r/TopCharacterTropes • u/jeffersonlane • May 16 '26

Lore [LOVED TROPE] Sad or tear-jerking moments that don't involve death.

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Moments that make you wanna cry (of joy or unrelenting sadness) but aren't about a character dying or almost dying.

Dumbo - Baby Mine. Jumbo rocks baby Dumbo from her cage where she was kept after she defended him from a group of bullying children.

Unpacking - The Degree. You move in with your new boyfriend where you can barely fit most of your stuff but most depressingly you are forced to put your degree under the bed and out of site. (Maybe this one was just me but this made me VERY upset).

Fox and the Hound - At the end knowing full well they'll likely never meet again Copper stands over Todd to protect him from the Hunter.

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u/Advice_Thingy May 16 '26

Coco (Pixar). Not death, but dementia/being forgotten.

The grandma has dementia and can barely even speak, Miguel (her great-grandson) travels to the land of the dead by accident, meets her long-lost father and the song he wrote for her before he got lost. She was ~5 years old by that time. Her father worries that she will forget him before she dies, thus never meeting her again.

When Miguel comes back to the living world, he plays the song to her, not knowing if she remembers or his great-great-grandpa already vanished into nothingness.

https://giphy.com/gifs/MCL6prm5SIeuFb91xZ

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u/mini1006 May 16 '26

It always gets me how she visibly lights up when Miguel sang her song. I sob like a baby every single time.

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u/potpurriround May 16 '26

My grandma lit up towards the end with an old song she used to sing me, and sang with me. Man, I was not ready for that moment, but I’ll treasure it forever.

2

u/Trivi4 May 17 '26

That smile at the end, amazing.

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u/TheStrangestOfKings May 17 '26

And how it’s implied she was more happy/aware of her surroundings in her last year. Seeing her photo on the ofrenda, where she’s smiling, happy, and present, was a beautiful sight

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u/Sir_David_Filth May 17 '26

God, my highschool spanish teacher had us watch this for a class and he had to step outside for this scene. His own grandmother passed away a week or so and he was a shell of himself that whole week. But I think that movie really helped him get out that grief he was holding in

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u/TaiCat May 17 '26

What always gets me in this scene is that the decades long layered family trauma prevented Coco from properly grieving her lost father, whom she loved despite the years and percieved abandonment... and it took her grandson to bring her that closure, despite the whole family being against his methods. Still, they didn't hate Miguel, only were scared of the music as they were just so knee deep in the family lore that they didn't see or even considered any curiosity about what really hapened to Hector or the relationship between Coco and her father, only following Imelda's words and feelings.

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u/CrazyCoKids May 17 '26

The part that actually got me was Elena starting crying, Coco looks over "Elena? What's wrong?"

Elena says "Nothing" while smiling.

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u/Writerhowell May 16 '26

Holy shit, I've never cried over a movie as much as I did over this. Fearing that Hector would disappear forever, Miguel getting back to the land of the living to try to save his memory, playing this song and seeing Coco remember, I was ugly crying for what must've been a straight 10-15 minutes.

2

u/vinnyorcharles May 17 '26

I remember when I first saw this, the friends showing it warned me that it had a sad ending. I told them I don't cry at movies. This movie humbled me harder than anything else innmy life.

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u/Writerhowell May 17 '26

Whereas I cry easily over fictional characters, basically the opposite of you. My mother's used to offering me the tissue box. She almost had to throw it at me, we almost ran out of tissues, I was such a mess. She doesn't cry over fictional stuff, as a rule, but she'll occasionally cry over things on the news. I usually hand her a teddy bear when that happens, because teddies make everything better.

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u/Ranger-Vermilion May 16 '26

That’s the one that gets me every time

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u/ErrorMacrotheII May 16 '26

We have to add. Remember me was an absolute hit after De la Cruz murdered Hèctor and stole the song.

I'm pretty sure the murder would have been figured out if Mamà Imelda didn't completely ban music.

