Saddest Episode Aside From The Perfect Pear...?

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

Ending of Brotherhooves Social I think

[Thrond 3,258]

Just now, Ryanmahaffe said:

Ending of Brotherhooves Social I think

Ooh, yeah, good one. 

[ggg-2 3,551]

4 minutes ago, Ryanmahaffe said:

Ending of Brotherhooves Social I think

Agreed. Sad, but in the best way possible.

[Ganondorf8 11,151]

Initially, none of the episodes made me feel sad, but recent developments that have happened in my life made me realize that "Tanks for the Memories" is an episode that makes me sad--only on the inside as I rarely express sadness externally. I'd rather not say what those developments were as it would only make me feel even worse.

[CypherHoof 26,480]

Just now, Ganondorf8 said:

Initially, none of the episodes made me feel sad, but recent developments that have happened in my life made me realize that "Tanks for the Memories" is an episode that makes me sad--only on the inside as I rarely express sadness externally. I'd rather not say what those developments were as it would only make me feel even worse.

So, AJ-style "cry on the inside" then?

I think only the Diamond Tiara and Pear Butter songs make me tear up though.

[Ganondorf8 11,151]

35 minutes ago, CypherHoof said:

So, AJ-style "cry on the inside" then?

Pretty much unless I was really emotional that day in which I will cry.

[Truffles 2,033]

Although it didn't happen when I watched it live - presumably I was trying to pay attention to all the episode's details - a rewatch of "Equestria Games" during the S4-S5 hiatus really got to me. Like, really got to me.

In particular, the scene right when Twilight tells Spike he didn't actually light the torch - seeing him deflate like that in an instant, leaving his ego crushed, left me sobbing - even though I knew how the episode ended by then. Kudos to the animators and voice acting for creating such a gut-wrenching scene with Spike's emotions fully on display for all to see:

(And it's taken a bit of time to put this message together because it's still getting to me... )

[twilightsparkle3562 144]

How about when Twilight missed the Northern Stars in "Once Upon a Zeppelin"?  Surprised no one has talked about that moment yet.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

The Perfect Pear is the perfect sad episode of the entire series no matter how the end turned out, AJ parents are dead when she was young, Grand Pear lived his remaining life in regret, that's tragic.

Beside the perfect sad one, I think Flight to Finish is another sadder episode of the show, seeing Scootaloo try to flight even we know it's impossible is like a torture porn and I am not having fun with it, its just hopeless and depressing and even the happy end in the end wont help.

Brotherhoove Social is a sad one even in the beginning of the episode set the mood already and the end just hit us like a truck.

Tanks for the Memories failed to make a genuine emotional episode, the crying scene is great, the five stage of grief is very subtle but its not like Tank is going to die or anything, the episode didn't even try to convince us the hibernate is harmful to Tank or anything, it's just RD being selfish and just want to play with her pet in winter.

The scene Twilight missed the Northern Stars is very emotional, the episode sudden became emotional from nowhere, I don't know whether it counts or not.

Amending Fences is already a sad one in its face, no amount of funny moments of this ep even the joyful pony like Minutte cant cover this episode tone, the party scene is downright heartbreaking.

Some notable gut-wrenching moments in Parental Glideance, Hurricance Fluttershy, Equestria Games, Once Upon a Zeppelin, Do Princess Dream,  make those episode more than just fun and exciting episodes.

Random: If we summary Starlight life until Uncommon Bond, that's depressing.

[ultrairongorilla 2,064]

Amending Fences, Magical Mystery Cure, Tanks For The Memories, the last act of The Cutie Remark, and parts of the movie too.

Spoiler

Tempest's backstory and the whole scene when Twilight snaps at Pinkie both were really heart breaking.

