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amarriageoftrueminds · 9 months

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*points originally in a tag-dump under another post about* Bucky's goodness + Steve's belief in him

+ the fact that the superserum worked on Bucky is empirical proof of his goodness:

+ this is also why the serum worked on Isaiah Bradley. + imagine if Isaiah had been made the Winter Soldier instead

Seriously it's a pretty eye-opening thought exercise to put any other character in Bucky's place and see just how poorly he's treated.

Do people really think Steve would hear about a man who had the same magic ‘only works on good people’ juice as him, tortured and enslaved by Hydra for decades… and then just NOT help him?

imagine if you had Sam saying 'Steve this 'Isaiah' guy he's not someone you save he's someone you stop.'

Nat saying 'Steve I know this matters to you but let the police handle Isaiah someone will arrest you if you interfere, it will inconvenience us all.' (LOL Nat have you met Steve who wrote this)

Sam agreeing, 'maybe Nat's right maybe we shouldn't bother helping Isaiah against the police in case they shoot at us,' and dismissing the fact that Isaiah could do good: ‘1945, maybe.’

When Isaiah was the guy that pulled Steve out of the river?

(And meanwhile the CIA have given police, that Nat and Sam are telling Steve not to interfere with, orders to shoot Isaiah dead on sight? quelle surprise)

Steve would still be arguing that it should be him to bring Isaiah in, since he's least likely to die trying.

He would still have put taking down the Insight helicarriers first, and been reluctant (but willing) to dislocate his arm for that very important reason.

He would still have lifted up the steel beam pinning Isaiah down

(and probably still tried to talk him out of his mind-control, even if he failed.)

imagine if everyone (Sam, Nat, Steve, Sharon, etc.) saw Isaiah -- when mind-controlled -- suddenly demonstrating a drastically different personality

and imagine if Steve and Sam saw Isaiah waking up with amnesia.. then proving his memory of his good, non-WS personality... but Sam was still rude/hostile to Isaiah anyway, insisting he and Steve should not be ‘cool' with him (then telling Isaiah he hates him).

Tony saying 'I don’t care that Isaiah was mind-controlled he killed my mom imma murder him just to spite you for not trusting me not to murder people.'

imagine if you had the therapist telling Isaiah he needs to be monitored by the state to prove he’s not giving into his innate violence, giving him rules to follow like a child, (and he’s pardoned, not exonerated, meaning he had to admit to crimes he wasn’t responsible for in order to get a modicum of freedom) and that it’s bullshit to suggest Isaiah just wants some peace

Ayo telling Isaiah 'you are free' 😌 as he finally escapes his bondage, watching him cry with relief, then: ‘SIKE! we put a booby-trap in ur limb the trust was a lie.’

Sam cracking jokes about Isaiah's trauma, dehumanizing him as a killing machine

taking part in a plot where Isaiah has to pretend to be WS, be sold to another human being, and have rape jokes cracked about him,

but then still being like 'listen Isaiah if you really want to apologise f̶o̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶l̶a̶v̶e̶ you should just do the work.' 😔

*event horizon voice* DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEE?? 😬

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captainwidowspring · 3 months

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On Nico's Ability to Defend Himself

An often-overlooked aspect of Nico's death scene in TFATWS is that there was literally nothing preventing him from thwarting John's attempt to kill him, and keeping it from being a death scene; he just didn't so that there would be a reason for the Captain America title to be stripped from John and given back to Sam. I feel like a major reason why a lot of people don't pick up on this fact, and instead perceive Nico to be defenseless (aside, of course, from the shamelessly manipulative framing) is that in the Siberia incident, the incident Nico's death scene is frequently compared to, Tony, after he lost the upper hand, didn't really get a chance to do much before Steve disabled his suit. It thus didn't stick out too badly when Nico also didn't do much before John attacked him with the shield, even though there was a lot more he could have done. Therefore, let's examine the two situations to see how they are different.

This is how the shield incident played out in Siberia. Near the end of the battle, Tony had managed to gain the upper hand and inflict serious damage on Steve. After Steve refused to stop defending Bucky, Tony prepared to straight up blow Steve out of the bunker and down the mountain: but right before he got the repulsor shot off, Bucky grabbed his leg. Irritated, Tony turned and kicked Bucky in the head with his metal boot. Then, before Tony had the chance to do anything else, Steve grabbed Tony and hoisted him into the air; Tony tried to use the jet packs on his boots to get out of the situation, but too much damage had been inflicted on them at that point for them to be of use, and Steve threw him to the ground. Steve then immediately rushed on top of Tony and punched his face mask three times out of sheer fury, after which he broke the helmet by hitting it twice more with his shield and then tore it off. He subsequently raised the shield, which caused Tony to frantically raise his arms to cover his face, and this allowed Steve to have a clear shot at the arc reactor, which he brought his shield down on and broke.

Now, considering how thoroughly biased Civil War is against Steve, and how much it sought to act like he was the one in the wrong—even though the entire Siberia fight was literally just Tony having a temper tantrum and Steve and Bucky trying to survive it—the creative team certainly wouldn't have minded if Tony had cried out in fear like Nico did, as it would be quite useful for the propaganda efforts. Therefore, there is clearly some reason why he didn't.

And it appears that there are two main reasons for this. The first reason seems to be that everything simply happened too fast. Indeed, the entire incident, from Tony preparing to shoot Steve to Steve disabling the arc reactor, took place in the span of about fifteen seconds. And Tony totally wasn't expecting Steve to grab him; presumably, he assumed that Steve was injured enough that taking his attention off him for a few seconds in order to kick his friend in the head wasn't a big deal. He underestimated the strength that poured into Steve's limbs when he saw Tony so callously abusing Bucky, as well as the fact that Steve is a supersoldier, so he can move really fast when he wants to.

So there was the element of surprise, and there was also the fact that Tony probably would have been a little stunned, both from the impact of being thrown to the ground, and from being hit in the head multiple times. It must, of course, be remembered that Tony was wearing a full-body metal suit, so no actual harm was inflicted upon him, but Steve is a supersoldier, so even with the layer of protection the impacts would certainly have been felt. These factors combined to produce the effect that, when Steve raised his shield, rather than take the time to yell anything, Tony simply prepared himself to face what was about to happen, which he thought would be Steve attempting to end him. But fortunately for him, he was wrong. Steve wasn't trying to kill Tony; Bucky was still alive, so Steve was able to contain his fury enough to refrain from a killing blow, and he hit the arc reactor instead.

