Should Rhodey Have Died in Civil War?

One of the bigger issues with the Marvel films is that everyone is seemingly invincible. Characters die...only to be revealed they're alive later on in the film. The only character to have died and stayed dead (So far) is Quicksilver. So because of this, when Rhodey AKA War Machine gets seriously injured and disabled in Civil War, a lot of people felt they might as well have killed him off. Hell, if anything that would have left so much more of an emotional impact, up until then Steve was just an annoyance to the accords, but if his actions caused the death of Tony's best friend, there would have been hell to pay.

But this is a sentiment that I disagree with, yeah, for once I'm actually glad they didn't kill off a character. Firstly, the death of Tony's best friend would have softened the blow later on when he finds out Bucky killed his parents. Now you might so for Tony's character that it would just build on his already existing fury, but for us, using the same tactic twice would mean the second time wouldn't have been as effective. The first blow is always the hardest, so saving that for the end when Tony, Steve & Bucky are all together so the emotions are high and the tension is hot. It's like why they didn't kill off Han Solo in Return of the Jedi, because they already killed off Darth Vader, and to have two characters die means they would have to go through the same beats twice so neither is as effective as they could have been.

Even more so, his survival is important for the team as a whole. Don't forget, Team Iron Man won the fight, yet you see the ending, they're all separated and contemplating if they did the right thing. It's here that a crippled Rhodey is telling Tony that they absolutely did the right thing. Even though he suffered the most physically from the fight, he is adamant that they fought for the right thing, and he doesn't regret it, even if it lead to him nearly dying. So for me, this character does a lot more for Tony and the team itself by being alive, if he doesn't regret their choices then there's hope for the others to come round too.

-Danny