im gnawing the walls about tony and rhodey again and it's like. they are so drift compatible they get each other in a way no one else does when they are in sync they are insufferable to everyone else they are so ridiculous they have so many in jokes they laugh at each other when no one else would. they also end up in fundamental misunderstandings on levels before unseen and it's. GAH it's so good
like. tony stark. this kid. you've got his parents and. his dad alone is a whole can of sharks. and then let's go down the list. jarvis and ana? jarvis works for his dad. obadiah? works for his dad/SI. even considering the possibility that peggy was 'aunt peggy' at all she's still connected to howard first and to Work. he's trotted out for photo ops (with his dad) he has no privacy. people are in his life because they are Paid to be. because of Job because of Work because of Usefulness. because of Money because of Name. you Know that at whatever series of prep schools he was through there were kids who were 'befriending' him because their parents wanted an in with howard stark and SI. or eventually because standing next to teen genius tony stark let you ride some coattails. i don't even know if it's so much that he came to expect that They Want Something twist as much as it's his understanding of How Things Work.
james rhodes. like. this is a lot of inference but it's not without support. he's one year older than tony and they were at mit together and yes they could have been different years it could have been while tony was in grad school whatever. accept teen genius james rhodes into your heart for the duration of this post. he's graduated high school *early* he's going to *MIT*. he may already be rotc. he's a teen genius this is a huge success (and probably more than a little scary). and then he's not the youngest person starting MIT that year, so no one cares about that. not only is he not the youngest person starting MIT that year, the youngest person starting MIT that year has been on the cover of popular science since he was like. 9. and he's all that anyone wants to talk about. whatever. he's not mad about it (he's mad about it). he's got the alienation of being younger than the peer group around him but it's not even coming with the horrid mixed blessing of 'special'
and somehow they end up *friends*. *best* friends. and also like. of course they do they're both teen geniuses who are younger than everyone here who are little nerd gremlins who love engineering who build robots together who are crazy adrenaline junkies who are dorks who laugh at each other's jokes. all of these being things about *them*. tony has a friend who's not only not getting paid to be there but who is here specifically for things about *him*. who picked *him*. who *picked* him. rhodey is not here for the stark(tm) of it all the stark(tm) is a sideshow he puts up with to be friends with Tony. they! are! best! friends!
and i don't think tony ever consciously thinks, in the process where rhodey ends up the air force's SI liaison, 'rhodey isn't going to stick around if he's not getting paid to' but i think that is so deeply How Things Work in his head that it *is* underlying that for him. the image in my head is of when they're still in college and rhodey's air force career after college comes up and tony's like internally :((((((( separated from friend. and he's like oh but you can work with SI i'm sure we have military liaisons and i'll be running a robotics and machines division (because hey howard isn't dead yet 'running SI is not yet in the immediate future) and we can work together. yeah and what if i end up an astronaut for nasa after the air force test pilots do that space is cool. SI does space stuff. or we can do space stuff. I can do space stuff.
and then they get out of college and then howard dies and everything is a mess. and then rhodey does end up SI liaison. and for him it's like okay i will make some compromises with my career but it is worth it to get to work with my best friend. and i think on some level tony knows that rhodey isn't in this for gain but also years and years of This Is How Things Work do not go away and i think on some level he is thinking that rhodey is sticking around because he's getting paid to. pepper works for him she's paid to be there happy works for him he's paid to be there. i think as he gets into his downward spiral he possibly *does* have the conscious thought 'rhodey wouldn't stick around with this shit if he wasn't getting paid'. meanwhile rhodey is like. i am dealing with this shit and not taking any transfers because i *will* be here for my best friend when he is going through it. so help me if he goes to hell and back i will complain the whole time but i will Be There. he has seen tony lose his parents and that collapse. he's seen him come back and take back over SI. he HAS seen him come back. and he has seen so many people swing into tony's life when useful and drop back out when it's inconvenient. he is not that guy he Knows his friend.
and tony on some level is watching his own downward spiral and doing much the same thing he does in im2 when he expects he's going to die, in im2 he's dramatically pushing people away, in im1 he's less dramatically pushing people to hold them at a distance. he's not showing up he's late. He Doesn't Care look how much he Doesn't Care. (he cares so fucking much and he's bad at not showing it At All he has to make jokes he's gotta Talk they are Best Friends, platypus) he's not caring so you don't have to care, you can just have this be a job and if it's insufferable enough you can leave. please cut and run if you're going to cut and run and get it over with. please cut and run and save yourself from getting bogged down with him.