Now, let's look at how Nico's death scene played out. After John pursued Nico for a bit, and managed to fend off a concrete trash can that Nico threw at him, he was able to hit Nico with the shield as Nico ran into a square. This forced Nico to stop to keep his balance, which allowed John to hit him again, and this finally knocked him over. Nico then tried to get back up twice; the first time John hit him with the shield again to keep him down, and the second time he put his foot on Nico's chest to pin him to the ground and stop his escape attempts. Then, since he couldn't try to get away anymore, Nico waved his hands and nervously insisted, "It wasn't me." He said this because, given the role he played in Lemar's death, he was well aware of why John might be mad at him specifically, for more than just being a friend of Karli. John, for his part, had been preparing to interrogate Nico about Karli's whereabouts, but this clear falsehood evidently filled him with rage, and he raised his shield in a fury. Rather than make an effort to block the imminent attack, Nico simply repeated, louder, "It wasn't me!" even though it was clear that John was not about to accept his garbage. And then, of course, since Nico wasn't about to actually do anything, the beating with the shield commenced.

Nico just lay there and was obediently killed, even though there was literally nothing stopping him from simply catching the shield and keeping it off his chest. His arms and hands were not at all restrained—indeed, he was waving them around—and unlike John, who had acquired a gash on his head, Nico was completely uninjured, so there wouldn't have been any pain distracting him either. And as we saw earlier, Nico is just as strong as John—he was able to restrain John so effectively that Karli would have been able to easily stab John if Lemar hadn't stopped her—and his evident fear would likely have given him enough strength to cancel out John's rage. So he would certainly have been able to keep the shield off his chest until Sam and Bucky, who appeared shortly afterwards, could save him if they wanted to.

Indeed, Nico didn't save himself even though, as evidenced by the fact that he did actually have a chance to cry out, he was dealing with a much less challenging situation than Tony was. For one thing, John bringing down the shield on Nico's chest was not at all a surprise. After John had pinned Nico to the ground, Nico had time to say, "It wasn't me" before John made any sort of move: and after John registered what Nico had said, he shifted his shield, which had been on his arm, into a two-handed grip, and then raised it. Nico clearly saw this coming; indeed, this is what caused him to shout "It wasn't me" a second time. And John's intentions at that point were obvious, so it's not like what happened with Tony where Tony thought that Steve was going to do one thing but he did another; it was pretty clear where John's shield was going, and this would have been plenty apparent to Nico since terror tends to make time slow down. So he had ample time to catch it.

Additionally, Nico would not have been stunned in the way that Tony was. Tony was slammed to the ground and then received five forceful rapid-fire close-range blows to the head, which is several hard impacts in a short span of time. Nico, by contrast, was hit once with the shield, then was knocked by John to the ground. This was a much shorter distance to fall than the overhead bench-press position that Tony was thrown from, and there were even stairs to break Nico's fall. Thereafter, Nico was hit with the shield again—and he hadn't gotten very far up, so he didn't fall very far back down—and then John thwarted Nico's final attempt to get up by pushing him down with his foot. In addition to the fact that the push was much gentler than getting hit with the shield again would have been, as before Nico hadn't gotten very far up, so he wouldn't have hit the ground that hard.

Therefore, in contrast to Tony, who received six sharp blows pretty much back to back, Nico received three fairly spread out blows—after the first hit with the shield, John had to close the distance between them and wind up again before hitting him a second time to knock him over, and then Nico fell to the ground and started to get back up before he was hit a third time—as well as a kind of shove. Nico thus did not receive nearly as harsh a pummeling as Tony did. And on top of that, he is a supersoldier: so even if his treatment had been rougher, Nico would have a much higher tolerance for pummeling than normal human Tony would.

Hence, Nico would not only have had plenty of time to see what John was doing, but he also would not have had to contend with the disorientation that Tony experienced. There is no excuse for why his only reaction to John's attack was yelling.

And here's what makes the fact that Nico didn't try to defend himself even more ridiculous. Even though Steve's attack was much more rapid, forceful, and unpredictable than John's was, Tony STILL did the logical thing and was ready to try to catch Steve's shield. Indeed, you can actually see a bit of strategy in his response to Steve raising the shield. Tony knew he wasn't strong enough to entirely keep the shield off his face since his suit was failing, so rather than try to stop it from hitting him, he was instead planning to try to grab the shield during its descent in order to slow it down and cushion the blow. As Steve brings the shield down, you can even see Tony open his fingers as he expects to encounter the shield. Nico did not do anything of the sort, he just aimlessly shouted as he passively lay there and waited for John to kill him. But come on! If Tony, who was just a normal human encased in a suit of rapidly failing metal, and who had been completely taken by surprise with a harsh walloping, could make an attempt to stop Steve from killing him (even though, as it turned out, he didn't need to), then Nico, who was a supersoldier, and who had received far less of a thrashing, could definitely have tried (and succeeded) to stop John from killing him. Especially since, unlike Tony, he actually would have been able to completely stop the shield from hitting him.

There is another difference between the two situations that is very interesting, however. Tony, for his part, was well aware that he was acting dishonorably. For instance, a little after Tony began his assault, when Bucky was trying to run away and Tony was intent on pursuit, Steve stood in front of him and said, "It wasn't him, Tony. Hydra had control of his mind." But Tony already knew this, so he simply responded "Move," in a way that clearly indicated that he didn't care and didn't want to hear it. And a short time later, when Tony prevented Bucky from escaping, Steve tried again to get through to him and said, "This isn't gonna change what happened," but Tony replied, "I don't care, he killed my mom." Tony knew that Bucky wasn't to blame for his parents' deaths, and that killing him would not help anything: but since he was angry with Steve for refusing to accept the Accords and all their rights-violations, he saw the revelation as an excuse to attack both Bucky because he knew it would hurt Steve, and Steve himself because Tony knew that Steve would not just stand by while Bucky was being assaulted. He ignored Steve's attempts to reason with him because he figured that he had enough power to be able to do whatever he wanted, and he also correctly guessed that Steve and Bucky would continuously hold back against him, even though they shouldn't have. And because of these things, before Bucky's intervention, Tony had been about to do something that could have quite possibly ended Steve's life. So when Steve regained the upper hand and Tony was at his mercy, Tony was aware that he had no right to ask Steve to spare him, because when he had been in Steve's position, he had been ready to potentially end Steve's life without a second thought. Therefore, he said nothing; his only response was to see if he had enough strength left to hold off Steve.

