We joke often about how the MCU should really be titled the “Tony Stark Cinematic Universe”–but, the more I think about it, the more I think it’s true. Not just because Tony in the founding character, but because the writers deliberately chose him to be the central character. He’s the hero of not just the Iron Man trilogy, but the underlying narrative of this entire universe.
One fact in particular that tells me Tony is the key hero is that all the Avengers villains have reflected him in some way. Generally, in fiction, a good villain holds a mirror up to the hero. They are a foil. They present facets of the protagonist that have become warped or overblown.
Marvel Studios itself is notorious for this as most of their villains have, in some way, mirrored the hero of each titular film, as usually they’re a darker incarnation of the same powers (ex: Red Skull was the serum magnifying the darkest aspects of humanity, while Steve was the result of the best aspects of humanity; both Scott Lang and Darren Cross used the Pym Particles; Doctor Strange faced another sorcerer; etc.).
But, when looking at the ensemble ventures, the villains tend to reflect Tony specifically.
In The Avengers, Tony is able to pinpoint where Loki is going to be because Loki is, in some respects, flamboyant as Tony:
Tony: “Loki’s a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered… [realizes] sonofabitch.”
It’s also Tony who gives Loki the “hero meets villain” confrontational speech, wherein he says the iconic, “Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it” line.
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, there’s many parallels driven between Ultron and Tony–and it’s actually a point of crisis for Ultron:
Ultron: “What?! I’m not…! I’m not. You think I’m one of Stark’s puppets, his hollow men? I mean look at me, do I look like Iron Man? Stark is nothing! […] I’m sorry, it’s just I don’t understand. Don’t compare me with Stark! It’s a thing with me. Stark is, he’s a sickness!”
And, of course, in Avengers: Infinity War, we have Thanos being almost like a Shadow of Tony’s in the Jungian sense. Both of them were compelled to prevent calamity to a degree they went to extremes.
Thanos: “You’re not the only one cursed with knowledge.”
Even in Captain America: Civil War, though none of the heroes reflected Helmut Zemo, the emotional thrust of the story was encapsulated in Tony’s arc. Even though it was a Captain America film, the climax of the film occurs when Tony is at his emotional breaking point–when his heart is literally and figuratively shattered.
What’s amusing is that, while Tony hasn’t physically appeared in all of them, there are still plenty of references to his presence. He’s mentioned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Ant-Man and Thor: Ragnarok. While he wasn’t in Captain America: The First Avenger, his father played a major role. He’s definitely one of the more ever-present characters. It’s very hard to escape his influence.
All of this together? Means that this is Tony’s story to end. While I don’t know for sure what role Tony will play in Avengers 4, I guarantee it will be a central one.
This has been his story. He’ll be the one to finish it.
I think I can finally put into words why the actions of most of the heroes in Infinity War bothers me so much.
It’s because they ring so very hollow.
There is a selfishness in the actions of so many of the heroes that is … disappointing even if it is understandable on a certain level.
We have Vision, a being of logic and possessor of the Mind Stone itself, who despite everything that’s happened decides that it’s perfectly fine to turn off his transponder and go dark to meet up with Wanda. There’s no consideration as to what could happen if he was/is needed and is unable to be reached.
Then we have Steve Rogers, Captain America himself, who says the words “we don’t trade lives” after he was willing to trade numerous lives and relationships to help one man. (And Bucky’s innocence isn’t in question here, what Steve was willing to do in order to hide the truth/protect him is) Steve who moved the battlefield to Wakanda in order to try and save Vision and, in turn, traded the lives of numerous Wakandans for a chance that, in the end, didn’t even pan out. Steve who says “we don’t trade lives” but obviously means “we don’t trade our lives”. Steve who loses in the end anyways with Bucky crumbling away to dust despite everything and everyone he sacrificed on the alter of saving his oldest friend.
