I LOVED your meta-analysis of Tony in endgame! Can you do the homecoming edition with tony's facial expressions and feelings? thank you! x
Of course, I’m sorry I took so long.
Well, Homecoming is my favorite irondad movie. Yes, it’s an irondad movie for me. We get to see the paternal side of Tony. It’s not a surprise for me or anyone that Tony can get paternal, you can tell he loves kids and gets along better with them than with most adults. He’s a natural on this.
Let’s start with the fact that Tony had a long emotional journey in Civil War, from getting nostalgic with clearing traumatic memories of his parents with technology, Charlie Spencer, his guilt over Ultron, the Accords, fighting with the Avengers to finding out the truth about said parents and getting betrayed in the process.
And the first thing he decided to do after all of this?
Make sure Peter gets home.
Now, the most important thing you should notice about Tony in here is his posture. Look how relaxed and happy he looks, look at the way he’s sitting. After recently getting betrayed by a close friend, this is how he behaves around Peter. This is enough for me to believe that he blindly trusts Peter and that scares him. Since the moment he met him this is the thing that impressed me the most about their relationship. How easy things come for Tony when it comes to Peter. Trust is the main one.
Of course, it’s not all unicorns because this is Tony Stark. He probably noticed how quickly he was to trust Peter and how he behaves around him so he uses his typical mechanisms of defense to fight this.
One of my friends pointed out for me that on many occasions Tony tries to avoid eye contact with Peter.
Typical mechanism. Avoid eye contact, put on his glasses, mask on.
And that is not the only effort he made to put a distance between him and Peter, he uses the ‘’hands-off’’ mentor attitude and puts Happy like a wall between them. Look at his hand gestures, he’s trying to make this something casual. It’s his way of putting up a wall.
Also, this is not how we open the door for someone else, ok?
There were other ways to open the door for the kid.
And as soon as Peter is out of the car:
After a while of not getting in contact with the kid, Peter; the danger magnet he is, gets himself in trouble and we discover that Tony receives alerts every time the suit’s emergency parachute is activated or when it exceeds a certain altitude. We also discover Tony has a tracker on Peter’s suit and it’s not afraid to admit he put everything necessary in the suit.
At first, he doesn’t appear to be shaken up by the fact that Peter almost died a few minutes ago but this is because he’s trying to remain calm. In the Homecoming Novelization, they give us the reason why Tony is in that place:
“So where are you?” I asked, looking around suspiciously. I half expected to see a drone in the sky spying on me.“India,” came the response. “I thought I’d hit up a Hindu temple. Center myself. That sort of thing.” Wow, I thought. I guess when you have Stark money, you can do stuff like that. “Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or you would have drowned.”
He’s trying to center himself. After saying ‘’Please, forget about the flying vulture guy’’ and trying to make Peter understand he needs to stay on the ground for his own safety and Peter failing to understand this, this is his dad reaction:
The angry-anxiety outburst. This man was having an anxiety attack throughout this scene. After not succeeding in getting a guarantee that Peter is going to be out of harm’s way, he goes into fight-or-flight mode and releases this little explosion. When you’re on your way to an anxiety episode that is very close to turning into a panic attack your body starts interpreting your anxiousness as a signal that you’ll need to stand your ground or escape from what you believe is a danger. What it’s most interesting to me in this is his reaction after the outburst. He’s not only confused as to why is he so angry or so fatherly invested in this kid, but he’s also experiencing his mind going “blank” as the fear and worry take over.
Almost like he’s asking himself ‘’Why am I acting like this?’’ ‘’What the hell was that?’’
And then saying: ‘’Sorry, teenager’’. Dad af.
And then we fully get to see what he’s trying to stay calm from. THIS. Anxiety can trigger this reaction. I believe what Tony is experiencing here is some sort of mechanism of physiological tremor caused by anxiety. This is how awesome RDJ’s performance is. He understands his character so much he can make these little decisions and add more depth into the character.
After this, he tells Peter it’s not too early to start thinking about college, since he went when he was 15 so for Tony, it’s never too early and he knows Peter is a genius kid. He understands Peter and he even acknowledged this when he said this: ‘’Listen, I know school sucks. I know you want to save the world. But… you’re not ready yet.’’
Then he calls Peter to tell him the FBI was about to ambush Toomes and his people but he also took the opportunity to congratulate Peter for his job on Washington. I love the sheepishly way he’s doing it, like this is new territory for him.
