Kittykatkattoo

Imagine finding out you have 90 minutes to tie up a love story that's developed over thousands of years. You create something beautifully in character and completely on point for the plot. You pay homage to the original writer's legacy in a fitting and poetic way and create an ending that not only shows the depth of two people's love for each other but the wider love they have for the thing that brought them together in the first place.

And then you go online to find the loudest outcry is that everyone hates it and "THEY DIDN'T EVEN KISS!"

To be clear, I'm not a Pepper hater. She's a cool character, apparently a great businesswoman, and not the worst partner for Tony. But there are things she's done that I can't justify.

One such thing is the scene in IM3 where Tony has a nightmare, unconsciously summons Mark 42 for protection and thus scares Pepper, who tried to wake him up but was grabbed by the arm.

Tony wakes up from everything what's happening in the bedroom and shuts down the suit. He's still shaken from the dream, and now even more so because of what just happened in reality. He doesn't feel well. He hasn't felt well for a long time. In fact, he's been struggling with PTSD for 20 months, and Pepper hasn't noticed. Remember, he just told her he's not ok a few hours before this scene.

So Pepper's reaction after the initial scare is that she gets angry at Tony and leaves him, even though he literally begs her not to.

Some will say, "So what? She was attacked. She has the right to get angry and leave."

Well, she wasn't actually attacked. Mark 42 simply grabbed her right arm and pulled it away from Tony. It did it quite gently, though, because she didn't get any bruises.

And other than moving her hand away from Tony, it didn't do anything else. Absolutely.

"She was scared" is, I think, the most popular line of defense here.

Did she have a right to be scared? Of course. But people seem to forget about IM1, IM2, and The Avengers. Pepper did a lot of things in those movies. She's no stranger to scary things, robots, big bads, or just dangerous technology. She's been working for Tony for at least 13 years. She even killed Stane. She didn't look scared when she beat up Killian at the end of this movie.

And people tell me: "Poor poor Pepper, she was scared of the suit, which, as she already saw, can work autonomously." Come on, guys.

There was essentially nothing to be afraid of, and there was a really distressed partner in the room. I think the priorities were pretty clear.