Despite being a television program for younger audiences, the show is chock full of sad moments.
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General
- Eli's past. Trixie mentions that he has never talked about it, which is saying a lot because after the incident in the episode A Distant Shore, Eli promised to tell his friends everything because they were his family, but he didn't tell them about his life on the surface. Eli explains that his life, it did start very well and he was happy. Everything changed when he turned 10 years old, his father he looked up to so much suddenly vanished and even to this day, Eli is always pained with missing him. However, it isn't just this. So soon after his father's disappearance, his mother left him and he has never, ever seen her again; and he likely will never will with his new life in Slugterra. Eli shows signs of having abandonment issues, easily trusting others like Twist and Tad, and treating them like his family.
- Eli's revelation of his past in Into the Shadows makes Twist's words to him in Season 1 hurt him much harder than it did before. Twist tells Eli that a Shane wouldn't know about family, but Eli's father vanished and his mother left him. There is no way Eli wouldn't know about family, he lost his too early in his life.
- Seeing any poor slug literally quivering and whimpering with fear as they get ghouled will always be a sad sight to behold.
Season 1, 2, & 3
- Burpy coming home to tell a little Eli about his father's demise. Eli was only 10 years old and suddenly he is burdened with the fate of being the Shane for Slugterra and his father's disappearance.
- Although Twist might not be a good person, it doesn't make his past less sad. His perished when Will Shane pursued him and his father when they were doing something illegal with the slugs. Although it wasn't really Will Shane's fault that Twist's father drove off the edge of the cliff, it didn't change the fact that he had lost his parent. It still burdens him to this day, considering he wants to take revenge on Eli.
Season 4 & 5
- Mixed with a bit of Nightmare Fuel, it was a bit saddening to see Eli fall under the Goon Doc's control and attacking his own friends. Eli's fruitless struggle to escape control was even more saddening to watch.
- Seeing Eli watch his father that he had just reunited with fall into a dark portal is heartbreaking to watch. If his friends didn't hold him back, he would have jumped in right after his father, desperate to try to save him. If you look into Eli's eyes, you can see that he's about to cry.
- The very fact that Junjie had been under the Goon Doc's control for ''twenty years''.
- Junjie finding out that the Daifu was his master was a real heartbreaker.
Season 6
- When Eli starts revealing a bit of his life on the surface, he mentions that his mother had left him when he was ten years old and he never saw her again. This is pretty sad to hear, but it gets even worse when you realize Will Shane had also disappeared when he was ten years old. That meant that in the same year, when he was only just a child, Eli lost both his parents. No wonder he doesn't want to talk about it.