So Tony, in the face of Steve's attack, didn't yell anything because he knew that what he had done was indefensible: and it is due in part to this modicum of contrition that Steve was able to contain his rage enough to spare him. Nico, meanwhile, had been doing something similarly heinous. He had been actively engaged in trying to kill John because John was Captain America, and when Lemar frustrated the attempt on John's life, Nico was also the reason why John was unable to protect Lemar from Karli's subsequent death-blow. And just like Tony, Nico had been relying on his strength to protect him from repercussions. So what he had done was just as indefensible as what Tony did: but instead of taking the smallest bit of ownership of this, he tried to completely absolve himself of responsibility for what had happened, and this resulted in his downfall. For while John had clearly been intending to just interrogate Nico, the fact that the person who had held him helpless while his best friend was murdered was trying to act like he was not at all responsible for what had happened caused him to lose it, and this resulted in the shield incident. Now, Nico definitely should have made it clear that he was surrendering if he intended to, and even apologized if he genuinely regretted what had happened to Lemar: and again, when the attack did happen he could have easily fended it off. But if he had simply recognized the fact that he was not worthy of John's mercy since he had not been prepared to show mercy to John, and remained silent like Tony did, the shield-attack would never have happened in the first place.

But in any case, as mentioned above, Nico didn't try to defend himself because John needed to kill him, so that the show would have an excuse to take the Captain America mantle from John and give it back to Sam without it seeming too dubious. (Though considering that the incident ended up resulting in Sam and Bucky attacking John for the shield a very short time after he literally lost his best friend, the show completely failed at that.) Not to mention, if Nico had put up a fight, this would have highlighted how much he was still capable of threatening John, and put lie to the show's attempt to act like he was helpless. Particularly since, again, if he had tried to save himself there is no reason why he would not have been successful.

Now, it is important to also remember that Nico was definitely not surrendering, the other widespread misconception about his death scene. He kept trying to fight John until he literally couldn't—he threw a concrete trash can at John while he was running away, and tried to get back up twice after John initially knocked him over, which is not something someone who wanted to surrender would do—and then after John had him pinned, all he did was try to disingenuously absolve himself of responsibility for Lemar's death, rather than trying to apologize or making it clear that he was surrendering. But on top of the fact that Nico wasn't trying to surrender, and refused to own up to what he had done, he was perfectly capable of surviving John's attack when it happened. These things make his death scene, as well as the subsequent reaction to it, completely ridiculous and utterly nonsensical.

#john walker #pro john walker #john walker defense squad #john walker meta #john walker did nothing wrong #tfatws critical #anti captain america civil war #anti ca:cw #anti tony stark #team cap #fandom wank #marvel meta #mcu critical #mcu salt #long post

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gay-jewish-bucky · 1 year

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Why does everyone at Marvel studios (besides Seb) hate MCU Bucky and say he's never done anything heroic? Why do they constantly force him to suffer as if he was responsible for his victimization? Why do they turn the reveal of his sexual abuse into a joke? Why can they sympathize with Ultron and Thanos, but not Bucky?

Sexism!

The nature of lot of the abuse and exploitation he's faced is, in western media, mainly carried out against women, sometimes queer men (like Arnie Roth). Conversations around his female coding within the MCU have largely stopped but it's very important to remember. The patriarchy punishes all men who step out of line, and this is a very good example of that phenomenon.

To them, because of this, he is a failure of a man. He is weak. He is complicit because men can't be victims and still be men. he is not worthy of respect or accolades.

His fans as a whole tend to be people who are frequent targets of overt misogyny, they generally aren't those who believe in and participate in enforcing the expectations of white, western manhood.

You know who does believe in and patriciate in that? The people who have actual control over his character's arc and treatment in the MCU. The one person with power who actually understood Bucky (Stan Lee) died and since then they've been saying the quiet part out loud.

They've also robbed him of the female coding and anything that could be read as contrary to their oppressive standards of masculinity from his character (this includes cutting his hair and robbing him of the softness he had even after everything he'd been through, not letting him have a cat because yes I've heard people outright state he's "too manly" to own a cat) in an effort to force him to be a "real man".

#marvel #mcu #bucky #bucky barnes #james buchanan bucky barnes #james bucky barnes #marvel meta #bucky meta #sexism #men are hurt by misogyny too #sa mention #tw sa #sa tw #fatws critical #tfatws critical #anti marvel #anti mcu #marvel critical #mcu critical

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asteral-feileacan · 3 months

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"I know 😔I recall coming across an interview from a showrunner who basically denied Bucky's lack of agency, called him the bad guy, said he needed to be punished for what he's done and then had the gall to say that they hoped trauma survivors felt represented by "what we did for Bucky's trauma".

Excuse me? EXCUSE ME? Bucky was literally captured, experimented on, tortured via electrocution, brainwashed to the point he had no memories and did not even know who he was.... as well as incarcerated against his will for 7 decades and they deny his lack of agency?

Yeah- on some level he does perhaps deserve to be punished but I blame the rich and powerful people who did that to him- and the powerful people who commissioned him to carry out those "missions" far more than I blame Bucky himself.

THEY deserve to be punished more than he does. How do people not get that? Or do the makers of the MCU just love the US government so much they don't understand how messed up it is to blame the person who was lliterally tortured until he couldn't remember who he was more than than the people who tortured and exploited him for their own ends? Sorry if that's too political for you.

Apologies, I've now written a very long post, all because I went back to find the screenshots and got angry about seeing them again XD

I think this is just really problematic for a number of reasons.

First, it's not an "excuse". One of the best things I've ever read anyone say in response to this topic is in this post. Pasted the quotes here:

The analogy is not “if you lost control of your car and killed someone you still need to be responsible for what your car caused”. It is not “if you’re a soldier who followed orders you still need to be responsible for the life you took”. Bucky was not distracted or indoctrinated. He was induced into a state where he had no idea who he was, could barely recall what he did, and where “he will do anything you tell him to”.

The correct analogy is “if someone hijacked your car, tied you up and locked you in the trunk, then drove your car into people, you are not held responsible for what happened to the victims because you were as much a victim as they are”.

I disagree that Bucky deserves to be punished in any capacity for his time as the Winter Soldier, and the quote I pulled from that post explains exactly why in a clearer and more concise manner than I'm about to from a storytelling/character perspective.

So, starting from the end of the first screenshot and moving backwards because I noticed something aggravating:

"I remember every kill. And that means that a part of me was there for one of those."

This is such a POWERFUL sentence. This is a GREAT sentence. This is Bucky admitting his misbelief, which he completely believes, which is not the truth he thinks it is. The misbelief in a character is a device that can elevate the story so much if done well. I mean, this is a man who has suffered one unimaginable cruelty after another, who was tortured and brainwashed to the point that he couldn't remember who he was, to the point that he was controlled into killing people, targets, whomever his handlers wished him to get rid of. And he remembers the faces of every person that the Winter Soldier killed.

