#Captain America works better post war to me

[wanderingmind867]

Hard to like Captain America when you hate America and can't help but see his origin as wartime propaganda. Also, he is remarkably... Aryan, for a hero designed to fight Nazis. I just found an article on all this. I haven't finished reading it, but I encourage more people to read it. And his origin honestly reeks of accidental eugenics, if you think about it for more than a second. This weak man turned into the perfect super soldier. If that doesn't scream "Ubermensch", I don't know what does.

[livingformintyoongi]

can I request: Jungkook and YN laying in bed cockwarming while watching a movie and they fall asleep. Jungkook wakes up in the middle of the night and is still inside YN so he wakes her up by sucking her tits and asks her if it's ok to fuck because he is hard

thanksssss💕

5:30 A.M.

a/n: Thank you for the request! It's my first time making smut as such, so I hope it's good enough for your taste ^^. warnings: Cockwarming, Mazophilia, reader is older than Jungkook by two years, kind of dom!reader and sub!Jungkook but very mild, breeding kink, hair pulling. wc: 1.8k

"Don't you find it strange that Captain America and Iron man get along so badly? I mean, they both seek the same end, why fight each other when they should be using that strength against villains?" muttered Jungkook, trying to swallow the vulgar amount of popcorn he threw into his mouth.

"They both have the same goal, but at the same time different values, and those same values are what make their relationship so strained" you nodded, taking a sip of your drink, "You know what thing does strike me as odd?".

"What?" your boyfriend's gaze was still fixed on the TV, too focused on watching Iron man and Captain America fight.

"That you asked to be inside me while we watch Captain America: civil war," you laughed softly, turning to look at your boyfriend "Sounds like too weird of a fetish. Tell me the truth, do you have an Iron man fetish or something?".

Jungkook laughed, kissing your cheek and caressing your abdomen with his fingertips. You felt your insides stir inside you. 

 "Of course not, it's just that I really love being inside you" he murmured, kissing you shortly, "I feel so much closer to you, like we're really one person, you know what I mean?".

You nodded laughing, stroking his jaw, "Sure I do, but it's still weird that you're asking me while we're watching a Marvel movie."

"I'll pick something better next time" he chuckled, snuggling under you. He loved having you in his lap and being able to hug you from behind. "Now let's concentrate on watching Robert Downey Junior fight Chris Evans."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say" you smiled, leaning against his shoulder and watching one of your boyfriend's favorite movies.

You fell asleep shortly after watching the post-credits scene, you had a long day's work, so it was expected that you fell asleep so early. Before going to sleep you asked Jungkook to switch positions and he was quick to agree. He was aware that it was quite uncomfortable for you to sleep sitting up, and since he still didn't want to leave you, you decided to lie down hugging each other, him with his head on your chest and his hands around your waist, you, with one of your hands on his lower back and the other in his hair.

Even though you fell asleep much earlier than Jungkook had planned, he quite enjoyed watching the rest of the movies alone, mostly because it was enough for him that you were lying next to him.

He hadn't planned on disturbing your rest, indeed, he hated to do so because he knew how much the work exhausted you, but there were things he simply couldn't control, like his cock. 

If we're honest, it hadn't been his fault as such, but somehow watching Wade and Vanessa's scenes while he was still inside you awakened something inside him. And on the outside, too. 

As soon as he felt little spasms in his cock, he turned off the TV and settled back against your chest, closing his eyes and trying to think about anything other than fucking you. It worked a little at first, but then he felt the soft scent of your perfume, your breath against his scalp, the softness of your breasts against his cheek. He actually tried to resist.

He took a breath of air, remembering an old conversation the two of you had at the beginning of your relationship. You had talked about whether you were comfortable with certain things in the sexual realm, among them, having something with one of you asleep. You confessed that you didn't mind as long as you weren't fighting and he told you that he trusted you enough to know that you would take good care of him even if he was sleeping. 

You weren't fighting, so he wasn't passing you around, you said yourself that you didn't care. 

That was Jungkook repeated himself as he slipped his hand under your shirt, which was actually his, and started massaging your breasts. At first it was just small squeezes, using his whole hand to cover your breast. He licked his lips, looking at your face. You were still asleep.

The squeezes now shifted to your nipples. He rolled, pulled and pinched them, gradually increasing the force on them. He was surprised to notice that you were still sound asleep in spite of that.

He thought that was good, so this time he lifted your shirt until it was under your chin. He swallowed saliva at the sight of your breasts. He seriously loved them, they were so round, nice and big. He brought his mouth up to the point where both breasts met and began to leave little kisses on the spot. His hands were now busy caressing your hips, and his hips were grinding against yours with almost imperceptible movements. 

You were still asleep.

When he realized that you wouldn't wake up no matter what he did, he began to lick the skin around your nipples. At first it was just small rubs, but they soon turned into sloppy kisses, sucking your nipples hard as his onslaught became stronger than at first.

It was only then that you opened your eyes.

You were still a little groggy from the nap you had taken, so it took you a while to realize what was happening. You came all the way back after Jungkook hit your G-spot a little too hard.

You moaned much louder than usual, opening your eyes wide.

"Jungkook?" you gasped, clinging to his hair as you felt his cock touch your G-spot again. 

"Noona" he whispered, his voice cracking. Now that you were aroused he could afford to lunge harder. "You feel so good, you're so beautiful, so tight."

You weren't understanding the situation very well, but you weren't going to complain either. Jungkook definitely knew how to make a woman feel good.

"I thought I'd have to hold back, I didn't want to wake you up," he murmured, tightening his grip on your hips as his lunges got faster and messier, "I'm glad you woke up."

"Were you holding back?" you chuckled, groaning at the end of the sentence.

Jungkook was big, much bigger than any of your exes were, and even though you'd been together for quite a while now, you couldn't get used to his size and how well he filled you up. That, coupled with how resilient and flexible he was, made him a perfect lover. 

Even knowing that, you were still amazed by the fact that Jungkook held back most of the time just so he wouldn't hurt or tease you. It seemed so cute to you.

"Of course I do," he nodded awkwardly, closing his eyes tightly as he licked his bottom lip. He had to let go of your hips and grab hold of the back of your bed in order to continue. It felt even better now that you were awake. He loved hearing your voice. "You looked so tired, but I was so needy" he grunted as he felt you tighten around him, squeezing the backrest until his knuckles turned white, "I thought maybe, if I did it slowly you wouldn't wake up."

You hugged Jungkook's hips with your legs, while your arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him close until he was close enough to kiss his lips. 

You tried to make the kiss slow and deep, but Jungkook seemed so desperate. You moaned as you felt him wrap one of his arms around your waist and lift you off the bed until you felt your chest crush against his. It didn't take him long to slip his tongue into your mouth.

You both broke the kiss when you ran out of air. Jungkook wasted no time, and quickly brought his lips down to your breasts, returning his focus to your nipples and how good it felt the way you squeezed each time he sucked on them hard.

You felt close, and it really was hard not to be when Jungkook was fucking and eating your breasts like it was the last time. You pulled his hair tightly, pulling his neck closer to your mouth, nibbling and sucking every space on his skin that looked too empty.

You smiled as you heard your name leave his lips between gasps.

"Noona" he whispered, letting his head fall on your shoulder, "I need...can I...can I…?". 

"You can cum inside" you kissed his head, feeling his cock stir inside you. Each time it felt even bigger, "It's okay, don't worry."

Jungkook sighed in relief, kissing and licking the skin on your shoulder, letting his hips bump against yours.

The sound of his skin against yours was getting louder and messier, as were the moans from both of you. 

With his mind too clouded to think clearly, but still quite aware of the situation, Jungkook lowered his hand all the way down, letting his index and ring fingers rub your clit, following the same messy, rapid rhythm his onslaught had.

You clenched your jaw, keeping a loud moan from leaving your lips. Your back curved the moment his fingers touched your sensitive spot.

Suddenly everything he did felt too much for you.

"I don't think I can take much more," he said between grunts, looking at you with dark, clouded eyes.

Seeing your boyfriend's reddened, swollen, glistening lips, his big eyes shining with desire and his messy hair covering his sweaty forehead was enough of a turn-on for you to squeeze his cock even tighter.

He moaned again, but unlike you, he didn't hold it back.

"It's okay, Jungkookie," You tangled your fingers in his hair, pulling on it gently, "could you cum for me?" you whispered over his lips, licking the piercing that rested in the corner of it with the tip of your tongue.

Jungkook nodded quickly, letting your pussy milk his cock, and that was enough to cause the knot you felt in your belly to untie. Jungkook didn't stop moving until the last drop of his cum was inside you.

You both took a second before coming down from your euphoria. Jungkook fixed your shirt carefully, leaving a soft kiss on your neck as he finished. 

You smiled barely, caressing his cheek with your knuckles, "Aren't you going to get out of my pussy?" you asked teasingly.

Jungkook smiled back, but his smile was much bigger than yours, "No, you feel great."

You laughed helplessly, lowering your hands to his waist so you could pinch it gently. 

"Fine, but this time don't do anything, it's..." you looked at the clock on your bedside table, raising your eyebrows as you saw the time, "You seriously woke me up at five thirty in the morning so we could fuck??"

"We better just close our eyes and rest, we'll talk about this tomorrow" he kissed you shortly, before resting his head on your breasts again and settling back to sleep.

You just rolled your eyes in amusement, hugging Jungkook and letting tiredness take power over you again.

Materlist.

[gffa]

I haven't read any STEVE/BUCKY FIC in the last five years or so (Endgame really burned me hard), BUT I can at least offer what I read up to that point! Most of my recs are from around when Captain America: The Winter Soldier first came out (some from before, so there's a few speculation fics) and then I was ready semi-regularly up through Inifinity War, so these may be a bit dated but also the fandom had some ABSOLUTE BANGER fics from that era! I mostly read from about 2014 to 2019 and I can't say how well many of these held up, but I know my tastes haven't changed that much, so there should hopefully be something for anyone interested here! Anyway, I think I'm finally Not As Mad As I Once Was enough to read fic again/celebrate the 10th anniversary of TWS, but also let's be clear. I will forever hold a grudge about what Marvel did with Steve and Bucky post-TWS, that was bullshit from start to finish. ESPECIALLY the finish, oh my god okay so I'm still Actually That Mad and-- NO, OKAY, HAVE SOME FIC RECS BEFORE I MELT DOWN AGAIN.

CAPTAIN AMERICA FIC RECS YOU'LL FIND HERE:

STEVE/BUCKY SHIP FICS

STEVE/BUCKY - PRE-THE WINTER SOLDIER SPECULATION

STEVE/BUCKY - POST-THE WINTER SOLDIER

STEVE/BUCKY - POST-INFINITY WAR

STEVE & BUCKY-CENTRIC FICS (WITH A LITTLE OF EVERYONE ELSE, TOO)

STEVE&BUCKY&CAST - POST-THE WINTER SOLDIER

CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE/BUCKY FIC RECS: ✦ Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Take Me In by victoria_p (musesfool), steve rogers/bucky barnes + natasha romanoff, reunion fic, 4.1k Bucky finds himself, and then he finds Steve. ✦ you got blood on your hands (and i know it’s mine) by nighimpossible, steve rogers/bucky barnes + natasha romanoff + brief mention of sam wilson/natasha romanoff, suicidal ideation, 2.9k Bucky refuses to see Steve after his deprogramming. ✦ take all you can carry by havisham, steve/bucky & cast, 2.4k    Bucky Barnes reassembles himself to a reasonable degree and makes romantic overtures to one Steve Rogers. It’s happened before and will happen again. ✦ I’d Know That Face Anywhere by Shay081793, steve/bucky, NSFW, divergent timeline, 2.7k The 107th never got captured. Instead, Bucky Barnes is in the audience when that clown "Captain America" performs to rally the troops, and holy shit, that clown is Steve Rogers. ✦ and we are finally home by springsoldier (ladydaredevil), sam & bucky + steve/bucky + implied sam/natasha + implied bucky/natasha, 7.3k The Winter Soldier shows up in Sam's kitchen, one morning. He deals with it. (Natasha helps. Steve would, if they let him.) ✦ Capture the Flag by Shiny_n_new, steve/bucky + sam, dark au, 9.4k wip Bucky has always been willing to do Captain America’s dirty work. This was no different. Sometimes, the day isn’t won by high ideals or bravery or compassion. Sometimes, it’s won by monsters. ✦ Memories are Made of This by eleveninches, steve/bucky & natasha & sam, 13.2k Nearly a year after turning himself into SHIELD and the Avengers, Bucky struggles to find himself in the 21st century. Unfortunately, no one told him about the aliens.

