#anti tfatws

[logansgaar]

Watching Isaiah Bradley's mind control play out in CABNW: this is literally why Bucky kept him a goddamn secret even from Steve, after Isaiah had to fake his death to escape and live in some semblance of peace, and publicizing him without asking his permission first was a fucking dangerous thing to do to the poor man's safety what the hell were the tfawts writers thinking

[breckstonevailskier]

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

[logansgaar]

Peter curing Norman instead of killing him, even when the Goblin just stabbed Peter 2 in front of him, because he knew Norman was not mentally cognizant of his actions and would've never otherwise hurt May paints a whole different light on Tony going after Bucky and Peter's loyalty to him.

I think it'd be interesting to see that debate/see how that influences Peter's rose-tinted glasses, posthumously too.

Neither Norman nor Bucky had a choice in what they did, they only differ in that Norman tested on himself and Bucky was experimented on, so Bucky had even less autonomy than Norman (yet he was made to atone...wtf). Just...gah Marvel really missed an opportunity there. This isn't about who's right or who's wrong btw, just addressing how much May's death and Norman and the Green Goblin would inform Peter's perspective on Tony (given he has now gone through exactly the same thing as Tony did, only he witnessed it happen, and made a different call.)

Peter had the chance to continue and didn't, I think that's an incredibly powerful sign that he isn't Tony's protégé anymore.

[gay-jewish-bucky]

anyone else think it fucked up that zemo's apartment appears to be an old synagogue? or is that just me?

lots of synagogues in eastern europe lost entire communities in the holocaust, either through expulsion and mass killings, so it's not out of nowhere for one to be repurposed into a residence building, but it's a very fucked up choice, if they even thought of the implications at all (which i highly doubt with how little they seemed to care about the characters, let alone properly tackling trauma or racism)

[logansgaar]

this is why Bucky has a different therapist in my fic series, because the one mandated to him in tfatws was making him worse and she was not only grossly unprofessional and at times smugly cruel to him, but it was a crushing sign that marvel really only cares about depicting mental health journeys when it's Tony.

Tony's issues stemmed from a completely different place than Bucky's so their arcs cannot be written with the same angle, yet they are.

Tony's journey was rightfully about atonement because his sins were his own making, he chose to do what he did prior to reforming. Bucky is completely different, same as characters like Natasha and Gamora; Bucky does not need to atone for anything because he was as much a victim as those he was made to kill.

I always hated the gag about the "notebook thing" because Bucky's spent decades seeing hundreds of abusive strangers scribble down notes about him that he was never permitted to see or have disclosed to him, never knowing if those notes would lead to more agony or "just" being frozen again. He was placed under a huge amount of dehumanizing scrutiny with zero disclosure or consent, and it's horrific that his THERAPIST identified that trigger and used it as a power play over him....

View on Twitter

Since it came up recently, link to that therapist on twitter 👆 who was discussing Bucky’s terribile therapist in TFATWS and how they should’ve been. 

Transcript:

“As a therapist myself I’ve had a lot of feelings about Bucky’s therapist on TFatWS, and have decided I need to rant a little to let it all out. I’ve worked w/active duty, trauma survivors, and court ordered clients, so here’s some therapeutic conjecture on Bucky’s therapy:

Aesthetically her office and presentation don’t fit for someone who has been through the trauma that he’s been through. A client like this would need something non-threatening and safe- the whole vibe is overly formal and official in an office building, not at all therapeutic.

6 months working together she calls him Mr. Barnes and then James-he has identity issues and is struggling with who he is, so I think that one of the 1st things they would have done is figure out what he is comfortable being called, by whom and what that means for him.

