Tear Jerker / Hunger Games Simulation

As this is a Moment page, there will be unmarked spoilers for each tribute's respective source materials.

Original Generation

• In Season 9, Korra, who spends her nights continually beset by nightmares. Yet she manages to narrowly escape the wrath of other particularly murderous tributes such as Raoul Duke, Alex, and Chloe Price, even doing some good on the side by tending to Shadow Rise's wounds. She met an abrupt end at the hands of Roman Torchwick, who backstabs her with a trident.
• Poor Fluttershy in Season 11. True to her canonical self, she spends most of the season hiding from focus, not killing anyone. Then she develops a close bond with Nappa as they form a loyal alliance. While Fluttershy does manage to kill Kars of all people along with Jason Brody, she feels so guilty for having killed someone that she claims her own life. Her saga ends on a heartwarming note, however, as she places third and Nappa wins the game for her.
• The saga of Toothless in Season 12, who survived seven days and six nights while bonding with his adopter The Engineer during the whole ordeal. America even made a Heroic Sacrifice so Toothless could survive a wave of toxic haze that had seeped into the arena...until his life was cut short by Dyudyuka of Barbidoc with an arrow to the head.
  • This gets worse in Season 22, where he immediately gets drowned by Dorothy and Chaos Sorcerer during the bloodbath.
• The romance of Corrin!Revaryk and Mettaton in Season 84. The two of them kiss, and then watch fireworks together - however, Mettaton sadly dies of an infection (somehow) during the Feast, causing Corrin!Revaryk to burst into tears. After seeking comfort from Suzuya, she ultimately meets her end after she is crucified by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• The story of Potted Plant in Season 142, including being deemed worthy to pick up the sword in the stone, and then it got killed not only as a Heroic Sacrifice, but it died at the hands of its friend Matt Dibenedetto.
• The death of Sans in Season 169, where he was killed by his brother Papyrus during the bloodbath. What makes it worse is that the latter didn't show any remorse for it.
• Ichabod's death in Season 177, having been immediately killed in the bloodbath by a Harvest Moon spirit.
• In Season 179, Azmuth sends Stitch to Hell to punish him for his "crimes." Stitch had done nothing to deserve this fate either, and this is how he ends up eliminated. It certainly doesn't help that Stitch was among the three tributes who helped him kill the peep bunny, too. This also helped further cement Azmuth as one of the most despised tributes of the Season.
• The abuse Panther Cap inflicted upon Kazuichi Souda all throughout Season 179 is incredibly sad, especially when you bear in mind that Kazuichi canonically has trust issues as a result of a betrayal he experienced in middle school. Add the fact that Panther Cap’s abuse of him included forcing him to kill other tributes, before killing him himself at the very end, and you have the possible interpretation that he used Kazuichi’s status as the "token tol" of the season for his own selfish goals.
  • Things only get worse for Kazuichi in Season 196. As soon as the season begins, he finds himself smitten with Donkey Kong, whom he was making out within the woods. The two of them were so engrossed in their activity and so intent on staying together that they killed Yotsuyu when she tried to break them up. Sadly, on Day 3, Donkey Kong is killed and dismembered by Homsar. From there, Kazuichi enters a state of depression and takes it out on Marlin and Nemo, almost killing them. After the two clownfish forgive and befriend him, things seem to be getting better for him... but then he falls to his death while skydiving, having neglected to attach a parachute. While it's entirely possible that his death was a terrible accident, given everything he's been through, it could just as easily be something else...
