Marvel Cinematic Universe Trilogy Posters by Rico Jr via behance 

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gif request meme: jedirem requested - MCU + 2. Favourite Hero ↳ Tony Stark/Iron Man

PEPPER TELLING TONY NO IS PART OF WHAT MAKES HER A M A Z I N G BECAUSE SHE IS THE O N L Y PERSON WHO EVER TELLS HIM NO AND YOU KNOW WHAT IM PRETTY SURE THAT’S WHY TONY LIKES HER BECAUSE SHES DIFFERENT AND IS NOT AND NEVER WAS AFRAID OF HIM BEING A BIG PEOPLE WHEN SHE WAS A SMALL PEOPLE-JUST AN ASSISTANT- SHE IS SO DETERMINED LIKE THE BEST CHARACTERIZATION I HAVE EVER SEEN OF HER IN FIC IS WHEN TONY WANTED TO KEEP DUMMY FROM ESCAPING HIS WORKSHOP AND SHE FUCKING BODY BLOCKED HIM IN GODDAMN HEELS WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT AND THAT IS LITERALLY ALL YOU EVER NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VIRGINIA PEPPER POTTS

“You don’t have to do this alone”

things that occurred to me in the shower, roughly in order

Really, though, Tony is a guy building WMDs in his basement, and because he’s rich and white no one does anything about it. 

Imagine a working-class POC saying this to the police? This is White Capitalism throwing a tantrum about being asked to obey the law and getting away with it.

The problem isn’t just that Tony’s technology (like the Iron Man suit) could fall into the wrong hands (which it did) and become a serious threat to national security (which it was), but also that nothing prevents Tony from using the most powerful one-person weapons platform ever created to impose his political views on the entire world:

Which, incidentally, will probably be the instigating conflict of Captain America: Civil War.

#basically #like nothing against people who love tony #because I do as well #but just because he's a deeply sad anxious ptsd survivor #doesn't mean he doesn't actively contribute to the military industrial complex in horrible ways #if you don't think the existence of iron man and the iron legion #followed by ultron #etc etc etc #will act as a catalyst for the global military to start taking countermeasures #and shoring up their defenses #you haven't thought about it

every mcu film: Iron Man (2008)

“I am Iron Man”. You think you’re the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it yet.

Best part of Agent Carter

Realizing this guy

is going to help raise this guy

Alright, assholes.

I don’t usually defend Tony Stark. But this “Something went wrong” bullshit really rubbed me the wrong way. Wanna know why? Because the “Something that went wrong” was Howard Stark. The man that Tony idolised, and the man that abused him. And don’t give me that crap that in the MCU universe, Howard didn’t neglect or hurt Tony — he did. It’s very evident in the tie-in MCU comics.

But in both universes, Tony was raised by Edwin Jarvis. In 616, he has a father — Howard — who is constantly aggravated with his son, both as a result of his own drinking and because of what he feels Tony should be.

While Jarvis might be sensitive, thoughtful, intelligent and occupy roles that aren’t traditionally occupied considered “masculine” (which is bullshit in itself) if Tony ever displays anything remotely indicative of  a “softer side” he is ridiculed, called a sissy, told that Stark men are “made of Iron” and abused by his father: 

In the MCU, things aren’t depicted of being much better: 

And in the MCU Jarvis, often, tried to soften the blow of Howard’s words an actions. But don’t think for a second that Tony didn’t internalise all of that. That he didn’t think that Howard Stark was the man he was supposed to be, and the man he wanted to be most like. 

Of course, generally speaking — when Tony is the most like Howard — like at the Stark Expo, or during the senate hearings — it’s almost 100% preformative. That’s not who he is, or who he ever was, it’s who he thinks people want him to be, because it’s who his father wanted him to be.

I would go so far as to say that a lot of Tony’s womanizing ways, his alcoholism, his struggles with self-identity and importance all stem from the fact that he is often torn between being the man that he assumed his father wanted to be, and who he actually is.  

