#howard/maria

[issuedsideways]

couldn't stop thinking about Them.... what a pair. Howard and Maria from the Invincible Iron Man #503 bonus story

[shamelessexplosions]

I'm about 8 years late with this but one thing in the Civil War dispute I have never seen anyone from either side point out (and I could just be completely wrong on this):

There is no indication Steve actually knew Bucky killed Tony's Parents

Steve knew it was Hydra because, and as far as I am aware ONLY because of Zola's little exposition scene in Winter Soldier where he shows a bunch of newspapers clippings of things Hydra is responsible for, including Howard and Maria Stark's death.

I repeat: things HYDRA is responsible for. So, yes, Cap knew Hydra killed the Starks, and knew Bucky was working for Hydra. That does not mean, because of that little exposition scene, Cap decided, 'oh yes, in the last 70 years Hydra has only had one man doing all their assassinations, so that must mean Bucky killed Howard and Maria.'

The thought it might have been him could have occurred to Steve, but either way, that would be a theory, and not something Steve has any reason to tell Tony.

For further proof, this exchange from Civil War straight after Tony & Steve watched the security footage:

Tony: "Did you know?"

Steve: "I didn't know it was him."

Tony: "Don't give me that shit, Rogers. Did you know?"

Steve: "...Yes."

To me at least, that 'yes' means Steve knew Hydra, as an organisation, killed Stark's parents, and he elected not to tell Tony, which he is shown to have found out in Winter Soldier so we know that. But his initial statement, "I didn't know it was him", we have no evidence wasn't entirely truthful.

(Whether Tony hears that 'yes' as 'yes I knew Bucky killed your parents' or 'yes I knew your parents death wasn't an accident/orchestrated by Hydra' is ...debatable, but either way I can't see any reason to believe Steve meant the latter, especially since he has already said he knew it wasn't Bucky specifically.)

Why didn't Steve tell Tony Hydra killed his parents?

I can think of a few reasons, whatever side of the Civil War divide you are you can probably come up with more:

1. Steve knew Zola was trying to distract Steve and Nat when he showed those newspapers, so was just trying to keep them engaged, and hinting there might be more to the death of an old friend and get Steve emotional would be a great way to do that. Steve might have suspected it was true, but with no actual evidence he didn't want to open Tony's old wounds.

2. The avengers were going after Hydra post-Winter Soldier, and Steve was worried about what Tony might do/how reckless he might be/didn't trust him enough to risk telling him the people they were targeting killed his parents.

3. It was more than 30 years in the past. If Steve didn't know it was Bucky, it would be likely the person who did it (or at least authorised it) was long dead or unfindable (again, 30 years cold case, no evidence except in a bunker in nowhere siberia that Zemo spent a year searching for when he knew exactly what he was trying to find), so there would be no justice to get, so it would be only hurting Tony for no reason.

But the point is there are a lot of reasons Steve wouldn't tell Tony (admittedly a lot aren't very good or wishful thinking, and Steve probably should have said something, but it is a common theme across the MCU that Steve doesn't always have as much faith in Tony as he should (and then sometimes Tony builds Ultron because he got scared and you can understand why Steve might not trust him when emotional), I'm not here to idolise either of them or say either were completely right in this movie, just point out one thing I see a lot of people complain about). A lot of those reasons don't hold if Steve knew that it was Bucky, and we will never know if Steve might have told him if he did, but you can't blame Steve for not telling Tony something he didn't know himself.

[gunsandspaceships]

Tony’s Childhood. Part 1: Identifying facts

In the MCU, Tony sometimes acts like a kid. There is a reason behind every behavior, so I wondered what it was like for him when he was a real kid.

So, the questions of the day: what do we know about Tony's childhood? Did he have one? And, most importantly, how did it affect him?

Let’s first list what we know from the movies:

At age 4 Tony built his first circuit board (IM1)

At age 6 built his first engine (IM1)

Was sent to a boarding school by Howard (IM2)

Cracked the Pentagon’s firewall in high school on a dare (AoU)

Had a nanny until the age of 14 (IM3)

Went to college at 14 (IM1)

Built Dum-E and U when he was there (IM1)

At 17 graduated summa cum laude from MIT (IM1)

Continued his education until his parents’ death (CW)

Tony’s genius gave him two things: the brain and the pain. And by the pain, I mean that instead of interacting and bonding with his parents, enjoying life, playing, having fun, making friends, taking care of pets, and all the other things children do to gradually prepare for adulthood and grow up "healthy", he got this list of achievements. That doesn’t make a person normal.