  • And things certainly don’t improve for him much in Season 201, the Valentine’s Day season, where he was nominated alongside Fuyuhiko. He is depressed after Fuyuhiko, who is canonically his classmate and friend dies. However, things look up for him when Maribel Hearn asks him out, and he says yes. After Maribel’s inevitable death, Kazuichi finally earns a Bittersweet Ending as he gets into the Salty Spittoon, which is bombed by Flora and Tecna while he and The Sufferer are inside. Kazuichi died knowing that he was strong enough to get into the Salty Spittoon, and in both canon and Psyche’s fanfic, the latter especially, his primary desire is to be seen as strong.
• In Season 183, the abrupt end to the Tomura Shigaraki/Emperor Zurg romance really struck a chord with the participants. They appeared to be the Season's One True Pairing, having a child together and playing strip poker not long after. Their relationship came to an end when Zurg was eaten by a swarm of Mongolian death worms. At first, Tomura seemed unbothered, telling other tributes to do the flop with him, telling ghost stories with other tributes, and writing his will in case he ended up dying. However, come Night Six, he is seen yelling about how life is a pain. It seems that his cheer was only a mask. Not only that, but come Night Seven, Marluxia is implied to have picked Tomura up On the Rebound when they're shown enjoying a hot spring together, but then Marluxia ends up murdered by Regula van Hydrus the very next day. Seriously, poor Tomura. Though, on a more lighthearted note, he does end up winning the season.
• In Season 188, Mikan Tsumiki is one of four tributes to be killed and mutated into a Frankenstein monster by Nelson Muntz, who was a customer of her shop merely a day prior. This death ends up being Harsher in Hindsight once you realize that Mikan is constantly bullied in her source material and that Nelson is a notorious bully himself. Thankfully, Nelson gets his comeuppance not too long after.
• In Season 201, Looma Red Wind confuses Square Enix for her father and kills him. This is really odd, considering that Looma is a major Daddy's Girl in-canon. That is until you realize... Looma's father, Gar Red Wind, died in Season 154, the 1st Father's Day Special. With this in mind, she likely killed Square Enix out of sadness, grief, and the impossibility of him actually being her father.
• KLS 2097 nominated Team Rocket members Jessie and James in Season 208. Initially starting off well, things took a dark turn when Jessie was killed off by Kitaeri. After learning this, James infamously cursed KLS the following night for nominating both him and Jessie, before killing himself in a suicide machine the following day.
  Star Android Jaguar: It was only so long that he could hold on for without her.
• The tragic tale of Julio in Season 211 is one heck of a doozy. After his girlfriend Romiette dies, he tries to ask Tokido out, only to be rejected. Shortly after that, a Strider dreams about robbing a bank and holding him hostage, along with a few other tributes. Not able to go through with that, the same strider settles for beating him up the next day. Eventually, he seems to find love in the form of Darth Maul. They even do it together... Only for Maul to kill him THE VERY NEXT DAY. All of this is made even worse by the fact that Julio never even killed anyone.
• In Season 237, when fellow band member Chris Lowe died after taking the ice bucket challenge, Neil Tennant decided to relive his fellow singer's memories the following night. KLS summed it up in the comment regarding the event:
  KLS 2097: Suddenly, "Always On My Mind" is now a thing I'll never hear the same way again, given that it gone down a deeper path in this game.
• The fates of Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu and Peko Pekoyama in Season 238, especially to those who are familiar with their source material. Despite being nominated as separate tributes, they were struck down by a single bullet courtesy of Alec Trevelyan, who sought to kill Fuyuhiko because of all of the boosts and powerups he’d received that season. Because Peko is canonically his bodyguard, it’s highly likely that her involvement amounted to a Senseless Sacrifice as she attempted to protect Fuyuhiko. This is one of the most tragic and in-character deaths Peko could ever have in the simulator, especially since her worst fear has come true - she failed to protect Fuyuhiko.