He is still full out lying to her about pretty much everything including PTSD sx—I’m not saying clients never lie if they have good therapists, but if after 6 months he still doesn’t feel like he can be truthful at all then they haven’t built any trust/ solid therapeutic rapport

The pen and notebook thing-that’s clearly a trigger for him, there’s no reason to antagonize him and take notes in session like a punishment, it’s a power play on her part and it only emphasizes his lack of control in being forced into therapy (she should know his hx w/notebooks)

The whole little arm motion she made when she said “they need to make sure you don’t…” – that made so much light of what has happened to him, he probably feels like his arm is only good as a weapon and things like that will not help him accept it as part of his body

The rules, UGH the rules—from how they were talking about them clearly not something he actively created for himself, more like directives that he’s been ordered to adhere to—something fed to him and reinforced, feels like a way to sign off on liability only

THE AMENDS—this is probably my biggest issue. Amends are for people who need to take accountability for their actions and the repercussions of those choices. He had NO choice. He was a victim of horrific crimes against him, and framing it in a way that he needs to make up for

the crimes that others used him for is abhorrent. The lack of trauma informed care as astounding in the way it is being framed that he has to atone for sins that weren’t his. Its clearly reinforcing the idea in his head in ep 2 when he says “HYDRA were my people”.

NO, HYDRA were your captors. They were not your people. That type of thinking needs to get deconstructed and challenged. He can dedicate himself to bringing good into the world and righting wrongs that happened WITHOUT taking on the responsibility of those actions.

Her whole attitude and demeanor were condescending and demeaning. I know some people have said “I love how she calls him out on his bullshit!” That’s not what I see happening. I call my clients out on their shit all the time—this was not that.

And I can only do that with clients ONCE we’ve built the type of relationship where it’s going to be therapeutic for them to hear it, and it’s done intentionally and with purpose. She just came off shaming and mean because they don’t seem to have any form of therapeutic rapport.

She said “you have no history, no family”- there is no therapeutic reason for that, and she’s wrong. He most likely has family alive (he used current tense when talking about his sister) and he was close to Shuri and TChalla, his history is vital to understanding him

When she said “Look, I know that you have been through a lot, but you’ve got your mind back. You are being pardoned. These are good things. You’re free.”—Yeah this feels really dismissive and like toxic positivity. “I know you’ve been through a lot BUT BE HAPPY!!??”

He certainly doesn’t seem to feel like he’s free (especially having therapy mandated), and you can’t just tell someone they’re free. I felt like she was pretty much just like, “shake it off, look to the future!” which feels really shitty when you’ve experienced excessive trauma.

HELLO breach of confidentiality, just introducing herself to Sam as his therapist and confirming it to Walker and the whole police station, it doesn’t matter if they know he’s in therapy you do not break someone’s privacy like that, he still deserves some control over his tx.

Ordering Sam into a session, NO, he’s not your client and you don’t know him well enough to know if that’s appropriate or if it would be harmful to either, and you haven’t asked your client for his consent to have another person in his session

Forcing a trauma victim who was stripped of his bodily autonomy for 70 years into a physically intimate exercise with a coworker that he’s barely interacted with in the last several months? NOPE, just reinforcing to Bucky she has control over him the way his handlers used to

To me, I think she is more focused on signing off on his psychological eval that he isn’t a liability rather than any actual healing or attention to his trauma. This unfortunately isn’t unusual in the military where “mental health treatment” is focused on being mission ready.

They are making sure he’s ready to be an “asset” w/ mandated therapy, which he shouldn’t even be forced to do as part of his pardon because he shouldn’t have needed a pardon at all because he was a victim of horrific war crimes, brainwashing, and dehumanization for 70 years.

I’m just saying, if that was me he would be on my big squishy couch, bright open windows, bowl of Hershey kisses, random fidget toys, and two therapy dogs laying all over him while we work through that trauma and he builds back his identity and finds the calm he wants so badly.

And yes he would probably need someone who would see through his BS, call him out when he needs it, not be overly “touchy feely”, but only if he feels safe and there is trust, where he gets to work on what HE wants, not what others think he needs.

