Gunnerkrigg Court/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • From Chapter 6: A Handful Of Dirt
    • Given how Annie usually acts, seeing her break down emotionally like this is very upsetting. In this case, it's important that that's where her emotions (all of them) started flooding back, period. That's bound to go a little differently.
    • This page from Chapter 31 makes the penultimate page of this one even sadder.
  • From Chapter 8: Broken Glass and Other Things

"Still such anger."

  • From Chapter 13: A Week For Kat
  • From Chapter 18: S1
  • From Chapter 19: Power Station
  • From Chapter 21: Blinking
    • The idea that Annie had to be the Guide for her mother is highly sniffle-worthy. Kat's reaction on the next page helps somewhat. The fact that Tom Siddell didn't add a little snippet of wit at the bottom and instead just left it blank lends to how sad that page really is.
  • From Chapter 25: Sky Watcher And The Angel
    • Pretty much the entirety of the chapter, where we learn the details behind she died and we did nothing.
    • Skywatcher's monologue at the end of that chapter:

"I continue to turn my face upwards, measuring the same temperature, the same humidity, radiation and thousands of other variables. But now a new metric has been added. The number of angels I have seen is "one". And I will keep watch for more."

    • The Bookends around the most directly depressing section do a good job of showing how context is the difference between Narm and Tearjerker.
    • Especially when coupled with Chapter 30.
  • From Chapter 26: The Old Dog's Tricks
    • There's something very quietly heartbreaking about Ysengrin's body, and the way it has withered away from the proud wolf he once was. And more than that, Ysengrin seems to be deeply resentful of his own physical weakness without the suit of bark armor he wears. To see such a proud figure filled with such self-loathing is, in its own way, quite painful. In Coyote's own words, he seems so... pathetic despite his anger, pride and hate.
  • From Chapter 30: The Coward Heart
  • From Chapter 31: Fire Spike
  • From Chapter 33: Give And Take
    • Kat "deactivating" the robot at his request at the end.
      • Then there's the next page after that...

Robot: Let it be known. In this tomb of ancients, the angel called forth a spirit of the dead. You see how easily she gave life, and how easily she took it away.

  • From Chapter 35: Parley and Smitty Are In This One
    • Shadow 2 was kicked out of the forest by his own family for not hating the people of the court.
  • From Chapter 37: Microsat 5
    • It starts right from the beginning, with Annie's reaction to being called by her father. Then, it gets worse when she learns that he was just using a code, with Annie's name as part of the code - in other words, he wasn't even calling her.
  • Pretty much the entirety of Chapter 47: See Ya!. Oh, Lord, Mort....
  • Chapter 51: The Tree: Anthony Carver is back, and he's incredibly cold to his daughter. Even Winsbury is shown to be furious about it. Annie is, of course, devastated. Then in Chapter 53: Annie And The Fire, Donald Donlan uses the blinker stone to let Annie eavesdrop on why her father's being like that.

Donald: Antimony, what you just saw doesn't excuse anything he did... I just wanted you to see this side of him. I'm not sure how else you would.

    • Anthony refers back to Zimmy punching him in Chapter 38. He hadn't known at that point he was draining Annie's life energy. He's grateful to whoever punched him.