refrigeratorbucky:

“The workshop was always the most important set, for me. It was the space that was gonna tell you, before he got captured and builds the Mark 1 suit, that he’s a guy who…who likes fabricating, he likes working with his hands. We have him working on a ‘32 Ford that we show in a picture that he’s working with his dad on. And it just shows that he’s a bit of a gearhead. That he’s a guy who…not only is he a genius as far as design goes, but he actually has a hands-on knowledge of how to build things. And he’s an inventor – but the type of inventor that doesn’t just work with a pencil.”

—
Jon Favreau 

jon favreau shares my workshop kink

Source: refrigeratorbucky

i can’t stop thinking about how overwhelmingly, unnecessarily cruel “iron man: yes. tony stark: not recommended” actually was

tony’s childhood was defined by not being good enough for howard, and canon implies that he spent a lot of it being compared unfavourably to steve rogers (not steve’s fault, but that doesn’t diminish the scars left on tony): “that’s the guy my dad never shut up about?”. “he never told me he loved me, he never even told me he liked me. so it’s a little tough for me to digest when you’re telling me he said the whole future was riding on me”. “god i hated you”

then in iron man 2 tony finds out that howard was a founder of shield. that’s a significant part of his father’s life that tony was just… never told about. he didn’t even know shield existed until iron man 1. why tony never knew is never explained, personally i think peggy and maria put their foot down and said tony wasn’t to be involved for his own protection, but we simply don’t know. tony doesn’t know either, but i can hazard a damn good guess at what he’s assumed. the most logical conclusion, to tony, is that this is yet another thing howard didn’t think he was good enough for, yet another way he let howard down. so the avenger initiative is a way for tony to work with shield and prove howard wrong (and i do think howard’s involvement was the reason tony went from “i don’t want to join your super secret boyband” to “how can you approve me but not approve me?” in the same way peggy was what sold steve on shield)

but there’s more! a big theme of iron man 2 is LEGACY. tony is super focused on what he will leave behind after he dies, and, by extension, what howard leaves behind. tony explicitly states that the stark expo is about legacy, moments before he metaphorically brings his dad back from the dead to address the audience via a recording. then tony finds out about a huge part of howard’s legacy that he wasn’t (in his interpretation) deemed fit enough to participate in, at the same time as he sees the “what is, and always will be, my greatest creation, is you” video. setting aside how dehumanising being referred to as a creation is, and the fact that in that video howard still doesn’t manage to tell tony he loves him, those two conflicting messages must be super painful and confusing

“my greatest creation is you” also highlights that the only approval tony ever got from howard was because of his intelligence. fury tells tony that howard believed he would finish what he started and it’s all about tony’s brain, not the heart that truly defines him. the things tony builds are the only part of him howard ever appeared to value

so shield is howard’s legacy, and tony is howard’s legacy, and after the events of the film tony is ready to bring those two sides of his father’s accomplishments together. and then shield, this representation of everything howard did that tony wasn’t enough for, turns around and says “iron man: yes. tony stark: not recommended”. that’s an outright rejection of tony the man in favour of tony the machine, from something that is practically his father’s ghost, yet again. it’s a reaffirmation of every negative thing howard ever said about tony, everything tony believes about himself

and that, kids, is why “iron man: yes. tony stark: not recommended” is unfathomably cruel, and i continue to be incredibly salty at shield