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amarriageoftrueminds · 10 days ago

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I ended up doing a long old rant on this other post, about the problems with the Steve/Bucky characterisation in CATFA, how it fails to make them mutual in their support / fails to properly show Steve's struggles and independence, before serum.

And I was thinking...

what would you have to do, if you wanted to write a CATFA or pre-war Stucky fic and wanted to fix all those problems?

So I figured I'd make a list!

Pardon me while I rip CATFA a new one...

Problem 1) Pre-serum Steve acts as if he's independent and self-reliant without Bucky... when the opposite is shown.

A) He doesn't have a job.

(He isn't shown working, doesn't mention working, or taking time off to do the things we see him doing etc. Bucky is framed as paying for things.)

If the fic is set during CATFA you could fix that by mentioning Steve does have a job but has been given time off to go enlist. Or has just been fired from his job unfairly. Basically anything to show that Steve has had a job, has been working. Perhaps even had multiple jobs simultaneously!

Probably cut out the part where Steve scoffs at working in a factory or collecting scrap metal (more likely he'd admire and/or understand why both of those are viable options; maybe they're jobs he has done in the past but is biased against now for some experiential-related reason. Not middle class snobbery or toxic masculinity.)

Or, if he still does not want to work in a factory... well, at the time, with most men being overseas, factory work would've been women's work. So perhaps Steve was reluctant because it feels emasculating. Or maybe even dysphoric, to be relegated to otherwise female-only spaces, instead of welcomed into (then) male-only spaces like the Army? 🤔

(This still rings of toxic masculinity but would at least be interesting if it was acknowledged as a flaw in-story. It would especially ring true if you were doing a trans!Steve story, or emphasising the disability aspect of his life. And it would cycle back when he gets stuck in the USO, doing women's work again.)

B) It would also be better characterisation if pre-serum Steve was actually already good at fighting, but just happened to be outclassed by heavier weight opponents, and/or handicapped by sudden disability flare ups mid-fight.

(In the tie-in comic, Bucky taught him how to box. Why not keep this? Logically, Steve's lack of skill makes no sense! Bucky can canonically throw a punch, pre-serum, so why wouldn't he have taught his best friend?)

However, the ability to fight and win should be a matter of Steve's spirit and mind, not his physical body or his training.

It shouldn't just arrive with serum.

(To put it in His Dark Materials terms; Will Parry has a warrior's daemon, even when he's a 12 year old boy; he can win a contest against a grown man, or even an armoured polar bear! Likewise, Steve Rogers is supposed to be the David who can win against a Goliath - and that means, yes, even when he's still the little guy!)

I know it's easy to have Bucky swoop in to save Steve from a fight he's losing disastrously. But it would be more gripping (and make Bucky's value shine more), if Steve was actually winning the fight, despite being the underdog, and then something completely out of his control happened that tipped the tide against him, and then Bucky arrived to save him!

And also it would make more sense if Steve's health at the time of CATFA was in a lifetime high point, (possibly because of Bucky's long term support).

Then it would be less nonsensical to be trying to lie his way into the Army. There has to be some actual common sense logic behind his choice, so that he's not essentially snapping 'Bucky why won't you support me committing suicide, gdi??'

Steve shouldn't be getting his first real win by knocking down a flagpole; he should've been showing this capability in his pre-war / pre-Army time, too.

The Steve we saw with Bucky failed at everything he attempted: couldn't convince a doctor to help him, couldn't pass a physical, couldn't talk a wrongdoer out of doing wrong, couldn't fight, couldn't get bitches, and lacked basic common sense.

(His disabilities are not apparent just by looking at him, and yet the idiot gave every Army doctor an accurate list of his disabilities when he was trying to lie his way into the Army. 🤦‍♀️ Even when he succeeds in talking Erskine into giving him a chance, that only happens because Erskine overheard a speech prompted by Bucky.)

As far as Bucky has seen, Steve is a comprehensive failure.

...Until Steve arrived at basic training, whereupon suddenly he had brains and guts, and competence Bucky was never in a position to witness (somehow?? despite knowing him all his life?)