✦ but hey, you’re all right by beardsley, steve/bucky + other marvel characters, 5.5k Yes, this is the story where the Winter Soldier is a Russian mail-order bride. Everything goes about as well as you’d expect. ✦ I Left Myself in 1943 (Who the hell is Bucky?) by originalblue, steve/bucky + sam + natasha + other marvel characters, 21k You have a mission, but your mind is being split in two, and there's a man on the bridge, and you know him. You don't know why, but you know him. ✦ sam deserves better than these assholes by lazulisong, steve/bucky + sam + natasha + other marvel characters, 18k IM SORRY BUT SAM WILSON STARING IN BAFFLED WONDER AT STEVE AND BUCKY AND HOW WEIRD THEY ARE ABOUT EACH OTHER ✦ broken pieces (the rough edges remix) by legete, steve/bucky, 2.1k It’s wrong, he knows it’s wrong, but sometimes Bucky prefers the nightmares that actually happened. ✦ Talk Dirty to Me by PeetaPan, steve/bucky, NSFW, wall sex, 2.5k Steve spends months tracking Bucky down, and when he eventually find him, it’s in a nightclub in Europe. ✦ the body adrift by Febricant, steve/bucky + sam, mildy nsfw, 4.2k Steve has no drawings of Bucky from before. Those are all gone, destroyed in the war or by his own hand; it wouldn’t do for anyone to see how easily the details came from memory, how often Bucky was in his thoughts. ✦ Tony Stark and the Illegal Cross-Country Road Trip from Hell by ActionAddiction, steve/bucky + tony + sam + clint + natasha + fury, 21.8k wip A stir-crazy genius, a secretly sentimental assassin, two soldiers lost in time, and an undercover archer without an identity zigzag across the continental United States in Fury’s stolen van. Or: How Bucky Met Steve (Again)

✦ Didn’t know I was lonely till I saw your face by gunboots, steve/bucky + bucky/natasha + sam + bruce + tony + xavier, 2.9k There are words on paper, actors in movies, and a grand story that fills a whole corner of a museum defined by history. There are words, there are pictures, there are movies, but they’re limited, fragmented. They can’t do justice to the sniper that Captain America trusted, the man that grew into a boy in the streets of Brooklyn with his best friend at his side. The man that could be James Buchanan Barnes leaves a legacy that is barely defined. The man that Steve Rogers says he is. ✦ the inaccuracy of historical wartime dramas by Mici (noharlembeat), steve/bucky + sam + natasha, 3k (or: Steve has feelings, and shouldn’t ever watch television) ✦ The Shape I’m In by radialarch, steve/bucky, 2.6k [AU where Bucky never fell.] They win the war. Steve and Bucky come home and deal with their feelings. ✦ дорогой by smilebackwards, steve/bucky + other marvel characters, canon divergence, 1.8k “Are you goddamn kidding me?” Fury asks when Steve shows up to the rendezvous point in Fredericksberg with the Winter Soldier. ✦ have you ever thought just maybe by Desdemon, steve/bucky + tony/pepper + other marvel characters, humor, 4.4k “JARVIS,” Tony called thoughtfully. “Yes, sir?” “Those young people are in love,” he said. ✦ Use Your Damn Words by wilddragonflying, steve/bucky, NSFW, omegaverse, 4.2k There’s murmuring, indistinct voices, all around him; all he catches, at first, are the occasional words. “—mated.” “—no difference—“ “—make him forget—“ That’s when Bucky starts fighting. ✦ It’s an Adequate Life, Bucky Barnes by what_alchemy, steve/bucky, it’s a wonderful life fusion, 10.2k This is a world without Bucky Barnes.

✦ and it starts just where the light exists by caughtinanocean, steve/bucky, mildly nsfw, 3.4k In which Bucky can’t admit the things he needs, but Steve knows them anyway, and Steve and Bucky are definitely a couple, even if they don’t know it. ✦ tango till they’re sore by sciencemyfiction, steve/bucky, nsfw, 4k Four shorts about Steve and Bucky, and romance, and sex, and dominance, and grief, and forgiveness. ✦ Permission by derekstilinski, steve/bucky + other marvel characters, 2.5k After Bucky’s captured by SHIELD, they put him in a holding cell, and strip him of everything but his clothes. He’s dirty, damaged, and Steve can’t just watch him like that, protocol or not. ✦ Milkshakes & Penguin Suits by TheLocket, steve/bucky, fluff, 2.9k At the latest Stark party, Steve and Bucky share a milkshake — and spend the evening together. ✦ Practical Mathematics by Grey_Bard, steve/bucky + steve/peggy + steve/peggy/bucky + tony, 1.7k After a hard shift saving the world, Stark - in his infinite wisdom - has decided to bond with Steve by talking about his favorite subject. Well, third favorite, after building things and smart-mouthing people. Steve is pretty sure none of his experiences really count. Tony is starting to wonder what Steve’s definition of “is” is. ✦ how happy must be angels thus employed by lanyon , steve/bucky + clint/coulson, mildly nsfw, humor, 2k It begins entirely accidentally. Clint walks in on Bucky and Steve in a compromising position and then Bucky escalates by tapping a private line between Clint and Phil. Also known as The One With The Cock-Blocking Competition (and it’s all fun and games until Phil and Steve find out.) ✦ Fate by grumpyowls, steve/bucky + peggy, 2.1k Bucky finds a drawing and it turns out to mean something more than he thought.

✦ One More Time by DevBasaa, steve/bucky, pre-serum, ~1k Steve’s clueless and Bucky’s not yet ready to acknowledge these feelings. But that doesn’t stop him from having them. Set before Bucky ships out, but after Steve receives his A1. ✦ Bucky and Bear by fromgoodbones, steve/bucky, fluffy, ~1k Steve gets Bucky a cat. ✦ Size Isn’t A Problem by bondboy68, steve/bucky, NSFW, 1.8k It’s the first time Bucky has seen Steve naked in some seventy-odd years, and things have definitely changed.

STEVE/BUCKY - PRE-THE WINTER SOLDIER SPECULATION:

✦ devil’s gonna follow me (wherever I go) by Lyaka, steve/bucky & natasha & cast, the winter soldier speculation, 63k The man who used to be Bucky Barnes lined up his shot. His finger twitched, only once, very precisely. Help me, the bullet sang. Ninety-eight floors below him, the bullet glanced off a vibranium shield with a musical ping. And Steve Rogers looked up. ✦ And it felt like a kiss by orphan_account, steve /bucky & natasha & sam, the winter soldier spoilers, ~1k We can’t stop feeling Winter Soldier feelings. And neither can Bucky or Steve. ✦ testament by paxlux, steve/bucky + other marvel characters, the winter soldier speculation fic, 10.6k His memory runs backwards in crooked bright flashes, hard as the noise flare of an assault rifle. ✦ persistence of memory by hollimichele, steve/bucky/natasha, NSFW, the winter soldier speculation, 11.5k It’s a nondescript sort of a Wednesday morning when the Winter Soldier walks into SHIELD headquarters, bold as brass, and announces his intention to surrender. ✦ To Be Modified As Necessary by ignipes, steve/bucky & bucky/natasha & clint/natasha & thor/jane & avengers, the winter soldier speculation, 5.9k They only need ten rules to ensure (relatively) peaceful cohabitation. ✦ lights at two dollars a strand by legete, steve/bucky + tony, the winter soldier speculation, 1.4k They don’t mean to decorate for Christmas. It just sorta…happens.

STEVE/BUCKY - POST-THE WINTER SOLDIER: ✦ Out of the Dead Land by orphan_account, steve/bucky + sam + natasha + nick fury + other marvel characters, nsfw in one scene at the end, 62.7k Someone is building machines that look and act like people. Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier tries to be Bucky Barnes. ✦ this is a back alley by saintsideways, steve/bucky & natasha & sam, the winter soldier spoilers, 14.2k Here is the only thing you know: the body remembers. ✦ your blue-eyed boys by Feather (lalaietha), steve/bucky & cast, 123.3k Steve has no plan. Not because he hadn't tried to make one. He'd tried to make lots of plans. Plan, adapt, plan again, tried to think of every contingency. [post-Winter Soldier recovery fic] ✦ The man on the bridge by boopboop, steve/bucky & tony/pepper & clint/natasha & cast, 107.5k Steve Rogers turning up at Tony's door with an amnesiac assassin - who may or may not have some of Tony's personally designed hardware attached where his arm should be - well that's just far too interesting to turn away, even if Tony is trying to avoid all things S.H.I.E.L.D these days. ✦ Soft Spot for the Hell Raisin’ Boy by ifeelbetter, sam & bucky + steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, (some) humor, 1.9k The Winter Soldier takes an interest in Sam Wilson. Bucky Barnes wants to tell him how to be Steve Rogers’s best friend. ✦ Reconstruction Site by EmilianaDarling, steve/bucky + sam, the winter soldier spoilers, 7.6k He is the Winter Soldier. He is James Buchanan Barnes. He’s not one and he’s not the other, and he’s not sure if that makes him anything worth saving. In which the Winter Soldier leads Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson on a wild goose chase through Eastern Europe so that he can learn more about the man who actually thinks he can be saved.

✦ hold me tight by hollimichele, bucky/steve + sam + natasha, nsfw, the winter soldier spoilers, 11.1k In the old days, before the war, Steve got cold at night. That was all it was, at first. ✦ A Bullet in the Barrel (of your best guy’s gun) by lc2l, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, canon divergence (sort of), violence, 6k You return to the concrete hole in the ground where the mission is not dead and not in the sewers and is looking at you. “Bucky,” says Rogers, Steve (deceased). ✦ Sleeperhold by Argyle, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 3.2k He’s hardwired to disappear. ✦ lost my fear of falling by ftmsteverogers, steve/bucky + natasha + sam, 1.8k “It’s been two weeks,” Natasha says, pressing a coffee cup into Steve’s hand. “How long are we going to do this?” Steve watches the steam curl into question marks above his cup. “I know he’s still in there,” he says, and that’s that. ✦ but the fires are coming by stitchingatthecircuitboard, steve/bucky + bucky & natasha, the winter soldier spoilers, 4k He does not remember, except that is better than being made to forget, again, and again, and again. He does not go to Brooklyn. ✦ we did not make ourselves by M_Leigh, steve/bucky + sam + natasha + tony, the winter soldier spoilers, 25.1k It is like steel, the determination inside of you that tells you you will achieve this, that you will find him. Nothing will stop you. You are two sides of the same coin, you and he: he cannot escape you forever. Bucky runs. Steve follows. ✦ measured my life in cooking lessons by FoxGlade, steve/bucky + clint + avengers, fluff, the winter soldier spoilers, 4k He knocks on Clint’s door, sharp and loud, and half a minute later Clint is standing there in boxers and a baggy Army Rangers shirt. “Morning,” Steve says shortly, before Clint can say anything. “You up to teaching me how to make those French toasts? I think I need to talk.” Clint yawns and stretches. Something in his back makes a loud cracking sound and Steve winces. “Yeah, I’m up,” he mumbles, then squints. “This is going to be a long cooking lesson, isn’t it?” “I found Bucky sitting outside the tower on the street when I went out for a jog and he remembered me but I’m pretty sure that’s all he remembers.” Clint just waves a hand and heads for the kitchen, Steve shuffling in his wake.

✦ and we are finally home by lastembers, sam & bucky + steve/bucky + sam/natasha, 7.3k The Winter Soldier shows up in Sam’s kitchen, one morning. He deals with it. (Natasha helps. Steve would, if they let him.) ✦ Circling Back by chaya, steve/bucky + sam + natasha + tony, the winter soldier spoilers, 59.6k Steve looks for Bucky, Bucky finds Steve, Steve tries desperately to put Bucky back together. Bucky tries desperately to let him. ✦ your favorite ghost by augustbird, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 21k It’s harder than Steve ever expected to bring Bucky home. ✦ Green-Eyed Monster by storiesfortravellers, steve/bucky + steve & tony + steve & sam + bucky & natasha, humor, 1.9k The Winter Soldier has joined the team and is slowly recovering, but he goes into a jealous rage whenever he sees that Steve is close friends with Tony, Sam, or Natasha. Past Steve/Bucky. ✦ Castor and Pollux by StringTheori, howard stark & steve + steve/bucky, mild the winter soldier spoilers, 2.9k A fic where Howard is emotionally constipated, a terrible human being, catches someone doing something, and brushes off friendships because he can. ✦ Find My Way by Brenda, steve/bucky + oc pov, the winter soldier spoilers, 4.6k Well, someone had to write the post-Winter Soldier fic where Bucky gets a decent meal and some homemade apple pie, right?

