Let’s Talk Civil War.

Let’s talk Civil War.

(Ik. It’s been years. I’m sorry. I’m stuck in the past.)

Other than the fact that Tony’s side of the Accords is the non-contested accepted correct side in the entire fucking world except the USA (seriously, the entire world is telling you you’re wrong and you still insist otherwise? Maybe y’all’s really do belong on Team Cap), let’s dissect every Team Cap fan’s POV and rebut them.

1. The government should not impose on powered people’s freedoms.

Aside from the fact that this shows a fairly concerning blatant ignorance of the United Nations and all forms of international government, I can name on one hand the number of countries where “freedom” is portrayed as it is in the USA. Do you know what the stance on freedom is in the rest of the world? Your personal freedom ends at the safety of the community. (This is especially interesting during COVID and the vaccine and masking) Your life is your own, do whatever shit you want to do. No one gives a fuck if you want to eat ham or turkey for dinner. But when your “personal freedom” starts putting other’s lives at risk, it’s a fucking problem. It’s not “personal freedom” when you’re marching into a school wearing bombs. It’s not “personal freedom” when you start carrying a machine gun and threatening anyone you think is wrong. That is effectively what most of the Avengers are. They’re walking around with weapons and threatening anyone that doesn’t agree with them. And if you can’t see why that’s problematic, I don’t trust you.

2. The Government should not monitor individuals.

All governments monitor individuals and if you think otherwise, then I’m sorry but what fantasy world are you living in? Governments monitoring individuals is, usually, what leads to them catching terrorists before they blow up your local gas station or school. Governments monitoring individuals is an everyday occurrence in the entire fucking world and for due reason when people start threatening to murder world leaders or hate crime minorities. The Avengers getting monitored by the government is no different than any other civilian but for the crucial factor that the Avengers can and have acted on their threats based on personal disagreements.

3. The Government is corrupt.

This again just shows a blatant ignorance of international law and the United Nations, and, frankly, entitlement. The Accords were never going to give the United States government complete control over the Avengers when the initial problem was that US citizens were parading around with their weapons without any regard to international concerns. Further, even if any government is corrupt the way Hydra infiltrated the US government, the United Nations consists of 193 countries, 117 of them voted for the Accords, all of them would still have a say in what the Avengers do. Tell me, and use your logic please, how it could possibly be easier to corrupt 193 countries, the entire fucking world, than it is to corrupt 6 weaponized individuals all US citizens?

4. General Ross is known as the bad guy and therefore the Accords are bad because he supports them.

Correlation not causation. The Accords were written by at least 117 countries and amended by all 193 of them. Under international law, every country is allowed their representatives of their choosing, but all representatives must be present for something to actually pass. Meaning, yes, the US representative was a corrupt piece of shit, but there’s at least 192 other representatives (some countries choose to have multiple), thus, again, we go back to the argument of, is it easier to corrupt one individual or a whole board?

5. The Avengers would never have been deployed because countries have opposing decisions.

The Avengers were never supposed to be deployed for Earth-level threats anyhow. “So when the world needed them, they could fight the battles we never could” ~ Nick Fury. Key words: when needed, never could. In other words, the Avengers were not supposed to be constantly on missions, only when there was a need for a team of heroes. Further, they were not meant to fight the everyday bad guy, not terrorists or thieves or murderers, the Avengers were made to fight Extinction-level threats. It takes years of training to learn how to correctly, legally, and safely catch the everyday bad guy. None of the Avengers have gone through that training, and them being involved in such missions has canonically resulted in mass casualties. And when it comes to extinction-level threats, darling, not a single human is going to go, “well, I want the planet I’m living in to explode”, therefore, the Avengers will be deployed for those, aka: their correct purpose.

6. Some countries can’t fight their bad guys.

If you cannot see how this is blatant American Imperialism propaganda, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s true, some countries struggle with crime rates, but it is still their right as a country to decide when and how to ask for help rather than have it be imposed on them. Are you also walking around saying “we had to send our military to Afghanistan and blow up their lands, they couldn’t deal with their bad people” or “we had to take over Iraq, Syria, etc”? It’s not the place of the US government to choose how other countries deal with crimes, and it is most certainly not the place of 6 weaponized (white) US citizens to do so either.

