Tear Jerker / Safehold

• King Haarahld's final moments, as well as the Wylsynns' and Nahrmann's.
• Merlin reading the letter written by Saint Zherneau, detailing how they knew of Nimue's sacrifice.
• Midshipman Lainsair Svairsmahn's Mercy Kill by Gwylym Manthyr's hands, especially with the impassioned plea for Svairsmahn not to blame himself for breaking under torture that precedes it.
• Haarahld's conversation with the traitorous Duke Tirian's widow and sons after the Duke is killed for his treachery.
• The Siddermarkian Civil War is full of them.
  • A future general in La Résistance comes back from a hunting trip to find his three children (the oldest is six), wife (who was raped first while begging for her killers to spare her children), mother, village priest (who was burned alive with several members of his congregation) and hundreds of his neighbors slaughtered by an old family enemy loyal to the Temple Lands. And somehow, even their unrepentant killers inspire some pity as they lament about how their own children are dying of hunger and cold during the brutal winter where neither side's civilians have adequate supplies. And that's not even going into what happens at the concentration camps.
  • The entire fate of post-war Sidmark, especially as Temple Loyalists who tried to stay neutral and left Sidmark during the war become hated pariahs when they return. One family is forced to head back to the Temple Lands, but before they can leave, their youngest son, a kindly bookworm, is attacked by a former friend and neighbor whose entire family was killed by the Army of God. He freely admits that the boy (who was seven during the war) has no personal responsibly for what happened, but still relishes destroying the kid's books, blinding him, and breaking his legs. The parents blame themselves for not moving earlier. Their older son kills his bother's attacker, but then tries to abandon the Cycle of Revenge after hearing a sermon by a priest urging reconciliation. Then his maimed brother is Driven to Suicide, and just as the older boy gets the news, the current Sidmarkian head-of-state (who many people blame for failed reforms while not realizing those reforms are on the verge of improving) happens to ride by. The "heartbroken older brother" lets out his anger by shooting the president, triggering riots and stagnation. The older boy's subsequent fate and his parents' reaction are unrevealed, but probably aren't pretty. David Weber can make Joss Whedon look like a children's book author when it comes to depressing scenarios.
  • One family, which lost several members during the war but came out largely intact and free of vengeful feelings, has three more members die in a traffic accident caused by a former Temple Loyalist. This makes the patriarch of the family see red after this latest loss and attack the man, leading to violent and widespread riots.
  • Even without the Cycle of Revenge, post-war Sidmark is a Crapsack World as Corrupt Corporate Executives ruin any chance of fast economic revival and a sleazy Rabble Rouser eventually takes command of the democracy and threatens to drag it down with him.
• One of Ahnzhelyk's agents is being tortured in an Inquisition facility in Zion (an Expy of Lefortovo Prison) and there's no way to rescue her or the other people (the vast majority innocent) being held there, and there seems to be no way to even spare them more pain without revealing "supernatural power". Nahrmahn comes up with the plan to use a nanotech attack to allow the prisoners to peacefully and painlessly die mysteriously, with the added benefit of causing all the Inquisition staff to drop dead. The attack is told from the POV of the agent as she realizes she's finally going to be released from the endless pain she's suffering.
• Members of a Zion family are arrested one-by-one after a woman joins an attempted protest. She is sentenced to Schueler's Punishment, and her father is arrested and presumably executed when he seeks answers about her disappearance. He tells his niece (who he raised) to stay out of this because he doesn’t want to lose both of his daughters, but she is arrested anyway and ends up being tortured to death in a graphic manner.
• Early in Through Firey Trials there's a scene in which Merlin, Cayleb, and Sharleyan attempt to bring the Duke of Eastshare into the Inner Circle, and it represents the first time on-page such an attempt fails utterly. Sharleyan and the person they're trying to convince are crying openly, even as the latter insists that they will not be swayed by Shan-wei's lies, the only give being an acknowledgement that the Inner Circle, and even Merlin himself, may be Unwitting Pawns of Shan-wei. They do this knowing full well that it means their death because He Knows Too Much. The whole thing is alleviated only by the fact that The Inner Circle no longer has to kill anyone in this scenario. Merlin puts them into cryo-sleep but, even after all that, they ask that Merlin gives Sharley their love.