love that movie civil war for the way it Nails the clash between people’s external reads on tony vs The Truth
- backstage MIT people ready to kiss tony’s ass like he wants a fanfare and parades in his honor when really he’s looking for random excuses to ditch the adulation and leave through the back door - mrs spencer thinking tony won’t give a shit about her son when in reality her struggle becomes a key factor pushing him to the accords - steve assuming pepper was pregnant, like this guy heads off into the horizon and people assume happiness and then tony’s pretty much like “actually no i am Miserable” in not so many words - “you alright?” “always,” tony answers, fucking literally clutching his own chest after almost non-successfully talking ross out of approaching steve with a killing squad - scott lang like “this is your conscience, we don’t talk a lot these days” when in the beginning of the movie tony literally has an “it helps ease my conscience” line i’m just fuckinG - natasha like “are you incapable of letting go of your ego for one god damn second” literally 1 milisecond before pointing out herself that ross & co practically have tony on a leash and he literally spent the entire movie begging - tony being like “i was wrong” and sam, who presumably barely ever talked to tony responding like “that’s a first” when he clearly doesn’t hold steve to the same “openly admitting i’m wrong” requirements and like lmao tony was actually The First to say “i was wrong” in the movie and like literally his first scene has him standing in front of an audience like “have a live sneak peak of a MOMENT I REGRET”
bonus points for doing that without compromising the characterization of the IM1 guy who came out of the cave ready to make OPEN HONEST AND PUBLIC AMENDS the guy whose first “back from captivity” press conference speech starts with an honest and personal comment about his incomplete relationship with his father, and moves on to an admission of guilt. the guy who went up in front of journalists and said he wasn’t the hero type because of all his character defects, this guy, My Guy, the guy who has a deleted (WHY) line about how reputations stick with you and he was never entirely comfortable with his, My Guy, My Tony Stark, is finally Back, complete with the tragic Struggles of a reputation he can’t free himself from even though he will Fucking tell you In Person, with minimal prompting, that his conscience is Heavy