History Fanfic / EnoughRope

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Bruce Banner points out how five Winter Soldiers wouldn't be capable of holding a small village, let alone taking over/destroying the world. No matter how good they are at killing, they're still only five people.
** Despite Ross being a major {{Jerkass}}, Tony still has to play nice with him due to the man's position.
** Spending hours semi-conscious in an abandoned Siberian bunker in a suit with no power leaves Tony badly frost bitten, to the extent his fingertips have to be amputated.
** When Wanda makes a remark about an interviewer asking Tony questions he doesn't want to answer, Scott informs her that interviews don't work like that. Both parties meet up before hand to negotiate which questions can and cannot be asked and while some reporters might try to ask some unapproved questions, they know better than to try with Tony Stark who's not only rich and powerful, but is known to walk out on interviews if someone does.
** While some people think Captain America might have been right to oppose the Sokovia Accords, they all agree he went about it in the wrong way. Attacking police officers and harming civilians only weakens his position, especially since Rogers could have instead argued his point with the United Nations or even simply staged a hunger strike in protest. Captain Britain even says that Rogers' actions "poisoned the well" for independent superheroes like him.
** Brian Braddock carelessly uses the same phone for both his hero and civilian identity so quite a number of people knew he's Captain Britain, though [=MI13=] kept his enemies from learning it.
** Bodycams make it harder for both sides of an argument to falsify things. While various governments could string footage together to make heroes look bad, the heroes have their own copy to offer as counter-evidence. Likewise, heroes might be protected against false accusations, but still have to watch their behavior since everything they do as heroes is being recorded at all times.
** While it is serious ParanoiaFuel, the fact that in this story Wanda sometimes messed with people's minds on accident is great news for Scott's and Clint's court case as it massively strengthens their defense if it can't be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they were completely in their right minds during the battle at the Berlin airport.
** Wanda being EasilyForgiven is torn apart by Laura Barton in argument with her husband, who points out that in actuality at least 3 Avengers (Tony, Bruce, and Clint himself) all were actively angry with her or at least were squeamish around her. She also points that Wanda's abilities made her a much bigger threat of manipulating the team than Tony.
** The whole fic intends to apply realistic geopolitical and political concerns to the events of ''Civil War.'' For one thing, General Ross is not presented as the untouchable force he was in the film (with it even noted in the intro notes that other countries' leaders wouldn't be enthusiastic about a warhawk American being granted so much authority). The Avengers besides Tony and Natasha not knowing about the Accords is addressed by them not following politics around them, since such a large and complex arrangement WOULD be discussed long enough for news to have trickled down beforehand. Other countries don't appreciate having vigilantes smashing around their property regardless of whether said vigilantes are doing "what's right."

[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/9681983/chapters/21862259 Enough Rope]] is a fanfic by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amber_and_Ash/pseuds/Amber_and_Ash Amber_and_Ash]]

* RealityEnsues:

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Despite how they treated him, Tony Stark does his best to help out most of the rogue Avengers. In particular, once Clint calls him, Tony first apologizes for not keeping him appraised of things regarding the Accords then offers his help to get Clint a plea deal and makes sure he knows what Clint wants out of it, such as whether Clint wants to retire again or if he wants to be an international or United States only hero.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: This is the ultimate fate of [[spoiler:Steve in the epilogue chapter. In order to minimize the amount of collateral and political damage he was doing, he was "offered" the chance to become an ambassador to Asgard who would work alongside their armies as a proven warrior. Given that Asgard's warrior culture is more in line with Steve's [[BlackAndWhiteMorality morals]], he's much happier than most who get this Trope (to the point he doesn't even realize he was played). Everyone else is just glad he's not causing any more trouble on Earth.]]
* RetiredBadass: [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] with Clint. He spent years serving his country as an Agent of SHIELD, working to protect his wife and eventual kids, and managed to help quite a few people over the course of his career and eventually became a Superhero who helped save the entire world from aliens and robots. When he retired after the fall of SHIELD and the Ultron affair, he was cut off from his old friends and support network, he was left struggling with trauma and grief related anger issues without professional help, and went from being an important figure in the world, to an ineffective farmhand struggling to help his wife around their home while aware of his own mental spiral but unable to stop it. This lead to him throwing his lot in with Steve when he called without thinking about what he was doing, and also sees him agree to work with Coulson as part of his community service, just so he can ''be useful'' doing something again.
* SelectiveObliviousness: Lampshaded when Clint wonders how he never realized what was going on with the Avengers until an outside source spelled it out. In particular, when Steve threw his shield at Tony's head because Wanda claimed he was making another Ultron, Steve committed attempted murder on the word of a terrorist.
* StatingTheSimpleSolution: A number of people suggest easier methods for Steve to fight the Sokovia Accords, such as speaking against them at the UN meeting or even staging a hunger strike. At the time, Captain America still had a lot of political influence if he'd chosen to use it.

