[Abey1245]

Maybe not all in TCG, but I cried like a baby when Beak died, the end scene with Stormy, Gesler and Bent (omd!!), and when Fiddler plays for Whiskeyjack & Korlat. I'm such a suck, lol!

[Toc Beddict]

1: Gesler and Stormy's deaths. But like someone already posted, between their closeness to Ascendancy and the fact they're probably being worshiped by the KCCM I wouldn't be surprised if they became the Gods of the KCCM or something similiar.

2. The Tiste Andi kneeling to Yan Tovis for defending the Shore.

3. This one hasn't been mentioned but Breveity, the Leth islander. Losing Pithy then losing Sharl who, granted she didn't know well, but still had bonded in battle with. I had gotten through a good chunk of the book without losing it until Pithy's death.

4. Korabas. To be born into torment and having your mere existence be anathema to life is more than any creature could bear. And through her internal POV you could see how she couldn't stand it.

5. Kaminsod and his pledge to remember the Fallen. To remember what the Bonehunters did for him.

Of course there are plenty more but these stood out the most to me. After reading a series for years you can't help but attach to the characters making their losses tear right at the heartstrings

[The Retired Bridgeburner]

I've only read the series once but I remember finishing the last 100 pages sat in bed with the other half one night and him sitting there cuddling me and stroking my hair because I kept bursting into tears. I welled up several times throughout but some bits genuinely had me in body-wracking sobs:


1) Korlat and Whiskeyjack. Of course.

2) Hedge agreeing to stay, and Fiddler being speechless. Wow.

3) "Are you coming, Bridgeburner?" I loved Toc so much and it really made me sob that he finally achieved his dream after all the horrors he went through (boy, did that character get hit with the unlucky stick!)

4) Tool finding Hetan and his children again. Made especially poignant as the last time he and Toc see one another they part as friends once more.

5) Tavore finally breaking down when she is reunited with Ganoes. It really brought back the heart-rending fact she doesn't know about Felisin.

6) Gesler and Stormy (and Bent)

7) Gruntle. Oh my word. And the cats!

8) Apsalar and Crokus reuniting, and the conversation between Cotillion and Shadowthrone.

This post has been edited by littlemissmetal: 17 August 2012 - 08:41 AM

[jaysen]

These have both been said already but they were the most impacting to me:

When Tavore very nearly killed Ganoes. Able to stop just in time and then a gut-wrenching scream heard by the entire army. Breaking down in her brother's embrace. I'm sure I looked like a real goober tearing up in the library on campus.


And when Icarium looks from the clay shards to Mappo's body. "Friend, I have remembered something." A very bittersweet ending for those two.

[least branch]

My happy tears moment was Fid sitting on the peir fishing and teasing the little kid. if anyone deserved a happy ending it was Fiddler poor [bastard] with love

[least branch]

Furoan, on 15 October 2011 - 12:55 AM, said:

For me? Beak's scene just before he dies. It was obvious he was going to die of course, and the recollection of his home life was bad but just beak's death as he protected the marines and the captain was really really heart breaking. I still sometimes get a bit teary eyees when I think about it.

For me it was Beak's arrival at Hood's gate and reunion with his brother.

[least branch]

Just reading these post's and rembering all the times I leaked.

[Abstruse]

Happiest tears yet: the old man fishing an the young boy who ain't a fool..
The people of the city hear "fiddling".. And "sad, so sad" music <3
That darn old fiddling man has done EXACTLY what he wanted in his retirement <3
*girly love sigh*

[Ruthan Good]

Just in TCG alone:
Fiddler and Hedge handshake scene,
Fiddler playing for Korlat and Whiskeyjack
Tool finding his kids, although, did not like Hetan coming back too, even though I understand it from Toc's point of view.


Toc invited by Whiskeyjack, losing one of the Letherii at Kharkanas (Pithy or Brevity dammit can't remember which one) came close, so did the Andii rushing in with reinforcements and the kneeling before the Shake.

In the entirety of the series, well, dude:

MoI - need I say it? Kallor, dude, what a twat

HoC - Fiddler, Kalam and QB reuniting did it.