Anyway thanks for coming to my TEDTalk, I❤️my work and I think being a therapist on retainer for the Avengers would’ve been a fucking trip, they all needed a team of mental health professionals at their disposal 24/7 and things would’ve been so much better🤣

ps. They can be a good therapist and just not be a fit for the client, that happens regularly. We know when to make it part of the conversation and when to refer out. Nothing good is going to come out of a contemptuous therapeutic relationship, mandated or not.

pps. That whole situation and the scene with Zemo was so rough. I can’t imagine how much it brought back the violation, humiliation, anger, and helplessness of when he was the WS. I’m just imagining him having a therapist he trusts and being able to process that afterwards 😭😭😭"

[musette22]

may i ask why haven’t you watched tfatws? i’ve recently started following you, you don’t watch mcu anymore?

Hi there! Of course you can ask, I don't mind at all. I understand why you'd wonder about that, seeing as this blog is quite heavy on the marvel-related content lol. Basically, I stopped watching mcu movies and shows after Endgame, because it pretty much destroyed all faith I had left in marvel thanks to the way it (in my opinion) royally fucked up Steve's character arc and made all the wrong calls regarding his relationship with Bucky.

It just made me so unbelievably sad and angry, and I hated that, because I genuinely believe that fandom should be about what makes you happy and that was just not the case for me for a while there. So eventually I just decided that it was just better for me to distance myself from canon the mcu, and focus on the things that did still bring me joy, i.e. the headcanons and stories that we as a fandom have created, based on the canon material but diverging enough from it too to make it actually - in my opinion - good and enjoyable (I usually just call it fanon, though I know that's got inherently negative connotations too, but you know what I mean).

I've always been a Stucky shipper first and foremost. Those two boys are a package deal for me, and thinking about - let alone seeing - one of them without the other genuinely upsets me. So unfortunately, that means I can't enjoy any new Bucky content in the mcu anymore either, because it's Bucky in a world where Steve left him, and that's just not a world I want any part of, if that makes sense. So I'm sticking with my own version of events, which is that Bucky and Steve are enjoying life together somewhere, and I'm just going to leave the new movies and shows for others to enjoy!

[logansgaar]

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was not a show written or directed by people who liked either of the characters it was about.

[wewringmagicfromtheordinary]

#👆things we can’t talk about on the main#bucky is made the stand in for the ‘cis white male’ with white being the keyword#and he’s made to carry the bulk of the racism subplot#both in terms of the casual transgressions he commits and in being the target of anger (arising from racial trauma)#it just…didn’t gel with his character or his motivations#it also diluted bucky’s side of the story bcos there was so much more to unpack than token whiteness#and was frustrating to watch because the perfect racist microaggression stand-in was already there#but that guy needs to stay likeable so he got a black best friend#tfatws critical via luna-rainbow

What happened in the MCU is that they made Bucky unquestionably a victim and then did not know how to handle it. 

In the comics, Bucky’s brainwashing leaves him with enough agency that his past as the Winter Soldier is absolutely comparable to Natasha’s. Both were used and abused and manipulated, but they maintained enough control over their own actions that it is reasonable to question whether it mattered that they didn’t know who they truly were because they were still people.  In the MCU, they specifically wrote Bucky Barnes as a character whose agency was not just compromised but actually removed. It’s not just torture and coercion, though there are 70 years’ worth of explicit torture and coercion, it’s that for him to act as the Winter Soldier they have to cauterize out what makes him a person. In the MCU Hydra/the Soviets have not one but two ways to do it: the chair and the activation words. The Winter Soldier does not comply without them. This is not a question of a prisoner breaking after years of enslavement. This is explicitly shown as a mechanical way of erasing Bucky’s consciousness and capacity for consent. And it was a choice by the MCU to characterize his captivity like that, much like it was a (subtle) choice to make Bucky a man who was drafted rather than a man who enlisted.  And up to Phase 4 that had played out alright; the characters who see him as culpable are also shown to not be objective (Tony, for example, or Bucky himself). The audience knows better, though, because we are privy to all of the flashbacks and the medical torture and the him being bodily dragged out of cryo to be activated. But then the MCU actually had to confront its choices in TFATWS and they did it in the worse possible manner because they both chose to reinforce the narrative that Bucky was a powerless victim during his enslavement while making his recovery conditional on accepting responsibility for it. They pretend to sell Bucky along with the activation codes. There’s a whole pivotal scene by the firelight where Bucky finally does not respond to the activation codes and Ayo tells him he’s free and that’s because he was not free beforehand. In a storyline which places explicit moral value on refusing the serum, never once was it mentioned that Bucky did not consent to being injected with it in the first place. His situation obviously parallels Isaiah’s, not Steve’s.