* ParanoiaFuel: Because it's proven that Wanda cannot completely control her powers, and that she often unconsciously projects her emotions and opinions onto others, everyone who ever interacted with her is left wondering how many of their own thoughts and actions were their own, and how many were influenced by her. Clint in particular is left wondering how much she affected him, and how much of it affected his actions when he should have known better.

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: While Tony is informing Bruce of the situation on Earth, he confides in him that the battle on the Helicarriers was completely unnecessary, as there were half a dozen people who could have grounded them remotely; Tony was one of them, and so was ''Fury himself''. Tony speculates that [[ManipulativeBastard Fury]] was [[XanatosSpeedChess setting Steve up for something]], but [[ParanoiaFuel hasn't figured out what]].

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllOfThis: While Tony is informing Bruce of the situation on Earth, he confides in him that the battle on the Helicarriers was completely unnecessary, as there were half a dozen people who could have grounded them remotely; Tony was one of them, and so was ''Fury himself''. Tony speculates that [[ManipulativeBastard Fury]] was [[XanatoxSpeedChess setting Steve up for something]], but [[ParanoiaFuel hasn't figured out what]].

* RetiredBadass: [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] with Clint. He spent years serving his country as an Agent of SHIELD, working to protect his wife and eventual kids, and managed to help quite a few people over the course of his career and eventually became a Superhero who helped save the entire world from aliens and robots. When he retired after the fall of SHIELD and the Ultron affair, he was cut off from his old friends and support network, he was left struggling with trauma and grief related anger issues without professional help, and went from being an important figure in the world, to an ineffective farmhand struggling to help his wife around their home while aware of his own mental spiral but unable to stop it. This lead to him throwing his lot in with Steve when he called without thinking about what he was doing, and also sees him agree to work with Coulson as part of his community service, just so he can ''be useful'' doing something.

* OutOfCharacterAlert: An odd variation occurs when Clint feels a sudden surge of fury towards Tony for basically saying he help the other members of Team Cap, but he can't help Wanda if she doesn't show remorse for her actions. Almost instantly Clint finds himself wondering why he's angry as all Tony did was say that he couldn't work miracles.

* UniquenessDecay: During WWII, all the known vibranium in the world was used to make Captain America's shield. Decades later, it's revealed that Wakanda has a literal mountain of it, though they consider it a national treasure and don't let anyone else use it. Then Tony Stark figures out how to synthesize vibranium and starts making body armor for law enforcement with the stuff.

* DestructiveSaviour: Other countries view the Rouge Avengers as this because they don't appreciate having vigilantes smashing around their property regardless of whether said vigilantes are doing "what's right."

* TheParagon: [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] with Steve Rogers. Because of his reputation and how he influences others, his followers are mainly following him because of who he is and they don't question him. Also because Steve is convinced that he's always picking the morally good option and inspiring others around him to do the right thing, he is incapable of seeing situations that involve GreyAndGrayMorality. This has caused a lot problems for those that follow him, are against him and the world at large.

* TheParagon: Deconstructed with Steve Rogers. Because of his reputation and how he influences others, his followers are mainly following him because of who he is and they don't question him. Also because Steve is convinced that he's always picking the morally good option and inspiring others around him to do the right thing, he is incapable of seeing situations that involve GreyAndGrayMorality. This has caused a lot problems for those that follow him, are against him and the world at large.

* ParanoiaFuel: Wanda is eventually revealed to accidentally influence the minds of others.

* RealityEnsues: Lying down in the middle of Siberia in a wrecked, unpowered (and thus unheated) suit for hours ended up worse than canon. Tony is convalescent because of hypothermia for a while and he loses parts of himself to frostbite.

* ParanoiaFuel: Wanda's powers aren't fully under her control and it's eventually proven she's been influencing people on accident. While they initially claim otherwise, Scot and Clint aren't certain she never influenced them.

* Pride: Steve's FatalFlaw