And yet it was treated as an unreasonable stance of Bucky's to be skeptical of Steve's ability to be a soldier.

This isn't fair, and it doesn't make sense.

The script transparently made sure to get Bucky out of the way before they showed Steve being competent at something for the first time ever, so that other characters could be credited with 'noticing' Steve's potential, instead of Bucky.

(Even though, as mentioned: Bucky has known Steve, probably for decades by this point, spent huge amount of time with him, and should know his capabilities better than Steve even does himself.)

Even when Steve succeeds in getting into the Army, the plot makes sure to shove Bucky off-screen to make sure he can't witness any of it. Even though he's right there outside when it happens, is the only reason Steve is there, and the only reason Erskine decided to give Steve a one-on-one interview in the first place (because of overhearing a reply prompted by Bucky).

Two seconds of sense should tell you that this apparent ignorance of Steve's qualities has to be impossible.

What, in years and years of inseparable friendship, Steve has never demonstrated the signs that would convince Bucky he's capable?

Is Steve only an idiot loser when he's in Brooklyn?

How does that work?

Is it like werewolves with the moon -- as soon as Bucky's out of sight, Steve turns into a pocket-sized brainy badass, but the second Bucky reappears, Steve turns back into a useless short king again?

Possible Fixes:

You could keep the incompetence but emphasize the idea of Steve entering a fight he knows he's going to lose, in order to accomplish a hidden goal that the enemy doesn't know about.

IE. Steve fighting the bully in the alleyway -- he loses the fight, but succeeds in stopping the bully from making a scene in the cinema, which was his original goal. So mention it!

(Steve could be like 'winning this fight wasn't the point.' And Bucky could be like 'ah, so what were you distracting him from?')

Perhaps Steve's secret goal in joining the war isn't to win the fight against Nazis, but to distract Nazis from Bucky?

You could even keep Steve's silly Bucky-centric incompetence and address it by saying, eg. that Bucky has been doing such an extremely good job of protecting Steve, that Steve really never has been put in a position where he had to stand on his own before.

That he's never demonstrated competence in Bucky's presence because Bucky's own excellence meant he simply never had to? 🤔

(Kinda like how a helicopter parent actually produces a feckless child, until the child gets out on their own and has to learn how to actually do things for themselves.)

Maybe Steve and Bucky's disagreement could be over the fact that they both know Steve is incapable, but Steve wants a chance to strike out on his own and become capable?

Though, note: this would undermine the 'David vs Goliath' vibe the original comics intended, where it's the little guy who's hyper-competent (David doesn't become capable of beating Goliath by just ...becoming Goliath!) And it would make Steve unfair in his dismissal of Bucky's then-accurate assessment of him.

Problem 2) The support is imbalanced; Bucky's doing all the emotional, financial, and physical labour in the relationship.

You could fix that by showing how pre-serum Steve was not only mutually financially supportive of Bucky (in the sense of having a job), but was also supporting Bucky emotionally and physically, just as much as Bucky supported him. He could be doing at least 2 of the 3!

Possible Examples:

Bucky going through an emotionally hard time that pre-serum Steve pulls him through (just as Bucky did with Steve's Ma).

Steve treating Bucky's wounds after a fight, just as Bucky treats his. (If Bucky's a boxer, like the tie-in comic, then Steve could be his cut man when he's in the ring!)

Steve paying for some of their expenses, or finding places to take Bucky that are free when it's his turn to plan a day out, etc.

Problem 3: Sarah & problem 2.

If this is CATFA / post-death setting, show flashbacks or make references to Steve visiting her in hospital, or doing the work of nursing her himself / sitting by her bedside if she died at home, paying for her medicine, etc.

So that it's not just another example of Bucky wholly carrying Steve; show the balance. Maybe Bucky was temporarily footing the bill so that Steve could afford to quit his job and do the nursing at home. Both putting the work in, in different ways.

(This would be a perfect example of one way Bucky's experience of looking after sick Steve would pay off, and make him able to teach Steve how to do it when the roles are reversed.)

Better yet, a show-don't-tell of Sarah instilling Steve's moral compass and tenacity; maybe even some Bucky POV to show her impact isn't just relegated to Steve.

