capntony:

starkravinghazelnuts:

Why Steve sacrificing himself for Tony makes sense: A critical analysis

Since that (clearly fake) leak about Avengers 4 has been out, I’ve seen a lot of people grousing about how it would be stupid, unrealistic, awful, etc. if Steve died to save Tony (or at least died in place of Tony in order to save the world). Obviously the leak is baloney, for a bunch of reasons, but I do think that bit is not that far off base.

While I completely find the situation heartbreaking, and I do not want Steve to die (like at all), this manner of death is not outside of realm of what Steve Rogers would do.

In fact, I think it’s where Steve and Tony’s mutual journey has been heading all along.

It all comes down to their arcs–both individually and the one they share together.

Avengers 4 is the culmination of 10 years of storytelling. It’s the product of 21 movies. In most stories, the ending usually reflects the beginning.

For this reason, there’s three key movies to look at when going into A4 when it comes to Steve, Tony, and their story together: Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man, and The Avengers. The first Steve Rogers film. The first Tony Stark film. And the first film they shared together.

In Captain America: The First Avenger, we see Steve Rogers is a paragon. An ideal. A nearly-perfect man who is selfless. He’s willing to lay down his life for others–and he does it twice in two very notable moments. One is when he dives on the grenade to save his fellow soldiers at the training yard–a moment which led to Erskine deciding Steve was the Chosen One–the man who would be perfect for the Super Soldier Serum. Erskine knew that the serum would enhance every aspect of the person–including their personality. This meant they had to choose the most noble, pure of heart man for the job. And that was Steve Rogers.

In short, and this is the big takeaway, Steve got his powers (became Captain America) because of his willingness to die for others. Because he’s a paragon of humanity.

At the end of the film. Steve once again puts his life down in order to save the entire Eastern coast of the United States. He makes it clear this is his “choice.” He didn’t expect to walk away, but he came to life 70 years later in a whole new world, his life forever changed. Since then, he’s been feeling like a “man out of time” (note: that’s a play on words and has a double-meaning).

In Iron Man, we see Tony Stark as a deeply flawed man who is full of regret, who got catapulted on a journey of redemption and self-discovery. He is saved by a man named Ho Yinsen, who ends up sacrificing his own life so that Tony can live (“Don’t waste your life.”) This is after they had a conversation about how Tony is the “man who has everything and nothing” in relation to having a family. Since then, Tony has been trying his hardest to make a family–he’s done with the Avengers, with Pepper, with Peter–it’s an idea that Tony feels very strongly about, and in Infinity War, we saw he’s now ready to have kids of his own.

In short, and this is the big takeaway, Tony got his powers (became Iron Man) because a good man saved his life (stuck a magnet in his chest) and later was willing to die so he could become a hero and find his purpose. So that he could find out what he was missing.

In The Avengers, we see Steve and Tony immediately clash because they’re very different people with very different histories (plus the Mind Stone was amplifying their aggression). Steve makes the biting remark that Tony isn’t the guy willing to lay on the wire not knowing that’s exactly the kind of man Tony is–and, later, Steve sees that first hand when Tony makes the call to take the nuke into the wormhole, even if it’s a “one-way trip.” Respecting this decision, Steve orders the portal to close, knowing it needs to be done to safeguard the lives of everyone in NYC. Tony barely survives this ordeal, but his sacrifice remains a solid one. Tony was 100% willing to die–and Steve was willing to let it happen in order to save everyone.

Now, looking at where their relationship has developed, we need to look at a few stand-out moments between them throughout the MCU:

– In The Avengers, Steve doesn’t believe Tony is willing to die for others; Tony proves him wrong. This is the foundation of Steve’s respect for Tony.

– In AoU, Steve chastises Tony for keeping a secret from the group, which led to Ultron.

– In CA:CW, Steve keeping a secret from Tony resulted in their relationship falling apart and the fragmentation of the Avengers, which played into the disaster of A:IW.

– In AoU, Tony says he wants to build Pepper a farm and live the “simple life.” Steve says the man who wanted stability died 75 years ago.

– In CA:CW, Steve mistakenly assumes Pepper is “pregnant,” and says he’s glad Howard got married.

– In A:IW, Tony is engaged to Pepper, dreaming of having a child. Steve is on the run, looking forlornly at Wanda and Vision as they argue about the idea of sacrifice.

… You see where I am going with this. Where the MCU has been leading us this entire time.

If it all comes back to those three films, then it’ll go back to why Steve was a hero this whole time: willingness to die for others. And it’ll go back to why Tony lived: to have a family. The Avengers shows where the role-reversal will happen: instead of Tony sacrificing his life, with Steve quietly agreeing on the sidelines, it’ll be Steve who sacrifices his life, with Tony having to accept it. It ties a bow around the loose threads established between them in AoU and CA:CW. Steve accepts that he’s a man who isn’t going to have a family or live the “simple life” (as he says the man who wanted that died in the ice); Steve said he was happy Howard got married–and that’s something he wants for Tony (hence mistakenly, and happily, assuming Pepper was pregnant). Steve feels emotionally indebted to Tony regardless because of the fallout of CA:CW (he regrets not telling Tony the truth), and that could very well play into a decision for Steve to lay on the wire so Tony can live.

More than all that, Steve dying so Tony can save the world would show a reversal of Steve’s opinion of Tony Stark.

Since the beginning, Steve has had a relatively low opinion of Tony’s motives and behavior. He assumed Tony wasn’t willing to die for others (he was wrong); he immediately assumed Tony must’ve sold weapons to Klaue in Age of Ultron (Tony hadn’t); Steve was dismissive of Tony’s concerns about extraterrestrial threats (Tony was right); Steve didn’t think Tony would believe him about Zemo (when later Tony ended up coming to the bunker, violating the Sokovia Accords, to help Steve with Zemo);  and I think Steve is now realizing that sometimes the best hands aren’t his own, but may just in fact be Tony’s. That’s why he called him Earth’s “best defender.” He’s come to respect Tony, sees now that Tony has been trying since the very beginning to protect everyone. And, this time, it’s Tony who has to end this.

Anyway, that’s why I think this would fit both their stories. It’s depressing, it’s sad, but it’s not illogical.