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.
honestly of the people closest to tony, rhodey is the one who arguably handles him falling off the wagon the best? he’s not able to be there for tony in a way that’s always personal, but he does work to maintain the company and iron man’s images the best he can. he sets boundaries in a healthy way. he gets (very understandably) frustrated with tony, but he doesn’t take that frustration out on him. he doesn’t berate tony or villainize him. and even if he’s not willing to personally be around to watch tony hurt himself, he continues to root for tony and do what he can to create a healthy environment for tony to come back to once he’s willing to get help. anyway everyone needs a friend like james rhodes
Don Cheadle returns as James Rhodes aka War Machine in Armor Wars, an Original Series coming to DisneyPlus. A classic Marvel story about Tony Stark’s worst fear coming true: what happens when his tech falls into the wrong hands?
Coming soon to DisneyPlus, Dominique Thorne is genius inventor Riri Williams in Ironheart, an Original Series about the creator of the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.
damn all my mans wanted was some plums and it lead to him getting dusted, getting brought back, and then having his best friend leaving him for some vintage pussy smh
my apologies that this is so long. i had a lot more to say than i realised and this… just kind of happened.
so… lieutenant colonel james “jim” rupert “rhodey” rhodes… i have a lot of feelings about him and his character development and for once… i actually like what i see from the mcu. i love what the mcu has completely unintentionally done for him and i find it absolutely hilarious because i know it’s 100% unintentional, because they’d never purposefully make rhodey’s character development so anti-tony-stark. but that’s what we’ve been presented with. and i love it. hear me out:
in iron man 1 rhodey starts as tony’s babysitter. rhodey says so himself: “you don’t respect yourself so I know you don’t respect me - i’m just your babysitter” but despite the fact he knows tony doesn’t respect him, he’s still there for tony, still supporting him, still showing him as much love as he can no matter how little tony gives back. he puts it down the the fact tony doesn’t respect himself; he’s reckless and childish and doesn’t take responsibility for his actions. rhodey might be being sarcastic and snarky when he’s saying “when you need your diaper changed let me know and I’ll get you a bottle” but there’s some truth to it: he can’t help but mother-hen tony, because someone has to be responsible for the kid (he sure as hell can’t be responsible for himself!), and rhodey has put himself in that position.
i think a lot of that’s to do with the fact they both met really young in mit, with rhodey being a couple (?) years older than tony at the time. they stuck together because they were both in the unique position of being child prodigies, but because rhodey was the older of the two i think he quickly settled into a caregiving role. but by iron man 1, rhodey has emotionally matured, and tony hasn’t. he hasn’t needed to, being a white billionaire boy and all. so rhodey still sees tony as this kid he’s always been there for, always protecting, always giving and giving and giving to, and putting up with. they’ve been friends for so long that he’s used to it.
by iron man 2, rhodey is fed up. tony is being even more reckless than usual because he’s dying but no one knows, so rhodey is being pushed to his breaking point. there’s a deleted scene where rhodey says something which i feel says everything you need about what their relationship has become by now: “hanging out with you is bad for our friendship”. rhodey is starting to realise just how impossible being an actual friend - not just a yes-man and support staff - for tony is. and all that culminates in the fight scene where, upon seeing tony drunk and endangering his party guests in a WMD supersuit, rhodey reaches that breaking point. protects tony from himself one last time by fighting him, then cuts ties.
only, by the end of iron man 2, rhodey learns that taking the suit to the military and letting hammer get his paws on it was a bad idea, and that tony was literally near death the whole time he was being a dick, and then they have to team up to defeat vanko together. so despite having gone through all the shit tony’s put him through and realising how terrible a friend tony actually is, he chalks this all up to a mistake and a misunderstanding on his part. gives tony a second (or, more realistically, hundredth) chance. which is why in iron man 3 they’re best buds again. im3 is probably the healthiest depiction of their relationship tbh, and that’s on im3 tony being the least assholeish depiction of tony in the whole mcu (imo).
but tony’s character begins to sour massively from AOU onwards (not saying he wasn’t an… abrasive character beforehand, to say the least, but clearly all the guilt from causing ultron and inadvertently causing the mess in sokovia is affecting him and his relationships; pepper, another caregiving character that has put up with tony’s entitled, misogynistic bullshit for years, has left him, and i think that’s a massive sign that he’s spiralling in a similar way he did in im2. after all, the writers refuse to develop him as a character, which means he’ll never get help for his mental health and never learn healthy coping mechanisms. i honestly wonder what happened for pepper to leave - we’ve seen the breaking point for rhodey, so what was hers?)
so yeah, anyway, tony is starting to spiral again from AOU. civil war happens - he blames the team and latches onto the accords as a way to absolve himself of the guilt, bla bla bla, you know the plot. and, just like the others, rhodey is given mere days to read, consider, and sign this life-changing document; not only is his best friend vehemently, vocally, and violently in favour these documents, they’re also coming from a position of power that he, as a military man, respects. so it makes sense he’d initially be on the side of the accords.