✦ Parallel Constructions by freshbakedlady, steve/bucky + sam + natasha, the winter soldier spoilers, 13.6k In the absence of orders, the man wearing the face of Bucky Barnes must figure out who he will be. The answer, mostly, is “somebody Steve Rogers can love.” Nothing so easy should ever take this much work. ✦ five people bucky barnes never was. by rhllors, steve/bucky + bucky/natasha, the winter soldier spoilers, 1.9k Five lives that never came to pass. ✦ no heart to recall by KiaraSayre, steve/bucky & sam & natasha & tony, the winter soldier spoilers, 15.3k He’s been in Steve Rogers’s company for less than twenty-four hours and he’s already losing sight of his mission. ✦ Bring Us Back a Souvenir by newredshoes, steve/bucky & sam & bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 1.5k Even with all his hair hacked off, he doesn’t look like a Bucky, Sam thinks. Maybe as some sort of stupid joke, like naming your most vicious dog Sweetpea. Steve’s told him the stories, and he’s seen the old newsreels; he knows what this Barnes guy used to be like. But it’s not like knowing what to look for is going to magically make some spark rise to the top. This isn’t an excavation. ✦ i will be your ground by misprinting, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 4.7k A character study. The subject: Bucky’s hair. (Also, a Bucky comes in from the cold fic.) ✦ Debts by vestigialwords, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, ~1k Steve’s life is a collection of debts, and the balance does not work out in his favor. ✦ Five times Steve kissed Bucky by paragon, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 16.5k (+ once, finally, it was the other way around) ✦ Run Until the Road Runs Out by ignipes, steve/bucky + sam & bucky + natasha, the winter soldier spoilers, 5.2k Sam’s along for this ride because he’s not about to let Steve Rogers go it alone, but Steve’s not the only one who needs a friend.

✦ And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me by ifeelbetter, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 4.4k The Captain woke quickly and tested the chain before he saw the Soldier. All the tension in his body evaporated once he met the Soldier’s eyes and he slumped downward, back up against the wall. “Oh, thank god,” he said. He repeated it twice, quiet. Like a secret. ✦ Your Mind Rings by Amberly, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 1.2k You aren’t Bucky. You’re not the Winter Soldier anymore, either, but you’re not Bucky ✦ tabula rasa by dance_at_bougival, steve/bucky + natasha + sam, the winter soldier spoilers, 10.3k Bucky Barnes screamed himself hoarse on that table and screamed falling off that train. He screamed when they programmed him and screamed and screamed until he isn’t Bucky Barnes anymore, not really. He is still screaming, a trapped rat running around a labyrinthine machine, clawing at the doors and running into dead ends. He has been screaming for seventy years. ✦ The Age’s Most Uncertain Hour by dewinter, steve/bucky + peggy, the winter soldier spoilers, 1.8k Five times the Winter Soldier remembered (and then forgot). ✦ The Steven G. Rogers Guide to What You Missed the Last Few Years by what_alchemy, steve/bucky, humor, 5.1k Steve’s got the hang of this 21st century thing. ✦ All the First Times by Vera (Vera_DragonMuse), steve/bucky + other marvel characters, the winter soldier spoilers, 9.6k Bucky starts over and finds new ways to survive. ✦ Me Against Your Memory (It’s a Two-Step Recovery Process) by thisiswhatthewatergaveme, steve/bucky + steve & natasha + steve & sam + natasha & sam, the winter soldier spoilers, 56.5k wip The Soldier needs answers. It’s the only mission he has left. And the mission is all he has.

✦ Make It Up as We Go Along by hannahrhen, steve/bucky + natasha + sam, mildly nsfw, the winter soldier spoilers, 1.6k Steve’s a terrible liar when he opens his mouth. ✦ What’s in a name by Ark, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 3.4k Steve doesn’t resist. He is dipped back: a dance. “Bucky,” says Steve. The severely serene surface does not stir. “You will answer the questions I ask.” The Soldier’s voice is Bucky’s but the accent is all wrong. His face is Bucky’s, perfect, and all wrong. ✦ Drawn From Life by littlerhymes, steve/bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 2.5k “I remember,” Bucky says, but that’s not entirely true. Set after The Winter Soldier.

STEVE/BUCKY - POST-INFINITY WAR: ✦ Coming Back by Emotionallyunstabl, entire cast (some steve/bucky), infinity war spoilers, 1.9k    Fixing Avengers: Infinity War. ✦ How ya been, Buck? by dvorahbee, steve/bucky, NSFW, infinity war spoilers, 2.3k    A fix-it for Bucky and Steve’s reunion because I wasn’t too happy with that half-assed reunion we had. ✦ hold some dirt with those hands by magdaliny, steve/bucky & cast, infinity war spoilers, 3k    It had sent him to his knees. ✦ To Never Have Loved At All by hitlikehammers, steve/bucky & cast, infinity war spoilers, 2.8k    Steve will say they had work to do, and a universe to put to rights. They had people to find and hearts to unbreak. They had a mission. There was no time for any of them to mourn. Steve, as it turns out, says a lot of things that are mostly bullshit.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE&BUCKY GEN FIC RECS: ✦ This, You Protect by owlet, steve & bucky & everyone else, humor, 64.3k The mission resets abruptly, from objective: kill to objective: protect ✦ By Choice or By Habit by Sholio, steve & bucky & natasha & clint & tony, 6.4k He is useful. He holds onto that. He is useful and a useful tool will not be thrown away. (For illumynare’s request: How about something with Bucky realizing the Avengers actually think of him as a person? And off I went to the utterly shameless h/c place.) ✦ 5 (+1) Times Bucky Was Already a Supersoldier by chaya, steve & bucky, 1k Erskine made it plain for Steve - the serum makes you stronger, faster, harder to kill, and it amplifies your existing qualities. Barnes, though, didn’t get any such heads up. ✦ Thaw by danveresque, steve & bucky & sam & natasha, 7.5k The Winter Soldier tries to find Bucky Barnes. ✦ Brothers In Arms by copperbadge, steve & bucky & sam & sam & tony & pepper & clint + background tony/pepper, 11.4k Bucky Barnes gets a tune-up, a new pet, and a home. ✦ You Know How I Feel, aka, The Adventures of Bucky and Muffy the Dinosaur by ifeelbetter, bucky & avengers, fluff, 4.5k Bucky saved a tiny dinosaur and took her home to Avengers Tower and on the way remembered how to laugh and sleep in soft beds. ✦ Strawberries in Wintertime by Sholio, steve & bucky & sam & natasha & sharon, 3.2k Or, how Sam’s apartment turns into a hangout for superheroes, spies, and rogue assassins. ✦ This Lonely Hour Before Daybreak by cheesethesecond, steve & bucky + sam + natasha, 2.9k Steve knew there would be good days and bad days. That’s how this sort of thing worked. Except sometimes, the bad days go like this.

✦ Almond, Clavicle, Orchid by kvikindi, steve & bucky & sam & natasha, 4.5k You say, “I don’t know what I am.” “It’s okay not to know,” Steve tells you. His face is very careful. But you know. You know that it’s not okay. ✦ you can’t fly on dinosaurs, bucky by scorpionbythesea, steve & bucky & clint, humor, 1.2k Based off the tumblr post by embracingthemadness and the tag that followed: steve and bucky making up random stories from their past and convincing the other avengers that it actually happened (◡‿◡✿) #there’s no way you guys fought nazi dinosaurs ✦ Fly on the Wings of Love by Omnicat, steve & bucky & sam & natasha & tony & clint + some background pairings, domesticity, 13.2k The Wings: Bucky just wants to show his appreciation for everything Sam has done for Steve. Of course, Tony Stark’s middle name is ‘needlessly difficult’. The Love: Bucky tries to set Natasha up with Sam. He’s a bit late for that party, but he managed to find Steve’s shield and replace Sam’s wings: he’ll come up with something for her. ✦ Swap by sparkles_stars, steve & bucky + avengers, body swap, 1.2k Steve and Bucky switch bodies. Nothing of substance happens from that moment on. ✦ Escape by Sholio, steve & bucky, 2.4k Missing scene for Captain America: The First Avenger – freeing the prisoners was just the start of getting away. ✦ think of it as personality dialysis by KiaraSayre, bucky & darcy, humor, 1.4k “I strangled someone with a shoelace once,” Barnes says. “Does that count as expressing myself through clothes?” “Uh, no.”

✦ Name, Rank, and Serial Number by forthegreatergood, steve & bucky + other marvel characters, 1.5k A Nazi peeling off his skin and declaring himself beyond human doesn’t even get a rise out of him anymore, but Bucky doesn’t think he could stand it if Steve ripped off his face, too. ✦ The Dawn of That Last Great Day by ignipes, steve & bucky + avengers + minor pairing references, the winter soldier speculation fic, 13.8k The Winter Soldier has a mission: kill Captain America. ✦ All The Leaves Are Brown (And the sky is gray) by AvocadoLove, bucky & tony + some tony/pepper + very mildly implied steve/bucky, 17.4k The Winter Soldier's mission is nearly complete. Howard and Maria Stark are dead, leaving him to dispatch their four-year-old child. One quick twist of the neck is all it will take, but the Soldier finds he cannot do it. So instead of killing Tony Stark, the Winter Soldier takes him away to raise as his own.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE&BUCKY&CAST - POST-THE WINTER SOLDIER: ✦ so this is how it is by sciencemyfiction, steve & bucky & sam, the winter soldier spoilers, ptsd, 29.1k Following the events of the Winter Soldier film, Steve and Sam finally find Bucky, and work to get back to a good place. ✦ On Your Left by TravelingRoses, steve & bucky & natasha & sam & tony thor & fury peggy, the winter soldier spoilers, 12.9k Five times someone told Steve to give up looking for Bucky and two times someone didn’t. Alternately, five times someone smacked Steve on the head and said “Don’t do the thing” and he continued doing the thing and two times he listened so he could keep doing the thing. ✦ and i have fought (in flesh and blood) by ChristinasInferno, steve & bucky, the winter soldier spoilers, 1.1k “He is Bucky Barnes and his best friend is Steve Rogers, and Steve Rogers is Captain America.” Bucky, post-Winter Soldier. ✦ The Care and Feeding of Traumatized Ex-Assassins by Sholio, steve & bucky + natasha + sam, the winter soldier spoilers, 6.6k Steve starts to notice someone’s been in his apartment while he’s not there. Set after Winter Soldier; spoilers. ✦ Glass of Milk by Lauralot, bucky & avengers, the winter soldier spoilers, 6.6k In which in the Winter Soldier is in the care of the Avengers. He has yet to regain his memories, but he has developed a fondness for dairy products.

[gunsandspaceships]

Tony’s behavior: Teenager/Young Adult (21 years old)

In previous episodes (Kid, 16 years old, 17-18 years old) we watched as Tony, from a calm and quiet boy who obeyed his father, began to behave in an atypical manner. But this behavior only appeared after the age of 16. It is not known what the reason was, but I have some ideas which I will share later in another post.

In this post, we take a look at 21-year-old Tony before his parents died.

Captain America: Civil War

It's Christmas time, Tony is back home for winter break after studying abroad (for his PhD). His parents are going on a short vacation to the Bahamas.

Tony just returned home from another country a few hours ago and is now sleeping on the couch in the living room of his parents' mansion. I bet some people thought he was partying and drinking, having a fun night with a girl (as Howard sarcastically suggested). He actually has jet lag, not a hangover. He looks fine and healthy here.

For some reason he is sleeping on the couch in the living room, instead of the bed in his bedroom. Btw, this couch looks like the worst place to sleep. But this is Tony, that's normal. His preferences for comfort are a little unusual.

