Originally Posted by
Vegeta
Tony Stark blowing up his armored suits at the end of Iron Man 3. "But it's like, symbolic or something!"
We all knew he was still slated to appear in several Avengers and Captain America movies. It had zero impact on the film series. He didn't quit being Iron Man for Pepper Potts, and the destruction of the armored suits wasn't a plot point that would bite him in the ass in later installments, etc. Heck, he was still suffering from PTSD in the end credits, so it wasn't even some kind of therapeutic relief of whatever. It's just meaningless spectacle.