except Pepe didn't realize it). When you finally best him in battle he gracefully admits defeat and entrusts Humanity's future to you, using his last strength to stop Rhongomyniad and the invasion of Foreign God so that you and Chaldea can continue your fight.

• Avalon Le Fae
  • During the Protagonist's time in Cornwall, they meet with a fairly sweet nameless winged fairy. They spend some time speaking with her, you, Tristan and Caster Altria go out of your way to protect her from monsters, and she even leads you out of the village so the other fairies won’t eat you… then it’s revealed she was only luring you away to eat you herself, and she turns into a monster. Before you or your friends can decide what to do, Oberon gives her a Mercy Kill. It’s fairly quick, but still genuinely depressing. Welcome to Lostbelt #6.
    • Gets worse later on when it's implied the Fae's previous name was Hope and she was a genuinely nice fairy towards Caster Altria. It doubles as foreshadowing that "Hope" is something you'll gradually find is not applicable in this distorted Britain, and sure enough it's all downhill from there.
  • Tristan’s death, holding off Fae Knight Gawain so the Protagonist and the others can escape.
  • Rob and Wag closing Sheffield’s gate to stop Morgan’s armies from pursuing Mash and the citizens. They are cut down cheerfully bidding Mash farewell and wishing her luck on her journey.
  • The Protagonist and Mash come tantalizingly close to reuniting… only for Morgan’s forces to cruelly pull her away in an almost literal example of yanking the dog’s chain. Mash starts to cry even without remembering who the Protagonist is…
  • Fae Knight Tristan's backstory; Baobhan Sith was originally a fairy who just wanted to make everyone she met happy. But because the fairies' nature tend to lean towards Ungrateful Bastard territory, she would work tirelessly before being thrown aside and dying with her limbs torn off with no one caring about her death. One day Morgan found Baobhan Sith on the verge of death, with her showing the savior gratitude no other fairy has shown her. After coming across her multiple times across her many lifetimes, Morgan decided to save Baobhan Sith's life by adopting her as her child. The fact that she is such a cold-hearted knight is because Morgan found out that she won't be able to reincarnate anymore so she told her that she will never find true happiness if she lets herself be used by others and should live her life to the fullest. Morgan having to see Baobhan get her limbs ripped apart and trying to move so many times also traumatized her to the point where she has an emotional breakdown whenever she sees caterpillars.
  • Lostbelt Morgan’s reason for why she became a cruel tyrant. She used to be a Child of Prophecy, just like Altria. Morgan had fervently tried to save Britain, going back in time three times to try to protect the Fae and humans. But each time she grew close to finishing her mission, she was betrayed by the very citizens she was trying to save. Now thoroughly disillusioned with the people of Britain, she abandoned her mission and chose to subjugate them as a tyrant, with two thousand years of ruling leaving her empty and devoid of purpose. It’s certainly enough to make one sympathize with her, and raises a disturbing parallel to Heroic Spirit EMIYA’s tragic fate of being killed by those he saved.
  • Gareth's Last Stand. When enemy forces attack Londinium, Gareth is the only fighter present to defend the innocent civilians within. She fights endless waves of enemy soldiers on her own and suffers grievous wounds, but manages to force the enemy to retreat. Unfortunately, she's already mortally wounded and all of the children she tried to protect had already perished. The only comfort that she finds in her death is hearing the Bell rung by Altria Caster, as well as seeing a hallucination of the children she thinks she had saved.
    • Even worse, one can interpret (from Percival's words, and that fact that she fought the two knights without any lines) that she was actutally killed (or mortally wounded) by Lancelot at the plaza, and perished there instead at the command post, making all of the above totally her own hallucinations.
    • Relating to the above, Red Hare's Heroic Sacrifice early in Part 3 is actually Harsher in Hindsight: Nasu wrote on his blog that Red Hare's "duty" of regularly reporting Altria's journey to Aurora led to the doom of Londinium. Horrified by his own actions, he ran away but decides to carry your team to join up the Storm Border without rest, and eventually dies after breaking all his legs in doing so. Nasu, how dare you making the comedic factor miserable?
  • The deaths of Woodwose, Morgan and her adoptive daughter, Baobhan Sith. Morgan pretty much had Chaldea dead to rights but was caught up in the machinations of Spriggan and Aurora, her real body attacked and weakened from a very angry Woodwose. After calming Woodwose down and making him realize that he was lied to, that he should've NEVER lost faith in his Queen, the powerful fairy howls in despair and transforms into a Mors. Instead of going on a further rampage, he quietly fades away in shame, a shocking send-off from the proud and haughty head of the Fang Clan. When Morgan is prepared to give Spriggan his just desserts, he cowardly hides behind the deteriorating body of Baobhan Sith, who is barely holding on to her last life. This stays Morgan's hand long enough for Spriggan's fairies to land crippling blows on her. Now with her holding on for dear life, she can do nothing as Aurora uses her Voice of the Wind ability to turn the rest of the fairies against Morgan with lies about how the Queen is behind EVERY calamity that plagues Fairy Britain. This turns the rest of the fairies against the Queen and, ignoring her pleas of mercy, proceed to maul and beat her to death, her body soon becoming unrecognizable. Unfortunately, this gross spectacle was witnessed by Baobhan Sith, who was forced to watch her beloved mother die, as she could do nothing but cry in both fear and sadness. The fairies then turn on her, deciding to throw her out into the Great Pit. By that point, Baobhan Sith, tired of the fairies and their cruelty, loses her will to live, can only apologize to her mother one last time, and prays to the great god Cernnunos to inflict divine retribution on her tormentors.
    • While all this is going on, Baobhan Sith reminiscences about her times with Morgan, how she used to be kind and gentle towards everyone but had a very low opinion of herself and was willing to put up with the fairies' horrible treatment of her; as a result, she always ends up broken and limbless. Morgan laments that she is unable to save Baobhan Sith from the fairies in every loop she goes through, voicing out loud that she wants Baobhan Sith to learn and exude cruelty in order to properly defend herself from them. In fact, Fairy Britain would've been a more totalitarian kingdom but Morgan eased up on it a bit for the sake of allowing at least Baobhan Sith to smile and live happily. Which makes their eventual fates all the more tragic as it amounted to nothing. A final blow to this whole tragedy is that Baobhan Sith ironically could've gotten along with her greatest enemy, Altria Caster, as she was the only Fairy, besides her own inner circle, who treated her normally.
    Morgan: Why? Why are you like this? Why are you always like this, Baobhan Sith!?
    Baobhan Sith: (Inner thoughts) That person lamented, almost as though for herself, and embraced me. But I'm already dead. I always, always die.
    Morgan: I'm always too late. I always find you only after you've ended up like this...! No matter how many times you're reborn, you always end up like this - Deceived. Manipulated. Used. Tossed aside once broken. Be angry if you've been deceived. Run if they are violent with you! Yet, why - why do you always forgive them!?
    Baobhan Sith: (Inner thoughts) I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Lady Witch. I'm sorry I died again in the end. The current generation of me may not remember, but thank you for always crying for my sake. But don't worry. I'm a worthless fairy, so this is the best I can do to be of use to everyone else. If using me will make things easier for everyone in the village, then that surely must be a good thing.