But now the audience is being asked to see Bucky as someone who needs to make amends, not just because his therapist says so but because the moral compass of the series, Sam, makes it explicitly clear that what Bucky needs to do is “do the work”.  And this is INSANE. It’s insane. To have Bucky weep when the trigger words wash over him and still, still, try to have the audience buy into the narrative of his recovery as one where he needs to admit wrongdoing is absurd. It would be normal and expected of Bucky to feel wretched guilt over his past but the recovery is overcoming that, not reinforcing it. Bucky admits, word for word, that he had no choice and that would be bad enough, but the Winter Soldier was made to not even conceive of the possibility of choice. 

There can be no culpability without agency and guilt is not a measure of responsibility.

Bucky Barnes has, for ten years of MCU canon, been written as a man who was powerless to stop the abuse that was inflicted on him and now that they have to cash that check the MCU cannot handle it. I don’t even know if it’s because they, like society in general, cannot abide the concept of men - masculine men, especially masculine leading men - as victims but the end result is that TFATWS is an explicit exercise in victim blaming. 

[staying-elive]

Rewatching TFATWS episode 2 now and wow. They really gave over the first 8 minutes of the episode to John Walker. Fml

I hate the guy. And I hate the show giving him so much screen time to make the audience feel bad for him. Should've made him like a 3rd gen military nepo baby, whose dad or grandad is a 4 star general or something, and failed upwards because he's a propaganda poster boy.

If it was me writing, instead of the sad boy locker room scene, I would've had a flashback open the episode, in Afghanistan so Sam and Walker had crossed paths when Sam was a PJ.

Maybe show his unit getting evacuated by Sam and Riley, and Walker being a hothead cos getting pulled out means he doesn't get to be the hero.

Then you can cut into the interview thing where he's all smarmy and full of himself. Lol idk he just irks me so much! 😅🤣

[captainwidowspring]

On Nico's Ability to Defend Himself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[bietrofastimoff23]

it's ALWAYS steve. in EVERY damn universe mcu -_-

my poor girl. sharon is literally cursed in the movies by steve's existence. if he were to cause her suffering again, it will be a big not hehe/

a prayer circle so that she doesn't cross paths with her curse in the new season. stop ruining her life!!1 seriously, she has already worked out her karma for 10 lifetimes ahead (it is unclear why - she only did what she helped the heroes- but she worked it out).

[wewringmagicfromtheordinary]

· matt murdock blink if you need help · tfatws critical · yeah that 'happy' ending was just mackie & stan breaking character to smile while near a sunset for 2 seconds · the lead up was sam rolling his eyes at bucky for being good at fixing things how dare he · warning him off his sister making him sleep on the couch · looking weirded out by bucky being there to help · and then giving him suicidally dangerous counselling advice 😬 · (hence why they cut immediately to black instead of showing the consequences) · isaiah said he'd be dead in a day if sam brought him and sam then.....brought him out immediately without asking??? · the dangerous lefty antagonists all got blown up rich nazi's butler · captain bellend got super serum because apparently goodness counts for nothing now · oh and a bunch of POLITICIANS got saved?? · and bucky is STILL being profiled and victim blamed and also hinted at being a rape victim · but LOL LOOK AT ZEMO DANCE GUYS · what matters most is that bucky is tryna FUCK CHICKS guys and there were KIDS THERE! AND WOMEN FOR HIM TO HIT ON!! · it's a perfect ending because it's a MURICAN HETERO NUCULAR FAMILY via amarriageoftrueminds

I saw on Twitter that in the She-Hulk finale, Jen was given the same ending as Sam and Bucky in tfaws. Cookout with the family & the new friend/boyfriend. I guess it's Kevin's vision of a perfect ending. It reminds me of all the memes about Sam and Bucky having the happiest of endings on phase 4 unlike Wanda, Loki, the Eternals, Peter and Moon Knight.

