Tear Jerker / The Mask of Zorro

• The finale of the prologue, as Don Diego loses everything he cared for: His wife gunned down in front of him by one of Montero's goons, his child taken to be raised by his Arch-Enemy, his home burned to the ground, and his freedom taken from right under him.

  Diego: Rafael, you'll never be rid of me! RAFAEL!!!

  • And to make matters worse, as Rafael exits the burning house holding baby Elena, Diego asks him to let him hold his child one more time before being carted off to prison, but Montero completely refuses to do so out of spite, and smugly tells Diego, "[Elena] has her mother's eyes.", before walking away.
  • In fact, when you think about it, this puts Diego into such a HUGE Heroic BSoD to the point where he doesn't seem to even want to escape from prison for 20 years, as demonstrated when he escapes in about 5 minutes (as a "crippled old man") once he finally has a reason to do so (Montero's return to California).
• Don Diego's death near the end. Both Alejandro and Elena are heartbroken when he finally dies. As Don Diego himself puts it, there's the cruel irony that just when he found his daughter again after 20 years, he dies right before her.
• Although it's so easy to despise him for kidnapping Elena and stealing 20 years of fatherhood from Don Diego, Don Rafael admittedly has a tragic aspect to his character. One gets the feeling Don Raphael genuinely loves Elena, and would rather tell more lies at sword point than risk losing the daughter he raised nearly her whole life.