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sanoiro · 4 years ago

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Lucifer 5x04 - The Mega Meta

This episode, the one all the cast and writers praised turned out to be the most challenging for the audience. Several hated it mainly for interrupting the flow of S5P1 whilst introducing a ‘weak’ story for Lucifer’s ring. Others loved it for all the meta, the concealed trivia and details that exist in that episode.

In my opinion 5x04 took it’s time to warm up to my heart and therefore today it’s time to write a meta on it. I’ll try to cover all the bases and if I miss something I apologise!

This meta will analyse, lines, settings, songs hopefully with the order they appear in the episode, as well as hints that it gives us for P2, the end of the series and many more things.

The credits open to Lucifer whistling as per Netflix’s subtitles ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’

A song of about a man waiting for his train as he gets a shoe shine. The lyrics reveal at the end that a girl is waiting him at his destination and that he intents to marry her and settle... A good foreshadowing about Lucifer no? Especially after the S3 game night fiasco...

There's gonna be a certain party at the station Satin and lace, I used to call funny face She's gonna cry until I tell her that I'll never roam

By the way what’s this obsession over daggers and them killing people? Didn’t we have enough with the Flaming Sword in S2?

Trixie: Has it ever killed anyone?

Let’s keep it that way kid... Although I doubt it.

Now take a moment to realise that Lucifer was in Hell for thousands of years. He hasn’t had sex since his relationship with Eve and for his last night on Earth he prefers to play a game of Monopoly with Trixie and only when she turns him down Lucifer suggests getting a drink at LUX always in her company. That’s progress...

It also busts all claims of Lucifer being a sex obsessed maniac.

The year is 1946...

WW2 is over and we find Lucifer in a new setting, a familiar one where through the episode we see that he has not just visited again but he is frequent visitor around that time. Just a few years later after all he was seen through Kinley’s photos in Nazi Germany. Now we know it was because apparently he owns a castle there, in the Austrian Alps... Not exactly in mint condition after the war though...

By the way the castle that corresponds to that 22 bedroom description Lucifer gives is Schloss Ernegg Castle which belongs to the same family since the 17th century and it’s in great condition. Actually it operates as a hotel!

The Hurry plays as we see Ellis strolling the WB New York area of the lot. Great old ones were shot there.. Like The Big Sleep (1946) staring Bogart and Bacall which was shot in 1944, reshot some parts in 1945 but was released after all the ‘proper’ war time movies were released first.

A bit like this episode The Big Sleep carries ‘process of a criminal investigation, not its results’. Also around that time we have The Killers coming out, The Killers is important to mention as aside from being based on a story by Hemingway who was in Cuba in 1946 not in New York as Lucifer claims, it was directed by Robert :. Siodmak made most of the Hollywood’s noir classics and was always faithful to the doomed attraction which would always resolve to a nihilistic conclusion... (Thank you wiki! :P)

The connection to Lucifer, between the lines and the off hand comments like Hemingway is that noir films were based on the German Expressionism in cinema, and one of the most prominent figure for the US was that one German director Robert Siodmak.

The purpose of the above information is in order to tell you that a black & whte effect and a crime story is not what makes a noir episode. The writers were faithful to the core of noir. Entrapment, flashbacks, narration. The tropes of murder, jealousy, backstabbing and crime is also there, easy to replicate after all for sure. A dead man walking and ‘selective’ amnesia is also convenient...

Triumph and tragedy can be found and lost in the maze of the cities and in questionable establishments... Like in bars...

Moving on!

The credits open and we listen to The Hurry Up played by The Heath And His Orchestra. Dear Heath was British not an American. A subtle nod to Ellis probably as the leading man. But here is the thing Heath was the performer not the composer of that piece. The composer was Kenny Graham (Again British) and probably that piece was written after 1958 but anyways it’s an inconsistency we (-I-) can certainly live with!

Lucifer and Lilith last meeting was at around 1770 (Marie Antoinette was born in 1755) now whether in Austria or France who knows.... I would assume that Lucifer stayed in Austria until WW2 as aside from the wars and other issues it had a great cultural field for him to explore such as literature, music and lacked the brashness of the new-founded then US (1776).

Tiny issue here... Moctezuma (The 2nd) who Lilith claims to have met died in 1520, a bit after Cortés arrived in what we know today as Mexico so we can assume that Lilith travelled between the New World and Europe until Lucifer found her in New York in 1946.

Lilith in a relationship with Tommy Stomponato who owned the club, she probably influenced him enough to name it ‘The Garden’ as se admits to Gertie later in the episode, she really loved that Garden hence why she took a small part of it with her.

Now the name Tommy Stomponato is directly influenced by Johnny Stomponato part and bodyguard of the Cohen Mafia boss Mickey Cohen. Now funny thing he was stabbed by Lana Turner’s (Hollywood star) daughter Cheryl Crane... That remind us a bit of Gertie as she yes both were stabbed by a woman but both were not prosecuted. The first as Lilith didn’t want Gertie to lose the limited time she had with her husband and Cheryl because she claimed self-defense.

The first time we see Lesley Ann as Lilith she sings ‘I want to be evil’ originally performed at the debut of Eartha Kitt and first released in 1953. It is considered brilliant for it’s feminism and ‘video clip’ starring Kitt...

youtube

It’s a song that carries Lilith’s agony which even Eve carried. The need for freedom, the need to break the chains of what they should be and what we see that even Maze carries throughout the series. It’s a song that reaffirms that betrayal towards God, Adam and Lucifer in Maze’s case is not an act of evilness but the need of these women to re-sculpture themselves without aid or instructions. In Kitt’s case it was social conformity. Also Johnnie Ray was the ‘guy who cries’ aside from his hit song in 1951 ‘Cry’ him crying after his wedding was received with mixed feelings I believe from the press and his fans.

Now we see that crime for Lucifer was fun and again he wanted to Laugh with Hemingway who again in 1946 was not in New York but had just starting to write his novel ‘Garden of Eden (published posthumously in 1986) and it explored the reversal of gender roles a bit like this Lucifer episode does.

So Lucifer accepts the case of finding the ring but needs help. Jack Monroe is the one that can help him and the name is inspired probably by Iowa’s born Jack Monroe Marvel character who lived in New York, fought the Nazi (See Jack talking about the Battle of the Bulge), sidekick to Captain America - in a way - and ended up shot and killed. The character had many cliche detective phrases. But that’s mostly a likely speculation :P

Now as Jack goes to talk to the ‘rat’ Lucifer comments on Gertie serving him a drink ‘Just what the doctor ordered’ an obvious connection to Harris playing Dr Linda.

A nice prop is the machine gun over the bar an alleged gift from Al Capone who had been arrested 17 years earlier and died in 1947.

Thanks for listening, XOXO A. Capone

Now Lucky Larry who ends up dead is wearing an eyepatch probably a nod to another great director of noir films and of german expressionism in cinematography Fritz Lang.

At that point we have the talk between Lucifer and Jack concerning the laters problem with his wife. The story as everyone has noticed is a parallel with the issue that Lucifer and Chloe never begun on an equal ground. Someone had manipulated them and in both cases both parties suffered. Both men were manipulated by someone over them in hierarchy and both stood on a dilemma on how to proceed. It took Lucifer over 60 years to realise how difficult it was to leave and even then in 2x14 he returned.

As Jack and Lucifer get to Willy’s mansion all the paintings depict him as a great warrior in all possible eras. As Napoleon, Fritz of Austro-Hungarian Empire, Henry the 8th, Ivan, and that armour I believe it was from Carlomagne?

Also Hannibal crossing the Alps?

The little sausages are self-explenatory for the character and perhaps the lilies in his house a connection to the episode and the P1′s plot.

Lucifer checking the armour’s genital protector? Priceless :P As was Willy’s connection to Dan.

Now something that always make me wonder is why Lilith calls God Adam’s father as if she never considered him her own. At the same time she gives us a big hint there. She never walked away she was ‘sent’ away.

Gertie reveals there that her husband was wounded at the Guadalcanal campaign which ended in 1943 meaning that Bill was unresponsive for about three years at that point. The good news is that Bill seems to have been inspired by Bill Lentsch. Lentsch wrote a memoir called My Story and then adapted under the Title Hope For Wounded Warriors.

As a wounded warrior, Bill Lentsch knows the frustrating feelings of apparent helplessness and hopelessness. A sea-going Marine on the cruiser USS Vincennes at the beginning of World War II, he was a "hot shell catcher". The story of Bill's survival when the Vincennes sank is a story of miracles. In contrast, the story of his post-war rehabilitation and readjustment to civilian life, including a bad marriage {Sanoiro: At this point we have a differentiation but you never know}, contains more than its share of dark pages and the consequences of poor choices. Contemplating the option of murder, then suicide, was a vivid reality. Thankfully, the story of his later years brings hope and inspiration as Bill shares his personal journey of discovery.

Meanwhile the investigation continues. In the apartment we see pigeon cages a rather popular hobby back then in New York and not just for the messages they transported. Also do notice the WB water tower in the back. Iconic!

Lucifer finds a cuban cigar. Romeo y Juliet. The meta here obvious bit nonetheless important to our main love story.

With Stomponato dead we have a chance to delve a bit to Egyptian mythology.

First the missing heart. The main organ that according to ancient Egyptians held the answer of how well you had done while you lived and what you deserved after death. It was measured and a conclusion sent you to afterlife or to damnation.

Second the Anubis mask. He was the God of Death who oversaw the heart weighting process. The colour black symbolised the Nile’s sand and thus regeneration as the river was a symbol of life. Anubis was adopted by Isis

Third the Eye of Horus. The Eye of Horus was used as a sign of prosperity and protection, derived from the myth of Isis and Osiris. This symbol has an astonishing connection between neuroanatomical structure and function.

That’s the basics but you can go further from there if you want to just remember that Egyptian deities hold an Ankh the symbol and work of life.

In 504 we learn that death is final, there is no eternal life. It cannot be given as a commodity, the ring cannot help so I would focus more on the stone itself and if Lilith’s immortality is used then it will not be used as it is in my opinion but more about that later on.

The shop sacred eye and the high priest take us back to two episodes of S1. First in 1x07 - Wingman where the high priest parallels the auctioner who was ready to sell everything of ‘supernatural’ worth knowing they were mostly garbage to make money. Second 1x12 - #TeamLucifer the satanic high priest who had said ‘-the Devil ain't gonna buy me an Aston Martin’. In 504 the High Priest wanted a Pontiac.

Lucifer comment on Tutankhamun loving the pre-sacrificed bloody heart might have to do with the Egyptian mythology that If a heart during the scaling was judged to be not pure, Ammit (female demon/god) would devour it, and the person undergoing judgment would not allowed to continue their afterlife journey.

One of the best lines delivered in this episode is also foreshadowing P2 in my opinion and why not some bts but not clear or definite ones.

In the modern age, we are taught to fear death. But the ancients understood that death... is power. - High Priest (Lucifer 5x04)

It is why I always say that death is not the last frontier in our series and as such it should be taken neither as the final chapter to an individual’s story nor as irreversible (with the right collaterals always) somehow. Although you cannot cheat death forever, this is the beauty of our story. Death is valued just as much as life.

As such as we are in the High Priest ‘office’ it is not accidental we see the Tree of Life (See my Tree of Life Meta *Here*). The designs are Celtic around the mirroring tree of Life in what we can assume is in Life and Death is as vibrant and ‘alive’ in both sides.

1) triskelion: meaning the three legs, is an ancient pre-celtic symbol that can be traced to the bronze era. It symbolises the holy trinity in Christianism but also the inner and outer world of spirits. As you can tell it holds a variety of meanings and even if it is just there, picked in random from the WB prop house we should note that it also symbolises the trinity of life, death and rebirth as well as the trinity of the transition of womanhood. The Triple Goddess: maiden, mother and the (older?) wise woman.

For this meta we will take the trinity of life, death and rebirth as well as elevate it to the transition of our lead characters. Chloe as a young woman, a mother and now a ‘wise’ older and more mature woman. Lucifer as the young rebel, a struggling with maturity and responsibility man and what he may become by the end of S5 without shedding any of his prior roles and identities. Only this time his identities no longer ‘stain’ him.

2) Knotted symbol - Eternal knot: We see them in many cultures and religions in Buddhism they represent birth, death and rebirth. In the inside we see Solmon’s Knot a symbol of immortality and eternity but some also parallel it to Lover’s Knot (See True Lover’s Knot), an ancient symbol of commitment and love. From this keep the eternal part of the symbolism which is often depicted in jewish cemeteries.

3) Celtic Cross: They are said to be based on some cases to the Egyptian Ankh (See Coptic Crosses), some also allege the design in the combination of the Christian cross and the pagan sun disk.

4) The Celtic Tree of Life: For this I take what is written in this site

The tree represents rebirth. Trees were said to guard the land and acted as a doorway into the spirit world.

The Tree of Life connects the lower and upper worlds as its roots grow far down while its branches reach high. The tree trunk connects both of these worlds to the Earth’s plane. It was with this connection of worlds, that it was said that people are able communicate with the gods in the heavens using the Tree of Life.

Tree of Life knots symbolize the branches and roots of a tree which are woven together with no end to show how the cycle of life is continuous.

Through the second part of the episode I was always looking at Lucifer’s tie. I might be wrong but it reminded me a lot of gears, with a heart and clocks on it. Essentially the clock is ticking... in more ways that one as well as for Lilith but give me some more lines before I return to this meta point.

As Lucifer asks how humans believe her ring makes her immortal she ends her story with the line:

“I survive, and... somebody writes it on a stone tablet. You know how these things start.”

For me that was always a direct reference to the Favourite Son deal we had with the book in episode 2x17. As Lucifer said in 2x18 when Chloe asked whether his Dad said that Amenadiel was His favourite, Lucifer replies:

In so many Sumerian words.

Later on in S3 (3x14) Lucifer tells to Cain that Amenadiel is the favourite when he asks him as:

But the quick version: a book said it, so it must be true.

To be honest this re-occurring mentioning makes me hold to my belief that something was translated wrong there...

As the 5x04 sceheme to get the ring back is underway Lilith looks at Jack & Shirley’s interaction which is interesting not because it’s when Lilith starts to perhaps thinking of retiring her immortality but because a very special question comes to mind.

Michael knew the ring’s story. He claimed that he was the one who manipulated Lucifer into having his vacation, but his vacation just ‘happened’ to be at the same time Chloe was on Earth?

Here is a speculative meta.

Lilith asks Lucifer if he ever connected with anyone emotionally to which he replies:

Absolutely not. It would take a literal miracle for me to want something like that, and I'm fairly certain my father's not handing those out anymore.