    Morgan: That is not true. You and you alone - thanked me in this Britain. I will definitely save you. I will definitely make sure to save you. I will definitely find you, before the next generation of you can be picked up those fairies. And this time - I will make you happy.
    Baobhan Sith: (Inner thoughts) But I couldn't do it. Time and time again, Mother found me. Yet each time, it always ended like this. The village's darling, Baobhan Sith. The ever-smiling Baobhan Sith. I always end up worked to the bone, all the while being told I'm a "good person". That's why Mother told me. That's why, after I died at Darlington with my soul worn out, with no next generation to speak of, she brought me back to life and told me:
    Morgan: You should live heinously. You should live cruelly. You cannot live otherwise. Just once. Even just once is fine. If it means you can lead a happy life - I will offer Britain, my dream, to you.
    Baobhan Sith: (Inner thoughts) I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mother. That didn't work out either. I hate fairies. Because they always bully me. I couldn't make even a single friend. Because I was always filthy. But - there was one, there was one fairy I could talk normally with. How strange. Even though I hate all of Britain's fairies, I was able to talk normally with that girl alone. What was that name of that girl again - What was the name of that city again - What exactly happened back then?
    • Baobhan Sith's final thoughts as she's driven into despair following Morgan's death and tossed into the Great Pit by the utter garbage that are the fairies:
    Fairies Gathered Around Morgan: An accomplice. An accomplice. She's her daughter, so she's an accomplice. I mean, she really tormented us. Let's take our time with this one. Wow, she's filthy. Her limbs are rotting! What do we do, what should we do!? Let's not bother. Just chop her up and toss her out! Out behind the throne! After all, she's dropped her fair share of people down there already! Bye-bye, Morgan's Princess! Thanks to you, we'll be able to keep living in this castle for the rest of our lives!
    Baobhan Sith: Haha..ahahahahah..hahahahahahaha! I couldn't stop them, I couldn't stop them! Even though Mother was being brutalized, I was too scared to stop them! Hahahahahahaha...haha..aa...aaaaaaaa..aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...!!! ......... ...I'm done...I'm tired. I don't want to be here anymore. That's right...I'll run...I'll disappear...There's a...perfect hole over there. Hehe, hehehe...Cernunnos...Cernunnos...The only one Mother was afraid of. The scary god, Cernunnos. The bright red eyes at the bottom of the Great Pit...the lid of the apocalypse that 2,000 years couldn't close off... Ahahahaha...ahahahahaha...Ahahahahaha - ha -
    • And if just reading it isn't enough for you, both Morgan's and Baobhan Sith's scene are now voiced, and it is absolutely heartbreaking.
  • Cnoc na Riabh's death by poison, mirroring what happened to Morgan's Knights of the Round Table centuries ago, and she ends up dying in her best friend's arms. Altria Caster is crying, screaming and outright begging Cnoc na Riabh to not die, but it's hopeless as the poison takes hold. What's worse is that the power of the poison ends up making Cnoc na Riabh slowly forget who she is and the people around her but she still goes out of her way to comfort Altria and wish her well.
  • The true origins behind Faerie Britain and fate of Cernunnos and his human priestess. The planet has sent Cernunnos to punish the Six Fairies for their failure of producing Excalibur and letting all of existence come to an end, all on account of being lazy. Cernunnos, taking pity on them, and thinking they've "been punished enough", tried to take care of them as best as he could, with the priestess telling the fairies to at least try and own up to their faults. Their reaction is to murder Cernunnos, use his body as the new land and tear the priestess apart for annoying them. These two really didn't deserve being screwed over like this, especially by self-entitled, lazy jackasses that are the Six Sub-bells.
  • Altria Caster's backstory where she was treated like shit by a majority of the other fairies and was destined to die to forge Excalibur (only averted due to Muramasa). It's implied the only reason she performed her duty was her feelings for the Protagonist. During the trials of Avalon, Altria's painful memories surfaces as powerful Mors that the Protagonist and their team must face and put down, which each Mor they fell, transferring Altria's grief and hurt over. When it came time to reveal Altria's happiest memories, nothing happens, meaning that Altria was essentially miserable 24/7 throughout a majority of her life before the Protagonist shows up. Give that poor girl a hug!
  • Habetrot's death. It's revealed that she was secretly dying for most of the story as a result of her holding on to the Black Barrel Replica for Mash. Being her most loyal and helpful companion for most of her stay in the Sixth Lostbelt after being separated from the protagonist and wanting to take her along to the Shadow Border with them to save her from the Lostbelt's destruction, Mash takes it the hardest and is heartbroken when Habetrot's body falls apart in front of her as a result of Mash finally remembering her as Totrot. Even her summoning after you clear the Lostbelt is very bittersweet as the one you summon is explicitly not the same Habetrot Mash and Morgan knew from the Sixth Lostbelt, with the summonable Habetrot remarking that Mash looks sad whenever they have a chat together, not knowing exactly why Mash is sad in the first place.
  • Melusine forcing herself to kill her benefactor, Aurora. In the midst of the world falling apart during the apocalypse, Melusine reunites with Aurora, intent on at least dying together with her as they wait for the end. However, Aurora, after heartlessly revealing that she murdered Coral for the mere crime of annoying her, tells Melusine that she would like to abandon her home and people to their fates and migrate over to the world of Proper Human History. Knowing that this is a slow death sentence for the deluded Fairy, ^note Humans will quickly see through Aurora's callous nature and deceitfulness, meaning she will no longer be the most beloved Fairy, causing her to slowly lose her purpose and decay into a Mors Melusine stabs Aurora and leaves her to bleed out, sobbing all the while. The act of turning on her begins her transformation into the Red Calamity, Albion.
  • Percival aiding the Protagonist in luring and fighting off Albion, ultimately giving his life for the party by firing the Spear of Selection one last time to force the dragon into remembering that it used to be Melusine, Percival's object of affection and adoptive older sister. As Melusine regains her sanity, she sees Percival's figure dissolve into particles of light and she screams out loud for her brother's death as she falls from the sky.
  • Before all this tragedy, Percival makes a final plea to the Protagonist and the party to NOT hate the fairies of Britain, choosing to see the good in them rather than the bad. Which’s all the sadder when much the fandom feels anything good of the faeries is heavily outweighed by the bad, being the one Lostbelt a majority agrees is better gone.
  • Barghest's descent into madness and becoming the Black/Beast Calamity. Wounded and weakened from fighting countless Mors and holding on to her last hope of at least saving the fairies of Manchester, she's crushed and horrified upon her return when she sees them gleefully massacring the town's human inhabitants; while this is occurring, they callously reveal that they were only "imitating" her behavior with her lovers behind closed doors. This proves to be the final straw, as Barghest ultimately concludes that Morgan was right to rule the fairies the way she did and decides to kill every Fairy she can get her hands on to prevent their evil from leaving the island. Mash, who came to admire Barghest's righteousness and love for the Knights of the Round Table, can't bring herself to abandon her in this state and, with the help of the Gawain and Lancelot, puts Barghest out of her misery. As she lays dying, Mash notices that Barghest's eyes were filled with tears, both out of frustration that circumstances had gotten so out of hand and gratitude/happiness for finally being stopped, at the hands of the Knights she admired with all her heart, no less.
