and also. ALSO! I think the move was also an inflection point for Tony.
Peter was SO GOOD in the subbasement. he was responding to all of Tony’s manipulations exactly right. he was shaping up to this sweet, biddable boy and every increase in freedom only made him better
cue the move up to the penthouse. Tony’s expectation was probably that this pattern would continue. more freedom/privileges = more gratitude. Except very shortly, things start to fall apart. every increase in freedom after that gets a backlash.
Peter wins the ability to roam free, and he proves he doesn’t trust Tony by trying to find out if his people are alive. then has the nerve to LIE about it, badly and Tony’s forced to smack him down
He deals well enough with Darcy’s introduction, but his behavior becomes eratic. he stops eating, starts drinking, and now Tony has to monitor his basic health. otoh, he’s eager for sex, so overall, Tony chooses to count it as a win. Time to move things forward.
Tony brings the crime family to the penthouse. It’s both a new freedom and a test: Peter seems to be sexually pliant now, but is he really? plus, new people. he left Peter with Bucky before, but he trusts Bucky’s loyalty. bringing in others is half a step closer to a risk - none of them will help Peter, but his behavior, good or bad, reflects on Tony.
Peter fails that test *miserably*. He lashes out worse than he’s ever done in private.
From that point on, any and all advances in freedom or privilege freeze. People asked, before, whether Tony was bullshitting when he said he liked Peter for his brain, and I’ve explained that he wasn’t bullshitting, but he’s made a tactical error.
I knew that was true, but I couldn’t pin down the source of the clusterfuck. where did Tony’s plan go wrong? now I’m confident it was right there. I think Tony had plans for more privileges, but he put the brakes on, hard, and decided Peter couldn’t be trusted.
Tony expected a backlash early on, but Peter kept rewarding his methods, slowly but surely. More freedom and more privileges led to more gratitude, more affection. Tony gives him the biggest step of all - nicer accommodations, inside Tony’s home - and he handles that very sweetly, but he starts to see Peter “backslide” with additional freedoms. Peter settles down when Tony gives him the cold shoulder, so that’s okay, but if more freedom = more trouble, Tony decides he’s just going to leave things where they are.
He was hoping Peter could be more, but Peter proved he couldn’t handle as long a leash as Tony hoped. so he just...stopped. and he doesn’t realize that was a mistake until it drives Peter almost mad.
