It’s no secret amongst fans that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is better with action than it is with romantic relationships. Some relationships come out of nowhere, like Natasha Romanoff’s with Bruce Banner, and some don’t get the chance to be explored, like Peggy Carter’s with Steve Rogers. There are, however, the rare relationships that build over the course of the movies.
One of those is that between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Initially Tony is her employer, but Pepper is more than just his assistant. She’s one of the few people who has no problem speaking her mind around him, being completely honest with him, and getting her to trust him. While Tony makes a lot of mistakes during their relationship, he does prove his love for her throughout the MCU.
9 Tony Asks Pepper To Remove His Power Source
When Tony becomes Iron Man, it’s in part a result of the power source sitting in the middle of his chest that allows him to truly become one with his suit. He’s someone who has to rely on that technology to perform his heroic acts. The trouble in the early days of his MCU appearances is that the power source has to be swapped out just like a battery in a smoke detector. Tony tries to do it himself, but he can’t.
When Pepper sees him in his lab attempting it, he asks her for help because she has small hands. While it’s played as a matter of convenience, the audience has to take into account that there really aren’t very many people Tony would just allow to reach into his chest and power him down. Tony asking Pepper to do it isn’t just because she’s there, but because she’s always there and he trusts her not to kill him even though she’s clearly uncomfortable with the situation.
8 Pepper Is The Only Person Who Hands Tony Things
Another early aspect of Tony’s life in his initial MCU appearances is that he never takes things from someone who tries to hand things off to him. As he explains when Phil Coulson attempts to give him a file, he hates being handed things.
It’s not clear why, or when this developed, but Pepper, nearly always by his side, often takes the items people present Tony with. Because Tony is so well respected, no one questions this particular predilection. If audiences watch, however, they’ll notice that any time Pepper hands one of those objects off to him, he readily accepts it. Pepper is the only person who freely gives Tony files, things to carry, or even instructions, without repercussion. She doesn’t just give him objects, but gets him to listen to her.
7 Tony Gives Pepper His Company
When Tony believes he’s staring down his inevitable death in Iron Man 2, he starts acting out with wild parties. He also, however, starts preparing for the inevitable by getting rid of a lot of more expensive belongings – including control of his company.
This is actually a huge move for Tony as he was betrayed by Obadiah Stone using the company for his own ends in the first movie, Stane was a close family friend, and yet, he manipulates the board to act against Tony’s wishes. Tony trusts Pepper implicitly and wants her to be taken care of when he’s gone, so he hands over controlling interest in his company to her. Pepper isn’t just the person he trusts with his legacy but is also able to use the company’s research responsibly.
6 Tony Builds Her A Suit
If there’s one thing clear about the people Tony is closest to in his life, it’s that he likes to keep them safe. There are only a handful of people outside of himself that he builds Iron-Man-like suits for. One is James Rhodes. In actuality, he gives Rhodey access to his prototype suits, but one is eventually used by him to become War Machine or Iron Patriot.
He makes modifications to weapons for those in the Avengers (and creates the protective time heist suits), but he never, as far as the audience knows, builds them a suit like his own. His technology is also commandeered by a handful of villains. The only other people who get suits of Tony Stark’s making are Peter Parker, who he attempts to mentor as a young hero, and Pepper Potts. Pepper wears parts of Tony’s suit before she gets her own Rescue suit that she dons in the battle for Avengers: Endgame.
5 Tony Has A Proposal Ready To Go
Pepper and Tony plan out a press conference when Tony decides to officially invite Spider-Man to join the Avengers. Peter Parker turns him down, not knowing the press are literally waiting in a room just down the hall.
Tony is mostly unfazed, however, and is ready for a very different kind of press conference, grabbing an engagement ring that Happy has been carrying around. Cynical fans will see this as a way for Tony to save face with the press, but it’s interesting to note that Happy is carrying this ring around with no real explanation. That indicates that’s it has always been Tony’s plan to propose to Pepper; he just hasn’t done it yet. It might seem like a public relations move, and Pepper might not appear fully on board at first, but Tony has clearly been planning on taking their relationship to the next level.
4 Tony Stops Being An Avenger
One of the biggest points of contention in Pepper and Tony’s relationship is that he repeatedly puts himself in danger for the rest of the world instead of living his life with her. That changes after the events of Avengers: Infinity War.
It’s clear that in the five-year jump between Infinity War and Endgame, Tony Stark is no longer in the business of Avenging. He hasn’t spoken with the remaining Avengers, opting instead to focus on his relationship with Pepper and their daughter. His guilt at losing so many people when Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet is partly to play, but so is his realization that he and Pepper might not get to have their relationship if he can’t stop avenging everyone else.
3 Tony Moved To The Middle Of Nowhere
Moving out of the city likely makes it a bit easier for Tony to focus on his relationship instead of all the ways to fix the world. When Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff decide to seek Tony out five years after their failed attempt to stop Thanos, he and his family aren’t in a Malibu beach house or an expensive New York apartment. Instead, they’re in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.
The move is likely something that Pepper would have wanted after almost losing Tony in space and watching the big cities lose half of their population. Whether the family lives their full time or not isn’t clear, but it’s one of the many ways Tony changes for Pepper.
2 Tony Gives Pepper A Special Necklace
At the end of Iron Man 3, Tony gives Pepper a pretty extravagant looking necklace. It’s not explained in the movie itself, but eagle-eyed fans discussed what the necklace was really made of after the movie landed in theaters.
Those metallic pieces and what looks like beading are actually the pieces of shrapnel extracted from Tony’s chest during surgery. For some, it’s a morbid memento of what made him Iron Man, but for others, it is a nice mirror of Pepper keeping the arc reactor core she removed from Tony’s chest. It’s a gesture of love.
1 Tony Snapped His Fingers To Save Her And Everyone Else
Part of the issue for the Avengers in Endgame is figuring out how to undo the damage caused by Thanos without resetting the entire world. While Hulk manages to do that when the group acquires all of the Infinity Stones from different points in time, it’s Iron Man who ultimately gets rid of a time-traveling Thanos and his army.
He makes the decision to use his own version of the gauntlet – with nanobot technology – and steal the stones right out from under Thanos in the climactic battle. Tony snaps his fingers and sacrifices himself, knowing it’s likely the energy of the stones will be too much for him. He does it to stop the battle and keep everyone out of Thanos’ reach. While it’s not just Pepper whose life he’s saving, keeping Pepper out of Thanos’ grasp is certainly a motivating factor for him as she’s the last person he says goodbye to.
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