If you look at Tony when he’s alone, or when he’s with the people he cares about the most, what you see is the caring, compassionate person who Jarvis raised, and that he is a lot more capable and a lot more loving than his father ever was. And it took him a long time to be okay with that, and with showing other people that that was who he really was

So yes… Just a reminder, Jarvis helped raised this man:

  Don’t confuse the armour….

with the man who wears it.

Yessssssss. And remember that three of his four parental figures died when he was relatively young. His parents died when he was 21 and Jarvis would have died around about the same time period. He never really got the chance to deal with his father as an adult, to process his behavior as not-okay. (Though MCU Tony might have a better handle on “what dad did re: me was not healthy” than his 616 comics counterpart. Jfc did Howard fuck with his boy’s head in the comics.)

#i know he’s a mess #i know he fucks up #but dear god he *tries* #he tries so damn hard #more than most #with little basis of healthy #and little support system #and his mental unhealth #but sometimes he reaches the stars #or even beyond and is just amazing

And let’s also address the fact that parent figure 4 is Stane who wanted to milk Tony for everything he was worth and then have him killed when he became inconvenient.

Cap&Co using his shield

No, throw it up, I’m kidding.

Best ending ever.  The “freeing of Tony Stark” as all the suits explode is emotionally resonant and just wonderful.  To all the people who are complaining that “he blew up all his suits” — you are totally missing the entire point of the movie. 

Tony can always build more suits. His problem was that, traumatized and emotionally scarred (and Tony, despite all his surface ego and bravado, has always been emotionally needy and unsure of himself — factors that Downey’s performance has always showcased…), Tony was hiding behind the suits, making suit after suit, more comfortable as a tinker/mechanic than as a superhero or a true loving partner to Pepper.  The Clean Slate Protocol — which, touchingly, he had obviously built in to potentially use someday — is a gesture of great personal courage.  He has learned, through that vast swathe of “Iron Man 3” storyline where he’s deprived of his suits, or his suits don’t come through for him, that HE is Iron Man.  “You Know Who I Am” — his “egotistical” nametag in Bern — becomes an ironic metaphor for the entire movie, which is ABOUT “who is Iron Man — does the suit really make the man?” 

And the answer is no.  Tony, himself, without the suits, IS Iron Man.  It’s his bravery, his willingness to lean from his mistakes, his brains, his creativity, his adaptability and his humanity that are Iron Man/Tony Stark, for they are one and the same.  The suits without the man in them are JUST suits — they are expendable, they can be built again, they can be blown up at will.  And the arc reactor is not Iron Man, either, by the way - it, too, is expendable, and by ridding himself of it he rids himself of another crutch.

This is why I loved “Iron Man 3” and thought it was the best of the three Iron Man movies, or at least equal to “Iron Man” the first.  It really tells the story of a hero who grows and learns something important about himself through the course of the movie.  It proves again that Tony Stark/Iron Man is the most human of superheroes, which is, of course, why so many of us love him. 

And if there ever were Oscars that fairly considered superhero movies and other genre fare, RDJ’s amazing, complex, touching and human portrayal of Tony Stark would have won something by now — it’s twice the performance of many actors who actually have won the award.  Just sayin’.

look at this sweet gender bent iron man design

#YES FUCKING YES #EXFUCKINGACTLY #TONY DIDN’T PUT A BUTTCRACK AND DETAILED COCKHEAD ON HIS SUIT #IRON MAIDEN WOULDN’T HAVE IMPRACTICAL FUCKING BOOBS OR A MOTHERFUCKING TUMMY GAP #TAKE YOUR OVERSEXUALISATION AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR TIGHT ANUS WRAPPED IN SANDPAPER #THIS IS FUCKING RIGHT #goddamn I get angry about this kind of shit

I didn’t ask to get made. [insp]

I r o n  M a n. That’s kind of catchy. It’s got a nice ring to it. I mean it’s not technically accurate. The suit’s a gold titanium alloy, but it’s kind of provocative, the imagery anyway.

I shouldn’t be alive … unless it was for a reason.