#stony meta

[malkogromit]

(I’ve always thought this line was brilliant — the tension of desire wrapped in aggression. Drew this piece based on that vibe a while back.)

“What is it, Rogers? Is it my warmth, or your scent... that‘s making this sweater too much for you to look at?”

[ironshieldchild]

they really have a habit of thinking about each other when the world is ending, huh.

[jessmalia]

Realistically, I know it's cause of bad writing that we never see any real bonding scenes between Steve and Tony to explain their close relationship, but I actually like that their connection is a mystery to the audience. Like, how on earth did you guys fall in love? You're willing to die by each other's side? Since when? You don't have anything in common and you fight all the time yet it's so clear that you love each other deeply. It doesn't make any sense. I'm obsessed.

[the-seas-song]

Underrated Steve-Centric Scene

The scene after Tony collapses in the beginning of Endgame deserves a lot more love, especially from my fellow Stony fans. The nonverbal body language is incredible in this scene.

The scene starts with Steve looking out the window. However, his body is turned in a completely different direction. Natasha is facing both Steve and the window, and has her arms crossed. She has probably been trying to talk to Steve.

Rhodey walks out of Tony's hospital room. Natasha turns to look at him first, while Steve moves incredibly slowly.

We can see how devastated and empty Steve looks - a look that doesn't change as Rhodey tells them, "Bruce gave him a sedative."

We then get this wide-shot:

Steve is the one standing the furthest from Tony's hospital room, and yet his body is oriented straight towards Tony's bed. Natasha and Carol are standing off to the side, leaving room for the invisible line connecting Steve to Tony.

Rhodey says that Tony is "gonna probably be out for the rest of the day."

We then get a very interesting, and telling, view of Steve's reaction:

We are only shown Steve's reaction to Rhodey's statement, which gives it narrative significance - and Steve's reaction is to close his eyes, bow his head, and take a deep breath. He is clearly grief-stricken.

Carol starts talking, and Steve submissively looks up at her through his lashes:

Carol starts to leave, and Steve asks her where she's going:

Poor Steve is confused, and needs people to stop leaving! (Natasha and Rhodey hold eye contact during this)

Carol says she's going to kill Thanos, and Steve and Natasha look at each other:

Their movements are completely in sync, and they communicate silently for a moment before following Carol.

Natasha takes the lead, and we see just her and Carol in the frame, while she says, "Hey! You know, we usually work as a team here, and uh, between you and I, morale's a little fragile."

This shows us the empowered leader of the Avengers that Natasha became after facing her past in the BW movie.

Then Steve picks up the thread, saying, "We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too."

I love how completely in sync he and Natasha are, and how she has her body turned towards him, so he can be part of the conversation too.

[ixthoo]

Can I say how much this entire dialogue enchants me?

Not only because the dialogue is good but because while we can see what steve is feeling by the expression on his face, we don't get to see tony's face, he's hidden by a mask, he spends most of his time in hidden by a mask. He barely took it off, but when he did it showed how broken he was, almost every time he got into a confrontation he hid behind a mask until steve literally ripped it off. But do you know a moment where he wasn't wearing that mask at all? When steve died and tony became vulnerable

[persephonesfill]

Do you think any psychics in the Marvel Universe is prepared to experience just 1. How much Steve loves Tony and 2. Just how often Tony’s thinking of Steve?

oh god. there is literally no way to be prepared for the amount of emotional baggage between these two. putting this under a read more because i got carried away.

let's go with their mcu counterparts because that's what i'm most familiar with. you have

avengers 1 stony which is PEAK rivals to friends to lovers with a healthy dose of unresolved sexual tension

age of ultron stony with mutual pining (the amount of time steve and tony spend gazing into each other's eyes in that movie is insane) along with the guilt of tony creating ultron and the frustration steve feels that tony didn't trust him enough to tell him about ultron in the first place

civil war stony which is self-explanatory

and finally infinity war/endgame stony with each of their respective guilt over what happened in civil war, the grief of losing the battle to thanos, that initial fear of "is steve/tony gone too? am i all alone?", the relief over realizing that they both made it, the slow, agonizing crawl down the path of forgiveness over the course of five years. the euphoria of working together one last time in perfect synergy and then of course the death dealing blow of realizing that your rival partner soulmate friend is dead.

and like, steve and tony's stories are so intertwined, even when they're not in the same movie or in the same place, they find a way to bring each other up.

can you imagine,,,if mantis were to touch steve or tony? she would either have a stroke from the emotional overload of those two or it would go along the lines of that scene in gotg vol. 2

mantis, holding onto steve: he feels an intense love...towards tony

steve, sweating bullets: in a completely platonic and friendly way

mantis, knowing exactly what she's doing: no...it's romantic. passionate. he wants to—

steve, in tears: please be quiet, i can't let anyone know i'm a simp

i didn't mean for this to get so long but thanks for the ask anon! 💖💖

[starkly-tony]

I’m rereading Civil War with all the tie ins, and I noticed something interesting in She-Hulk #8.

In this scene, Steve is meeting up with Jen Walters’s boyfriend, who tells Steve how in love with her he is.

Steve’s reaction?

It might be too late to confess his love after the war? Okay, sure sounds like some foreshadowing, especially knowing what happens to Cap at the end.

So where do we immediately cut after Steve says this?

To Tony, stating that he’s on the other side of the war:

Hmmmmmmm it’s almost like this comic intentionally had Steve talk about confessing romantic love before it’s too late and then cut to Tony who he won’t be able to confess anything to before it’s too late.

[firebrands]

endgame stevetony, or: “it was all about him forgiving me for not forgiving him”

i just need to talk about robert downey jr’s take on the SHIELD SCENE in endgame. “It was all about him forgiving me for not forgiving him” (here’s a link to a recording of the instagram live) and y’all. It fucking broke me. Like. THIS IS WHY I LOVE STEVETONY!!!!

THE NUANCE!!! THE UNDERSTANDING!!!!!! look, tony’s never had any problem saying sorry, or admitting fault, meanwhile we have Steve’s “i’m not looking for forgiveness” line in IW, and THEN THIS HAPPENS??? fuck

LISTEN—TONY FINALLY LEARNS WHAT IT MEANS TO REALLY STAND UP FOR HIMSELF AFTER YEARS OF ATONEMENT THROUGH SELF-SACRIFICE 

AND STEVE FINALLY LEARNS TO LET SOMETHING FUCKING GO FOR ONCE RATHER THAN KEEP AT IT STUBBORNLY LIKE HE ALWAYS HAS

only with each other do they learn what it means to love—for steve to really look outside himself and view the true needs of the other, and for tony to look inward and see what’s worth protecting.