#I almost included a paragraph about the plot requiring us to put Steve in a lavender marriage but like.

[shitpostingperidot]

imagine if tony stark kissed steve rogers on the cheek in captain america the winter soldier (2014). tony only appeared for less than a minute, and spent that entire minute holding steve’s hand and calling him pet names and making Significant Eye Contact.

and in this alternate reality catws, steve and bucky only interacted in the most tender and heartbreaking flashbacks known to man, never in the present, never touching even in the past, but always yearning. but you know what, we all thought bucky was 100% dead, died offscreen sometime after the first cap movie, with the possibility of resurrection off the table. we never thought we’d see him again at all after that.

a couple years after catfa, bucky made a surprise cameo in some other avengers movie, let’s say, thor the dark world. but oh no, in that movie he promptly died from being crushed to death by a giant statue sculpted to look like tim curry. not that the statue obviously looked like tim curry, but it was like, a subtle easter egg put there to piss off the gays.

so honestly, in this version of catws (2014), we’re just glad we get a tiny smidgen of emotional closure from the first cap movie, and we’re thrilled that sebastian stan got to come back to our screens. is it what stuckies wanted, no, but it’s not nothing. hell, we got some stony! we got steve constructing the intricate rituals! given marvel’s well established track record, it’s more than we could have ever wanted for captain america: the winter soldier (2014) and we get up to exit the theater with huge smiles on our faces.

but then! in the post credit scene, there’s a bucky. not Our bucky, but one who’s alive and well and seemingly happy wherever he is. a bucky who’s one of the most powerful people in his universe, a bucky who’s collected his universe’s infinity stones. a bucky who’s one of the only people who can make a portal across realities to get back to Our steve. and apparently this bucky is friends with sue storm.

imagine this, really think about it, and you will understand why I am going insane over The Marvels (2023), and especially Maria Rambeau, right now.