Her absence could also be shown in present day with Steve, eg. packing up his things to go to basic and having to leave behind some keepsake of hers. In the comics Steve carried her photo.

Perfect candidate to put in his compass!

Problem 4: The relationship is framed as transactional.

Less:

'I'll do X for Bucky now because Bucky did Y for me back then.'

And more:

'Helping Bucky is the right thing to do because he's innocent, so I'm going to do it regardless of personal connections or outside whining trying to dissuade me, and he would still do the same thing for me, or anyone else, because he's a good person too.'

There has to be more to their friendship than just convenience, needing each other around to help; there has to be an actual desire to be together for pure enjoyment, too. IMO you'd need at least one scene where Steve and Bucky aren't benefiting in some way from spending energy on eachother. They're just... happy being together.

And perhaps Bucky isn't the only friend pre-serum Steve could have had, just the one Steve most wanted to stick with. (His options should amount to more than 'Bucky or no one.')

Maybe they had other friends who had - here's an idea - been drafted and died already by the time we met them?

Perhaps Steve's health absences and strong principles also drove other friendship prospects away? Perhaps Steve even lost other disabled friends to their poor health, poverty, and necessarily itinerant lifestyle, etc?

Problem 5: A's problems are framed as B's.

No more 'Steve getting attacked' being framed as a problem for Bucky.

No more 'Bucky being drafted to die' framed as a problem for Steve.

Better characterisation would show these bad things affect the victim first and foremost, and only also the other one.

Steve shouldn't be seeing Bucky's shipping-out uniform (skipping right over thank yous and congratulations) and talking about how that's sad for... himself.

Steve shouldn't be sabotaging Bucky's last night of freedom in NYC to spend it on... his own goals.

Sidenote: Bucky wanting to spend his last night of freedom with strangers is such idiotic writing anyway, when he has both Steve and a living family with whom he could be spending those last precious moments! And dragging Steve on a double blind date he clearly doesn't want to go on is counter-productive. It undermines the mutually-supportive / mutually communicative relationship Steve and Bucky should logically have, as lifelong inseparable best friends (viz. Bucky who's known Steve so long should be able to tell he's not happy, AND care about that fact.) And it shifts the blame for Steve's singlehood off of him and onto Bucky, and women generally.

Steve shouldn't be detailing why he's so keen to fight, and focusing on ...random men he doesn't know, not directly/unequivocally mentioning Bucky at all.

(Indirectly, he wants to be like the men laying down their lives -- so... like Bucky? But this is still nonsense. He should want to be there to support Bucky, not to copy him! They're so fixated on not mentioning Bucky as a motive, in this scene, that they somehow forget that Steve's father was a soldier! They could've cited him as Steve's motive, and avoided the issue altogether!)

It's likewise nonsense for Bucky, who has known Steve since he was a child, to ask Steve why he's keen to fight.

Bucky wouldn't need to ask. Bucky would alread know.

Lazy clumsy exposition.

And the narrative should be showing us why Steve wants to fight Nazis, rather than having Steve Recite An Infodump of a vague reason without anything to back it up.

Speaking of which...

Problem 6: Lack of explicit politics.

Like in the comics, Steve's reasons for fighting Nazis should be explicitly left wing and political, as well as passionately personal.

(Wanting to be like able-bodied men who get girlfriends is complete cringe incel bullshit as a motivation and not true to the comics, or CEvans's performance!)

Proper Steve characterisation should have him behaving in a way that shows he's a man ahead of his time in terms of Antifa politics, and that's why he wants to fight.

IE. happily sharing housing and schooling with people of other races, ethnicities, and religions. (Especially so when he has been in the same SEC as them / been in multiple different schools and lived in various neighbourhoods as a poor kid. Would also establish why both Steve and Bucky are fine having Gabe and Jim on their team!)

Not judging and mistreating disabled people the way he is.

Not judging unmarried mothers, belittling working women, expecting his mother to do all the housework, etc.

