Spoilers will be unmarked.
- Ian might act like a dick most of the time, but it's clear that being rejected by Brendan when he tries to reconnect hits him really hard. Even more so considering the fact that he is genuinely remorseful about unmasking him at the convention.
- Further driven home when Ian's own relationship with his abusive father is revealed, as well as his beloved but unstable mother whose unreliability landed Ian in his father's custody. Ian wants to be a good parent to Brendan, he just has no idea how to do it.
- "A Dark Quiet Death" tracks a Creator Couple as the clash between the need to make art and run a business breaks down what had once been a very happy marriage.
- Their reunion at the very same store they had met over a decade earlier, her now married to another man with kids and him apologetic. It's clear there's still something there but each knows they ruined what they once had. Especially Doc as she leaves and he's surrounded by the bargain bin games that represent what became of the empire he thought he was building.
- The final shot as Doc finds their game, once one of the hottest in the world, now selling in a bargain bin, touching the logo on it as he remembers the great times they had before walking out.
- The quarantine episode. Poppy is show working feverishly on creating a vaccine to Blood Ocean, and continues to do so even after she's finished and told by both David and Ian to stop. A worried Ian then tries to video call Poppy, and discovers that she's not handling the lockdown well at all, bursting into tears and telling him that, if she doesn't work, all she's stuck with is her loneliness. It does lead to one of the biggest moments of Heartwarming for the series though, as Ian goes to her apartment to comfort her.
- The revelation that Brad's brother, Zach, is a horrible human being. He and Brad were forced to kill pigs as children, with Brad unable to, so Zach did it himself and mocks him to this day about "Kate."
- Also, he makes everyone think that it's Brad's birthday and gives him a cake... which is a reminder of Brad's former eating disorder.
- He also calls Brad "Motu", even after having told David that Brad had an eating disorder. In Hindi, "Motu" means "fatso". And Brad internalizes it during a moment alone in the bathroom when he calls himself "fat". He's also internalized misogynistic language, the implication being that's what their dad did.
- Just the sight of Brad - arrogant, egotistical, smug Brad -reduced to barely holding back tears and begging Zach "don't take my game away" is stunning and shows how much pain hides under his supposedly tough persona. He even calls Zach "Bhaiyaa", which means "brother" in Hindi. Zach forced his brother to regress his speech patterns back to their childhood in order to have that much more control over Brad and remind him that Zach only sees Brad as a weak, small child.
- Also, he makes everyone think that it's Brad's birthday and gives him a cake... which is a reminder of Brad's former eating disorder.
- The ending of "Please Sign Here". Ian took a huge step forward in revealing a truth about himself - he's terrified that Poppy is the younger, smarter version of him and that Mythic Quest is the only good idea he'll ever have. Even Carol is impressed with his candour and self-awareness. In response, Poppy is supposed to say what she's really afraid of back. Because she's been trying so hard to be an alpha and hide her insecurities, Poppy is flippant and dismissive. When Carol finally leaves, Poppy tries to tell Ian what she needs from him - to boost her self-esteem so she can feel confident enough to work on her expansion. In response, Ian tells her she's going to fail without his help and they both know it, before leaving her alone in the office. The two of them have fought over so much before, but they've always come out of it stronger and still caring about each other. Season 2 has shown a slow, but clear dissolution of their partnership and this moment feels like a last straw.
- There are happy tears in "Peter" when Anne's daughter reveals she knew about, and was proud of, CW's work on MQ due to her remembering his prediction about video games.
- In the season 3 episode "Sarian", we get a glimpse of Ian's childhood. His mother, while loving and nurturing of Ian's creativity, clearly suffers from bipolar disorder. She exhibits frightening levels of hypermania before crashing into a depressed state to the point where she can't even get out of bed to take Ian to school... or when she hears Ian calling for her, begging her to "wake up," as his father drags him out of the house.
- We also see that both Ian and Poppy carry forward traits of their childhood trauma: Ian's "thinking/deliberation" pose is the same one his dad does when taking custody of him, and Poppy's insistence on referring to other programmers as losers and "Freakazoids" is the same terminology her implied Big Sister Bully used during Poppy's friendless childhood.
- In "To Catch A Mouse," Poppy finds Ian sulking on the roof and is visibly taken aback when he cuts their usual banter short with a flat "Shut the fuck up." The increasingly bitter argument has them both admit that they feel like the other is abandoning them, said in ways that the other person doesn't understand, and it ends with Poppy holding back tears as she accuses Ian of not wanting to work on Hera because it's not his game.Ian: ...(quietly) No.Poppy: (visibly struggling not to cry) I knew it. ... I fucking knew it.
- As Poppy leaves, Ian pleads that he tried; but he's no better at making himself do what he doesn't want than his child self was in "Sarian," and Poppy is so hurt that she completely shuts him down.