It makes you wonder whether Michael was around listening, planning carefully his next moves. That that’s how he knew the ring’s story, or how he may have plotted Chloe’s miraculous birth by manipulating God.

At this point everything is possible but we should never forget that God at that point is still powerful and omniscience so Michael might be only alf of the explanation why Chloe is on Earth as a key for Michael to take down his brother and materialise his other plans. The other half is only known by God but will he be willing to share in P2 or even in S6 if he appears there?

Lesley-Ann as Lilith starts to sing ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ a song written over the songwritter’s (Ira Gershwin) wedding anniversary, a true love song on many levels written in 1926 and featured in the Brodway Musical ‘Hey, Kay!’.

The musical’s plot is about an engaged womaniser falls in love with Kay and the song after lots of thought was placed to reveal to the audience of Kay’s realising that she is in love with the male lead, womaniser Jimmy.

We will never perhaps know if by imminence to Lilith’s first song lyrics, Lilith to a point was in love with Lucifer and held on to hope until she surrendered everything for a normal life not wanting to wait for the impossible. Of course that’s just one interpretation not a hard conviction of mine.

An analysis of the song writes:

When first composing this piece, the Gershwin brothers tried to capture the feeling of safety (and love) that everybody longs to have. The addition of the doll (a doll was added as the listener of the song in the rehearsals and stayed in the show) only enhanced the childlike, vulnerable side of the song that was being hinted at in lyrics such as, “I’m a little lamb who’s lost in the woods.”

Although many artists sing this like a love song, its first performance, directed at a doll, gave the piece an aura of safety not usually present in romantic songs.

Perhaps that safety should be also attributed here. Lilith still has her safety still holding on to her immortality knowing though that she will surrender it. Lucifer is unaware he one day will surrender his willingly because he fell in love.

In the end they both carry the vulnerability of needing someone to understand and love them. No matter how cynical we find both Lilith and Lucifer with his brutal Caligula orgy comments, they both crave about someone. Both have lost hope to their Shepard aka God/Dad.

Perhaps I’m wrong on my first impression with Lilith and her affection towards Lucifer. Perhaps they both are the prodigal children, lost in the woods wishing for someone to finally take care of them but no longer hoping for one, until Lilith takes the leap. Lucifer will need almost 80 more years and Chloe Decker to let someone take care of him.

Perhaps that’s why they do a duet on the lyrics:

Someone who'll watch over me

I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood I know I could, always be good To one who'll watch over me

And the case is back to move the episode forward and enter the present Lucifer Trixie interlude and ‘Forget it Trix. It’s Chinatown!’

That line was the most obvious one as it comes from the more recent noir movie with Bogart and Chinatown (1974). In the movie aside from the mystery plot Evelyn - the mother eventually dies, the twist is that of an abuse which led to her daughter/sister’s birth and although that does not fit our serie’s plot the death of the main lady might. All a speculation so do not be dishearten remember all the above and this is not an S&S it’s a meta :P

After all Lucifer’s line goes back to the complex dealings in Chinatown and how understanding something fully is not always feasible.

Interesting is also how Lucifer shots, albeit the foot not the leg, of willy to prove Willy is not immortal. Like Chloe did to him in 1x04 and to Michael in 5x02. Jewelry is not going to save anyone. Big words but you know me. I believe in other provisions or actions even if they include the ring.

We all die, Lily. And that's okay. Truth is... I'd rather die today trying to save the man I love... than live forever without him.

The past, the present and perhaps the future?

The case is resolved and Jack follows Shirley to Des Moines (Capital of Iowa). That’s an inner joke as Joe Henderson is from Iowa and graduated from the University of Iowa.

Before Jack follows her remember that Shirley had asked more from him when he told her to be careful. A bit like Chloe in the evidence room in 5x08. If some have watched unconditional love then you might remember the scene where Kathy Bates tells to her husband played by Dan Aykroyd that him telling her ‘I love you was never a condition but at that point it now was. Similar to what we saw Chloe asking from Lucifer. A foreshadowing perhaps that eventually Lucifer will follow Chloe.

Now two things. Lucifer in episode 504 prepares their game night. He is now comfortable and even enjoying their game nights, he find himself right where he wants to be without being fearful of being dull. He is a shoe and that’s fine.

When Trixie asks Lucifer whether Jack and Shirley had a happy ending he tells her probably not as they moved to Des Moines meaning it was a boring move between New York and Iowa in general. Iowa and Des Moines have been used several times in jokes by the way due to Henderson.

Now back to Lucifer, at that point he does not see that sometimes sacrifices that lead to ‘boring’ lives are the best outcome and happiness is not equal to excitement but he is a slowly maturing Devil...

That part can help us to analyse the end of the story from 1946.

Lucifer says: Once you do this, there's no going back.

This implies that whether you surrender your immortality or gain it -for the second I’m quite doubtful it can be done on the same terms - it is forever. No going back.

Lilith’s next words reveal a broken woman who gets her Hail Mary and hopes for the best. As a parent she offered her children the best place to never realise they are lacking but Lucifer by bringing Maze to earth undid that as Maze slowly reaches her potential, learning there is a different way. God’s words echo since 3x26.

So was Lucifer a kindergarten guardian for Lilith? In a way yes but Lucifer in 5x04 understood Lilith’s logic. In their distorted image of how you can break an individual, the Lilims seemed safe from Lucifer’s and Lilith’s fates. Cast out, punished, unloved, lonely and in an unspoken despair to connect but too afraid to try again until Lilith tried again. The end of 504 showed she didn’t succeed o find what she was looking for. We have no way of knowing if we will see her again in P2 but it’s probable.

Lilith kisses Lucifer goodbye, making me once again wonder if a part of her did had feelings for him and wishes him back to enjoy the rest of his life as if somehow she knew, although she couldn’t.

The story ends here and perhaps the clock starts ticking for Lucifer through Michael. Perhaps the planning started with Penelope and John that were meant to be born, get married but not have children and then Chloe came along. But that’s just a theory...

And before the screen fades to dark, Lilith walks away with Lucifer standing in the middle of the street and we listen to ‘This Is Ours’ by Peter Sivo’s Band (1946-1961).

This is Ours lyrics are the words of a man which mystify me. For me it is a song that gives us a couple together after a very long time that reconnects. It was a meant to be couple but the past had to happen. He had to get married, for both of them to live apart their own lives until one day they get back together and now they can be together. There is no sadness, there is relief, contentment.

Several say that How I Met Your Mother had an awful ending. If you have not watched it and want to please stop here but know that I believe that the ending was just right.

In How I Met Your Mother, the lead (father) marries the mother of his children but it is revealed that she eventually dies and some years later he starts telling them a story that lasts ten years as all aspects of it in his belief is about how he met their mother. His daughter interrupts him saying that no it’s about how he met the woman he wants to be together now. They all know that the Mother was loved and was the One but in this life there is more, there are second chances because life happens and it’s not a bad thing and the time in between is as joyful as the future despite of the tragedies in between.

So a part of me wonders if Deckerstar will go a bit through that to a point.

Forget the past, for this is ours...

The thing is that a bittersweet ending gives as a possibility and then we are left wondering past that.

Trixie: I bet Jack and Shirley talked the whole bus ride and fixed everything. Lucifer: Yes. Yes, perhaps they did.

After all they did move to Des Moines... After that we can only guess.

#lucifer meta #lucifer season 5 #lucifer s5p1 #lucifer speculation

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trick-photography1 · 5 years ago

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Are there any comics you're reading now that you'd recommend?

Oooh, comic recs. This ask makes me so happy!!! How much time do you have?

Alright, well let me preface this by saying I primarily read Marvel. Right now I’m rereading the Jason Aaron run of Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor which was AMAZING so I highly recommend that one. (Shameless self promotion, but I wrote a fic about that story - I love those comics so much.)

Before COVID, I was reading the following titles:

Star (which is a spin off of Captain Marvel where Riley was pulled into some shenanigans, came back as a hero who was actually a villain)

Hawkeye: Freefall because… Hawkeye being a bit of a fail boat and just generally a good story that pulls in a lot of other Marvel characters

Valkyrie: Jane Foster which is a continuation of her story in the Mighty Thor comics

Captain Marvel

Captain America

Ms. Marvel

Falcon & Winter Soldier (BUCKY WITH A CAT ON A MOTORCYCLE!)

Right now new comics are kind of on a pause and it’s kinda hard to figure out what Marvel is putting out. I know they pushed the last 2 Star and Hawkeyes out on digital.

Looking at my older stuff, the first comic I actually bought was an omnibus of Brubaker’s Captain America where he introduces the Winter Soldier, and then the Death of Captain America where we get BuckyCap. Those will always hold a special place in my heart, and I go back and reference them sometimes when I’m writing fic.

If you’re looking for a more fun dynamic, I really loved Tales of Suspense: Hawkeye and Winter Soldier which is a short run team up where they’re trying to track down someone who is killing Nat’s old enemies (I have not and will not read Secret Empire Nazi Cap but all you need to know is that Nazi Cap kills Nat during the run, which they cover in the beginning). Her two ex boyfriends think she may actually be alive and go looking for her which leads to some amazing snarky interactions between the two.

Winter Soldier: Second Chances is a more recent short run where Bucky is basically running a witness protection situation for reformed villain minions that are trying to get out of the life. He ends up taking a kid under his wing and trying to figure out how to help a young kid being forced to kill.

Nathan Edmondson’s 2014 Black Widow run with Phil Noto is hands down one of my favorite story and artwork combos. Not only do you get to see Nat being a bad ass, you also get to see her in her daily life and trying to make a difference. This story brought in a ton of additional characters from Bucky and Clint to X-23 and Frank Castle, and even a surprise cameo by Anderson Cooper!

Here’s the obligatory rec for Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye run. Amazing, loved it but you can read a million other people’s rave reviews.

One run that I actually really enjoyed but kind of started on a whim was Chelsea Cain’s 2016 Mockingbird. I started reading it because I was interested in Bobbi Morse on Agents of SHIELD and DAMN did I find out how much of a badass she was on her own. The story starts out with her going to a SHIELD clinic because she’s got to get weekly check ups and is kind of starting to get some superpowers. Clint and Lance Hunter, her ex’s, are featured in the story.

Charles Soule’s 2014 She Hulk run is another favorite. I love extremely competent lawyer Jennifer Walters who just happens to also be 7 foot tall emerald green She-Hulk. The story follows her starting at a new practice and trying to balance her drive to help the little guy with needing to charge billable hours. It also intersects with the old man Steve storyline when she represents him in a wrongful death suit facing off against Marvel’s other superhero lawyer Matt Murdock/Daredevil!

If you’re looking for a non-superhero comic, Ed Brubaker’s Fadeout is my favorite. It follows WW2 vet and Hollywood screenwriter Charlie Parish who wakes up from a blackout in the same room as a murdered starlet from the film he’s working on. This has the feel of an old Hollywood film noir who done it and talks about PTSD and the Red Scare. I do want to put a trigger warning on it that it does touch on sexual abuse but it isn’t explicit.

These are just the ones that come to mind off the top of my head. If I was at my apartment I’m sure I could pull a lot more of them.

As an aside, I know that getting into comics can kind of be cost prohibitive. While I 1000% recommend going in and supporting your local shop, I also know sites like GetComics.info are helpful if you just want to browse before diving in. I may have gotten a few off there myself when money was tight or I wasn’t super invested in a character. Just make sure you have a CBR program so you can read them once they’re downloaded.

Hope this helps! And happy reading!

#Comics #Asks #Read all the things #Winter Soldier #Mockingbird #Black Widow #She-Hulk #Jane Foster

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alistircrat · 5 years ago

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Hetalila Fanfiction Recs

Here’s a list of some of my favorite Hetalia fanfictions. Most have pairings, which I’ll specify. I put this up because I know I’m always on the lookout for good fanfiction and I wanted to help out anyone else who’s in the same boat :D Feel free to add onto this or rec me some too ;) Also a good master list of the ones I like LMAO. I’ve noticed I either like tragic, angsty fanfiction or really fluffy ones. A lot are rated M. And a LOT of USUK and Spamano #srynotsry Disclaimer: I did not write any of these; they all belong to their respective authors.

Update: Ive had this sitting in my drafts for like over 4 years and i began it when i was super into hetalia n fanfiction LMAO, what better time to post this when i should be studying lmao its nearly 4 am halp

UsUK

The Secret : Rated T, 32k words, 5 chapters, Drama/Romance, Complete Arthur's sister, engaged to prince Alfred, is killed before she even meets him. Arthur's parents do not want to shame themselves by ending the engagement and force Arthur to dress like his sister and marry Alfred instead. But can this secret be kept? (note: very interesting!! I loved every second of it)

The Courting of Alfred Jones : Rated M, 26k words, 13 chapters, Romance/Hurt/Comfort, Incomplete Alfred Jones is the most popular guy in school and also extremely homophobic. This is why Arthur is his new favourite 'victim', but Arthur has no intentions of grovelling in the dust for him. Punk!ArthurxJock!Alfred (note: Rated M, so there IS some explicit material and I advise viewer discretion. Another highschool AU. Sad that it’s probably not going to finish but it’s worth the read)

When I Only Wanted to Save the World : Rated M, 29k words, 11 chapter, Romance, Complete Alfred is a firefighter in New York City. When he gets badly injured, he takes a trip to London to recover. There he meets a man named Arthur, who ends up helping him recover from wounds he didn't even know he had. (note: warmed my weeb heart)

United Again : Rated T, 31k words, 7 chapters, Humor/Romance, Complete Arthur gets a letter in the mail informing him of his school's ten year reunion.

Unexpected : Rated T, 5.7k words, One-shot, Humor/Drama, Complete World Academy. When Arthur was asked to tutor the star of the American Football team, he expected several things. Sitting in an apartment full of Asian children was not one of them. (cute!)

The Invitational Year : Rated M, 208k words, 41 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Alfred is an awkward dork, despite the fact his dad is President. Arthur is a member of British royalty, and he's a perfectionist loner. Both boys are given an invitation to attend the prestigious World Academy and, naturally, they're roomies. (note: A favorite of mine! Quite long but very much worth it. Highschool AU. Can be silly yet dramatic. Anyways, you should read it! Viewer discretion due to sexual themes)

The Sophomore Year : Rated M, 173k words, 34 chapter, Romance/Drama, Complete After meeting at boarding school, Alfred and Arthur became unlikely friends and then lovers. Now, they'll face their sophomore year in America and all the challenges that come with being young, famous, and madly in love. (note: sequal to The Invitational Year)

And All That Jazz : Rated M, 98k words, 22 chapters, Romance, Complete Alfred is approached by the Student Body President, Arthur, for help on his math exam. They hate each other, but maybe opposites can attract with the help of something unexpected. (note: I love this fic. Highschool AU. Also involves music...cuz liek yknow the title)

1912 : Rated T, 52k words, 9 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Cynical, overweight and bored in the dull twilight of his empire, Arthur finds distraction in the form of rekindling his relationship with Alfred on board the RMS Titanic during her doomed maiden voyage.