(And that’s not even counting how Wakanda itself was portrayed in IW)
There’s Rhodey who shows us the depth of his heroism in Civil War by looking at his injuries, at all he’s sacrificed in the face of what he considered right and said ‘yes, this was worth it, my pain, my loss, was worth it because we did good’ only to have that moment stolen from him by the narrative having him backtrack on his stance. Even if this can be chalked up to his worry over Tony disappearing there were other, better, ways to frame it. Ways that would have shown his worry and his fear and his willingness to work with whoever he had to in order to get his best friend back without re-framing his outlook on things.
And we have Wanda who despite railing against Stark’s selfishness and willingness to destroy for his own greed and ego cannot even entertain the idea of losing Vision no matter the losses others will surely pay. Wanda who rails about the death of her parents and the destruction of her home country but cannot fathom putting the rest of the universe first. Wanda who refuses to act until she’s staring down the barrel of a gun named Thanos and then it’s too late.
There’s Peter Quill who promises Gamora one thing and then cannot deliver. He loves her and can’t bear to hurt her and that’s understandable. It’s just unfortunate that in doing so he also invalidates her choices and leaves her to the one fate she never wished to face. Dying for Thanos’ goals, sacrificed by his twisted version of love.
Even Thor who chooses revenge over a direct kill. Who wastes an opportunity to take Thanos out in one blow in exchange for the chance to make him suffer.
Infinity War shows us the selfishness of so many of the heroes and then juxtaposes them against the unselfishness of the others.
Peter Parker who goes to space only because it’s the right thing to do. Because he wants to help, wants to be a hero and save people. Because he sees something going wrong and he can’t not try and help.
Gamora who is willing to die to keep Thanos from reaching his goals but is murdered instead as a part of those goals. His twisted version of love validated in a way even as she protests it.
Tony Stark who sees his worst nightmare laid out in front of him and faces it head on. Who is willing and ready to die right then and there to keep the Time Stone out of Thanos’ reach.
Stephen Strange who has his sworn duty but sets it and his own life aside for a chance to settle Tony into the correct endgame.
And what happens to most of the unselfish heroes besides Tony?
They die.
Infinity War shows us heroism on the deepest levels and then it kills them for it.
Steve dealing with casualties vs. Tony dealing with casualties
That’s because Steve is an actual trained soldier who has a couple of years of active combat during wartime under his belt, and Tony is a well intentioned rich dude in a fancy suit. It’s almost literally night and day, war v. peace. Steve has a much healthier perspective, to be honest, for their line of work.
That’s…such a bad analysis.
Steve has an incredibly bad perspective for a peacetime officer. His whole perspective is that they try to save as many people as they can, but ultimately people die in the course of their ultimate goal: ending the “war”. Meanwhile Tony’s ultimate goal is to save people, that’s it. There is no ideology behind him truly, only the desire to save people’s lives.
There’s a scene in some generic foreign cop show, I can’t remember which, where an ex-soldier joins a precinct and on duty he and his partner chase down a perp. The perp is a violent offender and he runs down and alley and out into a street. There’s a few cars, a few pedestrians, but overall it’s not crowded. The ex-soldier has a shot on the perp, even though there’s a good few metres between them. He stops running, lines up his shot, and prepares to fire.
His partner stops him, shoves his gun down and screams at him for, well, they cut away but it’s implied a pretty freaking long time.
Because it’s not okay. There are different rules when you deal with civilians instead of soldiers. You do not have the freedom to make potentially lethal judgment calls. It doesn’t matter how confident this man was in his judgement, it’s not his judgement to make.
Police officers making judgment calls outside of what they should be allowed is literally every criticism against the police force you will find.
Soldiers do not make good law enforcement.
The real conversation in civil war is about needs. Is it peacetime? Then no, Steve can’t do whatever he wants. But is this wartime? Has the threat reaches critical that soldiers are needed, and are allowed to violate civilian rights in the name of restoring peace? Because then that’s different.
Literally a summation of civil war is that tony has the right perspective for a peacetime officer, while Steve has the right perspective for a wartime officer. It’s deciding what condition the world is in where the lines blur.
