I've been a spidey fan as far as I can remember and I still don't know who the fuck harley keener is???? is he a character from the mcu that I missed??? (I haven't watched all mcu movies) genuinely asking, because this guy keeps clogging up the peter parker tag on ao3 and I have no goddamn clue who the fuck he is but I know he's annoying me with how much he's popping up even in other peter ship tags. I'm only here for petermj, parksborn and spideytorch why is he there too???
the lifespan of this plot device from a 12-year old movie has long past reached his expiration but ALAS
that's who harley keener is btw— a plot device in the second act of iron man 3, the little white boy from bumfuck nowhere Tennessee that tony has an encounter with, tells him not to be a pussy, and then dips (and presumably sends a car to at the end).
that's it. that's all he is, he has no cultural or comic relevance, he's just an OC plot device slotted in to give audiences something to laugh about as tony works through his PTSD. which fandom has done far more with even less, so white girls everywhere people being interested in expanding on that relationship and even linking up (both platonic and romantic) the only other white boy connected with tony is predictable, if not wholly bland.
IN THEORY: the concept of harley keener could be interesting and way back when i first joined fandom, i saw the most base line appeal. the problem (to me) is that is so abundantly obvious that the appeal isn't just the connection of two white boys tangentially connected to tony stark with the paint-by-numbers treatment of literally any other person in peter's actual life when it comes to the ship. parkner is a ship that i still stand wouldn't exist if it wasn't for racism, particularly for all the ways people bend over backwards to explain why:
peter and harley are more alike in personality and temperament (they've never met and harley's last appearance was when he was 9)
peter and harley have better chemistry than peter and mj or peter and ned (they've literally never met)
peter and harley are equally smart (ned highjacked the stark suit at 16 and harley had a potato gun but sure why the hell not)
peter and harley have equally close relationships with tony stark (incorrect)
peter and harley are just "more fun" (i'd believe this more if it wasn't for literally anything else)
pairing the nonsensical explanations with all the DISGUSTINGLY AWFUL ways parkners would depict ned and mj (making them abusive, annoying, antagonistic, or dead) to make harley a better choice well...
tl;dr he's just another white guy that fandom has projected upon and now uses to fulfill the two white guys trope in mcu spider-man, despite peter having literally an entire cast of POC that he actually knows and likes to talk with.