He is still busy studying. He completed his bachelor's degree, master's degree and is now pursuing his doctorate. This means that he did not waste his life drinking and partying. He was engaged in what we all (usually) consider good and useful - education and science. And his father was still dissatisfied. Why is that?

Here Howard demonstrates his attitude towards Tony. Calling him "homeless person", assuming without evidence that he had a sexual relationship with a girl, telling him that he's wasting his potential. From the "16 Years" post, we know that Tony was interested in robotics and not so much, to put it mildly, in weapons. By "potential" did Howard mean "creating weapons, not robots"? Let's see if we have any other clues here...

This behavior looks strange, doesn't it? Tony doesn't seem to approve "quick stop at the Pentagon". Why? Maybe because he doesn't approve of Howard's business? That's something new! Some would say. But remember what he did in high school - he hacked the Pentagon's firewall. All the evidence suggests that he was not a great fan of the military at the time. Who knows, maybe this was one of the stumbling blocks in their relationship?

Listening to their argument, Maria looks indifferent. She seems to be used to it. So this has been going on for some time. Some years.

Tony definitely had a better relationship with his mother than with his father. Although Tony and Maria are a little awkward around each other. And we know why - they rarely spent time together during these 21 years.

Speaking of interaction, both sides - Tony and his parents - tried to avoid each other. Howard and Maria are heading to the Bahamas without taking their son with them. Tony comes back home just before they leave. Everything tells us that it wasn’t just like that that time, that’s how it usually happened. What was going on? They sent him to boarding school when he was too young, and he lived on campuses for 14 years, moving only from school to MIT to another college overseas. And even when he was back at home for a few days, they went somewhere and he was home alone. And he was not a big fan of their presence too, enjoying being alone, home, but sleeping on the couch. Something was completely f*cked up there.

Maria said Howard misses Tony when he is not there. This comment and the avoidant behavior give me the feeling that Howard was afraid of Tony's presence around. We know he never told Tony what he was really working on - S.H.I.E.L.D., Tesseract-based energy, and the new super soldier serum. Was he afraid that Tony would find out? If so, why? Because of the danger?

Tony's joke about the Pentagon's Christmas menu made me think he was familiar with it. Had Howard taken him to the Pentagon for the holidays before? And only him, without Maria. Maybe it was because there was no one at home to keep Tony company? Unlikely. There were other people around - Jarvis, his wife, nanny, or Maria (As a last resort. Weird, I know). Was this an attempt to introduce Tony to the military then? Sounds even weirder that it happened during holidays. Why would you bring your kid to the Pentagon for the holidays, Howard? He should be at home with his family. Gosh...

[sambuckylibrary]

TFATWS Anniversary Event 2024

The @sambuckylibrary will be holding a The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Anniversary Event! The event will start on March 18th and run until April 28th. During that time, we will be reblogging and sharing the work you guys create here on our blog.

This event is not just for the creators, but for the commenters. You can post fanfiction, art, moodboards, edits, podfics, fic list recs, comments, etc. It’ll be a low-stakes event. No need to sign up. Just remember to tag @sambuckylibary in your post for each fill, and we will be tracking #tfatwsanniversary2024 for reblogs.

If you are posting on AO3, please add it toTFATWS Anniversary Event 2024 Collection.

Each week will have a different theme with prompts from Monday to Friday. Each prompt will also come with a badge you may use for it when you post. The weekly themes and their prompts will be:

For the text version of the information above as well as the FAQ and rules, check the information under “keep reading”.

WEEK 1 (March 18 - 24): THE WINTER SOLDIER TO PRE-INFINITY WAR

MONDAY: “I don’t think he’s the kind you save.”

TUESDAY: Sam Searches for Bucky

WEDNESDAY: “Can you move your seat up?”

THURSDAY: Team Up at the Airport

FRIDAY: On the Run

WEEK 2 (March 25 - 31) : INFINITY WAR TO PRE-TFATWS

MONDAY: Laying Low

TUESDAY: Reunite in Wakanda

WEDNESDAY: Soul Stone

THURSDAY: Victory Party

FRIDAY: 6 Months of Ghosting

WEEK 3 (April 1 - 7): The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

MONDAY: Couple's Therapy

TUESDAY: “Let me just walk you through a hypothetical.”

WEDNESDAY: Madripoor

THURSDAY: “You’re just gonna set me up like that, huh?”

FRIDAY: The Cookout

WEEK 4 (April 8 - 14): Post-TFATWS

MONDAY: Meanwhile, on the Boat...

TUESDAY: Divorce Arc

WEDNESDAY: Skrulls

THURSDAY: Better Thunderbolts Ideas

FRIDAY: Better Captain America 4 Ideas

WEEK 5 (April 15 - 21): AU Week

MONDAY: No Powers AU

TUESDAY: Period Piece

WEDNESDAY: Sci-fi/Fantasy AU

THURSDAY: Based on a Movie

FRIDAY: Ghost/Zombie AU

WEEK 6 (April 22 - 28): Sambucky Week

MONDAY: Didn’t Know They were Dating/Friends with Benefits

TUESDAY: Redwing

WEDNESDAY: Hurt/Comfort

THURSDAY: Separate, Long Vacations

FRIDAY: Dealer's Choice

FAQ

What is this?

It’s a SamBucky event.

Is there any pressure?

No pressure at all.

Can I fill more than one prompt with one piece of art/one fic?

Yes! You can fill one prompt with one piece of art or fic. You can try to fill all five prompts that week at once with one piece of art or fic. You can do any number in between.

Are there any prizes for making anything for this event?

Just the satisfaction that you made something cool.

Is it just SamBucky?

Yes please, just SamBucky. There can be side ships, but the main ship should be SamBucky.

How long will this event run?

It will run from March 18th and run until April 28th.

I heard there are badges I can use for each fill?

There are! You can find the badges here.

RULES AND GUIDELINES

What are the guidelines for the bingo?

I will be borrowing some of this from the MYSU Valentine’s Day Bingo 2022 Guidelines, since they were fantastic.

For Everyone:

1. Remember to @sambuckylibrary in the post as well as #tfatwsanniversary2024.

2. Please also tag the prompt you’re filling (for instance, if the square is “Redwing”, use “#redwing” as one of your tags when posting about it on Tumblr).

3. If you’re uploading to AO3, please:

a ) Say somewhere which prompt you’re filling.

b ) Add it to TFATWS Anniversary Event 2024 (TFATWS_Anniversary_Event_2024).

For Artists:

1. Create at least one piece of new art that can’t have been posted anywhere else before this.

2. All visual art forms are welcome:

a ) Gifsets, at least 3 gifs.

b ) Aesthetic boards or moodboards, at least 4 images each.

c ) Drawing/painting, that is not a sketch.

d) Fan video.

e) Graphics edit.

For Authors:

1. At least 500 words.

2. Posted on Tumblr or AO3.

3. Can be part of a series, but should work as a standalone.

For Podficcers:

1. The podfic should at least be 5 minutes long.

2. It should be posted on either Tumblr or AO3.

3. The podfic can be of a fic made for the event, a fic not made for the event while still adhering to the prompt, or a notfic.

For Fic Rec Lists:

1. You must have at least five fics or podfics on the rec list.

2. Make sure to give brief descriptions of the fics or podfics as well as their rating and wordcount.

For Commenters:

1. Any amount of comment counts, from a heart emoji (“❤️”) to an essay.

2. We would rather this be about what makes you happy and joyful about reading than any scathing critiques.

Things to be mindful of when creating:

For Sam

Avoid framing Sam only as a caretaker or emotional support for Bucky. Be mindful of Sam acting angry or aggressive in an out-of-character way and falling into the angry/sassy Black man trope (check out the MCU source material to help with character traits).

Avoid decentering Sam as a main character and refrain from focusing entirely on Bucky.

In art: avoid whitewashing Sam’s skin and research drawing Black characters.

General disclaimer: Race affects every aspect of his life, including interacting with police/government and the white structures of the world when it comes to performing his duties as Cap and simply being a Black man that lives in the U.S.

For Bucky

Avoid phrasing “flesh/normal/human hand” to refer to the contrast between his prosthetic arm and his right arm. The phrasing is ableist. You can simply refer to his prosthesis when relevant, otherwise use “right/left arm/hand”.

For more information, please check out this document suggested by @ninesdb on how to write Bucky as an amputee. @ninesdb is also open to questions if you have any queries not answered by the google doc.

Specific Tags:

Avoid tags in AO3 like “Sam Wilson is a Gift”, “Sam Wilson is a Saint”, and “Bucky Needs a Hug”.

Have fun and we look forward to your TFATWS Anniversary fics!

- The Mods

[uniiiquehecrt]

I'm thinking in terms of actual real life experiences I've had when I say this, but I'd imagine part of what makes being a Thor enjoyer so frustrating in 2024/MCU's phase 4+ era is that... you're effectively not allowed to enjoy your favorite superhero.

I once had a conversation with a close friend of mine during a casual outing, and without going into very many details, this particular person is an enjoyer of Ragnarok, and enjoys Tailka's work overall. Now, I should say right off the bat: there is nothing wrong with these opinions. Everyone is entitled to like what they like and enjoy the work of creators just the same as other people are allowed to dislike them. For this particular post, I'm not here to get into fandom wars or "reasons why taika waititi is a terrible director" beef. I have other posts in line for that. But what I will say is that I already knew this about my friend, so it never surprised me when the topic of Thor came up that it would be a point of disagreement.

The issue I've found that continues to circle in the general space of "being a Thor fan" came when I expressed that I don't like Ragnarok, I do think Thor was funnier (and just better overall) before Ragnarok and therefore Taika's involvement, and quite frankly Taika had very little business taking on the mantle of director of a superhero franchise he has never liked or understood in his life just because he had mouths to feed. (There are other opportunities to fulfill that. And filmmakers know going into this industry that it's all gig-based and - if they're smart anyways - work around that.) I hadn't even gotten a chance to go through all of the reasons WHY I feel that way, of which I have had before compiled an organized list of about 16 talking points off the top of my head, so as far as that particular discussion goes... it didn't go anywhere. We were busy at the time.

But namely what I want to talk about is this:

The response I was given, in summary, was something along the lines of "well I think Thor was boring, and he wasn't my cup of tea, so I'm glad he changed."

But, you see, there's just ONE small issue with that: Thor isn't meant for everyone.

In fact, no character is meant for everyone. So why is it that Thor needs to change to be "for everyone" and be the MCU normies' "cup of tea" when no other character has to? Why does he need to lose his core identity (both as a character, as a franchise, you name it, it's been done) just because people like my friend don't understand him as well as Tony Stark or Spider-Man? And why should Thor fans have tow watch their favorite superhero get stripped down and turned into something completely divorced from the character, world and cast we were first involved with from the beginning?

Nobody at any point has been able to answer me that besides "well just because I didn't like Thor personally."

Iron Man won't appeal to everyone. Neither does Captain America, neither does Spider-Man, beloved as even Spidey is. They have their own quirks, their own villains, their own storylines... Every superhero has a core to them that their stories revolve around. He's from DC, but Superman, for instance, has the core of: love, justice and the American Way. Therefore, his stories revolve around challenging that core, and making Superman prove it. Steve Rogers/Captain America has a similar core. Justice, freedom and the American Way, is what I'd mostly boil his core down to. Thor's is "love" all around. I've written about that '(here)' in my post about his 2011 themes. Maybe it's different for other fans, but for me personally? I adore that about Thor. It's one of the many reasons I'm drawn to him over any other marvel Super besides Spider-Man. (not you tom holland ... yes you andrew garfield...)

So when I go to Thor for entertainment, I'm going to him above the other superheros because I want a story that revolves around HIS core and how Thor goes about reckoning with his challenges. I also go to MCU Thor specifically for his quiet, kind, regal nature. I come to him for his gravitas, his passion, his relationships with his cast of companions.

I go to him for high-sci-fi action/adventure, or for the "what if we took norse mythology and made it an alien superhero" route they took him in for the MCU. I go to Thor because he IS different from the rest of the Avengers... and that's the point.

So when someone says to me: "Well Thor wasn't for me so I'm glad he changed", or "Well I really liked Ragnarok because Thor kind of become more in line with the other Avengers"... they're fundamentally missing the point of why Thor has a fanbase at all.