That's a hell in and of itself. He's been freed from Hydra, he's recovering himself, he's relearning who Bucky Barnes is, he's trying to figure out who he himself is now in the wake of it all, and in the middle of everything, the world hates and fears him. He hates and fears himself. So the seeds of doubt get planted: why didn't I do more? I could have tried harder. It's my fault.

So he's stuck in a negative feedback loop - no one, not even his own therapist, is helping him to get out of it, and is only perpetuating it. So that's a deeply internalised untruth he can't let go of. He feels guilty.

(Thanks for bearing with me through that) And my point? Spellman in this interview undermines that, intentionally or not.

Stan Lee himself talked to Sebastian Stan about how Bucky is one of the good guys. I'm watching some interviews now, and it's genuinely confusing to me how he has this same point about how it's what Bucky feels about himself, but then in the previous lines he's painting Bucky in this light where it's "an excuse" that Hydra manipulated him. And then I remember the show - again, Bucky is treated so badly by the other characters in this series. That could have been another good storytelling device, but it's the fact that the narrative itself wants Bucky to BE guilty, not FEEL guilty. It's that fact that other characters are put in a good light for dismissing Bucky, and Bucky is put in a bad light for existing. Don't get me started on that therapist.

It's just. UGH. The series had so much potential, and Spellman, despite odd remarks, DOES understand Bucky's psyche in these interviews to some extent. So how did the show end up being such a mess in regards to his trauma, only just managing to scrape together an end note for him there that would have been much more effective if the show had been committed to Bucky, ONE OF ITS MAIN CHARACTERS?

Sebastian Stan, from what I've seen, is pretty much our only saving grace, as I remember reading comments from him that were such a breath of fresh air in the heat of all this.

And you're completely right - Hydra is completely to blame. The government treated Bucky horribly as well, just casting him off while still thinking of him as a threat and doing virtually nothing to help him.

Anyway - I'm so sorry for this lengthy rant. On the upside, now I'm remembering the exact reason that, about a year or two ago, compelled me to start preparing to re-write TFATWS. Maybe I'll go dig out those notes again and give it another shot. That post I linked is brilliant and covers all my gripes in extremely well-composed arguments, and it was worth scrolling through all my posts to find it again XD

TL;DR: The show was nice, but not only could it have been WAY better, it also handled trauma very poorly. As both an avid Bucky fan and a writer, I was and am extremely disappointed. For what it was, it was passable, and I liked it, but it started out on so many deep thoughts about the characters and basically gave up halfway through pretty much all of them.

#bucky barnes #the falcon and the winter soldier #tfatws critical

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ifandomus · 2 years

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Some people: “Do you ever think about how sad it is that Bucky can't make amends to Tony? So there is one name on his amends list that he can't ever cross off. But maybe he can try to make amends to Tony’s family?”

Me:

#this is a horrible take that should die as soon as possible #mcu #anti tony stans #although its not just tony stans who are saying this #which horrifies me #anti tony stark #anti ironman #anti tfatws #tfatws critical #although the idea that bucky should make amends to tony or his family didn't start because of the ‘amends’ crap in tfatws #it it did really intensify it #and made it popular in parts of the fandom where it hadnt even been before #pro bucky barnes #bucky deserves better #bucky barnes

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breckstonevailskier · 9 months

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youtube

Honestly, if anyone was out of line here, it's the Dora Milaje for trying to kill Walker and Lemar because Walker touched one of them.

#anti tfatws #tfatws critical #anti dora milaje #john walker #pro john walker #Youtube

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pigtailedgirl · 2 years

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hiii I hope you're having a great day! I'm not kidding when I say that it took several read throughs before I sent this 😭 I was just wondering if you'd mind linking any marvel meta and critiques pertaining to civil war and the accords, endgame, tfatws, tony, peggy, and the way steve and bucky's characters were treated.

context: I'm trying to explain some things to a friend of mine, but I just know there's posts that explain it better than I can. I spent over an hour scrolling through various tags and I really struggled to find my favourites.

I hope this doesn't sound too demanding, and feel free to ignore it if you're busy or you don't want to do it. I'm honestly just hoping you have some kind of folder where you keep them all! if you do, though, I would love if you included your own posts, because yours are some of the best ones I've read.

anyway, wishing you the best 💖

I admit this makes me super happy because, it's like even the internet friends know I'm a folder person! I do have a lot CACW and Endgame meta even offline folder saved lol.

I don't know if there is any specific arguments or points you and your friend are discussing to direct at? Let me know!

Here's what I have that applies in my current bookmarks, except LewtonBus which I think are articles for self examine and not to bring to discuss in rebuttals with friends, because there is really good stuff in them to ponder but, they are thesis' I'm not 100% subscribed too.

Also I can't rec enough the blogs of @thehollowprince, @robotmango, @monardarmmm, @fearlessinger, @chirping_tiger, @kateis_cakeis, @laporcurina, @cosmicmechanism, @keire-ke. I've scoured there tags and takes and loved so much if it.

STUCKY & Endgame

https://bamsmackpow.com/2019/04/30/avengers-endgame-lack-of-closure/

This is my defining WTF Endgame article. I don't see how anyone can argue against it. There is no explanation or reasoning to give out to the obvious and intentional erasure of Steve and Bucky out of Endgame's story narrative and why it doesn't fucking matter if you like the ship or the characters at all, erasing them, denying it, failed the set up of the story structure and the basics of arc complete writing.

The Stucky Essay - bilittlebarnes - Captain America (Movies) [Archive of Our Own]

This essay is so good. I was drawn in by it's argument on the "Bucky is alive!" moment of Endgame critic, because it highlights that the movie itself knows Stucky makes more narrative sense and importance and therefore uses it, but of course won’t let it be acknowledged. America’s ass is on display, just not the one they think.

The Silence of Peggy Carter. Peggy Carter was founder and Director… | by Summer Barbeau | Medium

I'm being really critical of Peggy's character being so beloved lately, examining my past defense of, but I think this article is the bomb on why Endgame's Steggy is dismissive of the pairing and characters whether you like them or not. An ending that devalues and silences your partner for romance is a fail.

For CACW

Exorcism, Burial, and Analysis: Representing Trauma in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ – Ceci n'est pas un discours (wordpress.com)

CA:CW, the reaction - cute but prickly (tumblr.com)

TFATWS

‘Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ & The Myth of Nonviolence | by Alex Mell-Taylor | An Injustice! (aninjusticemag.com)

I know it might not run in pop circles to my friends list but I'll say I agree with most if not all of the Mooler's breakdown of TFATWS.

https://youtu.be/N0Tu6pCvjQ4

In that Karli read more villain than John Walker to me, despite show intent, and it needs massive overhaul, because it's message sucked in many many ways. And I thought Sam and Bucky did come of as morally wrong and kinda massive jerks in comparison to Walker, as did the ethics of the Flagsmashers, the Dora.