Well, that “happy” ending in TFATWS was laughable to say the least. Sure, Sam and Bucky were smiling and having that picnic with the family but Bucky never had his trauma recognized nor got any help for it, he was fresh from a re-traumatizing experience after he was told to visit the families of those murdered by Hydra and frankly I doubt he had any time to actually address his PTSD.

As for Sam, his character was treated horribly during the series (that is when the series spent time focused on him which wasn’t often), what about Sam’s character individually? His own PTSD, he had been dusted too, what about Riley, what does he think of Steve leaving, how is it possible that he never said anything about Natasha or Wanda despite all of them having to live as fugitives for a few years, etc.

And in the end absolutely nothing was changed? The system stayed the same, the GRC is still ongoing and doing who knows what, how long will the senators stop the repatriation? They didn’t address anything! And that’s not even mentioning Isaiah.

So surface-level? Sure, they got the “happiest” one but only because the series refused to pay any attention to them or their issues, they just left it at “now they’re happy, Bucky has a family and Sam is Cap, what else do you want?!.”

From what I’ve read Feige just wants to give a kid to everyone these days. Bruce is now a dad, Thor has to take care of a little girl, Stephen has America, Clint kind of parented Kate in his series… I think we all know what’s coming in S2 of Loki lmao 😂🤢

[agentoffangirling]

Someone please tell me where all these John Walker stans came from??

[florida3exclamationpoints]

I know my value. Anyone else's opinion doesn't really matter. -> The Carter name has always been synonymous with service and trust.

Peggy worked so incredibly hard for so long and she accomplished so much. She started so far down at the bottom that she had to do it completely alone, not expecting or even wanting backup from anyone because she knew she wouldn't get it. And then she was the founder of Shield. And then she was the director of Shield. She was the definition of a trailblazer. But then Shield was Hydra. Which was not her fault. But too many people in the fandom use that to discredit everything she ever did. That made me worry that people in the mcu would do the same. That after so many years of so much hard work, the end result would overshadow everything good she did and the government would lose its respect for her. But that didn't happen. In the mcu, a US senator said in the year 2024 "the Carter name has always been synonymous with service and trust." Do you understand how big of a deal that is? Peggy did that. By herself. In this main timeline no one could even try to paint her as "Captain America's Wife" to downplay her work. She did that by herself. She made her name synonymous with service and trust. Her legacy is still that her name is synonymous with service and trust! That's everything she ever worked for! She was proud of her accomplishments, but she would be absolutely over the moon to hear those words said about her. And what makes me really dislike Sharon is that she weaved her way back into the CIA by using Peggy's name and Peggy's legacy and now she's gonna use that position to do everything Peggy did not believe in. If Hydra couldn't discredit Peggy then neither will Sharon, but she's trying. And I LOVE women's wrongs. Supporting women's wrongs is one of my favorite hobbies. But not when they directly attack all of Peggy Carter's rights.

[iamdeltas]

Like I've said a million times before, I love Steven Universe and think its resolution of the Diamonds fits well with its overall themes and its only big issue is that it was rushed (due to circumstances outside the crew's control). But I wonder why I'm cool with Steven talking the Diamonds into reforming while rolling my eyes at The Falcon and the Winter Soldier having Sam do essentially the same thing to the GRC and the senators.

[logansgaar]

today I learned that people really think Sam is some kind of keeper responsible for Bucky... what the fuck? I'm not mad at the person who thought that's what I meant, I'm mad at this stupid general consensus because if it's been 3 goddamn years of having to remind people Sam is Bucky's friend not his babysitter then holy shit

Not sure what else I expected really, fandoms love to baby their white fave and make moc and women around him his carers