Tearjerker moments from the There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton series.
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She Stole My Heart (and most of my valuables)
- Luz gets a nightmare vision from a dying Gremoblin's gaze. It first starts at her old school, where she experiences everything bad that happened there mashed together. Then Amity starts mocking her for having no inherent magic. Finally, she's told that Eda's been arrested and her mother has come to take her home, with it ending as her mother starts chewing her out.
- Just the fact that Eda mistook Ford for Stan's Alternate Self instead of his lost twin. It's tragic because Ford was that close to making it back to Earth and didn't even know it, something that they lament years later when they're all made aware.
- It's small, but the last chapter has a strong implication that Luz has suffered from racial discrimination in the past.
The Girl Who Could Knock Out the Hulk
- Despite the fact that she worked for him loyally and blew her Secret Identity saving lives during the Chitauri invasion, Jameson still fires Kara.
- Kara and Lena Luthor have a history: Kara was in love with Lena, but Lena was an Armored Closet Gay and rejected her.
- After what happened with Doom, Kara's decided to not include a skirt in her new suit, showing that she's lost a bit of her innocence.
- Kara having Strange keep some of the Kryptonite in case she ever gets brainwashed or something, despite the other Avengers protesting.
- As it turns out, Whiplash 2.0 was a homeless Russian girl who was abducted by Centipede and experimented on, turning her into a super soldier, but leaving her mute and psychologically unstable. Even the Avengers can't help but feel bad for her.
- The first chapter post-Arcadia opens on Kara looking at a diagram of Krypton's star system. Not only is it a sad reminder of what she's lost, but to make things even more heartbreaking, she can't find what's left of the planet anywhere.
- During their confrontation, Strange managed to see one of Doom's memories, of watching the Chitauri successfully invading Latveria. The implication is that Doom isn't in his own universe anymore because that version of Earth was destroyed. Even with how much of a bastard Doom is, one can't help but feel a tinge of pity for the man.
- It's later clarified that Doom is from the canon MCU, and had to live through his beloved homeland being almost totally depopulated by the Snap and then devastated by the aftereffects. He's since lived through numerous timelines as he and Reed have tried to create a Golden Ending, and had to watch Earth be destroyed by the Black Order numerous times, presumably including the above memory.
- While Kara's group passes through the Labyrinth, they reach a room where decorative urns recreate their worst memories. They smash the urns, but the dust just reforms to create a mural, which depicts Strange's car crash, Ellie melting as her physical form destabilizes, Thor's rampage across Jotunheim, Nico watching his sister's death, and Kara escaping Krypton's destruction. The last one has the most effect, Kara having a minor Freak Out over it.
- Doom subjects Kara to the Black Mercy, sticking her in her idealized reality where Krypton still exists and she's happily married to Lena. She tears up as she admits how perfect it all is, but still chooses to reject it because she knows it's not real.
- Kara learns that she’s not only from Earth-16, she would have died if Doom hadn’t pulled her into her current universe.
- Just about everything about the version of Reed working with Doom. He was the only member of the Fantastic 4 in the MCU who survived the Snap and had to live alone through the five years of Hell that followed until the Avengers brought everyone back. Since then, he's been helping Doom try and create a timeline where Earth is perfectly defended, which has involved having to live through numerous failures, not least of which was Ares damaging his body to the point Doom had to transfer his mind into a Doombot to survive. When he's talking to Kara, he's just so clearly broken by everything he's experienced.
- Furthering this, Kara questions why they didn't just go to the Avengers in the new timelines they created to warn them of the upcoming threat. Their answer? They did. Their first attempt resulted in the Avengers not believing them and all getting killed. Their second resulted in Thanos' death, but the Earth razed by the Black Order. The third had Victor take matters into his own hands and try to kill Thanos personally, which only resulted in the Black Order destroying Earth in retaliation for their lord's death. They've tried again and again, dozens of times over, only to constantly fail. While it doesn't justify what they've done, it's no wonder they've become so jaded.
