imagine bucky and steve taking shots of like 100 proof vodka and trying to get DRUNK and steve is totally unaffected but after the 20th shot or something bucky is drunk as fuck and he looks at steve really seriously (while swaying slightly in his chair) and steve is kind of nervous because bucky hasn’t looked at him this intently since before the war when steve came home with two broken ribs and bucky just stared at him for five minutes before giving him the longest lecture of his entire life so yeah steve is kinda nervous. finally bucky rubs his hand over his face, sighs and says, “steve, i fucking hate it when you wear khakis” and steve laughs so hard he can’t breathe
Oh man it was cathartic just reading this. I genuinely enjoyed the movie, but it left me stressed out. The people I’ve talked to about this movie have said to me “as such a huge Marvel fan, that’s really strange.” They wonder why am I not gushing about this movie.
Like… I hold Marvel to high standards and don’t want to blindly love everything they throw at me? I left the movie stressed out because all the characters had their stress dialed up to 11 and there was no moment to come down from that.
We get that Bucky feels guilty. We get that Steve is fighting for Bucky’s freedom. Why did we only get in depth explanation on Tony’s actions? I know the point of this movie is that it was adhering to an actual plot driven timeline so it was hard to fit moments of quiet into this already super packed movie, but literally 2 more minutes of MEN EXPRESSING EMOTION wouldn’t have killed anyone.
I left this movie stressed out because it winded me up and then just let me hang there with no wiggle room. Just me and my stress because nothing that happened was talked about? Or shown the grief that this is putting on these characters?
During Peggy’s funeral, this wonderful woman who has taken such a stance as a force of nature and a gentle place in Steve’s life, she becomes a prop for Steve to connect with Sharon? Like the funeral is a jumping off place for them to start something. During Sharon’s speech, yeah it was Peggy’s words, but it was shot and framed in such a way that Sharon was basically a newer model of Peggy and it really fucking irked me out. We literally just saw Steve barely holding it together as he was carrying Peggy to the front. That emotion is gone in literally seconds as his sadness converts to confusion and surprise and that’s the emotion we are left with on Steve’s last interaction with Peggy. That was it.
That scene could have been shot a thousand different ways and I would have come to terms with Peggy’s passing but this… this was all about introducing Sharon, not paying respects to Peggy, and that is one reason why I am disappointed in the use of Sharon’s character. We barely have any time to grieve even though there was ample time and space to do so.
What about Steve and Bucky though? Yes their actions on behalf of each other are admirable, but it’s usually in the form of fighting people. Their meeting was cut short, and I get it. Here the lack of a heartfelt reunion is actually kind of endearing because they trust each other off the bat without much being passed between them so this short interaction given the circumstance I can understand.
But after this, what about Steve’s headspace? What about Bucky’s? Bucky is heavy with guilt about what he’s been forced to do and we have a few clips of him acknowledging so… but what does that mean to those who don’t yet see Bucky as a victim? He tells Steve as much on the quinjet, and yeah ok that was a lovely line, but where’s Bucky’s headspace during this? Isn’t he fucking scared out of his mind that he’s going back to this hell hole??
Yeah the movie is fast paced but they are literally on this thing for hours so couldn’t they have gone a little more in depth about what they are feeling? There is so much regret in their eyes and yet that’s all the actors, not the actual script. They arrive in Siberia and there’s definitely some tension there, but not enough to fully convey what this actually means to Steve or Bucky.
The very first scene of the movie shows that the Siberian lab is essentially Bucky’s torture chamber, where he was imprisoned in ice, was wiped of his humanity, and had to watch, train, and get beaten up by other soldiers who were stripped of personhood just like he was. For the fans who already understood Bucky to be a victim of circumstance, the significance of going back is monumental. Bucky has every reason to sit this out, let Steve take the reigns. But Bucky swallows his fear and marches forward because if he can stop what happened to him happen to other people, he’s going to do it.
But let’s be real, not everyone is going to put that together. Sure we see them walking in the labs, but when do we ever really get the importance of this to Bucky? Some indicator of Bucky being scared to walk into this place, or Steve’s unbridled anger upon seeing the chair that Bucky was tortured in? Something other than a few flashes of Bucky (and thank god for Sebastian for conveying as much unease and fear as he could with his limited screen time).
