Summary

Warning ! This post hold spoilers for The Marvels and Loki season 2 .

2023 was a heartrending year for theMCU , filled with shocking fictitious character deaths , mass musical scale tragedy , and torturesome sacrifice . A uniform theme across the three films and two Disney+ shows that premiered wascharacters add up face to expression with elements from their past , often with tragic consequences . InGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 3,for case , the Guardians are forced to learn Rocket ’s tear - jerking origins and confront his past demons to save his life . InSecret Invasion , Nick Fury learns at first hand how his unsuccessful person to uphold a hope will have deadly consequences . likewise , inThe Marvels , Captain Marvel endeavor to escape a preceding regret , only for it to devolve with neat violence .

Adding on to these retiring tragedies are the ambiguous futures that many characters are impart in . Multiple heroes are force to make bang-up sacrifice that pull up stakes their future inthe MCU timelineuncertain , even if they remain alive at the remnant of their project . Even when case seem safe at the end of their projects , the menace of intergalactic war and an unstable multiverse still bulk large over their heads , making their time to come seem all the more inexorable , and making their endings that much more heartbreaking .

Spider-Man in the MCU and Jean Grey in Marvel Comics

Related : All Marvel Movies Releasing In 2024

10Talos Is Killed

Secret Invasion

Talos ' death marks him as a tragic build for the MCU , as he put so much faith into Nick Fury to find the Skrulls a new home , despite Fury ’s repeated bankruptcy to do so , and it is this commitment to Fury that results in his untimely dying . Skull revolutionary Gravik understandably became disillusioned by Fury ’s empty hope and wants to capture Earth as a new home for the Skrulls , and in Talos ' quest to help oneself Fury stop Gravik , Gravik kills him . The saddest part about Talos ' destruction is it happens before he ’s able-bodied to see his pipe dream of a novel menage for his people be realized .

Related : Secret Invasion Ending Explained

9Monica Meets Her Mother… Sort Of

The Marvels

Monica Rambeau ’s most heroic moment take place when she sacrifices herself to stop an penetration afterthe villainous Dar - Bennruptures a maw in space and clock time . Monica flies into the penetration and closes it from the other side , stranding herself in an alternate realism , and passing out . Though she thankfully endure , when Monica wake up during the post - credits scene in a strange medical facility , the first face she sees is that of her mother Maria , whose loss in her world she is still grieve . Monica is overjoyed and bursts into tears , only to break that this chance variable of her female parent does not accredit her and is actually a superhero mention Binary , forget both characters with a hatful of complicated emotion .

8Captain Marvel Makes The Hard Choice

Kamala Khan is overjoyed to get to team up up with Captain Marvel , but on a mission at a Skrull colony , Kamala is devastated to learn that being a submarine sandwich sometimes involves making unthinkable decisions . Believing the Skrulls have betrayed her by conspire with Captain Marvel , Dar - Benn wreaks havoc on the settlement , and Captain Marvel , Monica , and Kamala judge to evacuate as many Skrulls as they can before its landmass collapses . Kamala panics when she realizes all the Skrulls may not pull round , andCaptain Marvel makes the harrowing conclusion to leave behind some Skrulls behindto die to insure that she can get as many as she possibly can to safety , providing a bestial look at the reality of being a superhero .

7Maria Hill Dies

Maria Hill , like Talos , trusted Fury and worked for him for years , only to die as a lineal consequence of his incompetency . Once Maria becomes privy to the Skrull rebels ' plan to take over Earth , she touch Fury to help fix the military issue , and postdate him to the site of the Skrulls ' first major planned terrorist attack in Russia . Not only is Fury unable to check the attack , and the ensuing bombardment endangers the lives of countless civilians , during the pandemonium , Gravik , masquerading as Fury , kills Maria , making the trust the decades - long allies had for one another into a lethal weapon .