But please dear god don’t reduce iron man’s character to “a rich dude with good intentions”. Iron man’s character is so complicated people literally write papers on it.
“Tony has the right perspective for a peacetime officer, while Steve has the right perspective for a wartime officer.” This is the best analysis of their characters I have ever read!!!
Sometimes I like to torture myself by thinking of that time in The Foxhole Court when they’re playing the first game against Breckenridge and Andrew says to Neil, “‘Hey, Pinocchio,’… ‘This one’s for you.’”
When I first read that, I thought it was Andrew referring to Neil being a liar. But looking back, I realized it’s more than that: Neil at the beginning of the story is not a real boy. He’s a puppet–of his mother, his father, his own need to survive even if that means he doesn’t really live–who has spent years not able to be a real person. He doesn’t even cry when he burns his mother’s body, unable to let himself feel real emotions. And Pinocchio in the book even changes his identity several times, much as Neil does.
It fucks me up that Andrew recognizes this at the beginning. It’s not just that he knows Neil is a liar; it’s that he knows Neil is struggling between staying a puppet and becoming real. He keeps trying to give Neil incentive to stay and make himself live: the keys, the shared cigarettes, the shared truths, being willing to be someone Neil leans on but not someone who pulls his strings. Andrew is not Geppetto; he’s The Fairy With Turquoise Hair, the one to whom Neil promises to become real and the one who makes him real in the end.
Over the course of the books, with the support and belief of the Foxes, and with his own determination to take a stand and plant his feet for the people he cares about, Neil becomes his true self. He becomes able to feel, to love, and that love turns him real. And it is Andrew, in the end, who tells him that yes, he can leave Nathaniel Wesninski–the puppet–behind and become Neil Josten, the real boy.
I know the popular theory on how Thanos knew Tony’s name is ~the soul stone~
… but I love the idea that Tony has been inside Thanos’s head for six years just like Thanos has been inside Tony’s head for six years. Given how much they’ve been pushing parallels, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me.
Imagine Thanos waking up from a nightmare. He’s covered in a cold sweat, pulling the bed sheets tight around his shoulders. He starts rocking back and forth–
“Stark is out there…” he whispers under his breath. His purple ass is shook. ‘Cause he knows there’s this guy out there who is gonna fuck his shit up one day.
Like the idea of this big, bad Titan fretting over this goober:
Saaaaame! I really don’t think it’s all the Soul Stone – he was warned about humans not being as weak as they presumed after the Battle of New York. I’m pretty sure he’d wanna know more about the guy that took down his army.
I wanna know if Thanos sent some scouts to get some information about the meddling fucker who blew up his Chitauri warship.
What if Thanos’s scout pulled up videos of Tony from the Internet? The ones where Tony doesn’t have his clothes on?
Thanos sits there, pouring over Tony’s sex tapes and other drunken exploits, and he’s like, “………….. this is it? this is the guy??”
What if like Tony also, he doesn’t know of his name? Only remembering this silhouette of gleaming gold and red armor that delivered tremendous destruction to his army. Much like Tony who was traumatized by space after that, Thanos is shook at the sight of full bodied armors like Tony’s. His fear build up, constructing this image of a fearsome opponent that await him on some supposedly backwater planet.
He knew of Tony’s presence but not his name. He knew somewhere on Earth, there would be this person who would be powerful enough to destroy his armada again but he can’t chicken out now.
While I like the concept of Thanos sending the scout and finding those hilarious tapes, I want to build up the parallel of him and Tony who are aware of each other’s presence but not their name until the very battle itself.
Thanos only know of Tony’s name using the Soul stone. They each finally know the name to put on the fear that had been gripping them for the past six years.
Yes exactly. I wonder if Thanos had these haunting images, maybe even nightmares, of this armored angel from Earth who ripped his entire fleet to shreds.
If Thanos worried that, one day, the red and gold man would come to stand in his way again.
