Tony is the most interesting mix of arrogance and, like, OMG PLZ LIKE ME. Seriously.
And I don't think it's as simple as Poor Little Rich Boy, not by a long shot. You're exactly right. A lot of his barriers are self-imposed -- I refuse to believe that every woman he's ever had a one night stand with was crazy. Even given the way he tends to pick up women, a decent number had to have been probably perfectly nice women who would have been decent girlfriends. But no, Tony doesn't even want to find out what they're like because who wants to wear their game face first thing in the morning?
Pre-Af Tony only interacts with people when he's wearing his game face, and his game face is an asshole. In fact, you can almost see him transitioning to a slightly more public version of himself when Pepper comes down into the shop.
(I have a pet theory that Tony blew off the Apogee Awards when he realized that they were going to do a mini-biog heavy on the CHILD FUCKING PRODIGY and INHERITOR OF DADDY'S MANTLE and MAGAZINE COVER BOY thing on top of Rhodey presenting the award. Sure, he's totally convinced of his utter brilliance and worthiness of being adored -- but at the same time, his Daddy issues totally predate Afg, and if he really is as emotionally shut down as we've been postulating and if he's aware of his performance, I can kind of imagine Tony not wanting to have it rubbed in his face, particularly if it's Rhodey, who called him the day that awful fucking news broke, who flew all the way from Denver to be there at the funeral, etc, etc. Too much potential emotional vulnerability in one place, guys.
It's the same kind of HEDONISM NOW PLZ avoidance that happens when Rhodey starts talking to him about why he loves the military.)
despite all the frustration and supreme human effort it took to get him there, watching him work over the torch, finally silent
Exactly. And in my head, there's a very real difference in which Tony charms the welders and how he's schmoozing, say, the president of Lockheed Martin, for whose new communications satellite Stark Industries could supply microassembly expertise. I like to think that Tony really does <3 the people in the funvee, but that he doesn't fundamentally care at all about the military-industrial complex wankers who are attending the Apogee Awards and could take his failure to show up as an insult.
I think Pepper would pick up on the difference.
Randomly: Is it wrong to want Everhart/Stark? Because I was watching the ending of the movie there, and she's the ONLY PERSON SITTING in the whole room, and you know that a huge part of why Tony came out of the Superhero Closet was to fuck with her in much the same way that he buys the Jackson Pollock just to fuck with Pepper. And, plus, I bet there was assigned seating. And there has to be a reason why a reporter for Vanity frickin' Fair, a magazine known for its hard-hitting coverage of daily events, is front an dcenter on this. I like to think that he has a tiny bit of proto-respect for her.
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branchandroot
Re: TONY STARKS WON THE OSCAR, Y&#39;ALL.
Date: 2008-06-01 02:55 am (UTC)And I don't think it's as simple as Poor Little Rich Boy, not by a long shot. You're exactly right. A lot of his barriers are self-imposed -- I refuse to believe that every woman he's ever had a one night stand with was crazy. Even given the way he tends to pick up women, a decent number had to have been probably perfectly nice women who would have been decent girlfriends. But no, Tony doesn't even want to find out what they're like because who wants to wear their game face first thing in the morning?
Pre-Af Tony only interacts with people when he's wearing his game face, and his game face is an asshole. In fact, you can almost see him transitioning to a slightly more public version of himself when Pepper comes down into the shop.
(I have a pet theory that Tony blew off the Apogee Awards when he realized that they were going to do a mini-biog heavy on the CHILD FUCKING PRODIGY and INHERITOR OF DADDY'S MANTLE and MAGAZINE COVER BOY thing on top of Rhodey presenting the award. Sure, he's totally convinced of his utter brilliance and worthiness of being adored -- but at the same time, his Daddy issues totally predate Afg, and if he really is as emotionally shut down as we've been postulating and if he's aware of his performance, I can kind of imagine Tony not wanting to have it rubbed in his face, particularly if it's Rhodey, who called him the day that awful fucking news broke, who flew all the way from Denver to be there at the funeral, etc, etc. Too much potential emotional vulnerability in one place, guys.
It's the same kind of HEDONISM NOW PLZ avoidance that happens when Rhodey starts talking to him about why he loves the military.)
despite all the frustration and supreme human effort it took to get him there, watching him work over the torch, finally silent
Exactly. And in my head, there's a very real difference in which Tony charms the welders and how he's schmoozing, say, the president of Lockheed Martin, for whose new communications satellite Stark Industries could supply microassembly expertise. I like to think that Tony really does <3 the people in the funvee, but that he doesn't fundamentally care at all about the military-industrial complex wankers who are attending the Apogee Awards and could take his failure to show up as an insult.
I think Pepper would pick up on the difference.
Randomly: Is it wrong to want Everhart/Stark? Because I was watching the ending of the movie there, and she's the ONLY PERSON SITTING in the whole room, and you know that a huge part of why Tony came out of the Superhero Closet was to fuck with her in much the same way that he buys the Jackson Pollock just to fuck with Pepper. And, plus, I bet there was assigned seating. And there has to be a reason why a reporter for Vanity frickin' Fair, a magazine known for its hard-hitting coverage of daily events, is front an dcenter on this. I like to think that he has a tiny bit of proto-respect for her.