Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart

Marvel fanblog | faves are Tony, Natasha, Loki, Bucky, Steve, and the Moon Knight system

[irons-moons]

This week on ‘I’m thinking about Steve Rogers being an artist’: he went into the ice before acrylic paints started being used in the USA.

Steve would get out of the ice and be flabbergasted by all the new art supplies that exist.

[arctic-turtle-cassiopeia]

I love the idea of Steve staring at all the wall of paint-color-options at the hardware store. This thing ⬇️ with him standing in front of it, looking up with surprise/excitement, camera zooming and the highpitched angelic “anaaaaaaaahhhhh” playing

[redstonedust]

big fan of the "best friends who tried dating and quickly realised they were NOT into eachother and perhaps not into that gender at all" character dynamic. friends who have kissed in the past and have no desire to kiss now but will use that information to embarass eachother. able to pull the ex card when needed. powerful.

[kayvsworld]

not to be talking about avengers (2012) in the current year (2025) but tony stark walking into a room full of spies and government agents, planting a hacking device on one of their computers, starting up a little hacking program on a giant screen in full view of everyone present, and then exiting WITH NO ONE NOTICING simply because he is THAT good at misdirection and running his mouth. what the fuck. icon legend media trained at the Maria Stark Public Appearances Bootcamp at age 4 guy who crowd worked his way out of a senate hearing they do not make them like this anymore

[fotibrit]

every time I write tony i have to fight not to make him have the worst derealization. That man sees ALL his fights through a screen. PLUS an anxiety disorder with a flee response that his suit is programmed to ignore. How much of his life feels like it’s just a video game in which some of his motions are limited. Given how blasé that man is with running towards death, how aware is he subconsciously of its permanence?

Idk. I just always have to write him once and then intentionally reel back a bit in the derealization with him. He sees himself as a character and probably always has.

[kayvsworld]

I know some fic writers get stressed about writing tropes they think are too popular or overdone, and I need you all to know that I just spent 4 hours reading every iteration of the same exact fic plot I could find, and they all brought me an indescribable amount of joy. Listen. Listen. Sometimes you want cakes of many flavours and sometimes you want Nine Carrot Cakes

[system-of-cells-interlinked]

I think Natasha should refer to people she cares about as the "targets of her love/affection" because it really hammers in how she sees herself as a weapon and what a dangerous thing it is to be close to her.

[i-thisisharderthanitlooks-blog]

Iron Man 2 was funny as fuck like imagine you’re battling a terminal illness and at the end of what is arguably the worst week of your life some guy shows up and is like “we’ve been conducting a secret job interview for a position you didn’t apply for and we’ve decided to reject you” and you just go “alright fuck you too then” and revolutionize the energy business.

[hexbaiting]

“Some years ago my brother was banished from Asgard, and sent to Earth. And when he came back he was different. Changed somehow. I thought it was weakness. I mocked him. Said he’d gone soft.” - LOKI 2x04 HEART OF THE TVA

[irons-moons]

Thinking about Tony’s “we are not soldiers” from Avengers 1 and the amount of venom in his voice as he says it.

How in part it’s probably very aggravating to hear Steve Rogers ask if you’ve ever lost anyone before when you probably assume he already knows your parents are dead, because he’s surely already asked Nick about Howard.

How even if Steve doesn’t know about Howard yet, it’s still annoying for you because you have lost so many people, actually, and he’s here assuming you have life easy.

But also because he’s right. Tony never planned on being a soldier, he actively dislikes the military systems in America that Steve represents (and even if Steve isn’t a fan of the government either, the version of Steve that Tony knows best at this point is the military propaganda one who his dad never shut up about).

Even with all that, Tony is here and fighting and losing more people and Steve says it like it’s nothing. Like Tony just needs to man up and get used to it because that’s just how things work

Like he’s calling him a child — which we know Tony hates being treated like, because there’s deleted IM1 scenes of him telling Obadiah not to do that.

[irons-moons]

This week on ‘I’m thinking about Steve Rogers being an artist’: he went into the ice before acrylic paints started being used in the USA.

Steve would get out of the ice and be flabbergasted by all the new art supplies that exist.

[irons-moons]

Tony Stark: A Representation of the Working Class

I know this sounds whack, because he’s literally a billionaire, and that is important. But the Iron Man trilogy has always struck me as very anti-capitalist, and Tony’s story, actions and development mirror working class experiences, even though he is a billionaire in his context, which gives him resources and he uses his money to fund the avengers later, and that matters to his characterisation.

Being a billionaire doesn’t disqualify Tony from representing the working class if we look at Marxist literary theory (that is, the literary theory which focuses on how social class impacts a narrative). There are overt and covert aspects to any text. The idea that Tony represents working class people would be covert — it’s underlying and likely not even intentional, but it’s there. This isn’t to say that Tony Stark is a working class person, he isn’t, but he could be a representation of the working class experience.