  • The deaths of Melusine and Aurora. Yes, even Aurora. In their final moments, Melusine is seen helping Chaldea escape the Insect of the Abyss in her dragon form, Albion. Body falling apart and her mind slowly eroding away, Melusine uses the last of her rationality to reminisce about her time in Britain, her relationships with her peers, foster brother and adoptive mother and screams out loud that she is Melusine and is proud of the name she was given, accelerating towards the horizon one last time. Meanwhile, Aurora is seen bleeding out in the ruins of her mansion, recalling her last conversation with Oberon-Vortigern, and muses to herself that while all her actions were for her own benefit to shine as the most beautiful Fairy, saving and raising Melusine as her adoptive daughter was the ONE good thing that she had done out of actual selflessness, proving that she wasn't COMPLETELY horrible. As these scenes play out, the Rainy Day, Teary Day OST plays in the background, its soothing but haunting melody driving home the tragic circumstances of the situation. Seeing Melusine's figure ascending further and further into the heavens, Aurora's last words are encouragement for her to fly as high and as fast as she can before finally passing away. The final CG shot shows Aurora's corpse; open eyes glazed over, a single line of blood dribbling down her mouth and her rainbow wings turning grey. The narration seals the deal:
    Narration: And so, gazing upwards with childlike innocence as the dragon corpse scattered like dust in the wind...Aurora faded away, and her radiance finally faded.
  • Oberon-Vortigern falling within the Insect of the Abyss forever, noting that despite being subjected to such a fate, he at least fulfilled his goal of destroying Fairy Britain and wishes Chaldea luck in their future endeavors. The only regret he feels is that he failed to destroy Proper Human History, a history that has "rejected" the fictitious Titania and through the holes of the Insect closing up, Oberon notices the sky of Proper Human History, smiling sulkily and musing sadly to himself how beautiful it is, as the Ever-Present Feeling OST plays the scene out.
    Oberon: Dammit. It's so beautiful it makes me sick.
    Narration: The infinite hollow sealed itself as the Abyssal Worm fell on, a destination forever beyond his reach.
  • The finale of the Lostbelt is easily the bleakest and most tragic ending of any Singularity or Lostbelt so far. Yes, Chaldea completed their mission and all managed to escape alive, but almost all of the friends and allies they made in the Lostbelt are dead (many of them having died horrifically cruel or unjust deaths), Fae Britain has been reduced to a lifeless husk, and both Mash and the Protagonist are clearly heavily traumatized by everything they endured during this ordeal. The small silver linings accompanying this are that Servants like Morgan and the three Faerie Knights can now find better lives in Chaldea once they're summoned, while pretty much every Hate Sink in the Lostbelt perished in their self-made apocalypse and will never haunt them again... and that this bleak outcome would never be repeated outside this particular history (since Oberon-Vortigern had plans to repeat all the destruction in Proper Human History and would've succeeded if you didn't interfere.)

• Traum
  • Sherlock Holmes' death. After being defeated by a younger version of Moriarty, Holmes is forced to remember who he really is: He's the first Apostle of the Foreign God who is tasked to help Chaldea defeat Goetia and then, join Chaldea with an unknown role. But whatever that role is made Holmes erased those memories and tried his best to forgot about it. If he does remember them, he would be forced to betray everybody in Chaldea which he absolutely doesn't want. Hence, this is why he never investigates who summoned him in the first place. And all this time since the beginning of Part 2, Holmes has remained a good friend to Chaldea til the very end. As his memories of his role as the apostle returns, Holmes chooses to jump down Reinhenbach Falls in order to protect Chaldea from himself. In his final moments, he smiles in content believing that Chaldea will still win and says his farewell to everyone who had been with him for 5 years. Even though there's a possibility that he might return given that he survived Reinhenbach Falls in The Final Problem, this version of Holmes, who considered Chaldea as his family, may be gone.
    Holmes: I enjoyed these days very much. Before me lies a hard-to-crack case. Crisis approaches. And in spite of Watson's absence, I spent those hectic days with my many dear companions. It is with great reluctance that I part with them. I kept averting my eyes so that I could be with them. But I was able to choose the best option while avoiding the worst outcome. By wielding wit and reason as my weapons to the very end, just like a true detective. I am laughing now. I am smiling at Moriaty as he looks down on me. He, on the other hand —- had a puzzled look on his face. The answer is, of course, obvious. It is because we, Chaldea, will triumph. I don't need to infer anything. This is an answer I can give with certainty. That we will triumph. I fear not death, all I feel is certainty in victory and a measure of peace. James Moriarty. You may have won. But despite that, victory is still mine. Farewell, staff of Chaldea. Farewell, Mister Zemlupus. Farewell, Miss Sion and Captain Nemo. Farewell, Da Vinci. Farewell, Diretor Goredolf. Farewell, Yelena. Farewell, Mister/Miss Fujimaru. Farewell, Miss Kyrielight. Farewell to all my dear and wonderful friends. Yes, those were wonderful days indeed.
• Nahui Mictlān
  • Camazotz may have possibly have the saddest backstory in this chapter. He's revealed to be the last king of Ka'an, a kingdom of Advanced Ancient Humans that evolved in the Lostbelt's past, far earlier than in Proper Human History, and managed to reach techonlogical height that rivalled Olympus. However, his reign came to a brutal end when Lostbelt ORT arrived and began to rampage through his kingdom, with nothing they had capable of stopping it. Eventually, the entire remaining population decided to ritualistically sacrifice themselves to grant Camazotz the power to stop the Ultimate One, transforming him into a God and, since he loved his people even as they rendered themselves extinct for his sake, the Beast of Oblivion as well. Camazotz then spent EONS battling ORT, with only his Beast form's Complete Immortality keeping him going as ORT crushed him over and over again, with him only being able to chip away with Scratch Damage in retaliation until he'd weakened his foe enough to rip ORT's core out, sending it back to slumber. Even after that, the realisation that he'd only won a Pyrrhic Victory, with all that remained of his kingdom and species being himself and various ruins, drove poor Camazotz completely insane with grief. Even after Lostbelt ORT is FINALLY defeated, the world gives Camazotz one last middle finger by letting him see his Lostbelt getting pruned, as ORT had previously consumed the Tree of Emptiness and taken over its function as the Lostbelt's Cosmic Keystone. Driven to Madness all over again by the realisation that his history was never meant to be and his millions year long war against ORT was All for Nothing, Camazotz becomes the Beast of Oblivion once again and confronts Chaldea one last time, going down raging and screaming at the injustice of his world's fate as he fights desperately to preserve the only monument he has left for his people.
    • His theme, "The Last Brave", is a strange mixture of heroic, sad and solemn. Fitting for a tragic figure who genuinely believes himself to be a hero, determined to not let humanity's sacrifice go to waste.
    • Camazotz takes an interest in Nitocris over the course of the Lostbelt, but even flips out at her once. Why? Because she mentions that, even as a Servant, she remembers the names and faces of all of her ghostly attendants. As it turns out, Camazotz himself has lived for so long in the aftermath of Ka'an's destruction that, despite his best efforts, he cannot remember the name or face of even a single one of his subjects. Nitocris' declaration prompts an angry rant from him, questioning how fair it is that she gets to remember her people while he can't, despite him loving humanity more than anyone else.