[robertdowneyjjr]

hey, so. funny thing.

@whinysteve and i have been going insane for like two days because we couldn't find this one fic we really liked, and we both remembered reading it not so long ago but somehow neither of us could recall how it ended? and we kept saying that it's so GOOD and how the heck did it just disappear? well, after hours of losing my mind going through my ao3 history, the steve/tony tag with various keywords, the findingstony blog... it. it hit me that i can't find it because it doesn't exist. because it was the soulmates au idea you posted like two weeks ago where their words only show up after they've met their soulmate.

i thought you might find this amusing. 😩 (i do, but i also need to lie down for a bit because i will never know how steve fixed that mess)

hahahaha omg liv if this is your way of peer pressuring me into writing the whole fic i might actually do it??? because your ask has got me thinking about what would happen next.

that said, steve still hasn't figured out how to fix this mess. i'm very sorry about this.

(stonyclunks soulmates au part one here)

---

having been rescued by SHIELD, news of steve's recovery was immediately delivered to howard stark who, while not as involved with SHIELD as he used to be, still receives weekly reports as one of its co-founders.

he'd gone home that night and brought it up in the middle of cutting his steak. coincidentally, tony had been visiting that day and stayed for dinner, so he found out about captain america's miraculous resurrection before the general public did, and honestly, he had enough of hearing about how great this guy was growing up. he really didn't need to keep hearing about it as an adult after he'd finally worked through his issues with his dad and his obsession with a (not quite) dead war hero.

so after howard's announcement, tony politely requested howard refrain from talking about this guy with him.

"i know he's your friend, and you'll probably be spending a bit of time with him now that he's been found, and i'm really happy for you, but i think it would be better for our relationship if we could talk about literally anything but him," he'd said.

and, well. howard was trying. he knew he wasn't the best dad and he also wanted to do right by maria, who spent so many years torn between her son and her husband while trying to mend their relationship. they were finally in a relatively good place with each other which made maria happy. and to be frank, howard had actually come to really enjoy tony's company whenever he was home. he was quite happy too. so he agreed. they don't talk about steve and howard doesn't ask tony to meet steve.

that very night, tony made sure 'captain america' and 'steve rogers' were muted in all his news feeds and social channels.

he literally doesn't know a single thing about the man besides what he learned in his childhood, which he's blocked out. it's a peaceful two years of blissful ignorance.

fast forward to now, tony's packing up his suitcase and getting ready to check out of his hotel when he sees a text from his mom in their family group chat.

seems he's not quite the perfect role model you always made him out to be, howard 🤡, her message reads.

what follows is a link to an instagram post, and from the message preview he can see that it's steve rogers' profile, and under normal circumstances he wouldn't even bother clicking the link.

but 1) maria usually never brings up the man in tony's presence either, and 2) her comment made him laugh. so color tony intrigued.

he taps the link and sees the post. it's a picture of a coffee cup from the place he was at a week ago. the one where he got body slammed by his mysterious dick of a soulmate and unfairly yelled at for it.

he reads the caption and his legs give out under him.

i don't even know if you'll see this, but all i can do is hope. i'm sorry for the words that have made their mark on you. i know i don't deserve it, but i'm hoping you could give me a second chance. i won't yell at you this time, i promise. yours, a fucking asshole

one week ago, captain america was barely even a blip on tony's radar and that's how he preferred it. now, steve rogers is tony's mysterious dick of a soulmate.

what the fuck even is his life.

[buckyswintersoldiermask]

The Letter

Bucky Barnes x reader

Bucky Masterlist

Summary: You find a letter that Bucky has kept from a girl from his past, you leave once you find the letter. Bucky finds you and explains himself.

Word Count: 1.4K

Warnings: angsty and fluff, mention of PTSD.

A/N: these dates might be off and if they are that’s my fault. (Felt the gif was a good fit) I thought of this months ago but never posted it. I’ll be honest this isn’t my best work :/

(y/m/n): your mothers name

1943

“Mary, I have to go fight in the war.”

James Buchanan Barnes was going to war. Leaving his beloved friend, Mary. Knowing there was a possibility she’d never see him again she wrote him a letter.

Bucky was getting ready to go into the building which would deem him war ready. He stood there hand in hand with Mary.

“Here.” She places a letter in his hand. Bucky looks at the letter and goes to open it. “No not yet. It’s for when you miss home.” Mary hugs him one last time.

“You better not be stuck on Robert still by the time I get back!” Bucky calls out walking away.

“But he’s such a dreamboat, Bucky.”

“Bye Mary.”

“Bye Sarge.”

1944/1945

Weeks went as Steve continued to play “Captain America” show after show and Colonel still didn’t give him a chance. After talking with Peggy, Steve finds out that Bucky and his regiment went up against Schmidt and only 50 came back alive. Steve and Peggy rush to Colonel Phillips and he gives him his condolences.

He decides that the colonel’s decision isn’t good enough for him. Steve infiltrates Hydra and rescues all the men captured, including Bucky. He finds him strapped to a table repeating his Sergeant number.

“It’s me”

“Steve?”

“I thought you were dead.”

“I thought you were smaller.”

Steve and the men make it back to camp, celebrating their win. He was out drinking with some of the men he saved from being captured, asking them to go back to fight. They all agreed to fight with him.

“How about you? You ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death?”

“Heck, no. That little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb not to run away from a fight, I’m following him.” Bucky replies, “But, you’re keeping the outfit right?”

“You know what? It’s kind of growing on me.”

Steve digs in his pocket and takes out a wrinkled piece of paper. Bucky could recognize that paper anywhere. “I picked this up off the table, thought you might like it back.” Steve hands Bucky the paper and Bucky opens it, seeing some of the words are faded.

2024

You have been with Bucky for about 2 years. If you can say that’s 2 years. You became friends with him in 2017, and stayed with him in Wakanda. You started dating in 2018, and then you were both blipped when Thanos won. Now you’re back together, happy.

You were cleaning around your bedroom when you came across a piece of paper on your dresser. It isn’t normally there so it caught your attention. You opened it to see it’s a letter:

Dear Bucky,

We’ve been friends for quite some time. I wish you didn’t have to go but I know you have to serve our country. I’ll always be your friend and I’ll be here waiting for you when you come back. But I need to tell you something, I love you Bucky and I always have. So come back to me.

Love, Mary

‘Who’s Mary?’ ‘How old is this letter?’ ‘Why does he still have it?’ Not knowing any of those answers you started to pack a bag. Bucky had left just an hour ago to go to the store. You decided the best place to go was to your mothers house.

Why would he keep an old letter from a girl? Did he not love you the way you thought he did? Your head swarmed with thoughts as you ran out the house. You bought a bus ticket and rode it all the way your mothers house.

Bucky came home from the store to an empty house. He searched every room and no sign of you. You were always at home on Thursday evenings, waiting for him with the groceries. Worried about where you are, he left you multiple texts and calls.

Doll, where are you?

Are you okay?

(y/n) please call me.

You ignored his texts as you stayed at your mother’s house wondering where you went wrong. As you ignored his texts Bucky got extremely worried. Did something happen to you? Bucky contemplates what to do, that’s when he stumbles upon the open letter of paper from Mary and some thrown clothes on your shared bed.

Oh crap, Bucky thought.

He yanks his phone out of his pocket and calls a couple of your friends and gets nothing. Then he calls your mother, her being his last resort.

“Hey, Miss (y/m/n), have you talked to (y/n) today?”

“Hi Bucky, she’s in my living room right now.” Bucky sighs in relief knowing you’re okay.

“She was gone when I came home and I just got so worried.”

“Did something happen between the two of you?”

“I think she saw an old letter and decided to leave.”

“It was an old letter from the past, right?”

“Yeah it was, I’m on my way.”

After that call, Bucky grabbed his keys and the letter and headed to your mother’s house. Your mom loved Bucky despite his history. She’s always asking you when he’s going to be her son-in-law. It’s almost like she loves him more than you. Once she heard both sides of the story she understood where both of you were coming from. You needed to talk it out.

“(y/n), I think you’re misunderstanding this.” Your mom says setting a cup of tea down in front of you.

“But how? Why would he keep a letter from this girl from his past?” You question, not knowing the answer yourself.

“Honey, Bucky has been through a lot, everything in his life from his past that he once had, is gone, maybe he’s just trying to hold on to that little piece he has left.”

She’s not wrong. Everything from Bucky’s past is gone, except his PTSD and dog tags. He doesn’t have Steve, he doesn’t have a war to fight. That’s all he done for years.

“You think I should’ve heard him out before leaving?” You ask, looking at your mother waiting for more words of wisdom.

She smiles grabbing your hand, holding it tightly in her lap, “You will, I’m sure he’s on his way now. (y/n), Bucky loves you without a doubt. You should listen to what he has to say.”

You sat around talking to your mother catching up with her, you learned that she had done some renovations to the house and that she has been waiting for you and Bucky to visit. But on better terms. You were taking your cups to the kitchen when you heard the doorbell.

“I’ll be in the backyard.” You say, walking to the back door. Once you were out of view, your mother opened the door and there stood Bucky.

“Hi ms. (y/m/n).” Bucky says, smiling at your mother despite the situation.

“Oh, Bucky, come in.” Your mother ushers Bucky inside and he gets a glimpse of your things. “She’s in the backyard.” Bucky thanks her and makes his way to the backyard. He puts his hand in his pocket, fiddling with the letter. As he walked outside, his eyes immediately found you.

He walks over to you, keeping his space so he doesn’t upset you. “(y/n).”

“Do you love me?” You blurt out staring into his eyes. He was shocked you’d ever ask him that. Of course he loved you, he didn’t just love you, he was in love with you, he adored you.

“Wha- Of course, I love you.”

“Then why do you keep that letter from your girlfriend in the forties, Bucky, huh?” Bucky sighs, taking out the letter, handing it to you.

“Mary was my friend, she gave me this letter right before I went to war, told me to read it when I missed home. Yes I know there’s no war now, but Mary, she’s a part of what I can remember before HYDRA.”

“She’s a reminder of who I was, who James Bucky Barnes was. I know I should throw it out, but this little letter is all I have left.” Bucky confesses, watching your hands has you hold the letter.

“I’m sorry.” You utter, gazing into Bucky’s eyes.

“No, doll-”

“I need to apologize to you, I should’ve just talked to you about it instead of just leaving.” Bucky comes closer to you, holding your hands in his.

“I should’ve opened up to you about this.”

“Its okay. And I know I’m not any of your buddies, but I know who James Bucky Barnes is.” Bucky smiles resting his hands on your hips, “Is that right?”

“James Bucky Barnes is my 106 year old super soldier that I love dearly. He’s the kindest, loving, caring, strongest, sassiest, grumpiest, and handsomest man I’ve ever met.” You lean in and give Bucky a long apology kiss.

“Are you two staying for dinner?” Your mother called out from the backdoor, making you and Bucky break away.

“Mom!” You groan, amusing Bucky.

“We’d love to stay ms. (y/m/n)!”

Please do not steal, copy or translate my writings, or post them on other sites.

Likes, reblogs, and comments are appreciated :)

Bucky: @qhbr2013 @allforkook @supremethunda @amelia-song-pond @tinylumpiaa @sammypotato67 @leyannrae @teebarnes @teti-menchon0604 @mogaruke @instabull @ccosmic-illusion @supraveng @1-800-imagines @chris-j-evans

Kofi

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Bucky Tags: @qhbr2013 @allforkook @supremethunda @amelia-song-pond @tinylumpiaa @sammypotato67 @leyannrae @teebarnes @teti-menchon0604 @mogaruke @instabull @ccosmic-illusion @supraveng @1-800-imagines @chris-j-evans

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[memphis0806]

This Town by Niall Horan reminds me of Stucky.

for those who have no idea what I’m talking about. Please stay regardless.

Here’s This Town by Niall Horan, I highly recommend you have a listen at some point: https://youtu.be/ic1l36GrNOU?si=Byjdt9eiFAA92pl1

And for those of you who don’t know what stucky is, stucky is a gay ship between Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier) also know as Stevebucky or Steve x Bucky. Whatever you choose. Shipping them in any universe is fine just as long as you are aware of the fact that Bucky is a teen while Steve is an adult in many of the comic universes and thus don’t ship them in those. Other than that, happy shipping!