Maybe that’s why Thanos reassured Tony with the line “When I’m done, half of humanity will still be alive.” Thanos knew Tony was Earth’s Best Defender. That Tony was protecting Earth to the best of his ability. And Thanos gave Tony that reassurance as a gift because Tony – this human, this small, little mortal – rattled him. Even drew blood from his near indestructible hide.
That’s why Thanos was going to use all four stones. To 100% make sure the threat Tony posed was gone for good. Heck, Thanos even seemed to hesitate sparing Tony’s life for the Time Stone. Maybe because it was hard to let the possibility stand this red and gold armored angel would come back with avengence.
… and letting Tony live is gonna bite Thanos in the ass.
You know what? Between The Avengers and Avengers: Infinity War, I’d love it if Thanos actually sent an Outrider to Earth to find out all it could about the man who had sent the missile that destroyed the Chitauri mothership.
In the Infinity comic event, Thanos had done something similar. He sent an Outrider to invade Black Bolt’s mind to find out where the Illuminati were hiding the infinity gems.
It’d make sense if Tony was having his mind repeatedly violated by an invisible, sentient creature every night: that could explain why the nightmares in Iron Man 3 were so vivid, so realistic, to the point Tony said he couldn’t sleep. It’d also feed into the idea above that Tony was inside Thanos’ head just as much as the other way round.
Thanos is an intergalactic despot. His army had razed worlds far more advanced than Earth. At the beginning of the Avengers, the Other says:
The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead, and our force, our Chitauri, will follow. A world will be his. The universe, yours. And the humans, what can they do but burn?
From the outset, Thanos and Co assumed the fight would be over in a snap (excuse the pun). Then, the next time we see the Other, who was Thanos’ de facto mouthpiece in that film, he says this:
Other: The Chitauri grow restless.
Loki: Let them gird themselves. I will lead them in the glorious battle.
Other: Battle? Against the meagre might of Earth?
Even at this point, Thanos is confident that Earth will fall with little resistance and the Space stone would be his.
Finally, after the Chitauri are defeated, the Other says:
Humans. They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled. To challenge them is to court death.
And we know Thanos leers at the camera in the end shot. But the Avengers film ended in a massive blow to Thanos because it took out his entire army. The same army that destroyed Gamora’s planet with little to no resistance. Since the Chitauri all died Phantom Menace style, I’d think they have a central hive mind, which was on the ship that the nuke destroyed.
Which is why we don’t hear from Thanos for six years. If he had a backup army, wouldn’t they have found a way to Earth before Infinity War? That makes me think Thanos and the Black Order had to regroup and rebuild the army – this time with the Outriders. They don’t have a hive mind and they’re created explicitly for one purpose alone – destruction. Proxima even says in Wakanda that they have blood to spare.
It’s also interesting to me that Thanos saves Earth for last in his gems quest. He goes to Xandar, which you’d think would be technologically more advanced, to retrieve the power stone, then tracks the Asgardians for the space stone, then he heads to Knowhere for the reality stone and Vormir for the soul stone. It just so happens that when he arrives on Titan, he finds the time stone waiting for him. At any point after acquiring the power and space stone, Thanos could’ve gone to Earth. But he didn’t. He sent the Black Order instead – even though he calls them his children, Thanos only ever cares for Gamora. So the Black Order is actually dispensible to him, hence are sent to retrieve the time and mind stone.
Thanos leaves Earth last because he knows (“cursed with knowledge”) that the planet is a formidable adversary, that there’s a man out there named Stark who single-handedly destroyed his entire army. (Because Thanos obviously wouldn’t know that Tony flew the nuke through the portal to first save Manhattan. The destruction of the Chitauri was an added bonus. He’d think it was Stark’s idea to come through the portal and take out the Chitauri.)
Thanos is a strategist. Thor even alludes to this in AoU when he says someone is playing an intricate game. So I’d assume he’d respect another good, albeit accidental, strategist and that’s why he says he respects Tony. Because in his eyes, Tony didn’t hesitate to indiscrimately kill the Chitauri to save his home. He spilled blood to save Earth, something Thanos couldn’t do for Titan.