  • Wak Chan dies to save U-Olga Marie, unaware that he's dying the whole time from radioactive poisoning. The protagonist wishes to bring his body along for a proper burial but Tepeu sadly informs them that his body is far too radioactive to even touch. They end up saying a quick goodbye to him as his body is soon to be buried underground, far away from the city he loved and the friends that he made during Chaldea's time in Mictlan.
  • All the friends, citizens and colleagues made along the way in Lostbelt 7 all give their lives to try and slow down ORT in order to give Chaldea a fighting chance to bring this monster down. The Deinos' demise in particular is very saddening, as they were the nicest of all the Lostbelt residents seen so far and they all decide to go down swinging at ORT, to no avail. Even Tepeu, despite killing ORT once, is torn to pieces by the invader shortly afterward. Kukulkan watches her beloved Deino race die with a somber look on her face.

Chapter 2. 5 — Ordeal Call

• Paper Moon
  • Lancer’s Master is based off of Cerejeira Elron, one of the handful of Chaldea’s survivors. We learn from her memories that she had long harbored a crush on one of her coworkers, and had finally worked up the nerve to ask him out on a date. The day was New Year’s Eve, 2017, the day the Foreign God’s forces invaded Chaldea. Cerejeira was the one who opened the door and gave Koyanskaya the opportunity to massacre Chaldea. Including the man she asked on a date. Unsurprisingly, Cerejeira has been wracked with guilt ever since that day…
• Id: Wastehole of the Unsalvageable
  • The chapter basically is a huge one for our protagonist. It is very likely (though not confirmed) that the protagonist was just living their life shown during the chapter (being a Ordinary High-School Student, surrounded by friends and loving family) before they signed up for Chaldea, and the rest is history. Is joining up the organization saving the world, while suffering physical and mental distress in the progress a really good thing? You decide.
    • Combined with the above, the concept of Wastehole (an old concept in Nasuverse) was unleashed in full effect: normally, a Wastehole will act as the "rubbish bin" for the protagonist's negative emotions, and "wastes" will be "incinerated" by Dantes and other servants to keep the protagonist's mentality as stable as they could. But as shown from Dantes' second interlude, they are simply not enough to do so forever, and thus gave the main antagonist a chance to attack the protagonist's mentality... by forcing him/her to recall Da Vinci's death and Mash's Heroic Sacrifice (especially the later indeed pushed the protagonist to the point that he/she almost got killed during The Second Trial). It's so worth noting that, after all those great accomplishments during Chaldea's journey, the protagonist is still a normal human, and experiencing what he/she suffered AGAIN is still too much.
  • By the end of the second Ordeal Call, circumstance and the unfortunate realization that Fujimaru is just NOT SUITED to lead the Avenger Servants, who depart early for Antarctica to do what they can. Chaldea’s register has them listed as “Link Lost,” where they are canonically absent but can still be summoned as Shadow Servants to support Ritsuka. It’s a solemn sendoff to a number of beloved FGO favorites, with us praying that it won’t be permanent…
    • For a bit more context and clarity. The Ordeal Call revealed that the Avenger class's proper use is to right injustices through any means necessary to ensure humanity becomes better in the long run. However, not only is it a case of Fujimaru being not suited enough to lead them (In fact as another bitter reveal Fujimaru making them hold back their violence and bloodlust was actually slowly killing them), but the Avengers also don't want him to become The Unfettered either just for their sakes too, and while a compromise MIGHT exist for both Ritsuka and the Avengers to fight alongside one another without compromising their ideals (with Dantes himself teasing that if there was a way, then Abigail would be the key), they outright can't stay long enough to even humor exploring it. Their Spirit Origins can't stay on the Bleached Earth any longer without risking further destabilization issues due to a lack of any form of injustice on it to make up for Fujimaru's unsuitability (To drive the point home, Marie Alter, an Avenger who is canonically summoned after this chapter and opts to stay can barely keep her Spirit Origin intact), they have to go to Antarctica/CHALDEAS early not just for Ritsuka's sake, but their own too. Worse part of it all however? Neither side is happy about this whatsoever, but there is sadly no other choice at this time. Just about the only thing keeping this from being an outright Downer Ending is that unlike Musashi's DATA LOST status, the register does have them listed as "Link Lost" which means they have only physically left Novum Chaldea, and implies that one day they may come back. Until then, both Fujimaru and the Avengers can only pray that one day they will meet again under better circumstances.
  • Without a doubt, the character most hit by this is none other than Jeanne Alter. THE game's biggest Ensemble Dark Horse and Breakout Character, as well as one of the lead of the events in this scenario. She ends up spending her last moments before disappearing engaging in The Last Dance with Fujimaru, essentially thanking them for everything up to that point and apologizing for not being able to see the journey through to the end with them. She ends up going out with a smile before she vanishes, with Fujimaru mentally lamenting that they Never Got to Say Goodbye.
    • Dantes' parting words for the protagonist also hurts very much. Being one of the earliest Avengers in the game, he went from someone who beared nothing but hatred, to becoming the mental guardian of the protagonist (as per above) all along the journey, saving him/her from countless mental attacks (ESPECIALLY in Britain Lostbelt) and helped cleaning up the protagonist's Wastehole. And to avoid him/her becoming an all-consuming monster, he partly manipulated the events during the chapter, all while he's in such a bad shape. In the end, he wishes nothing but luck to the protagonist, as Chaldea moves on to the unknown, his return uncertain.

Interludes

• David's Interlude is a flashback about his look around Camelot/Jerusalem as he wants to see his homeland, with him and Dr. Roman bickering throughout. After reminiscing about that trip, Mash wonders if David actually knew about Dr. Roman's secret.
  Mash: Since that happened, I couldn't help but ask him, "did you know from the beginning?"
  David: That happened a while before so I couldn't quite remember. But to answer your question, I didn't know. I couldn't notice.
  David: Even if I could guess who the King of Magic was, I didn't think about anything else. When I saw "him" at this Chaldea, from a distance, I felt, "oh, he is a man with so little freedom". I didn't know any details, but I could tell from his expression. But, "he" was different from the "man with no freedom" I knew. "His" lack of freedom was full of will as a human. So, I decided not to think about it. I didn't want to interfere. That's all I have to say.
  Mash: David's faint smile was a little bit sad, but also was proud. From King David, who is often thought to be cold-blooded because of his intelligence, this was his greatest sincerity... Yes. So I think. I'm so glad I didn't sense anything from their silly conversation. The great kings of ancient times. Even if their bonds were invisible, it was surely there.
• Kotarou's interlude deals with Chaldea's apparent inability to summon Danzou, as the system spits out an error every time. It's because she was never relieved from her final mission. The crew finds her, broken, battered, delirious and as close to a wraith as a robot can be, but still on her duty: guarding the graves of the Fuuma clan. She can't even remember Kotarou anymore, but recognizes him as a splendid Fuuma ninja and accepts his order to give up her mission... before he has to Mercy Kill her, and give the one he still considers his mother a proper burial alongside the rest of his clan.
• Kiyohime's first interlude has her face a shadow version of herself who calls her out on hunting down and killing Anchin, and accuses her of being a hideous serpent that will eventually kill you. Kiyohime can barely defend herself, and quickly becomes distressed, requiring you to snap her out of it with encouragement. Even after the fight, she still needs your reassurance that she isn't a hideous monster, meaning her killing of Anchin has torn her up a lot more than she lets on, and given her both repressed identity issues and self-loathing.