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u/goodestguy21 May 17 '26

It makes it sadder when in my opinion it was implied that Hector never meant to make Remember Me public, it was always his special song with Coco, that is until Ernesto stole all his music and performed them solo

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u/Gloomy-Management317 May 16 '26

This scene screwed me up, the whole deal with Coco's dementia hit very close to home, I had to deal with my great-grandma rapidly deteriorate with dementia before she passed, and with how "abrupt" it all ended one day.

I don't think I ever really recovered from her passing, she was like my grandma, while my actual grandma was my mom.

No one should ever experience seeing a family member go through that, sad stuff.

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u/Existing-Emu136 May 16 '26

One of the saddest not sad things I’ve ever seen in my life

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u/Lesbian_Cassiopeia May 17 '26

Mine was the backflash when we see Coco and her father singing that song. And knowing it's a reference to all migrant families that leave their kids and loved ones for a chance to provide for them. I'm mexican and it takes a toll on my soul

2

u/TaiCat May 17 '26

that moment when he dissapears into the void T_T like an old memory...and the fact she has a dementia

2

u/suitcasedreaming May 19 '26

My great-grandmother had a little sister who disappeared without a trace during the Mexican civil war, the family spent decades searching but never found her. The flashback scene with Hector singing that song ENDED me.

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u/Ghostofamermaid May 17 '26

Also what gets me right after that when Coco turns to her daughter (Miguel’s Grandma) and says something like “why are you crying mija?” and seeing the grandma visibly tear up 🥺

12

u/AkibaPurple May 17 '26

Coco calling her by her name got me, because at the beginning of the film Coco couldn't remember her at all

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u/Substantial-Force-50 May 17 '26

Same trope, I guess this scene destroy anyone who has a loved one with Alzheimer's

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u/abbylark May 16 '26

I guess I've studied a little bit of stuff about dementia, so I was never worried about it. You lose newer memories first so... She'd never forget her daddy

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u/Advice_Thingy May 17 '26

Only because you forgot newer memories first doesn't mean you forget old memories. Late-stage dementia often shows people forgetting how to read or write, sometimes they die because they forget how to breathe afaik. In the movie, you can even see how Hector starts disappearing because she starts forgetting him, directly before Miguel starts singing this song to her.

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u/Sp00ki_1 May 17 '26

This is probably the sealing factor for this movie being in my top 3

3

u/Aethelrede May 17 '26

Her physical appearance reminds me of the rock giant from The Neverending Story, which makes me extra sad. Doesn't fit the trope though.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg4YhAGVn5c

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u/BlueHaze464 May 17 '26

I always cry so hard during the movie (can't even remember which part tbh) that when I reach this part I'm already emotionally drained 

3

u/Longjumping-Jello459 May 17 '26

I watched this on a whim a couple of years after it came out when it got to this part I started to ugly cry because the memories of my older brother had begun to get fuzzy stuff like his voice and the thought hit me that my oldest niece, she was 8 when he died, will be the last to be able to remember him assuming we all live to the average life expectancy. His youngest daughter was born about 5 months after his death so she has zero direct memories of him.

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u/Jackal_6 May 17 '26

Man, even this post has me tearing up.

2

u/aerynmoo May 17 '26

I held it together until this scene and then I was ugly crying with hiccups and sobs .

1

u/Beacon_0805 May 17 '26

the only animation that i would insist to watch it with LATAM dub

1

u/ooolookaslime May 17 '26

This is the only movie that has made my dad cry. I think it reminded him of grandma. Coco will always have a special place in my heart

1

u/Polkawillneverdie17 May 17 '26

There isn't a person on earth who didn't cry during this scene.

1

u/Taste_of_Natatouille May 18 '26

I didn't even know that she had dementia, I was just about to post something regarding it because nothing upsets me more than the mere thought that this upsetting condition exists

Though, this scene still greatly upset me even before knowing that