Plenty of Marvel villains have died in the MCU, but a Phase 5 project has confirmed that one evil-doer’s fate is far worse than simply dying.

The MCU isn’t exactly squeamish about death, nor fates worse than death, and Loki season 2 has recently admitted that one MCU villain has fallen foul of the latter. Loki Season 2 has come and gone, and as it fleshed out the implications of the multiverse and Kang’s arrival, a second reference to a gruesome fate has confirmed it to be worse than death. That is, at least, according to one of Loki’s main characters.

Loki Season 2, Episode 1 saw the return of the eponymous antihero and his new partner in crime, Mobius, as they wrestled with Loki’s time-slipping problem and the imminent destruction of the Temporal Loom. Their attempts to rectify Loki’s visually horrific situation brought them to the new show-stealing character, O.B., (Ke Huy Quan), the TVA’s only Repairs and Advancement employee who thankfully has an encyclopedic knowledge of the inner workings of the TVA (he wrote the book) and how to help correct the course of events. He also knows the price of failure, which seems to be worse than death.

Loki Season 2 Says Skin Peeling Is Worse Than Death

Loki Episode 1 saw Loki and Mobius encounter O.B. for what they assumed to be the first time. It was during this meeting that the group hashed out a solution to Loki’s time-slipping problem, wherein O.B. explained the consequences of failure. For Loki, this would mean being torn from every thread of existence. For Mobius, it would mean losing his skin. Mobius’ reaction to this possibility was emphatic, suggesting that he would actually prefer Loki’s fate to his own as he exclaimed, “What’s a quality of life with no skin?”

Mobius Confirms The High Evolutionary’s Fate Was So Much Worse

Despite being especially macabre, this isn’t the first time that the concept of skin peeling has appeared in the largely family-friendly MCU. A rather graphic depiction of the unsavory fate was present in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with the impeccably designed High Evolutionary, whose face had been (justifiably) torn to shreds by a young Rocket Raccoon in response to his friends’ murders. It goes without saying that this is a horrifying experience, but Mobius’ response to the possibility of experiencing it himself would suggest that even death is preferable.

Moreover, the fate befell the High Evolutionary more than once, with the first being his initial skinning at the hands (or claws) of Rocket and the second by Gamora when the Guardians confronted him towards the movie’s climax. Mobius stating that living with one’s skin peeled off is no quality of life tracks with the High Evolutionary’s apparent disdain for life in general, as he offhandedly incinerates anthropomorphic creatures and commits genocide without batting an eye. Though it is no excuse, it is a good thing that Loki‘s Mobius did not fall foul of the skin-peeling consequences of failure.