“I don’t like to be handed things.”
Can we talk about the implications of those words? Like, what happened to Tony that made him weary of taking something from someone else’s hands? Is it just a weird quirk, one of those things that people have but can’t explain? Or is it something more.
Like just imagine:
Young Tony Stark, so desperate for his fathers attention, would do anything he could to spend time with his father. So imagine young Tony, helping his father in the lab, but because Howard is Howard he doesn’t treat Tony like a kid, he just treats Tony as he would any other genius assistant.
“Here, hold this,” he says, as he holds out a soldering iron by the hot end. Howard had never given Tony any protective gear and Tony don’t want to irritate his father by pointing this out and risk getting kicked out of the lab, not able to help anymore. So he takes it. It burns like nothing he’s ever felt before, and he fights against the reflexive urge to drop it, to cry out and cradle his hand. He puts it down calmly and uses his shoulder to wipe away the tears before Howard can notice. Howard has already moved on.
Jarvis tisks over the burns as he bandages them later, pursing his lips, but he doesn’t say anything because he knows Howard would never listen and this is one of the few ways he’ll spend anytime with his son. And it’s not his place because, unfortunately, young Master Anthony is not his is child.
Tony’s older now. Fourteen. Away at MIT, away from his fathers disapproving stares, away from Maria’s despondent smiles as she lays in bed, unable to gather the energy to face the day, away from that look Jarvis gets on his face whenever Howard starts to talk about Captain Rogers again.
He’s at a party, surrounded by people, surrounded by girls - and some boys - beautiful people who give Tony attention, affection, something he’s never had before so he doesn’t know how to deal with it. He’s already had a few drinks and is a little tipsy, but he’s fine. A few drinks never hurt anybody. “Puts some hair on your chest,” he remembers his father saying when he was younger, eleven maybe twelve, pressing a glass of iced amber liquid into his hand.
A boy comes over and presses a drink into his hand. Stone, he thinks his name is, Tiberius Stone. He seemed nice, had been kind to Tony when he first arrived a couple months ago, younger than his peers and afraid of rejection. “Drink this,” Ty says, “it’ll make you feel better.” He takes it and drinks and the rest of the night is a blur, he doesn’t remember much after that, but he does remember waking up in a room he doesn’t recognize with no memory of how he got there.
It’s the little things that add up, he thinks, when suddenly one day he’s looking down at the file in his new assistants hand - Pepper, he thinks, but he knows that’s not her real name - and he can’t bring himself to take it. It’s harmless, a simple paper file and all he has to do it sign it. And he knows he can trust this girl, hired her himself after she barged into his office with - or technically without - the threat of pepper spray to his security. But the thought of lifting his hand makes his stomach turn, makes his body grow cold, and he can’t figure out why suddenly reaching out and taking a file from someone’s hand is now such a struggle.
“I don’t like to be handed things,” he says slowly, eyeing the file and trying to relax his body.
Pepper doesn’t seem to notice his struggle, simply putting the folder down on the desk by his hand, moving on to the next item on her list. She brushes it off as one of those weird billionaire eccentricities and doesn’t question it again.
~
Weird billionaire quirk or learned aversive behavior stemming from a subconscious fear of being harmed by those around him? I think about this all the time.
first time he said that I thought it was autism like, as someone with autism, sometimes your ‘quirks’ manifest themselves in ways that other people think are ‘rude’ and ‘stupid’ - like not liking things being handed directly to you/wearing sunglasses to avoid eye contact etc
i look at tony and think if he did have autism it would explain a lot
he isn’t canonically but sometimes i look at tony’s quirks and wonder what it would be like if he was
@james-buckaroo-barnes In the dvd audio commentary for AoU, Joss Whedon makes a comment that Tony is “a little on the spectrum”, suggesting he has Aspergers. So, it may not be 100% explicitly canon, but if an actual director from the films is also making a connection between Tony and autism, then making the argument that Tony has Aspergers wouldn’t be too difficult. Like, there’s so many little things in the MCU that hint to it.
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jess-b-xo: james-buckaroo-barnes: superhusbands4ever: “I don’t like to be handed things.” Can we...
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superhusbands4ever: “I don’t like to be handed things.” Can we talk about the implications of...
“I don’t like to be handed things.”
Can we talk about the implications of those words? Like, what happened to Tony that made him weary of taking something from someone else’s hands? Is it just a weird quirk, one of those things that people have but can’t explain? Or is it something more.
Like just imagine:
Young Tony Stark, so desperate for his fathers attention, would do anything he could to spend time with his father. So imagine young Tony, helping his father in the lab, but because Howard is Howard he doesn’t treat Tony like a kid, he just treats Tony as he would any other genius assistant.
“Here, hold this,” he says, as he holds out a soldering iron by the hot end. Howard had never given Tony any protective gear and Tony don’t want to irritate his father by pointing this out and risk getting kicked out of the lab, not able to help anymore. So he takes it. It burns like nothing he’s ever felt before, and he fights against the reflexive urge to drop it, to cry out and cradle his hand. He puts it down calmly and uses his shoulder to wipe away the tears before Howard can notice. Howard has already moved on.