• Mysterious Heroine X faces Mordred in her first Interlude. Mordred recognizes X as her father, but X denies this and vows to kill her. This lack of mercy makes Mordred realize that X really is her father. It is Played for Laughs, but that only makes it more jarring, and even uncomfortable to watch.
• Assassin EMIYA/Kiritsugu's interlude is basically him going on a mission; after the obligatory battle, we are treated to post-mission down-time where Jaguarman/Taiga and Dress of Heaven/Irisviel stalk him around. They also try to establish whether he remembers them from the mainline Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night timeline. Based on everyone they talk to^note i.e. Archer EMIYA, Diarmuid, Altria and El-Melloi II/Waver... it seems he doesn't. The sequence ends with a monologue from Assassin EMIYA showing he knows he's being stalked... and he's annoyed by it. Even when Irisviel basically goes out and admits she has feelings for him despite being from a separate universe, he brusquely dismisses her and tells her to not call him 'Kiritsugu'—only by class. This ends with Irisviel clearly running out of the room crying—while Illya and Chloe/Kuro wonder why they're affected by what they saw. Damn, did Gen Urobuchi write this?!
  • The Flavor Text gained in Assassin EMIYA's profile drives this home further:
    Since the Einzberns did not plan to employ an outsider as their representative Master, he failed to encounter his wife that he was supposed to meet. Thus, he never experienced any partings with his wife, and he never got to succumb to the parting’s mental pain. As a result, his heart of steel remained steel. Eventually, his emotions wilted and his soul was offered to the Counter Force.
  • The comparisons between Archer EMIYA and Assassin EMIYA are very intentional, but the one thing that caused them both to become members of the Counter Force was a lack of connection with anyone around them. While Archer eventually gets over it (and fighting his past self in /Stay Night helps him with this), Assassin is doomed to a life of misery for all eternity.
• Da Vinci's interlude starts off as a happy little trip to London, where Da Vinci sneaks off on a rayshift against Dr Roman's wishes. It displays a lot of the fondness shading into Belligerent Sexual Tension between them... But it only unlocks after Dr Roman's death, because Da Vinci is actually reminiscing about a poignant memory of him, when she tried to teach him a lesson about how working alone makes her feel lonely, but now with him dead she has no choice. And of course, there's the implication of a tragic romance between them...^note This subtext is also reinforced by the fact that their seiyuu, Kenichi Suzumura and Maaya Sakamoto, are married in Real Life
• Arthur's interlude is pretty sad before its end, when he finally warms up to others. As a Dimensional Traveler he comes to a world he completely unfamiliar with, for the sole reason to hunt down Beast VI once and for all; but bearing the scars of the last Holy Grail Wars he participated, as well as not knowing when he'll be gone before/after Beast VI is defeated, he chooses not to interfere with other Servants' lives and barely left his mark in Chaldea, meaning that he chooses to fight alone if necessary. It's hard to believe that he beared too much responsibility upon himself.
• Tristan's Interlude lives up to his name of "Tristan the Sad". After being tricked into entering a small singularity, he's confronted by an individual who subjects him to a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip, calling him a monster who took pleasure from what his Sir counterpart did in the Camelot Singularity and was incapable of loving others. No matter how many times he attacks and begs them to shut up, they keep coming, and by the end, he's left Laughing Mad. When the master, Lancelot, Gawain, and Bedivere try to save him, he's lost his mind and tries to attack them, when really it's made clear he just wants them to kill him. He's only brought back to normal when Lancer Altria comes and breaks through to him, telling him that it's not that he can't love, it's that he refuses to love out of fear of losing that love. What follows is a flashback to his death as he's with the white handed Iseult, as he thinks to himself he could feel many things at the moment, but when he thinks he feels love for her, he's quick to blame it on the potion. Only realizing that it was never the potion and that he both did love his wife and could love was he able to be freed from his torment.
• In Benienma's interlude, we find out more about her origins, how she died as a human after being sexually abused by a brothel, but made into a Sparrow Oni by Lord Enma. Ibaraki steals her diary that she uses to know what people think tastes good or not, and starts flashing back to how she was also once a human who was abused; before being distracted by Shuten who talks her out of her funk. As she walks off, Shuten comments to herself that not even she would want to drink to Ibaraki's sorrow.
• In Holmes' Interlude, he and Helena remembered their adventure together in the Himalayas during the Great Hiatus (the three year period where Holmes pretended to be dead after defeating Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls and travelled across Tibet and Persia before returning to London). Unfortunately, Clock Tower sent assassins to kill Helena after they discovered she faked her death and her research attracted a lot of attention from the public including the SPR. While Holmes did his best to protect her, one of the assassins manages to mortally wound Helena. Holmes is completely furious that he nearly strangled the assailant until Helena tells him not to kill him. After knocking down the assasin instead, Holmes holds the dying Helena in his arms and wonders why she didn't use her magic to heal herself or stop her attacker. Helena tells him that she's already old and because she faked her death to the public, she already considered herself dead. Then, Holmes holds her hand and Helena calls him by his first name as she slowly passes away and they both saw some sort of mysterious light. This memory really shows how Holmes regards Helena as his friend despite that little stint that he pulled on her back in the Dead Heat Summer Race event.
• Raikou second Interlude is pretty damn depressing as it helps spell out how Raikou's father was a controlling monster that refuse to let her live the life she wanted.
• In Chiyome's interlude, what started with what looked like an attempt to get rid of her fear towards snakes eventually spiral down into Chiyome ranting on exactly why she's scared of snakes: The curse of Orochi inherited from Kouga Saburou inside her will make her one day turn into a snake, and she does not know when, and maybe it'll happen to her, or even her descendants. And all she ever wanted was just to loyally serve her Master, and she's shit-scared in knowing that there is a chance for her curse to take effect during one of those times. And yet, Shuten-Douji, in her more inhuman manner, relentlessly mocked her situation and loyalty to her Master. While there's only texts, the accompanying music and how the texts were written seems to imply that Chiyome was bawling her eyes out in fear and rage at Shuten, an incarnation of the God that cursed her (Orochi), for bullying her. Maybe Shuten was giving a Secret Test of Character or just toying with her, we wouldn't know, but Chiyome looked so very pitiful right there, that when all's said and done, it's a lot more heartwarming to state to Chiyome that no matter what, the protagonist and everyone will be there for her, and Chiyome reaffirms her loyalty.

Events

• During the Garden of Order event, the protagonist and Mash encountered Boudica. At first she displayed a more casual Cool Big Sis vibe that was shown in Septem, and all of the sudden she transformed to her high Ascension state and her personality had a 180, in a way, declaring her hatred to Rome and saying that she only used Chaldea and saving humanity as a way to curb her undying hatred. Considering she lost everything by Romans in her origins, it made sense that the usually level-headed, sisterly Boudica suddenly explode in anger like that. What's more, once you beat her, she only had some bitterly sad words as a response...
  Queen of Victory, they said... What a joke... I couldn't even win anything...
• The first ending of the Garden of Order event, with Good Mephisto dying along with his evil counterpart (because the two cannot exist without the other) and bidding you a fond farewell. The music that plays during this is especially beautiful.
• It is revelaed that the First Lady was forced to kill her friend Mila to save the world, and it clearly devastated her.
