#just me cherishing homecoming for the hundredth time

[irondad-defensesquad]

after writing my thoughts on toomes, i also realized something.

the only time in the entire movie that we see him being a decent person, is when it's revealed that he's liz's dad. from the beginning, toomes is a murderer, an egocentric and dangerous dickhead, and that's the toomes - the vulture - that peter knows, that the entire audience knows. sure, there's that one hint when he holds a child's drawing of the avengers, but it's (purposely) hit or miss. after that, toomes is an actual heartless villain all the way through.

but here? the literal vulture is an ordinary dad and husband. and he acts like the dad with peter, making dad comments, not at all threatening. the vulture has a name, has a loving family, very much unlike the big scary monster that dropped peter from very high, and that has tried to kill him multiple times.

that's why the twist works! i NEVER expected it. literally no one in the theater expected it. in an audience reaction on youtube of homecoming, EVERYONE audibly gasps. it's just. oh my god!!!

at the same time the scene is eventually played for laughs, when peter first enters the house we're met with absolute silence. no music, not even a tense tune. there's nothing. peter has been here, but now? he feels like he's stepped in enemy territory (well, pretty much). peter is terrified, so much that he barely pays liz any mind until homecoming.

and when toomes solves the puzzle, he maintains the dad stance... while holding a gun. he still acts like a dad when peter finds him in the warehouse, and then he drops the whole building on him. and boom! that's adrian toomes for you.

honestly, i think he's one of the mcu's best villains, he's not one-dimensional at all. personally he's my favorite villain in the mcu spider-man franchise (we do not speak of no way home in this household shhhhh). but really, homecoming is my favorite movie, so i'm biased lmao.