Empatheias :: Application

[ironyman]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Mouself
Contact: Motley Mouse (AIM) mouself
Age: 25
Current Characters: None!


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Tony Stark
Age: ~43
Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Canon Point: End of Iron Man 3

Background: Here!

Personality:
BEFORE ABDUCTION

To understand Tony Stark we have to start at the beginning. He is an adaptive creature, and events shape him, build him into what he is like topography. Sure, I could tell you how he is at the exact moment when he is whisked away from his world, but he is bound to change, as layers get eroded and then rebuilt constantly. He adapts, and will have to adapt in a new world with new problems, so it's best to go in some semblance of chronological order to gain an understanding of how he adapts and what is the bedrock of this ever-changing landscape. Since we have a total of about 15 minutes or so of combined screentime of Tony prior to his abduction in Afghanistan, we’ll just group the first 40-odd years into one big chunk.

Tony did not have a typical or particularly good childhood. Being sent to boarding school at a very young age and having a father who never said he liked much less loved you does that. And it probably didn’t help that Howard talked about Captain America all the time--and being compared to Steve Rogers, possibly one of the nicest people in the universe, constantly throughout your childhood can never produce an emotionally healthy person. On top of that, in a tie-in comic it is revealed that Howard was physically abusive on at least one occasion. Tony has never truly healed from his childhood, as can be seen in Iron Man 2 when he watches the footage of his father. He looks vulnerable, hurt, and even Howard's video message makes little difference, and why should it? Not ten minutes before on the film roll, we see Howard order a stage hand to haul away Tony as a small child. Then he tells adult Tony via his message that he is "my greatest creation." While this line takes on a special meaning after we see Howard in the Agent Carter television series gush about Steve being his only creation to "bring good into this world," ultimately it does little to help his relationship with Tony. Really, when you're in your forties, and your father calls you a really cool thing, it doesn't really count as love, just makes the anger and hurt sting more. The final nail in the coffin of Tony's daddy issues is Stane's betrayal, but we'll get to that later.

The Tony Stark we see in Afghanistan is a man who has grown to fill his father's shoes and then some. When you watch Captain America, you definitely see the resemblance between Howard and his son. Both are snarky, flirtatious geniuses with a heavy leaning toward the theatrical. But Tony has grown past his father's legacy. His weapons are far more advanced than Howard could dream, his womanizing spills far past simple teasing and straight into playboy (he boasts about having sex with nearly every Maxim cover model and somehow manages to get a reporter accusing him of war profiteering in his bed in a pretty short amount of time), his presentations are flawless (no flying car malfunctions on stage)--at least, the ones he deems worthy enough to actually attend. If Howard's ego was Texas, Tony's would be Russia.

He also shares and surpasses his father's naivety about war. Tony makes jokes ("yeah, peace, I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace"), blasts music out of his humvee in an active war zone. He deals weapons with no respect for the people killed by them ("What about your other nickname, the Merchant of Death?" "That’s not bad.") and he has justifications for his actions prepared to whip out whenever needed. That changes when he sees the soldiers guarding him get killed, and it changes more when a missile lands next to him with Stark Industries printed neatly across the side. The layer of being just like daddy, like the face of a mountain, is explosively, painfully, blown away, and the jagged shards dig into him like the shrapnel in his chest.

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT WEEK FOR YOU

This is the lowest moment in Tony's life, which ought to be extremely unsurprising. Waking up attached to a car battery would freak out anyone. He is greeted as the most famous mass murderer in the world, told to build a missile or die, told he would die within a week anyway when shrapnel pierced his heart. He lost hope in that cave, and that is how Tony Stark would have died if not for Yinsen. "Then this is a very important week for you, isn't it?" That one question incites a visible change in Tony, not as much one of body language but of presence. That jagged, raw side of the mountain begins to be rebuilt, but this time not just to be an exaggerated copy of Howard Stark.

Yinsen gives Tony a purpose that isn't just to carry on the legacy of the father he hates, but to take hold of his future. In a desert hideout full of Stark Industries missiles and guns, Yinsen arms the most dangerous weapon there, Tony Stark's mind. Yinsen created Iron Man just as much as Tony did.

Now, here's that part about Obadiah Stane I mentioned earlier. Stane mentored Tony when he took over the company at twenty-one, and in a way he also became another father after Howard died. Stane's confession that he ordered a hit on Tony more than stings, it breaks him, rips his heart out both literally and figuratively. But this time does not send him into a coldly vengeful rage like in Afghanistan or his trip to Gulmira. He seeks out Pepper, does whatever he can to protect her and any civilians that might get in Stane's way, even use an obsolete arc reactor that could easily get him killed. This is the first time we ever see Tony sacrifice his own well-being for the sake of others. That is how the hero was born.

I AM IRON MAN

Most superheroes have secret identities, whether simply out of having a private nature, or to protect loved ones. Tony Stark reveals himself to be Iron Man on international news. Needless to say, Tony Stark is not most superheroes.