Jarvis tisks over the burns as he bandages them later, pursing his lips, but he doesn’t say anything because he knows Howard would never listen and this is one of the few ways he’ll spend anytime with his son. And it’s not his place because, unfortunately, young Master Anthony is not his is child.
Tony’s older now. Fourteen. Away at MIT, away from his fathers disapproving stares, away from Maria’s despondent smiles as she lays in bed, unable to gather the energy to face the day, away from that look Jarvis gets on his face whenever Howard starts to talk about Captain Rogers again.
He’s at a party, surrounded by people, surrounded by girls - and some boys - beautiful people who give Tony attention, affection, something he’s never had before so he doesn’t know how to deal with it. He’s already had a few drinks and is a little tipsy, but he’s fine. A few drinks never hurt anybody. “Puts some hair on your chest,” he remembers his father saying when he was younger, eleven maybe twelve, pressing a glass of iced amber liquid into his hand.
A boy comes over and presses a drink into his hand. Stone, he thinks his name is, Tiberius Stone. He seemed nice, had been kind to Tony when he first arrived a couple months ago, younger than his peers and afraid of rejection. “Drink this,” Ty says, “it’ll make you feel better.” He takes it and drinks and the rest of the night is a blur, he doesn’t remember much after that, but he does remember waking up in a room he doesn’t recognize with no memory of how he got there.
It’s the little things that add up, he thinks, when suddenly one day he’s looking down at the file in his new assistants hand - Pepper, he thinks, but he knows that’s not her real name - and he can’t bring himself to take it. It’s harmless, a simple paper file and all he has to do it sign it. And he knows he can trust this girl, hired her himself after she barged into his office with - or technically without - the threat of pepper spray to his security. But the thought of lifting his hand makes his stomach turn, makes his body grow cold, and he can’t figure out why suddenly reaching out and taking a file from someone’s hand is now such a struggle.
“I don’t like to be handed things,” he says slowly, eyeing the file and trying to relax his body.
Pepper doesn’t seem to notice his struggle, simply putting the folder down on the desk by his hand, moving on to the next item on her list. She brushes it off as one of those weird billionaire eccentricities and doesn’t question it again.
~
Weird billionaire quirk or learned aversive behavior stemming from a subconscious fear of being harmed by those around him? I think about this all the time.
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superhusbands4ever: “You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of...
“You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction, and now that I’m trying to protect the people that I put in harms way, you’re going to walk out?”
I know this was supposed to be like… an emotional moment with Pepper and all.. but can we just talk about how this line shows just how self aware Tony is?? Of the problems his weapons created?? How, since the beginning, he has taken responsibility for his actions, even when those actions weren’t directly his? (He’s taking responsibility for Stane dealing under the table and those terrorists killing people with them - even though the only fault he has here is ignorance, which he believes is just as bad. And yes, maybe he should have paid more attention to what was happening in his company, but as soon as he realizes what is going on, he puts his foot down immediately. He places the blood of those people on his own hands, just as much as he places their blood on Stane’s hands, like he believes he’s just as responsible for their dying - if not more so - as Stane is? As those terrorists who used his weapons are?
“Tony Stark doesn’t admit when he’s wrong.” “Tony Stark doesn’t take responsibility for his actions.” “Tony is being responsible in Spider-Man Homecoming because he’s trying to be like Steve!” “Tony Stark doesn’t actually care.”
Like, now I know you’ve never seen an Iron Man movie if you actually think this because this man had been admitting when he’s wrong since the beginning. This man has been taking responsibility for his actions - and even the actions of others - since the beginning. This man has been being responsible since the beginning. This man has always cared. And I don’t understand how people can’t see that.
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superhusbands4ever: one-piece-of-harry: one-piece-of-harry: So I’m re-watching the first iron man...
So I’m re-watching the first iron man movie and the very first scene is tony bantering with soldiers and God idk but he went out of his way to make these soldiers feel comfortable around him? He respects them so much?? These are the people he created his weapons for?? These are the people he thought his weapons were protecting?? I literally can’t even believe people who think tony doesn’t care about the people pre-kidnapping when it’s literally them that made him think weapons manufacturing was okay. That everything was above board if his weapons were going to these American soldiers, who “fight the good fight.”
And then it’s the death of these soldiers that makes him stop making weapons.
And when Christine Everhart questions the morality of weapons making tony gets all defensive because he firmly believes it’s the right thing and why wouldn’t he when he grew up with Howard?? When he grew up in America with all its propaganda?? He thinks(like a great many number of people) that it’s naive to believe in a world without weapons. Oh man and at the weapons presentation when he’s like “that’s how dad did it. That’s how America does it” like please tell me again how foolish tony was for selling weapons when it’s all he’s ever known.