The Arrow was Shot : Rated K+, 5.8k words, One-shot, Romance, Complete In order to win his family's respect, Arthur enters a tournament to win the Princess of America's hand in marriage. At the tournament, he befriends the mysterious Alfred- a fellow competitor who is equally determined to win. As he and Alfred grow closer, he begins to question what is more important to him: his family's respect... or Alfred.

Flirting with Failure : Rated T, 2k words, One-shot, Romance/Humor, Complete Alfred just wanted to get one date with Arthur Kirkland before the semester ended. To do that he had to speak with him. Thus, he was set up for failure.

Hero Frequency : Rated T, 12k words, 3 chapters, Romance/Humor, Incomplete America's got the coolest and most awesome band in school, and he's totally going to win the Battle of the Bands contest. Or at least he might, if he can get England to put aside their past issues long enough to play guitar...

The Gentleman and the Hero : Rated T, 57k words, 21 chapters, Romance, Complete World Academy students have been paired up for an anonymous email exchange program, so they can talk to someone about school and personal problems in private. These are the emails of two students nicknamed 'The Gentleman' and 'The Hero'. (note: I also love this. I find it very cute and also very in character. I want an email buddy lol. Highschool AU)

Breathless : Rated T, 35k words, 4 chapters, Angst/Hurt/Comfort, Complete Arthur Kirkland never thought that golden boy Alfred Jones would ever have a reason to attempt suicide. Then again, how much did he really know about the oh so popular blonde? The rumor mill would surely chew him up and spit him out. (note: p sure this is another favorite of mine. Though angsty, I really enjoyed the development between the two. Highschool AU. Really great read!!)

Static : Rated T, 45k words, 9 chapters, Drama/Romance, Incomplete Sequel to Breathless. Arthur always thought that the incident with Alfred's arms would forever be the biggest hurdle their friendship would face. But as the looks change and the touches linger, it becomes frightfully clear that he was dead wrong about that. (note: continues after Breathless, but not finished ): worth the read anyway)

Ask Me Anything : Rated T, 7k words, One-shot, Romance/Humor, Complete Alfred starts to follow Arthur on tumblr. It's not long until they become friends... and possibly more.

The Cost of Affection : Rated M, 61k words, 32 chapters, Angst/Romance, Incomplete Being a whore is easy: all Arthur has to do is spread his legs and take the money. He doesn't have to face his past; nor does he have to deal with love. And for good reason - because when he does fall head-over-heels for someone, he's forced to realize that his sins go beyond prostitution, and that even as he rediscovers himself, his past is coming back to haunt him after all.

You Can’t Take the Sky Away From Me : Rated T, 113k words, 32 chapters, Adventure/Romance, Incomplete Ace pilot America is on a mission for the World Military when a chance encounter with a group of sky-pirates leads him to team up with their captain, England, against a malevolent group that wants to fill the sky with zeppelins. (note: Steampunk AU. This is a really cool fic!)

We’ll Meet Again : Rated M, 43k words, 13 chapters, Romance/Angst, Complete WW2 AU. London pub owner Arthur Kirkland is driven to distraction by loud, brash American fighter pilot Alfred Jones. Unable to stop it, Arthur finds himself falling for Alfred's charms... just as the pilot is preparing to leave for war. (note: a hetalia fandom clASSIC. MUST READ. unfortunately the OG fics were deleted so someone reposted it, giving credit to the OG author George deValier. this will rip ur heart out n tape it poorly back together)

Franada

La Patisserie de La Rose : Rated M, 35k words, 6 chapters, Romance, Complete Accountant Matthew Williams is used to being unnoticed, ignored, and forgotten. That is until pastry chef Francis Bonnefoy appears like a burst of colour in his dull, grey life.

AmeViet (yes, Vietnam!)

Hard to Get : Rated T, 57k words, 20 chapters, Adventure/Romance, Complete During World War Two, serious, limited Vietnam meets the boisterous America. Amid fighting, friendship, and stress, America tries to get Vietnam to like him, but she won't let that happen. Or will she? (note: One of my all-time favorites, unforgettable. I can never find fics of this pairing, it’s so hard! But this is a really great fic, highly recommend. also after learning more about Vietnam history, i might give this yet ANOTHER re-read with my new perspectives)

Of Broken Promises and the Taste of Freedom : Rated T, 1.4k words, One-shot, Hurt/Comfort/Romance, Complete Vaguely, Vietnam wondered if this was what freedom tasted like. If perhaps, the hot waves that crashed through her body and set her skin on fire was what it was like to know that you are truly free.

GerIta (apologies, I don’t read too much GerIta LOL)

Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart : Rated M, 104k words, 18 chapters, Romance/Angst, Complete WW2 AU. Feliciano Vargas is a passionate, if slightly scared, Italian resistance member. Falling in love with a German fighter pilot was the last thing he expected... and it will test his national loyalty, and his heart, to their limits. (note: another VeraVerse, so well written! you will not ragret. also a repost since Og was deleted, all credit to George deValier)

RusAme

Dear Diary : Rated T, 55k words, 17 chapters, Humor/Romance, Complete Alfred F. Jones isn't gay. Just read his diary; you'll see. (note: I absolutely love high school or college AUs, omg. Also this is hilarious. I can really relate to how Alfred's rambling)

PruHun

The Most Awesome Date Plan Ever : Rated T, 7.5k words, 6 chapters, Romance/Humor, Complete It was foolproof. He had worked out every plan, every detail and each possible outcome almost guaranteed him Elizaveta's love. Until it was ruined by Gilbert's two cockblocking best friends. (note: funny and cute)

Táncol? : Rated K+, 24k words, 6 chapters, Humor/Romance, Complete Elizaveta is determined to find out who Gilbert wants to ask out for the school dance. If that means bullying his friends, being hired by Gilbert to slave over a cake, and invading his diaries, so be it. (note: Another favorite! Very cute)

Hello Hurricane : Rated T, 61k words, 18 chapters, Hurt/Comfort/Tragedy, Complete Sequel to "Táncol?" Elizaveta, Ludwig, Francis, and Antonio are forced to watch Gilbert slowly fade away every day. (note: It might seem like I have lots of favorites, cuz I do and this is one of them. Warning, I cried a lot towards the end. Highly recommend)

PruCan

That Song Called Love : Rated T, 62k words, 25 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Matthew had always resigned himself to a fate of musical obscurity on a supporting instrument, but after meeting an ex-delinquent named Gilbert, he just might learn to take the lead. (note: contains other minor pairings. Although she doesn’t play a huge role I’m so happy Vietnam is in it Dx)

Operation Not to Hot : Rated T, 10k words, 2 chapters, Romance/Humor, Complete Gilbert Beilschmidt is dorky, nerdy, and has serious confidence issues. He doesn't really care about himself until he sees Matthew Williams, AKA super-hot-hockey-jock. With Matthew's heart in mind, Gilbert undergoes a complete transformation. (note: funny story. Prussia being Prussia)

Overdue : Rated T, 12k words, 8 chapters, Romance/Supernatural, Complete "Well, Gott, Mattie, at least look someone in the eye when you tell them you're a ghost. Make a good impression!" (note: cute lil one-shot series)

I Have all Summer to Fall For You : Rated T, 162k words, 38 chapters, Incomplete At school, Gilbert makes fun of Matthew, and Matthew just wants to be left alone. But then when the hot days of summer roll around, and they have nothing but free time, things happen that NO ONE could have planned for! (note: MY ALL-TIME FAV PRUCAN FiC Ever. Probably will never finish but the length and quality make up for it)

PruAus

Please Don’t Read the Verdict : Rated M, 57k words, 11 chapters, Romance/Crime, Incomplete District Attorney Roderich Edelstein is faced with a gruesome, controversial murder. He has three months to build a case against the accused, but more than his will to prosecute may be destroyed in the process. (note: sadly not done, but highly interesting!)

Lily of the Lamplight : Rated M, 27k words, 4 chapters, Romance/Angst, Incomplete WW2 AU. Austrian musician Roderich and German soldier Gilbert are forced into an army prison unit and a fight for survival on the Russian Front. But in the midst of blood and death and hell on earth, how long can they fight their desire for each other? (note: MY 👏 FAV 👏 VERAVERSE 👏 I loveeee this fic, I’m so SAD it’s nEvEr going to be completed. Savor those 4 chapters. Luckily theyre long *cries* Also love the set of main characters, including Prussia, Austria, Berwald, and Poland. Also listen to the song the title is based off of, i luv it too)

SuFin

Cheers to a New Life : Rated M, 94k words, 47 chapters, Romance/Family, Complete Sweden could only find a job as a Kindergarten teacher and the famous Kirkland's little Peter happens to be enrolled into his class. But it is not Mr. Arthur Kirkland who is picking Peter up, it's this angel with the greatest ass Berwald's ever seen. (note: viewer discretion, mostly on later chapters. also has cute lil Peter/Sealand)

My Heart, In Segments : Rated T, 14k words, 10 chapters, Family/Hurt/Comfort, Complete Berwald is a man left alone, and Peter was a kid left behind. Berwald's not really the perfect dad, Peter's not really innocent anymore, and Tino's not really sure he's ready for something so real. But, maybe... Maybe it's time.

In Want of a Wife : Rated T, 41k words, 18 chapters, Romance/Humor, Incomplete Berwald's life is turned upside down when he is accepted into Hetalia International University, and everything changes for the better when he catches a glimpse of his future wife who lives down the hall. Who cares if Tino doesn't accept it yet? (note: Human AU; Lietpol is a bonus in all this hehe)

Treatment : Rated T, 55k words, 12 chapters, Romance/Humor, Incomplete Tino is a young psychology major, well known for being kind and eager to help others with their issues, but less so for his habit of profiling "patients" on campus. His therapist's eye has fixed on Berwald, but will he be the one who ends up on the couch? (note: Though not fully done, it’s one of my favorite sufin fics. Also hilarious bahah)

Catch Perfect : Rated T, 35k words, 8 chapters, Romance/Friendship, Incomplete When Berwald loses everything he is forced to move into a share house with an insane Dane, a sociopathic Norwegian, an unfathomable Icelander and a perfect Finn who makes it all worth putting up with. (note: can be crazy and random, which is probs why I liked it so much. also by George deValier I believe, reposted onto wattpad after it got deleted)

DenNor

Hummingbird : Rated T, 61k words, 12 chapters, Tragedy/Hurt/Comfort, Complete Lukas' only goal in life was to take care of his younger brother, until he was diagnosed with an irregular heart rhythm. His originally peaceful stay in hospital was interrupted when the loud, cheerful Mathias was moved into the bed beside him and refused to leave him alone; yet as his health began to deteriorate, the Dane decided to fall in love with him. (note: I love this fic so much, it’s also another favorite of mine. Very cute but with lots of angst, ahhh just what I ordered)

Secret Crowds : Rated M, 3.4k words, One-shot, Hurt/Comfort/Romance, Complete An explosion leaves Denmark with a permanent brain injury and Norway struggles to find his role in their relationship as the line between lover and caregiver begins to blur. (sad and touching)

I also read a lot of DenNor so im like ?? where the fics at LOL. but i think i read more DenNor doujinshis, so that’s def something yall should look into

Spamano

A Beautiful Story : Rated T, 16k words, 10 chapters, Tragedy/Romance, Complete Lovino Romano Vargas is a suicidal designer who is unhappy with his fate. One day, he chances to meet Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, who turns his life upside down.

Flashlight : Rated T, 38k words, 11 chapters, Parody/Romance, Complete "If I throw a tomato at you, vampire bastard, will you still sparkle under the sauce?" (note: OKAY SO This is actually a Twilight parody w Romano as Bella and Spain as Edward. I don’t really like Twilight but I really like this version of it lmao. Funny and a good read. Mostly Romano’s POV, cRACK )

New Batteries : Rated T, 41k words, 10 chapters, Humor/Romance, Complete Sequel to Flashlight. "WELL, I NEVER LIKED YOU, EITHER. WHAT NOW, YOU STUPID SPARKLY EXCUSE OF A VAMPIRE?" (note: also a parody, just the sequel to the previous one listed. I understand the Twilight plot through these better than the original)

Kismet : Rated M, 174k words, 52 chapters, Romance/Fantasy, Complete Lovino learns the hard way that things change and that they can change quickly. The necklace fell and now he's in a strange land far from home. Will he ever see his brother again? Will he find his way home? Or will he discover home is where the heart is? Fate is a strange woman and can work in mysterious ways. (note: RATED M, viewer discretion. the author has a list of warnings on the first chapter you can look at so you know what you’re reading. Fantasy AU)

Catch You, Catch Me : Rated M, (basically)37k words, 7 chapters, Drama/Romance, Complete Clumsy, clueless detective Romano is on the trail of the infamous handsome and charming thief El Apasionado Caballero. But there's more to this, what seems like a simple game of cat and mouse, than meets the eye.

The Bet : Rated T, 20k words, 9 chapters, Romance/Humor, Complete When someone kisses you, and then moves away you'd think that would be it. But when Antonio comes back from Spain he wants Lovino to be his again. Except Lovino now hates Antonio...which sucks for Lovino because Antonio isn't going to let go that easily.

Zero Tolerance : Rated M, 55k words, 24 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Lovino lives a perfect life. Or atleast thats how he is suppose to appear. Antonio lives a life as a dangerous gangbanger. North Side meets South Side as these two are partnered in their Chemistry class. But there is one chemical reaction these 2 arent prepared for- Love. (highschool AU)

Breathless in the Atmosphere : Rated T, 31k words, 3 chapters, Hurt/Comfort/Romance, Complete Antonio only needed money for marble. He needed to make his art. And a chance encounter on the subway offers him a job as a male escort. It was just for the money. He could stop anytime he wanted to. Really. (note: viewer discretion advised. contains prostitution and suicidal ideation)

Before the Snow Falls : Rated T, 19k words, 2 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Lovino, jersey number nine, right winger. He was ready to pass the ball, ready to set up the win, but Antonio, opposite team, center fielder, was ready too. Someone thought, and someone didn't, and they crashed. Hard. A few months later, Lovino's on crutches, Antonio has scholarships, and they have to deal with the aftermath of what happened.

