#tb*

[gyokujyn]

I am begging. Can we agree that trying to argue Bucky is the Winter Soldier in the Thunderbolts* trailer based solely on which hand he uses to fire a weapon is mostly just grasping at straws?

Most of the time Bucky or the Winter Soldier is wielding a firearm, it is a two-handed weapon, like an assault rifle (we're not having this conversation rn, please just let me call them assault rifles)...

Or a sniper rifle...

Or a grenade launcher (once again not having the assault rifle conversation)...

But regardless of the weapon, he almost always wields it by aiming with his left hand and pulling the trigger with his right... Except when he doesn't, such as the last time we saw him wielding the FN Mk 13. When he used this particular weapon previously, to blow up Nick Fury, he fired it single-handed with his right hand.

There's not as many examples of single-handed firearm use, especially for Bucky prior to becoming the Winter Soldier. There's basically one scene with a pistol and he fires with both left...

And right hands.

And, as the Winter Soldier, he dual wields.

In fact, the only weapon that he seems to have a strong preference for wielding in a specific hand is knives which--I think--he always wields in his right hand, regardless of if he's Bucky or the Winter Soldier.

As the Winter Soldier, he also keeps both of his primary knives sheathed for a right-handed draw, although I will concede that he has one (out of at least four) left-handed draws available--it's one of his backup knives which are on his low back.

So, maybe he's the Winter Soldier, maybe he's not; I hope he's starting to reconcile the two. It's certainly fun to speculate. But, regardless, which hand he uses to fire a gun isn't going to tell us the answer. I'm not telling anybody what they personally can or cannot believe, just asking people to stop talking like this is some kind of irrefutable evidence. It's a possibility.

My sincerest and most heartfelt gratitude to all the folks whose lovely gifs I used above with credit. Y'all are the lifeblood of fandom, allowing for things like this to be made with receipts, providing both references and resources for artists, and contributing to the shared language of the fandom. Thank you!

[sebastiansource]

SEBASTIAN STAN as Lance Tucker THE BRONZE (2015)

[edythemasen]

url graphic @sydnneyadamu

Why can’t we put everything that we have into everything that we can?

I'm back celebration

[twistedprofessor]

"Temu Avengers"

I can't 🤣

What are they doing with Bucky?!

[ohnoitstbskyen]

What’s your thoughts on Delicious in Dungeons Character Designs?

Ryoko Kui is the best to ever do it.

[by-saiyuri]

quick thingy just to spite my artblock

what do you mean two of the kids got lost and the third one is sick

[voltaspistol]

Jesus Christ, we really are back in the roaring 20s.

[jukai]

[hinamie]

ṇ̵̛̱͌̅̃͛̔o̴̮̓̀͂́̃_̴̛̲́s̷͈̋̈́̄̋͠ị̶͔̗̐͐̐̒̕g̵̛̱̘̣̑͂ņ̴̰͔̘͇̏̒̓̇͠͝a̸̜̥̩̭͋̌ḷ̶͔̖͗͋͛͛̃͆

[s0re-loser]

Been thinking about this everytime I get dressed

[arriettyspin]

Official main universe timebomb concept art at the Arcane exhibition?

I'M GOING TO SCREAM

[peti-eyes]

dood

[sebastiansource]

The Bronze (2015)

[akascow]

hey uh not for nothing but uhhHHHH

blue... and red ? alrighty

[twistedprofessor]

Manifesting for 2025:

Marvel Studios: Surprise! Thunderbolts* was a ruse, hence the asterisk, and the leaked trailer/stills were just a part of the deception. We're actually giving you this brilliant film (insert clever film title here) where all the characters get the plots they deserve.

🙏🏼

A girl can dream, right?

[ohnoitstbskyen]

asking sincerely. do you see a romance between jayce and viktor? do you think they ended up being something romantic at the end?

With apologies I am going to only half talk about the thing you are asking me, since I have something else on my mind and you happened to hit the button that makes me vomit it into words.

