In which I have opinions

[selenak]

Goofiest fannish thing of the month I did: going to the Star Wars: Identies exhibition which is currently here in Munich and taking pictures of the Ahsoka Tano part of it.

Comments

[selenak]

Having watched the movie twice now, I think it's pretty clear that other than T'Challa, who intends to kill Bucky, and only Bucky, right until the Zemo reveal throughout the movie, nobody at the airport has the intention of killing anyone else. In fact, that's why Tony, Natasha etc. are at the air port to begin with. In order of chronology: Ross tells Tony that after Steve and Bucky got several people in the hospital during Bucky's escape, he's sending troops after them with a shoot on sight order. Tony says he'll bring in Steve & Co. instead, Ross after some humiliation conga ("why should I trust you do do any better etc.") gives him 36 hours to do so. Tony and Natasha then talk tactics, she says they're severaly underpowered, we get the Bruce reference, and they have their mutual lightning bulbs ("My idea is in the building, where's yours?" "Queens"), heading off to their respective recruitments.

(Incidentally, a case could be made that Natasha, who like Tony has not been informed by Team Steve about the Zemo issue, wouldn't have minded if T'Challa had killed Bucky at this point, but I haven't seen anyone making it. She clearly changes her mind later on this issue, of course.)

At this point, neither Tony or Natasha know that Bucky has been framed, or that there is a third party involved. They do know that he went into Winter Soldier mode again, and that Steve and Sam helped him escape, and that Clint and Wanda just left the Compound, with no prices to guessing they're going to back up Steve. The goal here to them is making an arrest that keeps their friends alive, as opposed Ross sending the army after them. It's not unreasonable to suppose that a) their friends won't attack them with lethal force, and b) could be talked into surrendering. (Because if you don't know yet that there's a possible supervillain plan involving Winter Soldiers afoot, the question is simply Bucky, who has just, again, as far as they know, demonstrated why he really shouldn't be left to roam at large.)

Later, after Peter has gotten and lost Steve's shield, his first action at the air port fight, asks Tony what to do, and Tony replies "like we discussed, keep your distance and web them up". Which sounds like Peter was supposed to not engage in combat with anyone but do his shooting webs from a distance thing to immobilize and disarm them. Now don't get me wrong: none of this changes Peter's age. Or the fact that Tony should have guessed that telling a teenager who's already spent half a year as a vigilante to keep his distance and stick to disarming, not fighting, is wasted breath. Not to mention that even if he could trust Steve, Sam and Clint (he didn't know about Scott) not to go for a killing stroke, he had no such certainty about Bucky. But if you want to bring someone to a fight where the primary goal isn't to kill your opponents but to disarm and immobilize then, Spider-Man with his abilities is actually a good choice (good as in effective, not good as in morally right). Especially if the main person to be disarmed and immoblized is Captain America, since Steve seems to be the one Tony actually had told Peter go after (or rather, his shield and his legs).