The REAL Villain of Civil War

Okay, I've had enough.

Seriously.

Civil War came out over a year ago.

Let me preface this by saying the following:
1. I love Tony Stark. He is my favorite character in the MCU. He doesn't deserve the hate.
2. I love Steve Rogers. He doesn't deserve hate anymore than Tony does.

Let's take a look at the actual villain from Captain America: Civil War. Seems like everyone has forgotten who the real bad guy was and instead insists upon in-house fighting.

Helmut Zemo.

Hello. My name is Helmut Zemo. 

I killed a lot of people in order to destroy the Avengers.

Zemo's bitter salty ass is what got us into this mess. He's highly intelligent, patient, and he knew exactly where to hurt everyone the most. 

Why is he bitter? He lost his wife, children and father in the fall of Sokovia after Ultron and the Avengers did a considerable amount of damage to it. So yeah, the dude has a right to be angry. But then he was out for revenge. He was out for blood.

Remember how he blew up a building and framed Bucky for it? Remember how T'Challa's father died in that explosion? Remember how he killed a psychiatrist so he could pretend to be him?

Remember how he used Bucky's words to control him?

But I get it. Why should we blame Zemo for fucking everything up instead of painting Tony as the villain? Or why should we blame Zemo for everything when Steve is just a snake?

This startling revelation is hurting my brain.

If we want to be more accurate though, Tony Stark was an antagonist. That does not equal villain. That simply means he was in opposition to Steve's point of view because he had his own. And because it was Captain America's movie, that made Steve the protagonist. If it had been Iron Man: Civil War, Tony would have been the protagonist.

Zemo. Villain. He literally harmed other people, broke the law, was malicious and cruel.

Side note: Crossbones was also a villain but he died in the first act so I don't really understand why they used him in the first place.

Tony. The antagonist. Opposed the protagonist point of view. Not a villain. He is not cruel or evil. He simply disagreed with Steve's point of view that created a major conflict between the Avengers. Even that was partly because of Zemo's manipulation.

I don't know why everyone chooses to focus on who was right, who was wrong, who was the hero, and who was the bad guy.

Tony was right. Steve was right. Tony was also wrong. Steve was also wrong. There were no winners here. The point of the whole movie was to understand both sides of a story. You get a chance to see where Tony is coming from and where Steve is coming from. Yeah, you might agree with one more than the other, but they both make valid points in their arguments.

Zemo managed to pit these heroes against each other when he forced Steve's hand (with Steve not even knowing) into protecting Bucky from being executed for a crime he didn't commit. Was Steve's approach perfect? No. Was his heart in the right place? Yes.

Tony believed he was doing the right thing as well. He didn't want the Avengers to be torn apart. And when he realized Bucky had been framed, he dropped his pride, went to Steve and admitted he was wrong.

Ooooh...what a villain!

So anyway, Zemo's entire focus was Mission Report: December 16, 1991. He had all three men in the same place just so he could show Tony a video of his parents being murdered by the one man he was now trying to help Steve protect. Did Tony lose his mind a little?

Well yeah. He'd been manipulated and realized it. He apologized (in his own way) to his friend only to find out his friend knew his parents had been murdered by HYDRA (even though Steve was speaking the truth when he said he wasn't sure it was Bucky).

Side note: Why is no one angry at Natasha for not telling Tony? She was there when Zola shared that information as well.

Tony was exhausted and already emotional and then, on top of that, he sees a video that hurts him. That is what Zemo wanted. He knew it would cause conflict. He knew Tony wouldn't react well. He was betting on that.

Tony went after Bucky. Was he wrong in doing so? Yes. Were his emotions justified? Yes. Who cares that it happened almost 30 years ago? He saw his parents being murdered by the Winter Soldier. If you think you could have remained rational by that point then you're obviously not a human being. Hello, emotions! Why hello there, psychological fuckery!

Tony's eyes are weapons of emotional destruction. No one is safe from his micro-expressions.

Tony Stark was devastated. He felt betrayed by someone he trusted. Remember at the beginning of the movie how we saw him trying to address the death of his parents? Well here we are. End of the movie. Everything Tony thought he knew was wrong. Again.

Steve was trying to protect Tony. His intentions were good. He wasn't doing it to be devious. When and how do you think you'd say to someone... "So HYDRA murdered your parents. Okay good talk." It never occurred to Steve that this would bite him in the ass. He didn't want to reopen old wounds for Tony because he cares about him. Yes. Yes he does. Don't even try to tell me he doesn't.

ZEMO ORCHESTRATED THIS WHOLE THING!

His plan worked. It worked.

The villain won because his plan worked.

Not because Tony was wrong. Not because Steve was wrong. But because they were all a little messed up from everything that culminated into the final act fight scene.

This isn't the kind of threeway I had in mind.

This. This was what Zemo wanted. Zemo got them to this point.

All because he wanted revenge.

But sure, let's blame everything on Tony or Steve and erase the actual villain.

Good plan.