Warning: Spoilers Off applies to these pages. Please proceed at your own risk.
- The manga version has a sidestory featuring Zelos' past and present. We knew what was going to happen but it was still hard to watch Zelos lose his mother.
- According to the manga, Zelos left the crystal with Seles as a reminder that they will always be siblings
- The entire chapter is one long tearjerker; the chapter opens with the funeral of Zelos' father after he killed himself, and it just gets worse from there. It primarily demonstrates that the distance between the two siblings was caused by the fact that they both believe that they took away the most important people in the other's life and that the other hates them for what happened. It emphasises that in the game itself, Zelos' goal was to die in order to apparently improve Seles' life and allow her to become the Chosen instead. One of the emotional climaxes of the chapter is when he outright tells her this to her face, and she slaps him and cries.
Seles: When did I ever say that I wanted to be Chosen?!- This moves to heartwarming territory when Zelos and Seles reconcile and he asks Seles to live with him, at Lloyd's urging.
- Zelos's death scene. Followed by the rematch in the colosseum against Seles, who really cared for her half brother and is wanting to avenge him. Made even WORSE if you learn Zelos's backstory where his mother died cursing his existence, and essentially that the reason he joined Cruxis in the first place was because he genuinely believed he was nothing but an obstacle everyone wanted to get rid of. The horrible realization comes about that if Zelos dies, he does so without ever once in his entire life feeling like he had any real value.
- Made even worse by the fact that despite the betrayal being sincere in that path, the fact that he still helps you as he's dying gives the impression that he'd already chosen Lloyd's group in his heart, but having his allegiance questioned pushes him over the edge and makes him decide to commit Suicide by Cop.
- And it's entirely possible to get this result when Zelos's Relationship Values are in the top three, which isn't an easy feat to begin with. In other words, it's entirely possible for Lloyd to bond with Zelos, only to brush him off right when he need to talk to Lloyd the most, then question his allegiance to his face. Add that to his already-mentioned issues above, which are only hinted at in a normal play through, and you've got a rather depressing situation.
- Made even worse by the fact that despite the betrayal being sincere in that path, the fact that he still helps you as he's dying gives the impression that he'd already chosen Lloyd's group in his heart, but having his allegiance questioned pushes him over the edge and makes him decide to commit Suicide by Cop.
- Colette's backstory as a whole can count as this. Ever since she was born, people celebrated her because she was their Sacrificial Lamb. Her birthdays consisted of her being stuck in the Church and being forced to memorize and recite scripture. Until Lloyd gives her a necklace he made, she never had a birthday present.
- According to the supplementary material, the previous Chosen was her great aunt Aithra, who had gone insane and had to be dragged to the final seal, where she was cut down by Cruxis and seen as a failed Chosen. Colette goes on her journey despite knowing that the same fate could apply to her as well.
- During the first third of the game, the cutscenes after every boss battle, when it becomes increasingly obvious just how much Colette is suffering for her quest, all start to add up, culminating in her losing her soul. The tearjerker factor of what happens to Colette also has later effects: when you have her in your fighting party and she doesn't speak - no start-of-battle quote, no incantations during her spells, nothing. It's incredibly jarring, and makes the emotional response even stronger because you don't realize all at once what's wrong.
- The scenes in the game covering Colette's loss of her senses were already heartbreaking but the OVA manages to twist the knife even further by giving Colette a song that she sings to Lloyd that helps ease his mind. When he realizes she's lost her voice, he breaks down sobbing that he didn't pay enough attention to her suffering, while she apologizes to him that she can no longer sing.
- The details about the trial and error of Chosens, and the fact that Zelos, whose own experiences as chosen either are heavily downplayed if not brought up at all compared to Colette's, could also be suffering the same symptoms she suffered (as her symptoms were from her Cruxis Crystal, not the "trials" she endured) albeit unnoticed by the party. And you'll only ever see a hint he may have experienced these symptoms through the fact he has wings just like her, which he only exposes in the ending where you kill him, or in the sequel.