Also like, when those soldiers were killed by his weapons he thought that the people who kidnapped him had maybe stolen his weapons and killed those soldiers, and even just the realization that someone could steal his weapons to hurt American soldiers was like “woah, let me take a step back, rewind, we’re stopping this right now”
but when he found out that someone had actually been double dealing the whole time it just make him even angrier like he confronted Stane right there in front of everyone at the Gala without regard to who might overhear because he was so dead set against it and was like “what is happening, we don’t do this, we need to stop this right now” like… whether his weapons were in the wrong hands because of theft or through corruption in his company, both of those situations were just Unacceptable and it needed to be stopped like,
how does that mean he doesn’t care what his weapons do?? How does that mean he doesn’t care about the people his weapons might hurt?? Like, “I was naive when they said ‘this is the line, don’t cross it’” as in “I was naive for believing you actually meant this when you said this to me” I just… don’t understand how there are people who can’t see this??
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knightinironarmor: also, casual reminder that when we say tony is a “futurist” we’re not only...
also, casual reminder that when we say tony is a “futurist” we’re not only talking about how he visualizes disaster scenarios, we’re also talking about how no matter how god damn terrible things are in the present, he still believes in working towards a better future, that’s like. the entire point
when people think of dreamers they usually think of people with perpetually bright thoughts and what have you, but the truth about dreamers is that they live in the real world where they have to watch their dreams being crushed, and where they have to deal with the possibility that their dreams might be crushed. tony is an absolute dreamer, and that’s exactly why he’s so vulnerable to disappointment, and the fascinating thing about him is that even when he seems disheartened, even when he argues the entire future is fucked and the only solution is for him to sell his life and/or soul to save it – he is still trying to save it
this is actually really deep and i don’t even know if i’m expressing it well because i’m overwhelmed by the thought but like, what i’m saying is that so many people treat tony’s grayest decisions as this act of “giving up” on looking for a “good” solution – which is not an inaccurate assessment – but the other side of that coin is that he’s one of very few heroes who are willing to do things they cannot live with in order to save the future
tony doesn’t just hope for a better future, he bets his entire soul on the mere possibility that there might be one and that he can help bring it about even when present circumstances spell out disaster
tony doesn’t just dream, he dreams so much he accepts to remove himself from his own dreams if it means that the dream will live on without him tony dreams so much he is willing to never be happy, never find peace, if it means that his dream – that other people will have these things in the future – lives on
that’s the ultimate “futurist tony” joy and tragedy, tony put his faith in something he will never see or touch, by definition – the future – so there’s no resting in the present, it’s just this fight for constant improvement, it’s just living with a mental system that offers more obvious punishments than lasting rewards – anxiety/stress/paranoia over inner peace – but at the same time, no matter how bad things are, nothing can actually take the future away, even if he’s not there to see it, even if he’s not personally happy in it, tony found that dream that nothing could take away from him – nothing except his alcoholism, which led him to run away and give up trying (”i’m celebrating the end. the living end. the end of living.” / “i guess i’m dying. i guess it doesn’t matter. i guess i don’t care.” / “if i could do what i’ve done – if i could help this sickness i’ve got destroy me – then i’m not worth saving. then life has no meaning anyway.”) – and after aliens and cataclysmic scenarios and tons of deadly, otherworldly things, it’s the alcoholism that cut him the deepest, it’s the utter lack of hope, it’s why his “demon in a bottle” choice wasn’t simply between addiction and sobriety, recklessness and responsibility, it was “the drink or the dream?”
and he chose the dream and the dream is his ability to keep hoping
tony stark put his faith in having hope and that’s why he’ll always be tormented and that’s why his peace will always be under attack but that’s also why he’ll always bounce back and keep dreaming because hope is something that blooms in adversity and uh oh uh oh oh no i fucking love tony stark
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ballad-of-gilgalad:practicing some pearls.
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ballad-of-gilgalad: son of arathorn
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ballad-of-gilgalad: You guys seem to like that Trek x SU post....
You guys seem to like that Trek x SU post. Just a reminder that there were a few others! ;D
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ballad-of-gilgalad: HAVE TO LEAVE. QUICK HAVE A PEARL.
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ballad-of-gilgalad: Just another lil Peri I posted to twitter.
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ballad-of-gilgalad: It’s been a while!
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ballad-of-gilgalad: Commissioner simply asked for a Pearl x...
Commissioner simply asked for a Pearl x Jasper picture and I was happy to oblige.
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ballad-of-gilgalad: An episode featuring my two favorite...
An episode featuring my two favorite characters?
Of course I was going to do something for it!
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ballad-of-gilgalad: Two classy gals.
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ballad-of-gilgalad: The thrilling conclusion to this...
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ballad-of-gilgalad: Tinkerer Peridot to go along with Knight...
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ballad-of-gilgalad: This post suddenly got a small influx of...
This post suddenly got a small influx of notes, and that made me want to draw her again. Besides, I haven’t drawn Pearl in a while. There’s always time for more Pearl Knights.
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ballad-of-gilgalad: I really like this ST:SU stuff. EDIT:...
I really like this ST:SU stuff.
EDIT: changed Peridot’s uniform from science to engineering
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