MT - Bugg's emotions as he unleashed himself on that lot of Edur, and generally I was on the edge of my seat at the time, like, "Come on, you can't have killed Tehol, you can't have!!"

Bonehunters - there were many edge of seat moments, but I'm not sure I actually welled up, although I came close on Malaz island when the Bonehunters had to hold off the locals, that was generally heartbreaking, and the reasons for it all, the stupidity, the waste.

Reaper's Gale - where should I bleeding start:
- Hedge and Quick Ben reunion
- Onrack de-T'lanning, his amazement, his happiness, Trull beside him
- Toc, man, one unlucky dude
- Trull, still angry about it, and the reaction of Hedge and QB was so strong that this was the most powerful personal moment for me in the series full stop
- Strangely enough, didn't really feel it quite so strongly for Beak as others did

TTH
- I got a bit confused by the book at one point which robbed it a bit of the emotional gut punches, but the procession leading to the barrow was powerful

DoD
- More a general feeling of suspense and sense of waste, annoyance, lost opportunity

[Sick@Simpliciter]

for some reasons books never made me cry (contrary to movies!)... maybe I'm just not that emphatic and I need a visual experience to get moved... go figure!
but all the series is full of those moments when you need to put down the book and stare the ceiling thinking "now, that was powerful..."

Toc finally making the Bridgeburners was so awesome that a huge smile found my face and stayed there for the final pages of the book...

the greatness of SE resides in his brilliant characterization of all characters even the "small" ones... he's able to make you feel emphatic with characters you've barely become acquainted with...just as an example the passage in which Henar Vyrgulf back-story is presented... masterful writing

[KarsaOrlong=TheHardestGuyinFiction]

QuickTidal, on 26 August 2011 - 06:20 PM, said:

Feathersmith, on 26 August 2011 - 05:14 PM, said:

When I did a reread, Gesler and Stormy's assault on the Spire (it was sad 1st time through, too). And one scene that stood out that I pretty much glossed over the first time I read it was when, early in the book, Gesler is reminiscing about his history with Bent, and thinks (or maybe says aloud) that he'd sacrifice himself to save Bent. That . . . hurt. Knowing what was coming.

Likewise, Bent guarding Gesler's body, and then the tomb later.

I wept like a waterfall. That was an "I had to put the book down" moment. It's the one that sticks out the most.

There was SO much on TCG that had me with a lump in my throat and glossy-eyed, but yeah in the last 200 pages I must have shed tears half a dozen times.

Fuck. So good.

I know of everything i think gesler's sacrifice got me the most... Almost as much as Gesler and Stormy's last goodbye... epic sadness lol

[dreddiknight]

Realising that The Imass had killed ALL OF THEIR CHILDREN, before doing the ritual messed me up a lot. It was in that scene where Tool and the other Imass following him were on their killing spree. SE writes something like "and the Imass became killers of children again, as they ever were..."
It hit me like a brick... Of course they'd killed all their children; there were no Tlan Imass young, only adults.. How I could of read the whole series and never once thought that made me feel a little foolish, and made me put the book down for a day or so...
Obviously a lot of the other things mentioned in this thread made me cry as wel...

[queen*of*dreams]

Kallor making his confession to the Liosian court. With the part about the doll. Broke my heart!

[Abyss]

dreddiknight, on 23 February 2013 - 02:41 AM, said:

Realising that The Imass had killed ALL OF THEIR CHILDREN, before doing the ritual messed me up a lot. It was in that scene where Tool and the other Imass following him were on their killing spree. SE writes something like "and the Imass became killers of children again, as they ever were..."
It hit me like a brick... Of course they'd killed all their children; there were no Tlan Imass young, only adults.. How I could of read the whole series and never once thought that made me feel a little foolish, and made me put the book down for a day or so...
Obviously a lot of the other things mentioned in this thread made me cry as wel...

I could be wrong about this, but didn't we learn at some point that most Imass kids were dead due to Jaghut ice aged caused starvation by the time they invoked the Ritual, and a handful were left with the T3?
I took the 'child killers' thing to be a ref to their practice of killing Jaghut children, and the generally 'savage barbarian' thing they had going on.

[worry]

I don't remember that detail at all...was that perhaps for the second ritual?

