Mad Gastronomer

Get to the Source: Let's talk about Rhodey and Tony for a second, yeah?

lokasennas:

Fandom, I’m side-eyeing a lot of you right now. 

Let’s talk about how popular science bros is first, shall we? Let’s examine why it being so popular doesn’t quite make sense. If it’s MCU canon that Tony and Rhodey knew each other at MIT, that they were friendly enough to take a spring break trip together, why aren’t they the original science bros, a title fandom seems to have given to Yinsen? MIT isn’t some magical place where if you’re smart you get right in, you have to be smart as hell and have some sweet ass extracurriculars and probably some early research under your belt to get in. Yet Rhodey gets in, and he’s smart enough to catch and hold kid genius Tony Stark’s attention, he’s interesting enough that they go on a spring break trip together, and there is…nothing in fandom about it. Where’s the fic? Where’s the light hearted college fic you see with Tony and Bruce all over the place. Where are the college headcanons, the feels about Rhodey helping Tony deal with his bastard of a father? There is literally( trust me I’ve checked) nothing about any of that. Which, why? How is it possible that two characters who have so much on screen interactions, so many references to past fun being had( “we need to go to Monaco, that our thing” ring a bell for anyone?) and there is no explosion of fan art, headcanon posts, fics, playlists, NOTHING. Don’t even get me started on how smart you’d have to be to b able to work the suit and understand the interface as quickly as Rhodey understands it in IM2.

Shipping. There’s none. Once again, why? “They have no chemistry” you say. Really? Because I can think of several things, not even counting the fact that Tony has built and programmed a suit just for Rhodey. Just. For Him. Specifically. That make me want fic so bad I can taste it.“There’s not enough source material” What. Three movies of interaction and bonding are not enough source material? Sit down. People ship Steve/Tony MCU all day everyday, and they interacted in one movie, and couldn’t stand each other for 75% of it.  “I just…can’t see them together.” Why. Don Cheadle is fine as hell, RDJ is fine as hell, I’d jump right smack dab in the middle of that spicy man sandwich. And, let’s take a second to be real and examine some shit. It’s because Rhodey’s black. “But..but I’m not racist, I have a black friend! One whole, black friend!” Yeah, but you probably still are sweet cheeks. Seeing as you’ll ship Tony with everyone under the sun except that black guy. And, hey I’m not saying you’re even conscious of it. I’m not saying you guys have ever thought “ew…Rhodey and Tony can’t go out, he’s black.” although some of you are iffy and you probably have. It’s not really a lot of you guy’s fault, black people show up in badass ass kicking heros, and sexy ass kicking badass heros at that so rarely that a lot of you just don’t know what to do with that. There is no way Rhodey can be equal to Tony, there is no way he could possibly be just as smart, albeit in different ways, there’s no way Tony could ever want to fuck him, let alone have a full blown relationship with him. Because Rhodey is the sidekick to you. Rhodey is the safe black friend who’s cool, but who never outshines Tony.

And yet, your attitudes about Pepper are perhaps even more disturbing and problematic that you opinions on Rhodey, who you often don’t care quite enough about to even bother posting rants about him.

TL:DR a lot of attitudes in fandom about Rhodey and his relationship with Tony are gross and need to stop.