• While most of it's funny, the Fourth Day of the Christmas 2016 event has a gut-crushingly sad monologue from Jeanne Alter, after Jeanne Alter Santa Lily screws up yet another gift delivery, knows off the bat it's bad, is ashamed, and runs off in tears.
  Jeanne Alter: —No matter what anyone says, I just don't have what it takes. Usefulness alone is that which gives me meaning. I'm defined solely by how valuable I am. To never wish, to be fine to die at any moment. To never hope, to be something that exists to inevitably disappear. Yes... from the start, down to my origin, I wasn't meant to be. An unreasonable existence, an unreasonable concept, which has nothing it can wish for... but even for me, there was something I might be able to do. To live not to fulfill one's own desires, but to grant hope to others - to be Santa Claus. I thought that I could, maybe, be Santa, and yet... even taking up the bag, even with my reindeer-master^note "reindeer" with "master" in furigana, in true Type-Moon style with me... I don't understand the joy of others. I can't understand, and thus failure follows failure—and now, I've fled. Without even an attempt to recover."
• Not even April Fools 2017 is safe, on the last hour of service for the joke app, a new servant pops up!! A certain doctor we know very well... Not to mention, unlike all the other servants, you can't catch him and can only watch in tears as he waves at you until the app closes. Mood Whiplash and Sudden Downer Ending doesn't even begin to describe what was F/GO April Fools 2017. Nasu even sums it up on his blog:
  Another one-day limited festival of this year has ended.
  For the last time, I wanted 'him' to wave us "Bye Bye", with a smile on his face.
  • When the day is over and the game is shut down, one player sums it up. This is the translation:
    Fate/Gutentag Omen.
    An omen for 'Hello.'
    A game which you go out, and meet countless Servants saying 'hello.'
    But everything is a lie, and the reality is the opposite.
    This is a game about a lone person, waving (us) one last goodbye.
• While it's largely played for laughs, Helena's breakdown during her intro for Dead Heat Summer Race is absolutely heartrending. She can take just about everything else in stride (even questions about her "age", and doesn't mind being called "old"), but doubting her truthfulness is pretty much her Trauma Button. Once the protagonist blunders into doubting she's being truthful about her "age" (i.e. her experience vs. her appearance), despite the ensuing scene being intended as comedic, the comprehensive scale of her breakdown and the sheer venom with which she says things like "and-and next y-you're gonna tell me the mahatmas aren't real, right?!" while (unsuccessfully) choking back tears bites deep for a lot of people, especially for people who have been the victim of emotional abuse themselves and who know just how important being trusted is for someone recovering from such.
  • What does it for many is the realistic progression of her trauma flashback; at first she just kind of shuts down, she tries to speak, loses her composure entirely, and then brings up topics that you hadn't mentioned at all and in a fit of anger anticipates that's what will be questioned next, because this is how it always played out over the decades of people endlessly calling her a liar. Oh, Helena...
  • Of course, this is followed by a moment with a different kind of tearjerking: Edison and Tesla, the eternal rivals, always fighting over AC and DC and Edison's litigation and whatnot, drop everything and work together without (almost) any question to calm Helena down from her breakdown, when just minutes ago they were fighting. If the sheer display of True Companions doesn't at least make your lip wobble a bit, you must have a heart with no electricity in it at all.
• All the Statesmen! was supposed to be a humorous event due to collaborating with the humorous Learning with Manga! FGO, but it has some things that will pull your heart strings.
  • On defeating Mata Hari, you get the first clue of how hard it has been for a 1* Servant under the Nameless Master: Mata Hari hoped that the other her would be a Level 100 Servant. Considering her already tear-jerking backstory of being used and thrown away by men, it was a repeat of her story all over again. And if you just happen to play like the Nameless Master, discarding any Servants below 4* ones and treating them badly... Maybe you'd feel bad at this point. ^note Thankfully, in case of Mata Hari, with her being an Ensemble Dark Horse, you'd be surprised at how several people happily showing off their Lv 100 Mata Haris.
  • Mash's final line of the section as you defeat the Nameless Master:
    Goodbye. The person who could have been another senpai—
    I won’t think about why my other self is not by your side.
  • Even defeating the Nameless Master and being welcomed and accepted by Chaldea, Paul Bunyan is unable to reconcile with her innate destructive urges and tries to commit suicide rather than risk losing control and hurting her new friends.
• Giving EMIYA Alter chocolate in the 2018 Valentine's event hits you with the revelation that he's lost his sense of taste, and he points out what he gives you in return (a utility wire) is just trash anyway. Even when he eats the chocolate, he thinks he'll only remember it as a bittersweet memory.
• Chacha's Valentine's "chocolate" is a trip to look at cherry blossoms and eat red bean soup, with her telling you to think of it as you would a present from your mother. At the end of the outing she gets up close to wipe stray red bean off your face and starts reminiscing about when she was a grown woman and a mother, with a child who would eventually die with her. It's particularly impactful with voice acting added, as you can hear her drop her usual high-pitched, childish voice.
• The backstory behind GUDAGUDA 3's free Servant, Sakamoto Ryōma and Oryō, has a bit of bittersweet Reality Subtext in it. Oryō, a dragon-spirit, fell in love with Ryōma and accompanied him throughout his adventures (in fact, it's implied it's really only by fighting together that they qualify as a Servant). As most students of the Meiji Restoration would know, Ryōma will be assassinated before achieving his dream (and with their arrangement, it's likely this happened in the Nasuverse because Oryō wasn't with him at the time). Thus, she committed suicide instead of ascending into heaven to become a true dragon to be with him. The waterworks come in when you realize that, in Real Life, the actual human Oryō lived way past into old age and died in obscure poverty.
  • The ending of this event is a complete whiplash to "GUDAGUDA"'s wacky setting. Okita Alter is a Counter Guardian similar to EMIYA, when her job is finished and everyone returns to their places like usual, she will return to the place where Counter Guardians originated from... and then get erased from existence. While at first stoic about it, spending her time with the protagonist and seeing what Chaldea was like turned Okita Alter into a sobbing wreck, begging that she didn't want to get erased like that, wanting to live more and spending time with the protagonist. Although she was quick to make peace with that and thanked them before vanishing, it's still a punch in the gut that makes a lot of player wanting to summon Okita Alter at all cost.
• The entire reason the Summer 2018 event happens: BB managed to use Sheba to watch into the future and saw the pain and torment the Master would suffer during the Lostbelts, and decided to trap the world in a loop to avoid that. What makes this a tearjerker is that this is before the Lostbelt prologue, so it's pretty obvious BB failed her objective and the Lostbelts happened. Even for a girl who's (by her own admission) evil, that had to be painful...
• "A Study at the Meihou Manor" reveals at the end that Dr. Roman has noticed the inconsistency of Holmes and Moriarty both residing at Chaldea with him. Moriarty acknowledges this but believes that inconsistencies are fine if Roman gets to enjoy being with Chaldea post-Solomon and see how everyone's doing for a short time.
  Moriarty: Such a discrepancy can occur if it is in the world of movies. Characters that should never have been present on the same stage meet, for just a single moment… This is what they call a crossover. It’s because movies are entertainment. Where things that cannot come true in reality, happen.
  Roman: Yeah— That’s... a story with romance.
