Ranting About:
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR -- "He Betrayed His Friend"
This will be long. Don't read it unless you've a) seen Civil War and b) care to waste some of your time reading a rant by a member of Team Cap but also an INFJ (which means I always examine both sides).
Anywho, here we go.
A few weeks ago I saw Captain America: Civil War in theaters. Most of it, at least, I went to the bathroom once and missed Bucky's awesome motorcycle flip thing. My best friend is Team Stark, and while she hasn't seen it yet, her sister has. When we saw them after I saw it, her sister said "So, you saw Civil War?"
"Yup," I said, smiling. She nodded and asked, "And you're still Team Cap?"
I responded positively, rather muddled because after seeing the movie I had been wondering how someone could still be Team Stark after watching it. She shook her head and said "But he betrayed his friend!"
I could have gotten into an argument with her then, but I don't really like arguing and they were just leaving, anyhow, so I just shrugged and said goodbye. But now that I've been left alone to my thoughts, I've come up with a sort of wondering.
So first of all there's the betrayal part. I suppose she meant that Cap betrayed him in fighting him. And when I think about it, I think the friend part needs to come before the betrayal part.
So here's the thing: Yes, Tony and Steve are friends (I refuse to say were. They still are.), but I think the thing is that Steve and Bucky are better friends. Bucky is the only thing left that Steve has left from his old self. Bucky is his family. Bucky took care of him when he was little, they goofed off together, they were best buds. Steve loves Bucky as much as Tony loved his parents. And he lost Bucky. Multiple times. And it killed him a little every time. But now he has Bucky back, for good, and he remembers him, and he'll do anything and everything to ensure that nothing happens to him again. Even fight his other friends. And that's where we come to Tony again. Tony has a rightful anger at his parents' murder, and he wants to avenge them. But the thing is, usually when someone is trying to get revenge, they want to pay back the person who harmed them with equal or more harm--but why? To show them how it feels. To make them repent. But Bucky already feels remorse for killing the Starks, for killing everyone he did. When Zemo starts to trigger him, he yells "No!" He resists. He hates killing innocent people. At the end of the movie, he goes back under in order to protect people--until he can control his brain fully again. He doesn't want to hurt anyone else. He's willing to give himself up to what is practically death once more, willing to even leave his best friend again, all so that he won't kill the parents of anymore Tony Starks. But Tony is too caught up in his anger to realize this. Losing his parents did something awful to him. I don't understand. I know people that do, though. I know people who've lost loved ones, and I've seen how awful they feel about it and how heartbroken it makes them. But sometimes it can also make them think rashly and illogically. So Tony tries to kill Bucky. And that brings us back to Steve. He's lost Bucky multiple times. He's lost his mother and Peggy and the world he knew, but he had Bucky back. And it pains him awfully to hurt Tony. You can see it in his face as his lifts his shield for the last blow. It's the same emotion we see in Wanda when she has to defeat Vision. The pain and the struggle and the heartbrokenness all mingled in her face as she forces him through dozens of floors. It kills Steve to have to hurt Tony. But he's doing it for Bucky. He's willing to kill one friend in order to protect another. And I am in no way saying that this is moral. It pains me to see them fighting. It pains me to see anyone fighting, ever. But it's how this world is. So at the end of the day we see that Tony was blind with rage, and Steve was blind with loyalty. And I don't really think either of them was fully in the right. In fact, I think the one with the least guilt to answer to is Bucky. Selflessly giving up life for as long as he must in order to protect the innocent of the world.