#dum-e

like, jarvis, obviously. he asks “jarvis, you up?” when he walks into his garage. he sets out a stocking for him at christmas. when jarvis is consumed by ultron, he mourns him.

dum-e and u, who he talks to and teases and threatens in the affectionate way he does. after all, he created them with his own hands. dum-e in particular he’s had since he was a teenager. he sought out to fish him from the wreckage of the malibu mansion so he could personally deliver him to his new house.

the broken machines, of which he talks to like they’re people— his own suit, an extension of himself; but also other peoples’ machines. the tractor in clint’s barn, which he teases and fixes up and chats to as he does so.

Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark

"Although he is only 16, the MIT junior is doing work that is leaving seasoned professors scratching their heads. Stark, going off of a radically simple theorem that artificial intelligence can be imbibed with personality through alternative programming, is currently putting the finishing touches on two robotic prototypes that he believes will listen to him and learn from his behaviors."

Magazine article in IM1

Dum-E and U are basically Tony himself:

Yk how Tony’s always threatening to donate DUM-E and the rest of the bots to a college? What if, while Tony was in Afghanistan, Stane actually did just that?

Then, when Tony comes back to a botless lab, he finds out what Stane did and gets them back, but DUM-E is different, more… robotic, for lack of a better word. All the personality Tony knows and loves is gone. No more spontaneous fire extinguisher, no more motor oil smoothies, instead he follows instructions perfectly and not much else.

It freaks Tony out, and at first he blames the people at the college, and goes on a rampage to find out what they’ve done to his precious son. No one will admit to doing anything, and after a thorough diagnostic, nothing seems wrong in DUM-E’s hardware or programming.

Until one day DUM-E makes some minor mistake, and suddenly he’s cowering and pushing his arm up to Tony in affection. Tony, by now an expert in reading robot body language, recognizes this as fear and placation, desperation. Begging. And that’s when Tony puts two and two together.

See, DUM-E’s programming is sophisticated, so he made the connection between Tony’s threats and what happened when he was sent away, but not sophisticated enough to recognize that Tony wasn’t the one who gave him away, that Tony wanted him back, or that it wouldn’t happen again. He’s been trying to be the perfect bot in hopes that Tony would keep him around, and now that he’s screwed up all he has left is to beg.

Please, Tony hears in the bot’s beeps and whirrs, please not again. I’ll be good. Please give me another chance, just one more chance. I won’t mess up again, I promise I’ll be good, I promise I’ll be perfect, please-

Tony comforts his son, petting the bot and gently explaining some things. He’s the one promising now, promising that he’ll never give DUM-E away, no matter what. Promising that he never meant to be away for so long, that he’s sorry he wasn’t there to protect him from Obie.