 

[King of Canterlot 9,595]

There are multiple sad episodes that I can think of, one that sticks out the most though would be "Tanks for the memories", that one had my eyes watering up when they were all crowded around RD's bed. I can also think of some sad moments in a few other episodes too though, such as in the premiers of season 4 when Celestia was shot down by Nightmare Moon and Twilight was crying over her. Also in the more recent episode "Once upon a zeppelin" I did feel bad for Twilight when she missed out on the comet show. There's a lot of episodes though that make these 7 seasons, so I'm probably missing a few other sad moments too that I can't think of right now.   

[Sparklefan1234 163,399]

I don't know if this counts, but I've always thought "A Canterlot Wedding Part 1" was pretty sad, TBH.

First, nopony believing Twilight Sparkle when she had a feeling something was wrong with Princess Cadance &

finally, the ending where everypony leaves Twilight Sparkle all alone after she disrupted the wedding rehersal. 

Edited February 25, 2018 by Sparklefan1234

[ChB 18,532]

All of the above answers, plus Twilight's Kingdom

Spoiler

 

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,153]

On 2/20/2018 at 5:34 PM, twilightsparkle3562 said:

How about when Twilight missed the Northern Stars in "Once Upon a Zeppelin"?  Surprised no one has talked about that moment yet.

Oh, I forgot about that! That was a moment I could relate to, and seeing her do crushed after missing that broke my heart. I was in tears during the commercial break. 

[Will Guide 21,331]

To this day, I still considered S4's "Testing Testing 123" and S6's "Flutter Brutter", to be not only among the only episodes that made me actually cry sad tears, but legitimately made relatable characters to me. What with Rainbow Dash's frustration with studying and feeling like she's too dumb to learn anything in the former and Zephyr Breeze being so afraid of failure that he doesn't even try in the latter. Seeing them succeed despite their fears and worries helped push me to finally graduate from University myself.

[Hierok 11,829]

On 20-2-2018 at 10:10 PM, Ryanmahaffe said:

Ending of Brotherhooves Social I think

Totally forgot about that one, but that is indeed a sad moment, but also Big Macs greatest moment of the show. 

[CypherHoof 26,480]

On 23/02/2018 at 6:49 PM, Lambdadelta said:

Tanks for the Memories failed to make a genuine emotional episode, the crying scene is great, the five stage of grief is very subtle but its not like Tank is going to die or anything, the episode didn't even try to convince us the hibernate is harmful to Tank or anything, it's just RD being selfish and just want to play with her pet in winter.

I think that is a little unfair; RD is being selfish only to the extent that she has learned how wonderful it is to have companionship, and the thought of that being taken away (even if only for a few months) was too painful for her to accept; she loves Tank, and doesn't want to be parted from them, and that is not a bad thing. Shippers would probably rather Dashie felt that way about a special somepony of their choice instead, but that's a different matter

[gingerninja666 487]

IT didn't make me cry, but I find Uncommon Bond to be a pretty somber episode just because of how relateable it is. Helplessly watching a friend you've loved since childhood growing apart from you.

 

All of Starlight's happiest memories are from her childhood, and that's just a bit sad.

[CypherHoof 26,480]

 

3 minutes ago, gingerninja666 said:

All of Starlight's happiest memories are from her childhood, and that's just a bit sad.

I think she may have ideallized them. However, I think the spell, and Sunburst's reaction to it, is interesting.

GlimGlam believes her childhood was when she was TRUELY happy; that says a lot about how she sees her current role and friendships, but equally, I can see why "before it went all wrong" is appealing to her. Sunset however is rejecting ALL of what happened leading to his humiliation at celestia's school, including the years he spent with GlimGlam, and reacts badly to being pulled back there; While I do feel they both need to move forward and grow, perhaps the reason Sunset didn't communicate with GlimGlam after he left for school was because he didn't want her to know how badly the pony she had idolized had done when compared with the truely gifted (and lets face facts here, if the competition is ponies like Twilight, it would be hard to feel you can keep up, even for a fairly talented pony; that she had the advantage of being literally the Element of Magic probably make life a bit easier for her and by extension, harder for everyone else)