and then something even more life-changing than the accords happens for rhodey. sam accidentally shoots him down and he injures his legs so bad that he can’t walk without support. and rhodey’s response to that? i know we don’t get to see much of rhodey’s response and recovery, which is a travesty, but what we do get? really sheds some light on the kind of man rhodey is, and how he develops as a person by the end of endgame.
for once in his life, rhodey is in the position of needing to be cared for - and on top of that, tony is the one offering. we also see that rhodey wants his recovery to be something he does alone as much as he possibly can, because that’s just the kind of person he is; we see the sheer amount of value he places on his ability to handle things on his own, and the skyrocket-high responsibility he holds himself to. and now all of a sudden tony’s actually trying to reciprocate the attention and care he’s shown him without reward for years (and only because of this guilt spiral he’s been on since AOU)… and that must have been fucking jarring for rhodey.
i think the sudden and strange role reversal probably helped him work out a few things about his relationship with tony a lot. which is why, when infinity war rolls around, they don’t interact. rhodey seems closer to and more in alignment with the “rogues”/“nomads” than tony. where once he agreed with the accords, he’s had some time to actually read them and reconsider them, and he’s against them now! he hates ross and greets steve with a warm hug!
and something i love so fucking much about infinity war (dispite all it’s other faults)? sam and rhodey’s relationship. sam shot rhodey down and disabled him for the rest of his life. and rhodey forgives him. first of all, because that’s the kind of person rhodey is (he’s had plenty of practice forgiving all kinds of shit with tony), and rhodey understands it was a mistake (and probably empathises with how horrible it must have been for sam; he’s military too, he understands that specific kind of guilt). interesting to compare rhodey’s response to the mistake with tony’s. and heartwarming to see that, for once, when rhodey forgives someone for what they’ve done, he is given gratitude and a genuine two-way friendship in response. i live for sam and rhodey’s every interaction in iw.
and then we get to endgame. know how many times rhodey interacts with tony in endgame? twice. first interaction: “okay, you made your point - just sit down, okay?” (read: “stop acting like a child before you hurt yourself”). second interaction: *sadly touches his face as he realises he’s dying before moving aside to let peter and pepper say their goodbyes*. what i love about these interactions - and the lack of any other interactions - is what it clearly means for rhodey:
1) tony still means a lot to rhodey. he’ll always mean a lot to him. they were best friends since they were literally just kids at mit. he’ll always, i think, love tony and want to care for and protect him (from himself, mainly). and tony, in his own way, will always love rhodey. but, 2) rhodey has still, nevertheless, cut ties with tony. i think the time away from action caused by the long recovery process he would’ve went through not only let rhodey reconsider his stance on the accords and his superiors in the military such as ross, but it also gave him time (and a wildly new perspective) to realise how toxic his relationship with tony truly is.
and what’s great to compare the way in which and reasons why he cuts ties with tony after civil war compared to the way in which and reasons why he cut ties with tony during im2, is that rhodey hasn’t been pushed to his breaking point this time. he has way more agency in his choice this time. he’s not leaving because he’s been infuriated one time too many; he’s doing it because he’s actually being given the kind of support he himself has been dishing out all these years… and doesn’t want it. not if it’s coming from the place of convenience and guilt that it is with tony. he cannot be guilt-tripped into forgiving tony anymore because he is making his choice this time with clear-mindedness.
and you know what’s so great about him finally genuinely cutting ties with tony this time around? he’s no longer his yes-man. he gets space to breathe as his own character. he jokes around more. he’s not annoyed all the time. he gets involved with the rest of the team. as i’ve said, he interacts with sam and it’s beautiful. he interacts with nebula and it’s heartwarming and they form a bond so quickly. and in all the new interactions he gets you see he is receiving so much more respect and reciprocation than he’s ever experienced with tony. and it makes me so happy.
also i can’t help but think about how it’s also a pretty big deal for him as a black character to go through all of these revelations and developments; black kids are often encouraged/forced to mature mentally/emotionally a lot quicker than white kits, and take on responsibility that shouldn’t be their burden to bear from a young age (which i think was absolutely something rhodey experienced as a highly intelligent black child), and it’s not uncommon for black characters to be portrayed in these caregiving roles to Hurt White Characters. so for him to break out of that box is just beautiful.
