It’s not news that Robert Downey Jr.’s iconic character Tony Stark is widely considered one of the most powerful and, well, egoistic characters in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While his extraordinary smarts are what set him apart from every other superhero, the lifestyle he leads and the personality he sports — especially at the beginning of his tenure — further contributed to it.
However, while he manages to turn into a softie in the later events of his story arc in the Cinematic Universe, especially around Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, he does set his ego aside for one other Marvel character as well.
In fact, not only this but on closer observation, one would realize that he actually even breaks his rule for this very character too: Howard Stark, i.e. Tony’s dad.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark Breaks His Rule for Howard Stark
Those who have closely monitored his character in the cinematic saga will know that Robert Downey Jr.‘s genius superhero personality actually includes one key feature: Not taking things being handed to him. If anything, he hates this very thing.
In a recent of their Just The Nobodys, TikTok theorizers Ryan and Daniel pointed out the same.
As per the excerpt they shared on Instagram (via @justthenobodys):
We see throughout the entire MCU, Tony Stark hates being handed things. But the reason why he’s like this is because we know that Stanley based Tony off of the man named Howard Hughes, who was, basically, the real-life Tony.
Continuing, the duo pointed out how this one rule was displayed multiple times throughout the time Downey Jr. played him onscreen.
Like, for instance, when Stark “doesn’t let Agent Coulson hand him his mission in The Avengers,” or when he “doesn’t let a random guy hand him strawberries in Iron Man 2,” or simply when he refuses to “take any papers or cards from fans in Iron Man 3 and 1.”
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However, the Dolittle star’s Ironman breaks this one rule for one person: His father, Howard Stark. As the podcast duo host pointed out, this happened in Avengers: Endgame, when “Captain America and Tony had to go back in time together to get the Tesseract.”
Tony runs into his dad, and remember, in the elevator, Tony’s dad had flowers and he told Tony to hold them, and Tony took it without asking any questions or any hesitation.
Okay, that most certainly is true, because Downey Jr.’s Marvel superhero wasn’t seen hesitating even once, almost as though he was in a trance.
And, it is only true as Ryan and Daniel observed, “It seriously shows how much Tony respects his father and how much he cared for him,” considering how the only other person who has been able to break this rule is his personal secretary-turned-wife, Pepper Potts.
However, this theory has some counterarguments, starting from the fact that this rule isn’t really “broken” since RDJ’s character only “takes things from people whom he can trust.”
Fans Counterargue This Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man Theory
While @justthenobodys pointed out how Howard managed to break that one rule that Tony had seemingly established for himself, fans pointed out in the comment section counterarguments on how this rule wasn’t really broken.
Here’s what some of those fans have to say:
Tony only takes things from other whom he can trust.. so basically that rule is not broken” ~ @jatin_mandhann
“The lady who’s son died at the beginning of Civil War hands him the photo” ~ @dscholar14
“He also took the ring from happy in homecoming” ~ @notjofy
“And morgan too, in endgame he took pepper iron man helmet” ~ @koushik.p05
“Not true Rhody hands him a award in the first iron man” ~ @jesfick92
Well, these points are only valid as well, so this theory wouldn’t be entirely true. However, at the same time, it doesn’t prove wrong the fact that Tony immensely respected his father to the point where he kept his ego aside to break his rule, so that’s that as well.
You can stream all Iron Man movies on Disney+ and Prime Video.
