Nelsbels

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.

Speaking of Civil War. In several paragraphs …

The Avengers make a horrible mess because Wanda doesn’t control her powers adequately. As in AoU, she is never confronted or punished by anyone for this, even though any cop or fireman or soldier in her position would be. Instead the whole team, including Tony (who handles the downfall again), is unfailingly supportive against the evil, stupid governments.

Said evil, stupid governments have finally had enough of this bunch of amateurs running around doing whatever they want whenever they feel like it as if the law was something that happens to other people. They write up the Sokovia Accords, a legal document signed by 117 countries that as far as we know only seeks to put the Avengers under UN oversight, so they can finally be held accountable when they screw up.

Tony supports this, of course. He relates deeply to the consequences of Avenger screw-ups, because even though he actually hasn’t caused any he still feels like he did, and also he probably has the most comprehensive view of what those screw-ups imply since he pays for everything. He gets blamed for this, of course, both in-universe and out. There are several problems here:

First off, the Accords were a good thing, and the Avengers have no right to impose their actions on sovereign countries and then bugger off and let said sovereign countries (or, you know, Tony) deal with the aftermath. Cap claims they can police themselves, but evidently they can’t, or don’t. More importantly, the Accords were not Tony’s idea. They were also not optional. The Accords were 117 countries saying, “This is how it works now.” The Avengers don’t get to negotiate with them over it. They are not an equal party in this exchange. They are, from a juridical point of view, random people with no job. They have no legitimacy whatsoever to discuss law with state actors. If they go against the Accords, they are criminals, and that’s that. Tony, contrary to Team Cap, realized this basic fact, and was trying to get on the good side of the Accords so he could be in a better position to make the amendments he might deem necessary at a later date.

When Cap goes above the law to “rescue” his precious Bucky, violently disabling several innocent policemen, causing gross public and private property damage and probably wounding many bystanders along the way, it’s yet again Tony who has to deal with the consequences. Except this time he can’t, because the Accords are law. He tries his absolute best to protect Cap and Falcon from their own idiocy, but they refuse to cooperate and be brought down to the legal level of normal people with responsibilities. Worse, when Bucky escapes, they take the opportunity to disappear with him instead of bringing him back in, which would literally have solved all the problems in the rest of the movie.

Congrats, they’re officially international criminals now.

Meanwhile, Tony is also trying his absolute best to protect Wanda — who doesn’t deserve any of it — from the public outrage she caused. He keeps her in a luxurious suite with her closest friend / boyfriend / whatever, who details to her how bad her situation is and how helpful it would be to everyone including herself if she just stayed put for a week or so until Tony can smooth things over. To her credit, she is nearly convinced by this elementary logic, but Cap sends Hawkeye to extract her, and she then assaults Vision with her powers and runs away. Congrats, she’s officially an international criminal too.

Incidentally, Cap pulled Hawkeye into this mess after he had retired and was living peacefully with his family. I doubt he had any idea of the Accords’ existence, let alone of their content. Falcon did this to Ant-Man too. And yet people complain about Tony and Peter.

Tony and his team then intercept Team Cap at that German airport. He tries to reason with them one last time, but they stubbornly refuse to cooperate once again, for no clear reason beyond “I’m Captain America, I know better than everyone else!” Fed up at long last, Tony fights Team Cap to arrest them for their crimes as an agent of the law and wins, but in the process Rhodey — Tony’s best friend since long before the Avengers were even an idea — is crippled for life.

After their arrest, Tony visits Team Cap in jail. He is clearly appalled by their treatment, but they brought it squarely upon themselves. Naturally, they blame him instead, as though he were the one who wrote the legitimate law they stupidly violated or the one who decided of the punishment they richly earned. Naturally, Tony being Tony, he agrees with their delusional, self-serving assessment of his responsibility and feels guilty about it.

He is finally given Cap’s evidence against Zemo, which could have been provided at any point prior to that, thereby bypassing all the problems in the latter half of the movie. Because he feels unjustifiably guilty about the mess Team Cap made, he works around Ross — thereby risking his own legal status— and goes to help Cap in SiberiaASAP.

The rest is history. I won’t claim that Tony’s reaction to the footage of Bucky murdering his parents was logically sound, but it was far more emotionally understandable than any of Team Cap’s bullshit throughout the movie, and Cap himself richly deserved that punch in the jaw for not telling Tony this little detail for two entire years.Then again, he never did trust or value Tony for anything, really.

Aftermath: Team Tony is crippled in its ability to defend the Earth. Team Cap is crippled in its ability to do anything. Any amendment of the Accords to make them more tractable to the Avengers is suddenly nigh-impossible because that would make sovereign states look like they’re submitting to Steve Rogers’ whims, and the Avengers have lost much of whatever public support they still had. It is the worst possible outcome, beyond Zemo’s wildest dreams, and it is all squarely Team Cap’s fault.

That brings us to Infinity War.

In IW, Tony is the only Avenger to make no gross, glaring mistake in defence of the Earth. The war happens and innocents die, mostly because of a crippling lack of preparation and cooperation with the government, both of which are purely and entirely the fault of Captain America and his supporters.

As opposed to what Cap believes,Tony Stark is the only one who can make the sacrificial play to protect the masses. Cap is noble, don’t get me wrong here, but he’s a soldier, not a leader. In his own words, he only thinks about the mission at hand, almost always missing out the bigger picture. Tony sees the bigger picture. Every single time. Bruce Banner and Nick Fury are the only ones who see this. That is the only reason Fury was following the protocol when he said they only needed him as a consultant. But, when the time came, he whole heatedly stepped out of the way for Tony to call the shots and why Bruce and Strange specifically picked out Tony Stark in Infinity war.

Tony was hurt, physically and emotionally. And he was backed against the corner against Thanos. He was also, at his most dangerous state. He not just defeated Thanos but saved the entire universe by sacrificing himself.

Thanos was right to respect Tony, now he learnt to fear him too.