Door to Door : Rated T, 3.5k words, One-shot, Humor/Romance, Complete Do not open the door. It could be a zombie, an unwanted boyfriend of your brother's, or a persistant salesman by the name Antonio Carriedo.

Numbered Lithograph : Rated M, 133k words, 29 chapters, Drama/Romance, Complete When Lovino starts attending art school with his brother he finds his most important lesson doesn't come from his professors, but from a culinary student at a sister school: sometimes the flaws hold the beauty. (note: Probably my favorite spamano fic. Very touching. Has fluff and angst)

Bésame Mucho : Rated M, 48k words, 6 chapter, Angst/Romance, Incomplete WW2 AU. Lovino Vargas only ever wanted something exciting to happen in his boring, everyday Italian village existence. He never expected war, Resistance, love, passion, treason, or a cheerful, confusing, irritatingly attractive Spanish freedom fighter. (note: ANOTHER 👏 ONE 👏OF👏MY👏FAVS👏 BUT SAD BC ITLL NEVER FINISH HDUEOFREGH. Also by George DeValier and reuploaded onto wattpad (originally on ff.net)! I’m in love with the writing. Incomplete but sooo worth the read.)

Bad Touch Trio (may or may not contain pairings/slight pairings)

Oh No, We’re Hot : Rated T, 1.4k words, One-shot, Friendship/Humor, Complete In which, after a summer apart, the Bad Touch Trio realizes that they have become really attractive. Really slight hinted Spamano. (note: I absolutely love the BTT, this is a cute short fic about them)

The Trap : Rated T, 4.7k words, One-shot, Friendship/Humor, Complete The prompt was Prussia and Spain meeting France for the first time, thinking he's a girl, kiddy-courting him, then finding out he's a boy, but still kiddy-courting him. Exactly as wacky as it sounds. (note: another cute story about the BTT and their rad friendship! I need this in my life)

Multiple Pairings

Playing Cupid : Rated T, 24k words, 15 chapters, Romance/Humor, Complete In Everett High School there is a secret club called the yaoi club. It is their job, during Sadies, to set up couples. This year Elizabeta has an ambitious plan. She is going to find a date for the infamous Lovino Vargas. Her choice is Antonio, unfortunately half the girls want to ask him too. Will she and her friends succeed? Spamano, UsUk, Prucan, GerIta, others (note: very cute highschool AU! highly recommend! also contains many of the hetalia girls, which is amazing~)

No Pairings

Bad Pasta : Rated T, 13k words, 6 chapter, Mystery/Tragedy, Complete Kiku and Arthur trade rooms. (note: Author also made a game based on this posted on deviantart: Bad Pasta game. I really liked it, especially since I’m into hetalia fangames and whatnot. warning, contains death of characters)

Fun with Former Vikings : Rated K+, 63k words, 17 chapters, Friendship/Family, Complete Brothers that are too awkward to even stand next to each other, husband and 'wife,' and that one guy that drinks a lot. The Nordics couldn't be any more different. And neither could the situations they get themselves into. (note: I love love love the Nordics. This is also probably one of my all-time favs. I love them as bros Dx)

God Only Threw the Humans out of Paradise : Rated K+, 4.5k words, One-shot, Friendship, Complete 12 years is nothing in the life of a Nation. But to a puppy, it's a lifetime. This is a look at 12 years of England's life through the eyes of man's best friend.

Gutters : Rated M, 98k words, 20 chapters, Adventure/Drama, Complete 'The Calamity' has left the world stripped and dying. Alone in a civilian bunker in Munich, Sealand will be reunited with the last known living member of his surrogate family and together, they will set out across Europe to find those they have lost. (note: It’s an adventure story starring Sealand and Denmark. Can be really intense and eMOTIONAL i cried like a bitch, highly recommend. Probably one of my 👏 favorite👏 fics of all time)

Ditches : Rated M, 2.4k words, 2 chapters, Drama/Family, Incomplete Prequel to Gutters. In the days leading up to The Calamity, the world braces and families struggle not to be torn apart.

Breathe Me : Rated T, 66k words, 21 chapters, Angst/Hurt/Comfort, Complete "God I'm so fat." "No, Alfred. You're not. You're –" "Stop it! I am and you know it! The whole world knows! Just stop okay?" Trigger Warning, Human AU, and F.A.C.E. Family. (note: very important TRIGGER WARNING due to mention of eating disorders, verbal abuse, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts.)

11 notes · View notes

itsallavengers · 6 years ago

Note

Prison break AU? maybe WW2 themed?

Steve woke up to the sensation of slipping in slow motion.

His head lolled and he blinked out the crusted blood from his eyelashes, trying to center himself. He realized he wasn’t sliding so much as he was being dragged- two sets of firm hands on his ankles, pulling him along a concrete floor. It hurt.

Everything hurt.

A moan slipped from his lips and he turned his head, noting a set of boots marching along in time with him. No doubt if he raised his head a little more, he’d see either a HYDRA logo or a swastika. One and the same, he supposed grimly.

He’d known that the mission was going to be risky. Going behind enemy lines was never fun, Super Serum or not- but he’d weighed out the risks. He’d planned well. Everything had been going well; they’d even managed to liberate half of the town before everything had gone horribly wrong. Dammit, Steve should have listened to his gut and gone alone- he knew Johnson had seemed shifty, and it turned out he was right. Nazi scum, undercover in their own ranks. Picking his moment, no doubt- Steve had seen him around for years, so God only knew how many people he must have lied to in that time. Steve included.

Sometimes it felt like this damned war was never going to end.

He took a deep breath and found it a hell of a lot more difficult than it had been previously. He’d been caught up in an explosion then stunned with something, but that was all he could remember- everything else was a rather painful blur in his head. But he knew that whatever he was stunned with had to have been some powerful shit, or he would definitely not still be letting himself get dragged across a floor.

He groaned again and lifted his hands, only to find them bound with some sort of metal contraption. He struggled a bit, trying weakly to dislodge the hands around his legs, but all he got from it was a kick in the stomach and then an angry German phrase that Steve could only understand parts of.

He felt his eyes shut again, but the men continued talking. They seemed to be arguing over something- kept saying the numbers 7 & 8 a lot. Had Steve been more coherent at that point, he probably would have understood it better- but his head was throbbing, and focusing on words just made it worse.

The guard on his left kept pointing to a part of the wall- no, wait, a door- and interspersing his speech with the number seven. Another man was gesturing to another door, and this time Steve caught the word ‘idiot’ and ‘eight’.

Door numbers? They were… oh, they didn’t know which cell to put him in. Hah. That was funny.

Eventually, the angrier guard won out, because he was lifted at the armpits by at least four other men and then hauled in the direction of the door labeled with an 8. He tried to focus in on it- tried to work out the locking mechanism from the front, or what it was made from- but his eyesight was too blurred and unfocused, and he felt his head suddenly become too much of a weight on his neck about a second after being lifted upright. It dropped onto his shoulder, pulling at the tendons in his neck, but there was nothing he could do. He was too weak to even try and fight.

With a rough shove, the door was yanked open and he was pushed inside, into darkness. His body fell through the air, and he heard the slamming of the metal behind him as the guards shut him off without a backward glance. His only thought as he stumbled was ‘Goddamn, this is going to hurt.’

With no arms free to brace his fall and no balance to keep him upright, he prepared for another heavy knock to the head- but it never came. He frowned at the softer sensation against his head and shoulders- hands. Someone’s hands.Hmm. Hands meant there was a body attached to them. And a body meant he wasn’t alone in this cell.

Oh, yeah, and that was a voice.

“-easy, easy- Jesus you’re heavy, how many horse tranqs did they shoot you with to keep you down, huh? Come on, big guy, there we go- down you go-” his cheek suddenly hit coldness, and he shivered against the concrete as the person slowly eased him to the floor, breaking his fall. There were more murmurs from above him, but he couldn’t quite make sense of them- they went into his head and then just sort of mixed themselves up in there until it came out as nonsense. He heard the word ‘concussion’ and just nodded to it, trying to speak his agreement.

He heard a shuffling, and only then realized that his eyes were closed and he hadn’t actually looked at his surroundings. With great effort, he wrenched them open- turning his head to focus on the source of the noise.

It was a man. He had his back turned, leaning over a sink, and Steve watched his hand leave a red imprint against the dirty white tile as it moved. He wondered whose blood it belonged to. Probably his. The man didn’t seem injured, although Steve couldn’t see much of him: lean and tall and wearing clothes that were wrinkled and dirty, but looked like they’d used to have been worth something. Slacks and unpolished brogues. Suspenders over a white shirt, sleeves rolled past his elbows.

Steve noticed these things about the man long before his brain remembered that the rest of his surroundings were important too.

With a blink of his eyes, he pulled his gaze from the man’s back and moved around the room. It was… small. Maybe 6 by 7. There wasn’t anything in it aside from a sink and a toilet- not even a mattress or bed of any kind. In the corner, though, Steve spotted a neatly folded blanket and some clothes strewn over the floor, and guessed that was how his host had been sleeping for however long he’d been there. There weren’t any windows, and Steve figured the walls were either solid concrete or some sort of metal.

Made things a bit tricky.

He groaned again and clamped his eyes shut, feeling his head throb from the strain of his own thought process. He tried to move his hands to rest on his face, but only ended up disorientating himself further when both of them were dragged up together because of the bonds.

“Hey soldier,” someone said above him, and Steve looked up blearily as the other man in the room knelt down by his head, “it’s nice to have some company ‘round here for a change. Although you have hindered my daring escape plan quite considerably, I’ll have you know. I’ll get you back for that later. For now, though, I’m just going to fix your head up a bit. You look like you’ve been through a meat-grinder, if I’m honest.”

Steve blinked a few times, focusing in on the face above him and then frowning. He was… it was certainly a beautiful face- not that he’d admit that to anyone, of course- but there truly was no denying it. Sharp angles and piercing eyes and hair that fell into them as he leaned over Steve. It was almost… familiar. Steve could’ve sworn he’d seen it before, somewhere, in some sort of-

“Marvels,” Steve blurted incredulously, the word springing to the forefront of his mind like a piston, “Marvels, you do the… you’re the…” the adventurer in the comics Steve had adored for years, the man behind all Steve’s private fantasies, The Tony Stark, in the flesh-

“Yep,” The Tony Stark said with a small laugh, “that’s me. What about you, soldier? Got a name?” His hands moved deftly around the back of Steve’s head, feeling around lightly until finding the offending lump.

Steve winced, name moving easily to the forefront of his lips before being pulled back hastily. He didn’t have his uniform on- he couldn’t say Captain America. And he couldn’t risk revealing his true identity either, not if he ended up showing off his skill set in some form or another. Tony Stark was a name everyone knew- he was a famous adventurer, and Steve had information that told him the hype that surrounded the man was in fact true, and all his daring escapades were actually genuine missions. But no one knew Steve Rogers. No one could afford to know Steve Rogers.

“Grant,” he muttered, twitching when Stark hands moved to a sensitive cut on the back of his neck, “Grant Stevens.”

Stark huffed above him, and Steve tried to focus his eyes on the man a little better- because holy shit- but it just hurt, so in the end he sagged back, falling into Stark’s hands limply. The man said something; hands tapping gently on his cheek, but Steve couldn’t concentrate on it properly, his head really hurt-

“No no, Grant, don’t fall asleep on me now, that’s probably not a good-”

And he was out.

Waking up again was the hardest part.

Everything felt ten times heavier. His head, although now not in searing pain, was giving off a constant dull throbbing toward the back. He was cold.

“Uuuugggmmf,” he heard himself groan, rolling to the side. Something slipped off his midsection, and when he pulled his eyes open, he realized it was a jacket. Not his jacket. To small. But…

“Wakey wakey soldier-boy,” Steve jerked upward gratingly, spotting another man, backed up against the wall and writing something in a scrappy little journal, “thought you were gonna spend the whole day napping, at the rate you were going. Or just end up dead. Lucky for you though, you must have fought the head traumas off! How fortunate.”

Steve sat up gingerly, arms shaking and head pounding as he moved. “Fortunate ain’t the word I’d’a used,” he muttered through gritted teeth, and then raised an eyebrow when he heard Tony Stark chuckle. It was a very nice chuckle.

“Yes, well, nothing about this situation is particularly beneficial to anyone, I will agree,” he replied, tucking his journal into his breast pocket and then shuffling forward until he was sat at Steve’s head again, “although I suppose that’s the nature of the job- and I have found some nice little bits and pieces out about our hosts that the boys back home will probably find useful, so it’s not been an entirely fruitless operation. For me, at least.”

Ah. “You’re here for a mission?” Steve asked with a heavy tongue. It would make sense, he supposed- Tony Stark, the avid adventurer, caught up in a dastardly mission against the forces of evil once more-

Fuck. Okay, so maybe it was time to tamp down on the fanboy in him a little bit. They were in sort of A life-or-death situation, here.

Stark laughed, pushing back with a firm hand on his chest to prevent Steve from sitting up. “Of sorts. Trying to find information. Figured the best way to do that was to get right up close and personal with the bastards. I’ve only been here a few days, and I’m going to be on my way again soon, so it’s not so bad.” He shrugged, before flicking Steve in the center of the chest. “Also, you need to stay down. I managed to persuade them to get you a few bandages, and I’ve patched up your head as best I can, but you’re still-”

“’m’fine,” Steve shook his head and didn’t even flinch at the movement, “heal fast, don’t worry.”

Stark shot him a look. “I’m pretty sure it’s going to take you a while before you can walk str-”

He stopped talking as Steve hauled himself to his feet quickly. His focus wobbled a little and his head pounded, but stubbornness kept him on his feet as he looked down at Stark with a slightly smug look. “I’ve played this game before, Mr. Stark,” he told him, “believe me, I’ll be okay.”

He wasn’t okay. His head was killing him, and various areas of his body were aching. Something in his knee was definitely wrong- he wasn’t sure what would happen if he bent it. He wasn’t all too sure as to why he was so desperate to impress Tony Stark, either. Perhaps because he was… well, he was Tony Stark. If he could get through a HDYRA beating and still come out of it smiling like that, then so could Steve.

God, this felt fucking surreal. Him, sharing a cell with the creator of Marvel’s Adventures. God, he’d been reading those things for years- he had a stack of them back at his apartment in Brooklyn, all dog-eared and faded with misuse. He’d traced his fingers over the illustrations of Tony Stark’s face in wonder, and now he was… he was here, right in front of him.