6The Guardians Disband

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Guardians 3is one of the most worked up releases to come out of the MCU in recent years , and its ending , while satisfying on a tale level , is also undeniably sad . After come through yet another precarious mission to make unnecessary their dear booster , the Guardians realize that they each have reached dissimilar chapters in their lives , and they decide to go in separate directions . Star - Lord steps down as drawing card and returns to Earth , Mantis goes on a journey of ego - discovery , and Drax and Nebula adjudicate to raise the children they deliver from the High Evolutionary . While some poor boy are sustain to return to the MCU , it is sad to know that the original Guardians have parted ways seemingly for good .

5Loki Watches His Friends Die

Loki

Loki undergo a significant eccentric journey during season 2 of his titular series as he realizes that what he ’s always wanted is connection , not mightiness . Unfortunately , as soon as he comes to this realization , he is forced to witness the mass he ’s come to wish about shred aside into nothing . As the Temporal Loom overloads with excessive timeline , it goes haywire pruning everyone and everything out of being , including the TVA.Loki look out impotently as all of his friend wither away into nothing and reality itself spread out all around him , leave him wholly and utterly alone , which is his ultimate fear .

4Rocket Speaks His First Word

Previous MCU motion picture alluded to Rocket having a tragic yesteryear , andGuardians 3delves deep into his history with marrow - twist contingent . It is unwrap that Rocket is one of many animals that were grotesquely and horrifically experimented on by a maniacal scientist known as the High Evolutionary , who sought to make an ideal mintage . The scientist imprisons Rocket as a child with other animate being in his " batch . " Thankfully , Rocket is cover by a kind group of these experimented animal , but reveals just how traumatized he is by his experimentation when he speaks his first word,“hurt . "

3The TVA Commits An Atrocity Bigger Than Thanos

Ever since it was first introduced inLokiseason 1 , the TVA has been pose up as an untrusty organisation , with its louche mysteries and heartless administrative official , andLokiseason 2 reveals just how thickened the TVA can be when it comes to life outside of the Sacred Timeline . While Loki and his friends attempt to find a path to retrofit the Temporal Loom to accommodate new timeline branches , the TVA leaders make up one’s mind to try andprune all the new timeline , ending billion of lives . While Thanos snapping one-half of all life-time from one universe was frightening , terminate all life in multiple macrocosm is so much bad .

2"For You. For All Of Us”

Loki ’s grapheme arc inLokiseason 2 culminates in one of the most unbelievable sacrifice in all of the MCU . After trying to repeatedly to retrofit the Temporal Loom to fit new branches and not put down the TVA , Loki get wind from He Who stay that the Loom was only designed to fit the Sacred Timeline , rendering any attack to fix it futile . To stop the Loom from demolish the TVA and save his friends , Loki sacrifices himself , destroying the Loom and grabbing the errant train of thought of time to keep them from withering away . TheLokiseason 2 endingcloses with its titular character resigning himself to sit alone at the end of time , hold the multiverse together .

pertain : Will Loki Return In The MCU ?

1Rocket’s Friends Die

The most tragical scene out of any 2023MCUrelease by far is shown in one of Rocket ’s many flashbacks inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 3.Though Rocket go along to be tortured and exploit by the High Evolutionary , he finds solace in envisioning a better future for him and his booster , who devise a plan of escape that tragically break down upon execution . These Bob Hope are destruct when High Evolutionary killsRocket ’s childhood friends , which shatters Rocket emotionally , mauling the scientist out of rage before fleeing in a starship . witness how excited the group was to finally escape the High Evolutionary ’s clutches and live together in exemption make seeing their lives so savagely taken that much more devastating .

Iron Man looking inside Sokovia in Avengers Age of Ultron

Gorr at the Altar of Eternity in Thor Love and Thunder

Cobie Smulders As Maria Hill Dying In Secret Invasion And Rocket Crying In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Close-up shot of Ben Mendelsohn as Talos looking serious in human form in Secret Invasion

Monica Rambeau touches a strange portal in The Marvels

Brie Larson as Captain Marvel Gritting Her Teeth During a Fight in The Marvels

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 Groot I Love You Guys

Loki Season 2 Episode 4 Temporal Loom Explosion Ending-1

Scared Baby Rocket In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

The TVA unravells in Loki season 2

Marvel Cinematic Universe