- Raine's backstory, and especially the scene where she confronts her mother. Seeing the usually cool, rational, level-headed Raine break down in front of the brother she raised, who can do nothing but realise what Promotion to Parent meant to her... Yeah. Also, the fact that on some subconscious level, Virginia seems partially aware of Raine's distress, only in her insanity, she begins to comfort the doll that she thinks is Raine.
- Sheena during Corrine's death, especially considering that Corrine, up until she met Lloyd and co, was Sheena's only friend and the only one who believed in her wholeheartedly. So when the little guy jumps in and makes a Heroic Sacrifice for her, it's so sad, especially as Sheena begs him not to die and then promptly beats the absolute CRAP out of Volt. The crack in her voice is amazing. And then there's the way Kuchinawa treats her afterwards...
- When Martel is revived and rejects what Mithos has done in her name. He may look like a kid, but he's got 4000 years of working towards his goal... only to have it fall apart around him.
- Not to mention the times his apparition appeared after each rescue of your party in Welgaia, and how twisted his views had become after thousands of years without his sister, being discriminated against, being betrayed by the only people he trusted, and how young he might have been at the start of his madness.
Mithos: [at weakness of the heart scene] Is it a sin to be weak-hearted? Not everyone's strong. Not everyone can stand being despised.Mithos: [at the past scene] That is merely logic. People are not moved by logic. If the one you love is killed, you hate the murderer... - The whole story of Mithos and Genis. Not only do both share a striking number of similarities and experiences, their friendship often blurs the line between villainous manipulation and Ho Yay best friendship, with Mithos' actual feelings for Genis never really being clarified. It gets worse with an obscure hidden scene where Lloyd gets to see Mithos and Genis' friendship for himself and just how close they are, including a promise Genis makes to stick by Mithos, which just makes The Reveal even more painful. A skit after, where Genis breaks down in tears from it, can become a real tearjerker as a result. And should you have taken Genis as partner for the endgame, you get to see just how much the betrayal has hurt him.
- In fact, Mithos is highly surprised when Genis propose him to be friends in the z-skit "Let's Be Friends".
Genis: Mithos, you lived by yourself, right?Mithos: That's right.Genis: Where are your mother and father?Mithos: ...They're both dead.Genis: Just like mine...Mithos: Really? We're kind of alike, aren't we?Genis: Yeah, we are. I think we can be good friends.Mithos: ...Friends? Really?Genis: Yeah. Let's be friends, okay?Mithos: ...Thanks!- When Mithos is stalking the party and appears on the scene with the stolen rhiard summoning Aska to save them from the Rodyle's water-type Human Ranch, Genis is impressed and Mithos seems concerned about how grateful he is. The z-skit is "Don't Betray Me".
Genis: Mithos! Thank you! I thought it was all over when I played that flute, but you came for us!Mithos: Oh, it was nothing. I didn't really do very much.Genis: But you don't have an Exsphere. And you still put your own life in danger to come for us. Thank you so much!Mithos: ... Genis.Genis: If you ever need help, I promise I'll go to help you.Mithos: Thank you... I'll be counting on you.Genis: Yeah. I promise!Mithos: Please don't betray me, Genis.- We can go on into tears with The Reveal showing up and Genis having a conversation about that with Raine in the z-skit "He Was My Friend".
Genis: ...Mithos... really was Yggdrasill.Raine: Genis, you knew it, didn't you? Why didn't you say anything?Genis: ... Because I didn't want to believe it. ...He was my friend...He was so nice....Raine: ... Genis. Don't let him trouble you. Don't let him lead you astray. Do you understand?Genis: ... I know. I know, but... The tears just won't stop....- When Lloyd is possesed by Mithos and Genis is the one who has the most supported relationship with Lloyd, in the z-skit "Welcome back, Genis" he save him and tell that we would want to save Mithos.
Genis: Lloyd. Let's stop him.Lloyd: ... Not "Let's destroy him."?Genis: I'm sorry. But I keep thinking, if only Mithos would stop what he's doing and apologize to those who've been suffering like Marble. An apology is enough for what he's done, but if he really did feel that way... I'd want to save him.- The z-skit "Mithos' Abandonment and Sadness" is full of sad feelings from Genis to Mithos.
