Tear Jerker / The Fifth Elephant

• After Angua's wolven (possibly) ex-boyfriend dies trying to save Carrot from Angua's brother, Gaspode The Wonder Dog, a world-weary mutt, howls over his body, with the rest of the wolves in the area joining in.
  • When Carrot tries to play fetch with Gavin, he shatters the stick out of disdain for the 'humanization' of wolves, but then he sacrifices himself to save Carrot. However, Gaspode's absolutely heartbreaking line followed by his pitiful howl being gradually picked up by the rest of the pack takes the cake.
    "Shouldn't be just you and me, out here in the cold."
  • It's even more sad for Gaspode if you remember that he'd thought that he and Laddie were going to die under a pile of rubble together in Moving Pictures, until the trolls dug them up. This time, there's no miraculous reprieve coming for his fallen fellow-canine, because Holy Wood rules about last-minute rescues have no effect this time. More reason for the Wonder Dog to think it's not supposed to end that way.
  • The description of Gavin's body floating alone in the river is also extremely sad, that such a powerful and brave wolf was left as nothing more than a matt of frozen fur. His death even happens off screen.
• The scene where Vetinari is talking to Leonard about Lady Margolotta. It's not very long and quite oblique in some places, but then again this is Vetinari we're talking about here. It shows that Vetinari does have a heart after all.
• Dee's Villainous Breakdown speech is absolutely heartbreaking once the Wham Line hits.
  "Not them! The...ones in Ankh-Morpork! Wearing make-up and dresses and...and abominable things!" Dee pointed a finger at Cheery. "Ha'ak! How can you even look at it! You let her," and Vimes had seldom heard a word sprayed with so much venom, "her flaunt herself, here! And it's happening everywhere because people have not been firm, not obeyed, have let the old ways slide! Everywhere there are reports. They're eating away at everything dwarfish with their...their soft clothes and paint and beastly ways. How can you be King and allow this? Everywhere they are doing it and you do nothing! Why should they be allowed to do this?" Now Dee was sobbing. "I can't!"
• When, after Lady Sybil is briefly taken hostage and then freed and everyone's safe again, Vimes is the last one to realize that she's very quietly crying—and, even then, can't do much about it because he's "designed by nature to be one of those men absolutely incapable of kissing his wife in public." And then later, when he comes to save her after she's been taken away by werewolves and sees her coming down the stairs in their castle and just sort of stands there for a minute thinking about how much he loves her. And then, later, when he's the only one laughing at the dumb jokes she's making while they're trapped and seem like they're about to die. Basically, their whole relationship in this book is one big Tear Jerker—especially since we know the toll that his job has taken on it in other books.
  "Sybil was a rock. She made Detritus look like a sponge."
  • Sybil is newly pregnant, very anxious to tell her extremely distracted husband and not sure how he's going to react. Not to mention, she's fresh out of a situation in which she saw her husband toss down his only weapon, then unexpectedly shoot the hostage-taker in the neck mere inches away from her, then a mad dash for safety in the dark on an unsafe road. What's more, she actually apologizes to Vimes for getting weepy after all she's been through. She feels as though she has let him down by crying. No wonder poor Vimes nearly dies of shame when he realizes.
• All of Angua's fears, doubts, and insecurities over the previous three books get summarized in a single word: "Promise?"
• Carrot's mauling at Wolfgang's hands is also a difficult scene to read; not just because someone we like has been brutally injured, but because of Angua's reaction: she falls to her knees and starts to cry, all the more shocking coming from one of the toughest, most cynical characters on the Disc.