For Bucky sympathizers, this scene is awful because we understand how horrible this much be for Bucky. But those who come out of there saying Bucky is a villain? it’s because they never blatantly saw Bucky’s humanity. He didn’t show fear, so the audience didn’t feel fear for him.
Where is his humanity? Where is Steve’s sympathy? They are stepping into Bucky’s hell, then Zemo uses Bucky as a pawn once again. Bucky isn’t causing the conflict; he is the one that conflict storms around.
When the Steve, Bucky, and Tony watch the clip of Tony’s parents’ death, the majority of the emotions are given to Tony. I get it, it’s his parents, but for just as much anger that Tony has about this, Bucky feels just as much guilt and self hatred. He gets one flash and a quick shot of watery eyes, but the focus is on Tony and the rest is left lacking.
From here, anger is the only thing fueling this fight. It stresses me out because the fight itself is so emotionally driven, and it’s not from anger. The brawl is one of tossing around masculinity and the lines do not match up with why this is happening. Well, other than “I remember everyone” by Bucky, but that is a throwaway line to Tony so it becomes a throwaway line to the general audience. When Bucky loses his arm and collapses, where is Steve hurting for his friend? Where is his reaction? Instead he “shows” this by wailing on Tony, but concern for Bucky would cause concern from the audience, but for some reason it gets glossed over.
I want to hope that by only capitalizing on the anger aspect of grief, this can cause awful things to happen. T’Challa is in a similar position as Tony in this story arc, and he manages to wrangle his anger and becomes one of the most empathetic and likable characters because of it. He does acknowledge that this behavior is damaging, but does Tony ever learn this?
This movie was fun and I did enjoy it, but it made me anxious and confused when I walked out. The audience takes cues on what they should feel from the characters, and by not giving the characters time to think, the audience didn’t have time to either, and left a lot of interpretations at face value.
I keep seeing a lot of posts about how Steve was in the wrong in CACW because while Tony had a plan, Steve didn’t offer any alternative to it, he was just like NOPE. The thing is though, something that immediately struck me when I watched the movie was the timing of everything. Ross and Tony bring Steve and the others the Accords THREE DAYS before they are to be signed. Those Accords were not drafted, approved and supported by 117 countries in a week. This was 100% intentional. This is also very, very common in American politics. When politicians want to pass a bill they don’t want people to look at closely, they schedule votes at weird times or when a large # of people are away from the Hill (Capital Hill). So you get these 11th hour bills that are hundreds of pages long that no one has had a chance to read, ask questions about, or negotiate on about changes. These bills are stuffed with completely unrelated stuff that gets passed as well because the whole thing has to be signed off on/approved. It’s called “pork barreling.” Those are the questions Steve tries to bring up to the group. When he’s like ‘what happens when…?’ And Tony brushes aside his concerns like ‘oh, I’m sure we’ll get to make changes later when everything dies down.’ But Steve is like what are we agreeing to NOW though? And practically as soon as they are given the “generous” 3 day warning, Peggy dies. Steve flies off to London and everything goes to hell. What time is there to propose or discuss an alternative plan??
The timing was 100% intentional to make sure the Avengers would be subject to the Accords as written–no matter what was lurking on the bottom of page 440 in fine print. Steve is 100% right to be suspicious. This is one of the dirty tricks of American politics that Steve would be totally aware of. And sure, maybe there’s a chance that everything was above board, reasonable, and so on, but you would NEVER sign a thing like that w/o actually checking/reading it. that would be foolish. I mean, did we forget that Project Insight was authorized and approved by The World Council? I guarantee you that Steve hasn’t. I absolutely believe that Steve would have been willing to talk everything out, negotiate, listen to everyone’s pov, and really consider everything carefully…but there’s no time given to do that. It’s all last minute, non-negotiable, and shady. Steve is a master tactician, natural leader, and a reasonable, thoughtful person who is a Big Picture thinker. It’s weird that people just assume he rejects the Accords because he’s being childish or something. That’s not Steve Rogers at all.
