Civil War Day One - Pick a Side

Well, well, well....

....not mine - blog party from MAY on I am a Dreamer Let Me Dream.

First? SPOILERS!!!!  There will be spoilers for Captain America: Civil War. Fair Warning.

Second? I was right. I'm sorry, the only person on Iron Man's team that was good was Nat and Jarvis and since Jarvis isn't Jarvis anymore, and I'll take Clint any day over Nat....Yeah.

Nope, I was on the Captain's team since The Avengers (And The First Avenger, but I saw Avengers first so....technically!) and I'm not changing sides yet. If anything, this just made me like him more.

I'm not saying he was completely right - goodness, who is?? - but compared to Tony?

I mean, I can COMPLETELY see Tony's side, but....

Third!!  I've only seen the film once and am doing this from memory. So this is going to be all over the play likely...

Fourth - .....yes. This is so utterly late. I never totally gave up on the idea - I had REALLY wanted to do it but.... Yeah, I crashed. So...  But hey! I'll work on it now!

Anyway. Back to Tony.

It's something I've run into a LOT: that there is no accountability for superheroes.

And, in a way, that is why heroes must be...heroes. Because in the end? There really is no higher power for them. No government for them to answer to, no prison to hold them, no....compulsion nor fear.

I mean, they're 'superheroes'. This means that they're above normal humans. Obviously, supervillains are stopped and imprisoned but....the heroes? Who is going to make them pay damages? Make sure they don't use excessive force? Make sure they don't torture? Make sure they follow the codes of the Geneva Convention? Even say which parts of the Geneva Convention don't apply to them anymore? Is it possible? Who says in the end that the villains and the heroes are different? Who says they should be treated differently?

It devolves all too quickly until a stand-off between Homo Superior and Homo Sapien all because of power and fear.

So Tony has a point: accountability. Someone to tell them that they can't just FORGET the casualties.

On a side note: the trailer was misleading - or the one I saw. It implied that the split was completely over Bucky's consequences and...nope. It wasn't about that at all. Which, in a way, makes the title OH. SO. MUCH. MORE. APPROPRIATE!!

I mean, everyone knows that the American Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery, da?

Nyet!

It was fought over how much power the government should have: how much control and say it should have in the lives of private civilians. Sound familiar? The American Civil war tore families apart, took those that had been closer than brothers and faced them against each other. It took sense from both sides and twisted it around until everyone was just TIRED of fighting but couldn't. stop.

And Tony is...so blind. So...narcisstic. He's brilliant but....not in life. That I can and will say. He can build sentient AIs and do things no one else dreams of but....the big picture? The end good of the many? The consequences for generations later? He does what he wants in the moment, and then overcompensates the opposite direction when he discovers he made a mistake.

He...isn't steady. He doesn't have grounding. He is all over the place - swinging from one side to the other, trying to do right (he tries so hard...) but without principles? Without a loyalty to something higher? He's lost. He is...drowning. He's trying to stay afloat but everything he touches falls. apart. Everything he's liked has been broken. He's trying to care but doesn't want to get hurt but he is hurt already because he can't stay aloof.

He wants safety. He wants firm boundaries - if just so he can push against them. Without those? He's lost. He's trying to be responsible and make good decisions but... He's never had to. He never learnt. He just learnt how to hurt those around him so they couldn't hurt him.

So while I agree with the part that superheroes should be held accountable? No. Tony is....doing it for the wrong reasons and not thinking it through. It's....never going to end well.

Those sort of powers are a responsibility - a privilige. They're not a right. They never are a right - they're a gift. You have the supervillains and you have the superheroes. You either be a hero or become a villain: there really isn't another choice. To be a superhero, you have to be accountable to yourself. That's part of the package. You can choose to obey a government - but in the end? It's still your choice. You HAVE to be good. There is no other option.

And Steve knows this. He also understand something else: honour is something precious. A contract, a promise, an oath, an agreement....He would keep to that agreement. So without safeguards in place? Putting himself - and by extension those he commanded - under a government's control? That was a whole new world of danger.

Because Steve would have been forced to obey. Forced by his own conscience. I suppose that in the end he would at least have had to stay on the sidelines - forced to choose between honour and integrity.

Rogers is a good man. He is a safe man. He's adaptable, and intelligent; and if the rest were like him? There wouldn't be a need for accountability. He is accountable to himself and he does hold himself accountable. He is considerate. And honest. And he is stable.

He's not going to change. He's not going to take the easy way. He will do what he knows is right - and Tony is so very, very right: it does make him dangerous. Because he cannot be swayed. Tony? He can be swayed. HAS been swayed. Steve won't move.

But at the same time, he will do what is necessary.

(Now that I've answered all of the rest of the tags for my team...  *grins*)

And if I went for aesthetics? I'd STILL be on the Captain's team. Because seriously? The only good characters on Tony's team are Jarvis and Nat, and since Jarvis is changed too much and Nat is actually far from my favourite character....Nope. Steve literally got the best team and I HATE the Black Panther.

Why? Don't really know. He was just...dull. Extremely. (Constantly fighting against Bucky didn't help either of course....)

And...  Well, he was an interesting character. I'll give him that. Unfortunately....  He was a...plot device.

I came to the movie for Steve and Bucky. Not for Tony, not for T'challa, not for Nat, not for Clint, not for...anyone. I came for Steve and Bucky. I came for those good friends and basically brothers that has...died and survived and grown and built on each other and pulled each other forward and strengthened and protected each other and.... That's what I was there for. Good and Evil. Winter Soldier and Captain America. Rogers and Barnes. Bucky and Steve.

So in all honesty it was a disappointment how the story seemed more about Tony than anything else. And T'challa.

I don't want to see the guy in the suit THAT IS PICKING ON BUCKY!!  Because you won't sit down in a bloody chair and actually GIVE THE GUY A CHANCE nope. let's just swear vendetta, da?

yeah... No.

So..... yes. I was on Steve's side. He doesn't wear a mask. There's...no ulterior motives. You get what's there and that's that. For good or ill - better or worse....  He's not so....mercurial? As Tony?

There is no loyalty in Tony!!

*drops head on desk*

Alright. I'll leave this go.

Most of this was actually already a draft so I've lost most of my point, sorry.....

 NOT TO MENTION!!!

So I knew the movie was going to basically tear my heart out and crush what remained of it after The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier (HA!!  I dare anyone to admit they were enough of a blind optimist swimming in denial in Egypt they thought anything else.... And no, it doesn't count if they lived under a rock and knew nothing of Marvel or the characters.) and I knew any film that pitted Steve against Avengers was...not going to go well.

That being said?

THAT SCENE IN THE TRAILER!!

Where Steve and Bucky fight Tony!!

Of course, now I've seen the film and just....no. No no no no no no no no....  But!!  For then. It was...  YAY!!!!  I got to see Tony beat up!!  By the two best characters!!  In an amazingly cool fight scene!!

It made the rest of the movie worth it SO much.

...yeah, I basically can't stand Tony. Sorry. Iron Man 3 was acceptable but....  First two are rubbish.