This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)
So, a few weeks ago, I cried for the first time from a piece of media. I mean, I had gotten teary eyed plenty of times over shows and games(Hell, I even think I'm an emotional masochist, I seek out depressing and sad stories because I like feeling sad. weird I know) but for the first time I was left loudly sobbing. It was late at night, and I got to the end of the Walking Dead game. Now, I don't want to spoil anything, but I was sobbing on and off the last 5-10 minuets or so of the game, and just broke out bawling when the credits started to roll for a good 5 minuets. And after that, the next day, I watched some fan videos that showed the last scenes of the game. Those also made me burst into tears. Never before was I so greatly moved by any story. I mean, that was like 3 weeks ago and I'd probably still start sobbing if I were to look at videos of that last section of play it myself. One could argue that this was because I just recently started second puberty and my emotions are all out a wack, but still, I think that I would have cried all the same if I weren't starting puberty at age 17.
So, I was sort of wondering, what stories have made you cry? Books, movies, shows, games, maybe even music, what's made you start bawling? Or, if you haven't ever cried from media, what do you think of people that do? Is it something you envy? Or is it something you could care less for or actively are glad it doesn't happen to you?
Last edited by Kexx (03-03-2013 12:26:07 PM)
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My favorite game is Tales of Symphonia, and while it didn't make me cry when I played it (age 10), it sure does now. Just hearing the title music puts me in tears, probably nostalgia or something
Ahh and I cry every single time Mufasa dies in the Lion King. Every time... We watched it at school a couple times and I had to draw a picture or write or something because I didn't want to cry at school
I also used to cry about Utena at night...
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Dognog wrote:
My favorite game is Tales of Symphonia, and while it didn't make me cry when I played it (age 10), it sure does now. Just hearing the title music puts me in tears, probably nostalgia or something.
Mah bro! Where have you been all my life?
The only things in media that tugs at my heartstrings are surprise acts of martyrdom, the teaching of tough life lessons that may or may not skew a character's worldview, and a love that cannot be between two characters sung in an operatic style. The first, I think, stems from my view that martyrdom, in doses, is healthy to yourself and others. Seeing people doing it after a whole story of them pushing others away can get to me. The second probably comes from some personal experience. The third is what I'm not certain about. I'm not big on the lovey-dovey stuff, but the two combined hits me hard. Might be connected to some Synaesthesia I have, so there's that theory.
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Up had me bawling several times.
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I cry easily from movies. I'm a little bitch that way. Like most things in life I can get through pretty tearlessly, but nope, Up! movie montage? Cried. Beauty and the Beast dance scene? Cried at the theatre. I sobbed through the entirety of Walk to Remember,. Animes where I BAWLED MY EYES OUT are Nana and Clannad...
The list goes on.
Last edited by Syora (03-03-2013 03:09:39 PM)
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I cry, lots or a little, at a ton of entertainment. Sad, happy, sappy... I'm quicker to laugh or blush with entertainment than many people, too.
Over the weekend, I got teary during my friend's novel (Blessed and Cursed Alike, aka The Heart Distillers), the death of Robin in Batman Inc, that Robotech episode where Lisa gets drunk and sings Stage Fright, Giovanni's Room when they talk about the French being "measured," Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke, and that's just entertainment. During my revisions on Juliana, too, but that's mine so it's practically cheating.
One of the strongest lessons from my family, intentional or not, was that you can get emotional at emotional stuff, that's legit. But, if someone hits you, suck it up; don't give'em the satisfaction. Culturally, this makes sense. (Geopolitically, this may be the equivalent of writing "please conquer" on your flag.)
Sidenote: I played the audio from a Paris, Texas scene for a class last semester, when he's telling the fable version of a relationship going septic and ending in fire and running for days. When I stopped paying attention to their papers in front of me, and looked at the students, no one was taking notes and the majority of them were crying.
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I cried at most of the moments I mentioned in the fandom feels thread, and that's just anime. I cry easily at movies if they're any good -- though for some reason it's easier if they're animated movies, as though actors ruin the illusion. Anything by Pixar is likely to get tears from me. (Yes, that scene from Up deserves to go down as one of the great scenes in cinema canon.) On airplanes I am like Robert De Niro in Analyze This, sobbing over a Merrill-Lynch commercial. (This was a little embarrassing the time I read The Hunger Games on an airplane.)