Parents

We know his relationship with Howard was complicated. Howard loved him in his own way. He had too many things to do to be a good father: SI, S.H.I.E.L.D., scientific projects, trying to build a better future with clean energy, etc. All good, except when you want your child to love you back. Especially if in the tiny amount of time you spend with him, you don’t show him any signs of affection.

What do we know about Maria? Her name, what she looked like, that she played the piano, and died at Winter Soldier’s hand on Dec 16, 1991. That’s it. She didn’t spend much time with Tony either. Remember, he even had a nanny, instead of a mother. Tony's words about her showed that he loved her, but he didn't talk much about her. Because she wasn’t present in his life enough. Why? Because…

School

Howard sent Tony to a boarding school.

Here’s in the S.H.I.E.L.D.s file we have this information about the school:

“Phillips Academy, Andover, MA 1977-1984”

This means he was there from age 7 to 14. Howard sent him to a boarding school when he was SEVEN.

Phillips Academy Andover serves grades 9-12 only (it is a college preparatory school). Thus, either this is a mistake by the creators of the film/file, or Tony, due to his genius, became an exception. Since the early age he was already at school was also mentioned in IM2 tie-in comics, and in Earth-616 that was also 7, we can mark 1977-1984 as valid.

Think about it again: Tony was sent to boarding school in another state when he was 7 years old. He spent another 7 years there, alone, among high school-aged teenagers. No parents around, no peers.

For example, even Hogwarts accepts 11-year-old children, and they live with their peers. Now imagine Harry Potter, at the age of 7, is thrown into a dorm with 7th-year students and locked there. Doesn’t make a person normal either, does it?

Nannies and Jarvis

Since Tony was at the boarding school, there are two options for how he could have a nanny (mentioned in IM3) and spend time with Edwin Jarvis:

1) He was at the boarding school with a nanny. There is almost no possibility that the nanny was Edwin Jarvis because Jarvis was Howard’s butler and had other responsibilities.

2) He had a nanny at home in the summer and during short school breaks. In this case, his parents couldn’t even give him this little of their precious time.

In any case, he could only see Jarvis at home, a few months a year at most.

Note: There is a date error in IM3, stating Tony was 14 in 1983. This is clearly an error and we can omit this detail.

Bullying

Remember this dialog between Tony and Harley in IM3?

0:45:15 – Harley asks him how he knew he was being bullied at school. Tony doesn't answer. He gives him a non-lethal flash thing to "discourage bullying."

We see that Tony knew exactly what was going on with Harley at school. Because that’s exactly what happened to him there. Harley reminded him of himself. Brilliant kid with no friends and practically no parents. He was bullied by 9th-12th graders.

If he had a nanny with him at the school, that probably made things even worse. He would be bullied because he has a nanny, and despite he has one to look after him.

In Part 2 we will discuss how all this affected him. Stay tuned.

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Heart of the Matter (George More O'Ferrall, 1953).

[diioonysus]

history + women who were executed

[serenastark-incorrectquotes]

Marvel x Barbie 3/?

[velvet4510]

Probably in the minority here, but I’m positive there’s no way Steve could’ve known with absolute, concrete certainty that Bucky was the one who killed Tony’s parents, prior to Zemo’s reveal.

All he saw was a photo of the headline of Howard’s death included in Zola’s footage. So he knew HYDRA was responsible for the deaths, but I think he was being honest when he told Tony “I didn’t know it was him.” Then he caved and just said “yes” because Tony emphasized “did you know” as in “did you know it wasn’t just an ordinary car accident?”

Steve probably pieced together the likelihood that it was Bucky who did it, but wanted to believe it wasn’t true, that HYDRA had sent someone else to do it. Which explains why he didn’t tell Tony. He had no proof it was true. And he didn’t want it to be true anyway. Why should he say “I think my best friend might’ve killed your parents but it’s just a hunch?” Why would ANYONE want to say that to their friend?