[Abyss]

Possibly.... i seem to recall the second ritual Imass were also in a starvation situation but i can't remember any ref to anyone killing their own kids. As an implicit point dreddiknight's theory is actually very cool.

[worry]

Yah....agreed. Someone should do a full re-read and confirm or deny that T3 thing though.

[dreddiknight]

Mmm maybe you're right abyss.... I kind of hope so! I thought the lack of it being mentioned at all previously was for the impact it then had. I do remember the mention of starvation, and children dying, but will need to do a reread to ascertain whether its clear that all their offspring were dead...

[Ozymandiac]

dreddiknight, on 23 February 2013 - 02:41 AM, said:

Realising that The Imass had killed ALL OF THEIR CHILDREN, before doing the ritual messed me up a lot. It was in that scene where Tool and the other Imass following him were on their killing spree. SE writes something like "and the Imass became killers of children again, as they ever were..."
It hit me like a brick... Of course they'd killed all their children; there were no Tlan Imass young, only adults.. How I could of read the whole series and never once thought that made me feel a little foolish, and made me put the book down for a day or so...

Abyss, on 04 March 2013 - 10:03 PM, said:

Possibly.... i seem to recall the second ritual Imass were also in a starvation situation but i can't remember any ref to anyone killing their own kids. As an implicit point dreddiknight's theory is actually very cool.

The Second Ritual was performed by the Brold Imass, an isolated clan of Imass that lived on the continent of Lether. They are descendants of those that sought to follow Kilava Onass when she rejected the Ritual of Tellann and as such did not participate in it. However, after a hundred generations, they attempted the Ritual of Tellann themselves, independently and unknowingly from the other Imass. The Ritual failed, however, as the wall of ice that they camped under collapsed and killed their bonecasters, leaving the Ritual uncompleted.

The reasons for the Second Ritual were twofold. "It was held among many of us that the enemy assailing our people were humans - our inheritors, our rivals in the ways of living. We bonecasters - the three of us who remained [Lera Epar, Lid Ger, Nom Kala] - knew that to be no more than a half-truth. No, we were assailed by ourselves. By the lies we told each other, by the false comforts of our legends, our stories, our very beliefs." (Nom Kala)

Abyss, on 04 March 2013 - 09:29 PM, said:

I could be wrong about this, but didn't we learn at some point that most Imass kids were dead due to Jaghut ice aged caused starvation by the time they invoked the Ritual, and a handful were left with the T3?
I took the 'child killers' thing to be a ref to their practice of killing Jaghut children, and the generally 'savage barbarian' thing they had going on.

Nom Kala, one of the bonecasters of the Brold, says the following: "We followed the ice in its last retreat."
This has led me to believe that the Brold were not threatened by the ice (although, ironically, they were killed by its collapse) but in fact followed it to avoid the human threat. There was no place for the Brold Imass in the fertile lands left behind by the ice, already being brought into culture by the colonists of Dessibelackis' First Empire. To avoid large numbers of humans, they had no choice but to inhabit infertile lands that would deter humans, or at least prevent them from coming there en masse.

Throughout the series, humans are sometimes referred to as children of the Imass. Therefore, the "killers of children" quote could also refer to the slaughter the T'lann Imass engaged in when they deemed it just to intervene in Dessimbelackis' First Empire after it performed a massive Shapeshifting ritual.

"Its name was Dejim Nebrahl. Born on the eve of the death of the First Empire, when the streets of the city beyond burned and screams announced unrelieved slaughter. For the T'lan Imass had come." (Dejim Nabrahl)

Once you're on that track, you could say that every human they kill (e.g. in Kellanved's service) is the killing of a child.

Moreover, if the Imass killed their own children when they engaged in the Ritual, how could the humans have evolved the way they did? How could the Imass be the human's progenitor? Perhaps more Imass defied the calls to the First Ritual just like the Brold did, but it seems more likely that the children they left behind were the ones that would become the progenitors of the human race. I wouldn't know anything about Imass children living with TTT. There are some references to subraces that descended from TTT descendants and humans, with differing ratios of TTT/human blood, so it's possible.

All in all, I'm not a supporter of the theory that the T'lann Imass killed their own children.

[worry]

Are you saying humans didn't even exist until well after the First Ritual?