MCU: 10 Things That Make No Sense About Tony and Pepper’s Relationship

There are many romantic relationships featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but one of the most prominent and long-lasting is the one between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Their relationship is a big part of the first Iron Man movie, and it features heavily in Iron Man’s story leading all the way up to Avengers: Endgame.

While many fans love this couple, and there are definitely positive things about this pairing, there are also some aspects of their relationship that we just don’t understand.

10 Tony made Pepper do things she was uncomfortable with

When fans are first introduced to Tony Stark in the MCU, he’s overall a jerk. He hasn’t had his rude awakening moment yet, and even as he starts to become Iron Man and to take more responsibility in his life, he’s still a diamond in the rough.

As his assistant, Pepper has to do a lot of obnoxious things for Tony, but one of the worst is when he makes her fix his arc reactor heart and is rather rude about it.

9 Pepper didn’t really understand Tony’s drive to be a hero

There are many things Tony does to Pepper that aren’t that great, and he is often just a horrible partner. However, Pepper isn’t perfect either. She does put up with a lot, but she also doesn’t really seem to understand who Tony is.

She wants him to give up being Iron Man all the time, but if she really knew him, she would understand it was something he had to do.

8 Why it took so long for Tony to promote her

Pepper Potts is clearly a very hardworking, talented, and smart individual who was great at her job as Tony’s assistant for a long time. However, it wasn’t until he started to realize his feelings for her and they started dating that he promoted her.

Truthfully, this seems kind of unethical and would raise eyebrows at a company in real life, but it’s also a shame Tony couldn’t acknowledge how great she was until things took a more romantic turn.

7 They don’t seem that compatible on a personality level

Tony and Pepper have a long-lasting relationship, and given how hard it is for Tony to trust people, it makes sense he would grow to love her. She’s very trustworthy, and their relationship makes sense on that level.

However, they do have vastly different personalities. Pepper is reliable and stable while Tony is very erratic and dramatic. While she provides some balance for him, it’s hard to see what she gets out of the relationship on an emotional level.

6 Tony’s treatment of women

Tony’s past as a playboy is no secret. It’s a big part of his identity for a long time. While sleeping around doesn’t mean he’s a bad person or that he can’t change, his behavior toward women was the bigger problem.

Pepper saw how he treated his one night stands, and it should have raised some red flags for her that he had some sexist beliefs. Thankfully, the MCU had Tony become less overtly sexist as time went on, but it was this way in earlier films.

5 She slut-shamed other women instead of Tony

One frustrating thing about how Pepper Potts is written is that she takes any issues or frustration she has about Tony sleeping around on other women. Even when Tony and Pepper have started to have a sort of romantic relationship in Iron Man 2, Tony flirts with other women, such as Natasha Romanoff, in front of her.

But, instead of placing the blame on Tony for being a jerk, she gets mad at the other women and is rather slut-shamey. It just feels really outdated.

4 The fact that she was his assistant

As mentioned briefly earlier in this list, the working relationship between Tony and Pepper is a bit odd. There’s a large power dynamic between Pepper and Tony because Tony is Peter’s boss at first, and he’s also just way richer than she is.

While she’s eventually promoted to being the CEO, this is only after Tony has fallen in love with her.

3 He didn’t know even basic details about her

Probably one of the most frustrating things Tony ever does in his relationship with Pepper is to be really self-absorbed. This isn’t exactly shocking as it’s one of his main character flaws, but he could have tried a little harder.

He didn’t know she was allergic to strawberries, and he was overall just bad at being there for her. While his mental state might give him a bit of a pass in these situations, it’s not fair that she was always the one taking care of him.

2 Tony Leaves Pepper

Even though the world is at stake, Tony leaves Pepper without a second thought during Avengers: Infinity War. If they were truly on good terms and in love enough to be engaged, then one would think he would at least check in with her before going on yet another reckless mission into space.

Tony does try to call her… but it seems kind of a half-hearted effort.

1 That Tony suddenly became a perfect husband

While Tony is shown to have a lot of flaws and issues when it comes to being in a relationship, this all seems to magically go away in Endgame. The audience is supposed to fill in the blanks and assume that after the devastating Thanos snap and the five-year gap that Tony has really changed completely.

Of course, he has been on a character arc journey for years, but since we don’t actually see their relationship much when it’s good, it’s hard to believe they’d suddenly be having perfect marital, white picket fence bliss. This isn’t to say they couldn’t have figured out the balance or that things didn’t change, but it’s a shame fans didn’t see much of it.

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