That doesn't mean I've any love or interest in the John Walker character independently, as Jessica Jones season 1 did that style story better...it's a story meh in comparison to what I want which is a focused Sam story...and I certainly have no love or respect for Zemo's addition likewise. Where to go with the Captain America stories and ethics of the characters is so f'ed right now.

#good meta #recs #captain america #steve rogers #anti endgame #anti tony stark #cacw meta #steve rogers meta #anti steggy #stucky meta #tfatws critical

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bromcommie · 4 months

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not to be all bitter old man shaking his fist at the sky three years later but they really went “we’re gonna chop off all of bucky’s actual backstory along with his hair” in tfatws. something something distancing the character from previously established canon and the overwhelmingly strong fanlore that stemmed from it something something

#i could write a whole post on why that decision mattered along with the rest of the costuming/design in the greater scheme of things #and i probably will just not today #the more i think about that show the more bitter i get about the treatment of every single character #esp the sam karli and sam isaiah resolutions like. those storylines deserved so much better #im sure the writing took a hit bc of the covid rewrites but also it would have helped if the writers idk.#read or watched any of the previously established fucking material #tfatws critical #tfatws #anti-mcu #i guess??? this whole blog is anti-mcu tbh #despite it being about 95% just the mcu lol

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sneakyneighboururchin · 2 years

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I need to talk about how utterly incandescent with rage thr MCU's handing of Zemo makes me. Because in all media I had seen before Civil War do you know what Baron Zemo was? A Nazi. Motherfucker was a fucking Nazi. He was Hydra to his god damned core. What did the MCU do? They made an entirely different and utterly mediocre and uninteresting villain (as they usually do) and just slapped the name Zemo on him cos 'cool comic reference I guess!' With no fucking regard for what that would do. I don't even have the right words to explain why taking a nazi character and trying to make them 'sympathetic' is fucking gross, and frankly i shouldn't need to! That should be a perfectly understandable fact of existence! I wonder why Disney and Marvel are so reluctant to portray nazi and right wing characters on screen as evil now? I wonder why they shy away from that? Oh hello US military propaganda contract, I didn't see you there! Almost like showing nazis as they are would maybe look too similar to other things! So now! I get to see some dumb fuck straight white girl woobifying their precious little blorbo Zemo and shipping themselves with the Red Skull's successor. Or! Shipping Bucky fucking Barnes with him. You know. One of Hydra's best known victims in the MCU??? A man who damn near gave his life fighting nazis??? Yeah we should ship him with the sanitised nazi dude that's a good idea! Don't. Get me started. On the fucking flag smashers. I will never know Peace.

#anti mcu #mcu critical #anti zemo #anti tfatws #tfatws critical #anti cacw #cacw critical

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heres-the-marvel-tea · 2 years

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All character analyses using The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are incorrect. That show Does Not Exist™️ in the Marvel Chrissy Universe. The only relevant commentary is about the horrific ableism showcased in the show. All character representation is invalid.

#I said what I said #tfatws critical #marvel #mcu #Bucky #Sam #Bucky deserved better #isaiah deserved better #sam deserved better #like did you all forget he was a counselor?#ableism #ableism in the mcu

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luna-rainbow · 8 months

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So…I saw a Blu-ray featurette on Bilibili where the writers and directors talk about Bucky, with key quotes like:

Cap 1 and Cap 2 both show that Cap’s allegiance, more than anything, is to Bucky Barnes, his best friends since when he was Steve Rogers, the 100 pound weakling. (Nate Moore)

The Winter Soldier has such a complicated history. We wanted that to have a real presence to it, to see the harshness with which he was treated. He’s both good and bad, hero and villain. (Joe Russo)

That’s the most heartbreaking scenario in his life, Bucky was the guy who’s always been there. Those are the scenes that make the action scenes worth it. What are you willing to compromise and sacrifice and forfeit for the greater good? And that is close to home for Steve. (Chris Evans)

Here’s Bucky Barnes, who’s been the Winter Soldier for 80 years, who in his own way was a Prisoner of War (Nate Moore)

Members of Hydra in Russia secreted him away to a missile facility in Siberia. He was treated with the same level of security as a nuclear weapon. (Joe Russo)

Suddenly, the main guy you have to defeat is your best link to the most pleasant memories you have of your childhood and of your past. (Kevin Feige)

We all know what happened between “Bucky is Steve’s strongest allegiance,” “his biggest sacrifice,” “his best link to his most pleasant memories” and Steve needs to retire into another timeline.

But what exactly happened between “Bucky Barnes was a prisoner of war and treated very harshly by Hydra” to “he needs to make amends for what he did under Hydra”?

#bucky barnes #steve rogers #anti endgame #tfatws critical #stucky

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amarriageoftrueminds · 1 year

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Something I've always wondered, do you think Bucky had a moment after being rescued and before he fell where he realised that Zola did something actually tangible to him, and changed him?

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: yes, but...

I have a long meta on Bucky's serum here, but toAyourQ:

Here's the thing:

We don't actually know how much serum Bucky was given during the war, whether it was full blown finished serum, or a partial version, or what.

We do know Zola absolutely had the skill and knowledge to have secretly created a full blown serum, we just don't know if he did.

I say 'secretly' because Zola appears to have done all his evil human torture experiments in secret, without his boss's orders; Red Skull doesn't know about them and didn't order them. On the surface of it, this would appear to be important. If Red Skull is dropping by for inconvenient inspections a lot, and if Zola is trying to hide something, that affects how much serum-related materiel Zola can order before his boss starts asking awkward questions. However, Red Skull has such a one-track mind that he is completely indifferent to the prisoners -- ordering Zola to work them to death and replace them... That suggests that Zola could probably get away with a whole lot in Red Skull's absence, in terms of fucking up prisoners and ordering materiel relating to serum (which he shouldn't need, given that he's running a tesseract-weapon factory death camp). Red Skull was simply too self-absorbed to notice.

And we do know that, by the time Steve met the Winter Soldier in the future, Bucky had the same strength, speed, healing, and endurance as Steve (who has serum and vitaradiation), the later Winter Soldiers, and T'Challa. Eg. he had full blown serum.

We know his physical attributes are the equal of theirs because these other enhanced people are shown as struggling to catch him (speed) or beat him in a fight (strength, endurance, etc.)

In fact the very plot depends on this equality.

*I'm ignoring serum-havers from FATWS cuz that show is a pile o shit and ignores all the previous serum rules (lazy moronic writers? who knows!) .

