I Feel Like Whenever This Discourse Comes Up Of Tony Being Some Evil Mustache Twirling War Profiteer,

I feel like whenever this discourse comes up of Tony being some evil mustache twirling war profiteer, it’s often glossed over that Tony wasn’t making weapons because “hahaha he’s evil and likes to watch people die” - he makes weapons so that people would be safe, literally he makes his weapons with more accurate targeting for the specific purpose to avoid collateral damage - he wants more effective and accurate weapons so that soldiers fighting wouldn’t have to needlessly die - why do you think he mocked Hammer and his tech for so long? Because they’re defective, they’re inadequate, they’re second rate, and people would be hurt by Hammer’s tech than actually save - why do you think the military and Rhodey went to Tony? Because they knew his tech wouldn’t fail or jam up on them when they’re in a firefight

Sure you can argue the morals of supplying soldiers for a war, but is it really that blameworthy that you want your side to be able to stay safe and win a war that you didn’t start? Because last I checked, Tony isn’t the one starting any wars, he didn’t make any of that decision - he’s only ever tried to make sure that his country and the troops were the best equipped - just like he builds weapons and tech to best equip his fellow Avengers, would that now be war profiteering too?

People also like to gloss over that Stark Industries also isn’t solely weapons development - Tony even mentions in Iron Man 1 that a lot of their other research projects in other departments like phones and energy and crops are funded by military funding they receive in exchange for tech - in fact he’s more involved in R&D in those departments than making things that blow up.

And really, why is it that people like to forget Obadiah Stane? As if Tony somehow just ended up kidnapped magically? As if he just happened to get his own weapon in his chest by coincidence? It’s like it’s forgotten how selectively Tony is about whom his tech is given to - the only reason Tony ever got hit by his own weapon isn’t because he was carelessly selling his weapons to anyone, but precisely because Obadiah was lying and double dealing to terrorists this whole time.

Tony Stark didn’t suddenly shut down his weapons development division because he got hurt by his own bombs - he shut it down because he realized that his weapons that he thought were controlled and in the right hands, were literally stolen out from under him and given to terrorists to be used on innocent people - call him naive, ignorant, and privileged, those are all true, but shutting down his weapons manufacturing was never about himself and how he got a taste of his own medicine but rather the event of his attack made him realize that what he had thought were his weapons used safely and right, now he knows they weren’t and he didn’t look deep enough to see it before and now he can’t ignore it and things have to change. The bombing on himself wasn’t the reason for the change, the bombing was the initial event that landed him in the situation where he discovered the reason to change.

Why do you think Obadiah tried to kill Tony? Why do you think he lied all this time? Because he knew that if Tony ever learned the truth, Tony wouldn’t be okay with it, and he was right, because as soon as Tony saw that his weapons were actually gettting into the hands of terrorists who just wanna hurt people - he totally shut it all down.

You can blame Tony for being naive in trusting Obadiah to run the company (even though Obadiah was a trusted family friend whom Tony relied on growing up), you can blame Tony for not looking deeply and carefully into where all his weapons were going, you can blame him for caring more about just inventing things than actually what is really being run in his company under his own nose - but you cannot blame Tony Stark for the actions of Obadiah Stane who decided to sell weapons to terrorists, who decided to lie to Tony about it and have Tony killed so Tony couldn’t stop him.

Tony Stark built his tech with all the intentions that they’d be used the right way, that nobody would get hurt but the bad guys - maybe that’s naive, maybe that’s stupid, and maybe that’s careless, the road to hell is often paved with good intentions after all - but let’s not forget that Tony Stark never sold weapons to terrorists, never lied and double dealed away his weapons so bad guys could use it - yes he made weapons for the military, but remember that it wasn’t simply because of that’s what was expected of him as his father’s son, but also because Rhodey was military liaison, Tony trusted Rhodey and if Rhodey believed then Tony would too. Tony trusted Rhodey do always do the right thing so why wouldn’t Tony give him weapons that would help him.