and then All That. Happens. Tony is in a cave for three months with Yinsen. and they're going to escape together, because Yinsen is an absolutely brilliant enough doctor to have kept him alive in a cave with a car battery and Tony is brilliant enough to build armor in a CAVE with a box of SCRAPS. except they're not. Yinsen is sacrificing himself to save Tony, who he has every reason to resent, who he already saved once, for no gain at all. That was always the vision in Yinsen's mind, from the moment he told Tony that he'd see his family when he left.
and Tony has Not At All had a chance to process Any of that until much later because ESCAPING FOR HIS LIFE. and then walking through the desert probably wondering whether he is going to die there and Yinsen will have sacrificed himself for nothing at all.
and then rhodey is there. rhodey, who he spent three months not knowing whether he was alive or dead. rhodey, who spent three months not knowing whether tony was alive or dead but believing so fiercely that he was alive when no one! no one else did! he was risking his career! he was arguing with his superiors! to still be out there searching! for! his! best! friend!
and now they're finding out they're both still alive. and he makes a joke that's a callback to tony's and tony smiles. and rhodey thinks the arc reactor might be a BOMB but he STILL holds on to tony. it is selfless it is without benefit it is For Tony it has been three months For Tony, unambiguously.
and just. how much does rhodey know about what happened to tony??? does he even know about yinsen??? does tony even know how hard rhodey fought to still be there searching after three months??
that is a thing. where it could, potentially, sink in that oh, actually, sometimes people are in your life not just because of what they can get out of Stark(tm). your best friend is actually in this ride or die for You. and like. i don't think it's something tony is going to forget but it's also something that doesn't really get a chance to sink in because HEY there's a LOT of other trauma going on
and rhodey, for whatever he knows about what actually happened, is seeing his best friend badly injured, traumatized coming out of three months of captivity. he is holding tony up as they walk down the ramp back into the world because he needs the help to walk and he doesn't want to go back into the world in a wheelchair because he Will Not Stop Pushing Himself.
then they are Right Back In It with the world of People Want Things From Tony. and Tony? Tony is refusing to go to a hospital he's calling a sudden press conference he's making big moves for SI aka no longer doing weapons manufacturing because of being part of a system of zero accountability
and tony is right we know tony is right! but also! rhodey's reaction! kind of understandable! like it is definitely not all about his job but it is kind of a thumb in the eye to spend three months of your career trying to get him back when, again, everyone else thinks he is dead, to get, with no warning, what's going to sound to him like 'all of that system you and i worked together on is bad actually and i dont want to support you and all the people who work beside you anymore'. but also! very importantly! dude who JUST got out of literal months of intense trauma is immediately sitting down and making big unilateral decisions directly connected to that trauma without telling anyone is. i mean it is a red flag. it's not like rhodey's never dealt with anyone with PTSD from traumatic situations in the military. hell it's not like rhodey's never dealt with tony making big dramatic decisions with no warning that throw everyone out of whack, just. not at this scale.
and then there's fucking obie. fuck obadiah we all hate obadiah in this house. except importantly, tony and rhodey *don't* at this point. and we see in this movie that obadiah is very good at making himself out to be the good mentor figure, the guy who's involved in tony's life, the guy who's sad to be the bearer of bad news from the board (when he engineered the situation). he's the guy rhodey looks to when tony doesn't show up at the awards (did he deliberately not communicate to tony that it was rhodey involved or was that 100% tony blowing shit off? we don't know) and he's the guy who steps up so rhodey isn't just left standing there. it is very plausible to me that, with how we know howard was and how obadiah is good at making sure people see what he wants them to, that rhodey is kind of like, internally would-never-say-this-to-tony, obie is far and away the less shitty father figure compared to howard. (this is also, as has been said many times, a howard stark hater house) like? obadiah was obviously consolidating his takeover in the three months, but what did rhodey know of what he was doing? did obie bother to try and call him, given that rhodey was talking to pepper, just to try and keep an ear on all angles of the situation? trying to hit that balance of 'we all want to believe he made it and you're brave for being out there' and 'i know it's hard to accept, i can hardly accept it myself, but everyone is saying, and no one would blame you for moving on.' Please Stop Looking :) It's Fine :) but like. I don't get the impression that rhodey came out of that three months with a particular grudge against obadiah
it seems entirely plausible to me that obadiah talked to rhodey at some point after the press conference and was just like. there to be The Good Guy about it. We're going to sort this out. You Know Tony, he loves stunts, but also This Isn't Really Him Talking, i don't know the half of what he's been through, you were there (we're all so fortunate that you were right and brave enough to keep looking, they better give you a medal, I Am The Good Guy Who Supports You Here), do you know anything about what he was through, why he might be acting like this? This Is Not a Probe for Information. like i do think rhodey was the one who told him about the arc reactor! i think he believed it was the right thing to do For Tony! i think Obie probably got Rhodey on the same side of Tony Needs To Get His Head Right while leaving the impression that they came to that conclusion together.