I've been paying attention recently to video games that make me cry, because there aren't very many of them and I wish there were. You'd think an interactive medium would make it easier to cry, but in fact I'm more likely to cry at less interactive games -- To The Moon, Katawa Shoujo, a couple JRPGs. The Mass Effect series is the exception here; you have a lot of freedom, but it made me cry anyway. Presumably this is tied into the questions of whether games are art and how to balance the competing demands of games and stories.
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E.T. and the twist in Phenomenon make me bawl every time. Eric Clapton doing the soundtrack to the latter doesn't help.
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Dancer in the Dark... it's the most emotional movie I've ever EVER seen.
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Kexx wrote:
It was late at night, and I got to the end of the Walking Dead game. Now, I don't want to spoil anything, but I was sobbing on and off the last 5-10 minuets or so of the game, and just broke out bawling when the credits started to roll for a good 5 minuets. And after that, the next day, I watched some fan videos that showed the last scenes of the game. Those also made me burst into tears.
My life for the past half hour.
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A few things come to mind instantly...
The Normandy Crash Site in Mass Effect 2. The SR2 will never be the home for me that the SR1 was.
The last appearances of major supporting characters in Mass Effect 3.
Up, like for many others.
Scenes in both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows and The Dark Tower.
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Dr.Who keeps giving me major sads.
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A lot of things can make me a little emotional, but I swear only Pixar movies have the power to make me sob. Up made me bawl in the first 10 minutes, I cried at Toy Story 3 just because I waited 10 damn years for that heartbreak, The end of Monsters Inc, SHE SAYS KITTY SO HE GETS TO SEE HER AGAIN BWAHAHAHA TT~TT Pixar can play my heart like a violin :( The only other thing that I can ever remember making me bawl was when I was a kid and first saw episode 110 of Sailor Moon (moonies know what I'm talking about :( ) I was watching it during it's original run on YTV so I didn't get to see the next episode until the next week, so I was left to sit with those feels, thinking my favourite characters were... :gonk:
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Bugger you, Mass Effect 2 DLC Overlord. I'm not even playing and I got all teary and gave Gio shit for days when she went renegade on it.
QUIET PLEASE MAKE IT STOP
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Have to agree with the Walking Dead folks, that one particular character that must continue on at the end – cried my eyes out! And I’ve watched the first two seasons of the actual show (after I played the game), it has never made me cry, although I think it is quite good.
Up, yes.
Mass Effect, always - especially in 3, when you see a beloved character for the final time....and when it is over, and also during the loading screen...and anytime the really sad music plays.
Lots of anime, when the show is over, if it was particularly good, I mist up just knowing the show is over. The worst is Utena. It’s got the gut-wrenching “hands” scene, and also, it’s OVER. I hate that moment!
All this must take place when alone though, because if another person is in the room – half of my emotional investment is pulled from the show and put into the person, so I find it impossible to cry over things like that (or much of anything) when others are around.
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Yasha wrote:
Bugger you, Mass Effect 2 DLC Overlord. I'm not even playing and I got all teary and gave Gio shit for days when she went renegade on it.
QUIET PLEASE MAKE IT STOP
Yeah I had no idea Yasha had such a soft spot for horrifyingly tortured autistic savants.
(I had to replay the mission due to a hard drive swap, and went Paragon with it. I HOPE YOU'RE ALL HAPPY NOW THAT I HAVE TO ABUSE MY TEAM RELENTLESSLY SO MY RENEGADES HIGH)
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There's not really any good reason, but towards the end of Bill Condon's Sister, Sister my eyes start leaking every time. When the brother has convinced Lucy that her sister's all horrible and stuff and must die, and clearly nobody in the movie wants to fucking be there anymore and would just like the world to stop I just turn into a waterworks.
Actually, every Billy Condon movie I've seen makes me cry at some point. Gods and Monsters. Kinsey. Dream Girls.
The man is clearly dangerous to my mental stability.
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I was bawling like a bride that was stood up on her wedding night by the end of the Adventure Time episode "I Remember You". Granted, I wasn't in the most stable of emotional states at the time, but the episode is easily the most tear-jerking one yet imo.
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^Yes! That was such an emotional episode.