But Peter at the moment is not appreciating the compliments because he has other things in mind. This is the moment you realize both of them are on different grounds. What many people don’t realize is that Peter is not only seeking approval, he’s trying to find a way to ensure his stay in Tony’s life. Notice how he asks Happy what’s going to happen to him when he realizes Tony sold the tower (He can feel Tony slipping further away from him) or when he tells Ned that he’s never going to come back to school since Tony is moving the Avengers upstate and blindly believes that If he brings Toomes to justice Tony is going to offer a place for him (He takes drastic measures).
Meanwhile Tony is trying hard to be there for him but still at arm’s length. He gets a little offended when Peter doesn’t appreciate that effort and brush that off like it’s nothing. You know the thing that actually warms my heart? When he remembers the little stuff about Peter’s life. While Peter is trying to win his place in Tony’s life, Tony already has Peter in his heart, whether he knows about this or not.
Remember those conversations you have with your parents over the phone and they hear some weird background noise and they demand to know what’s going on? This is Tony in here. Also, the fact that he knew that Peter quit band six weeks ago. lol dad much?
Then the famous ferry confrontation. This is exactly the moment Tony lets Peter know in a very direct way he cares and a lot. Since the moment Peter accuses him of not caring, he doesn’t take his eyes off of Peter.
He’s using anger as a way to let out the stress and worry he has over this kid. The little sniff, the way he continuously walks toward him, etc. He’s tired of being worried and explains to Peter that he’s the only one keeping faith in him because of how young he is and the more he explains, the more scared he gets.
When things get to the point where he can’t stand it, ‘’it’s not working out’’ / = ‘’It’s not working out for me’’, he demands the suit back and dramatically says that this is something permanent. That this is a ‘’forever’’ decision. He believes that if he takes away the suit Peter is going to stop risking his life. And this decision probably hurts him more than it hurts Peter judging by the way he can’t even look at the kid when he asks for it.
He heartbrokenly explains to Peter that if he dies then he feels that is going to be on him. He feels responsible for Peter and it’s heartbreaking because this is coming from him. This is not some misplaced way to fix things or a way to repair some old wounds. This is not his responsibility, he can easily go to this kid’s aunt and tell her what’s going on so she can deal with it but instead, he realizes he got emotionally attached to this kid and therefore no matter if he’s in the suit or not, Tony is going to feel responsible. Because he cares. Because he has a soft spot for him. Because he already has a place in his heart.
The way he grips his arm, another way to tell he’s on the verge of anxiety, again. And then he admits what’s been on his mind since meeting Peter: He wants him to be better than him. He already chose him. He wants him to be his better version. He recognizes Peter and him are similar in ways that scare him but he wants the flaws he sees in himself to disappear on Peter. He doesn’t want Peter to be like him. And he demonstrates this in the self-deprecating way he expresses it:
Then Peter goes and still risks his life with or without the suit and Tony gets Happy to drive Peter to Avengers upstate. The first thing Tony does? Apologize to Peter for taking the suit and at the same time, he lets him know he did something wrong therefore he had it coming. Something he probably never got directly from his father; an apology and proof that he actually cared.
He makes sure Peter knows he’s proud by fist-bumping his shoulder lol, side-hugging him and telling him he wants him on the team by showing him his new suit.
Can we talk about this for a moment? Is this Tony’s version of putting the kid’s accomplishments on the fridge? He was going to show this to a lot of reporters and people when Peter ‘’announced’’ he was going to be an official member of the Avengers. Can we also acknowledge the fact that Tony keeps track of Peter so much that he knows bloggers write about spider-man and this time he’s bringing the big guns by picking up 50 real reporters to the case? D-A-D.
Then he gets rejected lol. Something he probably expected it. There’s no denying he felt rejected but not because Peter doesn’t want to be part of the Avengers, the part he feels rejected from is the ‘’mentoring’’ part. He did mention that with a little mentoring, Peter could be a real asset. He wants to be that mentor and now he’s ready to be more close to him.
He even takes the mask off.
But he still can’t keep eye contact with him, something he still does in Infinity War. Apparently, Peter’s big puppy eyes are lethal weapons for him. He can’t stand the admiration and gratitude coming from this kid’s gaze. He’s not used to this.
This is what I love the most about Homecoming. Proud!dad Tony. AT the end of the day, he’s proud that Peter chose to do the right thing and stay on the ground. He knows Peter is going to be the best out of all of them and this is the most gratifying accomplishment for him.
Thank you for asking! I was going to make one from Peter’s POV, if you want it, please tell me!
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