But there has been a huge time lapse in between those two periods, in which Zola had ample time to finish and perfect the serum, (if it wasn't finished in the war) and had Bucky back in captivity to re-administer it.

So it's possible Bucky got a partial serum in WWII, and full blown serum after.

Which would increase the likelihood of him not noticing the difference during WWII.

Just the full serum on its own is supposed to drastically and visibly change the subject (see: Red Skull and the other Winter Soldiers).

One possible interpretation is that, since Bucky isn't visibly drastically altered, therefore the serum must have been a partial, and its only attributes are the healing ones.

So that's why Bucky survived Krausberg and the Fall (and how Zola knew to look for him) without his friends noticing any difference.

There was supposed to have been a moment where Bucky is approached by a nurse, after Krausberg -- and he has an open slash in his henley, but no visible wound underneath.

Perhaps implying Bucky was supposed to notice his newfound healing, during the war?

. Sidenote: Apparently that nurse is Beardette, the girl Bucky took to the Stark Expo. As well as (possibly) expositing Bucky's strange healing, she's there to -- once again -- prevent any heartwarming queer-readable embrace occurring between Bucky and Steve, and to intercept and no-homo the loving eye contact he is having with Steve. (This is also why they rammed Piggy in as a wedge in between them, as usual. She's there to prove Steve is a Nice Puritan Straight Boy. Because if someone of the opposite sex thrusts themselves into your personal space without asking, that means you must have wanted it, obviously!) 🤢

On the other hand, if you wanted to believe that Bucky did get full blown serum in WWII...

Well, since they cut out all Bucky's war scenes prior to rescue, we don't actually know what Bucky looked like immediately before serum.

So it's possible he did drastically alter, and that the serum was a full blown one, but we (and Steve and the Howlies) just can't perceive it because we didn't see the immediate before and after.

Add in the excuse of malnutrition, starvation and exhaustion, undercutting its visual effects, and you could easily argue that the serum was full blown but struggling.

Personally, whether Bucky got a partial serum or full, given what was done to Steve I find it extremely unlikely that Bucky wouldn't perceive a difference in himself.

It's just too unlikely that he would not connect the dots between his change and what was done to Steve.

(Especially if he, for example, asked Steve what the serum looked like, before injection, and Steve said it was blue, and Bucky knew he had been injected with something blue).

On a darker note, there's an aura of wild self-destructiveness about Bucky, immediately after Krausberg. His looks mingle horror with misery.

For a man with obvious untreated mental health problems, and a protective-self-destructive streak a mile wide, there are too many opportunities to (deliberately?) get hurt. I think it's just not possible for Bucky not to have noticed that he is healing faster than he should. He would know exactly what a man in a warzone can survive.

So, yes, I think he noticed.

And if you're looking for a possible reason as to why he would keep that secret, some possibilities:

He can't reveal his healing without also revealing his self-destructiveness, which he would not want to do because his friends would be upset and interfere to stop him.

If he tells Steve serum was used on him Steve might feel guilty and blame himself for being part of the serum experiments which obviously motivated Hydra to continue theirs, and Bucky wouldn't want Steve to feel bad or worry about him.

If Steve found out, it might provoke one of his protective justice rampages, which Bucky would also not want because it would further endanger Steve.

He might be afraid of the Army finding out he's enhanced and making him a guinea pig in a lab, as they threatened to do to Steve.

He might be afraid of the Army finding out he's self-destructive and sending him home, where he can't protect Steve, which would also probably humiliate him.

He might be afraid of the Army finding out he's enhanced and never letting him go home at all, as Steve appears not to have realised will happen to him.

Given Bucky's other symptoms of PTSD he might have noticed XYZ symptoms of serum and yet dismissed them as not real, thinking he's delusional.

Given the stigma surrounding mental health, if he thought he was delusional he would conceal it from his friends because he wouldn't want them to know he's 'crazy.'

Given the times, he might also conflate PTSD symptoms with malingering and cowardice and want to conceal his symptoms from his friends for fear of appearing cowardly and disloyal in front of them (eg. malingering to get a medical discharge).

He might conceal or downplay any problems he is having because he doesn't want to seem inferior next to suddenly-perfect Steve.

all of the above ^

Holy shit he has so many reasons... 😯

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captainwidowspring · 9 months

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🤨🤨🤨

I definitely agree, it really is wild that some people actually think that Nico was some meek innocent victim, or that John's reaction was unreasonable. I guess it's a testament to how effective the show's anti-John-Walker propaganda is, for it is hard to see how else so many people could become convinced of such a clear untruth. Indeed, it's similar to how in Civil War, another propaganda-heavy film, some people actually think Steve was the one who attacked Tony in Siberia, despite the fact that Tony was the sole aggressor. And heck, the efficacy of the anti-John-Walker propaganda is further demonstrated shortly after Nico's death; many people think for some reason that John started the fight for the shield, when it was clearly Bucky, and John literally said "You don't want to do this," when it became clear a fight was imminent. Propaganda is really no joke.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about people acting like Nico was an innocent victim is the fact that he is particularly guilty. From the way many people talk about Nico, one would think he was a random civilian—indeed, the person cited above actually implies that he was a "defenseless noncombatant"—but he was literally a hostile enemy attacker. Now, @captainpikeachu nicely explained why all the Flagsmashers are blameworthy: "if a group of people lured you and your loved ones to a location just so they could kill you and instead got your loved ones killed, does it really matter who physically did the killing when they’re all there to help?" But Nico was much more involved in what happened than most of the other Flagsmashers were.

First of all, Nico played a very active role in the attempted murder of John. Minutes before the tables were turned, Nico had caught John and held him helpless specifically so that Karli could stab him to death. Nico knew full well what he was doing, and he did it deliberately. So it's not like Nico was just standing around chilling, he was actively trying to cause harm.

And this supposed innocent victim very nearly succeeded in taking John's life. It's a really good thing that John ended up deciding to take the serum—he had been agonizing over whether to do it—because this allowed him to confront the Flagsmashers on a somewhat more even playing field. Otherwise, Nico would have been able to murder John himself; he wouldn't have even needed Karli's help. It was only because John was able to so effectively fight back that Nico had to focus his attention on subduing John instead of being able to immediately go for the kill.

And indeed, the fact that the serum helped make it possible for John to hold out against the Flagsmashers for so long is the only reason that Lemar was able to rescue him, as Lemar saved John at literally the last possible second. It really looked for a moment there like John was a goner; that is why Karli got so mad when she was thwarted. If Lemar had been any slower, or John had been imperiled any sooner, Lemar wouldn't have reached John in time: and John's blood would then have been on Nico's hands, probably literally as well as figuratively. So the serum is a major reason why Nico's attempt to get John killed was unsuccessful, but even with that and the presence of Sam and Bucky, John barely survived the attempt on his life.

