Tear Jerker / The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

• As Wolf Link, if you choose to use your sense and listen to the spirits of the guards, many of them are either trembling in fear from the monsters, or begging for their lives to be spared.
• Zant and his minions take over Hyrule castle, the King of Twilight gives Zelda two options: surrender or die. Unable to bear watching her soldiers get injured, or the thought of other innocents losing their lives, Zelda quietly drops her sword.
  • While captive (possibly to show her guilt at not surrendering sooner), she wears a black cloak that would be suitable for someone in mourning.
    • What makes this even a little more sad is that the residents of Hyrule aren't even aware of what probably happened. Besides a few more monsters showing up, and a few things oddly changing, they go on to live their daily lives.
• Midna taunting Link by taking the forms of Ilia and Colin after their meeting with Zelda. Link probably doesn't like his new companion, but to see her mock him with the faces of two of his friends who thinks may or may not be dead probably made him more bitter towards her.
• Really small and easy to miss, but before completing the Forest Temple, go check on Rusl back in Ordon. He's severely injured from a monster attack and muttering deliriously about the children. The music playing (the same you hear when Prince Ralis is injured) really doesn't help.
• When you return to Ordon Village after being turned into a wolf, all of the townspeople are beating themselves up over how the children are missing, and Link is viewed as a monster.
• Epona's return. There are two Bublins on her back attempting to control her but she easily shakes them off, however, the most gut-wrenching thing is that in her state of fear and panic she can't recognize Link and nearly runs him over.
• Colin pushing Beth out of the way so she wouldn't be trampled, while brave is completely terrifying since he was captured by King Bublin and is later tied onto a flag pole to taunt Link.
• When Link walks into Telma's bar for the first time after dispelling the Twilight, and Ilia looks straight at him and doesn't recognize him at all—the look on his face was pretty heartbreaking.
  • Even Colin asks Link about Ilia's amnesia after they place Ralis under the Shaman's care. This must have been pretty painful for the young boy, since he and Ilia seemed to be close back at the village.
• Queen Rutela. Especially the scene after she gives Link the Zora Armor.
  • "If you see him again, please pass on this message... Tell him he must not grieve his mother's passing. Tell him she wanted him to be brave and live on as the king of our people. And... Tell him his mother... loves him without end. Tell him... Please tell my son when he wakes..." The music that plays during the scene doesn't help.
  • After she fades away, it pans up to reveal the dawn.
    • The scene in the credits, where Prince Ralis is sitting at the edge of the river and the Queen is watching over him. And then Ralis stands up, and looks as if he swore he could've seen something.
• If you decide to play the talk-to-all-the-cats game in the Hidden Village, the cucco says that they have short attention spans and if you leave the village before you've talked to all twenty, they'll forget you were ever there. This is clearly just meant to be a more creative way of saying "the game resets if you leave the area", but the way the cucco talks about how lonely the kitties are, coupled with the fact that they probably won't even remember playing with you, can definitely bring one to tears.
  • This counts as in-universe for Link. If you don't manage to avoid Rusl, imagine how Link feels when one of his closest friends slashes him with a sword? If only Link would later, once human again, point out that his wolf-self never moved to attack Rusl and for all Rusl knew, didn't mean any harm. Not to mention pretty much all the [human] NPCs in the game treat Wolf Link like a monster that has no soul when he just looks like your average wolf. Even if it's supposedly in self-defense, normally the player doesn't ever move to even use an attack near any humans, yet they still treat him badly.
  • Coro, the man in Faron Woods who gives you the lantern, is one of the only humans who doesn't freak out when he sees Wolf Link. He actually calls him a good pup or something to that effect, it's cute.
  • He even lampshades the reaction Wolf Link gets from other humans. The other prominent one who isn't frightened by Wolf Link is Agitha, but she's… a little funny in the head.
  • Go into the STAR tent. Maybe he really is scared and just trying to make up an excuse, but the emcee at least claims allergies.
• When Midna is mortally wounded and Link runs with her on his back in wolf form taking her to Zelda as the melancholy piano piece Midna's Lament sweeps in.
  • And when you reach Zelda, does Midna ask Zelda to help her? No. Despite being mortally wounded and close to death, the reason she wanted you to "hurry to Zelda" was so that she could ask Zelda to help Link, who had been permanently turned into a wolf by Zant. She's on her deathbed — being a creature of darkness who has just gotten a full blast from a spirit of light — but even so, her entire concern is for Link and Zelda.
  Midna: Link... you can... get there without me... right?
  • And so, Nintendo decided that particular scene was painful enough. No, wait, Zelda performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save Midna. And the worst part is? Midna is protesting, practically begging Zelda not to do it… but she does anyway, with a serene, encouraging look on her face the whole time. And then she's gone, and Midna is absolutely crushed by it; horribly guilty about her survival not only requiring Zelda's near-death, but also the fact she didn't want her to go through with it in the first place.