This is an example of the way Tony shapes his own world. Flashy, famous, and sleekly dangerous, the Iron Man suit becomes the thing for which Tony Stark is best known, and for good reason. He flaunts his weaponized armor that could easily level a city, flies it into the Stark Expo like a high-tech rock star. His suit is made for show, not stealth, with shiny gold and red highlighted by glowing repulsors on the hands and chest. He feeds on the attention, basks in it, but there is an even darker side to this extravagant display. By this point Tony is dying and knows he can do nothing to stop it despite all his technology and intelligence. He does not hide his pain, at least not in the usual sense. Hiding is not in Tony's nature. He distracts, puts on an amazing show full of the narcissism and flamboyance that people expect from him and hopes that no one will see the broken man behind the curtain dying slowly and painfully of palladium poisoning. He does this normally, but to a lesser extent. For instance, he displays his arc reactor in the suit proudly, talks non-chalantly about it, which results in people getting used to it, basically. People see the circle of light and never think twice about it, specifically never think of how it is a nuclear reactor in a metal cylinder five or six inches into Tony's body, likely wired into his skeleton. Very few think about the inner workings of Tony Stark, and that's the way he likes it. In this case, however, the distractions get too big and the pain too strong, and Tony loses control.

Tony's statement "I am Iron Man" can be improved upon. "I can be Iron Man" would be more accurate. Iron Man and Tony Stark in the suit are two very different things. Never is that distinction more clear than in Iron Man 2. Drunk and hopeless and hopelessly drunk, the Tony who knows he will die in a matter of hours is what I call, pardon my French, "fuck everything" Tony. He wields the suit haphazardly, gets into a fight with his best friend, who takes a previous model of the suit with him, and practically roars at his terrified and confused guests to leave. That urge to distract, to entertain, to make a big fabulous show has led Tony awry, turned him into a monster. He has made a show, one of impulsive, self-destructive, dangerous behavior for which he refuses to tell anyone the reason. ("Got any other bad ideas?") This is Tony not at his lowest but at his darkest, when he is imprisoned not in a cave by the Ten Rings but by his own doing. Tony shapes his own world, and he is very good at shaping worlds that come back to bite him in the ass.

Fortunately, he also tends to be good at recovering, and this is where the world shapes him as well. He does usually require a push, though, whether that is Yinsen badgering him or, in this case, S.H.I.E.L.D agent Coulson locking him in his house with new information and telling him to save his own life. In other words, if you want Tony to get off his sorry ass and do something, you have to be even more stubborn than he is, which can be, uh... Difficult. Later, at the Stark Expo, Rhodey obviously expects that monster again, but Tony responds by asking him to wave at the crowd, his usual senses of responsibility and showmanship returned. He can be Iron Man again.

THE CONSULTANT

This is what leads us into a segment I call Getting Tony To Do Something. That wouldn't be a significant bit of character analysis for someone else, but for Tony it very much reflects his insufferable caustic eccentric personality. This segment spills over into The Avengers, so we'll use it as a bridge.

At the end of Iron Man, Nick Fury talks to Tony about "the Avengers Initiative." Naturally, Tony declines, saying he doesn't "want to join your super secret boyband." After all, it's a team, and Tony doesn't like working with other people (though he gets more used to the idea after fighting Vanko's drones with Rhodey), and he definitely doesn't like following orders, much less Nick Fury's orders. In fact, the only thing he hates more is being told he can't do something. When Fury shows him a negative personality assessment that finally ends with "Iron Man accepted," Tony again acts nonchalant, says he will have to think about it. But when he reads on that Tony Stark is not recommended, he immediately starts making excuses. How could he be accepted and rejected at the same time? "I've got a new ticker. I'm trying to do right by, ah, Pepper." Suddenly he wants to be part of the super secret boyband. Someone told him he couldn't, told him he wasn't good enough, and Tony is a visceral creature. He tends to go with his gut, with whatever his first instinct may be, and rarely thinks things through. ("Stark, we need a plan of attack!" "I have a plan: attack.") As a consequence, he is thoroughly awful at coming up with battle strategies and will occasionally yield to others (Rhodey, Steve) for that if the situation requires (ie when the city/world is in danger). He does, however, take it upon himself to give permission to said others to come up with strategies. If not, well, refer to "hates following orders" above. But there's an extra push in this situation. Fury told him he couldn't be on the team, said he wouldn't be able to work with others, was too self-absorbed, and all that accomplished was making Tony absolutely stubbornly determined to work with others. However, being a narcissist, Tony initially succeeds only in trying to take over and being rather caustic towards his "teammates.” Fortunately, he is as stubborn as he is self-absorbed, and he has the drive to continue and finally band together with the Avengers.

BIG MAN IN A SUIT OF ARMOR

You know how I mentioned being caustic towards his fellow heroes? Perhaps "caustic" is a gentle word for it. He gets into a fight with Thor, makes fun of Fury constantly, but Steve gets the brunt of his aggression. Those daddy issues never stop coming back to bite him. Steve pokes deeper than just daddy issues, though; he hits something that flows through Tony like blood, always hidden and under the surface, but can come bubbling out with the right prick. As much as Tony loves himself, Tony loathes himself. In other words, a hell of a lot. He hates himself for his past (“I reaped the benefits of destruction”), his own tendencies (“with this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I’ve made, largely public”), his self-obsession (“Textbook narcissism... Agreed.”), and basically everything he ever does. How does this relate to Steve Rogers? I’ll get to that. First, a little review under a new filter.