- Hercules' rant about why he hates the gods so much truly spells out how much they've fucked over his life.
- In fact, Hecate even speculates that he's a Death Seeker who hopes that Doom will destroy him along with the rest of the gods.
- Hecate redirects Nico's Stygian Iron blade into a cultist when he tries to attack her, and Nico is rather horrified at the result.
- In this universe, Fury's aging has been halved due to contact with an alien artifact left behind by the Skull, so he's seen a lot more than his MCU counterpart has. Right before he tells Kara this, she notes that he seems tired.
Changing of the Guard
- In this universe Sandra Tennyson is a politician who barely pays her son any attention, with her husband enabling her. Gwen's parents, on the other hand, are controlling to the extreme, and Gwen's mother can barely remember how old she is. The Tennyson kids are rather bitter about their relationships with their respective parents, and its all the more saddening when one remembers how close they all were back in canon.
- To put it another way, Julie's parents were once rather controlling of their daughter...until they met Gwen's parents, who were so much worse that they had a Jerkass Realization and eased up on her.
- It's later revealed that Gwen's parents never wanted kids, and even if they did, Gwen wouldn't be "it". And they apparently told her this.
- Jim apparently never managed to come back from the Darklands in this universe, having been gone for the past three years. His mother is obviously just barely keeping it together.
- Kevin's view of Max is tainted by the discovery that Max lied to him about the nature of his parents' deaths.
- Hala stays on her ship's bridge to try and stop Vilgax from reaching Earth, saying to her crew when she forces them to leave that the Kree have a duty and debt to the people of Earth, with her survival ambiguous.
- Julie's mother is clued into her daughter's arm being missing in the worst possible way, seeing Ship upgrading and repairing the damaged prosthetic as Vilgax attacks.
- She and Julie's father don't take it any better when they realize that Julie's been keeping this from them for weeks, and then they have to watch her run off to join the fight against Vilgax.
- Vilgax destroys an entire neighborhood, and then threatens to target the evacuees to make Ben agree to surrender the Omnitrix.
- Speaking of Vilgax, he becomes surprisingly somber when admitting to Ben that he's been at the mercy of something truly vile. It starts to become clear exactly what Thanos did to his home planet when they last fought, and Vilgax is clearly in anguish over the death of his people. Even Ben gives him a little sympathy over it.
- When Vilgax goes into detail about how Thanos wiped out his entire species, Ben notes that under other circumstances he'd be tempted to give Vilgax a hug. That's how tragically he presents himself.
- Although part of why he left Myaxx in stasis was his potential loss of power, Vilgax is also genuinely worried that his actions would make her a target if anyone else heard of her, not wanting to lose another member of his species.
- Claire inadvertently delays Coulson's reunion with the Avengers by yanking him away to negotiate with the Trolls.
- Coulson later mourns the fact that he needs the Avengers to keep thinking he's dead, as otherwise it would completely shatter their trust in S.H.I.E.L.D., while he still believes in the organization.
- Despite Julie's urgings, Coulson still won't talk to the Avengers and let them know that he's alive yet, even though it's clear that it eats away at him to do so.
- As it turns out, trolls evolved on the same world as the Dark Elves, who treated them as slaves or pets. Even though that was centuries ago, the after effects were devastating and shaped them into near total isolationists.
Just Another Day at the Office
- Shepard is aware that she's not in her own universe, and is alone aside from EDI.
- At one point, she bumps into the local version of Wrex, who of course doesn't recognize her. Worse, this is implied to be a regular occurrence, showing just how isolated she is now.
- She later states to EDI that she can't bring herself to talk to Wrex because she fears looking into the eyes of someone she considered one of her best friends and seeing no recognition there.
- He might have been a real nasty piece of work, but it's just a bit saddening that not even his own sister will miss SixSix.
