Avengers 4 Theory: Does Tony Stark Have A Death Wish?

5. The Cause 2: He's "Haunted By Knowledge" (And The Past)

And on top of the experiences he had in the Middle East, Tony was also already a prime candidate to have some form of breakdown as soon as his epiphany moment happened.

Remember, this was a character who grew up with the weight of his family's legacy as weapons makers (which admittedly was twisted by those who took on their business after their deaths), as an agent of war himself, who was conceited, self-centred and arrogant to the point of ignorance.

When he came to realise that that behaviour was repugnant (at the same time as his near-death experience), Tony became haunted by guilt, to paraphrase Thanos. He knew what the weapons he sanctioned had done to people and what his own personal behaviour could lead to (since he'd been responsible for creating three villains himself, essentially).

On top of that, he would later get reminders of his personal actions having deadly ramifications: he was at least partly responsible for Rhodey's injuries in Civil War and invited Peter Parker to join the Avengers, only to see him "die" in battle. How could that not lead to him being haunted by the potential dangers of his own decisions?

As Thanos astutely put it, both he and Stark are "haunted by knowledge," referring (you'd think) also to Tony's vision in Age Of Ultron that showed him the end of the universe. Crucially, in that vision, he was alive to see his friends die and Earth to fall - another indication of his own guilt eating away at his subconscience.

Adding all of that on top of his PTSD, it's no wonder that he would be unstable and that he might even have a fatalistic drive to save the universe AND die in the effort.