An incredibly intelligent child struggles to earn the favor of his distant father. The same child, now in a 40-year-old body, grows up in a single explosion, watching young men and women be killed by the weapons he created to protect them before being mortally wounded by another of his own missiles. The resulting self-loathing and depression nearly kills him. The strength that saves him is fueled by a desire to correct his mistakes. His last father figure declares a hatred for raising him, emphasizing the recently unearthed feelings of worthlessness long buried by ego and swagger. Tony becomes Iron Man to correct mistakes and makes Iron Man a hero to rebury the feelings. He declares himself a hero in an attempt to make it true, to make himself feel like the hero he knows he isn’t. He avoids letting anyone see his pain because he fears they will hate what they see within him as much as he does. He wants to have what people say he cannot not only because of a childish reaction, but because it provokes in him a terror that he is as worthless as the people he’s looked up to have declared. And this is where we get to Steve Rogers. Cap is everything Tony isn’t and wishes he could be. Captain America is a hero, loved by Howard Stark, loved by the world: a man with no mistakes to correct, no blood on his hands, no public character defects. Steve attacks Tony, says essentially everything Tony fears he is, and he is visibly unsettled when Steve turns away. Captain America is in some ways a neat little personification of Tony’s self-loathing issues.

JUST A MAN IN A CAN

The events in New York trigger Tony's fears of worthlessness. All of his bravado, his ego, are absolutely dwarfed by the impossibly huge world he now finds himself in. The breaking point is flying into the portal and seeing the mothership, which is so incredibly huge it makes the Leviathans look small. Tony finds himself in a world where immeasurably large alien fleets invade, demi-gods have familial spats that level cities, super-soldiers survive 70 years frozen solid, and physicists mutate into enormous green rage monsters. And all Tony has is his suits. So in the time between Avengers and Iron Man 3, approximately 7 months, Tony builds 35 specialized suits, displaying a new height of obsession and paranoia. He doesn't sleep due to nightmares, he doesn't work on other projects, and he barely pays attention to Pepper. Additionally, he has debilitating panic attacks when New York or the portal is mentioned, a fact that surprises him so much he initially thinks he's been poisoned--after all, he's Tony Stark, a name practically synonymous with narcissism, how could he possibly have an anxiety attack?

THE MECHANIC

This is the second lowest point in Tony's life thus far, because once again his world is torn down, in this case very literally. But there is an upside to being stuck in smalltown Tennessee with a non-battle-ready suit and his house in a thousand pieces on the ocean floor. By being forced to not rely on his suits for most of the movie, Tony is able to come to terms with the fact that he doesn’t need the suit to be Iron Man. Combined with the near loss of Pepper, the “one thing I can’t live without,” Tony is able to make a leap forward in his character development. He chooses to actually destroy the 35 paranoia-induced suits, not a sign of retirement--he is Iron Man, he can always build more--but a removal of obsessed, diseased parts of his life. And, never one to take things halfway, Tony proceeds to cut out the another damaged part, the arc reactor.

This physical change directly correlates with his biggest mental change. In Avengers, Tony calls the reactor a “terrible privilege,” implying that it is what allows him to be a hero. Prior to this, Tony did not believe he could be Iron Man without the shrapnel in his chest, as if its removal could cause him to become the Merchant of Death again. He would rather let the arc reactor kill him--slowly and painfully via palladium poisoning--than attempt to have it removed and cease to be Iron Man. The fact that he is comfortable having it removed is a big forward step. He’s been saying “I am Iron Man” for two years at this point, but this is the first time he can truly believe it.

Tony isn’t fixed at this point, of course. You can’t "fix" Tony Stark. He’s a narcissist and an asshole, and those things probably will never change. He’s still going to screw up; that’s part of being Tony. The terrible privilege was never the arc reactor, it’s being Tony Stark. To be Iron Man, a hero, a genius... but also a huge screw-up. In case you haven’t noticed, Tony is a rather contradictory fellow. He’s basically just a really smart dumbass.

Abilities: Tony has no supernatural powers to speak of. He has the strength of a moderately in-shape man his age, lifts weights, and has a minor amount of brawling/boxing training. His only ability is his massive, but still very human, intellect. His expertise is engineering, but he can easily adapt to other fields, like reading through notes on thermonuclear astrophysics and understanding them well enough to have a conversation with Bruce Banner, an expert on nuclear physics of equal genius. He is a prodigy who built a circuit board at 4 and an engine at 6. There are very, very few things he cannot build. You have been warned. Three words: Magitech Iron Man.

Alignment: Peromei. Tony's life is a cyclical pattern of getting knocked down into despair and rising from the ashes with hope.

Other: He'll be coming in with a StarkPhone loaded with JARVIS--which will be totally useless until he figures out magitech--and sweatpants/crappy t-shirt.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: "Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."


Questions: Nope!