7. Some countries are corrupt and choose not to fight their bad guys.

This effectively makes the Avengers political weapons (one of the valid concerns of the Accords), and proves exactly why the Accords are needed. Are the Avengers supposed to assassinate any world leader they deem corrupt? Because that is what it would be, assassinations. How is that not abuse of their powers? How can it be justified in any shape, way, or form? What would make them different than dictators then? “If you don’t agree with me, I’ll assassinate you and replace you with someone who does”.

8. The Superhuman Registration Act is a bad thing in the comics and the Accords are in its place.

True, the Registration Act was a terrible thing, but it comes under very different circumstances in the comics than it does in the MCU, and to ignore the political climate and story of the MCU is downright idiotic. The MCU is an entirely different story and universe than Earth-616. Why are you watching the MCU if you just want the story of the comics? Go read the comics then. This screams either one of two:

A. A lack of cognitive abilities.

B. A child throwing a fit because they didn’t get exactly what they want.

And honestly, neither is a cute look.

Did you also throw a tantrum when they replaced an orientalist racist depiction of a Chinese villain by a white man in Iron Man 3?

9. Captain America is an amazing hero in the comics.

Again, in the comics. Not the MCU. In the comics, Peter Parker’s best friend is Harry Osborn, not Ned Leeds. In the comics, Pepper Potts marries Happy Hogan, not Tony Stark. In the comics, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are Romani-Jewish, not white. In the comics, Alexei Shostakov is Natasha Romanoff’s husband, not father. Catch my drift? The comics are different, and MCU Steve Rogers is not 616 Steve Rogers. To pretend otherwise is boring.

10. Team Cap is hot.

Honestly, the blond blue eyed look isn’t my cup of tea, but I get it. What I don’t understand is why you have to justify all their actions to love them? I adore Tywin Lannister. I’m not walking around justifying him wiping out entire families and ordering the sexual assault and murder of Elia Martell and her children. You can like someone and admit they’ve done some fucked up shit. It’s not that deep. It’s deep when you try to say they’re in the right for the fucked up shit they did.

11. Bucky.

Honestly, Bucky is his own whole complex post and if I get into it here, this post will last for days, so I won’t. I will admit that Tony was in the wrong for some parts of that, but even yet, Rogers was entirely in the wrong for everything he did “for” Bucky, and this whole dilemma could have been prevented if Rogers had for one singular second thought to go about everything the legal way. (I could make another post if I’m encouraged enough)

12. The Avengers are the good guys.

That’s the Doylist explanation. We as outside viewers know that. The Watsonian explanation is entirely different. World governments in the MCU don’t know for sure the Avengers are the good guys. What they know is that the Avengers have been involved in the complete destruction of government buildings, intelligence buildings, an entire country, and more. Do you know what we call people who blow up governmental and intelligence buildings full of innocent civilians here? Terrorists.

13. The Accords.

This isn’t an argument I’ve seen per se, but more of a general misunderstanding I’ve seen on both sides. It doesn’t surprise me though. Civil War shows one single thin file as being the entire Accords, that Rogers flips through quickly and decides is a mistake. There is absolutely no way that is correct for the United Nations. UN documents can be thousands of pages long, they’re written by legal professionals from at least tens of countries, they cover every possible scenario and they’re open to amendments. They’re worked on so long that it takes years for them to be passed. They’re filled with so much legal jargon that one singular flick will result in you understanding nothing. More likely though, Rogers was given a brief introduction and summary. Thus, him immediately deciding he doesn’t like it without even knowing what it is, gives the same energy as a child throwing a tantrum for being forced to try kiwis for the first time.

It is possible that I’ve forgotten some arguments, I’m only human after all, but if you, (respectfully. I will not be answering anyone who throws slurs or hate speech), have any, I don’t mind dissecting them.

Lastly, to wrap up my post, all I have to say is one question. Is it possible that the whole world, that at least 5-6 billion people, are wrong, and Steve Rogers is correct?