I absolutely love the idea of Tony being Thanos’ boogeyman just like Thanos had been Tony’s.
Edit: As @starkravinghazelnuts pointed out, the Other tells Thanos at the end of Avengers that to challenge the humans is to court death. And what’s one of Tony’s nickname again? Yep, the Merchant of Death. Ajsksllsdkkdnsas.
One thing is certain. The druids, Kilgarrah and the followers of the Old Religion drove Arthur to his death, using Merlin as the domino to set things in motion.
They claimed to be seeking the time of Arthur, the time of the Once and Future King, when magic would be free and restored. But the actions they took, the ‘wisdom’ they imparted, were directly involved in sealing his doom.
Merlin and Arthur would have been fine on their own, would probably have lived happily ever after, had kilgarah not poisoned his mind against Mordred and Morgana, when they were both still innocent and inclined towards good.
Morgana would not have learned of her true heritage had it not been for the seer pressuring a reluctant Merlin into gazing into the crystals at the Crystal Cave, and therefore ensuring that he would cause the future they had shown him.
Merlin is used as the instrument in ensuring Arthur’s downfall.
And I can’t think of a crueler fate than a man who was devoted to his king so completely, having eternity to come to the realization that it was those who were supposed to help him, his mentors in magic and his destiny, that made him an instrument in killing his dearest friend.
I think I’m a little resistant to the “Lance is actually a genius” headcanon because a. it implies that a character can’t be useful unless they’re super intelligent and b. part of Lance’s charm is that he’s not an expert in anything. He’s all about practical knowledge.
Like, listen, Lance could never fix an engine, but when something goes wrong with their ship in episode one, he knows exactly what the problem is. He can’t fight as well as Keith, but when they need to wreck those Galra ships on the Balmera, he comes up with a plan that’ll take out the most. He probably couldn’t write a code or do all the funky math stuff Pidge does, but he can calculate the number of vargas they have to wait until they’re able to go into the Marmora base.
Lance’s thing is “okay what do we need?” Lance doesn’t have to fix a ship, he just needs to know enough to tell Hunk what to fix. He doesn’t have to know crazy math, he just needs to know enough to know whether Coran and Allura are talking about a minute or an hour so he doesn’t get killed during a mission. And he doesn’t have to be an incredible fighter, he just needs to come up with the best way to stop the ships from taking off without hurting the Balmera– ie, close the door.
Lance isn’t super book smart or amazing at flying or fighting; he’s a creative little shit who’s good at asking practical questions: Do I need to know this or can someone help me with it? Would knowing this help someone else? and Is there an easier way to do this? He’s really good at knowing what he needs to know and putting things together based on what he has. Rover’s here, but Pidge isn’t with it and it’s beeping? Yikes, that’s a bomb. The queen seems to be out of a trance and says she didn’t mind control us? Must be that creepy snake I was asking about earlier.
He’s perceptive. He looks for simple solutions to difficult problems. He’s aware that he’s not the best at everything, so he uses any resource he has to his advantage, whether it be things in his environment (yo his fight against Hunk in the Depths was nice) or people. In the comics when Pidge has to fight a mind controlled team Voltron, she calls Lance a “top priority” because he has good range and is likely to team up with others. Lance actively seeks the help of other people when he can and distances himself from problems when he can’t so that he can come up with a different solution.
I honestly think that his biggest strength is that he’s not a genius in the way the other members of the team are. Because it makes him take full advantage of what he does have.
Lance is the quintessential jack-of-all-trades: he’s not exceptional at any one thing (unless possibly sharpshooting), but he’s good enough at a LOT of things that he’s a very useful guy to have around. Even if he personally doesn’t necessarily have the technical skill to accomplish what he needs, he can provide ideas or partial solutions to almost any problem he encounters. His versatility and practical thinking are, in and of themselves, exceptional.