“Wow,” The man said, blinking a few times as he looked up at Steve, “you’re taller when you’re standing.”

“People generally are.”

Stark laughed softly, patting him on the shoulder. “Well I like your moxie, Grant. Don’t worry about this, either- I’ll have us out in a few days, tops. My team is on extraction duty, and I’ve already got a nice little trick or two up my sleeve to see me through, We’ll be absolutely fine.”

It felt a little odd, having those sort of reassurances spoken to him, rather than the other way around, but he nodded along and pulled his best relieved smile anyway. “Glad to hear it. Not gonna lie, I’m sort of excited at the fact I’m going to be in one of Tony Stark’s adventures. I- uh- I read a lot of your comics.” All of your comics. I read all of your comics because I’m more than a little bit obsessed with you-

“Well, they are good reads,” Tony shrugged passively, before looking right at Steve and winking, “and I’ve been told I’m a very charming character- both by the ladies and the fellas, if you know what I mean.”

For the record, Steve had never been flirted with that blatantly by another man before, and he wasn’t all too sure how to react to it. It wasn’t from lack of experience- he knew where to look and wasn’t afraid to search it out if he desired it, but… but he’d taught himself his whole life that there were special places, times, situations for it. It seemed Stark… hadn’t learnt that.

“I prefer to find those things out for myself,” he said in the end, nodding a little and hoping the other man couldn’t see the way he was blushing.It was one thing sharing the cell with Tony Stark. It was a whole other matter entirely to try and respond to a come-on from the guy.

But Tony just grinned, clapping him on the shoulder and then letting his fingers trail gently over his collar for a second. “Well, much as I appreciate the offer- and believe me, there is no sarcasm in those words, Stevens- I do have to admit this is probably neither the time nor the place. Those wretched Nazis may not approve.”

“That’s- that’s not what I meant,” Steve spluttered, blinking rapidly and licking his lips, “I was- I was just saying that-”

Tony’s careless laughter cut him off, and his hands slipped away from Steve’s collar, brushing his chest for a second before going back to his sides. He moved past smoothly, over to his little corner of the room where he’d made his nest and then crouched down beside it, grabbing one of his shoes from where it was stacked. As he started fiddling with the sole, Steve watched in confusion for a few seconds, until Tony managed to tug the material of it back, revealing a small pocket that Steve would never have guessed even existed.

Tony pulled out a knife from inside it, flipping it expertly before holding it out to Steve. “Take this,” he said, “and put it somewhere discreet, for God’s sake. I’l admit, it’s not much, but it might save your life at some point. Better safe than- well- dead.”

Steve held back his small grin. Tony was sweet, trying to give him something to protect himself with. Steve kind of wanted to just punch a hole straight through the wall and walk out, just so that he could watch Tony’s reaction to it. Unfortunately, he was still a little weaker than he would like, and anyway, Tony needed a few extra days to gather all his intel.

Steve could wait.

“Thanks,” he said gratefully, taking the blade and then looking at it curiously. The handle was paper-thin, which seemed a little inconvenient. But then Tony stood and turned back to him, taking Steve’s fingers as they curled across the knife and pushing them into a little button at the very hilt. Instantly, the handle expanded, becoming round as opposed to thin and flat. Steve raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Impressive.”

“I know right,” Tony smiled at him, something almost suggestive in his eyes. Steve swallowed down the urge to step closer. The man’s aura was intense, to say the least. “I’m very good at what I do. Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but. Well. People always end up very satisfied with my... work.”

Tony was looking at him with a barely contained grin, and Steve couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Okay, now that one was just lame.”

As Tony burst out laughing along with Steve, he almost forgot that he was in the middle of a Nazi camp with the ever-present possibility of death hanging over him. That was possibly problematic, but definitely a bit of a mood booster. Steve would much rather think about the pretty little fella in front of him than the fact that he’d managed to get bested by a bunch of HYDRA fucks.

Tony grinned up at him again, and then pushed Steve’s knife-hand down. “Don’t get caught with that, and try not to draw attention to yourself over the next few days, alright? You’re gonna be fine, and I promise I’ll get you out safe. And once we’re all happy and liberated-” he shrugged and then looked up at Steve through his (long, very long) eyelashes, “well, then I insist on taking you for a celebratory drink. I know a place.”

Steve cocked his head. “Doesn’t happen to be underground somewhere in Brooklyn, does it?”

Tony’s laughter sounded wonderful in his ears. “Oh no, darling, who do you think I am? Central Manhattan, lovely little place, full of some of the most delightfully unique people you’ll ever meet. Password-only, but don’t worry,” he winked again, “I’m a VIP.”

Steve watched him in slight disbelief as Tony just stared back innocently, his eyes glimmering with mischief under the half-light in their cell. Steve couldn’t quite work out what the other man’s angle was, but he figured that a man like Tony Stark needed much worry about a blue ticket. The Army needed him far too much for that.

Steve too, he supposed, was pretty lucky in that aspect. Not like they’d lock up Captain America when they needed him most.

He sighed to himself and glanced back to Tony, who was now walking back over to his threadbare nest and getting comfy, pulling the notebook back out from underneath the folds. Even though he probably hadn’t washed in days, Steve still thought he was very handsome. He couldn’t tell whether that was just the fanboy or the queer in him, though.

Either way, he felt like the next week or so was definitely going to be.... interesting, that was for sure. And hey. Maybe this was the part where all Steve’s fantasies came true, and he finally got to star in a Marvel’s Adventure like he’d always dreamed.

Maybe he should get kidnapped by HYDRA more often.

Like it? Donate to my kofi!

#itsallavengers writes #stevetony #Iron Man Noir #I wish I'd finished this tbh i love noir

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calzonekestis · 6 years ago

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but like we never really saw steve and peggy interacting for two years, they were actually shown to be apart for most of ww2, they didn’t know each other that well, they never dated, when did she became “the love of his life”? and peggy doesn’t even have an input in that relationship in endgame, it’s all steve’s obsession to go back to the past, and like you have a character whose whole deal it’s you always get back up and he succumbs to depression and time displacement?

I have Issues with Steve’s ending as well, make no mistake. I don’t particularly care for it and I don’t entirely disagree with you. I just reblogged that post because even though it presented an opinion I don’t entirely agree with, I thought it articulated it well enough and attempted to make sense of it.

Whether or I like it or not. I’m not opposed to hearing differing opinions and takes, and at least the OP made an effort. I don’t care to get involved in discourse and I’ve been trying to check my own negativity because I know it’s Not Fun and tiresome but yeah. I may not entirely agree, but I thought OP made a solid enough case for their stance.

I personally think Peggy and Steve/Peggy was made out to be more than it actually was following TFA. They had feelings for each other, she believed in him, but they did only kiss once and he went into the ice before they could have their date. That’s sad, yes. Calling her the love of his life, imo, is overstating it. Especially when they never even gave it a go as a couple, because they didn’t have the chance. Who knows if they would have made it work?

In my opinion Bucky’s death wasn’t that great, and I think instead of the whole train heist he maybe should have made it to the end with Steve. Instead of having Steve pilot one of those little missile planes, have that be Bucky, and have it blow up over the water.

I think that would have been just as bittersweet an ending as “I had a date” but... that’s not what we got.

I mean it’s Hollywood and they wanted the lost romance with Peggy to be the thing that haunted Steve in the present rather than Dead Bucky. The latter was how it was in the comics for decades. Steve… never, really, pined over Peggy or was wistful about what could have been. To my knowledge. He had a few girlfriends aside from just Sharon, like Bernie and Rachel. He wasn’t stuck on just one woman from his past.

That’s an MCU thing, and I don’t care for it, but it’s what they tried to push. It is what it is, I guess. Even if they made it out to be even more than what it was.

Interestingly enough back in like 2011/2012 when there was a Captain America IOS game that took cues from the MCU, Bucky did in fact make it to the end with Steve. I wonder if that was ever in an original draft.

(And pls don’t think I’m making this a st*cky vs st*ggy thing bc I’m not. I’m just curious.)

#Anonymous

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callmewynchan · 6 years ago

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Womb to Tomb.

1.Steve Rogers would be lucky to live to twenty.

Steve Rogers would be lucky to live to thirty.

Steve Rogers would be lucky to live to forty.

Sometimes, Steve Rogers thought that he should probably live to a hundred and fifty, just to spite the doctors who deduced that he would have about five to ten more years of life expectancy.

They said he would die young, and he said otherwise. He was gonna grow up and marry his best friend and adopt ten puppies and live out of sheer stubborn will.

'Sheer stubborn will and friendship.That was all he had going for him.'

Or maybe it wasn't just the stubbornness. Maybe the super soldier serum had to do something with it.

The super soldier serum had to do with everything, or else he wouldn't be stuck in the 21st century like a flabbergasted puppy(see above) in the middle of New York Traffic.

2.Being stuck in the middle of New York traffic was not Steve's fault. Neither was the alien attack. Neither was wrecking almost half of New York-okay, that was partly his fault, his and the avengers. But well, what could you do.

He was stuck out of time with no way of getting back to 'home' (and really he doubted home existed anymore.), and all he had now was 70 years of backpay from his bank account and a shield issued apartment and a floor in the newly christened avengers tower.

Damn it all, he didn't want any of that-maybe aside from the apartment. He just wanted to retire and live out the rest of his life in relative peace.But that couldn't be, because peace had been left behind in the last century and all he had now were shield issued therapists asking "How's adjustment going, Captain Rogers?"

Adjustment was going fine. Of course it was, taking it from someone who crashed a plane into the Arctic and woke up wishing he was dead.

3. He wished he was dead. Sometimes. When he woke up in the middle of the night and he thought that he was still in a tent in the middle of Ww2 and Bucky was fast asleep against his back. And then he washed his face and looked in the mirror and realised that Bucky was gone, he had been gone since that fiasco of a mission to the Alps and all his dreams of a nice suburban life had been washed down the metaphorical drain.

At least it was some consolation that the LGBT community was less looked down upon in this century and maybe some other Steve and some other Bucky somewhere out there could have their nice happy ending.

A happy ending wasn't for this Steve. This Steve had nothing left but the serum and the good fight. And so he could do nothing but fight. He had to pick up his shield and carry on like everything was alright.

It wasn't.

4. He had always had Bucky. Even when he had nothing, he had Bucky.

Bucky was the one constant in his life among a midst of sickness and asthma and bruises and all kinds of other troubles a 1940s brooklyn boy could have. Steve had nothing, in that period between Sarah Rogers death-bless her soul-and Captain America, and yet he still had something, could still pick himself up because he had Bucky.

There was no before, nor after. There was just Bucky. And so, it shouldn't come off as a surprise that Captain America dropped his shield through a hole in the bottom of a crashing helicarrier and let his best friend turned pyscho assassin punch the shit outta him.

'I'll be with you till the end of the line.' Bucky had promised, like they were some old couple getting married with rings twisted from tuna cans. And if the metaphorical end of the line meant getting slapped black and blue like meat in a sack, then so be it.

"I'm with you till the end of the line." Steve Rogers told the Winter Soldier, and in that moment, he could see Bucky shining through the horror in his gaze, and he could have died right then, right there, because Bucky was there and he recognized him.

5.Bucky Barnes was the winter soldier. The winter soldier was Bucky Barnes. They were the same, and different, and frankly Steve didn't really care. Because that was what 'the end of the line meant'. He wouldn't care if Bucky was an assassin, or had no memories, or even some kind of fish monster with a mouth for a head(that he wasn't). He would still take the chance to get his friend, lover, Patrocles to his Achilles back, because Bucky was here, in this time and age, and maybe 'home' wasn't lost in a ravine in the last century after all.

"Man. I think you're obsessed." Sam tells him after his gazillionth 2am phone call to cry and vent. Steve doesn't deny it, and Sam doesn't not sympathize,and if the two of them buy way too much takeout and beer and just drown their sorrows, then its fine. Because Sam understands him(Riley, right?)

If Steve punches Hydra agents with more force than is needed, its also fine, because he can be sure that Bucky is on his own murder massacre field trip through Hydra bases on the other side of that world. (Well, either that, or visiting the Grand Canyon.)

Bucky rambles about newspapers in Steve's shoes when they find him, when Steve was expecting a cold wasteland of a person with stabby stabby instincts. Bucky laughs at him instead, looking way too haunted, and Steve wanted to give him a kiss that was long overdue (like that dance he owed Peggy.), but Sam was there, and that kiss could wait a bit longer, until after those damned Accords went to hell.

6.The Accords went to hell. The Avengers went to hell. Steve wasn't sure if there was any part of his life that did 'not' go to hell.

Bucky. Maybe Bucky. But apparently there was a flip switch in his best guy's brain that turned him back into a assassin, and that ended up with Steve, Bucky, Sam on one side of a airport, and Tony, Rhodey and Vision on the other.

Either you take your best friend, or you take your team. You could never have both.

'Brooklyn alley fights were never this traumatic.' Steve bemoaned when they were in a jet heading for Siberia and Bucky was going like 'Am I worth all this' and the friends that had not abandoned them were in a prison in the middle of literal no where.

Bucky was worth all this.He reflected as he flung his shield and his name down at Iron Man's feet and walked away. He was worth everything Steve could give him and more.

Steve Rogers was not Captain America. Steve Rogers was that 90 pound asthmatic from Brooklyn who had luck and a best friend named Bucky Barnes.

7.Bucky goes back into cyrofreeze, and Steve thinks he should have expected it. Steve had a 70 year long coma in the Arctic, and Bucky had had a couple of naps in a box, and Bucky hated getting woken up, like 'Stevie go away, it's too early for this shit.'

Bucky goes back into cyrofreeze, and Steve's okay with that, even though it means he'll miss Bucky when he goes on missions without him. But when he wakes up, they can skype all they like and he can watch Bucky exclaim' Do you know they have flying cars now? '

' Those are pods. 'Shuri deadpans in the background.

Then war comes back around way too quickly, and Steve reunites with his best friend-lover-what even are they now just to face another fight. Steve and Bucky, against the world, like it used to be in the old times.Only this time, they were not side by side and Bucky was hefting a machine gun with one hand and a-was that a raccoon-with the other and Steve was playing 'I can do this all day' with a big purple alien with a hoard of jewels.

Thor didn't aim for the head, and Thanos snaps his fingers, and Steve wasn't blaming anyone but himself when Bucky disappears before his eyes with a 'Steve' on his lips. This was deja vu, like 'home' dropping away into a ravine in the alps.

This was deja vu, because 'home' was dust on the ground of a Wakandan battlefield and once again there was no body for him to cry over.

They never had that kiss, did they.