tony, on the other hand, is a white billionaire who never learned how to grow up; he’s never had to handle the kind of daily-grind stress that non-billionaire poc like rhodey have handled since they were a kid. not saying tony hasn’t faced other kinds of stress, but for the most part? everything has been given to him on a shiny golden platter. so when responsibility is thrust upon him - when his faults are actually pointed out - he doesn’t know how to handle it. hasn’t learned. it destroys his mental health. he gets destructive in turn. irreparably damages his relationships. spirals and spirals and refuses. to get. help. (you’re a billionaire, tony - you can afford a therapy. and the idealisation/romanticisation of unhealthy guilt spirals and a mindset of powering through despite everything and without asking for help until you crash and burn is not good mental illness/neurodivergent rep, it’s just the only one the mcu knows how to write.) i despair at the loss of opportunity when it comes to tony’s character and what he could have come to represent, but that’s another essay entirely.
when it comes to rhodey, however, the mcu have accidentally created a wonderful character and a wonderful character arc. that’s not to say they deserve any praise though, because this was likely never their intention and it’s purely accidental (again, they’d never purposefully give rhodey such an anti-tony character arc, just like they’d never intentionally make tony a bad role model, but that’s what they did, completely accidentally).
not only is rhodey a character who is unwaveringly kind and forgiving (and is rewarded for these traits later down the line in his new relationships), but we also get to see him learn how his kindness and forgiveness shouldn’t be taken for granted as it has been for years of his life. we see him step away from harmful relationships. we see him take back his life for himself - refuse to be someone else’s nanny. we see his growth and his development, and it’s wonderful, and i love him.
in conclusion: war machine rox.
I really like this analysis, but one thing that always confuses me is why do people blame Sam for Rhodey being shot?
Vision shot him. Sam tried to save him after.
oh, right! i meant to say that in the tags. thanks for reminding me @reebmiester :D also, given that rhodey was paralyzed waist down from vision’s blast, i’m uh. pretty sure that sam would’ve died if the blast had hit him, given that he isn’t wearing as much armor
In response to that addition, yes, that blast would have ultimately killed Sam. It’s not clear if it’s the hit itself or the fall that paralyzed Rhodey, although I always thought it was the fall, but either way, he has more armor than Sam. Also, with the trajectory of that shot, Vision would have hit Sam’s wings, specifically the backpack apparatus that the wings come from. This would have destroyed the wings and any propulsion the backpack device may have been providing, which in turn would have sent Sam crashing to the ground; again, Sam doesn’t have the amount of armor on that Rhodey has, and if a fall from that height badly injured Rhodey, it would have either killed Sam on impact or fatally wounded him.
That’s not even touching on what Tony did immediately after this, which, by all logic, should have injured Sam more than it did and was incredibly risky (being shot a few feet backwards onto your neck will not feel good, and will cause soreness and bruises at best or paralysis, broken neck bones, or death at worst).
“ So who’s Clint again?” You asked Tony as you laid on the couch your back on the cushion while your feet hung off the back of the couch and your head off the couch near the floor.
“ Clint, ” Steve said as he walked over shoving your feet down making you sit up correctly face red from being upside down, “ Was one of the original six of us. He retired a few months before you joined this Circus. ”
You nodded your head you were still confused as to why he was coming back, “ So your telling me he retired and now wants to come back to the Circus? Why in the fluffy nuts would he want to come back? ”
Tony rolled his eyes at the word censor words you had just said while Steve just shook his head.
“ Same reason you’d retire for Becca, to speed more time with his kids and wife, ” Steve said as he sat down across from you.
You narrowed your eyes at the Captain, “ Steve, Becca is a dog. Yes, she is my fur baby and I love her to Asgard and back, but I wouldn’t stop being an Avenger for her. ”
He rolled his eyes, “ Y/n that’s not what I meant. I mean if you had a kid or a family you would hypothetically want to retire.”
“ That didn’t help her at all Cap, what he means is. Bird Boy probably got bored of shooting golf and needed some excitement.” Tony said before standing and leaving to his lab.
“ See, ” you said pointing after the billionaire, “ That was a reasonable answer Dinosaur.”
“ I will not hesitate to make you run 10 more laps during training Y/l/n, move it,” Steve said making your eyes widen and you jump up, running off to find entertainment.
And you defiantly found it. Would it be in a way Steve would approve? Hell no to the Nah Nah Nah. Would it satisfy you greatly? Hells yea. We’re you going to do it either way and no matter what? Fuck the rules! Hell yeah, you were.
And so that is how you ended up in vents with a lot of different things and those were as listed:
Firecrackers
Silly String
Stink Bombs
Super Glue (no clue why)
Vegetable Oil ( didn’t question it)
Some very durable string
And finally
A lovely new unopened Mini Skinny Taser.
Steve most defiantly will not approve of anything you plan on doing or the targets.
It had taken a while but you had finally set everything up and you were damn proud of it. So proud that you thought you deserved a nap for all your hard work. And that’s exactly what you did, grabbing the pillow you had brought up into the vents to sit on you laid down.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clint was due to arrive any minute now and all of the Avengers along with some of there friends were waiting in the common room. They had spent the last two hours decorating and making sure everything was in place that they completely forgot to check up on there most trouble making team member.