- Shepard and EDI were pulled out of their universe during the Final Battle with the Reapers, leaving her desperate to get back home in order to save everyone she loves.
- When Jane goes to Afterlife to meet Verdona and Max, she gets nostalgic for the bar from her own reality, which is just different enough from the one in the Kryptonverse to make her reminisce.
The Royal We
- When Power Girl intercepts the plummeting Akiridion ship, Aja in particular is briefly horrified that they killed her.
- Morando's coup has made the Tarrons so paranoid that once they realize that the Alien Force isn't as fully human as they seem, they immediately assume they must be a group of bounty hunters that Morando sent after them, even though it should be impossible for him to have found them that fast.
- Krel's grief over the events of the coup has left him bitter and acting like a condescending asshole towards the humans.
- Aja mournfully noting just how different Earth is from her home.
- Ben unfavorably comparing himself towards his grandfather. For as much as he's managed to accomplish in the brief time he's had the Omnitrix, he's still unsure if he'll be able to live up to his grandfather's legacy as a hero.
- All Aja wanted was a life of adventure, but the core of Seklos chose her to lead her people. Even with all the reverence her people have for Seklos, Aja still believes that it was a mistake, that she's unworthy.
To Rule Alone, to Build Together
- Chloe is an Armored Closet Gay, and a lot of her behavior towards Juleka and Rose, at least what isn't to try and throw people off, is because she's jealous that they can be open with who they are without shame when it's not so easy for her.
- Tikki's last wielder was Jeanne d'Arc. After what happened to her, can one really blame Tikki for going dormant for centuries?
- Pollen, talking to Chloe after the latter is healed from Hawk Moth stabbing her, reveals that Tikki told her about Jeanne, and notes that she can't blame her for hiding away for as long as she did. She also lets slip that she's mended far worse injuries than Chloe's in the past.
- Finding out that Marinette and Adrien are Ladybug and Cat Noir causes Chloe's insecurities to flare up, and she becomes briefly convinced that they were just stringing her along until they could convince her to give up the Bee Miraculous to them. Fortunately, they're able to convince her otherwise eventually, though she ends up crying herself to sleep from the pent up emotions afterwards.
- Chloe briefly recalling her reaction when her mother made it clear that she wasn't coming back, smoking an entire pack of cigarettes that she'd left behind just to get rid of any reminders of her.
- Chloe pretending to still be a jerk to Rose in order to deliberately get her akumatized so Juleka can find out who Hawk Moth is, which is clearly not something she enjoys, especially when she overhears her classmates jeer at her and call her change of heart a farce.
- The one time Chloe let herself get drunk, it was in reaction to overhearing her father talking with a homophobic priest and seemingly agreeing with his views.
- Master Fu, in this universe the last of the Guardians, attacks Queen Bee to reclaim Pollen from her. If Chloe didn't have enough insecurities about her lack of worthiness already, this certainly didn't help.
Thanatos Scowled
- Aside from the vision he had of her death, Nico has no memories of his mother at all. Poor boy could use a hug.
- Even after years of being a hero herself, Ellie can't help but compare herself to Danny and find herself wanting.
- Part of Dani's complex of viewing herself as lacking compared to Danny is because being stabilized apparently permanently stunted her power growth, and ghosts like Technus rub it in her face that she's weaker, believing that they can beat her as a result.
- Danny, Valerie, and Ellie tried to use the fact that Vlad didn't know of them burying the hatchet to set a trap and expose him. Unfortunately, Technus used his connection to Valerie's suit to discover the plot and rat them out to Vlad, and the older halfa overshadowed the head of the Guys in White to send them after Danielle to draw them out. When they caught her, they started experimenting on her, and while to their credit they stopped when they realized that she was half human, the result was so horrible that even Vlad was disturbed by it. Then, when Ellie realized that Vlad was responsible for what had happened to her, she decided to pull a Taking You with Me and ended up using her own body as fuel, killing Vlad and destroying the Guys in White base, nearly killing Valerie and Danny as well before dying herself. Luckily Clockwork showed up and let Danny change things, but Danny had to kill Vlad himself in order to save her, which he obviously feels tremendous guilt for even if Vlad had it coming.