Coming at this from an aromantic perspective, I obviously don't experience the state of absurd obsessive delusion that you bizarre romantic freaks fetishize so feverishly*, but I am often annoyed by the idea that friendship and romance are either opposites or mutually exclusive. From my perspective, the boundary between the two is at best thin, and more realistically not actually a boundary at all except by cultural construction.

*i am taking an excessively hostile, crass tone for my own amusement i do not mean this seriously please be normal at me, weird allo freaks

I won't get into my full feelings about the end of Arcane, but it seems perfectly plain to me that the script, the imagery and the animation presents Jayce and Viktor as two halves of a whole, not opposing forces but alike to yin and yang: opposites which each contain the other. And at the climax of the show, the greatest peril to life and peace in the narrative is resolved by these two men literally joining their bodies and souls together, and going into eternity holding one another for comfort and strength. They are quite literally soulmates, quite literally the most important people in one another's lives.

I don't think that that kind of intimate emotional connection between men must necessarily be either romantic or sexual - I am aromantic, and plenty of ace people exist, and there is nothing in our natures excluding us from intense connections of love with other people of any gender.

I also think it is willfully ignorant (and genuinely homophobic) to act as though these deep connections are mutually exclusive with sex and romance. As though if Viktor and Jayce fucked nasty and made out sloppy style, suddenly their intimacy is less pure or valid, or tainted somehow.

"If these two men who are emotionally close to one another also fuck or get romantically involved, then friendship is dead, murdered on the floor by a dick-shaped knife; vile sexuality corrupts and debases the true, pure and virtuous love of ✨friendship✨" <- This shit is homophobic at a baseline, queerphobic in general, and frankly as an aromantic man I find it pretty fucking insulting as well.

What, are my friendships with other men just inherently more pure and divine, more meaningful and true than a gay man's can ever be, because I will never suffer the vile temptation of adding romance to my affection? Is that how I should think of myself? And is an aroace man more pure than me still, the only source of TRUE male friendship that a man can ever experience, free from the pustulant corruption of sexuality and romantic desire?

You get this pathetic defensiveness (especially from men, but other genders aren't immune) wherein sex and sexuality and romance between men is perceived as a threat to men's right and ability to experience deep connection to each other. But the emotional castration of men comes not from people imagining sex and romance as a component of our relationships - it comes from people who insist that our emotional lives must be ruled by strict binaries. Sex and romance, OR ELSE friendship. Deep romantic connection OR ELSE deep platonic connection. Pick one and do not dare to imagine both, nor act as though the boundary between them is something that we built by cultural fiat, and which can be dismantled just the same.

And yes, yes, yes, I know there are cultural forces literally illuminati-style conspiring to systemically erase the entire existence of explicitly romantic, sexual male love from media, and I know that homophobic puritanism is on the rise and there are material concerns and a real necessity for explicit representation in fiction, yes I know. Everything is more complicated than a tumblr post can cover, I am not trying to Solve Rainbow Capitalism™ over here, I am trying to express frustration as an aromantic man that this stupid fucking binary keeps getting culturally reinforced by both my enemies and my well-meaning allies, when I think the binary is what's fucking killing us in the first place.

So anyway. My position is that Viktor and Jayce can be entirely aromantic no-homo friends, and they can fuck nasty in the throes of mutual need and obsession, and I refuse to entertain the idea that there is an irresolvable contradiction between those things. Each of those can contain the other, or become the other given time and circumstance.

What the imagery, storytelling and script of Arcane makes clear is that Viktor and Jayce love each other more than life itself. To say that that love must be shoved into the box of either "platonic" or "romantic" is to miss out on almost everything that is beautiful about love. It can be both and neither! It can be a secret third, ninth or fifteenth thing that they haven't invented a tag for on Ao3 yet.

They are giving each other whatever the spiritual mind-ghost equivalent of sloppy backshots are on the ethereal plain forever, they are the most romantic lovers in the cosmos, and they are also the most chaste and platonic life-partner friends you have ever seen, effortlessly intimate and unashamedly tender. They are men who love one another, in every way that love matters.

You can pick whichever interpretation brings you joy, and resonates with what your heart needs, the text of the show is eminently and explicity open to it, and anyone who says otherwise either failed to pay attention, or refused to pay attention on purpose.