Tear Jerker / The Swan Princess

While this film (as well as the series) was inspired by the classic Disney formula, it's filled to the brim with Drama and Tragedy for some reason.

Moment Subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.

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No! No! FATHER!

• There's a slight one during "This Is My Idea". When Derek, Odette and Bromley are preteens, the two boys play some pretty nasty pranks on poor Odette (using a slingshot to hit her with a tomato, tricking her into getting stuck on the banister). But arguably their nastiest is yanking up the ladder to their treehouse just as she's about to reach it and brandishing a sign saying "No Girls!" Derek even sings "When picking teams (or friends), I never choose her." Oof...
• The assassination of Odette's father King William near the beginning of the first film. Derek finds him dying alone on the ground, and all he can say before he expires is that a "great animal" did it, but that "it's not what it seems", and that Odette is gone.
• Shortly after Puffin first meets Odette, Rothbart arrives and tries to convince Odette to marry him. She flat out refuses, knowing he's really after her kingdom. After stewing for a moment, Rothbart then composes himself and then looks at Odette with a little smile, saying "I was hoping you'd say you'd be mine. But it looks as if you need another day to think about it." Odette looks and sees the moon sinking. With a quiet Little "No", her shoulders slump and she moves into the lake, waiting for the transformation to happen. Rothbart laughs, watching as Odette transforms into her swan form. Tears fall down her face as Rothbart steps away. Puffin (who didn't know what kind of spell Odette was under) just says "Princess?!" in a shocked voice as Odette slumps her head down. Given that Odette has been established as a strong willed, intelligent and capable young woman who is doing all she can to escape...it's really hard to see her just break down crying.
• Odette's Disney Deaths in the first and third films. Harsher in Hindsight due to the untimely death of her voice actress Michelle Nicastro in 2010.
  • Derek’s reaction to her death in the first film is just as heart-wrenching.
    Derek: I made the vow for her… do you hear?! THE VOW I MADE WAS FOR HER!
  • In the third film too, when Puffin tries to tell the others that Zelda killed Odette, it's just plain heartbreaking to hear him stammer. When Derek finds out, he gets extremely furious and destroys the stalagmites and stalactites with his sword until it shatters, and then collapses. And unlike in the first film, where his grief was powerful but tearless, here he sobs aloud and Manly Tears stream down his face.
  Derek: If you can hear me, Odette...I'm sorry.
• "The Magic of Love" from the second film. Odette and Derek still love each other, but Derek's duties to his kingdom and the conflict started by Claudius have caused him to spend less and less time with Odette. He even misses their first wedding anniversary. He promises to Odette that he'll make it up to her...but, once again, a complication comes up and he's forced to leave. Poor Odette. She understands that Derek is a busy man. But damn, she's just asking for some time with her husband.
  • During "The Magic of Love", we get a montage of Odette and Derek spending time together and times when Derek's duties get in the way. At the end of the montage, Odette and Derek are in a swing side by side and we see it through the reflection on the lake. The swing goes out of frame, only to come back in and Odette is alone on the swing.
• In the second film, Jean-Bob of all people sacrifices his life to stop Clavius from murdering Derek, and with the orb destroyed there's little hope for his survival until Odette sits upon Swan Lake, waiting to see if the moon will reverse the magic used to transform her yet again. Throughout the scene, everyone grieves for Odette's loss of humanity when nothing happens, but Odette and her friends are mourning for Jean-Bob, tears streaming down Odette's face. Thankfully for everybody, the moon finally works its magic.....
• In the fourth film, we learn that Odette is dealing with the loss of her father around the holidays.
• In the fifth film, Alise's biological father dies in front of her, courtesy of those horrible Forbidden Arts and she is scared stiff as she's witnessing it.

  Alise: Daddy...

  • The next morning, Alise wakes up in the castle, depressed and traumatized by her loss. Odette then has a flashback to when her father got assassinated by Rothbart (which is also a deleted scene from the first film). The two then both start crying in each other's arms.

    Odette: I know, Alise. I know...

    • It's a double Tear Jerker if taken from both William and Odette's perspectives. Odette because it's the last time she saw her father alive. From the first film, we know that King William lingered just long enough for Derek to arrive. His last memories of his daughter were of her getting taken away and he was completely powerless to help.
• Also in the fifth film, Scully's death via Heroic Sacrifice to defeat the Forbidden Arts.