To Trope or Not to Trope
, by Gibbs_yeah, is an Marvel Cinematic Universe fanfiction series revolving around exploring the consequences of the many, many mistakes of Tony Stark, as perceived by the author. Initially written as a counterpoint to the trend of Accusation Fics that lionise Tony Stark while berating Steve Rogers, it has since become a bit of a Meta Fic with regards to the MCU fandom at large.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Accusation Fic: Against Tony Stark and the Sokovia Accords in general, much like The Days of Reckoning Are Upon Us only in reverse.
- Adaptational Badass: Supporting characters who are usually just minor supporting characters tend to do this in response to Tony, such as Happy.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Clint was intelligent in the films, but was never portrayed as a hacker or unusually tech savvy. In one snippet, he easily hacks FRIDAY to not only hide his entry into Tony's home, but to also erase all data of Tony's marriage to Pepper and the existence of their daughter.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Tony falls victim to this, given the entire premise of the story involves him being called out for his mistakes and most have him not learning his lesson. He becomes a full Supervillain in one snippet who tried and failed to take over the world.
- Adaptational Wimp: In snippets that take place after Civil War, Tony will often fold to the slightest bit of pressure from Ross and/or the UN.
- Age Lift: The Maximoff twins are usually portrayed as being sixteen or seventeen while WandaVision officially canonized them as being in their mid-20s by the time of Age of Ultron later.
- Broken Pedestal: Peter towards Tony when he learns about the Accords and Tony blackmailing him.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- The third story closes out with Tony declaring he wants no part in Team Iron Man fanfics and that he's going back to bed until "the universe makes sense again".
- Another chapter has Tony evict an unnamed woman representing the usual talking points of the "Civil War Team Iron Man" fandom, with him declaring that he'd rather not put up with that kind of nonsense, before reassuring the characters those stories take shots at that he's on their side.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Absolutely any questionable or offensive action or comment Tony made will come back to haunt him, sometimes with lethal results.
- Zig-Zagged in some aspects as he'll get away without being punished, but there will still be repercussions.
- And then averted entirely in some cases where he comes to his senses, gets bailed out by the others, or both.
- The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Tony has this role in snippets when a large group calls him out.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: One snippet results in this when Tony takes on Thanos by himself.
- Deconstruction: Of the many tropes and themes used by "Team Iron Man" writers.
- Tony becoming Peter Parker's dad. The series instead has the line of succession from May clearly defined, so Peter goes to some other relative of his or Ned's parents in the event of her death. Plus many chapters goes over how unethical Tony was recruiting Peter for the airport battle as well as his distant mentoring off him.
- That the whole world would rally behind Tony and accept him as their new leader in some kind of coalition to face down Thanos or make the world a better place. The world instead remains the
Broken Base that it is in real life, with various factions opposing Tony, supporting Tony or simply not caring about him at all. - In most chapters, the Team Cap/Team Iron Man divide is presented as a divided issue, rather than a unilateral Pro-Tony One World Order as most other stories like to present it.
- That Tony is a good friend to everyone.
- That villains would choose to support Tony. More often than not, they choose to take advantage of the chaos caused by the Civil War.
- Of basically every story involving enemy ships and crack shipping relevant to Tony. These usually end with Tony or the subject in question backing away from the other, rejecting their advances, or staying with their canon character instead.
- That characters from other franchises would support Tony and the Accords.
- The concept that Tony could singlehandedly repel or take down threats like Thanos. An Iron Man 3 themed story ends with him being vaporized by Killian because Pepper isn't there to save him (with the Hulk being the one to take down Killian in the aftermath), while an Avengers: Infinity War story ends with Thanos defeating him (and then the rest of the Avengers come to Tony's rescue as a lesson in teamwork.)
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The "Ghost of Conversations Past" ficlet regarding Tony keeping Wanda interned at the Avengers Compound has Steve likening it to the Japanese internment camps that Jim Morita enlisted to avoid.
- Easily Forgiven: Tony is forgiven in many snippets when he realises his mistakes and gives a sincere apology.
