Anyone who says Tony Stark was all on the side of Thaddeus Ross and the Accords needs to carefully watch again and analyze these two scenes.
Tony was NEVER on the “side” of Ross. He hates and distrusts Ross (from wayyyy back…). And Tony distrusts and hates the Accords as much as anyone else. Believe it.
Ross (and world events) forced Tony into accepting the Accords – because 1) he did agree (and is correct) that the Avengers need oversight, and you can’t really argue with 117 nations who are frightened after the most recent Avengers debacle in Lagos. But MORE important: 2) Tony’s MAIN MOTIVATION was keeping the Avengers together to face the “something worse” that he KNOWS is coming. If they refuse to sign the Accords, he knows, they’ll be forced into retirement or even arrested – and Tony is not going to let that happen to his team.
Of the two choices – refuse to sign and be benched or arrested, or try to NEGOTIATE better terms and sign the thing, and bear up under the restrictions until there’s a change in geopolitics (which there ALWAYS is) – Tony picked the pragmatic and reasonable choice: sign. At least that way they’re still operational and can respond when the ultimate danger arrives – not sitting on their butts at home or locked in a cell.
That’s why he’s so shocked when Steve so openly resists the Accords and goes cowboying off with half the Avengers. And yes, the lack of open communications between Tony and Steve, throughout the whole movie, contributed to that. EVERY TIME they tried to communicate, there was something that caused it all to blow up. (That’s what made it a movie. If they’d talked like civilized humans, it would have been a very short flick…) But it was notably Steve’s actions of rebellion (without understanding the whole story) that led to the rogue Avengers being hunted international lawbreakers and to their eventual arrest. That was not Tony’s fault – he TRIED.
To those who say that the Accords are wrong because “the government” is corrupt: 1) the Accords don’t come from “the government;” but from the United Nations, and 2) if your argument is that the UN is as “corrupt” as any governing body, then what’s your alternative? No governing body at all? No laws at all? Anarchy? The world is run by governments and oversight bodies like the UN – and yes, they can be corrupt, or partially corrupt, or just lazy and bad. It’s been like that since the dawn of government and laws. But the alternative is no leadership at all and everybody just doing their own thing, which might sound better but is much worse. There are checks and balances on governing bodies that fight corruption (one of the best is a free press). Now, all of that doesn’t make the Accords completely “right,” but it makes them a reasonable and practical alternative to being completely shut down or imprisoned for resisting them. They are “enough” right that they can be a stopgap measure to assure people around the world that there’s some oversight over super-powered beings. Tony knows that things change and regimes and governments change and laws change with the times.
And no, Tony DID NOT KNOW the whole story about The Raft or the conditions his former teammates would be kept in there. That whole Raft scene is him being shocked and horrified but continuing to play the part of being on Ross’s side so he could obtain the information he needed about Steve’s whereabouts and FLY TO STEVE’S SIDE TO HELP HIM. Tony was essentially “going undercover” and in immense personal danger on the Raft. You can tell Ross knows something is up and doesn’t fully trust him, and Ross could have clapped Tony (who came alone) into a cell, too, at any point, and he would have just “disappeared.” But he soldiers through, bearing up under Ross’s scrutiny and the taunts of his former teammates, so he can get the information he needs to help Steve. (Bless you, Sam Wilson, for understanding Tony’s honesty and desperation and giving him the info.) He escapes under the still-not-fully-trusting eyes of Ross and his minions, and even goes so far (yikes, Tony!) as issuing a Stark snark at Ross once he’s back at the Stark chopper and is almost safe. Very James Bond of you, Mr. Stark.
AND THEN HE FLIES – ALONE IN THE ARMOR, THROUGH THE OCEAN STORM and all kinds of weather – AT LEAST 12 MORE HOURS TO GET TO STEVE IN SIBERIA. To apologize for not believing Steve’s plea that Bucky was not the Vienna assassin, to make things right, to bring Steve back and to fight beside him again.
And even AFTER the fight in the bunker, when Tony is finally back home and still bruised up, he STILL puts Ross on hold and does whatever he can to buy time for Steve and the rogue Avengers to make their getaway. He knows exactly what he’s doing. As deeply hurt and betrayed as he feels, he’s STILL on their side.
Yup, anyone who wants to call Tony Stark a “villain” in “Civil War” needs to look at these scenes verrrry carefully.
jacobvanloon
snowghoul
dailybridgerton
ellievsbear
theartofmadeline
discoholicmusic
vaporwave
