#but he was at his peak during catws

[meraki-yao]

Watching Agatha All Along again after giving up on Marvel for three years made me think about why I gave it up in the first place.

I was so deep in the MCU. I cried so much during Infinity War that I struggled to walk out of the cinema. I watched Endgame on the first day that it was released. My diary was a CACW notebook. Part of the reason I took up STEM subjects was because of Marvel.

And then after watching MoM in theatres, I stopped.

I'm trying to phrase and figure out what made me give up something I was so invested in, something I loved so much. I think I know why.

The MCU period I was active in gave me characters that I ended up loving, and the later period took them away.

My two favourite characters were ruined. Their character arcs and core characters undone. I'm worried about my favourite too.

I hate it when the sequel undermines the previous works.

When I think of Steve Rogers, I don't think of the guy who chose to either fuck up the entire timeline of the MCU or sat quietly and watch the world in turmoil, his allies die tragically, and his best friend left to a fate worst than dead to get with a girl he wasn't even dating, a woman who had a life of her own and moved on.

I think of Steve from CATWS, the guy from Brooklyn who still does the right thing in a time when morals are blurred. The Steve who is kind, compassionate and brave. The Steve who inspired the base-level employees of SHEILD to follow his example and not bow down in the face of tyranny. The Steve who just had one mission, and that was standing up to bullies.

When I think of Wanda, I don't think of the insane, manic witch/evil goddess who killed thousands mercilessly even though there was a harmless solution, who after all she lost, somehow only wanted her children who she had for three days instead of also her love and her twin.

I think of Wanda, the girl who lost it all, who's family was all killed, who was denied a burial for Vision, who was left alone and abandoned in the world, with so much love in her heart that no longer had a place, a person to go to. The girl who feels so much so deeply that it bended reality. The girl who had to learn, who had to give up her dream, but did so, because at the end of the day, she is a kind person, who doesn't want to hurt people. She was wrong, she takes time to understand and accept the harm she's caused (as we all do), and then makes it right. She tries to be good. Despite everything, she tries.

The later stages of MCU took these two characters that mean so much to me personally, and ruined them.

And I'm fucking mad at them, because it disrespected all the work that made me love them in the first place, and it was preventable. (The original script for MoM where Wanda helps Strange but repeatedly gets tempted by the Darkhold is a much more convincing narrative.)

And I'd say the same applies to others: Natasha, Thor, Bruce, even Strange (although I feel like they never really figured out what they wanted to do with Strange's character)

I miss my characters, I miss my MCU.

[kateis-cakeis]

ENDGAME SPOILERS for Steve ahead

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Who wants a theory that can make all our ooc Steve problems go away? Because I did, and I think I have an explanation that makes sense.

Ahhh, Steve… Buddy, matey… I’m onto you.

So let’s get one thing straight – Steve cannot be on that bench per mcu time travel logic if he married and had a life with Peggy, since that would create a new alt timeline that would not lead to that exact moment. And since he didn’t come back through the Quantum Tunnel, there is no way an old Steve who married Peggy could be there.

What does this mean?

:)

He didn’t marry Peggy. That wedding ring? I doubt it’s anything more than some ploy, which I’ll get to.

Sure, if he hadn’t married Peggy, he could have married someone else. That’s possible, but it would have still created a new timeline, even if he knew the person hadn’t been married in 2023 or whatever, he’s still changing something.

My point is, the only way Steve can be in the current timeline’s present is if he went back in time, returned all the stones and just… stayed. For whatever reason, he stayed. But he couldn’t alter any of the past, otherwise, new timeline, that he’s stuck in. He clearly wanted to stay in the same timeline.

He gets his one dance with Peggy, which she probably thought was some dream/hallucination.

Although, if she was aware, the way she reacts in catws when she forgets she was talking to Steve, is probably the way she reacted when he turned up at her doorstep unannounced.

“You're alive! You...you came, you came back. It's been so long. So long.”

Or, instead, this is her reaction to Steve post-dance. Maybe he disappeared, to avoid changing the timeline so he could stay in his own. She says he ‘came back’, that seems like a weird thing to say considering the ice. So, you can either go with this line is how she always reacts to him returning, or this is her reaction with knowledge of that dance.

Either way, this line still allows Steve to have his dance with Peggy while staying in our timeline, since it doesn’t change anything.

(which makes Peggy’s advice to Steve in catws even more heart-breaking, because she knows he doesn’t take it on-board, but she says it anyway, maybe hoping he does, at one point, realise he can never truly go back).

