ruffaled:

Trauma and invention: Tony Stark in a nutshell.

You wanna know what’s tragic about MCU Tony Stark? He’s a genius scientist, technologist and brilliant inventor yet every one of his really impactful creations were fueled by either severe physical or psychological trauma – and in some cases, they were means to survive.

Let’s list them:

Miniature arc reactor: The arc reactor technology was slated to be the future, but the biggest impediment was that it was too big. Tony miniaturised it because he was in a deep, dank Afghan cave where, days earlier, a stranger had cut open his chest and put a magnet hooked to a car battery to save his life. Tony had two choices: either miniaturise the arc reactor technology or die a slow, excruciatingly painful death.

Mark 1 and Mark 2: Mark 1 was designed to survive his kidnappers and maybe have a shot at escaping. Mark 2 was probably out of curiosity at first, but the decision to weaponize it and take it into an active combat zone – and becoming Iron Man – came from trying to deal with the trauma of his captivity, Yinsen’s death and the realization that he had failed to be accountable for who had access to his weapons.

New element, Starkium or whatever: The miniaturised arc reactor technology that was keeping him alive was also killing him. For most scientists, creating a new element is an accomplishment of the highest level. For Tony Stark, it was a matter of survival – it meant he got to live another day.

Marks 8-42: Creating those armors were a way to deal with the horrors that he saw on the other side of space. Those horrors, and his nightmares, worsened until he couldn’t sleep and, in his desperation to protect Pepper, his friends and the Earth, he started making more armor. Lot more.

Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing: An expensive but useful technology to hijack the hippocampus to alter traumatic memories – it’s a new form of therapy that was created because Tony couldn’t get over the final encounter he had with his parents before they died nearly 20 years ago. So that trauma stayed with him for two decades before it forced him to invent something to deal with it.

Ultron (artificial general intelligence that’s even smarter and more capable than JARVIS): Whether you think Wanda was partially responsible or not, the catalyst for creating Ultron came after Tony was shown the end of the path for the Avengers: his friends lying dead on a cold, unfeeling space rock and alien forces are about to lay waste to earth. He was desperate to prevent that scenario from ever playing out and in doing so, believed he needed to do anything in his power to protect the Avengers. So he actually created the most advanced artificial general intelligence (which is why he laughed in that scene because holy shit advanced AI!!!) in the world, only for it to turn into a murder bot and endanger his friends again.

Infinity War armor (combination of Model Prime and Bleeding Edge): This is Tony’s most advanced armor tech to-date in the MCU because it can shape-shift, go into stealth mode and bleeds out from the reactor in his chest, from what we’ve seen in the trailer. The armor looks like it has one major arc reactor at the centre and several miniature reactors fitted all over. I assume those smaller reactors contain back up power in case he ever gets into a close combat situation where someone jams yet another vibranium shield into the main reactor. Plus he designed the armor, as we saw in the Infinity War Prelude 1, because he senses a grave danger coming (i.e. Thanos and the aliens).

Conclusion

When he was just Tony Stark – genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist – his inventions weren’t world-changing in the same way they became after Afghanistan. Sure, one can argue that he created JARVIS, a prototype of artificial general intelligence – but JARVIS, as an algorithm, learned a lot more after Tony became Iron Man. So really, JARVIS’ evolution, in the form of Vision, was also created out of a traumatic, stressful situation (stopping Ultron).

For most inventors, creating new, life-changing tech is as high a reach as they can aim for. For Tony Stark, it means he and his loved ones get to live another day, fingers crossed.

And that’s fucking tragic.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

concerning-hobbits:

I hate to admit it, but when LoTR was newer to me, I sometimes made negative comments about Frodo (though I didn’t hate him) as I was watching the movies, especially RoTK- when he wasn’t the nicest to Sam, when he claimed the Ring, you know. Here’s the deal: if you hate Frodo, think he’s whiny, weak, or useless- you are just looking at him on a very surface level and you also don’t understand the Ring- how powerful it is and what it really did to Frodo. It got so very heavy physically and mentally for him to carry, digging into his neck and mind.

Honestly, I don’t understand how some people can’t see that Frodo was so obviously fighting a very, very difficult internal battle that only got harder as time went on and as he got closer to Mordor. He wasn’t weak, because if he was, he would have given up. Also, whatever complaining he did- who could blame him, and it’s not whining if you are legitimately suffering horribly! And yes, it’s quite something how Sam was able to so easily give it back, but he couldn’t have been the Ringbearer. You know why? Because he absolutely didn’t want to be. He just wanted to help Frodo. When he offered to carry it for a while, it was solely to give Frodo a break. When he thought Frodo was dead, he was prepared to go on alone, but that was because there was literally no one else around to take it on. In the book, Sam said “I wish I wasn’t the last,” and felt like he would “be sure to go wrong.”

Frodo volunteered himself. He is a hero because he voluntarily sacrificed his physical and mental well-being (and hobbits are very big on comfort, may I remind you) doing the best he could to complete his task. He carried the Ring for 13 months, never gave up, even willing to crawl on his hands and knees up Mt. Doom when he no longer had the strength to stand. Yes, he claimed the Ring which nearly doomed everyone, but if you think about it, It really claimed him. The Ring was at its most powerful at the Crack of Doom, and Frodo was exhausted in every sense of the word. And it was made very clear that the Ring made people want it, even if you really didn’t because it made your life suck. Also, Tolkien wrote in one of his letters that NO ONE could have willingly destroyed It. Guys, it was a hopeless task. I don’t think anyone at the Council of Elrond would have blamed Frodo if he had turned around and went home. He could have thought, “it’s hopeless anyway, why bother” but he volunteered regardless and never turned back.

“I am tired, weary, I haven’t a hope left. But I have to go on trying to get to the Mountain, as long as I can move.” -Frodo Baggins