Rant + Recs Request
(That is one alliterative header.)
So earlier today I rage tweeted my timeline about...
Well here, I'll reproduce it:
@Gambling4Kitten: If I find one more thing claiming Tony never had a true friend before joining the Avengers my brain will leak out of my ears. #hatedtropes
I hate this trope. Haaaaaaaate it. It was around before Avengers came out but I keep finding stories where joining the Avengers and meeting Steve or Bruce taught Tony the power of friendship and let him finally open up to another human being and then I have to close my laptop before I actually bang my head against the keyboard. How can you watch Iron Man 1&2 and come away with that.?! Even putting Pepper aside, who also seems to be forgotten half the time, Rhodey loves the hell out of Tony Stark (and I don't necessarily mean in a shipping way, either.) Look at that scene in the first movie on the jet, where Tony's gotten Rhodey drunk and he's rambling on about how Tony's better than all this and he wants Tony to find a higher meaning for his life! The man is not a lost puppy who never knew a kind word before hearing the word Avengers, okay?
(Hilariously, this trope actually works with everyone except Tony and Steve (although no one seems to erase Bucky from Steve's backstory the way they do Rhodey from Tony's) - Bruce has been on the run and isolated since becoming the Hulk, and Clint and Natasha's lives clearly weren't rainbows and puppy kisses before joining SHIELD.)
Anyway, last night I stumbled over someone defending this trope, saying that since Rhodey's (and Pepper until the end of IM2, which is another level of wha?) job is handling Tony it means that he was never really Tony's friend. And that in fact, Tony acting like an ass toward him is proof Tony never really thought of him as a friend. And then my brain spun around in my head and I had to recuse myself from the internet for a while.
So! I am begging all of you lovely people for recs. I don't care about ships - ship Tony with Rhodey, Steve, Bruce, whatever. Hell, put him Jarvis, which with LMDs can totally be a thing. Just make it Avengers-era fic that acknowledges that Tony had important, semi-functional adult relationships before encountering Bruce's hot ass (or Steve's abs. Whatev.)
Please?
So earlier today I rage tweeted my timeline about...
Well here, I'll reproduce it:
@Gambling4Kitten: If I find one more thing claiming Tony never had a true friend before joining the Avengers my brain will leak out of my ears. #hatedtropes
I hate this trope. Haaaaaaaate it. It was around before Avengers came out but I keep finding stories where joining the Avengers and meeting Steve or Bruce taught Tony the power of friendship and let him finally open up to another human being and then I have to close my laptop before I actually bang my head against the keyboard. How can you watch Iron Man 1&2 and come away with that.?! Even putting Pepper aside, who also seems to be forgotten half the time, Rhodey loves the hell out of Tony Stark (and I don't necessarily mean in a shipping way, either.) Look at that scene in the first movie on the jet, where Tony's gotten Rhodey drunk and he's rambling on about how Tony's better than all this and he wants Tony to find a higher meaning for his life! The man is not a lost puppy who never knew a kind word before hearing the word Avengers, okay?
(Hilariously, this trope actually works with everyone except Tony and Steve (although no one seems to erase Bucky from Steve's backstory the way they do Rhodey from Tony's) - Bruce has been on the run and isolated since becoming the Hulk, and Clint and Natasha's lives clearly weren't rainbows and puppy kisses before joining SHIELD.)
Anyway, last night I stumbled over someone defending this trope, saying that since Rhodey's (and Pepper until the end of IM2, which is another level of wha?) job is handling Tony it means that he was never really Tony's friend. And that in fact, Tony acting like an ass toward him is proof Tony never really thought of him as a friend. And then my brain spun around in my head and I had to recuse myself from the internet for a while.
So! I am begging all of you lovely people for recs. I don't care about ships - ship Tony with Rhodey, Steve, Bruce, whatever. Hell, put him Jarvis, which with LMDs can totally be a thing. Just make it Avengers-era fic that acknowledges that Tony had important, semi-functional adult relationships before encountering Bruce's hot ass (or Steve's abs. Whatev.)
Please?