8. Steve mourned. Bucky was gone and Sam was gone and half of the world was gone and he-they had failed.

The Avengers were supposed to protect the world, and they had done such a great job of that. Not.

He was mourning, and in a state of on off depression, nevermind the fact that he headed a therapy group that was supposed to tell people to move on. He couldn't move on, and neither could any of them-except for Tony, who still had Pepper and a kid in some countryside. Nat was still running missions as far as he knew, Bruce was MIA, Clint was MIA, Thor was sulking in a hovel, and anybody who was not missing or sulking was trying their best to stay calm and rebuild.

This was what had become of the Avengers and co. And he was damn pleased when Scott Lang showed up with his theories and a ravening hunger for sandwiches and beat some hope into all of them.

9. Time Travel was their best bet. And it kind of worked, if they did not mess up, again.

They sent everyone out, and Steve and Tony nearly fucked things up for good. There was a loki running around in an alternative timeline, a Hydra that thought Cap was Hydra, and a Cap that knew Bucky was alive.

"We got one more chance." Tony tells him, all that seriously, and Steve feels like he had gotten slammed by a brick wall(he had a lot of experience) when he sees Peggy back in the 1970s, with a photo of 90 pound him on her desk and a photo of her family next to that. Peggy had moved on and was married and had gotten a life and maybe Steve should think about doing the same when they figured everything out.

When they figured everything out, it became another war, because somehow Thanos from another timeline had hacked onto their ride back to their timeline and Steve was so tired of fighting. But maybe the fight would be worth it, just another 'I can do this all day' with a broken shield and thor's hammer, when those that had been dusted charged through glowing magic wormholes and back onto the plane of existence.

And there was Bucky, with his metal arm and machine gun and that look that said 'Steve, you did a load of stupid things when I was gone, didn't you?' And Steve thought that all the stupid things they had done were worth it, because the world was saved and Thanos's armies were gone and there were no more Mad Titans in this timeline.

Iron Man-No, Tony Stark was gone.

Bucky and Steve were both alive, and this was the end of an era.

10. There was a funeral, and all that came after that. Steve was tasked with taking the stones back to whereth they came from, and as always, Bucky was by his side.

They were in the Howling Commandos together, they found this century together and like that museum exhibit said-'Inseparable on both schoolyard and battlefield.', so hell if Steve was doing this alone.

Steve said his goodbyes and Sam was like 'Don't pick too many fights, man.' with that unknowing glint in his eye that said he'll be seeing them in 5 seconds.

It would be five seconds for Sam, and for Steve and Bucky-Mind Stone, Space Stone, Time Stone, Reality Stone, Power stone, Soul stone(Hello, Schmidt.), Brooklyn.

Steve was sure that Sam would have fits when he found Steve's shield and a letter in a cardboard box right outside Sam's room. Bucky had scoffed into the crook of Steve's neck when he told him what he had done and Bucky said 'It's a wonder Sam puts up with you, with all the dumb things you do.'

Steve was even surer that Sam would had some sort of heart attack when he turned around to see Steve and Bucky sitting on a bench not far away from the Time travel point, all old and gray and wrinkled and cryptic messenger of the lord like.

But it was worth it. Because this was the end of a era and Steve and Bucky could go home after the long, long war and have their happy ending with tin can rings and ten puppies.

They could wake up to 1950s mornings and vinyl music and alley fights and smoke tasting kisses and Steve stepping on Bucky toes when they danced in their apartment. And one day, he would definitely wake up to Bucky groaning. 'Stevie, you have white hair. You're getting old.' and that would be all he wanted in life.

He would live to a hundred and fifty just to spite the doctors in his youth. He would live to a hundred and fifty with Bucky just to spite all the things that pushed them down.

Captain America was a legend. The Winter Soldier was a ghost story.

Steve and Bucky were just best friends, lovers, on schoolyard to the battlefield to the future and back again.

From womb to tomb, they were just two Brooklyn boys, lost in time.

P. S. Name inspired by this fic on ao3. Content inspired by the gazillions of Post- Endgame fics, bc really the ending for Steve and Bucky was not so great and completely ooc.

#steve rogers #bucky barnes #stucky #starbucks #avengers endgame #endgame spoilers #marvel mcu

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ultralaser · 6 years ago

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i'm just gonna go ahead and spoil the fuck out of hellboy 2019 bc it's awful and i can't think of a good reason not to

thomas haden church shows up as lobster johnson! but he looks ridiculous, like, a cheap halloween costume version compared to, say, the period costumes in captain america or wonder woman. and he has NO SET UP so he just comes off like a joke, it's not, oh this is a wierd noir pulp hero in **gotham city**, it's, lobster johnson, nazi hunter. is hellboy a world with cool superheroes, and if so, why isn't hellboy one of them? is he an x men now? idk it doesnt work tho

baba yaga shows up! she has a house on chicken legs that's rendered beautifully, but then she has one of the worst face prosthetics i've ever seen, it literally looks like a cheap monster mask from party city. so much for the grace and elegant spookiness of a doug jones suit, this baba yaga mask can't even lip sync well

guy davis kaiju demons show up! but they aren't, cool, they're just, they have as much screen time as the ogdru jahad in hellboy 04, but they show up and start just gruesomly killing ppl, like same with thr giants fight earlier on, the movie uses the r rating to push a lot of just dismemberment, disembowelment, graphic bodily harm, it's gross and mean and dumb and out of character for the comics. therr's the helicopter shot of the tall man walking through the tower bridge, then two bat demons fky up in front of him and tear someone in half and all their guts fall out. what? why

king arthur and merlin show up! merlin is, christian for some reason? and king arthur is boring. this sequence is nearly saved by ian mcshane's narratiom, but not really. witches bad, she created a plague but not, the plague? england is the most important place in history, blah blah, no. king arthur legend of the sword does more with excalibur as a magic artifact, and drunk merlin from transformers the last knight is way more compelling than Christian Merlin, warrior for god

they do the quick ww2 origin flashback, ala thomas and martha wayne, joe chill, pearls. kroenen is there and looks bad, ilsa looks fine, rasputin, tbh feels like they got the same actor who did a poor job in 04, he's generic in a boring way, the whole scene is unnecessary

okay, so, then halfway! through, after hellboy has been sent to england to help the rebel general from rogue one, and they name their perennial giant hunt 'the wild hunt', and they all betray hellboy and stab him with a bunch of spears, and are killed brutally by giants, and then hellboy brutally kills the giants, and is rescued by new girl, who talks to ghosts and was rescued by hellboy from being replaced by a fairy changeling (who is back, running around putting milla back together after king arthur dismembered her and locked her still-living pieces in boxes around england?), and hellboy both knows her from all along but also hasnt been back since, and knows shes a psychic but also hasnt seen her since she was a baby, depending on the scene?

THEN finally daniel dae kim's ben daimio shows up, and he's NOT EVEN IN THE BPRD, he's with british intelligence, and he takes hank's anti-mutation polyjuice serum from days of future past to repress his were-jaguar form, and he has a special gun designed to KILL HELLBOY because he doesnt trust him not to be the actual devil, despite, HIMSELF, being cursed with a monstrous destiny

the scene in the trailer with hellboy, new girl, and daimio on a bprd mission, with hellboy punching daimio to activate his hulking out? THAT'S IN THE **SIX MONTHS LATER** EPILOGUE. the movie ENDS with the three of them finding abe sapien

so this whole thing? is a fucking ORIGIN STORY. it is EVERY SUPERHERO MOVIE FROM 78 TO IRON MAN TWO, it is ONE HERO, ALONE, IN A WORLD WITH NO OTHER HEROES. it's not even the x-men because they're not recruiting hellboy to join their team, it's like if the x-men were just xavier and logan and a nunch of fbi guys.

meanwhile, ddk and new girl are both americans doing british accents, david harbour is still playing hellboy as a 75 year old teenager, and ian mcshane, bless him, is just playing ian mcshane

also, just, i think the intent was for harbour to play it as the stone right hand is just really heavy? but it ends up looking like a cosplayer who misjudged the weight of his prop hand an hour into the con. i want to say del toro did a better job of making it look like, this is actually hellboy's hand, and not, this is ron perlman wearing a wierd prosthetic.

and also, amazing advances in prosthetic technology aside, why didnt they just get dave bautista, if they wanted surly hellboy, or dwayne johnson, if they wanted comic accurate charming hellboy, because neither of those dudes would have needed a muscle suit. hellboy ends up (AGAIN) looking like one of the fucking dwarves in the hobbit, who wore fat suits to look like they were built like john rhys davies, but if they turn their head wrong you can see their prosthetics floating like trump's wig

have the balls to give him his wierd jawline from the comic, or don't fucking bother

okay, okay. OKAY. so, you guys remember the BLOOD TORNADO from blade one, the 'original ending' on the dvd where frost turns into a whirling vortex of blood, and they superimpose the dorff's torso just kind of leaning out of it? and it looked awful both because it's super fake anyways but also unfinished? so, there is an EXTENDED scene where professor mcshane comes back as a ghost, and it's ian mcshane's head pasted onto a super fake ectoplasm tail coming out of new girl's mouth (which also, gross), and they forgot to give him a neck, and he's naked? and it's awful and only not laughable bc, frankly, ian mcshane is a treasure and spends the whole moving swearing a lot

and honestly, the most annoying part is that hellboy 19 cribs the ending from hellboy 04 where hellboy is about to give in to his cursed destiny and join team evil, until some white dude says 'no, stop, you have a choice thanks to your father'

hellboy popped into our plane in 1944 and it is 2019, dude is SEVENTY FIVE YEARS OLD. he is smarter than this shit, or at least, old enough to know better. i'm half his age and i can tell when someone is not negotiating in good faith.

and at least in 04 he was doing it to save liz, in the new movie witch milla ALREADY KILLED IAN MCSHANE and it still takes ghost mcshane to cuss hellboy out back to team good, talking him into using EXCALIBUR to rekill her instead of, destroying the world

and do they reconcile that EXCALIBUR was the key to the hellmouth, that hellboy pulling the sword from the stone started the biblical apocalypse? that england is the villain here? no, they joke that now hellboy is king.

OMG and i forgot merlin shows up again to tell hellboy HE IS LITERALLY DESCENDED FROM KING ARTHUR. his human witch mother fucked satan in the 1600s and gave birth to hellboy in hell, and then four hundred years later rasputin and the nazis summon him to earth as he's still a baby. does this make sense? no. is it comics canon. idk, who cares, it's BAD.

this movie is B A D in almost every way, it is amazing how bad it is. it is clearly a 'gritty' remake of the 2004 film, not in any way a new take on the comics. there are FIFTEEN YEARS of new bprd comics put out since that film for these guys to riff on, and they are still fundamentally misrepresenting beloved characters while also just, making up new bullshit.

but when del toro did that, it was del toro's cool bullshit. this is hellboy from the guys who said 'lets have jaime rape cersei on joffrey's tomb'

#hellboy #i dont want your garbage #spoilers

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fuckyeahblackwidow · 7 years ago

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@darklabrynth replied to your post: So do you prefer the more solidified history or the more malleable one?

Short answer: it depends.

Long answer: I'm a historian, so I like having dates. And I do think that Brubaker's approach, with everything precisely dated, set in specific time, instead of vague time, adds a sort of narrative heft— it gives you a when and a where, and not just a long, long ago. So I understand that impulse.

With the Winter Soldier retcon specifically, I think Brubaker laying out a specific timeline like he did was almost necessary. You have to remember, there was a time when Bucky stayed dead, and when people thought he should stay dead. Bucky coming back wasn't like Wolverine coming back after being "dead" since the last big event. Bucky was coming back after being dead since the modern Marvel universe began— his death was the loss of innocence that brought Steve into the current timeline, with all its complications. A storyline that brought Bucky back therefore had to preserve some sense of that original tragedy but also provide an engine for future stories— a story where Bucky was found amnesiac, ancient, and in a hospital bed, presumably to die shortly thereafter doesn't really provide something new, does it? But if Bucky survived the war and is active enough in the present day to be interesting, you also have to explain how he hasn't aged in that time.

So the dates were— I'm not totally sure they were necessary, but they were convincing, which is what the story did need to be. They also helped answer some of the other questions that inevitably arose from bringing Bucky back. How come Steve hadn't run into him before? Well, he'd been decommissioned since the eighties, well before the Avengers fished Steve Rogers out of the ice. See, even though Brubaker's story was defiantly nailed to a time, it made use of the sliding timescale. Because of the sliding timescale, the fifties through the eighties are basically dead years in the Marvel timeline— everything that was actually published then now happened in 2010. So Brubaker could plant a whole character there and it made sense that no one had met him. The exceptions, like Nick Fury, were few, and could be explained specifically in the comic itself.

There are also thematic reasons I think it also worked— Captain America is already a "man out of time" story, and Cap and Bucky are both obviously pinned to the a historical era. Because of this, a the Captain America mythology already features lots of temporal alienation and lots of Nazis who have somehow survived WW2.

Moving Natasha's origin back to the 1950s is trickier. Paul Cornell's Deadly Origin builds off of Brubaker's plotlines and uses a similarly dated approach— we see Natasha as a child in 1928, for example. But while Brubaker was essentially creating a new story and plopping it into an empty timeline, Cornell was mushing a lot of existing stories together and then sticking dates on them. This doesn't work nearly as well, because most of these stories are things that happened onscreen already. By fixing Natasha back to the Cold War, many of her older stories read differently. Like, for example, her romance with hotshot rookie Hawkeye might come across strange if read with the knowledge that she's actually sixty years older than him. Or the constant death and rebirth of her ex-husband Alexei— is he also, then, unaging? Is Ivan? By pinning his story to specific dates Brubaker could avoid plotholes like this, pinning Natasha to specific dates creates them.

Natasha had never previously been concieved of as a timelost, immortal character, and her many decades of prior stories weren't necessarily equipped to handle a retcon of that scope. To his credit, Paul Cornell really tried to make it work, but he also had to use mind control and false memories to do it, which are plot devices I'm not very fond of. Creators, though, are still running into this problem, because while temporal alienation isn't an important theme for Natasha, her past is. A good example is the recent Samnee/Waid run with Weeping Lion, someone who lost a relative to Natasha as a child, and has nursed a grudge since. The way the story is told he'd have to be around Natasha's age— but instead of explaining his apparent immortality, the comic just ignores that and presents the parts of his story that matter. I think that was the right call. Fans like me, who know and care about continuity, and how Natsha's actually 88, can no-prize themselves an explanation. And fans that don't know or don't care aren't subject to a narrative aside that clutters the story and makes things more confusing, as explaining Marvel timelines always does.