Reboot

• In Season 12, Maud Pie lost hope for her friend Starlight Glimmer after the latter went on a murderous streak. Upon getting a vision of Starlight dying, Maud decided not to do anything about it, causing Starlight to die as foreseen. President Snow, who previously saw Starlight worthy of his respect and gave her a gun when she bribed him for one, felt that that went too far for his tastes, so he fed Maud to a pack of wolves when she also tried bribing him for a gun, only for him to be killed by Sergeant Johnson in a Cycle of Revenge.
• Poor, poor Jamie in Season 17. Not only did he not kill anyone and was a Nice Guy like in canon, simply delivering letters, he also helped Clownpiece recover from being tortured with a whip by giving her a blessing that restored her health, all while getting constantly humiliated and beaten up by the other tributes, including Father Gascoigne. Even then, the worst thing he did was forcing Gascoigne to spill the beans with truth serum, rather than trying to kill him, and he ended up dying at the hands of King Koil, who turned him into crystal and shattered him.
• The tragic deaths of WALL-E and EVE in Season 20. After Liberty Prime revealed to EVE that he was her "brother"^note or alternatively, both of them were manufactured by the same company, he destroyed her boyfriend WALL-E's hearing system, knowing that she would rush in to repair him. Even Cruise Chaser joined in on the plan, as after making out with EVE, he realized that she was cheating on WALL-E, so he decided to let her go with him and teamed up with Prime and Mecha'tun to kill them both.
• In Season 21, Marshmallow warned the Snowgies, his "siblings", that Luther Krank was out to kill them. However, this was all for nought when Luther ordered Infinity Gauntlet!Santa to kill either them or Elf Gordon Ramsay, only for him to disintegrate them all. It's implied that Marshmallow felt that he could've done more to protect them since he played "Despacito" shortly before their deaths.
  • The following night, his "brother" Olaf died of natural causes and was given a viking funeral by Santa, the very same one who killed the Snowgies, presumably just to mock him. Marshmallow was so distraught with losing his family that he asked a festive Grim Reaper to hang him on a noose and frame it like a suicide.
• Tuxedo Meta Knight's journey in Season 46. He was nominated alongside Lucina, but the latter died in the Bloodbath, driving Meta Knight mad with grief. At first, he appeared to be unaffected, but on Day 3, he decided to drown his sorrows. This was followed by him suffering from Sanity Slippage, getting into an intense political debate with Shang Tsung, murdering Mettaton NEO for presumably comparing HK-47 to Lucina negatively, killing Jo on Mr. Krabs' orders, getting his face burned into a grill and being paralyzed by the Zombie slashing him with a sword and licking the blade. Despite all of this, he was still considered worthy of wielding the Keyblade, and even went as far as to forgive Vengeful Bale, his nominator, for nominating him and Lucina, despite her death. His streak ended when he attempted to demoralize BTS by reminding them of their actions in the OG, only for them to call him out on his actions, likely making him feel guilt about his misdeeds in the season, which led to him getting killed by them.
• Despite being quite an asshole throughout Season 51, it's hard not to feel bad for Jung Hoseok, AKA J-Hope. He begins the season on a heartwarming note when, on Day 1, he thanks ARMYs for their support... but it only goes downhill from there. After suffering torture at the paws of Psycho Panda, J-Hope gets arrested for accidentally using a copyrighted song in a video. Upon breaking out of prison, he goes on to constantly antagonise other tributes for not liking BTS, even going as far as to kill Takayuki Yagami over it, only for Akuma to revive him. The other tributes, tired of J-Hope's behaviour, severely bully him to the point of breaking his leg and permanently blinding him. This, along with the murder of his bandmate and friend, Min Yoongi AKA Suga, forces him to come to terms with his actions, and he feels guilty and depressed to the point where the Tragic Clown comes to pay everyone a visit. He gets better after the rest of BTS plus their fanbase send him a birthday cake to cheer him up, despite it not being his birthday. He even presses F to pay respects to Nyusha...only to die in the Arena Event immediately afterwards, courtesy of Boba Fett.
• The "V Incident" of Season 60 is best-known for its sheer Nightmare Fuel, but there's an undercurrent of sadness to it too, especially in regards to Jimin's reaction to the event. Imagine your best friend being subjected to a terrible fate that traps them in an infinite death loop of hundreds of cruel, gruesome and horrifying deaths.
  • Worse still, Lord Voldemort had exploited Jimin's grief to allure him into becoming a Death Eater. His plan had Gone Horribly Right, as by the end of the season, Jimin was a ruthless, powerful killing machine who'd even killed Voldemort himself. It doesn't help that in real life, Jimin is probably the kindest man you'll ever meet, and this was exactly what he was like in the season until the V Incident. Voldemort had taken a kind-hearted boy who was wracked with grief for his best friend and turned him into a monster.

Convergence

• The ordeals that BTS members go through every time they are nominated. The biggest examples, however, are J-Hope (see the Reboot folder above,) Jin, who saw what happened to him in a pre-Season 58 gag save^note the entirety of Australia and it's citizens had somehow taken pieces of his flesh out of him and eaten them and was severely traumatized as a result, and V, who was subjected to an infinite death loop of every ("family friendly") death event in HGS by Miko Mitama. For the latter, the reaction and Sanity Slippage of fellow member Jimin didn't help either.
• 6k1 goes through a lot due to Timewrecker, with the latter constantly trying to kill her and attempting to break her spirit by blowing up Ally; even going as far as trying to drag her out of Ichi's bunker into fighting him. Sure, she eventually recovers and Timewrecker is defeated for good, but she still went through a lot of suffering due to him.