#tfatws criticism

[polyavenger]

Warming up the discourse with Bucky‘s „I like 40‘s music“ content in CATWS again.

Does it look like shit if Bucky says a meaningful album for people more marginalised than him who also happened to be treated like shit in the decade his comfort music is located: YES

But how was Bucky introduced to modern music? Not like Steve, gently shoved into a world of iPods with recommendations by friends.

Readers, Bucky probably heard modern music only when he was killing people or being raped for fun.

I would also not like modern music ffs.

[wastefulautist]

Y'all mind if I rant a bit?

I'm not anti Falcon by any means but it's so hard to look at Sam-Cap's superhero entrance and not cringe knowing what he did to get that shield. There was no lesson to learn from that fight, and it didn't even need to take place had they listened to JW + Lemar in the first place. There was no good reason to NOT work with them, the show gave us many opportunities to show that John's morals came from a good place. Basically Sam gave the shield up, changed his mind when he saw someone else got it and picked a horrendous moment to take advantage. He doesn't deserve a superhero entrance.

The main protagonists of this show did not evolve very much, nor did they learn anything new after the regaining/losing the shield. So what was the point of the shield? -Sam continues to offer ineffectual platitudinous advice - from telling Karli that murder doesn't make the world a better place, but doesn't actually offer an alternative, to telling the GRC to "do better" (if you're demanding the GRC make everyone happy, they're gonna need a little bit more than "do better" 🙄) -The morally ambiguous Bucky went through rehabilitation but still ended the season known as "The Winter Soldier", even though he never showed to struggle against the WS identity much after the scene in Wakanda, save for a few nightmares. Never making any morally questionable decisions and always following Sam's lead, his arc was basically completed in the first episode, even John was given more chance to show his PTSD. -Anyone complaining that John's redemption arc didn't make sense was not paying attention. There is no redemption arc. He didn't change for the worse, he just became "more of himself". A redemption arc would be needed if the serum made him a villain, which it didn't. He had a reasonable yet violent reaction to the death of his friend (given that he is a soldier, he's not exactly going to sit in the corner and cry about it), yet people act like he would have gone on a murder spree had S+B not stepped in.

John didn't join the fight and assist S+B because he realized anything new (hence why he came back with his own shield). He joined because this was always his mission, he took the serum to stop the Flagsmashers, and he is continuing that mission. He was doing what he trying to get done since the beginning, suffered a hiccup and continued through as he always would, plus saving lives using the serum like he and Lemar discussed, only thing he realized is the good he can do without the mantle of Cap. (No matter what, I believe they would have always worked together but I don't trust they would have made it easy). That shield meant absolutely nothing in the end, and it would have made sense to retire it completely. As for Sam+Bucky, I'm not even sure what their politics/stances are in relation to this show. The writing became so lazy in that regard, any message the writers wanted to convey came off hamfisted and confused.

-Peace is good and violence is bad even though peace did not actually come with solutions, while violence is only bad unless Sam dishes it out 🤔? -Telling people who almost died to "do better" while insisting the people who almost killed them maybe had a point 🤔? I get Sam is empathetic but he's also a soldier, condoning terrorists is such a weird take, especially since they aren't actually fighting for the people, just some of them. Had they actually appealed for an alternative solution rather than blowing shit up, Sam's sympathy would make more sense. -Introducing racism as a conflict now even though it was not an issue in this world before is nothing but preachy, pandering bs. You'd think War Machine would offer his patented bland advice for Sam seeing as...you know...he's had no problems being a black man wearing the stars and stripes before... This show would have had a good message about power and the powerless but they wasted that time exploiting current events and preaching about topics they don't fully understand.

[littlerosetrove]

I don’t really have the energy to properly formulate a worthy and proper, idk, meta about this but looking back on TFATWS (which I’ve only watched once), I kinda feel like what Bucky went through... was not properly handled to the best of the writers’ abilities. There were moments with characters that I felt like they just kinda brushed off or lessened what Bucky went through, being forced, brainwashed, and tortured to be The Winter Soldier for 70 years. Sometimes it felt like characters were not grasping that Bucky was the Winter Soldier you know? It felt as if characters were *gestures* separating the Winter Soldier from Bucky. And I don’t mean that Bucky should be or should have been handled with kid gloves or something, but again, it really did feel like sometimes characters and the story itself was trying to minimize or dismiss to a degree what Bucky went through.