Everything Fades

But I’m okay with everything else still. I even still enjoy Cap if I don’t think about the movie.

No. That is not what happened. Rhodey speficially told Vision “Turn him into a glider” and you wanna know why? Because Sam has fucking wings and would have been safe without his power pack to glide down. And if he somehow wasn’t? Tony was right behind him, expecting his power to be taken out, and if Sam had wing trouble he isn’t so fucking heavy or restricted by his suit that he’d be falling faster than a prepared Tony could save him. Not to mention Sam’s pack has a fucking parachute built into it, which he could have used depending on where he was hit.

And yeah, Tony shot Sam when he tried to help and he wasn’t really to blame but wait a second, let’s take a closer look at this. At why Tony might not be wanting to give a single fuck about hearing Sam’s sorries right after his best friend fell from the fucking sky like deadweight.

1 - Most obviously, Sam’s the one who was on Rhodey’s tail and the blast was meant for as non-deadly, and the one who dodged. Yes this is a reasonable response from Sam, but Tony is not rational in this scene.

2 - Sam is Steve’s main partner in this entire shit-show that their lives have turned into right now, and without him trucking along encouraging Cap maybe it never would have even gotten to this point anyway (it probably would have, but Tony doesn’t know that, and maybe he doesn’t want to think about that, remember he isn’t rational in this moment).

3 -Tony is literally on his knees in a goddamn crater after failing to save his best friend. The one person, by this point, who has never willingly turned his back on Tony. Who has put up with him at his worst, fought beside him in all sorts of shit situations, and saved his ass numerous times. The man pulled him from the desert, was there with Stane, with Whiplash, and Mandarin, and Ultron. Even when they were fighting, it was because Rhodey was trying to look out for him. Rhodey is really the last person that Tony has who he can rely on in Civil War, he’s a solid presence who Tony can always count on to be there. He can’t count on the Avengers, clearly: look at what they’re fighting over. His second is Rhodey. His Rhodey.

4-  By this point, the Civil War has taken everything Tony thinks he has from him. He’d already lost JARVIS to Ultron & Vision. Lost Pepper, and I assume Happy in the divorce (since this is what happened in IM2), to his inability to stop being Iron Man, an Avenger. Lost his team to the the Accords. Lost his friends, his new family, to the fallout of the bombing and the Bucky debacle. And now he’s lost Rhodey. His one solid. If Rhodey dies? Tony has nothing, no one. No JARVIS, no Pepper, no Happy, no Avengers team, no Avengers family, no one except maybe Vision, his best friend’s unintentional murderer who is still learning about human life and probably wouldn’t be any comfort because just to gain Vision Tony had to give up JARVIS, and Vision is still a fucking baby in comparison to his understanding of humans, and a bunch of empty buildings that used to be home to various people Tony finds important.

I would have knocked Sam with a fucking repulsor too, because it should have been him without power, not Rhodey. Never Rhodey.

So no, he doesn’t want to hear some stupid ass goddamn “I’m sorry” when his best friend could be dead because neither he nor Sam were fast enough. He wants to be left the fuck alone because Rhodey might not make it and he is so done with this.

“But why didn’t he get mad at Vision?”

He fucking did! The movie fucking shows him hissing at Vision. “How did this happen?” “I thought you couldn’t get distracted.” And we don’t know if that is all of that exchange, for all we know he could have been quietly lecturing, glaring, or being a downright angry dick to Vision the entire time it took them to get the captured Avengers round up and Rhodey to medical.

From that point on, after pushing Natasha away because she hung herself helping Steve and Bucky (and he needs her to go before he has to watch another one member of his team, his family, get arrested by Ross), Tony is solo. He confirms Rhodey’s status, leaves Vision because he’s already fucked up once, and then heads to the Raft on his own.

So you can gtfoutta here with your “How dare Tony blast Sam when he tried to help get Rhodey, right after they tried to kill Sam!” bullshit. Sam was safe, he was always safe. Rhodey could have died, and Tony should not be expected to be rational in the face of that event, that level of trauma.