And second of all, Nico is also directly responsible for Lemar's death. Many people take Nico's cry of "It wasn't me!" at face value, and accept it as the truth, but it is quite thoroughly false. Nico might not have been the one to strike the killing blow against Lemar, but the fact remains that Lemar would not have been murdered without Nico's contributions. Indeed, Nico's attack on John is the reason why the murder attempt bore any fruit at all, because John had been doing a pretty good job of frustrating the Flagsmashers' assassination attempts before Nico assaulted him. But Nico's assault made John vulnerable, and was instrumental in creating the situation that got Lemar killed: for this was the reason that Lemar was forced to throw himself in harm's way, as well as the reason why John was unable to defend Lemar from Karli's subsequent wrath.

It would have been pretty clear that Nico was culpable in John's murder if Karli had successfully killed him, so it is unclear why people cannot see that Nico is culpable in Lemar's murder simply because the victim changed. While the person who ended up dead wasn't the one Nico had been aiming for, the death still happened as a direct result of his actions.

Thus, it's quite frustrating when people try to demonize John for what he did while absolving Nico, completely ignoring the fact that minutes before the incident Nico had been quite determinedly trying to kill John, and was only narrowly kept from succeeding. And those efforts directly led to Lemar getting killed, which is why Nico's claim of innocence would have been particularly galling. Nico simply received a taste of his own medicine.

So, unsurprisingly, that take which adopts the usual tired view that John is a villain while Nico is innocent is quite thoroughly untrue. For not only was Nico neither defenseless nor surrendering, but also, John did actually have jurisdiction in the situation.

First of all, Nico was far from defenseless. It's really quite maddening when people act like Nico was powerless just because he didn't have a weapon on him, for this is not even close to the case. Again, minutes before, Nico had been able to render John completely helpless—which he accomplished without the aid of any sort of weapon—and Lemar had just been killed, also without a weapon. A video nicely summarized why Nico was not defenseless:

"[W]hy do people act like this is Walker killing someone who’s unarmed?. . .We all saw what Steve and Bucky can do throughout the MCU. They can smash through walls, rip doors off their hinges, hold a helicopter in place, throw people around like ragdolls, and as we saw with Lemar’s death, can literally kill people with a single punch. How can you possibly claim that someone is unarmed when [they can do these things]? What’s to stop [Nico] from breaking out when he has the chance to do so, and continuing to help Karli? Which is exactly what he would do, because as we’ve already discussed, he is surrendering [not really but I'll get to that] because he has literally no other choice, not because he stopped because he felt guilty."

In fact, come to think of it, there is absolutely no reason why Nico could not have just grabbed onto John's shield and held it, instead of simply lying there and getting killed. As we saw, he's just as strong as John, so he would certainly have the strength to keep the shield off his chest: and there was nothing to prevent him from doing this, as he was completely uninjured (unlike John) and his arms and hands were not restricted at all. But of course, if Nico had put up such resistance to John, the show would have a much harder time demonizing John and acting like Nico was harmless. Therefore, they got around this by not showing Nico during the incident.

Not only was Nico not helpless, however, getting mad at John for killing an adversary that he had a momentary advantage over is quite hypocritical, for Sam did something similar earlier in the show. In the middle of the fight at the beginning, Sam blew up a helicopter that still had several unconscious bad guys in it. These people actually were defenseless, as they were out cold, and they no longer posed an immediate threat to Sam. So anyone who is angry at John should be angry at Sam too. But the people who bash John rarely bring this up: for because heroic music was playing, and because the bad guys were unconscious and so unable to scream or beg Sam to spare them, Sam killing enemies who were temporarily disabled is not seen as a bad thing. It's only a problem when John does it, apparently. Such blatant double standards really help demonstrate how influential framing can be.

Second of all, not only was Nico not helpless, but he was also not surrendering. For one thing, while Nico was running, he paused to hurl a concrete trash can at John: so it's not even like he was just fleeing, he was still attacking John as he ran. For another, when John managed to knock Nico over—which took several tries—Nico attempted to get back up not once but twice: once after John initially knocked him over, and then a second time which prompted John to put his foot on Nico's chest in order to keep him down. If Nico was actually interested in surrendering, he would have stayed down the first time, as repeatedly getting back up strongly indicates a desire to keep fighting.

And for yet another, Nico yelling "It wasn't me!" is not in any way indicative of surrender (nor is it even true). That was not an attempt to yield, it was an attempt to convince John that he was attacking the wrong person. (Even though he wasn't, for again, Nico was heavily involved in the attempt on John's life that ended up taking Lemar's, and was in fact the reason it was even possible; he is just as responsible for what happened as Karli.) The only thing that could possibly be considered an effort to surrender is Nico having his hands up: but since prior to that point he staunchly refused to stop fighting—throwing the trash can at John and not staying down—and the words he spoke as he made the gesture were trying to divert John's attention rather than actually surrendering, having his hands up was not enough to cancel out the all the other indications that he didn't want to surrender, especially since it wasn't even clear whether he was trying to surrender or just gesticulating. That is why people who want to surrender often put their hands behind their head, to avoid confusion. Considering how stubbornly Nico was fighting before, if he was yielding he needed to make that abundantly clear, and he didn't, not even close.

Third of all, John did actually have jurisdiction in the scenario; he was literally on a government-sanctioned mission to deal with the Flagsmashers. Handling the Flagsmashers was actually his responsibility, and the reason why he was fighting them in the first place. Indeed, it's not even like the government was mad at John for killing Nico, as that meant one less Flagsmasher for them to deal with; they were mad at him for giving them bad press. That is why they chose to give John an other than honorable discharge, for this meant that they would not have to go through the trial that would be required if they gave him a dishonorable discharge, and risk having unfavorable information come out. Thus, John got no chance to stand up for himself, and instead got quickly swept under the rug. Now, John tried to point out the injustice of the situation—"I only ever did what you asked of me, what you told me to be and trained me to do, and I did it. And I did it well," he said—but of course, the show wasn't done demonizing him, so it just ignored him and cut him off so that he would not get in the way of the attempt to discredit him. But in any case, saying that John didn't have jurisdiction in that scenario is completely untrue, because he absolutely did. Sam and Bucky were the ones who didn't have jurisdiction, and in fact they should have been wanted criminals for breaking Zemo out.