Not freaking out about the existence of queer people in public (even in an AU where he isn't one) defending gay men from attack as he does in the comics,

protesting and/or sabotaging public Nazi meetings in NYC, fighting with homegrown Nazi bullies especially,

ditto corrupt business owners / mafia union-runners as he does in the comics, etc.

(Sidenote: as a congenitally disabled person, Steve is also a target of Nazi rhetoric himself. So he would be personally concerned with fighting Fascism, and perhaps this was his philosophical springboard to recognising and combating all the other bullshit in its thinking, even when it's entrenched in American society.)

Basically, the Hydra saboteur should not be the first Nazi Steve ever got his hands on!

And Bucky should be an addendum when it comes to his reasoning. The heart of Steve's motive, where politics are the guts.

Problem 7: No disability rep.

A) Steve should not be saying that he, a disabled man, shouldn't have the 'right' to do less than able-bodied men, even though it is literally physically impossible...

...UNLESS, this internalized ableism is addressed in-story, rather than treated as if it's normal and even noble.

Other characters can be ableist; Steve should not (not only is he disabled himself, but he's supposed to know better!) ....unless it's part of an arc that shows him learning the error of his ways.

And that's a slippery slope when you consider that Project Rebirth, started by Nazis, really is a Eugenics project.

Instead of this suicidal ideation, it could be shown that Steve's health has recently become good enough for him to survive and succeed in the Army. And/or that Steve is passionate about fighting fascism, personally, because he belongs to a class of people whom Nazis believe shouldn't be allowed to exist.

Without Steve arguing that he should throw his disabled life away, just because able-bodied men are taking a significantly lesser risk of dying than him.

B) There should be actual details of Steve's disabilities, what they are and how they affect him. (Him - not Bucky.) In a way that has concrete negative consequences, beyond just not getting into the Army.

Possible Examples:

Kid!Steve being held back a year at school because of missing days due to sickness. (Kids can be cruel and parents can be ignorant; he might've been bullied and ostracised for being sick and believed contagious. And that's before the consider the amount of isolation necessary for recovery periods.)

Kid!Steve having to move around a lot (which would also affect which school he'd have to attend; always the new boy!) because losing money to medicine affects what his mother can afford, affects her work schedule when she has to look after him. Living in a worse place would then exacerbate his pre-existing symptoms, and so on.

Adult!Steve losing a job because of sick days, losing savings to pay for medicine, getting sick again because he chose heating and groceries over medicine, or vice versa, etc.

(This / the moving-around might be mitigated if he and Bucky are living together, meaning Bucky could make up the shortfall.)

Steve could lose friendships, job opportunities, or romantic partners due to sickness repeatedly taking him out of social circulation.

He might also have disabled friends who lost the fight / weren't as lucky as him.

You could also play into the Nazi eugenics then endemic to the USA and have medical professionals telling Steve he shouldn't be alive; 'well-meaning' people offering to pray for him, saying they'd have just 'given up' if they were born like him, etc. (Or even saying these things to his mother!)

Adult!Steve repeatedly failing his physical to get into the Army, because his disabilities are visible to the naked eye, and not because the 4F dimwit outright told the doctor everything that's wrong with him when he's trying to pass himself off as a 1A. 🤦‍♀️

And Steve should maybe mention once or twice that he feels better after serum, and truly couldn't be doing what he's doing in Europe, if superserum hadn't also cured all his ailments?

If he's much more peppy afterwards, it should be because for the first time in his life he can actually breathe and spring out of bed!

Problem 8) The Incelery.

Pre-serum Steve should not be framed as undateable because he's short and disabled.

If Steve hasn't had a girlfriend, it should be because he didn't want one, not because he's incapable; not because evil women are repulsed by invisible health issues, or because Bucky is simply too dreamy for a disabled man to possibly compete with.

Be so fr! 🙄

You could fix this by making Steve:

gay,

ace,

demi,

coincidentally surrounded by lesbians,

by women who have horrible unattractive politics,

too sick or busy with work to date,

getting attention but it's the wrong kind (ie. women who want to fetishize or nanny him),

and/or being very attractive to women even before serum but oblivious and/or simply not interested. 😂

/more than one of the above.