Tony Stark – the scapegoat or only villain?

robertdowneyjrfanfacts:

poedamnhot:

I’ve been wondering about this for a while so I’m posting this thought as more of a question or start of a platform for discussion…

Many people in fandom calls out Tony Stark as willing participant of the death of Pietro and Wanda Maximoff’s parents, that because it was his missile etched with his name, that makes him the one responsible, that makes it justified for Wanda and Pietro to blame Tony.

Yet, Tony wasn’t the one to fire the missile, he wasn’t the one who sent it to hurt Wanda and Pietro’s parents or leave them orphans.

In fact, we are never even told who used the weapon, we are never told if it was the US government or simply terrorists. We are never given a face of who gave the order yet all the blame has centered on Tony Stark alone, as if it was only himself. Is that really fair? Is that even the truth?

If someone is killed by a gun, do you blame the specific gunman who’s responsible or do you only go after the company that made that specific gun?

If someone is killed by a knife, do you blame the person who used the knife or do you only lay the blame at the company who made the specific knife?

If someone is killed by a car, do you blame the person who did the hit and run or do you only lay the blame at the company that made the specific car?

At what point do you draw the line? At what point does it make it justified to go after someone who made a weapon than the person who actually wielded that weapon with the intent to hurt someone?

If we as society pin the crimes on the individual or individuals who actually committed the crimes and not just general branding of all companies and their CEOs evil, then is it fair for fandom and even Wanda and Pietro, to make Tony the sole bad guy in this when it was either the US government, or some other government, or even terrorists who used Tony’s tech to hurt people?

Is Tony Stark then not simply just a face, a mere scapegoat for people to direct their anger when they can’t go after governments or terrorists who were really responsible? Is he simply not just an easy target to blame?

Each time I see someone saying Tony is responsible for the Maximoffs’s deaths, I wonder if SI is the only company that produces weapons in USA. If it wasn’t his missile it would have been someone else’s. The fact Obadiah was selling SI’s weapons in the black market has gone unnoticed by some people who want to blame Tony for everything.

And according to that train of thought, I think it’s safe to say his injury in Afghanistan was an attempted suicide. It was his company’s missile that injured him, no?

Basically, people are grasping at straws to justify their hate.