Dear god, comments faulting Tony for ‘not reaching out to Steve’ raise livels of salt in my body to alarming degree.
Tony wasnt talking about Steve not being on Titan. Let me repeat: TONY WASNT TALKING ABOUT STEVE NOT BEING ON TITAN. Let’s remember the timeline of this whole mess, okay?
Age of Ultron: Tony, influenced by wormhole AND nightmare Wanda spooked him with, tries to create a way to protect Earth from invasion. It backfires and whole team turns on Tony, blaming him for acting prematurely and without telling others. It’s when Steve gives this speech, that there’s no need to overprepare, that they should be a team, and if invasion happens, then their weapon against it will be them fighting it off together.
Civil War: Avengers are given proposition with only two legal options: SIGHN or RETIRE. Vision, Rhodes, Natasha, and, yes, Tony, agree to sighn. Steve and Sam do not want to, Wanda makes no comment other than worrying that ‘they’ll come for me’. Bruce and Thor are not present. It’s 4 vs 2, or 4 vs 3 if you really want to count Wanda in. Please notice neither Steve nor Sam explain what EXACTLY is their plan for when they’ll get their resigment papers.
Steve then says that it’s Tony who broke Avengers apart, but Tony didnt make ANYONE sighn, nor did he influence them to. The only one Tony actually asks (begs) to sighn is Steve. Also, it’s not accords (or Tony’s) foult Steve and Sam were about to be prosecuted, it’s because they (OUT OF NOWHERE) helped out terrorist suspect to flee in foreign country, fighting operatives and crushing road tunnel with civilians in it! Right after! They were asked! To please consider!! The amount of casualities and damage they cause!
“Tony shouldnt have tried to catch them in airport!” you scream, but the fight at airport happened…… because Steve did not reach out to Natasha or Tony. He could have expalined them situation when there was still time, and you bet they would have come up with a plan. But Steve decided that turning more than half of Avengers into criminals was a better bet. Also him smugly going ‘i know what i’m doing, step aside’ in airport really doesnt count as ‘reaching out’, okay.
“Tony shouldnt have attacked Bucky!” ugh, shut up.
By the end of movie, because of Steve, 70% of the Avengers fucked off to Wakanda and then went underground. Vision slips away after Wanda. Avengers, that apparently ‘awlays were Tony’s’ are down to two memebers, which are: Tony and Rhodes.
Infinity War: The thing that Tony warned everyone about 2 ensemble movies ago is finally here, physically landing on Earth. And this is it.
THAT’S IT. This is the ‘you werent there’ Tony blames Steve for.
The moment they were supposed to fight invasion TOGETHER, Steve and the team were somewhere fighting arm dealers underground.
Dr Strange and Bruce came to Tony, when they could have went to the compground with whole team assembled. Vision could have been right there, surrounded by whole team. ‘It’s because Tony didnt reach out to Steve!!’ you scream, but Tony had that fucking phone on him while he was OUT FOR A JOG. He strugled with valid feelings, but he still opened that phone to make a call, and Bruce COULD make that call later EXACTLY because Tony had it on him any minute, exactly for this scenario.
Tony doesnt blame Steve for not being on Titan, he blames him for promising ‘together’ as weapon against Thanos and then just walking away. Do you realise that Tony couldnt contact Vision because Vision CUT HIM OFF to runaway with Wanda who was in hiding BECAUSE OF STEVE? Do you realise that Vision, Wanda, Steve, Natasha and Sam were only able to act AFTER DOUGHNUT SHIP ALREADY FUCKED OFF FROM EARTH exactly because they were in hiding?
Do you ALSO realise that Tony was on the scene and had power to evacuate people from area with single order to friday BECAUSE he was an official Avenger and not runaway rogue?
Under all of this let me just add that Tony would have never, EVER said any of this if he wasnt just wheeled in this room on wheelchair with a drip, after barely surviving a space trip with not enough water, food or oxygen, AFTER his kid fucking disintegrated in his arms? Instead of letting him rest they interrogate him for coordinates and clues and STEVE talks about NEEDING something from him? Steve. The one who condemned hiding things from the team and then lied to tony’s face, the one who preached to stick together and then walked away. Tony’s voice was trembling, on the verge of tears, grief and hurt and horror in his throat, yet people say he was an asshole?
I loved this scene, okay. I loved that Tony, who never protects himself this blatantly, who had to swallow unfair accusations in age of ultron, and then was conditioned into claiming that ultron was ‘his foult’, and then was blamed for civil war like he himself wrote the document and then made eveyone into criminals??? and THEN was shamed by Bruce for fighitng with Steve… finally Tony got to point out that he tried to give them ‘clues, coordinates, anything’ YEARS ago and they ignored him. Finally Tony got to tell Steve off for lying, for not listening to Tony’s concerns in the first place, for arrogantly believing only in ‘his own hands’. Somehow every damn movie Steve gets to walk out without any consequences, squeaky clean from accusations, head held high, when somewhere in the world Tony get’s slapped with a picture of a dead child and ‘i blame YOU’ from a grieving mother. So if Steve had to endure few minutes of Tony finally telling him as it is… let him endure it, because it’s about fucking time. Because if in civil war Tony was a grieving orphan, in endgame he was a grieving father.