So yeah. The rebuttal to the ridiculous framing of Nico's demise that is shown above is quite accurate. John did not kill "a defenseless guy who was surrendering"; John killed a supersoldier who had just willingly and knowingly attempted to murder him (and succeeded but with the wrong person), and who showed no remorse for what he did, just panic that he didn't have the upper hand anymore. It really is insane how completely the propaganda has twisted many people's views of the situation.

#john walker #pro john walker #john walker defense squad #john walker meta #tfatws critical #fandom wank #answering asks

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gay-jewish-bucky · 1 year

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@fghtinus i accidentally sent the ask too early but yes they did, very poorly (bc this is the mcu and they are incapable of compassionate representation), but yeah it's canon

here are some posts that talk about it x and x

(major trigger warning for graphic and frank discussions of sexual abuse)

#marvel #mcu #marvel critical #mcu critical #anti mcu #anti marvel #tfatws critical #anti tfatws #sa #tw sa #sa tw

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asteral-feileacan · 3 months

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Sorry, I pressed a button and sent you that last ask before i finished it Can you delete it? That line you mentioned in your last answer, where Bucky says "I remember every kill"- just doesn't make sense in terms of the continuty. Wasn't his memory wiped between every mission specifically so he couldn't remember? Also, if you are passing so much electricity through the brain of a human that they are literally screaming in agony and have to have a mouthgaurd put in to stop them biting their own tongue off with the pain--- that is going to have serious effect on their brain and body.

If the guy who had that done to him says he can remember everything then either:

a) The torture didn't work or

b) He's actually lying: was saying that he remembered it a condition of his pardon, or something? I agree: the way his trauma was treated - just wasn't great. In the first couple of episides, it seemed like it was being addressed- but then they seem to have forgotten about it and got caught up in the whole catching the terrorists storyline, and then the racial inequality storyline with Sam. The final scenes with Bucky telling that sweet old Japanese guy what happened to his son seemed to be added as an afterthought when they deserved *much* more time. Bucky was clearly deeply upset just at the memory: his voice was cracking and he sounded like he was going to start crying. We should have seen more of the reaction and the impact.

it seems to me that if he was *that* distressed at just reliving the memory of one kill he could not have remembered all of them because it would have overwhelmed him and probably tipped him over the edge. ...and the therapist. Just don't get me started. I hate the way that the show treated therapy as something that was either funny or annoying. Can we just for *once* see a male character going to therapy and it being depicted as a positive or beneficial experience? Instead of just denying or ignoring their trauma and internalizing it.

Honestly, the problem is writers who don't understand how PTSD works, don't know how trauma impacts people, and don't understand that men not admitting how much they are hurting isn't being "strong".

Done, no worries!

"If the guy who had that done to him says he can remember everything then either: a) The torture didn't work or b) He's actually lying: was saying that he remembered it a condition of his pardon, or something?"

Personally? I think it's both to some extent. I always think of it more as, there has to be a reason that Hydra had to keep performing the brainwashing/conditioning, and keep using the trigger words to keep him at bay. He's a super-soldier, and has the healing factor, so he'll recover far quicker and more effectively than anyone else subjected to the conditioning. Where a non-super-soldier might not have even survived, Bucky did, and I think it's very telling that as soon as he stops getting the conditioning, he starts remembering things.

So despite all of the work and pain that Bucky has had to do to even begin undoing this damage, Hydra's methods had cracks in them, and that's why Bucky's able to remember things. Even with that, there was still extensive damage, and maybe he really doesn't remember as much as he claims. Again, to go back to my previous responses, this is a guy who was reduced to a state where he couldn't, wasn't allowed to, remember who he was, and in the wake of that, has not been given the help he needs and fears he's a monster.

Then there's the dreams. We know he has dreams, nightmares of the people the Winter Soldier killed, and we know they're extremely vivid. I can't really say whether he remembers names, but he for sure remembers their faces, and that's already bad enough.

And as for the distress of remembering all those kills in THAT level of detail - that's exactly why Bucky desperately needs real and competent psychological aid. Even if he doesn't remember every single kill, he clearly remembers a significant amount of them, which is hardly any better. Maybe he's already had a point where he's been overwhelmed by his memories and has since had to defend himself against them? The other option is that that point hasn't happened, but it's going to happen, because, well, the only thing that's changed is that he has people to support him now - he hasn't made other progress in terms of his mental health and the only other good thing going for him is that I assume he doesn't go back to that therapist.

Exactly. The show not only doesn't give Bucky a chance, it flat out refuses to allow him to be vulnerable and open when it matters. I can think of three scenes where that happens; the first is him telling Yori what happened to his son, the second is his talk with Sam when they're throwing the shield back and forth, and the third is that one from the dual therapy session ("If he was wrong about you then he was wrong about me."). There may be more, I haven't seen TFATWS in a while, but these are the ones that stick out to me.

The first WAS quite literally an afterthought. It's like they remembered at the last second about the old man and were like "oh crap", and then shoehorned a 2-3 minute confession scene in THAT THEY DIDN'T EVEN FINISH. Sebastian Stan's acting in that was beautiful and didn't deserve to be cut off in the middle.

The second was a step in the right direction, and it did resolve the tension between the main characters. But they didn't follow through on it, and Sam only barely got past Bucky's flippant facade there and then they were like, "aight we're done".

The third. Oh my god, the third. The potential. And it was never referenced again, iirc. The scene started out so silly, and that sudden tone shift almost saved it, but they chucked it out the window by not following through again and making light of the entire therapy.

Oh yeah - the Isaiah Bradley scene. In my eyes, that was one angry, brutally hurt and bitter character lashing out at another. That's such a good lesson for writers there on building real characters. Isaiah hated Bucky, scorned his attempts to be better, because in his eyes, he was right. Everyone's behaviour makes sense to them, and everyone has reasons for that behaviour, good or bad. It's such a beautiful lesson in building characters' psyche.... or it would be, if it wasn't the view of the people writing the show just trying to belittle Bucky again.

Like, I'm not saying that Bucky doesn't make mistakes of his own, or is a perfect baby boy who can do no wrong, that people need to walk on eggshells around him or that everyone must respect him because his feelings are more important than anything else.

I am saying that he is a trauma survivor who deserves help and love and support in his healing journey, who is not getting that in the capacity that he needs. I am saying that the way this studio treats him is garbage, and the way it expects praise for treating him in that manner is vile.

Honestly, the problem is writers who don't understand how PTSD works, don't know how trauma impacts people, and don't understand that men not admitting how much they are hurting isn't being "strong".

PLEASE. PLEASE say it louder for the people in the back. On top of absolutely everything else, the way they treated Bucky was a massive mockery of male victims.

#bucky barnes #tfatws critical #the falcon and the winter solider

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