and also: steve on missions and itching to paint the orange-yellow bursts of an explosion, steve tracing the curve of sam’s back and jaw so he can draw it better later, steve drawing skylines and strangers on napkins and flyers, steve painting nat as streaks of red and black, bucky two piercing blue eyes against a dark abyss, steve doodling on official documents and at the back of files during meetings, steve carrying a small sketchbook and pencil everywhere he goes and……….. artist steve rogers honestly
Because Natasha is almost always the one to initiate when it comes to Steve:
mentions Phil Coulson’s Captain America trading cards when she first meets Steve to ease him into the chaotic atmosphere of the helicarrier
continuously tries to set him up, to the point where she can bring it up in the middle of a mission and he just goes along
texts him about business with emoticons
steals the hard-drive Fury gave to Steve and, instead of cracking it on her own like she very well could’ve, she goes back to the hospital to find Steve because she wants to work with him, as a team
and then literally bares her scars to him and makes a joke about it because making jokes during tense situations is what she does and again, Steve is so used to it that he goes along with it
I’m not going to use The Kiss as a point because that’s technically cover stuff, but after, she openly asks him about his “dating life” and rather than seeming surprised or whatever when he admits that he’s kissed at least one person since coming off the ice, she looks happy for him because he’s actually trying
he comes to her to ask what’s bothering her after they find refuge in Sam’s guest bedroom, because Steve Rogers comforts people, he tries to help them, it’s what he does – but Natasha reaches out to him, asks him about something that’s very important to her – if he trusts her – because she genuinely wants to know, maybe she’s almost desperate to after he’s saved her life, and she almost can’t help it, so she asks because she wants to know how he sees her
THE CHEEK KISS IN THE CEMETERY
joins in on teasing Steve about the “language!” and instead of acting exasperated like with the others, he actually teasingly fights back
accepts their supposed impending death in Sokovia with this sad, small smile on her face, looking perfectly content to spend her last moments with him, so comfortable in his presence that she doesn’t even have to look at him – his presence is enough
Natasha almost goes out of her way to connect with Steve and I love it, not just as a shipper, but as someone who loves Natasha
and hates seeing her characterized as emotionally distant and detached.
Is she cautious? Yes. Is she not as affectionate as others? Yes. But she
doesn’t shy away from being openly affectionate with the people she
cares about, the people she loves. It manifests in different ways –
snarky banter with Clint, an understanding akin to loyalty with Fury, sympathetic conversations with Bruce. And with Steve? It means reaching
out to him and making the first move. I think we all see a terrible loneliness
in Steve and Natasha doesn’t want that for him. She wants him to feel
like he belongs with them, in this time, because this is his home now
and he deserves to feel that way. From the very beginning, she’s been
the one to initiate a personal interaction with him and I think that
says so much about how their relationship works, because Steve isn’t the
one that wears his heart on his sleeve with personal matters like this,
and he isn’t the one that is trying to fix her – she’s trying to
be open to him, reaching out to him in a way she believes will finally
get him to reach out, too. Maybe not to her specifically, which is why
she tries to set him up with someone else, but she wants to see him
reach out to someone, to lean on someone and not carry all of this
weight on his own shoulders anymore. She wants to chip away at the ice so that
he can have an intimate connection with someone and not be so alone, because if he has that with someone then it means that he finally has a reason to truly exist in this new life he was thrust into, and that means Natasha would’ve finally gotten it right.
This doujinshi (muryou)’s Chinese version would be available at Beijing SLO5 on July 20. Totally free. A story about Winter Soldier rescuing Captain America. The scanner designed by Howard Stark was from the movie Prometheus, Fifield’s puppy. This title was from the Japanese band KAT-TUN’s song RESCUE.
I can’t believe CACW is actually upon us, and that I’m going to be crying in the theater this time next week. It’s been TWO YEARS since CATWS, which we spent writing what happens next, and now there’s going to be a canon “what happened next” and man, there is going to be a sea change in fandom. New fic trends will rise, old trends will die, no more road trips of revenge or recovery stories where Bucky wanders straight from the Potomac into Steve’s apartment, new ships will set sail and new ship wars will sweep our turbulent oceans, one or more characters could DIE, Bucky’s gonna have an actual canon post-WS personality and that’s the end of fandom’s Ten Thousand Iterations of Bucky Barnes. I’m very excited for this movie and I’m also a little sad to see the end of the post-WS era. It’s been a long and emotionally excruciating ride, filled with many Bucky-related tears; so I guess thanks to y’all for making this a really fun wait.
I hope the recovery fics will still continue, they hold a very special place in my heart
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