>due to how obvious it is the deaths won't be permanent.

If your movie ends with a large twist and dwells on the emotional responses of both those dying and those responding to the deaths, if the obvious lack of permanence diminishes the emotional impact of these beats-- as it did for me-- then the complaint has a basis in legitimate reasoning. Whether or not you agree with that reasoning, or whether the moment worked for you personally, is up for debate, of course-- but it's not like the complaint is pulled out of an ass or is arbitrary in its presentation. There's logic behind it, and you're seeing several others above agree with it.

>it's
>already self-evident that these characters are too popular,
>with their own franchises, not to mention some of em still
>fresh to the MCU, plus a million other reasons, that they
>would definitely not be *permanently* killed.

I mean, one could also easily argue that the lack of permanence removes stakes from the equation. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with that issue going forward-- hopefully the permanent deaths of a few characters in this and/or the next film would help create at least the illusion of permanence so those stakes aren't diminished with time. We all know that franchise leads have to stick around, but shit, at least make us worry about their friends and loved ones.

>the true deaths were ones that didn't involve people turning
>into (what looked like) leaves in the wind (Loki, Asgardians,
>Gamorra, Vision). i didn't see it as a cheap trick or an
>emotional cop out due to how obvious it was they'd all be
>back.

But as you noted, since many of the deaths obviously aren't permanent and we'll be playing with time to bring them back, we could also *easily* bring back any of those characters as well. I'd be surprised if they didn't bring Gamorra back, and honestly, if Vision is gone for good, then Wanda ain't gonna have shit insofar as plot going forward, so they may as well off her too, lol.

Like I said, it's a *mild* complaint-- still very much enjoyed the movie. But when the movie settles for ending in the middle of the story because they want to leave us with such an obvious feint, I don't think pointing out how the stakes are negatively affected by the feint's obviousness is illegitimate. Just for the record.