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(Hell, I even think I'm an emotional masochist, I seek out depressing and sad stories because I like feeling sad. weird I know)
I don't think this is really weird, depending on exactly what you meant.
There's various reasons to be attracted to various shows/games/media, of course. But stuff that let's you cry... if you're left crying it's because you're able to relate to it powerfully on an emotional level. I think, ultimately, that this is the goal of many (if not all) forms of art - they actively /want/ you to relate to it on a deeply personal level. They want what they do to, somehow, impact you. Whether you see a potential future you embrace/abhor, or relate to a moment you aspire to/abhor.... a lot of media really wants to bring this out I think.
This is trite maybe, but it goes back to my high school Shakespeare course, talking about a decent tragedy allowing the audience an opportunity for catharsis, etc, etc. As high school english as that is, I think it's a solidly true point. People do long for well presented opportunities for catharsis. It's hard to pull off /well/ without ending up as overly melodramatic or without managing to sufficiently invest the audience in the characters. Good media is valuable, because it reflects life and various truths. I believe.
I'm not an English major, but that's still my take.
As for what's left me crying... that depends on if I've been drinking or not :x
Hmm. I have cried with a few things sober though. Utena was actually one of them. I didn't start balling or anything, but i did cry a bit at various points. There's something in SKU for almost everyone. Personally, I was really touched by Utena's desire to go on for her ideals, and her quest to prove that ideals exist as such. That's how I interpreted it, anyways. A few of the side stories got to me too. I think it's a fairly well done anime, if you can get past the (opinion) bad graphics and somewhat trite scenes ("you've lit the fire to my heart, baby").
If we're looking at anime, Nana is definitely another that made me cry. I really can relate to people who are friends, but fall away from each other. Despite neither party actually wanting to fall apart. It just struck me as so sad and relatable on such an intimate and personal level, that it really hit me. It made good use of music too.... music is very powerful emotionally.
I don't want to say those are the only anime that have made me cry (they're not), but they're the principle two.
Other things.... wow. It just varies so much. Sometimes even songs do. And there's nothing wrong with crying through/because of media. It's one of the most valuable things to be gained from various media, imo. Even non-sad movies have occasionally dragged a tear from me. Tears of joy, or what have you. Music typically plays a key role there as well. Music is very, very, powerful emotionally. When you can tie it up with visuals, it's even more so. It's not easy to tie music to pictures... but when you do it /well/, you can really move the audience. I don't even see the point in listing movies that have brought brief periods of tears to my eyes, because there are just too many.
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I cried at "valse triste" from allegro non troppo, at Grave of the Fireflies, and nearly cried at Paranorman.
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Watched Therese and Isabelle again, last night, and about two-twenty in the morning I just lose it. Not bawling, but that steady sort of streaming tears.
Something about it being semi-biographical, you know, a writer working out their own personal shit through thin filters, and the director clearly trying to restrain his porniness while making a movie about lesbian schoolgirls generates this sort of stress-horny-lamentation that equals me sitting in the dark, lines down my cheeks, all this is so saaaaaaad.
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Decrescent Daytripper wrote:
Watched Therese and Isabelle again, last night, and about two-twenty in the morning I just lose it. Not bawling, but that steady sort of streaming tears.
Something about it being semi-biographical, you know, a writer working out their own personal shit through thin filters, and the director clearly trying to restrain his porniness while making a movie about lesbian schoolgirls generates this sort of stress-horny-lamentation that equals me sitting in the dark, lines down my cheeks, all this is so saaaaaaad.
If you liked the movie, read Violette Leduc's La Batarde and Therese and Isabelle, she goes into excruciating detail and is completely honest and blunt about everything, it's one of the best autobiographies I've read.
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This one of my favorite tear jerkers. I have the movie and soundtrack via iTunes. Being the odd child of a single mom, this movie hits close to home.
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Aninha wrote:
If you liked the movie, read Violette Leduc's La Batarde and Therese and Isabelle, she goes into excruciating detail and is completely honest and blunt about everything, it's one of the best autobiographies I've read.
I like more recent translations of her stuff, but yes, wholeheartedly agree. Also, Violette Leduc may be one of the best names ever.
For whatever reason, the book club I advised last year ended up being almost entirely queer memoirs or roman a clefs. Which was very fun, very harrowing, but also a little "how did that happen? oh well."
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