Don’t let your head hang low You’ve seen the darkest skies I know… So take my hand and home we’ll go The sun it glows like gold Feeling warm as a burning coal… So take my hand and home we’ll go
- Home We’ll Go (Take My Hand) by Steve Aoki & Walk off the Earth
Rhodey wakes in the night in a cold sweat because of the nightmares he has of losing Tony over and over again. If only he flew faster, given him support a little quicker, maybe he would have lived. Maybe if he had used the gauntlet instead, he was older, he would’ve given his life for the cause of saving lives. But the problem was that Tony beat him to it. He sacrificed everything.
Rhodey goes through his days without getting phone calls from Tony asking him to stop over. He goes through his days without yelling Tony’s name into the familiar lab. He goes through his days without having Tony hug him from behind.
But how Rhodey goes through his days making sure Tony’s family feels ok. He goes through his days taking Morgan out and making sure she doesn’t feel sad because her daddy hasn’t ever come home. And he goes through his days constantly trying to live up to what Tony used to be.
But he can’t be Tony. No one can. No one can replace who Tony Stark was. Tony was Rhodey’s best friend, his hero, his brother and everything in between. Rhodey can’t be Tony, not when Tony still lives in the heart of the people and in the heart of James Rhodes.
He’s lost without a best friend. He’s lost without his colleague. He’s lost without his hero. He’s lost without his brother.
so like. are we supposed to accept. that steve went back and lived happily ever after. knowing that while he was doing that. bucky was being tortured. for seventy years. are we r ea lly s u ppos ed to a ccept t h at
Platonic Harley Keener x reader. Kind of a continuation of Heartbreaking Goodbyes, but you don’t have to read that before reading this.
A shriek tears through your lips as you watch your father snap his fingers. You’d only just gotten back, with barely a chance to even talk to him. Tears are running down your cheeks underneath your mask as you fly towards him.
You barely register as Thanos and his forces disappear, too distracted by the sight of your father collapsing.
You land next to him, suit retracting as you lean him against a price of rubble from the compound.
“Dad, daddy. Dad no.” You whine pitifully. He forces a smile, but it doesn’t last. Pepper lands near your in a suit of her own. She’s talking, but you don’t understand. Peter arrives, and tears are falling down his face too.
Around you it’s silent, the rest of the avengers watching the nightmare unfolding in front of you.
“Daddy please don’t die.” You whisper.
“You’re gonna be such a great big sister.” He whispers hoarsely. You freeze in shock, before a fresh stream of tears falls down your face and you sob.
You reach blindly for his hand, and you know the moment he’s gone. You don’t know how, but you know without looking that the world’s best hero, the world’s best father, is gone for good.
~~~
The atmosphere is somber, everyone clad in black and no one smiling. You grasp Peter’s hand like he’s all that’s keeping you there. He’s gripping yours just as hard, so you know the feeling’s mutual.
You tune out most of the funeral. It’s too painful to listen as everyone speaks, tells stories about your father. It finally ends with everyone outside of the house he had been living in with Pepper and your new sister.
You struggle in vain to hold back tears as Pepper sets your father’s first arc reactor down. The thing that made him a superhero. That consequently made you one. Proof that Tony Stark has a heart.
As everyone slowly drifts away, you let go of Peter’s hand to wipe your face, and begin the trek back inside, through a crowd full of pity and sorrow.
A familiar face stops you, and brings back memories of a potato gun, a cold garage, and a clever, blonde little boy.
“Hey Harley.” You whisper, looking up at him. You haven’t seen him in ten years, but you know it’s him.
“Hi, Y/N.” He whispers back.
You bury yourself in your old friend’s arms. Peter walks away, giving the two of your privacy that you’re grateful for.
“I’m sorry, Y/N,” he murmurs against your hair. “I’m so sorry.”
You pull back, wiping your face for what feels like the millionth time that day. “Thank you.” You reply automatically. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Well I couldn’t not come. Your dad changed my life.” He explains, before casting a few suspicious glances around the room. “Can I tell you something?”
You nod. “I can’t guarantee that no one will hear. The room is full of spies and superheroes.”
Harley nods. “It’s just, I was in class, listening to my professor drone on, when I got a really bad feeling. I felt like I was outside in a blizzard, in my underwear or something. I was freezing. And then I just knew, I knew that something happened. I saw the news later that day and I just-“ he breaks off. “How could I have known?”
Your eyes tear up, but you manage to hold them at bay this time. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember, Harley?” A small smile tugs at your lips as you cross your arms. Through your blurry vision, Harley tilts his head. “We’re connected.” And then the waterworks come.