meanwhile tony is building the suit and like. i remain at least mostly convinced that like. in terms of the suit technology being for purposes besides adrenaline junkie joy of flight and experimentation and testing his engineering skills, it was intended to be something for *rhodey* to pilot for Doing Heroic Things purposes (rhodey, who, again, tony spend three months not knowing if he was alive or dead, and that's probably not the first dangerous mission rhodey's been on where tony was worrying about him). tony is building cool tech to have fun with! and then his best friend can have fun with it too and they can do engineering together. and rhodey can use it to Do Good while being safe and it will be something that will be rhodey's and can't fall into anyone else's hands. this is great. as @kayvsworld points out perfectly in this post he is going to rhodey, the guy who said he's more than what he thinks he is, and now he's like, yes, i've figured it out, i know what i have to contribute, i want you with me for it, i have this for you. and he's about to get shut down hard.
tony goes to rhodey and he is like. jokes! jokey banter with my best friend! tony being tony! and rhodey's not really having it. and then we get 'you need to listen to me' and rhodey's not having it At All. 'that stunt at the press conference really pissed people off' and one of those people is rhodey! and obie Did Not Help matters! 'what you need is time to get your mind right' i mean look he's not right but he's also not Wrong. 'maybe slow the fuck down on making major decisions after three months of traumatic captivity. have you seen one (1) doctor since you landed in the states' rhodey is seeing tony being or playacting tony at his most cavalier at the start of this and he's pissed and he's worried so he's just being hardass rhodey back, as he does when he is both pissed and worried.
and tony, of course, takes away from this both further isolation and also. oh right. rhodey's job. rhodey's mad about maybe losing his SI-connected job. (not! actually! what rhodey's mad about!) rhodey is not sticking around if not for his job. this is how the world works, that is the basis of rhodey putting up with him. and if he thought for five minutes about rhodey searching for him for Three Months when everyone else believed he was dead he would realize that doesn't add up. he would hear rhodey being rhodey. but when something seems like it falls very neatly into a very established pattern of how you think the world works... you don't necessarily think beyond that. and of course if rhodey listened to tony for five more minutes either it would all be different. but they don't. they are having! two entirely separate conversations and you KNOW how i love when characters are having entirely separate conversations
and then i genuinely think tony getting the news about gulmira, about yinsen's home. seeing that report. blasting the mirrors with the gauntlet. that's when he is past the point of no return on being iron man. that's when it crystalizes that yes, he's going to be in the suit. again and always. that's the heroic birth of iron man, in defending yinsen's home. after he's no longer alive to see it. yinsen sacrificed himself to save tony, selflessly, for no gain, but because this is how the world works, tony is paying back that debt the only way he can.
and then of course rhodey sees Some Shit goes down and is like. let me just check. and he calls tony and he's laughing and they're laughing. a multimillion dollar plane got destroyed and they're laughing. absolute maniacs. they're best friends.
and god. the degree of beating himself up rhodey must have done after finding out about obadiah. just. fuck. having trusted him? having listened to him about tony and thus not listened to tony? told him about tony and the arc reactor? rhodey hitting obadiah with a car may be a deleted scene but it's not deleted from my heart. they all deserved vengeance against that fucker.
god i should rewatch im1. what a fucking movie.
