Brutasha Fiesta: Reason Bruce Left

Like any good romance, Brutasha is a complex thing. Hell, this is my third Brutasha Fiesta post. One of the things about the ship is that these are two people who love each other but aren't in the right place in their lives to form a stable relationship yet.

Hence we come to today's topic: the reason Bruce Banner left the Avengers at the end of Age of Ultron.

Bruce Banner is not in a good place right now. He is a pacifist who has another personality inside of him that is the total opposite (the other guy/the Hulk). He doesn't like to kill at all which is made clear after the opening battle scene of Age of Ultron.

Even though Bruce was only killing Hydra agents, he still felt extremely guilty for taking those lives. While I did laugh at Thor trying to retcon his statements about Bruce's actions against Hydra, it did show a very sad air to Bruce. It showed how compassionate he is. He is compassionate to the point where he values the lives of those who try to kill him.

So to say him and the Hulk are on opposite sides is the understatement of the century.

Bruce wants to control his Hulk persona so that it's never unleashed again, hence his love for Natasha Romanov.

Bruce's relationship with her must have been formed before she could control his transformations. Bruce needs to really trust/love someone for him not to harm them while in Hulk form. As I said in a previous Brutasha Fiesta post: he already had a love for Natasha that just grew stronger when she could control his transformations.

Throughout Age of Ultron we can see how he depends on her for the control he himself can't have. So when she forces him to transform at the end, that breaks a lot of trust for him. She violated him in a very significant way.

Bruce even tells Natasha that he doesn't want to fight. He knows that people are going to die but he can't fight, not anymore. He is a pacifist and while fighting was necessary during the Battle of New York, it took too much of a toll on him as he continued fighting Hydra afterwards.

So he can't fight and he thought he had Natasha to make sure he never transformed again. He decided, from their conversation earlier, that he could run away with her and never have to experience becoming the Hulk ever again.

A nirvana for him.

But when Natasha pushed him over the edge, both literally and figuratively, he had to reevaluate everything he thought he knew. It didn't help that before she could switch him back, he was distracted and had to fight again. In Hulk form, with emotions all over the place, that was far from a good thing.

Besides Natasha's actions, what did the Scarlett Witch show Bruce? What is Bruce's greatest fear? I guess we could assume that it is killing his friends, but what exactly? And were Bruce's feelings after he lost control heightened by something awful that she showed him (I don't mean just when he lost control of the Hulk)?

He referred to the out of control Hulk as 'the real Hulk' as though he doesn't think that side of him can ever be truly controlled. Only contained with the help of Natasha.

And why did Bruce not want to flee after he lost control? As he should've wanted to agree with Natasha about fleeing then. This could all be answered if we knew exactly what Scarlett Witch showed him.

So, in short, revelations that happened in Age of Ultron were too much for Bruce and so he fled. He stayed in Hulk form to escape the pain as much he could for as long as he could.

Hopefully when we see Bruce again he can start to deal with things after a little rest.

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Brutasha Fiesta