Hell, everyone who ever worked on the show Agent Carter deserved better because that entire series has been wiped from the map! I loved Endgame and Steve deserves happiness, but why like this?
Every grand entrance had me clapping along, every sad line had me nearly in tears and every reunion or joke had me smiling wide and laughing because I was genuinely happy to be there.
But shit, as much as I loved it, this movie had SERIOUS issues.
I won’t even go into the giant unexplained plot holes this time travel mechanism created, I just want to talk about the giant slap in the face to all of us who cared for and knew the characters.
Yeah, I’m talking about what they did to Thor, Loki, Steve, Peggy, Bucky and most of all Tony.
Let’s start with the easy one to unpack- Thor.
The whole movie everyone laughed about how bad of a shape Thor was in without giving it any serious thought. The man lost everything, and was so clearly experiencing some form of depression, PTSD or survivor’s trauma.
This whole serious topic so many struggle with was reduced to a comic relief made by a cheap shot centering his huge belly, fat shaming him and invalidating what he’s going through.
Thor has made great character development over the years and it was devastating to watch it, and countless of people’s experience with mental disorders caused by trauma be played for laughs. What they did to Thor was character assassination at its worst.
Now let’s say a few words about Loki.
Loki is one of the most loved MCU characters and it shows how much Marvel was afraid to make him the center of attention, by how little he was mentioned.
At the first scene of infinity war he attacked Thanos, an enemy he knew well from his time in the void being tortured by him, with a simple knife, not using ANY of his powers (teleportation, illusions, telekinesis, Jotun powers…) and making himself look like a weak idiot he is certainly not. In fact, this was so absurd that it had people just straight up assuming he wasn’t actually dead and that he had a plan- a reasonable assumption given the fact that Loki’s whole character is about how powerful and mischievous he is. And what was he given in endgame? Nothing. Thor, despite being in a terrible state mostly because he lost Loki doesn’t mention Loki’s name even ONCE, instead he has a short conversation with their mother that Loki needed and no one seems to even acknowledge it when Loki escapes with the Tesseract in a timeline we don’t even know still exists.
Now let’s move on to team Cap.
I really loved Steve’s moments throughout the film save for one major thing- the ending.
Captain America- the person who stated he can’t ever retire because he just can’t stand aside when injustices are done around him, the person who gave up everything to help his best friend Bucky, the person who knows he can’t ever stop fighting- THIS PERSON just abandons everyone, including his best friend who needs him more than ever now, and goes to live in the past with a girl he knew for a pretty short period. That was maybe the most out of character thing he could possibly do: Steve Rogers would not have stood by and watched Hydra take over SHIELD, He would not have done nothing to help his best friend who he knew was being brainwashed at the time and he would have most certainly not left everyone in the future alone when they need him there.
And then, when he comes back, he doesn’t so much as look at Bucky, the person was the most important thing in the world for him 2 minutes ago and lets a guy he knows but a few years the mantle of being Captain America, and not to the one who deserved it- Bucky Barnes.
All of this without even mentioning that Peggy already had an established husband and children in her tv series and wasn’t just a blank love interest. Where does that leave Peggy? Does she just never meet her show husband? Didn’t they say you can’t change anything in the past? The movie doesn’t care enough to explain.
What they made Cap do was done purely to go against the fans’ expectations without any regard to the fact that this action is on another level of out of character behavior for him- a concept that makes a comeback with Tony Stark as well.
And now we’re getting to the thing that I am most angry about- Tony Stark’s death.
Tony Stark’s arc was not meant to end with him dying so early. Tony’s whole arc over the past films, including the beginning of Endgame, was about him finding his peace and retiring to be with his family.
He became a mentor to Peter Parker, He settled down with Pepper and had a kid, so many times he said he was only fighting to be able to go back home to the people he loved.
Tony deserved a happy ending more than anyone ever did.
This man was the base of the MCU. He has been through so much and still survived and managed to live the life he wanted- a family life.
So many people look up to him and to his story. So many people who struggle with anxiety or PTSD relate to his experience and need that representation to be positive. He didn’t deserve to get a “you can only be free of your trauma when you’re dead” ending. No.
Let’s say you really wanted to kill Tony in this film, why did you give him a kid then?? It has been an issue for a long time that Tony didn’t want to be like his father, that he wanted to be there for his kid no matter what, he didn’t deserve dying and not getting to raise her, knowing she will have to grow up without a father, his worst fear.
Tony carried the MCU since day one, His story has been going to a “retire and raise a family” place for a long time now and he has already been through a lot of traumatic events- HE DESERVED TO LIVE.
