...it's pure Tony Stark performance until he starts talking to Everhart about his Dad and, more clearly, when he's down in the shop with the music blasting and NOT TALKING AT ALL.
Oh, that hit the spot. I think you articulated perfectly the difference between Public!Tony and Private!Tony, and Pepper probably sees, or feels unconsciously a little of that too -- his close friends realize the difference, and it probably is what allows them to forgive him over, and over, and over again, even at the detriment to themselves. They see him trying so hard, and yeah, it's all a little "poor little rich boy" but they can't really help themselves. He's got everything, even the ability to hire and build his own friends, and he's epically, obviously lonely.
...but I'm off, somewhere in there, I'm definitely missing something. He's not simply lonely, there control issues complicate it somewhat, because I think the loneliness is in part the result of the unwillingness to lose said control, it's self-inflicted far more than just the result of being a child prodigy and being born into money.
And he tries really hard to make people like him. And they do. Which makes me dream about Tony at the Stark plant in, like, I don't know. Tennessee.
Oh, please, please write that. I can see that happening sometime after Pepper just started, like, after her first week where she's ready to quit every other minute, constantly questioning herself for agreeing to take a job that is impossible for the sheer fact that Tony doesn't actually follow anything that she says, doesn't seem to respect anyone other than JARVIS, and never, ever seems to shut up despite having nothing of import to say.
But by the end of the week, she manages to get him to the factory like she promised the board, and despite all the frustration and supreme human effort it took to get him there, watching him work over the torch, finally silent, probably the first time she actually gets him, if not completely, then enough to get her into the next week, or until she can find a better job.
(and this cycle will wash and repeat for weeks, then months, then years, until Afghanistan, and then it's too late to quit then, because now it's more than a job, it's family, and that's something far more dangerous.)
(oh. Pep. You should have gotten out while you can.)
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branchandroot
Re: TONY STARKS WON THE OSCAR, Y'ALL.
Date: 2008-06-01 02:17 am (UTC)Oh, that hit the spot. I think you articulated perfectly the difference between Public!Tony and Private!Tony, and Pepper probably sees, or feels unconsciously a little of that too -- his close friends realize the difference, and it probably is what allows them to forgive him over, and over, and over again, even at the detriment to themselves. They see him trying so hard, and yeah, it's all a little "poor little rich boy" but they can't really help themselves. He's got everything, even the ability to hire and build his own friends, and he's epically, obviously lonely.
...but I'm off, somewhere in there, I'm definitely missing something. He's not simply lonely, there control issues complicate it somewhat, because I think the loneliness is in part the result of the unwillingness to lose said control, it's self-inflicted far more than just the result of being a child prodigy and being born into money.
And he tries really hard to make people like him. And they do. Which makes me dream about Tony at the Stark plant in, like, I don't know. Tennessee.
Oh, please, please write that. I can see that happening sometime after Pepper just started, like, after her first week where she's ready to quit every other minute, constantly questioning herself for agreeing to take a job that is impossible for the sheer fact that Tony doesn't actually follow anything that she says, doesn't seem to respect anyone other than JARVIS, and never, ever seems to shut up despite having nothing of import to say.
But by the end of the week, she manages to get him to the factory like she promised the board, and despite all the frustration and supreme human effort it took to get him there, watching him work over the torch, finally silent, probably the first time she actually gets him, if not completely, then enough to get her into the next week, or until she can find a better job.
(and this cycle will wash and repeat for weeks, then months, then years, until Afghanistan, and then it's too late to quit then, because now it's more than a job, it's family, and that's something far more dangerous.)
(oh. Pep. You should have gotten out while you can.)