Darth Yan wrote:They could defend the idea of the Accords, but not what Tony does.
Right?? Like Tony would never do that considering how he's reacted to the government trying to get involved in controlling him in the past but he expects them all to sign on because he knows best (despite massively fucking up multiple times in the past)...
I think Stark has changed a
lot since the days of
Iron Man 2 when he was all like "I have successfully privatized world peace!"
Back then, he was basically the only superhero on Earth for all practical purposes. Cap was still an icicle, the Hulk was basically a more destructive version of Bigfoot, and so on. The only thing capable of threatening Iron Man was another Iron Man- that is, someone else stealing his technology and using it against him. Sure, he'd gotten burned because of his own irresponsibility and recklessness and other faults
He was psychologically on top of the world, or would have been except that his own tech was killing him. And he invented his way out of that
too.
Everything since that point has basically been Stark experiencing trauma and batterings, nearly being killed in battle, losing his home, having his beloved transformed into some kind of weird posthuman fire-being, having his inventions turn on him. Through much of this time he's been crying out for help, and no one really responded by helping him meaningfully. So now he's trying to invent his way out of this problem, like he invented his way out of captivity, and betrayal, and lethal disease, and vengeful enemies, back in his glory days. But his first attempt to do that was Ultron and that failed horribly.
So now Stark has so much invested in finding a way to "put the world in a suit of armor" that will solve the problems of security and control that he's compulsive over, that he's acting in a way that is completely out out of character compared to his personality of five or seven years ago.
This has consistently been his character arc. He was a spoiled playboy who lived off of weapons contracts until he had to live a day-in-the-life of one of his victims, then realized that he was wrong.
But, he never really learn his lesson. He didn't want to let go of his genius enough to care about other people. Like his fans, he thinks that his intellect and connections makes him morally superior. I mean, his whole relationship with Pepper is about this very struggle, and she left him before CW. Whelp.
That's a valid alternate take on what I'm saying, I think. Stark's
one great strength was his power to invent his way out of his problems, to build and create things that could defeat his enemies, overcome his frailties, and save the day.
A more... rational... person would have stopped to rethink his strategy after his life's been getting worse for three movies in a row on account of his inventions no longer being enough to do what he needs of them.
Stark is having very severe trouble doing this- although to be fair to him, no one else is giving him a hand up. Cap had people to help him to adjust to the new 21st century. Banner has everybody and their cousin Fred trying to help him stay calm (obviously). Thor has (or at least had, the last time Stark saw him) a loving, supportive family and a whole country that needs him. Who and what does Stark have, to support him emotionally in hard times rather than force him back onto his old, failed coping strategies?
I don't think Tony will have anyone on his side except Rhodes? And even Rhodes was like, this is really screwed up? And I'm also 1000% annoyed that Rhodes isn't like "I'm just doing this because we're friends" and they used the military excuse when both Steve and Sam are ex-military? Like, there was not a national emergency here, I felt like they just made Rhodes into Tony's sidekick and I'm totally over it and I hope he turns on him, tbh.
I can see it. On the other hand, I feel like one of the things
about Rhodes' character is that he's always been more comfortable playing second fiddle. To some extent they intentionally play this for laughs, even. But Rhodes sticks with the hierarchy and friendships he's comfortable with. The only time we've ever seen him go against that was in
Iron Man 2 when he basically had to be ordered to go steal an Iron Man suit to deal with Tony. And he was
angry about the whole thing, without that anger it wouldn't have worked, and even then it was a case of one of his loyalties conflicting with another.
Arguably more so than Cap, Rhodes is a
soldier, he doesn't seem to have an identity outside of fitting into an army.