Steve Rogers deserves no hate.

[moonyvvamp]

Since what if gave me the confirmation that there is and can be a universe where everyone is gay and slowly healing, I'm taking the liberty to write it myself.

Starts after Endgame, Blackhill, Bishova, Agathario, ValCarol and Wanda x Darcy (just trust me on this) are some ships that I've started working into the fic so far. Everyone is on the long rocky road to satisfaction. It gets messy but no person left behind.

Plenty of the pet characters make an appearance. Alpine, Goose, Lucky, Liho and Jeff the Land Shark to name a few.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Another theory for the Fantastic 4 movie:

The reason why the movie takes place in an alternate 1960s is that it’s the timeline created by Steve Rogers when he went back in time and settled down with Peggy Carter. That’s also why RDJ is Doctor Doom. The reason is that Howard Stark settled down much earlier as a result of the timeline change, leading to Tony being born sometime in 1946/1947.

However, instead of Maria Stark, Howard married a Sokovian woman, hence why “Tony” isn’t technically Tony in this timeline (Sokovian because Sokovia is the MCU’s version of Latveria).

[classicanalyzer]

What If Season 3 - What If... the Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier? Thoughts

"Now, think. Think back. What's the first thing you see?" Alexei Shostakov

"I see... I see... I see Coney Island." The Winter Soldier

"See! You are somebody. You are the Great Coney Island hero. And the Red Guardian is proud to fight next to you." Alexei Shostakov

Episode 3 was so peak. Alexei is so fun! I really wish we got a movie, a show, or something with him because he's such a fun character. His dynamic with Bucky is also pretty fun. We got so much lore about the assassination of Howard and Maria Stark. This is the last episode written by A.C. Bradley, and man I'm going to miss her writing and work in What If. Also, this episode was supposed to be in S2 (footage of it can be seen in S2's title sequences and the S2 finale fanfare) but was swapped out for the Corpsman Nebula episode which was supposed to be in S3.

Alexei's character in this episode is really great. He may be really enthusiastic about his belief in Communism and the Soviet Union, but it's clear he genuinely wants to do good. I really like how he isn't as dumb as he looks and how he sees the good and best in people. Someone also pointed out how since this is 1991, the USSR is on the verge of collapse, and Alexei thinks they will overthrow the US which shows how he was kept in the dark by his bosses about the USSR's deteriorating situation. Even Alexei realizes after he knows Dreykov and the Red Room are working with Capitalists that those at the top never truly cared about the ideals of the USSR as he did. I also find it funny that the What If situation possibly came that, What If Alexei stole the file of the Winter Soldier's assignment lmao. David Harbour was amazing casting for Alexei in the Black Widow movie and this episode continues to prove why it was perfect casting.

I really love how Dreykov and the Red Room knew about and was connected to HYDRA and the Winter Soldier. It makes me wonder if the Red Room's Sky Fortress was a HYDRA collaboration and the Red Room simply cut their ties with HYDRA after the Winter Soldier movie. While this doesn't fix my feelings about the Red Room's Sky Fortress, someone pointed out how HYDRA most likely covered up the Sky Fortress from SHIELD. This makes so much more sense than if the Sky Fortress was simply able to hide for so long because it was simply good at "hiding" lmao. I also liked how it pays off a fact from S2 Episode 2, Bucky as the Winter Soldier was used by the USSR. That's some great multiversal continuity there haha. I love the Red Room presence in this episode with Dreykov and the Red Room Task Force soldiers. Also, Antonia Dreykov being in the picture is pretty sad and dark given what happened to her and how Dreykov never truly cared about his own daughter.

I love to see Bill Foster in this episode and I love his suit from S2 Episode 2. It's just really nice to see Bill Foster as the hero Goliath since we never saw him in action before in the movies. Ranger Morales was also a fun new side-character for this episode.

The montage of Alexei and Bucky heading to the United States was perfect and funny with the major differences in their purpose and tone. When that Winter Soldier theme kicks in, I got the chills. I like that Alexei does have his morals, even if he says it's to spread Communism and the revolution, it shows how he doesn't tolerate the work HYDRA is doing. It's really funny seeing Alexei quip during his fight with Bucky that Bucky just resorts to biting him.