I think that's the approach I'm most in favor of for Natasha for now: be vague enough about flashbacks to let people imagine the origin story they want. Dating will make things confusing. Explicitly retconning the "Natasha is secretly 88" thing will also be confusing, because then how does she know Winter Soldier? Best avoid it unless you have an good reason, and imo continuity porn is not a good reason.

On the flipside, Nadia Pym is an example of the storytelling opportunities the sliding timescale brings. Hank's first wife, Maria, died a very long time ago, but because Marveltime is really compressed, you can introduce a character with an interesting legacy built in. And you wouldn't really get that if you played strict with the idea that the Red Room shut down in the 1970s. She can just be a teenager and it works and doesn't need to be impossibly complicated, like this answer.

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aubrey-plaza · 7 years ago

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staubrey superhero au

ok so like I know you prob wanted original superheroes but this popped into my head and won’t let me go so:

Stacie as Iron Man and Aubrey as Captain America

Stacie is heir to her father’s massive tech/weapons company and gets taken prisoner during a weapons demonstration gone wrong and she ends up building the Iron Man suit and once she breaks out of captivity realises how fucked up her father’s company actually is and she uses her genius to shift the company towards doing better for the world and becomes a full time superhero. Fame and notoriety follow her around and she lets the ego trip that is the Iron Man suit get to her a little bit, until she’s approached about the Avengers Initiative

Aubrey is born July 4th 1918 and grows up small and frail and when the US joins WW2 she tries to enlist everywhere but they won’t have her, until she gets recruited for the Super Soldiers programme by a progressive doctor who thinks the serum might have a better effect on women. She goes down in the ice after a bad mission and is found 70 years later by SHIELD, who immediately recruit her for the Avengers Initiative

Aubrey and Stacie immediately clash because of their differing ideologies

Aubrey thinks Stacie is cocky and selfish and uses her science to further her personal agenda (“You wouldn’t lay your life down on the line”)

Stacie thinks Aubrey is old-fashioned, high strung, and fake as hell (“Everything good about you comes from a bottle”)

They end up putting those differences aside when literal aliens come down to earth to colonise it and afterwards they go grab dinner with the rest of the team and Aubrey realises that Stacie actually has a heart and cares about other people and Stacie realises that Aubrey is so loyal to the cause and such a strong believer in people’s intrinsic good values

Aubrey’s offered a whole floor at the Conrad Mansion and she takes it, cites wanting to be in New York to be closer to home as a reason but secretly she wants to get to know Stacie better

Stacie re-introduces Aubrey to everything 21st century but she almost cries in frustration and disappointment when Aubrey turns out to love 80s and 90s female pop and figures out how to blast the Bangles in Stacie’s workshop for a week

Not a lot of things change, such as the definition of the word nerd and Stacie is definitely a nerd who hides behind a cool persona and Aubrey thinks she might like that part of Stacie the most

Aubrey gets a motorcycle and Stacie realises that underneath that clean-cut good girl persona Aubrey is a rebel who enjoys pushing boundaries and Stacie really tries to pretend not to be scared when Aubrey invites her for a ride but she wraps her arms tightly around the blonde as they cruise through upstate New York

Stacie still has PTSD from when she was kidnapped and when she sacrificed herself to save New York and Aubrey doesn’t know how to help her. She startles awake every time Stacie wakes up screaming and Aubrey starts sleeping on the couch on Stacie’s floor in the Conrad Mansion so that she’s closer

They don’t mention it in the morning when Aubrey makes her breakfast and Stacie drags herself into the kitchen and they eat together but they don’t need to

One night Aubrey’s the one screaming during a nightmare and it wakes Stacie up and she watches the blonde toss and turn on the couch, tears rolling down her cheeks and Stacie’s heart breaks

“Sleeping on the couch can’t be good for you”

“I’m fine”

“I mean because you’re like 95 years old”

“I’m 98”

Stacie just wants to keep Aubrey safe even though she knows the blonde doesn’t need her protection

Aubrey takes down SHIELD and ends up under a fucking Helicarrier and Stacie almost has a goddamn panic attack and she rushes to the hospital and Aubrey is totally fine, just sore, but Stacie still cries when she sees her

“You can’t do that to me”

“Stacie, I’m fine”

“I love you, you can’t die!” Stacie says and Aubrey’s not surprised by the words, per se, she’s more surprised that Stacie finally said them

“I love you too and the same goes for you.”

Civil War never happens because they fucking talk about their issues

also, Amy is Thor, Beca is Hawkeye, Jesse is the Hulk and Cynthia Rose is Black Widow

send me a Staubrey AU and i’ll tell you 5 of my headcanons for it

#staubrey #staubrey au #fuck can you imagine Stacie with all the RDJ swagger?#and Aubrey in the Captain America uniform good lord #staubrey headcanon #headcanon ask #ask #anon #anonymous #k8 writes

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magicalcrapulent · 7 years ago

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Captain America and how he discards his title in CA:CW

Once I have lain in bed one morning and thought about CA:CW. Let’s just say that I have feelings about this movie. I analyzed the movie and Steve’s and Tony’s actions during the plot. I decided to write it down to order my thought, and it somehow became an essay (oops?). And now I want to share my new insights with the world; the insight that Captain America discards his title as Captain America as early as CA:CW.

Okay guys, hear me out! Captain America: Civil War is not about the Sokovia Accords or an argument between Steve and Tony. It’s much more than that underneath the surface. It’s about Steve’s abandonment of his Captain America persona. And this is how it goes:

What does Captain America stand for? Democracy and freedom. He is/was the ideal human being in terms of Nazi standards: big, blonde, blue eyes, intelligent, the perfect soldier. And he punched Hitler in the face. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do. Steve acts on the premise that what he does is good and right, because that’s what he’s been doing all this time since WW2, that’s why he was chosen for Project: Rebirth in the first place: because of his inherent goodness, and Steve delivered (rightfully so). He is used to do what is good and right, because that’s who he is, that’s what Captain America is, what he stands for: The Good Fight.

And then the Accords came. Suddenly somebody tells him that he was acting out of order, that his actions may not be as positive as he was led to believe. Of course he denies it for a while, but CA:CW is not really about the Accords, at least not for Steve. But by brushing those Accords aside he also starts brushing aside everything he stands for: Democracy and freedom. 117 nations decided that the Avengers couldn’t continue the way they were doing. 117 nations decided that they had enough of having an American team of ‘superheroes’ just come into their country, cause mayhem and then disappear again, leaving those nations in shambles, all in the name of the greater good. They had enough, and they used their rights and freedoms to do something against it. They stood up and said “It’s enough”. By denying those nations’ right to say ‘No’, by saying “The safest hands are our own”, by claiming everybody in a position of power is (basically)corrupt and has a secret agenda, Steve denies those countries’ freedom and democratic rights.

Steve is not completely wrong. He has personal experience with hidden agendas. Negative experiences. We have seen it in The Avengers and CA:TWS. SHIELD has, on multiple occasions, withheld information and had their own secret agenda and their reasoning wasn’t all that sound. It starts in The Avengers, where SHIELD lies to Steve’s face about clean energy while secretly making HYDRA weapons. This is the first crack in Steve’s trust towards the established power systems. The second is when the Security Council fires a nuke at Manhattan, at their own civil population. That is the second crack. The next one comes in CA:TWS. Already at the beginning Fury withheld mission parameters from him, and we can see how pissed Steve is that people are not telling him everything he (thinks he) needs to know. His trust is completely shattered when it turns out SHIELD was corrupted from the very beginning. HYDRA has grown inside Shield from the start, and it turns out for Steve that even the organization with the hidden agenda has even MORE hidden agendas. I think we can say that Steve worked for SHIELD because it is the only organization he marginally trusts (and knows), and he only continues to trust them after The Avengers is probably because they weren’t the ones who fired the nuke and they came clean to him when he confronted them with the hidden HYDRA weapons.

So Steve’s skepticism towards established governments and organizations is justified. What he doesn’t seem to understand is, that even he himself has a hidden agenda: Bucky. Rumlow is right by saying that, whenever Bucky is mentioned, Steve’s brain does a full stop and everything else loses importance. So by saying that he can’t trust governments with hidden agendas to give the commands, he is a hypocrite, because he himself has a hidden agenda himself that he tries to protect and fulfill. Because not only does he want to protect Bucky, but he also wants to neutralize the threat the additional Winter Soldiers in Siberia pose, something he doesn’t really tell anybody about who doesn’t necessarily have to know about it. And Tony obviously isn’t somebody who needs to know in Steve’s opinion. The thing he so despises in other – the secret keeping, the lies, the hidden agendas – are all things he does himself through the length of CA:CW. But we get to that again later.

This is actually a reoccurring theme in comics; it’s a thing that especially authorities like the police criticized after WW2 about the way they are depicted in comics. The Lone Hero, most of the time some kind of vigilante who acts outside of the law, defeats the bad guys and lets the government, military and police look bad. People feared that especially children would read those comics and disregard local authority, because obviously they are completely incompetent, and why should children even listen to them?

And that’s exactly what Steve does! After the UN bombing in Vienna every evidence they had at that time led to Bucky being the culprit. We, as the viewers, know that something else is going on and that it wasn’t Bucky who planted the bomb, but the characters in the movie don’t know what we know. They only have the means and knowledge given to them, and, like I said, the evidence points towards Bucky. And so the police, no, more than the police, the fucking GSG9, a German special ops team, goes to apprehend the man who bombed the UN in Vienna. And what does Steve do? He decides that they are not good enough and that he can do better and sweeps in himself, verifying everybody’s worst fears and complains to be true. Like Tony said later in the movie, Steve’s actions prove that something like the Accords is necessary, because obviously Steve knows no boundaries. No matter what Steve claims, acting the way he did wasn’t the best for everybody and he was following his own agenda: saving Bucky. The only one profiting from his actions was Bucky, nobody else.

Then comes a time of calm, of conversation and of diplomacy, where Tony and Steve have a long overdue conversation. And Tony brings out the pens he found in his attic (?). But what do these pens symbolize? Tony said that they were used to sign the Lend-Lease Bill, but what does this have to do with the story? What does this Bill contribute? They could have chosen any other Bill or even a Peace treaty that those pens could have signed, but they chose this specific Bill. Why?

This Bill basically allowed Roosevelt to continue his own agenda – involving America in WW2 – while still acting in the boundaries of the law. By loaning and not selling the UK weapons and supplies he acts in the parameters set by his own government while still helping those who need it. It is symbolic to the Accords and Tony’s role in it. He signed the Accord because he thinks it’s the right thing to do, because his own actions (Ultron for example) show that even Superheroes need regulations. They can’t just run around and do as they please without any kind of consequences. In Lagos Cap and his team did their thing, and when people got hurt and died they just left again like “Well, shit happens life goes on”. A normal human being wouldn’t have been able to get away with something like that, and Superheroes shouldn’t be an exception.

No. Tony signed the Accords to take up responsibility for his action, but he isn’t delusional. He knows Ross. In the after Credit scene in The Incredible Hulk we see him talking to Ross. He knows that guy and what to expect. But Tony is a clever dude. He signed the Accords, but he is also manipulating them to suit himself and what he wants to accomplish. It sounds shifty, but so does Steve with his “the safest hands are our own” bullshit. Tony acts in the parameters set by the Accords, just like Roosevelt acted in the parameters set by the American Government and Congress, while still working towards their own ultimate goals.

That is what those pens symbolize, the acting in set rules while having the freedom to follow your own morals. A practical example for this is Wanda’s confinement. Many may shout “Tony imprisoned her!”, but what do you expect? She’s an illegal immigrant without any kind of legal papers, an ex-member of HYDRA, helped Ultron, and got some people in Lagos killed. Do people really think that all those things don’t have consequences? Do they really think that she can get away with all of those things with a simple “Oops, my bad”? It was either house arrest in a comfortable environment, her own home, with all its luxury like privacy, TV, Internet, fitness facilities, and all alone with the guy she has a crush on, or being imprisoned in a cell with a straightjacket and a collar. Tony acted in the parameters of the Accords, but he managed to manipulate them according to his will by having Wanda in confinement, but still giving her luxury and a certain kind of freedom and amenity. Not to forget that Steve didn’t even think to ask about Wanda. Only when Tony brought her up did he care to think what is going on with her. Another evidence is that, at the moment, Steve is single-mindedly focused on Bucky and nobody else, no matter their (maybe shitty) situation. With those pens Tony subtly tells Steve that he can still follow his own goals and still keep his integrity and follow his own morals while still complying with the law, just like Tony has done with Wanda.

But all of this goes right past Steve. All he says concerning the Lend-Lease Bill is that it brought America closer towards war. And again he acts like a hypocrite. Wasn’t it Steve who applied for enlistment through all of New York and even New Jersey so that he can participate in said war? Wasn’t it Steve who said that bullies weren’t allowed to remain in power? Wasn’t it Steve who fought the Good Fight by punching Hitler in the face? As much as WW1 was a senseless bloodshed, the Second World War was, in a way, necessary. People like Hitler weren’t allowed to remain in power. They weren’t allowed to achieve world domination. And to be frank, it wasn’t really America that stood in Hitler’s way. It was Churchill and the UK. They were the only ones standing in Hitler’s way of completely controlling Europe. Not America, not France, not Russia (who were Hitler’s allies), it was the UK. As much as Roosevelt wanted to participate in the war and help his British friends, he couldn’t. The American people didn’t allow it; his congress didn’t allow it. The only thing he could do was trick the laws and his government as much as he could to support Churchill as much as he could.

By not only forgetting that, but by also first thinking about the (somewhat) negative implication those pens brought up – America joining WW2 – Steve not only disregards the sacrifices the UK brought during that very lonely year where they were the only ones standing in Hitler’s way, but he also insinuates that it was wrong from Roosevelt to sign this Bill. We can compare it to his own situation with the Accords. He thinks that signing those Accords is a mistake, something that will tear the Avengers apart, something that will get them into trouble, something that could be avoided by not signing. But at the same time he betrays everything he stands for in that sentence. By implying that (in a way) joining the war was a mistake he betrays his former believes that you have to stand up to bullies, that you can’t let somebody like Hitler or HYDRA continue as they are. At the same time he thinks that he is honoring those very same ideals with not signing the Accords, because he thinks that the people who support those Accords are the real bullies. But that is, like Rhodey so wonderfully put it, “dangerously arrogant”. To think you are the only person in the world to be in the right and everybody else’s opinion and reasoning is wrong, is indeed dangerously arrogant.