That is of course until Natasha finally looked up from where she was busy adjusting something to do a head count.
“ Nine…Ten…Eleven, ” She counted before turning to Steve who was behind her, “ Steve? Have you seen Y/n?”
Steve looked around the room and shook his head, “ No, sorry. I haven’t seen her since this morning, maybe she went out. I’m sure she’ll be back soon.”
Natasha shook her head, “ Knowing her she forgot about it and won’t be back anytime soon. She’ll just have to meet him tomorrow or afterward if she shows up. ”
~~~~~~~~~~
Clint had just gotten out of the elevator when he was assaulted with silly string, covering him from head to toe in the sticky mess.
“ Damn it. I’m gone for what feels like a five minutes and they’re a mess.” He muttered wiping it off his face.
In the common room, Bucky had just sat down in his favorite chair that was in the corner when a horrid stench appeared out of nowhere.
“ Damn it, ” Bucky said gagging holding his shirt up over his nose.
Sam had walked over when he caught a whiff of the odder his eyes started to water and he covered his nose.
“ Barnes, what the hell did you eat? ” He gagged talking to the ex-assassin.
“ It’s not me, honestly! I think it came from the vents.”
“ Yeah right!”
On the other side of the common room near the kitchen, Steve stood waiting for the cookies he had baked to get done.
As he talked with Thor he soon smelt something burning.
“ Shot! The Cookies! Come help me, Thor, ” Steve said turning and running into the kitchen.
As the two big, buff and blonde men ran into the kitchen to save the cookies they didn’t notice the yellowish liquid on the floor.
As soon as Steve’s foot slid across it was game over for him as he slid forward into the cabinets.
As for the Norse God behind him to avoid slipping as the Captain had before he had grabbed onto the refrigerator handle to stop himself only for his hand to get stuck there.
“ Captain Rogers? Are you alright? And um also my hand seems to be stuck permanently to the food storer.”
Outside in the common room, Tony and Peter stood talking about the Spider-Suit completely oblivious to the “streamer” that was swaying near them.
“ So I was thinking about making the webbing stronger so I could… Hey, Mister Stark can you hear that?” Peter asked looking to his mentor.
Tony listened as he looked around before shaking his head,“ No I don’t kid, I’m sure it’s nothing.”
After a few more minutes, there was a more prominent electrical sound and Tony turned towards Peter confused.
“ You can hear it too right?”
“ Yeah, I can.”
Tony looked around before raising his hand and waving it through the black and purple streamers above his head only to let out a yelp of pain.
“ Fuck!” Tony hissed lowering his hand in pain, shaking it out.
“ What is it Mister Stark?” Peter asked worriedly.
Tony shook his head, “ Nothing just got shocked a bit it’s fine.”
Back in the kitchen, Steve had finally gotten up after sitting in the puddle of Vegetable Oil for a few minutes trying to collect himself.
Thor, on the other hand, had finally figured out a way to unstick his hand by pulling the handle off the refrigerator completely.
Clint had finally made it into the common room full of people he had gone through two more silly string attacks.
“ SURPRISE!” They all yelled as Natasha and Wanda walked forward holding the cake, well Natasha was Wanda was using her ability to make sure it didn’t fall over.
Clint’s eyes widened and he smiled completely forgetting he was still covered in sticky strong.
“ Wow, ” He said walking up to the cake that was decorated to look like a Bow and Arrow, “ This is amazing!”
“ Wanda, could you move this over to the table?” Natasha asked the female causing her to nod.
As she guided the cake above everyone’s heads the black candles that were arrows started to spark causing everyone to look up at it in confusion.
Up above in the vents, you had just woken up from your little nap when suddenly there were screams and a loud popping sound. Sitting up quickly you knocked your head against the vent ceiling.
“ Fuck! Ah, shit!” You yelled out as you looked out of the little shutters of the vent to see that all of your little activities had gone off.
Opening the great you jumped down as the smoke finally cleared out a bit allowing everyone to see the damage.
The common room was covered in cake and smelled off something horrid mixed with smoke while the taser was just hanging going crazy.
Everyone came out of there hiding places and looked around the room.
As Natasha looked around she caught sight of you and narrowed her eyes.
“ Y/N! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?” She yelled making you jump.
Turning to the furious redhead slowly you let a small smile come to your face, “ "Welcome back…Clint!”
With that, you took off sprinting to the elevator before any of the victims could strangle you to death.
Some tumblr people have put together RhodeyCon starting today, where they will celebrate James “Rhodey” Rhodes, aka War Machine, aka Iron Man, aka Iron Patriot. So if you’re curious about him, you’re already a fan, or, like the woman above, you want to have his children, check out fuckyeahrhodey or the #rhodeycontag.
