Follow TV Tropes

This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work's trope example list.

Following

Tear Jerker / Mr. Einstein's Secretary

Go To

  • The fate of Hanna's parents absolutely falls into this. Her mother, a brilliant physicist who sets the example for the kind of woman Hanna aspires to be, is murdered in a senseless political assassination where she wasn't even the main target - the assassin targeting Jewish students at the Academy that she just so happened to be lecturing at - while her father, who had the misfortune of being one of the lawyers that helped draw up the Treaty of Versailles, is lynched for his actions by fanatical nationalists as a result. Even worse for Hanna is, while the death of her mother occurs outside of her world (and thus, the sphere of her initial understanding), she's able to see what the budding Nazis did to her father first-hand.
  • Even worse for Hanna is showing the kindly Albert Einstein go into full damage control mode to try and help Hanna escape Germany, as he's not only clearly shaken by what's occured, but he also has to honour Hanna's father's last wish to get his daughter to America with such speed and urgency that it almost makes him come across as callous, despite this obviously not being the case.
  • Many of the Flash Forwards in Hanna's story tap into this as well, showing places that she visits while younger turned into horrific examples of the Nazi Final Solution. Even worse is the fact that, when revisiting these places, she can't show any reaction to the atrocities she observes, lest she give away her role as a Deep Cover Agent.
  • Everything to do with Ooma. While everyone in the family clearly loves her, and Hanna even risks her life to try and save Ooma from the Nazi Death Camp she's been sentenced to, Ooma's clearly so caught up in the idea that she's The Unfavorite who has to lie, cheat and steal her way to survival, that she doesn't even remotely consider that Hanna would want nothing but the best for her twin sister, leading Ooma to pursue a course that ultimately leads to her own death.

Top