History TearJerker / TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes

** A meta example resulting from this would be the team shots at the end of the opening sequence, and see how the team dwindles with each episode. At some point, the Avengers are just reduced to Captain America, Hawkeye and the Wasp. And Captain America is actually a Skrull.

-->'''Bucky:''' Sorry, Cap!

-->'''Bucky:''' "Sorry, Cap!"
-->'''Captain America:''' "Stow that talk, we'll make it!"
-->'''Bucky:''' "No, I mean sorry, but the world needs Captain America more than Bucky!"
-->''(Bucky kicks Cap off of the missile)''
-->'''Captain America:''' "[[LittleNo No!]] [[BigNo NO!]] [[SayMyName BUCKY!]]"
-->''(Bucky salutes as the missile jets away before exploding)''

-->"I should have never woken up. I'm a soldier, not some future man. I can't imagine a world that's changed so much still needs... Captain America."

-->'''Wasp:''' "This is all your fault."
-->'''Mar-vell:''' "I know."
-->''(He takes the bomb into space.)''
-->'''Wasp:''' "Marvel. Marvel! No, I didn't mean--"

--> '''Wasp:''' "Should we move his hammer? Hulk maybe--"
--> '''Hulk:''' "Can't move it. Can't even lift it."
--> '''Wasp:''' "Why not?"
--> '''Hulk:''' "Because... [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield I'm not Thor.]]"

--->"I believed in you! I named myself after you! All this time I thought you were out there fighting for us, but you were just bringing your people back here to conquer us!"

-->'''Iron Man:''' "I started this team because I needed people I could count on, and now I can't. The Avengers are over as far as I'm concerned."

** Or, given the final shot of the episode, drifting in some other universe/dimension/plane of existence/whatever, living out the rest of his years in isolation, shame, and grief. Nothing quite says HeelRealization[=/=]WhatHaveIBecome like seeing your girlfriend scarred witless and crying, retorting to your claims of protecting her from the monsters with "The only monster I see... is you." Cue SingleTear from Korvac before his grand disappearing act. It's pretty heartwrenching no matter how you look at it.

* Blizzard's AlasPoorVillain moment, in that it's implied he gets killed by the Annihilation Wave. Given how he actually acted as a reasonably nice guy in that episode and Took a Level in Badass, it's somewhat upsetting.

* The Winter Soldier's origin story from "Winter Soldier" episode. Watching Bucky scream for Cap to help him. When we, the audience know he ''can't'' come. It's downright heartbreaking. And it's made all the worse by the fact that he looks and sounds 17 at the most. All this is being done to a ''child''.
* Seeing an angry and upset Hulk rampaging because of his unfair imprisonment is tragic at best. Seriously, by the end of the episode, you ''will'' want to kick General Ross in the face. HARD. Additionally, Hulk decides to become only a part-time Avenger at the end because of how few of the others gave a care about his imprisonment.

* When Black Widow frames Hawkeye of betraying SHIELD, she softly admits that she'll miss working alongside him. During the first viewing of this episode, it feels hard to tell whether or not she means it, so it doesn't get especially depressing until 18 episodes later. [[spoiler: Widow tells Hawkeye that she really felt guilty, but the two of them also agree that any of her other possible actions could have ruined Nick Fury's plans.]]

* Despite claiming that he wouldn't wish for anything, the instant Captain America touches the Cosmic Cube [[spoiler: Bucky comes back to life. He missed his partner so much, he unconsciously overcame the Baron's wishes.]]
* The team mourning [[spoiler: Thor's loss]] in "The Ultron Imperative" is driven home by this exchange:
--> '''Wasp:''' [[spoiler:"Should we move his hammer? Hulk maybe--"]]
--> '''Hulk:''' [[spoiler:"Can't move it. Can't even lift it."]]
--> '''Wasp:''' [[spoiler:"Why not?"]]
--> '''Hulk:''' [[spoiler:"Because... [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield I'm not Thor.]]"]]

* The Kree separating Michael Korvac from his girlfriend for [[spoiler:two years]]. By the time he finally makes it back to Earth, [[spoiler:he gets a reputation as an intergalactic murderer, and his new powers scare his girlfriend away. Adam Warlock's comment that Korvac was no longer in their plane of existence suggest that he was DrivenToSuicide by this reaction]].
** Or, given the final shot of the episode, [[spoiler:drifting in some other universe/dimension/plane of existence/whatever, living out the rest of his years in isolation, shame, and grief. Nothing quite says HeelRealization[=/=]WhatHaveIBecome like seeing your girlfriend scarred witless and crying, retorting to your claims of protecting her from the monsters with "The only monster I see... is you." Cue SingleTear from Korvac before his grand disappearing act.]] It's pretty heartwrenching no matter how you look at it.

* Paranoia about Skrulls causes the Avengers to lose trust in each other. [[spoiler:Three]] of them, [[spoiler:Black Panther, Iron Man, and Ms. Marvel]] even quit the team.

** The next scene of Tony shows him alone in his office, staring at his mask as it sits on the desk. [[spoiler:In anguish, he throws the mask against a wall.]]

