What makes a scene sad?

[DiegoPalacios]

Hi everyone, something that caught my attention is how fictional characters can make you feel.
And one of these feelings is sadness.

I know a sad scene involves a mix of readers caring for the characters, empathy and the tragedy of the situation. But i know there are other elements, like the delivery and other factors i may not have taken into account.

What do you think it makes a scene sad?, What scenes made you sad and why?

[Rosso]

this needs a more thoughtful reply
but what quickly comes to mind is how rain/overall atmosphere is used to setup the mood and all.
except sometimes you get stuff like this and it just hits harder, even without any context :")

[joannekwan]

I'll focus on a comic moment since musical score plays a big role in film and television, and it's hard to implement sound with a strictly visual medium.

I still think to this day the most emotional I got from a comic is the ending of the Haku and Zabuza arc in Naruto. It was done so well.
The large still panels showing the two together in their final moment draws emphasis to their relationship, even without the subtle body language/gestures it would still have an impact. But another element is the snow, which ties into the pair's overall theme. Having an element present in the sad scene that is relevant to the characters, and that possibly harkens back to an earlier time with them ups the sentimental value.

[potatogirl]

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[Ayumi]

@DiegoPalacios: Hard question. I can easily emphatize in a character's situation, and can easily cry. My husband always smiles at me, but this is me.
I think it is very important to simpathize with the character. Before you write a sad scene you must make your character likeable, connect him/her with the readers. I would say, you need to add a contrast in the story.

@Rosso: One of my favourite scene from my favourite anime/manga. It's perfect.

[storytimebiondi]

I think it is very important to simpathize with the character.

This is really the key to creating a sad scene. Creating a character that the audience can empathize with allows the writer to be able to play with the audience's emotions. If they're experiencing great success, the audience feels fulfilled. If sadness, the audience is sad.
Atmosphere can play a part in that, but really its how the audience relates to the character. If they can understand, and relate to the characters struggles, and then suddenly they have the rug pulled out from under them, it can cause all sorts of traumatic feelings in the audience.

[beta1042]

I think the pacing is pretty important. You have to make sure not to rush sad scenes, but if you drag them out too much they get boring. Also make sure to be expressing the emotions clearly in the art and the paneling. This includes showing their emotions, as well as knowing what parts not to show. Such as showing tear drops appearing on paper before showing the person crying. Showing some body language before showing the face, etc.

You can also establish the environmental setting to add more emotions... such as showing that it is raining outside. Or another example- Being in a cemetery and focusing on some little details that may trigger some people (little things on tombstones, flowers/decorations, etc). If there is an accident focus on how the sirens make noises. Some of this stuff relies on pulling out some people's own memories/experiences linked to sad events- if that makes sense.

[Chroma]

Honestly, this video explains it better than I could. I came across it in my research for my film classes, and it nails it completely.

Tl;dr for if you don't wanna watch the video, sadness is not created in the audience through the actions of the plot or characters, but in the characters' reactions. And for something to be truly tragic, it must be completely and utterly unfair. For an example from the video, the tragedy of Interstellar is that Cooper left Earth to create a better life for his kids, but since time moves differently throughout space, his kids grow up to resent him for leaving in the first place, since months for Cooper translated to years for them.

I highly recommend checking out the video though, it's super informative.

[Thaumana]

Great topic and some good points were mentioned so far. This particular piece about empathizing with the characters is the most crucial, sometimes also most underrrated aspect required for achieving those feels. I visited a seminar about story-telling and narrative visualization hold by a professor who also works as a producer and sreenwriter for quite a while and she told some interesting things about her experience regarding several triggers of emotional perception. She said even the most ordinary every day life situation or even an outlandish scenario can have an emotional impact as long as you are able to show that the challenge or the problem the character is facing is kinda important to them. It can be something trivial like meeting the deadline or keeping a promise, so if that's a serious matter for the acting person the audience can still feel invested about the lowest stakes. At some point their motivations and hardships became comprehensible then.

[DiegoPalacios]

Thanks for sharing this video Chroma!, that was incredibly helpfull

[lartianmartian1]

Scenes that bring on the waterworks, at least at this point in my life, tend to hit me on a surprisingly personal level, and they tend to be very layered. The super obvious tearjerker-for-the-sake-of-being tearjerker scenes rarely do it for me.

Death scenes don't have to be literal. They can be about the death of a friendship/relationship, or the death of someone's dreams. That hits me especially hard as someone who has yet to pursue her own.

A scene in the most recent season of BoJack Horseman involved a character finally giving up on her childhood dream, symbolized in one simple action. No dialogue needed to be spoken, and all of the scenes leading up to it gave it that full emotional impact. I should mention that this character was only just introduced this season, and the scene in question was from episode... 3? That just goes to show that you don't need a season's (or more) worth of buildup to have an effective emotional payoff, just decent writing. And have I mentioned how great this show is? It is such a great show, you guys.

Also, scenes can be both happy and sad, and thus be all the more impactful. Take the ending of Coco for instance. I get weepy just thinking about it. But in the best way

[Kann]

I think it's all about pacing and events that lead to the scene. Audience needs to get to know character and why that thing that happened is so sad to them, or else they won't get the sadness at all. Also it's better when it's subtle. Overdramatisation can ruin everything.

One scene that made me cry was, when I was reading a book and a funeral for a cat came up. I knew it was coming, but I wasn't prepared anyway and had to stop reading for a few minutes. xD

[monotone_ink]

A scene is saddest when there is a good build up behind the scene.
In a sense, if you want the viewer to feel sad, you need to give them reasons to feel sad - things such as injustice inflicted on someone, or generally a tragic loss.