I laughed when Bucky and Alexei both agreed to go off the cliff, even Uatu was surprised. These two super soldier idiots really make for a funny team once Bucky loosens up a bit. The Russian music in this episode is both epic and funny given how it's used. I also love the comedic gag of Alexei trying his best to get Bucky to stop resorting to killing as the first solution to every problem.

Bucky legit has a mental crisis when he realizes he failed for the first time. I love the arc where Bucky even if for this mission broke out of the programming and realizes HYDRA never cared for them. The scene with him remembering Coney Island is so heartwarming given how he and Steve hung out at Coney Island. Likewise seeing him reject Dreykov’s kill order on Alexei was heartwarming to see. I also love how he listened to Alexei's advice of using his metal arm to block the bullets when Stane tried to kill them. Their friendship (they’re basically siblings in this episode) truly is one of the most heartwarming things to see how Alexei managed to bring the good out of the Winter Soldier and both of them considering themselves friends. Sebastian Stan's voice performance went a long way from him phoning it in back in Episode 1. Also “Technique!” haha.

"He's right, though. About the Red Room, Dreykov..." Alexei Shostakov

"Dreykov's a pig. All of them are. But not you. You are a good man." The Winter Soldier/Coney Island Hero

The Rook being Obadiah Stane was a surprise to me. It didn't register that was him until near his death and the end credits confirmed my suspicions. I was really surprised but yet also not surprised that Obadiah told the Russians (and therefore by extension HYDRA) about Howard's recreation of the super soldier serum. God, seeing Obadiah talk about how "amazing" Capitalism makes me sick, and glad to see him fall out of the window after Bucky threw Alexei's shield at him. Hopefully, with Howard and Maria Stark alive along with Stane's death, Tony's life will be a lot less messed up and has less daddy issues.

I really hope Vasily Karpov dies in Las Vegas that's one less HYDRA personal in this universe. Also, I hope when Bucky was being brainwashed that this time, it was less successful than the previous moments, thanks to Alexei's influence. Plus, thanks to Alexei disavowing the Red Room and his nation, the Siberian Winter Soldiers will never occur!

Also hell yes, Alexei gets to be a part of the Avengers and Captain America knows him!

Episode 3 is truly a peak episode and showcases a dynamic ripe with story and character exploration. It'll be very interesting to see how Thunderbolts will show the two interact. This episode uses its characters amazingly well.

Note: Someone pointed out that so far, each episode has a tiny person interact with someone or something much taller (Sam with Gamma Apex Bruce, Kingo with Celestial Agatha, and now Alexei and Bucky with Goliath). I wonder what Episode 4 will do to continue this streak haha.

"Fighting for survival. For acceptance. Fighting to be somebody. But in the end, the fight is never the point. It's your friendships that change the course of history. Even when they end." Uatu

[issuedsideways]

Casino Trouble - Double Drabble

200 words. also on AO3 inspired by how Howard and Maria met in Invincible Iron Man #503

Howard Stark loved gamblers. They had a desperate sort of hope that had made him very rich. Tonight, though, he watched a despondent woman push around chips with growing concern. There was no strategy to her choices, not even superstition. Just a hint of irritation when she won, which was strange enough to be interesting. Two men made a beeline for her. Hired muscle, no doubt. He flagged down his own security as he watched her smile up at them, strained and familiar. She bet a large, final stack of chips as one of the men wrenched her away from the table. He crossed the room in an instant. It wasn’t hard to intervene. A quick lie about a big win she never cashed out, an overly friendly arm around her shoulders, and before they knew it he was leading her back onto the casino floor. Out of earshot, he asked “Do you know those men, Ms…?” “Collins Carbonell,” she said, holding onto his offered arm. “They work for my boyfriend.” “That his money, at the table?” She smiled, sly and smug. “He won’t miss it.” He met her eyes, enamored, and took a calculated risk. “Would he miss you?”

[blackthornluce]

Captain America: Civil War (2016) directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.

That's how I wished it happened. Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, or BARF. God, I gotta work on that acronym. An extremely costly method of hijacking the hippocampus to... clear traumatic memories. Huh. It doesn't change the fact that they never made it to the airport... or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief, but... Plus, 611 million dollars for my little therapeutic experiment? No one in the right mind would've ever funded it.