- In some cases, he's forgiven before he's realized his mistakes, with one having Nick Fury declaring he'll give Tony a way out of trouble should he find it, long before he comes to any realization that he's done wrong on his part.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: In a number of snippets, only Rhodey seems to actually like Tony at all. Some times even Peter Parker doesn't want much to do with him when he gets too clingy or when he learns about the Accords. In some snippets, JARVIS sides against Tony.
- It's All About Me: Tony's mindset in a majority of the snippets. Every now and then, it gets him arrested or killed, though on more than one occasion, the rest of the Avengers come to his rescue, and he quickly breaks himself out of that mindset.
- Moral Myopia: The series sort of has this vibe in general, given that it's about flipping the script on Team Iron Man fics. As such, Team Cap's perspective is treated as being always right whilst the other side receives the converse treatment. But then again, that's the whole point of the series.
- Tony is wrong for referring to Wanda as a weapon of mass destruction or calling Natasha a double agent, but no one will comment on Clint's crack about Rhodey's broken spine.
- Tony keeping secrets about keeping Wanda at the Avengers Compound is inexcusable and false imprisonment. Steve keeping secrets about HYDRA assassinating the Starks* is justified.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In one snippet, Tony gets sent to prison for helping Steve in Siberia (without fighting him).
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Tony gets these every here and there.
- Nick Fury pops in to muse about Tony's wrongdoings during Civil War, and then offers to help him out of any further trouble he gets himself into.
- After Peter is kidnapped by Accords-aligned factions, Steve - at Tony's behest - rescues him, with Tony accepting that as long as Peter's safe, he's fine with the odds of never seeing him again.
- Revenge by Proxy:
- In one snippet, Tony declares that he didn't attack Bucky because he just watched a video of the man murdering his parents as the Winter Soldier, but because Tony wanted to hurt Steve.
- Clint pulls a variant in one snippet. Since Tony didn't want to participate in the Time Heist, Clint takes Pepper and Morgan from him (though not fatally as Tony feared) and erases all evidence of Tony's and Pepper's marriage and Morgan's existence.
- Take That!:
- Snippets that focus on addressing Tony/Peter ships always have Peter creeped out by the advances Tony makes at him.
- The sheer support the Accords get in pro-Tony stories tends to get railed on, with the Accords being proven to be ineffective and/or downright stupid in almost every chapter they appear in.
- Vision chooses to remain committed to Wanda in stories where their relationship is explored, serving as a Take That! to various stories that invoke Abandon Shipping with the two of them as a way of spiting Wanda.
- Comically, one story actually takes a shot at the authors behind Pro-Tony stories, with the MCU's Canon incarnation of Tony Stark declaring he doesn't like them or what they do.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Every now and then, a snippet ends with Tony having a "happy" ending, or at the very least, a "Ray of Hope" Ending.
- In one, Tony's attempt to take on Thanos one-on-one ends with the rest of the team coming to his rescue.
- In another, Tony listens to Steve at the airport, stands down, and both Team Iron Man and Team Cap join forces to take down Zemo together.
- After Peter Parker is arrested for violating the Sokovia Accords, Tony enlists Cap's aid in breaking Peter out of the Raft, and Steve responds by stealing the entire Raft to save Peter, which Tony takes comfort in despite knowing he won't be seeing Peter for a very long time.
- Nick Fury shows up to throw in his two-cents on the Civil War, then lets a demoralized Stark know he's got his back if something really bad happens.
- The first story (Actions Have Consequences For Tony Stark) ends with Tony apologizing for his mistakes and being forgiven by the rest of the Avengers.
- The third story (And The Prop-Tony Tropes Just Keep On Coming) ends with Tony deciding he wants no part in a world created by Team Iron Man fans and that he prefers the canon MCU over it.
- One chapter has Tony and company abandon the Accords and move to Wakanda to join the fugitive Avengers, declaring that it's so much better than being forced to work as a Slave to PR for the government.
- What If?: The series is rooted in this, taking a look at canon - and hypothetical - events from the lenses of Team Cap.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Tony gets one in almost every snippet, for everything from Ultron to calling Wanda a weapon of mass destruction.