• Salieri's Valentines scene is just painful. When you first give him the chocolate, he's confused, but when you explain things, he is quiet for a moment...before suddenly flying into a rage, demanding that you stop treating him like a person and start treating him as "what he truly is": a mindless weapon that exists only to kill. Your attempts to calm him down only enrage him further, leaving him in a Madness Mantra where he repeatedly declares that he's not Antonio Salieri, but a weapon and nothing more. Thankfully, Marie is able to help calm him down and he later sends you a return gift as an apology for how he acted.
• The Lady Reines Case Files event has many memories of past story chapters and events play out. Some are played for laughs, others are simple retreads with no deep signficance. The lone exception to this is the memory of one of the most emotionally harrowing moments of their life: Babylonia. In a recreation of the moment the corrupted Ushiwakamaru attacked the party she is instead replaced by Benkei. It's the one memory the protagonist frantically tries to change knowing that, having switched places, Ushiwakamaru will arrive and sacrifice herself to defeat the corrupted Benkei. And yet, even altered, it's still a memory that they can't just change. When it ends the protagonist is left so despondent with Reines and Waver trying to do what they can to comfort them. Waver in particular is speaking from past experiences.
  Reines: It's okay. You don't have to say anything. Sometimes, these sorts of things just happen. That's why we carry with us the memories of every world we've seen.
  Waver: Exactly. Everything, including your regrets, make you the person you are, and eventually will become... Even if the path you choose was never going to lead you to success. All we can do is take what our precessesors gave us, hold to it, take a short rest, and start walking again.
• Nagao Kagetora cannot understand others, no matter how hard she tries. While her eyes are terrifying, the way she desperately prays to Bishamonten in a flashback, begging to know why she can’t understand others is heartbreaking. The way she laughs, probably because she simply doesn’t know how to cry, only reinforces how painful and lonely it is for her to be so isolated from everyone.
  • In an earlier flashback to her childhood, she can’t even understand why her father and brother are both terrified of her, with her father slapping her and outright calling her a monster he never wants to see again. Her sister meanwhile, is obviously saddened that her sibling cannot understand why the others are afraid of her. In the second flashback, Kagetora overhears her brother admitting to their sister that he also believes she’s a monster, fearing her eyes more than the gods or Buddha. Once again, the poor girl ends up laughing instead of crying. It comes to a head when Kagetora overhears her own vassals whispering amongst each other about how terrifying she is to them, making it clear to Kagetora that even after becoming a famous daimyo and hero to her people, she's forever doomed to her isolation thanks to the same strength that makes people hail her as a great warrior.
    Kagetora: ...Ahahaha! Help me, Bishamonten, I can't understand people. I know that people are weak and fragile... I know that they curry favor with those stronger than themselves, and trod mercilessly upon those weaker. Yet despite that, I have dedicated my life to protecting them, in the name of virtue and morality. I have killed many, many people in war. That is all this strength is good for - this monstrous strength that my father, my brother, and my sister feared. I will no doubt kill many, many more people as the wars continue. But am I truly protecting people by killing others in this way? Help me, Bishamonten. I cannot understand people, no matter how hard I try. Ahaha... Ahahahahahaha!
  • In the same event, we learn the reason why Shibata Katsuie was so loyal to Demon King Nobunaga: He was never able to forgive himself for having temporarily betrayed her for Nobukatsu. When Nobukatsu himself exploits this to give the others an opening, Katsuie is briefly left genuinely distraught, swearing that he will never fail to protect Nobunaga again. What truly manages to make him stop, however? Chacha, his beloved stepdaughter. Seeing her again, the hulking Berserker is stopped dead in his tracks. Just hearing her reassure him it’s okay to let go and forgive himself, happily calling him “Father” has him sobbing like a baby, overjoyed that she still loves him.
  • These events tend to be bigger gut punches in general because it's put in the middle of the generally Denser and Wackier GUDAGUDA event, creating occasional Mood Whiplash from the usual humors, even when GUDAGUDA previously tried a Darker and Edgier segment in the third event, they didn't try for such sad events like this. Damn it, keikenchi, we're in GUDAGUDA to kick back and laugh, not to pull some kleenex and cry.
• The Saber Wars II event gives us a few unexpected blows. Space Ishtar’s backstory is surprisingly depressing. Much like Rin in FateStayNight, she came home one day as just a young girl to find her father had been mortally wounded. It hurts a little more because Professor Tokiomi is a much more benevolent father figure than the original Tokiomi.
  • Adding to this is the identity of his murderer: Warrior of Darkness Munenori. We are initially led to believe that WOD Munenori is an embarrassingly amusing mentor figure for Ashtart. then we see that he cut down Professor Tokiomi without any remorse, and he admits outright he’s perfectly willing to sacrifice Ashtart to awaken the Primordial Goddess and never truly cared about her.
  • Ashtart initially tells Space Ishtar to take Fujimaru and run, while she holds back the Primordial Goddess for a bit. She genuinely believes no one would miss a goddess of evil like her…
• There are a few hints that Calamity Jane’s cheerful, scatterbrained demeanor is not nearly as complete as she pretends. She was a member of the original Servant team who defeated and sealed away the Primordial Goddess thousands of years ago, with her and Sigurd being the only survivors. The two of them were subsequently cursed with immortality out of spite for the Goddess’s defeat. Jane’s feelings on the matter are only hinted at, but it is stated she chooses not to dwell on it for fear of being overwhelmed by a millennium of pain and loneliness.
  • Sigurd himself is a member of the Six Blades, fanatically devoted to awakening the goddess and only desiring to find a worthy adversary because his thousands of years of wandering have left him with nothing else to strive for. The implication that Servantverse Sigurd became so cold and ruthless because he never met Brynhildr doesn’t help.
  • Mixed with Heartwarming is Mysterious Heroine X briefly reuniting with MHX Alter in an Afterlife Antechamber.
• In the 4th Summer event, the protagonist's team must first defeat the Aloha Knights before they can fight Swimsuit Swordmaster Altria herself. Thanks to the Napoleon of Crime James Moriarty they are able to find suitable counters to all of them and they are generally either simple or funny, until you get to Lancelot. The plan here is to just bring along Gareth. It's when Lancelot realize he will have to fight her again he remembers murdering Gareth in a rage when the Round Table discovered his affair with Lady Guinevere. This is not a quick mention either as Moriarty goes into horrific detail as to his involvement, mentioning how Gareth used to follow him loyally. In the end it becomes too much for the Protagonist to take who calls off Moriarty themselves and the fight proceeds with a much sadder tone than you would expect from a wacky summer adventure.
• Charlotte Corday's 2020 Valentine's conversation is unexpectedly melancholy: From the Master's perspective, Charlotte gave them an impressive cake, and that was that. From Charlotte's perspective, it's her attempt to stand out among a legion of heroes and gods, and even as she spends at least a month prior to Valentine's Day becoming a master chocolatier, she acknowledges that her efforts are both unnecessary and unlikely to succeed.
  Charlotte: I am not great like a god, nor powerful like an oni, nor noble like a hero. I possess none of those traits. And I'm completely aware that my insistence is all based on stubborn egoism. I'm aware that I can't win trying to make something luxurious or through skill alone.
  Charlotte: At the very least, I want to leave a mark in their heart that proves I tried my very best.
