G’iah’s Death In Secret Invasion Is Another Example Of A Tired Comic Book Trope
"Fridging" or "Women in Refrigerators" is a trope in comics (and pop culture in general now) that was first coined online by comic book writer Gail Simone. She was speaking about the trope where a woman who is important to the male character is killed (or something else terrible) to spur him on to some sort of action. (The term comes from "Green Lantern" Vol. 3 #54, where the hero comes home to find his girlfriend killed and stuffed into a refrigerator by his enemy.) G'iah being shot and seemingly killed by Gravik (complete with her turning back into her Skrull form) certainly does seem to fit here.
The earlier death of Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) did as well. Hill did not turn into a Skrull, so she's gone for good unless she was a Life-Model Decoy (LMD), outside of a multiverse version of her, of course. What did her death accomplish? Not much, it seems, other than annoying fans and giving Fury a kick in the pants to find out how to stop all of this. G'iah dying could serve to do the same for both Fury and Talos.
I do want to say that a loved one's death can and often does change the trajectory of someone's life. It could certainly make them focus on revenge, change alliances, or move forward in a way no one expected. It's not that the trope is wrong as a concept or idea. It's just that it's so overused when we're talking about getting a male character to do something rather than vice versa. Often the female character isn't fleshed out at all and is just there as a plot-moving device. That's when it's an issue.
Source: /Film
