The "O lost his goddamn mind" theme is probably the one that coheres the best with movie canon (and the scatterbrained ???? PROFIT model you posited up above), but man. I have to say it doesn't offer much meat for writing.
Yeah, I know. It annoys me. I am currently going with the theory that he was doing great up until Pepper ratted him out, at which point his grip on reality got chopped off real fast, and he was like "well, fine, if I'm going down YOU ARE ALL GOING WITH ME." And went for the suit.
Though, OK. I totally dig your idea that Stark Sr. blew as a businessman and that the firm didn't really take off until Obediah stepped in.
Oh yay! Because as long as something explains the psychology behind it, I am happy to handwave other specifics. I am also digging on dafnap's whole idea with the paper-signing and all, because then I can retrofit CHAOS AFTER STARK'S UNTIMELY DEATH as the reason that Obadiah didn't end up in charge permanently-- and because seriously, what is WRONG with people that they would put a traumatically-orphaned 21-year-old engineering genius in charge of a company? It must have been some sort of thing where there was nothing written down about the company going to Obadiah after they died, and so ownership went to Tony, the blood relation, along with all the money... and in order to keep the ship afloat they got Obadiah to stay on.
So on this one, Obadiah is like "okay, fucker, this business isn't getting away from me this time". I AM OUT ON A LIMB.
And it's been pointed out among the original participants o' doom that maybe, Daddy Stark and Obediah had been dealing under the table together.
That one fascinates me, particularly given the murky politics of the late Cold War era; I can totally see this happening in the 70s and 80s. And ARGH now I have to go home from work and will be back in on this probably later, but I will ponder on the train. Daddy Stark being a lot less clean than Tony thinks: AWESOME.
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branchandroot
Re: second time through = golden. i'm thinking about going time #3.
Date: 2008-05-29 08:30 pm (UTC)Yeah, I know. It annoys me. I am currently going with the theory that he was doing great up until Pepper ratted him out, at which point his grip on reality got chopped off real fast, and he was like "well, fine, if I'm going down YOU ARE ALL GOING WITH ME." And went for the suit.
Though, OK. I totally dig your idea that Stark Sr. blew as a businessman and that the firm didn't really take off until Obediah stepped in.
Oh yay! Because as long as something explains the psychology behind it, I am happy to handwave other specifics. I am also digging on
So on this one, Obadiah is like "okay, fucker, this business isn't getting away from me this time". I AM OUT ON A LIMB.
And it's been pointed out among the original participants o' doom that maybe, Daddy Stark and Obediah had been dealing under the table together.
That one fascinates me, particularly given the murky politics of the late Cold War era; I can totally see this happening in the 70s and 80s. And ARGH now I have to go home from work and will be back in on this probably later, but I will ponder on the train. Daddy Stark being a lot less clean than Tony thinks: AWESOME.