- After Dani couldn't beat Undergrowth due to lacking An Ice Person powers, Danny went behind her back to the Guys in White and his parents to try and protect her; when she found out, it devastated their relationship and only added more fuel to Dani's insecurities.
- Part of Danny still wants to be a hero and help people, but having to kill Vlad to save Ellie, and the These Hands Have Killed guilt that followed in the fights he got into afterward, all of which wound up feeding into his fear of becoming like his Evil Counterpart, means that he just can't do it anymore right now.
Vespa Major
- Strange feels rather guilty about not noticing Bill in time to help Dipper, Mabel, and company fight him off.
That Which Drives Nerds to Change the World
- Tony still feels guilty about missing all the shady stuff Stane was doing at Stark Industries, and part of why he attends the SFIT showcase after years of ignoring Granville's invitations is to make sure that none of that shady stuff tied to the school, and to hopefully see some of the good things that came out of his apathy.
- Tony is forced to choose to save either Tadashi or Callaghan, and goes with the former. Throughout the whole thing, he reflects on what the right choice is, and it clearly eats away at him that he can't save both of them.
- Tadashi is severely injured when Tony has to use repulsors on him to get him out of the building before it blows, and he's clearly beating himself up about it even if it was the only way to save him.
- Xavier knew Callaghan as well, and expresses clear regret at his death.
Close Encounters of the Gem Kind
- Pidge's mother doesn't even know that she's alive. It's a pretty big case of parental worries for both Pidge's mother and Allura when she first hears it.
- The Paladins are ready to head back to Earth, only to receive a distress signal in Altean that causes them to change course to Etheria. While understandable, it's disheartening that their reunions with their families are cut short once again.
Eternity in Promise
- Adora musing sadly over how she's never seen another First One, alive or dead, other than the images of Mara.
- The First Ones turn out to be Alteans who managed to survive the Galra purge, but only by completely eliminating everything that made them recognizably Altean using alchemy to repress it, sealing away their shapeshifting, pointed ears, and facial markings. And then they were apparently wiped out by Horde Prime anyway.
- Catra frequently has nightmares from everything that she's experienced.
From His Vantage Upon the Moon
- It's a small moment, but Thor is shown to be upset at how worship of his people has been incorporated by Neo-Nazi groups, turning the symbols and myths he helped inspire into tools of fear and destruction.
- Chapter 4 confirms that the Paladins' families all believe them to be dead. Though it's thankfully downplayed since they were able to briefly get back to Earth and reassure their families that they're still alive, Pidge's mom still doesn't know her child it out there.
- While Kassandra and Zagreus' interactions and attempts to cheer Loki up are heartwarming, they're also undercut by how this is set many millennia before the Battle of New York and Loki's eventual fall to evil. This makes it clear that Loki had actual, genuine friends among other pantheons. One has to wonder how they'd feel if they saw what became of him.
- T’Challa feels rather guilty for hacking JARVIS, even if it was for a noble cause.
- Hearing about it was bad enough, but in Chapter 9 we actually get to see Reed witnessing the rest of the Fantastic 4 being erased by the Snap, and how it breaks him.
- In a brief moment of humanity, Doom laments the destruction of the Sokovian hospital where his mother was treated for blood loss after birthing him in a refugee camp.
- The relationship between T'Chaka and Erik/N'Jakada is frosty at best, due to what happened to the latter's father. Even if things are better between them here than in the main timeline, it's still a saddening reminder that T'Chaka's past mistakes haunt him to this day.
- As it turns out, Nora actually stole Jenny from the Cluster instead of making her, and Nora can't bring herself to tell Jenny the truth.