It is easy to assume they are both equally to blame - yes, Sunburst didn't write to Glimglam or invite her to visit (although given how overwhelmingly powerful GlimGlam really is, I have to wonder why she didn't get her own ticket to the school) but equally so, Glimglam could have reached out to Sunburst instead of just becoming increasingly bitter about it (although again, we don't know that she didn't send letters that went unanswered). GlimGlam's past is almost literally known only in what she chose to show Twilight, and that could have been her own biassed view of it.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

1 hour ago, CypherHoof said:

think that is a little unfair; RD is being selfish only to the extent that she has learned how wonderful it is to have companionship, and the thought of that being taken away (even if only for a few months) was too painful for her to accept; she loves Tank, and doesn't want to be parted from them, and that is not a bad thing

I can get over the fact that Dash want to play with her pet so badly but they don't have to make the episode in serious tone, it made the five stages of grief theme superficial because nothing is lost. 

1 hour ago, CypherHoof said:

GlimGlam believes her childhood was when she was TRUELY happy

That's the ultimate answer to Starlight Glimmer mystery behind her every action in the show so far.

[ShootingStar159 2,155]

I actually doubt many people found this moment as sad as I did, but Starlight’s line in Shadow Play, “I might have been banished to Limbo too,” was a pretty big gut punch the first time I saw it, and it still has an effect on me now. There’s a lot of emotions and subtext in that line that really gets to me.

[gingerninja666 487]

2 hours ago, CypherHoof said:

(although given how overwhelmingly powerful GlimGlam really is, I have to wonder why she didn't get her own ticket to the school)

My read of this after I saw the Crystalling (which I do think helps with some of the roughness of Star's backstory in Cutie Remark) is that Starlight actually didn't know how strong she was for a decent amount of time. We only ever see her performing magic after Sunburst does it first, and she said:

When we were foals, Sunburst knew everything there was to know about magic. He always knew just what to do. And he was always there to help me.

I think she only thought she was doing as well as she did because of Sunburst.

[CypherHoof 26,480]

14 minutes ago, ShootingStar159 said:

I actually doubt many people found this moment as sad as I did, but Starlight’s line in Shadow Play, “I might have been banished to Limbo too,” was a pretty big gut punch the first time I saw it, and it still has an effect on me now. There’s a lot of emotions and subtext in that line that really gets to me.

I agree with that one - Twi's hero worship repeatedly blinded her and pushed her into bad decisions though that entire episode, with GlimGlam's tearful statement causing her a few doubts, quickly dismissed by a little praise from Starswirl.

I am struck by the parallels here between GlimGlam's actions and Twilight's during the canterlot wedding though....

[gingerninja666 487]

I just realized a moment that made me tear up a little bit in a happy way.

 

Celestial Advice. That final bit between Starlight and Twilight. Where you can see how incredibly grateful Star is towards Twi.

[CypherHoof 26,480]

39 minutes ago, gingerninja666 said:

My read of this after I saw the Crystalling (which I do think helps with some of the roughness of Star's backstory in Cutie Remark) is that Starlight actually didn't know how strong she was for a decent amount of time. We only ever see her performing magic after Sunburst does it first, and she said:

When we were foals, Sunburst knew everything there was to know about magic. He always knew just what to do. And he was always there to help me.

I think she only thought she was doing as well as she did because of Sunburst.

It seems a reasonable theory; GlimGlam certainly had no doubts in her power by the time she founded the Village, but who knows how long passed before then?

Just now, gingerninja666 said:

I just realized a moment that made me tear up a little bit in a happy way.

Celestial Advice. That final bit between Starlight and Twilight. Where you can see how incredibly grateful Star is towards Twi.

Indeed; her panic when she thought she might be sent away was almost as intense as we see from Spike in the Crystal Empire episode; even in PoS, she prays that Twi knows what she is doing - not that Starswirl does. She is clearly content in her role as Twi's pupil.