#consequences are for other people
tony “fucked up with ultron and got away with it” oh my god really. really
tony is subscribing to the system of accountability devised in response to ultron. tony is taking whatever consequence is thrown at him. literally says it, “we need to be put in check, whatever form that takes, i’m game.” good god he’s not coming up with any of this shit, he’s just literally not in a position to argue against it EXACTLY BECAUSE ULTRON
i don’t see anyone saying wanda “got away” with anything for not walking into a prison cell after ultron so why in the fuck do people expect that from tony. y'all fucking know that if someone had approached tony and told him he needs to be held accountable, and he’d said “fuck no that’s unfair and i’m gonna run out of this place,” you’d be ripping him to shreds. wtf. stop with the blame game it is literally so stupid
“ don’t see anyone saying wanda “got away” with anything for not walking into a prison cell after ultron“
Uh. Hi?
I’ve been complaining about the lack of consequences for Wanda since Ultron came out. So have tons of other people. Trust me, no one is unclear on the fact that a woman who sided first with Hydra and then with a psychotic, homicidal AI in her quest for revenge on Tony Stark, and who along the way sicced an unstoppable killing machine onto a city of a quarter-million people, belongs in jail. (Though, having said that, let’s not pretend there isn’t a bit of false equivalence going on here, when you’re comparing a lone orphan from an impoverished, war-torn country to a billionaire who is capable of telling congress to kiss his ass without that even being the highlight of his day.)
But the thing is, the fact that Wanda belongs in jail, alongside Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, and probably a whole bunch of other Agents of SHIELD characters at this point (because I stopped watching on the second or third time they decided that the rule of law and human rights didn’t matter, so I don’t know how many criminal things they’ve done since then) doesn’t change the fact that so does Tony. And saying that what he’s doing in Civil War is a response to his fuck-up in Ultron, well, you know, that might actually be true, but that doesn’t make it right. I mean, we are all clear on the fact that this isn’t how a civilized world should run, right? If you screw up badly enough that you nearly destroy the planet, you don’t get to assume the authority of fixing the loophole that allowed you to do that. That job should be left to people who haven’t proven themselves to be as unfit for the task as you have.
One of my problems with the MCU (and with superhero stories in general) is that they seem to designate some characters as good guys, and having done so it doesn’t matter how often those people screw up or how much damage they cause. They’re still considered good guys, and it’s still left to them to pick up the pieces. Nick Fury is a pretty classic example, but the idea that Tony Stark should be allowed to rewrite the laws of the world in order to prevent something like Ultron from happening again feels like taking that approach to its ludicrous extreme. Hey, you know what would have prevented Ultron from happening, Tony? If you hadn’t created him. If you hadn’t demonstrated the profound arrogance and lack of judgment that should render you unfit for any future public role. Realistically, the fact that they haven’t can only mean one thing - that Tony is so rich, and so connected, that the consequences of his actions can never touch him.
And look, I’m not saying Steve is much better. The fact that he’s willing to work with Fury and Tony, and that he hired Wanda as an Avenger, speak very poorly to his judgment and sense of justice. By this point, I’m struggling to think of a single character in Civil War (barring the new ones, of course) that I would entrust with designing the system of laws that would govern the behavior and rights of superheroes, because most of them either belong in jail, or in front of a judge to explain why they shouldn’t go to jail. I have to believe that there are people in the world of the MCU that haven’t made those kinds of mistakes, and who can be trusted to steer it more wisely than this bunch of hooligans. And if there aren’t, then perhaps it’s time to admit that this world isn’t heroic, but a horrifying dystopia.