Lloyd: ... I won't feel sorry for him. I don't want to feel sorry for him. I can never forgive him for the things he's done. ... But somewhere in my heart, I keep thinking, if he could just repent...Genis: Lloyd, you mustn't think like that. You'll lose to him. Mithos is our enemy. ... We must... destroy our enemies. That's all there is to it.Lloyd: [sadly] Genis...Genis: [sadly] It's okay.... Feeling sorry for Mithos is my job.Lloyd: ... Okay. - If you've realized that Genis and Raine will greatly outlive the rest of their True Companions, and have chosen Genis for the late-game talks, a seemingly innocent talk about how Genis intends to stay with Lloyd "As long as you're alive" becomes startlingly tragic.
- Botta's sacrifice at the end of the Remote Island Human Ranch. He's a Mauve Shirt who has every reason to dislike the heroes' party, since they've been working at cross purposes for most of the game and are now more or less stuck in an Enemy Mine situation, but his devotion to his duty (and possibly his leader) supersedes anything else he might feel, even to the point of giving his life so that they can escape and carry the message of what happened.
- Genis and Marble, a woman imprisoned at the Desian Human Ranch, are very close friends. Genis takes her food and checks up on her. Lloyd notices she has an Exsphere without a crest and mount, and offers to make one for her. Marble becomes a monster before Lloyd can give it to her, forcing Lloyd and Genis to kill her when she attacks them. The Desians find out they broke the treaty and attack Lloyd and Genis' hometown, after which the two are exiled despite being children. They don't get a break. Genis is obviously traumatized. Despite his intellect he's still just a child.
- A tragic bit of world-building is a skit where Lloyd claims that he already knew that Genis had a friend that he was giving food to, because he'd seen Genis hide away parts of his lunch each day for a while. While it's a silly moment in the end - Lloyd seems to think that Genis has a secret dog that he's been feeding - Lloyd still has a line about how good it is for Genis to give up some of the little amounts of food they have; the overuse of mana by the Desians has caused Sylverant to fall into drought and famine, and decent/plentiful food is hard to come by.
- Regal killed the woman he loved on HER request, closed himself in a life of prison, and then had to travel with the sister of the same woman he killed. Not to mention this same sister is being used in the same experiment that caused him to kill her. Not to mention a 33 year old, not to mention the most mature character in the game, cry.Regal: I... I can't! I could never kill you with my own hands...
- Yuan's sidequest of returning his lost ring to him that you receive early on when he attempts to assassinate Kratos. You find out that the ring is not only his wedding ring, but that his Lost Lenore was Martel, Mithos' sister. When you finally realize that you've had the ring that he's wanted all along, Yuan gets down on his knees and begs for you to return it, showing that he's desperate to get it back. While Yuan may be a huge jerk for most of the game, this sidequest shows a softer and more complicated side to his character, especially when you consider that Yuan's mission is to prevent Martel's resurrection by Cruxis. He understood his wife well enough to know that doing that would be a disaster and against her wishes and foregoes the chance to see her again.
- Kratos has one of the saddest stories out of all the characters.
- After a brief happy life together, Kratos killed his wife in an attempt to protect their infant son when she transformed into a monster. The attempt fails however, and his son falls off a cliff to his death, or so Kratos thought, until he happened upon said son years later. Not only is he burdened with the knowledge that the only woman he's ever loved died by his hands, he finds out that had he simply looked hard enough he would not have lost his only child. It's no wonder he's a Death Seeker.
- He keeps their relation to himself for his own reasons, but Yuan spills his secret, and Lloyd goes into denial and rejects him. This doesn't stop Kratos from heroically protecting him.
- Kratos needs to die to release Origin's seal, and he's picked Lloyd out for this task. Lloyd spares him, so Kratos suicidally releases Origin's seal, but Kratos doesn't get his wish to die granted. Yuan saves him.