Marxist literary theory states that capitalism reifies people, and capitalism exploits its labourers. Reification is the opposite of personification. It is when a person is viewed as a thing, a means for production, and Tony, who cannot stop building and advancing tech, is a means of production. Tony, who can’t let go of Iron Man, and considers the suit an extension of his body (a ‘high tech prosthesis’, as he calls it in Iron Man 2) is reified. And there’s no question as to whether his labour is exploited.

The Iron Man trilogy portrays capitalist ideology and the corrupt nature of billionaires in a lot of different ways, but most obviously through the character of Obadiah Stane, who is likely only a little less wealthy than Tony himself, but embodies the values of the bourgeoisie in our society far more than Tony ever has. Obadiah is selfish and corrupt, he hurts others (Tony, the stand in for the working class) to get what he wants, and while he has the resources and is given the option to make the world better, he chooses instead to make things worse to for the sake of profit. Stane has no empathy or compassion for others, and is content to attempt to murder Tony twice because he was in the way of what Obadiah wanted. This is a clear and simple reflection of the way that people in power mistreat those who have less than them, and I’m sure I don’t need to point out any of the real-life people it parallels. It is significant that Tony has spent the vast majority of his life (and indeed the entirety of his adult life) being used and exploited by this representation of the upper class, who is depicted as predatory and deceptive towards him. And it is also significant that the resolution of the story comes from the death of Obadiah (ie: the dismantling of the system he represents).

In some respects, Tony is just a reflection of what a billionaire should be like; he’s hardworking, philanthropic, intelligent, etc etc. In the same way that Steve Rogers represents what America should be, Tony is what billionaires should be, and that’s a perfectly valid take. But I want to provide evidence as to why I think he is also coded in a working class way. One of the biggest is that he’s a disabled character, and in our society, those who are disabled are usually left without a lot of financial stability due to the way that our society is rigged against them. Furthermore, Tony’s disability directly comes as a consequence of his own work, something that is common for people in blue collar jobs that do not have adequate safety regulations in their workplace. And in the second movie, this disability Tony has begins to actively kill him because he’s overworking himself by using the Iron Man Suit too much. Tony’s actions and growth come from a change in work ethics, and constant growth and adaptation in the things he builds, as well as his growing disillusionment with the systems in place.

[irons-moons]

So Moon Knight Season 2 just got confirmed and I’m so excited for all my Jake Lockley headcanons to be proven wrong <33

[byjove]

he’s got that previously neglected shelter dog rizz. he looks like he wants to quietly sit next to you on the couch while you watch TV

[byjove]

he looks like he lets out a pathetic sad little sigh sometimes for no reason

[irons-moons]

Pride month/pride parades don’t exist on Asgard, but if they did, the rainbow bridge would be a great place for them

[irons-moons]

Just watched Loki the series, and I think I might be insane now. Are you kidding me. It was devastating.

[irons-moons]

There is absolutely no way I’m the only one who doesn’t find “my greatest creation is you” to be a positive or sweet statement?

It’s dehumanising. It shows that Howard’s care (not even love) for Tony is conditional, based on his intelligence and the fact Howard believes he will be able to do great things with the access to technology he will have in the future.

Now, he does end up being right, but what if he wasn’t? What if Tony never achieved the things he did? Why does that little boy get heavy expectations placed on his shoulder rather than nurture and care?

My favourite ‘fuck you’ to Howard Stark is that he wasn’t alive when Tony reached his potential. I’m so glad that he was already gone by then and had no chance to say he was proud.

Because Tony was his child, not an invention, and he was worthy of love regardless of whether he fulfilled the purpose Howard envisioned him to have.

[rainbowsuitcase]

I know the "I understood that reference" moment is played for laughs and like Steve is being stupid but he just. He looks so fucking proud of himself. He's such a dork and it's so sad.

He's living in a world that feels familiar sometimes, that he recognizes sometimes, but that is also so different. The architecture, the fashion, the technology, the food and the drinks, and the way people talk.

The language must have evolved some, there are words we use that we don't even realize are references, that we think must have always been there but they weren't.

The pop culture is different, the movies and the music and the arts in general.

Maybe Steve feels like he's living in another dimension, in a mere shadow of the world he came from, and here's fucking Wizard of Oz.

That movie came out in 1939, he probably saw it when it was brand new, he might have read the book.

And finally, there's something he recognizes. Something from his world, something he knows and understands.

He's a lost puppy jumping at everything that looks vaguely like home. He's desperate for it. And he's played for laughs for it, by the movie and the characters around him.