In that moment he represents the American imperial belief, the thought of America as the world’s police force. America comes into a country where there is a problem and gets themselves involved despite the protests of its inhabitants. They think they have the right of it because they say they fight for something bigger like freedom and democracy. And that’s what Cap does, too. He gets into a country in the name of the mission and the protection of the world, does what he wants, and says he has the right of it because he does it for something bigger like freedom and democracy. So it’s doubly hypocritical of him to say that joining the war was the wrong decision to make, not only because he represents the American imperialism, but also because, as we have seen in Age of Ultron, that Steve’s biggest fear is the end of the war. That’s his biggest fear, that the war (no matter which one, WW2, war with the Chitauri, war against HYDRA, war with Ultron) ends and that he is no longer needed. Steve fears peace, and almost craves war, because it gives him purpose. And isn’t that sad? That your only purpose in life is to go to war?

By disregarding the pens, by disregarding the Lend-Lease Bill, Steve is disregarding every single one of his accomplishments as Captain America: his help in defeating the Nazis and HYDRA, the victory at the Battle of New York against the Chitauri, HYDRA’s defeat in Washington, Ultron’s defeat in Sokovia. By implying that joining the war wasn’t worth it he practically says that all those accomplishments and victories weren’t worth it. Tony is right, though. By signing the Lend-Lease Bill Roosevelt helped Steve become Captain America, and thus helped to achieve all of those victories. And Steve is brushing them aside because he has a) no idea about political maneuvering and b) he is unable to compromise and make a detour to achieve his ultimate goal.

But why can’t he make those compromises? What is it that stops him from thinking this through properly? You know the Answer. It starts with a B and ends with an –ucky.

Steve has a certain picture of Bucky, and that picture sometimes doesn’t align with reality. For him, Bucky is his friend, his partner in crime, his brother in everything but blood. They grew up together, fought together, they had each others’ back from the moment they became friends. The problem is that this version of Bucky doesn’t exist anymore, at least not in the beginning. Since the end of CA:TWS Bucky was nobody. He wasn’t Steve’s long lost friend, but he also wasn’t the Winter Soldier. He was nobody, had no identity, no memories, everything that makes a person who they are has been erased by HYDRA, over and over again. But Steve saw him and only saw his long lost brother, when in reality he wasn’t. He was nobody. But throughout the movie Steve tries to protect this friend, even during a time where he wasn’t this friend, not until after Bucky went on a rampage and Steve knocked his head real hard (neuronal recalibrating). Only after that did Bucky really become Bucky. But before that he was the (ex-)HYDRA assassin who bombed the UN. Steve, of course, doesn’t believe that, because he has faith in Bucky and knows he would never do that, that he only ever became the ‘villain’ because HYDRA kidnapped him and brainwashed him over and over again. And Steve is right, Bucky wouldn’t do that. But Nobody-the-ex-Hydra-assassin might. In theory of course, the viewer knows that he wasn’t the culprit, but like I said above, the characters can’t know that because they don’t have all the information the viewer has. The point is that Steve expects Bucky to think and act in a certain way that he is familiar with and that he knows and can predict, but at that certain point of the story that is not who Bucky is. Only after he regains some part of his memories and part of himself, are those predictions Steve made true. Before that Steve predicted the behavior and steps of a different person, not of Nobody-the-ex-Hydra-assassin.

Steve’s predictions get verified then. He always knew that it wasn’t Bucky who planted the bomb but somebody else, that something more sinister is going on, but he didn’t predict that out of empiric evidence but because of a personal, subjective opinion. But now, with Bucky regaining part of his memory, with an actual clue that there is a very real and very big threat on the horizon that could very well make HYDRA or whoever it is take control of those additional Winter Soldiers a very real contester for world domination, what does Steve do? HE KEEPS IT TO HIMSELF!!!

Before CA:CW Steve had a real problem with authorities keeping information from him, even accused the UN and 117 Nations of being corrupt, and here he is, doing the exact same thing! It already started in CA:TWS where Steve found out that HYDRA killed Howard Stark and opted not to tell Tony about it. In Age of Ultron Steve accused Tony of keeping too many secrets from the team, while at the same time he is the one who keeps a pretty big secret from Tony. This is already were it started, this is where Steve starts abandoning his own ideals. He demands honesty and transparency from everybody, because that is how democracy works, but at the same time he doesn’t offer any of that himself.

Steve believes the worst of other people – probably because he was told that he himself was inherently good, which would imply that everybody else wasn’t good enough and thus he was better than them– and in CA:CW he also believes the worst of Tony. He doesn’t tell Tony about this new threat because he thinks he wouldn’t believe him, that he will try to stop Steve from doing the right thing, from stopping those Winter Soldiers. And in the end he feels vindicated (again), because Tony does try to stop him, but not because of the reasons Steve predicts, but because Tony can only act on the information he has, which means that, for Tony, Steve is trying to help Bucky escape and hide him until he can clear his name. That is all the information Tony has, and he cannot act differently because Steve is withholding information. And the airstrip of an airport when tensions are high and people are preparing for battle is probably not the best time or place to discuss this new potential threat. It’s not like they had hours upon hours of time to meet up or talk over the phone about those Winter Soldiers… Oh! Wait!!! THEY DID!!! You cannot tell me that Steve had time to fly two (completely uninvolved) parties from as far as San Francisco (!) over to Germany, but at the same time didn’t have the time to tell Tony (at least over the phone) that there are five killing machines about to be released in Siberia. Tony would have at least had somebody check that out, or would have even gone himself to take a look at those potential Winter Soldiers.

Some may complain now: “Tony was off collecting his own little army! How was he supposed to reach him? Steve had to defend himself so that he could go and stop those Winter Soldiers!” Yes, Tony did collect an army. Why? Because he has seen what Steve was willing to do in Bucharest when people started to become a ‘threat’ to Bucky. He has gotten 36 hours to bring Steve and Bucky in, and he knew that he could only do that properly and with as little violence as possible when he could overpower them. Spider-Man’s task for example was only to web them up so that they could collect them later on. Tony only wanted to stop a wanted fugitive from escaping and stop Steve before the situation could become any worse for him because Steve was helping and abetting an escaped fugitive. Tony couldn’t really know that Steve was collecting allies and a small army himself.

And then, of course, everything goes to shit. Rhodey is paralyzed, Steve and Bucky escaped to god knows where, half of the Avengers is in prison. Of course they blame Tony for that (I’m looking at you Clint and Scott), but let me ask you: WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN??? You probably saw in the News what happened in Vienna, that Bucky was probably the culprit, that you were basically helping a prime suspect for a terroristic bombing at the fucking UN escape, and you thought that didn’t have consequences?!?!? That’s the exact reason why the Accords are necessary. Team Cap thinks they are right, just like Steve does, that they were fighting The Good Fight and that this justifies their action. But that’s not true. They helped a wanted fugitive and – as far as the world knows – a wanted terrorist and destroyed an entire airport in the process. And they think they are going to get away with it.

It’s like with Wanda and the incident in Lagos: Steve made a mistake by getting distracted, Wanda moved in, but she didn’t have enough control of her power, too little training for a mission like that, and people died. And although it wasn’t her intention, and that she only wanted to help, it still doesn’t change that she and the Avengers made a mistake and people died because of it. There need to be regulations and consequences, or so-called ‘superheroes’ can do whatever they want in the name of the greater good without reporting to anybody but themselves. Tony is right with what he said, that “without rules we are no better than the bad guys”. Because if there are no rules, then ‘superheroes’ can destroy an entire airport or, like in Age of Ultron, half a city, and face no kind of consequences. Again, Rhodey’s comment about being “dangerously arrogant” comes to mind, and it fits wonderfully into the Raft scene as well. Both Clint and Scott act as if they were in the right and that their imprisonment is a huge injustice because they were fighting The Good Fight, and that they got imprisoned by no fault of their own (and what is it with Marvel’s fathers that they just abandon their kids in a heartbeat? Oh yes Clint, retiring and spending more time with your family by going golfing and water skiing is so boring). They are the ones the Accords try to protect the world from, because they have gone out of control.

The only one who acts reasonable and logical and like he has even a stint of common sense is Sam. When Tony talks to him and tells him that new evidence has come up and that he now knows that Bucky was framed and that something else is going on, Sam tells him everything. It has basically taken two days for the allegations against Bucky to be proven false. Tony isn’t on some kind of vendetta, a hardliner of the Accords that can’t play with anybody acting outside of them (we have already concluded that above with the pens and the Lend-Lease Bill). He knows what he has to do so that Ross and anybody else who might be out for blood doesn’t get a hint that he is about to meet Captain America and The Winter Soldier. We see that Tony can compromise and prioritize. He is going now to help Steve and Bucky neutralize the other Winter Soldiers so that Tony can regain Steve’s trust he seemed to have lost when Tony signed the Accords, and so that they can have time later to discuss every other issue they have without the threat of world destruction.

And, again, everything goes to shit. Bucky become Zemo’s instrument with which he can tear the Avengers apart. And Steve lets him.

By keeping the truth about Howards (and Maria’s) death a secret ‘to save Tony the heartache and spare his feelings’ and by being to single-mindedly focused on Bucky, Steve has brought by the destruction of the Avengers as they knew it. He may claim that he has kept that knowledge a secret to spare Tony’s feelings, but in reality he was protecting Bucky once again. Again Steve probably feels vindicated when Tony attacked Bucky in grief and rage. He has probably predicted such a reaction from the moment he found out Howard was murdered by HYDRA, probably by Bucky, probably predicted that Tony would try to find the murderer of his parents and make him pay. And again, Steve expects the worst of Tony. What was Tony supposed to do? His parents’ murderer was standing right there, right in front of him while he just saw this very same man murder his fucking parents on video! And Steve, somebody who Tony thought of as a friend, was protecting him. How many other people has Bucky killed? How many other people was Steve denying their justice by protecting a single man? I know – and Tony probably knows, too – that it wasn’t really Bucky’s fault, that he got brainwashed and exploited as a weapon. But in that moment, freshly overcome with grief and rage, Tony can’t see reason. Just like Steve loses any kind of objectivity when Bucky is in danger, it’s the same with Tony when the people he loves are in danger (like when he builds the Iron Man army in IM3 to ‘protect what he can’t live without’, or earlier when Rhodey fell out of the sky and appeared dead). Tony loses any kind of objectivity and reason, and after the break-up with Pepper and Rhodey’s fall he is at his breaking point. He has enough.

But all of that following fight might have been avoided if Steve had just come to Tony and told him that Howard’s death wasn’t an accident but that HYDRA had him murdered. Maybe then Tony might have been able to vent his anger and rage into the right direction, especially when you think about that between CA:TWS and Age of Ultron the Avengers were basically raiding one HYDRA facility after the other. That would have been a good way for Tony to make those suckers pay for the death of his parents. But no. Steve didn’t tell Tony, even dares to excuse his behavior and secret keeping, something he oh so despised in others like SHIELD or Natasha or Fury.

Transparency and the sharing of information are the foundations on which a good democracy is build, so that people can make educated decisions, so that people can regard every aspect of a situation. But Steve denies Tony that right over and over again. By his unwillingness to compromise and meet other people halfway, by always expecting the worst of everybody else, he became the very thing he fought against: despots who only follow their own moral code and agendas. He demands the sharing of information from everybody else while he is not forthcoming himself. He criticizes others for following their own moral code and doing what they think is right while he does the exact same thing. He demands others to be reasonable while he himself is dangerously compromised and biased. Captain America is the symbol of freedom and democracy, the right for people to voice their opinions and their right to tell others ‘No’, but by ignoring their voices – the voices of 117 nations – out of more or less personal reasons, by withholding (vital) information and not offering transparency, he is betraying everything Captain America stands for.

And I think Steve knows that.

Tony’s quip ‘My father made that shield, you don’t deserve it’ is almost pitiful in the given situation, but that sentence has a far deeper connotation. Howard has been Steve’s friend, just like Steve has been Tony’s friend, and by protecting his murderer, the murderer of Tony’s parents, he was betraying them in a way. At the same time Tony indirectly tells him that he isn’t Captain America anymore, that he has become someone not worthy of that shield and the title of Captain America that goes along with it. And I think that Steve knows and realizes that. That final fight against Tony, when Tony tells him that he has been Steve’s friend, too, I think that was the moment when Steve realized that he has fucked up. That he has become so biased and compromised that he disregarded everything and everyone else. But he couldn’t stop anymore. Through his mistakes Tony is about to kill Bucky, his Bucky, and he has already gone too far in protecting his brother than to stop now, even at Tony’s costs. At the end Steve could have been petty or all righteous and say that he was Captain America no matter what so he is keeping that shield, but I think that he has gained at least a little bit of self-reflection and realized that what he did wasn’t okay, that he made some mistakes down the line, and that he can’t go back now, at least not for a while. So he lets that shield drop because he doesn’t deserve it.

So he drops that shield, because he knows that he isn’t worthy of it, not after everything what happened. And it wasn’t Tony who ripped the team apart by signing the Accords; it also wasn’t really Steve who ripped it apart by prioritizing Bucky above everything else, but it were the two of them together. Tony (though by no fault of his own; he couldn’t guess that Bucky killed his parents, and his reaction was entirely human) and Steve (by keeping all of this a secret and by withholding important information) gave Zemo the ammunition and the instruments to pit the avengers against each other.

But Steve has shown throughout the movie how he is unable to think clearly when Bucky is involved, how he can’t analyze the situation properly when somebody just so much as mentions his name, how Steve is willing to break the law and get in the way of proper law enforcement to help him, how he prioritizes him over everbody else in his team. Steve is unable to accept other’s opinions and decisions when they are opposite of his own or deviate from it. He is unable to submit to any kind of governmental oversight, even if it’s a humanitarian one like the UN. He can’t accept that his own opinion may differ and may not be in accordance to popular and political opinion and that some countries may not want him and his involvement in his country. He ignores them and continues to do his own thing, breaking the law, getting innocent people in danger, being responsible for the death of innocent people, and being overall subjective and compromised in his decision making. He overall disregards ideals he stands for (freedom from oppression, democracy, free will, exchange of information to make educated decision), and by doing so he casts away his title of Captain America.

What is left is just a kid from Brooklyn. Not a symbol, not a hero, not even a soldier, just another human being.

#ca:cw #steve rogers #tony stark #sokovia accords #captain america #iron man #marvel #analysis #I have feelings about this movie #okay?!?!#in my head it all started with the analysis of the symbolism of the pens #and then it spiraled out of control #I actually had to write three term papers #instead I wrote this #I'm a horrible student #bucky barnes #the winter soldier #avengers

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