Olympic Ceremony Makes Sochi Bear Very, Very Sad

Goodbyes are always tough, even if you're a giant robot Polar Bear in a questionable state of inebriation. The end of Sunday's 2014 Olympic closing ceremony was as extravagant and dream-like as the rest of the celebration (hell, the rest of the games), but it wouldn't have been complete without a reappearance of Sochi's three, terrifying — and teary — mascots.

The three animals — “The Polar Bear,” “The Hare,” and “The Leopard,”— were of course introduced to the quickly-traumatised Olympic audience during the opening ceremony, skating their eerily life-life way into the nightmares of children across the globe.

Clearly, though, the Olympic ceremony directors didn't think that Sochi Bear was creepy enough. During Sunday's closing ceremony in Sochi's Fisht Olympic Stadium, the three animals entered the stadium in all their life-like glory, dancing around the children and huddling beside the fire pit in the center of the floor. The Polar Bear breathed a sad sigh onto the Olympic torch, blowing out the fire and, at the same time, extinguishing the torch’s flame in Olympic Park. The Charmin-like bear then looked up and around at the audience, became overcome with emotion and shed a single, giant blue tear — marking the end of this year's surreal ceremonies (and personally giving me the heebie-jeebies.)

Seriously. Sweet or...sinister? Either way, it's goodbye for now to Sochi Bear.