He’s also, as you said, perceptive, particularly with people. His disastrous attempts to flirt aside, Lance is clearly the best out of the Paladins at functioning in social situations (Hunk arguably is a close second, but he’s generally more shy and nervous around strangers, while Lance is able to dive right in). Lance is able to make snap decisions about people and when he isn’t being blinded by a pretty face, he’s usually pretty spot on. He’s good at understanding the dynamics of the people around him.
I don’t know which headcanons/metas/whatever you’ve specifically seen or are referring to, but for me at least, when I talk about Lance being really smart, I don’t mean it in the same way that I do when I talk about Pidge or Hunk. I do make it a point to talk about his intelligence, though, because I believe Lance has a kind of intelligence that is sorely under appreciated, both by people in real life and by his fellow fictional characters.
no, you guys don’t understand how much i adore steve and billy’s fight at the byer’s house
because it says so much about steve’s character
mostly that he’s a terrible fighter, but that’s because he’s a protector
billy literally knocks him on his ass the first time they tousle, and the only time steve gets in a clear punch is when it’s to get billy away from lucas
after that, billy’s attention shifts from lucas to steve again, he wants his shot at taking down the almighty “king steve”, and steve quite literally gets the shit beaten out of him
steve barely puts up a fight when billy first knocks him down, because he isn’t a fighter
he gets in a good swing at billy when he’s threatening lucas, but after that it’s kind of like his brain just short circuits and goes now what? because it’s just been set at getting billy the fuck away from lucas, and once billy starts swinging at steve’s pride he topples over like a tower of pebbles, because that’s not something he’s particularly concerned about protecting
steve only has a fighting instinct when it’s connected to his protecting instinct
and we saw this already in season one, at the last fight he fought at the byer’s house, against the demogorgon
steve is freaking out (”this is crazy this is crazy this is crazy this is crazy this is CRAZY” i love my disaster son), and just flees, ass over teakettle, but once he realizes that that means abandoning jonathan and nancy with the demogorgon, he comes in swingin’, and beats the shit out of that motherfucker
steve harrington can’t fight to save his pride, or to set an example, or to just be the aggressor
the only time steve is a capable fighter is when it’s meant to protect those he cares about
(and now that i’m preparing the seasons anyway, let’s talk about steve and his bat, always on the front line, always keeping the ones he loves at his back, whether it be jonathan and nancy or his kids)
and i just love steve harrington and his bigass heart and the fact that he just cares so much, okay??
Just like Slughorn, Albus Dumbledore collects people. Only, instead of focusing on those with influence, he looks to the outcasts.
The expelled half-giant. The young werewolf. The repentant Death Eater.
He protects them and gives them a second chance. All he asks in return is their loyalty.
And, if on occasion he requests that they undertake a certain task, invoking their debt of gratitude – well, that is no more than he is owed.
He once thought to add a certain disowned Black to his collection, but quickly realised his mistake.
Sirius is not an outcast, but a rebel. He knowingly chose his path, and chooses what price he is willing to pay for it. He refuses to be used.
So Albus Dumbledore abandons him.
Who gave you the RIGHT?
Dumbledore knows Sirius’s loyalty lies with Harry instead of him, and he has no use for someone who is not willing to follow his orders without question.
Ooooohoo if there’s ever a post that fits my aesthetic…
okay but then where does Harry himself fit into this collection? Is he an outcast because he is “the Boy Who Lived”?
Nooonono, my friend, that’s what makes this post so beautiful. Because it fits the meta I’ve been trying to get people to accept for years.
Harry was an outcast due to a childhood filled with abuse and neglect.
Vernon made him an outcast by dismissing his claims of magic, berating him, locking him in a CLOSET and putting bars on his window, and let’s face it, even though her editor made her cut it out, Jo intended for there to be physical abuse.
Petunia made him an outcast by enabling and contributing to this abuse, as well as making Harry do dozens of chores while doting on Dudley.
Dudley made him an outcast by bullying him and threatening any students at school who wanted to be his friends.
And the rest of the wizarding world made him an outcast when they bullied him for being an outsider.
Harry James Potter became an outcast the moment he was placed with The Dursleys.
clintbbarton 