* In "Nightmare In Red", [[spoiler:Hulk is framed of a crime he didn't commit, and forced by the Skrull Cap to stand down. He turns back into Bruce Banner, to see General Ross grinning like a smug predator.]] He cries out not to be arrested, before being shocked into submission. All while Skrull Cap just stands there.
* In "Prisoner Of War" it is hinted that something very horrible happened to [[spoiler: Madame Viper, which gave her scars on the right side of her face, and we learn something in her past inspired her to hate people like Captain America]]. We don't know what exactly happened, but it must have been something very horrible and traumatic. It is possible that [[spoiler: [[FridgeHorror Madame Viper was completely normal person, but through some awful unknown means she got those horrible scars, and became angry and vicious supervillain]]]]. Even after Captain America showed genuine concern and compassion for Viper and [[spoiler: saved her from Super Skrull]], Viper still refuses to see Cap as a friend and says that they will be enemies after Skrulls are defeated.

* "Along Came a Spider" opens with [[spoiler: Tony and Steve finding the Captain America and Bucky memorial destroyed. The Bucky statue is intact, but the Cap statue's been beheaded. The policeman at the scene explains that a mob of angry, "ordinary" people defaced the statue. Later on in the episode, we see more ordinary people turned against Cap and branding him a traitor to humanity.]]
* Blizzard's [[spoiler:AlasPoorVillain moment, in that it's implied he gets killed by the Annihilation Wave]]. Given how he actually acted as a reasonably nice guy in that episode and Took a Level in Badass, it's somewhat upsetting.

** Before [[spoiler: the robot Avengers captured Ms. Marvel and Thor]], Iron Man told Ms. Marvel that she doesn't do a good enough job at acting like an Avenger, and Thor that he should have never come to Earth. Both of them initially saw this as Tony Stark chastising all the hard work and contributions they've made for the team, [[spoiler: even though Robo-Iron Man actually criticized them]].
* Where to begin with "Yellowjacket"? The SanitySlippage of Hank Pym, [[spoiler: the apparent death of Hank Pym, the dedication of his memorial statue, the fact that crimefighters who previously only did guest spots (such as Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Spider-Man) also came to pay Hank their respects, the revelation that Hank actually faked perishing in the explosion so he could drive home the point that ThatManIsDead...And then after all that, Henry Pym still refuses to return as the scientific, well meaning idealist, despite the burst of scientific know-how in his mini-prison. It just feels so wrong that the team's scientific, happy and restrained Avenger might never come back the same again.]]
* In "Emperor Stark", what breaks Ms. Marvel out of [[spoiler: the Purple Man's control? Her overwhelming grief when she saw the fireball from Captain America and Hawk Eye's crashed hover bike, thinking both had perished.]]
* The Winter Soldier's origin story from "Winter Soldier" episode. [[spoiler:Watching Bucky scream for Cap to help him. When we, the audience know he ''can't'' come. It's downright heartbreaking.]] And it's made all the worse by the fact that he looks and sounds 17 at the most. All this is being done to a ''child''.
* Seeing an angry and upset Hulk rampaging because of his unfair imprisonment is tragic at best. Seriously, [[spoiler:by the end of the episode, you ''will'' want to kick General Ross in the face. HARD.]] Additionally, Hulk decides to become only a part-time Avenger at the end because of how few of the others gave a care about his imprisonment.
* Black Panther's [[spoiler:DisneyDeath HeroicSacrifice]] in "Operation Galactic Storm".

* The season as a whole ends on a FridgeHorror one. [[spoiler:Surtur is a KarmaHoudini, meaning that the being that committed genocide against the Korbinites and the dwarves, imprisoned Amora, and unleashed Loki back on Earth]] ''still hasn't been punished''. [[TheWoobie Poor Amora may never be free...]]

* Hawkeye and Black Panther again stop Kang from taking over 21st century Earth in "King Solomon's Frogs," but look at it from the perspective of Kang's WellIntentionedExtremist side. [[spoiler: He has Ravonna back, alive and well. The Avengers will proceed to heed his warning and stop the sun from exploding, as later seen in the show. Kang's 31st century empire is safe. However, he and Ravonna can not return to it now that they've lost their only means of escaping Ancient Egypt]]. Then again, [[MotiveDecay that side of Kang might have died off in season 2.]]
* "Absolute Zero" ends with the implication that the inventor of the Zerobomb [[spoiler: killed himself to prevent the Soviets from using any weapons made by him]].

* Black Widow apologizing to Hawkeye about all the suffering he went through after she framed him.

-->'''Wasp:''' [[spoiler:"This is all your fault"]]
-->'''Mar-vell:''' [[spoiler:"I know"]]
* Then he takes the bomb into space.
-->'''Wasp:''' [[spoiler:"Marvel, Marvel. No, I didn't mean"]]

-->'''Mar-veil:''' [[spoiler:"I know"]]

-->'''Wasp:''' [[spoiler:''This is all your fault'']]
-->'''Mar-veil:''' [[spoiler:''I know'']]

-->'''Wasp:''' [[spoiler:''Marvel, Marvel. No, I didn't mean'']]

==>'''Wasp:''' [[spoiler:''Marvel, Marvel. No, I didn't mean'']]

* Seven words
-->'''Wasp:''' [[spoiler:This is all your fault]]
-->'''Mar-veil:''' [[spoiler:I know]]

* "The Last American Dream" traps Steve Rogers in a dream in which he never becomes a HumanPopsicle, but instead marries Peggy Carter, has children and grandchildren, and oversees new crimefighters carry on Captain America's legacy. Then {{Sleepwalker}} barges in and tells Steve this timeline is AllJustADream.