[thatone-midgardian]

Family

Parents: Tony @tony-stark-official/ @the-ironman and Pepper @vpotts-official/ @pepperpotts-official

Siblings Morgan @official-morganstark, Em emma-hope-stark, Lily @lilypad-stark, Eva @baby-girl-stark

Peter @peterparker-who, @multiverse-peterbparker, @definitelynot-peterp4rker, Harley @youknowwhoiamjr

Stargirl @multiversal-lesbian (limited edition), Brightness @kamala-msmarvel-khan, Camie @c4m3r0n-st0n3, Daniel @mutantwitchgirl

Honorary Starks: Alexa @friday-the-ai, car @carlos-the-ai, Siri @j-a-r-v-i-s-the-ai, toaster @vision-not-a-toaster @vision-stark-synthezoid

Romantic Relationship: Loki

Parental Figure/Best Friend: Stephen @strangeofficial, Christine, Stefi @stephanie-strange

Daughter au: @donnastark-official

Godparents: @mr-jarvelous and @mrs-jarvelous

Grandparents: @you-know-me-you-do, Maria Stark, Mr. Potts, Mrs. Potts

Brother-in-law: Thor @god-of-thunder-mcu

Sister-in-law(s): Laurya @goddess-of-birds, Ash @astridlaufeydottir02

Uncles: Steve @americas-favourite-fossil, @proud-owner-0f-americas-ass, Barnes @justawhitewolf, @official-buckybarnes, Rhodey @the-colonel-rhodes

Sam @we-love-redwing, @captain-s-falcon, Clint @clintbarton-thearrowguy

Aunts: Angie @mutantontheloose, Rock @patrioticblackwidow

Great-aunt: Peg @capt-carter-mostly-official

That one cool vintage punk: @the1-and-only-peggycarter

Nieces: Olive @thebolter1904, Rosie @lostgirlin-neverland

Cousins: Lotte @official-charlotte-rogers-barnes

[kayvsworld]

yet another day of being mad that all of the articles shown onscreen about howard & maria's deaths just have a picture of howard

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[Note: This poll is a re-do of an older poll, as the original poll received less than 2,000 votes.]

[mrsoftthoughts]

I always need more content of the Mortal parents of pjo, like, this people seriously have to raise childrens that depite their looks, we need to remember aren't human and a lot of them don't even know why their childrens are so "weird" and even if we know some gods that probably were there at least the first years, almost all of them are single parents trying to figure out how to raise this kid that they don't have a fuckin clue of where is their other mother/father.

And Then they need to discover that their kid is half god and probably had the mayor mental breakdown because it doesn't matter if they are atheist or believe in other religions, that goes against to almost anything that they believed

And that's just the surface, theres a lot of other things

I mean, we only ge a close up to Demigods born from concensual relationships in the saga, but looking back at some gods historial, i won't discard the possibility of some of them beig results of 🍇 and how the fuck some mortal parents would have to deal with have a child result of that kind of situation

And We have pretty interesting characters here and we barely know something about them, and all this potential is just wasted-?

I mean, just look at Marie Levesque and Beryl Grace, despite that they aren't the Best people on earth for what we know of them, you can't look me death in the eyes and tell me that they don't have potential for building them a past or Characters study

Or what about the parents of the kids that died?? The mortal parents of Lee Fletcher, Michael yew, Castor and all the diceaced characters must be around somewhere, dueling the lost of their child at the hands of a word that of their kids belonged but they didn't

And ofc whe have the ones of alive campers, i mean, just a few of the campers are year rounders, a lot of them come back with their mortal parents at the end of the summer, most of the campers actually live with their mortal parents and each one must had very different dynamics with their parent

And the parents of year rounders aren't least interesting, like, how they feel about having their kid away of them?? Some of them maybe are one of the reasons why their kid's don't come back at their houses after the summer

And also an Honorable mention to the Man that after dieing and being brought back to life as a mist form is the father of a traumatized 16yo war betteran condemned to ostracism: the Dr, Howard claymore, which remids the fact that there must be at least some other demigod has been adopted by a mortal who probably was even more clueless that the kid bio parent

As a summary: The mortal parents are a really interesting part of the world building of pjo and never get enough recognition