Okay, so, he doesn’t change anything to end up in 2023, sitting on that bench. The only way that can happen is if he lived a life of isolation, probably watching over the Stones. A Guardian of the Timeline, if you will. (I’d like to think that Steve and the Ancient One became friends, it would make sense, considering he’d be watching over the timeline)

It's poetic, really. Steve slept through the seventy years first, only to go back to emotionally torture himself to get to the present.

While Bucky gets tortured and used by HYDRA, Steve has to live in isolation to preserve and protect his own timeline :)))))) Isn’t that nice?

So, why the wedding ring?

To make Sam think he lived a life so he would accept the shield. Sam instantly assumes he’s married to Peggy with the way he puts emphasis on ‘her’. All Sam has ever wanted for Steve was for him to come to terms with his issues and be happy.

Come on, we already know Steve was leaning towards getting out in catws, Sam picked up on it immediately, asking if Steve did wanna get out (I explain this further in this meta: here). To such a point Sam told him he could do whatever he wanted to do. If Sam believed he'd lived a life, a happy one, he'd roll with it.

Anyhow, ‘old’ Steve is fully ready to finally be free and let Sam take the mantle. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, hence, the wedding ring. Sam, really, sees what he wants to see.

Which… brings me onto Bucky.

Before Steve leaves, Bucky looks pretty sad. He might look content and may understand what’s going to happen, but he’s upset because he knows Steve’s not coming back. Not through the Quantum Tunnel anyway. I don’t believe he knew what Steve was doing exactly, but he knew enough (or knew Steve enough) to know what would happen. Still, he held out hope that his Steve would come back through, unchanged.

Of course, Steve would explain everything afterwards (maybe that’s why we didn’t see it….) probably when Sam leaves them to talk alone. Since we never saw Bucky talk to ‘old’ Steve, anything is possible.

Another question you may ask of this theory is… why. Why would Steve do all this, just to stay in the same timeline?

Well, while the Russos may like to destroy the very thing they created, I’m here to say my theory allows an easy answer. Steve waited all those years, ensuring the timeline was preserved, so he could end up back in 2023, where Bucky was safe and sound. Where he could finally retire (like he was wanting to do before Bucky came back in catws), and be happy knowing Sam has the mantle of Captain America.

All the while, Bucky comes home to him everyday to tell him stories about Sam and their stupid adventures, in which they’re always bickering.

Steve in turn gets a real happy ending (that doesn’t make him ooc as hell) and Bucky gets to be happy too, knowing his best friend is still with him, always.

Before I end this theory though… I’d like to turn your attention to why I’ve been putting ‘’ around ‘old’ Steve. Of course, Steve is old now. At maximum, he’s a hundred and fifteen. But that’s not my point.

My point is… with all we know of the serum, Steve should be incapable of aging. In Steve’s own words:

“Doctor Erskine said that the serum wouldn't just affect my muscles, it would affect my cells, create a protective system of regeneration and healing…”

Huh… Regeneration? Weird… That would suggest that his cells would never lose their protective telomeres. So, they would always perfectly reproduce, his DNA wouldn’t get messed up with silly mutations (he can’t get ill for that reason). And if his cells always reproduce the way they are supposed to, and his telomeres never shorten because of the system of regeneration and healing then…

He wouldn’t age. He can’t.

Look at the ice. When he was still frozen the scientists were like ‘:o he’s still alive!!’. He’s already lived for seventy years and didn’t age. (Come on, the way he was frozen, and the way his body was exactly the same, suggests that not only did the ice keep him preserved, his serum did too).

Remember, Thor said the Asgardian ale was not for mortals, then proceeded to give Steve a glass. This is why.

Our boy Steve is a lying liar who lies all the damn time and we should all know that by now. That’s an older Steve, still in his young body, sitting dramatically on a bench, excited to finally pass the shield to Sam, who will later reveal to Bucky that he was wearing a photostatic veil the entire time. He’ll dramatically pull it off to show Bucky that he’s still in peak physical form.

He can finally live as Steve once again, because he hasn’t had the chance, not since before the war. Okay, maybe he was more Steve during the five years after the dusting but that was when half the world was gone so it doesn’t count.

In 2023, he gets to have his real chance. He gets to be himself. Without the weight of the timeline bearing down on him, without the threat of Captain America, he gets to retire in a real way (with Bucky).

It’s the only thing that makes sense, with everything in mind.

@avengersbarnes