For starters, the main bit of the song is “If the whole world was watching I’d still dance with you, drive highways and byways to be there with you.” The meaning Niall intended was essentially, I don’t care what other people think of it I love you and wanna be with you, which works pretty well for Steve and Bucky since they were literally born pre WWII. That lyric works so well for their time because of the way lgbtq people were treated at the time. Even the “…drive highways and byways to be there with you” fits perfectly because of the whole “I’ll be with you till the end of the line” thing and the quote from TFA where Bucky goes “The little guy from Brooklyn who couldn’t stay out of a fight. I’m following him.” Although I mostly ignore canon for the sake of this ship, we can still keep the fact Steve and Bucky continuously found each other. They literally went through so much trouble just to be together. (Even if you don’t ship them, that’s pretty much the plot of the cap movies. Steve is motivated to save Bucky. Just for the sake of this post, please ignore Endgame. Great movie, I ignore it as far as canon goes.) Besides all the wars and things Steve starts for the sake of Bucky, Bucky does a lot to protect Steve too, and even though I usually ignore it he even went into cryo again because he didn’t want to be a danger. Now, for a more literal standpoint, I head canon based on some other stuff I need that Bucky really likes to dance (even though he won’t usually show it around anyone but Steve or for the sake of pre-serum, dames he was trying to impress). He taught Steve to do it, and after he’s improving mentally and starts getting more comfortable/confident, (and especially after they start dating) he consistently asks Steve to dance with him. After Bucky gets even more confident as he’s doing better then they especially don’t care, and my little headcanon can be implemented in the literal canon thing I described above. That’s the thing I love about This Town, is that it fits both canonically for the most part and for lots of headcanons and fanfiction stuff.

You wanna know the best part about this song? There’s more. For the sake of your time and mine, I’m going to summarize it the best I can, but no promises.

The beginning of the song goes “Waking up to kiss you and nobody’s there. The smell of your perfume still stuck in the air.” Which works well if you like to count Endgame (and ignore the fact that it says kiss) since Steve left Bucky. It even works before Steve found about Bucky being alive since he is so motivated by the other. In continuation, “yesterday I thought I saw your shadow running round” was quite literally what Steve did consistently after he woke up in the 21st century. He swore that he saw Bucky everywhere. (It didn’t help that The Winter Soldier was mostly a ghost story.) You can also use it for pre-serum Steve since Bucky was constantly looking down alleyways to keep Steve out of trouble.

okay this post is gonna be really long because I just thought of more lol.

“And I want to tell you everything, the words I never got to say the first time around.” This one mostly only works if you ship Stucky, but that’s mostly the point of this post. How I imagine their love story is that they both were in love before the war (refer to tons upon tons of Pinterest and tumblr posts) and they tried to write letters to each other to confess and they either never got sent, got lost, or who knows what. (There are actually fan made letters somewhere on the internet that you can find for this). After they both find each other and whatever, this is when they get the second chance to telling each other everything “the words I never got to say the first time around”

and then of course there’s “and I remember everything” which is ironic because of Bucky’s brainwashing problem, but Steve still remembers everything so there’s that. And it gets better: “from when we were the children playing in this fairground”. Well, obviously as Bucky gets his memory back he remembers more, I mean like I’ve said I don’t tend to count the movies as canon however, he quite literally told Steve that he remembers “your moms name is Sarah, and you used to put newspaper in your shoes.”

of course there’s a couple bits of the song that don’t match well, but depending on what you believe you can interpret how you want, because that’s what 99.9% of music is.

While “I saw that you moved on with someone new” doesn’t quite fit, there’s “in the club that we met he’s got his arms around you”. Although they met in school, there’s still those times Steve was with Peggy and you can imagine how hard that must’ve been for Bucky.

also “and I know that it’s wrong, that I can’t move on, but there’s something about you” doesn’t entirely fit if you read it the way Niall probably intended it, however. Between Steve waking up in the 21st century and finding out that Bucky was in fact alive, you can imagine that he felt bad for not being able to move on from his best friend that he loved so much.

Finally, there’s the last lines (which are repeated throughout the song but I mean hey). “You still make me nervous when you walk in the room, butterflies they come alive when I’m next to you” Bucky is found to be alive, Steve feels all sorts of emotions at the sight of his best friend. If I wasn’t lazy I’d post the reaction shot of Steve from catws. If you ignore endgame, it’s also pretty evident that the two would be happy to have each other back, and as a plus, works pretty dang well as far as fanfiction goes.

then of course the last last lines are “over and over the only truth. Everything comes back to you” which FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD, IGNORE ENDGAME UNLESS CONVENIENT, GREAT STORYLINE, NOT CANON FOR THE SAKE OF THIS POST. Other than endgame and probably pretty much the motive for the entirety of their relation/friendship. Is there whole thing. They keep coming back to each other. They always find each other no matter what. They fight literally and metaphorically with each other in sync, and they are always saying they’ll be with each other til the end of the line.

To those of you that chose to read this post, thanks. I was not planning on analyzing the whole song but kinda glad I did cuz this was fun. And hey, maybe I awakened something as far as stucky goes for someone.

[indominusavenger]

Looking back at Civil War and Homecoming, I found intriguing parallels at their endings. When Tony arrives back at the Avengers Compound, he looks at the Avengers symbol with what I'd describe as disdain but I think it's mostly regret and pain. Then, fast forward to Homecoming's finale at the Compound and when Peter sees it, his face lights up. He looks hopeful, happy, excited. I find these as interesting comparisons. Here they are side by side for you to see what I'm talking about.

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Do you see what I mean? I want to believe these are intentional because we end Civil War on a somber note-the Avengers are divided, Tony comes home defeated after being stranded in Siberia and he found out the truth about his parents' deaths. What's there to believe in anymore of Earth's Mightiest Heroes? And then, we get to Homecoming. At this point, several months have passed and Spider-Man has just taken down his first major supervillain and saved Iron Man's tech. Tony Stark requested Peter's presence at the Compound and this is the first time he gets to see the place. There's a hope of rekindling of sorts with his mentor. So now, we're embracing a more hopeful tone once we see the Avengers symbol again. To me, that's an important contrast.

The resentment, hurt, and defeat we see from Tony's view reflects that lost hope in the Avengers, in a way. From the veteran Avenger who is tired and tried his best to keep the team together, we feel his shame and suffering at the downfall of his best laid plans. Now, moving onto Peter, we regain that hope and enthusiasm in the Avengers because that's how he sees this team of heroes as an outsider. He's a new recruit, a young aspiring superhero that wants to fit into that world and where better than in the Avengers by Iron Man's side? He's the most relatable of the main characters because his perspective matches that of the audience; we see the Avengers with that same hope, reverence, etc. They feel untouchable, other-worldly in a sense. I think it's also supposed to be a hint from Marvel that just because of the current conditions with the Avengers at that time, they would be back together soon and not all hope is lost, hence Infinity War. But at the moment, it's simply a subtle nod to that. Notice how hope keeps coming up as the key word in this post? I conclude that this theme of hope is supposed to reflect the way we as humans work; we may lose hope due to unfortunate circumstances, however, deep inside, that feeling of hope still lingers and stirs within us. That's why it was the last thing in Pandora's Box and I think it serves to remind us that it's always there, no matter what happens. It's so integral to us, even superheroes.

[divinecomedyproductions]

Fandom Woes: Restricting Creatives and Policing Potential Audiences

This is something of an Electric Boogaloo to my previous posts in my problems with Fandoms.

One major complaint I hear a lot from Fandoms wether be Star Wars, Warhammer, Marvel, DC, and so on, which is big companies changing these works fundamentally their unrecognizable and "fanfiction" and the solution is to GateKeep and tell others to do their own things, and plenty of YouTube personalities have pointed out the root of this problem

And this is a heavily opinionated post, so read at your own risk

But there is another factor which I briefly went over in one of my posts

A lot of literary snobs will have you dancing around between writing reimagined AU fanfic which they will chide you being "unrecognizable to the source material" and when you take what you liked and what you wanted and make it it's own thing they brand it as "derivative thinly veiled fanfiction" and will get all pissy if it takes jabs at the inspiration, all while they support creators do the exact same thing to things they don't like.

But also when you point out the potential audience, in my experience those "intellectuals" will proceed to insult them as uncultured and stupid unwashed masses or minority of freaks(and they often flip flop between the two inconsistently) who they can't stand breathing the same air as them.

For example, way back when I was younger and explained what I liked about Warhammer 40k and what I didn't like, most of the fandom used their brains and were civil with me about it in their disagreement.

But then some among the fandom told me I should just shut up and go watch Star Wars and Lord of The Rings.

And if I may repeat a point, Iconic Comics created Kamen America because they didn't like what was done with Captain Marvel, so they took what they liked about her and what they wanted, combined other elements to create Kamen America and The Kamen Corps

Which then people started screaming Kamen America was just a "porno Captain Marvel rip-off" all while supporting The Boys which has an evil Superman and nasty rendition of superheroes written by a guy who said hostile things about the genre

I expressed about what I liked about RWBY and what I didn't like and what I wanted and how I was gonna used what I liked and wanted to make an reimagined AU and OG work and got bashed as "leeching off Monty's work" and "RWBY Christian Propaganda" and I should just shut up and go watch Marvel or Disney, or if I do it, I gotta be apologetic and ashamed about it and accept the "Consequences" which to me, comes off as a threat.

Which these same people also cheer on the Anti-Narnian His Dark Materials Trilogy written by a guy who hates CS Lewis and Christianity with a passion.

These people don't want others to tamper around with what they love, but they don't want them to take what they like and what they wanted to make their own thing either, all while they cheer on those who do the same thing with stuff us "wrong people" like.

and I have a theory why this is.

The "Intellectual Elite" of Literature do not like it when "The Wrong People" take matters into their own hands, at least in ways they do not approve of, or unless the dissident does it while professing its ultimately nothing compared to what "the right people" do. Especially now that we are in a climate in which people on the fence are more receptive to indie voices.

These prigs want to lock things down and keep all dissent under their control to keep things nice and copacetic for their own ego.

And here's the reality check for these people, and I don't know how many I speak for

I do not give a pingas how "objective" and "educated" you are about these things, I and other creatives are under little to no obligation to regulate our creativity and force ourselves to change our feelings and keep our mouths shut and follow your little hypocritical rules because you think you know better than everyone else.

We are under little to no obligation to not take what we liked and what we wanted and not take jabs at the inspiration, especially when you all support creatives who do the exact same thing towards things you don't like.

We are under little to no obligation to "broaden our audiences" when in the past it left us getting the short end of the stick so many times when you refuse to do the same with what you create and enjoy.

And by your own logic, especially when you say "Its not gonna change canon or its 'trajectory'" then why do you need to come in and police everyone else and lecture how horrible we all are for liking things that you don't, while lecturing us about doing what your doing right now? If you were truly secure in what you knew to be the objective end-all-be-all, then you'd never had gone out of your way to open your mouth.

And if you decide to have us "own up to the consequences of our actions" which we both know is a veiled threat to punish people who do things you don't like, or be complacent when abuse happens towards those you disagree with, then I and a good number of people will fight back if it escalates to harassment, bypassing our "curations" and slander.

and I can hear these so-called critics say

"Well, what if you make your stuff and you turn out to be wrong?"

If we don't do so well, nothing happens, its not gonna be like Across The Spider-Verse where a big-ass hole is gonna rip through reality.

If we are wrong, it's our ass. This will be done with money out of our own pocket and at none of your expense.

Take your own advise

"It's not for you, its not gonna change canon or its trajectory, disengage the material and move on.”

Because that advise only works on Social Media, when you are fine with canon is going

[havendance]

Library Trade Haul Roundup post!

I already talked about The Old Guard: Opening Fire, but onwards to the rest!

Hawkeye: Private Eye by Kelly Thompson, Leonardo Romero, and Jordie Bellaire. I already touched on some more general thoughts here, but to talk more specifically about this book, I thought that it was fun. I liked the private eye premise of it all. Coming into this primarily because I was interested primarily in seeing more of the creative team at work, I came away knowing Kate BIshop more (which I suppose is the purpose of a solo...). Anyway, this was in standard graphic novel size like the upcoming DC compact collection (or whatever it's called) so seeing the size of it and how it worked was also nice.