  Midna: Zelda, I've taken all you had to give... even though I did not want it.
  • This is all made even more gut-wrenching in the manga where we are constantly shown flashbacks to Zelda and Midna first speaking to each other when they were children, only to learn the hard way that their mentors completely forbade it, thinking that doing so could corrupt them.
• While it doesn't have the emotional baggage of a song like Midna's Lament, the music that plays while in Snowpeak is still a tear-jerking piece in its own right. It just sounds so... lonely. While the song does carry a sort of eerie calmness to it, the minimalist sound of the piece evokes strong feelings of emptiness and desolation. It's helped even more by the "melody" of the song (which sounds strangely similar to that of Midna's Lament) constantly starting up before being lost to the ethereal choir in the background. It brings to mind a poor soul lost in a blizzard, struggling to survive while on the verge of freezing to death. And then you realize that Poes can be found wandering the mountainside, and suddenly that description has a bit more merit to it.
• A small one, but the look on Link's face◊ when he finds cheese and a pumpkin from Ordon in Snowpeak Ruins. He looks so homesick...
• The look of absolute devastation on Yeto's face after Blizzeta is defeated, leaving Yeta laying motionless before Link. It's quickly followed by an audible Big "NO!", which is one of the few voiced lines in the series. Happily, the reconciliation is heartwarming enough to make up for it.
• More of a tearjerker caused by nostalgia, but when you open the door to the entrance to the Temple of Time and get hit by the classic music from the Ocarina of Time incarnation, you might be tempted to shed some tears.
• Speaking of nostalgia, any fans of Ocarina of Time about fifteen seconds after entering the Sacred Grove.
  • Also if you listen closely to the wolf's songs, all but three of them are songs from Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. The last one is the main theme of Twilight Princess, while the other two are reminiscent of other music played in the franchise.
• Hyrule Historia confirms that the Hero's Shade, a spirit which teaches Link many of his special techniques, is none other than the Hero of Time. He deeply regretted not being able to find a suitable pupil in life and has been chained to the earth all this time, waiting to pass his skills on to someone worthy. And worse, he's Link's ancestor.
  • His entire attitude about the matter is heart-breaking: this is the Link that saved both Hyrule and Termina, who later grew up and had a family of his own, and after all of his accomplishments and sacrifices, in the end he looks on himself as a failure because he wasn't able to do even more to help.
  • The only thing that makes this somewhat better is the fact that you can help him by learning all the special techniques. Once you do, his spirit is finally able to rest, which is a happy tear-jerker in its own right.
• When you finally save Jovani and rebuild his soul. He's overjoyed that he can live his life again and see his beloved. Then you finally see him in Telma's bar, the poor man is drowning his sorrows. He sobs and tells you his 'girlfriend' went off with another man. The only reason he sold his soul for unimaginable wealth was to impress her. To her credit, she was looking for him earlier in the game, but when she couldn't find him, she assumed he was gone completely and found someone new. Keep talking to the heartbroken Jovani, and he can't even muster the words anymore to express his grief.
• When Ganondorf possesses Zelda, Midna tries to make herself attack Zelda's body but just can't do it. She instead solemnly cups Zelda's cheek. Then she's thrown across the room when Zelda's eyes suddenly open.
  • The battle between Puppet Zelda and Link must be painful from Midna's perspective. The two of them are the only characters that Midna is shown to care deeply about, and they're locked in mortal combat with each other.
• During the final battle when Ganondorf's giant glowing head is forming. The music returns as the fragments of the Fused Shadow surround Midna. Link, knowing what she's about to do, reacts in shock and begins to run toward her, reaching out, only for her to transport him and Zelda away with a smile.
  • What's worse is right after the scene, Zelda and Link reappear in Hyrule Field, their disoriented confusion giving way to a shared look of shock and horror as they realize what Midna has done. Suddenly, an explosion destroys Hyrule Castle in the distance, and out of the dust appears Ganon on horseback with Midna's helmet in his hand, strongly implying that her actions were pointless.
• The ending, when the Mirror of Twilight begins to crack and Link and Zelda realize that they will never be able to see Midna again. The worst part is Link's reaction to Midna breaking the mirror. Damn. You can pinpoint the exact moment his heart breaks in half.
• The second half of the credits, following Midna's destruction of the Mirror of Twilight. In contrast to the first half's heartwarming, jubilant tone as we see life and normalcy return to the people of Hyrule, the remaining credits are accompanied by long, lingering shots of the empty springs of the Light Spirits and the Master Sword returned to the Temple of Time. Paired with the wistful, melancholic backing music, it almost feels like the player is being given a moment to process and grieve for that last moment of heartbreak, all while bidding Hyrule one final farewell after the long and epic journey of a lifetime.