honestly one of the most terrible things about 616 tony is that he fucking takes arrogance full circle, like, he is literally so arrogant that he stretches it to the point where it’s intrinsically linked to how much he hates himself. and that seems impossibly paradoxical but it’s what’s happening at the root of his “necessary monster” complex
i mean god bless (or curse) al ewing for summarizing it like, tony seeing himself as NECESSARY and a MONSTER, put together, tony stark BEGGING TO DIE because PLEASE, HE HAS DONE SO MUCH, while his head fires back with “YES YOU WHINY BABY, YOU HAVE DONE TOO MUCH, AND YOU WILL NEVER DO ENOUGH, WAKE UP YOU NECESSARY MONSTER, WAKE UP AND GET BACK TO WORK” and that’s the mentality that drives him to do the Awful things he thinks are necessary, but would NEVER have ANYONE ELSE suffer through, like jesus Fucking christ dude
this FUCKS ME UP because LISTEN??? peace is non-existent to someone who’s THAT level of selfless and self-reliant? because like, if tony allows himself to act on principle, and actually do what he’s comfortable with, and shit goes wrong, he’s gonna hate himself for not having done MORE, because he knows he COULD, and he had SEEN THIS COMING (or he thinks he SHOULD HAVE) but he picked his COMFORT over his DUTY – and if he does the Awful thing that saves lives, he’s gonna hate himself as well because he’s the monster capable of doing such things
and then if you go an fucking multiply that by FUTURE – INFINITE POSSIBILITIES HE IS CONSTANTLY PROJECTING AND DWELLING ON – then my god he will be in an eternal state of wrestling with GUILT OR FAILURE with SO LITTLE PALPABLE MENTAL REWARD because like, he’s trying to solve the problems of tomorrow, and if he succeeds then by definition these problems won’t happen so he’ll never get to pat himself on the back for it and if shit DOES go wrong, then he thinks he ALREADY FAILED BY FUCKING DEFAULT
THIS GUY literally has SO MANY HOPES FOR THE FUTURE that he SACRIFICES HIS OWN MENTAL PEACE EVERY SINGLE DAY TO ENSURE THAT PEOPLE WILL GET TO EXPERIENCE THE DREAMS HE’S VISUALIZING, EVEN IF IT MEANS REMOVING HIMSELF OR HIS HAPPINESS FROM THE DREAM
#FAVORITE CHARACTER MATERIAL RIGHT HERE
