Character moments when you think the character is completely wrong

I love Age of Ultron. I think it's one of the most rewatchable MCU films. However this moment always bugs me on rewatches, especially so since Cap is a WW2 vet and fought in the European theatre.

War, at least in Europe, could have been avoided if only UK and France showed a little more teeth. They also had quite a few chances to do so before it became too late. They could have stopped Germany and ended Hitler's genocidal plans back in 1936 when Hitler ordered soldiers to remilitarise the Rhineland. They didn't do anything when Germany took over Austria or when they didn't honour the Munich Aggrement and invaded Czechoslovakia. They finally declared war after the invasion of Poland and even then they didn't do much for a while while Germany was busy with Poland. They had a pretty good chance of marching towards Berlin unopposed while the German army was busy but they simply didn't take it.

So, yeah, either Cap doesn't know the history of the time period he came from or he is just talking nonsense.

Commentaires

SnoSlider2025-11-13 11:27

Your thorough description of the event timeline proves that the war had already started. What else ya got?

LatverianPsycho2025-11-13 11:30

The war in Europe officially started with the invasion of Poland. The rest happened earlier.

DeathKnellKettle2025-11-13 11:33

So an invasion in Austria isn't war, but just a little? domestic squabble?

SnoSlider2025-11-13 11:35

Their declaration of war came when they had seen enough acts of war perpetrated against the innocent. The war officially started with the militarization in Germany breaking the Treaty of Versailles.

Jaideco2025-11-13 11:37

I’m with @snoslider. Cap was saying that if you invade somewhere to stop them from invading someone else, all you achieve is that you give the despots a justification for their war. Building up your military capability in response to their armament and/or joining forces to repel an invasion is different. That is self defence after the other side has already committed to war. Until that point there is always the chance that calmer heads might prevail and the problem of aggression within the state may be resolved internally…

AgentKnitter2025-11-13 11:28

He wasn't wrong.

Myhtological2025-11-13 11:37

Cuban missle crisis

BatmanForever232025-11-13 11:28

Your entire summation of WWII and the buildup is so simplistic.. I'm sorry, but you cannot say with any degree of certainty that 'showing a little more teeth' would've stopped war. It is quite literally impossible to predict the ripple effect from any single one of these possible changes, and naive and arrogant to assume to do so. It is easy, with hindsight, to say that appeasement was one of the worst possible lines of policy, but a different approach would be far from guaranteeing a different outcome. Hitler's grip over Germany was borne out of popular policy, such as regaining the lands taken from Germany previously and expanding their territory further - for all you know, attempting to stop him earlier would just lead to earlier war. Your assessment of this period of history is basic and flawed.

[deleted]2025-11-13 11:35

Of course history can go a million ways. The point is UK and France didn't take a hard stance against German aggression and emboldened Hitler even if unintentionally. Call it the scars of WW1 or whatever but my point stands.

BatmanForever232025-11-13 11:39

No, your point stands on nothing. The benefit of hindsight is an amazing thing, as you're finding out, but you seem to have the most surface level understanding of history I've ever seen. As someone who studied history at university, taking a hard stance would still have led to war. Innocent people would still have died. At the time, appeasement was a totally understandable policy that -without knowledge of Hitler as we know now - may have led to a deescalation of arms. As for a detailed prediction of how it would've gone, impossible to say. I'm not even entirely sure what you think your point is, but I guarantee it's not of value or insight.

I also thought this was r/marvelstudios. Unless you're claiming that somehow marching toward Berlin wouldn't have resulted in a single innocent person dying, this has nothing to do with the MCU. Go debate history in a history sub, they'll set you straight on a few things.

Flying_Poltato2025-11-13 11:56

Contrary to this, a common understanding now is the policy of appeasement was also a means of preparing for war. While Chamberlain and Halifax are generally crucified as cowards nowadays, it is unreasonable to think that the British and French were that naive. [Military spending skyrocketed upon Hitler’s remilitarisation of the Rhineland, as time was needed to build up their strength to deal with a stronger Germany - Hitler had time to build up Germany’s strength prior Rhineland.](https://fas-polisci.rutgers.edu/levy/articles/2008%20Wishful%20Thinking%20or%20Buying%20Time.pdf)

Of course, public pacifist sentiment and other reasons could have resulted in the delay, [including the internal weakness of the French, the Abyssinian crisis, and more.](https://press.armywarcollege.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1735&context=monographs) We can always ask what if when it comes to history, but we will have no true way of knowing what actually will happen. It could be a case where due to Chamberlain still being in power (and not Churchill due to the internal British mechanics), Britain was not able to hold out against Germany’s Blitz’s attack and surrendered. Maybe the Nazis wouldn’t have signed the Molotov Ribbentrop pact with the Soviets and invaded Poland. Maybe due to British resistance, Hitler decided to not go ahead with Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union, which means it won’t be war on two fronts for Germany. Anything can happen.

Puzzleheaded-Cod69342025-11-13 11:28

He’s more referring to stuff like hydra building Infinity stone powered weapons and shield/hydra building project insight which was claimed to be a preventative measure.

mothalick2025-11-13 11:29

But that wouldnt fit Cap's character. He may be superhuman but he's still human and principled to a fault. And escalating conflict is not so simple and black and white.

Mustang19112025-11-13 11:33

Anytime war is fought period innocents die.

andhelostthem2025-11-13 11:41

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Character-Pirate12972025-11-13 11:46

What about escalation then?
Do you think “showing teeth” doesn’t invite challenge? Cowboying isn’t what a smart strategist does.

Vision talked about the same thing in Civil War.
Ross too, when he handed them the Accords:

“This is how the world works: compromise, reassurance…”

If you don’t want that and prefer to throw a couple of nukes as an instant win, bye-bye innocent villagers. Simple as that.

agreed2disagreee2025-11-13 22:19

I mean, innocent people die in war all the time too.

the_old_coday1822025-11-14 16:24

Hitler was the one who tried to “win a war before it started” against the Jewish population. He convinced too many people that Jews were the enemy and needed to be dealt with preemptively. That’s the type of thing Cap is referring to.