Pretty Deadly vol 2 and Pretty Deadly: The Rat by Kelly Sue Deconnick, Emma Rios, and Jordie Bellaire. I'd read Pretty Deadly volume 1 previously and I think I should have read it closer because I came out of it going 'I'm not entirely sure what the story of this was but it was a very pretty comic.' I do feel like I understand what happened in these two better. Pretty deadly continues to be a very pretty comic. It has a lush quality to it that's always a pleasure to read.

X-Men Red vol 1 and 2 written by Al Ewing with an artistic team that changes enough I won't list them out. These were grabbed off the shelf because they looked cool and as the first X-men comic I read it was a wild ride. My previous exposure to the X-men was watching X-men: Evolution as a kid and this was not that. I'm over here like "krakoa? resurrection protocols? Why isn't Xavier in a wheelchair?" This series features x-men are on Mars which is named the dune-esque name of Arako and is also habitable now for some reason. Anyway, these kicked ass and each volume had multiple 'oh shit' level moments and it got me interested in checking out just what is going on in more current X-men comics.

The Authority Book 1 by Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch, and Laura Martin. This is a book for people who enjoy watching extraordinarily competent and powerful people kick ass and save the world from various huge threats and I am that target audience. Jenny Sparks is very cool and I met her just in time to watch her die :( This was my first entry into Wildstorm and it's got me interested in reading more and checking out Stormwatch (and reading more of Jenny).

Captain America: Red Menace Ultimate Collection by Ed Brubaker, penciled by Mike Perkins and Steve Epting, and colored by Frank D'Armata. I am continuing my Captain America by Ed Brubaker read at last (needed to wait until I could check this physically out of the library.) I care less about Sin as an antagonist but Steve and Bucky coming together in the finale was so good. Slipping back together into partnership like nothing had changed but Bucky can't stay when it's done ;; Next up are the civil war tie in issues.

[bloodymarymorstan]

Ok so I just watched the latest episode of What If where Captain Carter (Peggy if she was Captain America) fights the Hydra Stomper (Steve if he was the Winter Soldier) because I KNEW they were once again gonna do the thing where they give all of Steve and Bucky's interactions to Peggy and Steve and say that this time they are romantic even though they definitely weren't when it was 2 very straight bros (lol) so. Let's get into it (spoilers for s2e5 of What If, obviously):

When Peggy finds out Steve is alive she goes to Nick Fury and he tells her there have been rumors of this for decades; Peggy's angry he and Natasha didn't tell her - this is interesting because in TWS Peggy was part of the organization that was hiding rumors about Bucky from Steve. Peggy is objecting to something she was part of in the actual MCU

Natasha says "the Steve Rogers that you loved died in 1953" - a similar sentiment to what people were saying to Steve about Bucky but more overtly romantic. They throw the word "love" around in the episode quite a few times, like they need to make it extra clear

Bucky (who's old and working for SHIELD) finds out Steve is alive and his reaction is pretty tame, like he's surprised and I guess happy but he doesn't really seem to care that much which is just ridiculous (especially bc in this timeline Steve and Bucky kept working together for several years after the war) - Bucky is also stated to have had a wife and kids and has clearly moved on from Steve in the way Peggy did in the original movies

The Hydra Stomper (Steve) is going to kill Bucky, Bucky stands in front of him to talk him down. He doesn't want to kill Steve which is obviously good and in character. The thing he says to try to get Steve to snap out of it is "let's get a drink" which cracked me up because is that the no homo version of "end of the line" for these writers?? Anyway, Steve does lower his gun but then he raises it again (we don't see if he would have actually killed Bucky because Peggy intervenes at this point)

There's a romantic scene where Peggy and Steve bond over their shared traumas which... shared life experience, anyone? (What If I threw myself off a cliff?) - it does turn out that Steve is secretly still brainwashed at this point and is trying to lure Peggy in so idk how seriously I should take this scene

In terms of dialogue, the final fight scene between Peggy and Steve is very similar to the one with Steve and Bucky in TWS. Eventually, Peggy drops her shield and tells Steve that she doesn't want to fight him, and is going to let him kill her. The line she says that gets him to stop is "I want to be with you. Even if this is the end. I want you." She also says "I can't lose you again." This is basically EXACTLY what "I'm with you til the end of the line means", but a bit less ambiguous (and also less poetic, the original line is obviously much better)

Steve doesn't kill Peggy, he flies off (but he also doesn't save her life like Bucky does for Steve in TWS so. Inferior)

At the end, Peggy is planning to go find Steve, even though nobody thinks she'll be able to save him (again, basically the exact same as TWS)

My concluding thoughts:

It's hard to say what Marvel's exact goal is with the phenomenon of giving so many of Steve and Bucky's interactions to Steve and Peggy in EU content, but it's definitely gotten pretty ridiculous and out of hand. There is an instinct to accuse them of homophobia and wanting to rewrite Steve and Bucky's story to make it straight/less significant, but I also wonder if the bigger factor is that the writers know that Steve and Peggy's canon ending makes no sense considering how underdeveloped their relationship was, and they want to trick viewers into thinking they had a better written romance by giving them more meaningful moments in What If (and also Rogers The Musical but that's for another post). That being said, if the best way to write a better romance you can think of is to use the exact same plotline the supposedly straight protagonist had with his male best friend (but that people have been interpreting as a romance for years and years) then maybe you should be reflecting on why that is. Ultimately though it's just lazy writing (have some originality!) and will never erase the fact that the real movies were gay as hell. I'll definitely be taking this as further proof that TWS was a romance all along.

[sineala]

What do you think was the better* “later addition to canon”?

Steve being frozen post WW2

Or

Tony being an alcoholic

Because those aspects weren’t part of the original sell of the character but it’s such a big part of each

Or a third option!

*better can be “I think this adds the most interesting things to the canon from a writer’s perspective” or even “I like this most 🙂”

Interesting question! Thank you for asking! Honestly, I feel like both of those things are very different from each other, in terms of narrative function, and if you're actually looking for moments in canon that added something new and major to Steve and Tony's characters that wasn't there before, I wouldn't pick either of those moments for either of them.

I have some thoughts about this!

Steve getting iced was basically just a retcon to put Steve in the comics at the age that they wanted and not having to deal with him having reached the ancient and decrepit age of 40, an age that is clearly forbidden for superheroes. It's not really much different from how they keep adjusting things as the timescale keeps sliding -- Sharon is Peggy's niece and not her sister, Tony's origin story moves to wars that are later than Vietnam. It's just one of a number of changes Marvel makes regularly to keep character ages consistent; sure, it might even be the first of them. But I don't think the icing itself is a fundamental change in who Steve is as a character.

Now, you could argue that the Man Out of Time aspect -- which came in as a direct result of the icing -- is a fundamentally different part of Steve's character that wasn't present in earlier comics and changed who he was. But in response to that, I would argue that, in a lot of ways, Golden Age Captain America isn't really the same character at all as later Steve Rogers. I would say that the Steve we know and love is one who has pretty much only existed since Avengers #4 and in a sense has always had the ice in his backstory. Sure, a character with the same name, powers, and origin as Captain America existed in the Golden Age -- but that guy, he doesn't really seem like Steve, and modern canon sure doesn't treat him like Steve. The fact that there was also a discontinuity in publishing -- unlike how DC, IIRC, never really stopped, Timely kind of isn't actually Marvel, and everything from before Fantastic Four #1 kind of doesn't count. I think.

I don't know how much Golden Age Captain America you've read. I haven't read all of it. I've only read about a dozen issues, but I feel like that's enough for me to get a sense of the character. So the thing about Golden Age comics is that they all just feel… really weird, compared to anything from the 60s and later. You get a sense that everyone at the time was still working out what a superhero comic, and maybe just a comic at all, was going to be like. The plots are weird, the villains are… okay, the villains being usually Super Racist is sadly not unique to the Golden Age, but it's really prominent. The characters don't really behave in ways you would expect. Bucky is treated as an actual child would have been in the forties -- like, there are panels of Steve threatening to spank him as discipline -- and the characters just don't feel the same.

Other than the fact that the super-soldier serum turned Steve Rogers into Captain America, and the fact that Bucky is his sidekick, and what Steve's powers basically are, nothing in these comics really feels a lot like the same character. Canonically, most of it isn't the same character! Everything after Captain America Comics #48 has been retconned to be people who aren't Steve, which shows you how much he isn't like Steve. Even the stuff that supposedly happened to Steve and Bucky doesn't really get referred to all that much. When later comics talk about Steve's time in the war, it's almost never the events of the Golden Age comics themselves -- instead, Marvel created a whole lot of stuff via flashbacks and then they refer to that. You never see Steve and Bucky talking about, say, the time they had to be in a drag show as punishment, although I swear this was a real comic. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos? Not in the Golden Age. The Invaders? Not in the Golden Age as a team! The All-Winners Squad was, but again, that features Captains America who were later retconned as not Steve (William Nasland, Jeff Mace). Most of Steve's villains other than Red Skull are not really there. It's just… not really the same character and there's not much of a meaningful sense of continuity between any of the events in the Golden Age and later comics. Later comics are working mostly from their own retellings and flashbacks. So I feel like Steve basically starts anew in Avengers #4 and thus has always been a Man Out Of Time.

Okay, so what about Tony's alcoholism? Tony before and after Demon in a Bottle is still Tony Stark, but the thing is, I feel like Tony's alcoholism isn't a drastic alteration to the character, and it fits very well with established canon, and it has been easily accepted as part of Tony's character, unlike something that just comes out of nowhere and is true now and everyone is all WTF at it (looking at you, adoption arc).

Tony's worst villain has always been himself. Specifically, it's been his own body. At the beginning, it was his heart damage and the chestplate, and the terrible curse inherent in Being Tony Stark was that someday soon his heart was going to give out. There are so many panels of him dramatically plugging himself into the wall and thinking about how close he is to death. Tony's origin story was essentially Here, Have A Disability. His body betrays him. His body doesn't do what he wants. He can't control it. There's something wrong with him and it's hurting him. Every so often they take away whatever's wrong with him, but they always revert to it -- his heart's been bad, and then fine, and then bad, and then fine, and here's the alcoholism, and oh no now he's paralyzed, and now it's his brain and he has amnesia, and so on.

In that sense, the alcoholism really feels like a natural escalation from the heart problems and that it fits well with all of this all of this. Here's something else about his body/mind that isn't right, that's causing him harm, that he initially tries to hide from almost everyone, and that he often has difficulty controlling. It's just that it's not his heart anymore.

So what would I pick for canonical moments in comics history that weren't part of Steve and Tony's original character conceptions and that really represented a new addition to his character?

For Steve I'd pick either the original Secret Empire arc (Nomad) or The Captain, because those basically both show the same thing. Sure, Captain America has always been a symbol of all the ideals of America as a country, and sometimes America lets him down, and sometimes he has to lecture people about how they should be better people -- but, as far as I know, Secret Empire was the first time Steve basically said, "Yeah, no, fuck the government." He loves his country. He doesn't always love his government. He doesn't think what happened in Secret Empire (which, yes, we all know, is secretly Watergate) is right, so he's going to… simply stop being Captain America. He's going to be Nomad. The government itself has now massively let him down, and they don't get to tell him what to do anymore. And now we're all like, "Oh, yeah, of course Steve is mad at the government and has decided to stop being Captain America right now! He's gonna go on a road trip to find himself! Here he is in Civil War telling the pro-Registration side they're wrong and becoming a fugitive from justice." But… he didn't start out like that.

This is a character who was created to be a soldier and to do what his country asked of him. Sure, there are early arcs where he gives up the shield for a little bit, but they're because he's going through one of his usual "who am I when I'm not Captain America?" crises and then he comes back pretty quick. It wasn't that he didn't believe in his government; it wasn't that kind of crisis of faith. But then Secret Empire happens and he's like, "yeah, no, I can't represent a country when the president was conspiring with aliens to take over the world" and he's just out of there. Same deal for The Captain. The government wants to tell him what to do because he's Captain America? Nope! Someone else can be Captain America now. Of course, then John Walker does a terrible job and Steve has to come back anyway. John Walker is like your awful roommate who half-asses the dishes so no one will ask him to do the dishes again even though he clearly knows how to wash dishes and chooses not to, except with murder instead.

