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I just noticed that in Age of Ultron when Wanda puts the Avengers worst thoughts into their heads almost all of them have personal thoughts except Tony.

  • Black Widow's dream sequence of her life as some secret Russian ballerina agent? I am not sure about her dream but it's something to do with her personal life.

  • Captain America's is about his personal life before the war and before the ice incident and this one includes his first and probably only love in it.

  • Thor's fear is of Asgard falling which is his personal home and pretty much doesn't affect the rest of the Avengers that much.

Obviously we don't see any other dreams in this other than Tony's which is the opposite of what you expect of someone as self centered (in my opinion) as Tony.

Why does only Tony have a dream sequence about the team instead of his own personal life for example he might have had a dream of Pepper being killed or maybe all his suits being stolen (yes I know this is Iron Man 3) or maybe even Ultron enslaving humanity (his worst creation).

Why does he have a dream about his team and not his own personal life (and yes I do understand it foreshadows Infinity War)?

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    His persona particularly at the start of the MCU is that he is self centered - but to a degree that is bluff. His actions - giving up making arms, forming the Avengers, funding research projects of others, supporting The Accords, wanting to protect Peter Parker etc shows that he's actually more invested in the team and others around him than his exterior behavior would suggest.
    – iandotkelly ♦
    Commented Jan 14, 2018 at 13:47
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    @iandotkelly Seems you're onto an answer there.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Jan 14, 2018 at 14:17
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    Basically, Wanda showed them everyone's hidden darkest secrets that they fear and suffer from, becoming a reality. Everyone has their own thing. Tony has the fear of him being the reason for his friends, colleagues and world's failure. His greatest fear is failing his team and letting world get destroyed by someone/thing and he will be so helpless that he cant being do anything about it
    – Vishwa
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 7:59
  • Thor also has a team vision. That his vision is of Asgard shows that he considers Asgard his primary team, and the Avengers are just some people he occasionally hangs out with.
    – Acccumulation
    Commented Sep 8, 2020 at 2:18

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What Wanda is showing the Avengers is a vision of their own worst fears or nightmares. For each of the other Avengers, that is something personal for them:

  • For Natasha, she's already been through her worst nightmare, the Red Room where she trained.
  • For Thor, his worst nightmare is the prophesied fall of his home.
  • For Steve, his worst nightmare was losing the woman that he loved without ever having been able to really get to know her.

Tony's worst nightmare, though, is seeing the Avengers fail. It isn't just the death of his friends that terrifies him, it's being the cause of the death of his friends. In his dream sequence, it seems as if the other Avengers are all dead except him. Meaning, he's going to have to live with his failure to keep them safe

Note that this plays well into the Stark's character from the Iron Man movies, and Stark/Wanda/Pietro relationship as well. Tony abhors the idea that something he invented would be used to hurt innocent people; that's why his company stopped making weapons, and why he was so reluctant to give up his suit technology to the government. The Maximoffs, for their part, blame Tony for the death of their parents because he did make the bomb that killed them (even if it was stolen). Thus, forcing Tony to live through a scenario where he has to confront the consequences of the technology he makes is the perfect way to render Tony inert and out of their way.

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  • IMO, Vishwa's comment on the question adds to this answer. It is not clear in the sequence, whether others die due to him; but, that's an interesting theory.
    – Cyriac Antony
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 7:55

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