• While most of Chaldea Thriller Night, the 2020 summer event, is equal parts hilarious and horror-tastic, Nightmare William Tell in the hotel segment of the event is saddening as hell. William's original story involved being forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son because of an asshole noble. Nightmare William's version of that story ended in the worst way possible — with the deaths of both his son and the noble who put him through this.
  • The true Big Bad of the event, Xu Fu, is doing all of this because she's in love with Yu Mei-ren and wants to give her a final Mercy Kill; at the time they first met, Mei-ren was not enjoying her immortality.
• Early on in Chaldea Summer Adventure, the 2021 summer event, the group runs into a baby stegosaurus that imprints on Da Vinci and accompanies her throughout the event. However, at the end of the event, the group is forced to say goodbye to their dinosaur friend in a tragic way; the last day of the event's story reveals that Steggy and one of its parents met their end by being trapped in what would eventually turn into amber, and said parent is still there. Resolving the Singularity means allowing Steggy to reunite with its parent, even though doing so would essentially lead to its death. However, Steggy's desire to be with its parent is greater than its fear of death, and Da Vinci is determined to let Steggy follow its own desires. What ensues is a heartbreaking goodbye scene that hits very hard, especially for players who have had to say goodbye to beloved pets themselves.
  • We then get a brief narration from the parent stegosaurus's perspective, recounting the final moments for parent and child, which is something that resonates with players who have their own children. But what really hits home is that the parent eventually has a dream of its child being free of the heated sap that is drowning them and being able to run around, play, and partake in an exciting adventure. It's enough to get the tears flowing even harder.
• If you thought the April Fools' Day 2017 event was sad enough, the 2023 event reveals that Rokka Fujimaru, the female protagonist who's way nicer than Riyo Gudako, is actually an Alternate Self where she lost the Cosmos in the Lostbelt campaign; losing all of her Servants, Chaldea and her version of Proper Human History, now wandering across space and time for all eternity. Judging by her lack of Command Seals, it's heavily implied that Rokka lost in Nahui Mictlān, never getting her Master Rights back from Tezcatlipoca.
  • To make things worse, the event ending makes fun of her for wanting to be a protagonist of similar standing to the Male protagonist/Ritsuka Fujimaru, forever doomed to not being taken seriously.
  • As someone pointed out, the 立 in Ritsuka's name (立香) means "upright"; take away the base and you get the 六 in Rokka's name (六香), symbolizing Rokka's fate of being a homeless wanderer after having her home timeline pruned.
• Sodom's Beast/Draco's situation in the Arcade Collab event is a double-dose of sadness for Nero fans:
  • The reason why Draco created the Seven Imitation Singularities and is gathering the Demonic Beast Incarnadines is because she has a death wish. She doesn't want to die like she did as Nero, left alone in the wasteland with no one to comfort or console her, so she summoned every Servant and Shadow Servant she could at least hope for the chance for someone to kill her. In her eyes, even dying in the presence of her killer is preferable to Dying Alone.
  • Grand Order has often danced around Nero's darker side, to the point that anyone using the game as an entry point to the franchise will see her as a Genki Girl. Players of Fate/EXTRA, meanwhile, will know it's actually the opposite. Using Draco as a medium, this event directly tackles the fact that Nero was a horribly twisted and tormented person in life, having a secretly abusive mother who used her as nothing but a tool and exiting the relationship with a warped understanding of love. Other than Locusta, no one in her empire understood her, simply viewing her as "that crazy emperor who killed her own mother" when the truth was far more complex and tragic, and a good portion of Draco's existence is owed to the "What If" scenario of Nero choosing to become the monster they believed she was.
• The plot of the Mahoyo Collab event was caused by Kinomi being tricked into making a wish on #1 Lucky Star, a corrupted wish granting Ploy that grants your wish under the conditions that it's "number one and only one of its kind." Kinomi, before coming to inherit the Kumano Inn, had met Mizushima Masago, a minor idol who wasn't popular, but had appealed to him personally, especially after a chance encounter where they seemed to have hit it off. However, Masago had chronic kidney failure, which ended up killing her before her career could really take off. On a whim, Kinomi wished on #1 Lucky Star that Masago would become the number one idol, thinking that it wouldn't be granted. However, it turns out that it can be granted since in addition to being the wish dearest to Kinomi's heart, it turns out that he's the only person in the world who had that wish. The entire world forgot about this one minor idol in spite of all her efforts except for Kinomi. The heroes decide it would be too cruel to try to make Kinomi give up on that wish to defeat #1 Lucky Star and come up with something else.

Other

• The companion Manga From Lostbelt gave us the Ironically named “Innocence.” It’s a story about Gerda, and her friend Karen. For sixteen pages, we get to watch Karen sobbing in silent terror about being sent out tomorrow to “go to Valhalla” when in reality she’s going to be devoured by the giants. And innocent Gerda just cannot understand why Karen’s so terrified… At the end, Gerda’s still clueless about why, even as we see a giant holding poor Karen’s body up for it to devour.
• And then we got the Lostbelt Six Stories.
  • In Morgan’s story, we see the girl was already hearing voices even before her descent into villainy. It’s left somewhat unclear if these are just manifestations of Morgan’s trauma or Oberon taunting her telepathically. We see her screaming in horror as most of her friends are killed by poison right in front of her, we see her resolving to use tyranny if it alone will result in peace, and we can see her eyes have gone dim from all the pain she’s endured. Then, when her reign is at its peak, when it finally seems like she has a chance, she sees her daughter mutilated right in front of her and is then brutally killed herself…
  • In Artoria Caster’s story, the damage is more indirect. We see Castoria having a dream of Saber Artoria pulling Caliburn from the stone. Artoria Caster is warning her she shouldn’t do it, and can’t comprehend how Saber Artoria could CHOOSE such an empty life for herself. A bit later, Oberon asks to see Artoria’s foot, and we see as stated in the game that Artoria has lost some of her toes because of frostbite. Oberon is instead focusing on the blisters she developed from wearing her new shoes too long. Artoria mentally notes that whenever she used to be given new things, the other Fae in Tintagel would always snatch them, so she’s keeping her new things within arm’s reach.
  • In Baobhan Sith’s story, we get to see how the once innocent faerie became so cruel and sadistic. She really just wanted her mother’s affection, but because Morgan herself is so busy, and closes off after years of her own suffering, she can’t provide it. Not helping is Beryl enabling the worst of Baobhan Sith’s sadism, right up to Baobhan Sith using The Garden of Lost Will, becoming too weak to keep Spriggan from capturing her and tearing off her limbs. Baobhan Sith is forced to watch as her mother is murdered, then tossed into the Great Pit for her troubles.
  • In Barghest’s story, we see her suffering from nightmares of devouring Adonis, her latest partner whom she loves dearly. Throughout this story, it’s made clear Adonis is pretty much the only source of comfort in Barghest’s lonely life. Then at the end, we see Adonis has been dead for some time, Barghest merely believing he was still alive. The poor woman can only wail that she keeps destroying the ones she loves most…
  • In Melusine’s story, we see her absolute devotion to Aurora. Trouble is, Melusine KNOWS how Aurora holds her in contempt. She KNOWS her love and dedication will NEVER be reciprocated. She knows, but she keeps giving it both because abandoning Aurora means returning to her true nature as a Calamity and because she can’t bear to just leave. Poor Melusine is doomed from the start, losing her mother, her brother and her world…

---