But, anyway, the moral stance depicted in Secret Empire and The Captain is pretty much the same -- when the government does something he thinks is wrong, he just simply stops being Captain America. He's not afraid to go against the government in Civil War or (for a more modern example) Devil's Reign. And it's not really a stance he had before Secret Empire, as far as I know. If you told comics readers in, say, 1970, that you really liked the fact that Steve wasn't afraid to quit being Captain America to protest unjust laws, they would probably be very confused. Steve is Captain America! He works for SHIELD! He does what the government tells him! Why wouldn't he? Except, well… these days, he doesn't.

And I think you can tell that this is important to the modern conception of Steve's character because it made it into the MCU. Okay, true, any adaptation of Civil War was probably going to have to involve Steve going against some kind of law about superheroes because he thinks it's the right thing to do -- that personality trait is basically baked into the plot. But they put it in the MCU way before Civil War, presumably because they thought this was important enough to Steve's character that it needed to be included. CATWS is an adaptation of Brubaker's Winter Soldier arc that I would say is a lot more faithful to the comics than many of the MCU entries that share names with the comics. But you know what the 616 Winter Soldier arc doesn't have? A plot where Steve decides that he's unable to trust anyone at SHIELD because they're secretly Hydra and therefore we are right to be suspicious of the US government which may not be acting in our best interests anyway because apparently even the good guys in SHIELD were still interested in building helicarriers to shoot people down -- they just had a different target list than Hydra did. The 616 Winter Soldier arc does, in fact, have the Red Skull infiltrating SHIELD. He then proceeds to successfully murder Steve. There's not really a Trust No One plot going on because Steve doesn't get that far, and he dies before any of this is discovered and also misses out on Secret Invasion. Plus, hey, the scene that introduces us to Steve way back in CATFA shows him sitting there staring at a sign saying it's illegal to lie on his enlistment papers and then we find out he's been lying a lot. Because he thinks doing the right thing is more important than obeying the law. Yeah, they went there pretty early.

For Tony, my pick for a similarly significant character development that absolutely wasn't part of his original character is his decision to stop making weapons in Iron Man #78. He was created to be a defense contractor. He spent about ten RL years making weapons and, as far as we can tell from canon, not really experiencing any kind of crisis of conscience about, say, being a superhero and also making weapons at the same time. And then (because readers complained) he meets a pacifist, changes his mind about everything, stops taking SHIELD weapons contracts, and then stops making weapons entirely. This is a pretty significant career change for a character who started out happily making weapons. He just stopped. He doesn't do it anymore. He hasn't in years. And now it's absolutely part of who he is as a character, such that it ends up being a defining trait of his in multiple universes -- even in 1872, Tony stops making weapons. In Superior Iron Man, one of the first things he did when he went evil was make weapons again. If he is making weapons, we know that something has gone very wrong with him.

This also made it to the MCU -- "Tony becomes Iron Man and stops making weapons" is basically the plot of the first Iron Man movie, right? They decided that "Tony stops making weapons" was important enough that it is absolutely had to be right there in the first movie. Sure, alcoholism is one of Tony's defining traits in modern 616 comics and I'm not saying it's not, though I am saying it's not coming out of nowhere -- but that didn't even make it to the MCU. (I'm sure a lot of that was Disney's fault, yes.)

You also might not know this from looking at modern comics, but The Government Wants Tony To Keep Making Weapons is actually a pretty salient arc after Tony stops making them. Half of the reason Demon in a Bottle happens is because Tony is forced to kill the Carnelian ambassador because Justin Hammer sabotages his suit, but the other half is because Tony is incredibly stressed because Nick Fury keeps trying to find a way to make him make weapons for the government and Tony doesn't want to. (Maybe Tony would have fewer control issues if people stopped trying to control him.)

If I had to pick a second new character trait for Tony, it would also be his willingness to defy the government (and, really, anybody else) and do what he thinks is right. (He and Steve are more similar than I think a lot of fandom gives them credit for. But that would be a different meta post.) I mean, they do what they do with opposite reasoning but they both kind of have the same problems to solve a lot, because comics plots are very often Here's The Trolley Problem. Utlilitarianism versus… what's the other one? Deontology.

Anyway, yeah, I'm talking about Armor Wars. The arc when Tony decided that the ends justified the means and he was simply going to steal his technology back from everyone who had it, including the government, and that he was willing to hurt anyone who got in his way (hi, Steve) and alienate both Avengers teams in the process, because he decided that he knew what he had to do, what he had to do was right, and nothing was more important, no matter what the consequences were to himself. This is the thought process that gets you Armor Wars, Operation Galactic Storm, and eventually Civil War. And before Armor Wars, Tony just… didn't do things like this. After Armor Wars, he does, and everyone expects him to, and none of that was there before as part of his character. So I'd say that's a pretty big change.

Interestingly, of the four things I've named, two of them each basically happen at the same time -- Tony stops making weapons in the early 70s, around the time the Secret Empire and Nomad thing is happening for Steve, and of course in the mid-80s Steve is The Captain when he confronts Tony during Armor Wars. I guess those were two very transformative time periods for Steve and Tony.

But yeah, those are my picks for the biggest changes to Steve and Tony that weren't part of their original conceptions -- Steve's willingness to say Fuck the Government and go do what he thinks is right even if it means not being Captain America; and Tony's decision to stop making weapons, as well as Tony's willingness to say Fuck the Government (And/Or Possibly Also All His Friends) in order to do with he thinks is right. There's a sense in which they're really not all that different.

[redvanillabee]

I told myself I would ask whoever posted the next Agent Carter stuff on my dash a head cannon question.

It was you!

So, do you have any thoughts about Howards background, how Howard met Jarvis (I know we know some of the story, but it feels incomplete to me), and/or how Howard relates to the rest of the commandos that we dont usually see him have interactions with?

Sorry I left this gathering dust in my ask box!

So...generally speaking, I think the Howlies started off keeping their distance. They're in the middle of a war, what is an eccentric billionaire whose best hits include a dysfunctional flying car (and murder gas, and burning vest, etc.) doing in their bunker?

Bucky is the first to spend extended periods of time around Howard, purely by association. My headcanon is that Steve spends his time in Howard's lab (when he's not being pulled every which way, or when he's not busy looking at Peggy from afar like a lost puppy) both to escape the madness of the bunker and to test out the various Captain America Gears. So Bucky ends up spending a lot of time there too, and he likes to contribute ideas while never letting Howard live down his failed flying car demo.

Dugan and Gabe are friendly enough with Howard. They spend a little bit of time with Howard testing out new equipment, but they never got too close. In the Agent Carter one-shot we do see Dugan eventually becoming close enough with Howard to casually lounge at his pool. I guess some time after Steve's 'death' and the events of Agent Carter S1, Dugan hit up Howard to (a) tell him to please keep a closer eye on his inventions and keeping it in his pants jeez, and (b) check on Peggy. Their shared love for good bourbon is what gave them the opening to become better friends.

Morita and Dernier spend the most time with Howard in his lab. Morita is mostly there because he likes to tinker, and he sometimes compares notes with Howard, which is fun. But Dernier. He has a lot of thoughts about explosives and ordinances, and he will make sure Howard hears about them. And Howard also has a lot of ideas on why and why wouldn't they work, and he needs Dernier to understand that. Thing is...Howard doesn't speak French, and Dernier's English isn't the most fluent. It's not rare to hear loud arguments and angry French from the lab, and Howard and Dernier will never say they are friends, but these two get on like a house on fire, sometimes literally.

[princeescaluswords]

Scott McCall is Not a Paragon

Someone sent me an anon request which I meant to answer, but I screwed up and posted it with only five words. So, this is the full answer, and it deals with a category error that many people, especially people who don't like Scott, make when thinking about Teen Wolf.

Scott McCall is not Superman, nor was he meant to be. Scott McCall is not Captain America, nor was he meant to be. Scott McCall is not even Izuku Midoriya, nor was he meant to be. He is not a paragon. This doesn't make him any less a heroic protagonist, of course, but it does require the thoughtful audience member to view him through a different lens then they would otherwise.

The classical definition of a paragon is a character (or actual person) who embodies a virtue in its purest most Platonic form. However, in modern cultural construction, it's taken on a more open connotation as a heroic lead protagonist who embodies every thing good in a cultural setting. Superman embodies overwhelming planet-shattering power used responsibly, arising from the embrace of the Other and being embraced by the Other in return. Captain America may be less powerful, but he embodies the strength of those who hold principled convictions. And so on. With a shallow reading, Scott McCall can certainly fit into this group, but there are several important differences.

Scott's Heroism is Not Premeditated. Superman listens with his super-hearing across the world to find people to save; he is a founding member of the Justice League. Captain America volunteered for Project: Rebirth to go fight the Nazis and then Hydra; he is one of the reasons the Avengers were founded. Izuku Midoriya dreamed of being a hero and took advantage of an opportunity to work towards being the head of an entire social system predicated around this as a career.

Scott doesn't pursue evil throughout the series and the movie; instead, he is pursued. In Season 1, he is chased by the alpha. In Season 2, he is drawn into the war between the Hales and the Argents by threats to his immediate social group. In Season 3, he is the target of the Alpha Pack and Stiles is the target of the nogitsune. And so on, with the Dead Pool, Theo and the Dread Doctors, the Wild Hunt, and Monroe, they all come after him. Yes, by the time Season 5 comes around, the villains have realized that Scott won't let the people in his town be straight-up murdered and so they have to in order to win the day, but it's not as if Scott seeks them out. If, for example, the Doctors had used the Nemeton at Toulouse, Scott would never have been involved.

Scott's Heroism is Not Professional. Superman develops resources to help him in his heroic calling: the Fortress of Solitude, an occupation that brings acts of villainy to his attention, and scientific experiments. We watch Captain America train, alone and with others, in order to be able to fight threats more effectively. Izuku Midoriya literally goes to a specialized technical school for training heroes. They view their heroism as part of their normal lives, and not a situation forced on them periodically.

Scott goes to a mundane high school. He trains to play lacrosse. He learns to help animals. While Derek and Stiles may have saddled him with the heroic charge of "Protector of Beacon Hills," it is a title he accepts only because he has to. In the movie, Scott hasn't been back to Beacon Hills in a long time. He runs an animal shelter. He is called in when there's a dog trapped in a collapsing building, but that's a very narrow situation. He's still the alpha, but that's because of his relationships with "my friends, my pack" not because he's got a territory to watch over. He does get better at heroic action over the series -- Season 1 Scott wouldn't have been able to dodge Ghost Rider bullets like Season 6 Scott could -- but we never see him train for the purpose of being a better hero.

Scott's Heroism is Not Proselytizing. Superman wears the symbol of the House of El on purpose; he attends news conferences; he's spoken to the United Nations. Captain America is draped in the flag of the country whose virtues he wishes to embody. He struggles repeatedly with those virtues (think of the Nomad era). Izuku Midoriya literally aspires to become a symbol for the people of Japan. They consciously desire others to see the value of what they stand for and to integrate it into their lives. They're not forcing their beliefs on anyone, but their behavior is designed to influence the society around them for a benevolent end.

Scott is definitely a leader, but he exhibits leadership in limited situations. Unlike Allison, he has no goal to reform the Argent code. Unlike Demon-Wolf-Era Deucalion, he doesn't want to reform werewolf society. Unlike Monroe, he doesn't want to free humanity from fear or danger. The biggest example for me is that he never tried to change or rehabilitate Peter (or Deucalion or Theo) even though he had hope that Peter would change. The biggest long-term goal he expresses interest in is encouraging Liam to step up as lacrosse captain and, when necessary, as alpha after he leaves for college. None of this requires an impact on society.

I want to be completely clear: this doesn't make Scott any less a heroic protagonist. Scott wanted to be a normal teenager and then a normal adult, but the cost of him ignoring what was going on right in front of his face would have borne by innocents, so he sacrificed his own wants and needs for others. That's his heroism. Yet far too often, I've seen Scott lumped in with Captain America and similar heroes. There's nothing wrong with the Paragon Archetype, but it simply doesn't fit. Sometimes fans do this to compliment Scott, but that's flattening the character to fit somewhere he doesn't belong. Most of the time it's used as a negative, calling Scott boring, tyrannical, judgmental, whatever the hate du jour happens to be. Such a character deserves to be looked at for what he is, not stuffed into the nearest category so the fandom can move on.