Welcome to part 2 of my Top 10 Most Heart-Breaking Arrowverse Moments. This list will be exploring the top 5 most hear-breaking moments in the entire Arrowverse’s history, so if you missed my previous list covering the 10 – 6 positions, please go check that out first! As always, I understand that there may be much debate in regards to moments which are not on these lists, or moments you just think deserve to be higher, or not on the list at all. However, I will continue to attempt to explain why I feel each moment deserves its respective place on the list. Now, with that said, let’s get into the top 5 most heart-breaking Arrowverse moments!
5. Lena Betrays Kara
At number 5, the second Supergirl moment on this list, we are looking at the moment in episode 7 of Season 5 of Supergirl where Lena Luthor betrays Kara Danvers (Supergirl), revealing to her that she has been manipulating her for the entire season. Some viewers of this list might disagree with the placement of this scene, but I am placing it here simply because of how important the Lena-Kara friendship is, not only to the show in general, but to both of these women. As after this scene, we got basically an entire rest of the season with the two women moping about, still upset over their broken friendship. It also very much helps that this scene gives us two incredible performances from both Katie McGrath, and Melissa Benoist.
In this particular scene Kara and Lena are in the Fortress of Solitude and have just defeated Rama Khan. However, Kara then finds Lena with Myriad (a Kryptonian mind control device from season 1) in her hands, confusing her. Lena then admits to Kara that she has been manipulating her for the last few months, as she found out Kara is Supergirl from her dying brother, after she killed him. Kara is of course shocked, and heart-broken by the news, and begins to cry, asking Lena why she didn’t come to her, and let her explain. Lena then screams at Kara, telling her she killed her brother for her and their friends, saying “Don’t you know what you have done!”. Then after this, before Kara can make any further attempts to talk with Lena, Lena activates a mode she has installed into the Fortress, trapping Kara in Kryptonite laced ice. Kara is shocked by this and in her devastation asks Lena if she is going to kill her. Lena then says she is not, before activating her portal watch and leaving the fortress, leaving Kara trapped in the Fortress, crying for her lost friendship, and utterly devastated.
4. Zoom Murders Henry Allen
Season 3 of The Flash was a pretty devastating one for fans of the show, as in the same season we not only got the death of HR Wells, but the death of Barry’s father, Henry Allen too.
Henry Allen is killed towards the end of Season 3 by Hunter Zolomon, otherwise known as Zoom, right in front of Barry, with Zoom vibrating his hand through Barry’s fathers chest. This scene is made even more devastating by the context that Barry’s father has just made the decision to move back to Central City to spend some more time with Barry, which he hasn’t done since being release from prison at the beginning of season 2, previously explaining that he needs to let Barry grow without him there. The result of this scene, leaves Barry absolutely distraught, having (by this point) witnessed the death of both of his birth parents first hand.
3. Oliver Says Goodbye to Felicity & Mia
The final shortened season of Arrow had many heart-breaking moments, but one of the worst moments of the entire show actually comes at the end of season 7, in a moment that sets up Oliver Queen’s final journey for season 8.
At the end of season 7, a pregnant Felicity Smoak and Oliver leave Star City behind, moving to a remote area where they can raise their daughter, Mia, in private, without the risk of the world knowing about her. The family truly seem like they get their happy ending, with us seeing moments of Oliver and Felicity being happy together, Felicity giving birth to Mia Smoak/Queen, and the family then sharing loving moments together. However, this all soon comes to an end, with the appearance of The Monitor, who tells Oliver “it is time”. Oliver is surprised by The Monitor’s appearance, thinking that he had much more time to spend with his family, while a confused Felicity watches on. The Monitor then explains that Oliver is needed to help him prepare for the Crisis that is coming. As a result of this, we finally get the expanded scene from that season’s Elseworlds crossover, where we see Oliver making a deal with The Monitor, agreeing to help in the coming Crisis as long as The Monitor spares Barry and Kara from their fated deaths, which was supposed to occur during Elseworlds.
Felicity is devastated by the news, and asks Oliver not to go, but Oliver tells his wife he has to. However, before Oliver leaves he ask The Monitor what he is hiding from them, and that is when The Monitor reveals that he has seen the future, and no matter what, in this upcoming Crisis, Oliver Queen is fated to die. This leaves Felicity even more destroyed as Oliver says one final goodbye to his baby daughter and his wife, before leaving them to head off on his final mission.
2. Barry Doesn’t Save His Mother
One of the biggest driving forces of The Flash is the death of Nora Allen, who was murdered by a time travelling Reverse-Flash while he battled a future version of Barry Allen. However, at the end of Season 1 of The Flash, Eobard Thawn (The Reverse Flash) gives Barry the opportunity to travel back in time and save his mother from being murdered, which will ultimately change the timeline. Barry agrees to this, and travels back in time preparing to save his mother, but when he arrives, while he hides behind a doorway, watching his future self fight the Reverse Flash, his future self sees him and sticks out his hand, telling Barry not to interfere. Barry then has to watch as he allows his mother to be murdered, yet again. Then after this, once the two future speedsters have left, Barry goes to his dying mother’s side, taking off his mask and revealing himself to his mother, telling her he is from the future. Nora Allen then, in her dying moments, calls Barry her “beautiful boy”, with Barry tells his mum that he and his father are going to be okay.
1. Oliver Queen Dies
In the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, Oliver Queen dies not only once, he dies twice! However, for this moment we are talking about his first death, which came as a shock to many fans, as while people were expecting it, fans did not expect it to happen at the very end of the first episode of the five episode Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. Some people may argue that this moment should be much lower, but Oliver Queen is the heart and soul of the Arrowverse, and for that alone this moment deserves its place at the top of this list.
In Oliver’s death he and the heroes have just been battling the shadow-demons on Supergirl & Superman’s Earth, Earth-38, which was slowly being destroyed by an anti-matter wave. Oliver and the other heroes were trying to buy enough time to evacuate as many people as possible from the Earth-38 to Earth-1 (the other Arrowverse heroes’ Earth), however, The Monitor appears and tells the heroes time is up and they need to leave, beginning to teleport each hero individually. However, Oliver does not allow this, shooting The Monitor with an arrow, stunning him temporarily, leaving him to fight off the shadow demons alone, with no arrows left.
After this moment, The Monitor appears in the Arrowcave back on Earth-1, along with the other heroes, including Oliver’s grown up daughter from 2041, bringing with him Oliver’s battered and bruised body. The heroes then gather around Oliver, and the Monitor tells them that in the time that Oliver bought, it allowed 1 billion more people to be evacuated from Earth-38. After this, as Oliver dies, he tells Barry that he and Kara are “the best of us”, explaining that he gave everything up for them both. Then finally, in Oliver last moments he turns to his daughter, telling her to find her mother, and let her know just how much he loves her. Barry, Kara and Mia then all cry as Oliver nods his head one last time and passes away, a truly and utterly heart-breaking sacrifice.
That is the list! What did you guys think? Did I miss any moments, like Laurel Lance’s death, or Kara being trapped in the Black Mercy? Take a look at part one to see the overall list! Let us know in the comments, or on our Twitter!