- Now at this point it sounds like it's going to end happily, but instead it actually gets worse for Kratos: Kratos leaves for Derris-Kharlan, and we find out in the sequel that he is never coming back, ever. The comet drifted so far all contact between it and the world of Aselia was severed, ending Kratos' only connection to his son and his last living friend from over 4000 years ago. Lloyd doesn't even get one last goodbye. He has no idea he will never see his father again.
- Kratos also chose this ending for himself. He really believes he doesn't deserve anything good or happy at all...
- In his first battle as an enemy, he's about to strike down Lloyd, but can't bring himself to do it.
- The supplementary materials make Kratos' story far worse. He used to be a high-ranking knight in Tethe'alla with the princess in love with him and he lost it all because he was the only one who would listen to Mithos and Martel. Losing Anna and Lloyd caused Kratos to cross the Despair Event Horizon and he gave up his plan to kill Mithos while he was on the run and went back to Cruxis since that was the only life he knew. Then the supplementary materials reveal that he spent his entire time in the party pondering whether he should follow Mithos' plan or rebel with Lloyd. And once he chose his path, he spent so much time trying to help his son and convincing Mithos to spare him.
- There's also a handful of moments where Kratos seems like he's debating on whether or not to tell Lloyd the truth about him. He seems like he's going to say something, only to scold Lloyd instead, which he knows makes him angry.
- Zelos's introduction after Colette becomes a doll. It was bad enough that she actually kicked a DOG (those animals she would ALWAYS name when she came across one), but then here comes Casanova and his fangirls. The girls insult this poor girl who just had her heart taken away, can't talk, can't sleep, can't feel. She doesn't even remember the three people she's known for like, EVER. Scratch that, the entire time Colette is in vessel mode is just heartbreaking.
- Returning to Sylvarant after the Great Tree destroys Palmacosta. Many people lose faith in the Church of Martel and start insulting Colette to her face, saying that it was her fault that so many people died and that she was a failed Chosen.
- Mithos/Yggdrasil's death at the end of the game. He begins fading and then just solemnly says he's tired of playing the party's game of good and evil and begs them to destroy his Cruxis Crystal, then says goodbye to Lloyd. After destroying the Cruxis Crystal, Lloyd quietly says to himself afterwards that there was no reason Mithos couldn't have lived peacefully in the new world with them.Mithos: Farewell my shadow...you who stand at the end of the path I chose not to follow.
- We can see this tiredness at the time Mithos is in the party, he has very hard z-skit "Old Friend of Noishe" where he confesses to Noishe that he is tired of living and really doesn't know if what he is doing is right.
Mithos: ... To tell the truth, Noishe. I'm tired. I'm tired of living.Noishe: *Whine*Mithos: That's not something people should say? But you know...I think what I'm doing may be wrong. And now that I've started to think that, I can't help but feel there's no meaning to life.Noishe: WaooooMithos: Yes. Genis and Raine and Lloyd... They're all good people. I like them. I'm happy they made me their friend. But...Noishe: *Whine*Mithos: ... I'm sorry. Forget what I said just now. It wasn't like me. - "The Darkness in Mithos" is also a z-skit where Kratos talks with the party brevely about Mithos' darkness itself, inquiring how he transform into a Fallen Hero.Kratos: The Derris Emblem is Mithos' darkness itself.Lloyd: Mithos' darkness?Kratos: He was oppressed as a half-elf, then praised as a hero, then betrayed. It is his hatred and resentment toward that.
- At the "Mithos' Crime and Sadness" z-skit Lloyd remembers the feelings he felt when Mithos posses him, lot of pain, of course.Lloyd: I think Mithos may actually be sad.Zelos: What do you mean?Lloyd: When Mithos possessed me, his memories flowed into me. Betrayed by countless people, he still tried to face forward and believe in people...Zelos: And in the end, he gave up. The fallen hero, Mithos Yggdrasill.
- Dorr's death scene, when, after falsely hearing his daughter's alive, asks Lloyd to save his wife so she won't be alone. Made worse by a later skit, where Colette wonders if he saw through the lie...
