blackskysilvermoon

Hawkeye | Kate Bishop icons

As you might imagine, I walked into Captain America 2 ready to get my Soviet Russia on. The Winter Soldier run is one of my favorites in–well, in any comic, really, and from what I’d seen in the trailers and whatnot, it looked like we were going to get a heaping dose of what makes that series so special and so sobering: the bloodstained underbelly of Soviet international politics, a glimpse at the way men and women were fed into the meat grinder of the State, pulped for the greater glory of their nation. In Bucky we’d see a drafted soldier kidnapped, brainwashed, and streamlined into the perfect machine. Not an ideal Soviet man, far from it; but a tool, utilitarian and dispassionate, with the five-pointed martial star on his shoulder; the awful triumph of the State over so-called human frailty.

And we did, we got all of that–insofar that you can't have a Winter Soldier without those things. But as I watched, it became increasingly clear that this movie wasn’t looking to talk about the Soviet Union. There is a reason Bucky only speaks Russian once in the entire film. There’s a reason he’s never addressed in it. There’s a reason his code name is drawn from an investigation into one of the ugliest chapters of American history. And there is a reason that the movie takes this snarling, mechanized, indiscriminate killing machine and explicitly sets him up as Captain America’s other half. 

I’ve seen some reviews going after the film for pulling its punches, of holding up the Greatest Generation as America’s past, and a polluted security branch as its future, absolving it of responsibility for its actions in both cases. It’s HYDRA now and “sacrifices for freedom” then; why aren’t we interrogating ourselves a little harder?

My answer to that is: we did, and the movie is named after what we found.

The Winter Soldier is concerned with security and international supremacy, and the moral compromises America has made (and continues to make) in pursuit of both. It draws a straight line from WWII America to the modern day, where “we did some things we weren’t proud of” becomes drone warfare and Big Brother. Steve is at one end of this timeline, Nick Fury at the other. There’s a chasm of about fifty years between the two points. That’s where the Winter Soldier steps in. 

This film is haunted by an American war, yes. But not the one Steve fought in. The Cold War was “a battle for the soul of mankind”, waged across millions of hearts and minds, and it’s a patched-over burn in the American psyche, barely healed and still tender to the touch. We emerged on the other side of forty-four years as the world’s one and only superpower. And it fucking cost us.

McCarthyism saw Americans turning on one another, fueled by snarling, indiscriminate paranoia. Operation Paperclip recruited Nazi scientists to keep German technology out of Soviet hands. Vietnam, with its thousands dead, was fought to keep the dominoes of Communism from falling across Asia. America, augmented by an unimaginable weapon and ruthlessly militarized, spied, ordered assassinations, irradiated its own children, and dragged the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust. All for the sake of security.  

The Winter Soldier is that America.

Inhuman, bionic, unfeeling, unthinking, the perfect weapon: a creature of progress, powered by pure ideology. The mind wipes? Decades of propaganda in its purest, most undiluted form, administered directly to the brain. The arm? I know a nuclear metaphor when I see one.

If Cap is the potential of America, what we should never stop striving for, the Winter Soldier is what became of us when we fell desperately short. He is what we did to ourselves.

In many ways this film is a ghost story, and like all good ghost stories, it holds up the tragedy of our mistakes and begs us not to repeat them. What SHIELD proposes–Project Insight–is assured destruction, a level of control over a population not exercised since we were staring Russia down over a launch pad. And so the Winter Soldier appears, the long cold shadow of America’s past, and crashes into the hope for its future with the ring of a metal fist against a shield.

Cap can’t destroy him, what’s done is done. Bucky can’t be unwounded, or given back his stolen time; the blood on his hands won’t be scrubbed out. But they can walk slowly together, one helping the other stand. 

Yeah we originally used mackie's birthday. But I think that in a recent interview seb had like googled sam's birthday and it said "April 14th". But that date comes from some headcanon wiki page someone made.

I had a thought about TFTWS that worries me.

Spellman said that "it gets real" in 5 episode of the show, I am speculating that Bucky (or/and Sam) will have the emotional outburst why Steve left.

And that's actually not a bad thing by itself,done correctly it could be a beautiful emotional story how humans are complex and you can be happy for someone while missing them/being sad, disappointed.

And how at the end, when you love people you respect their choices and just because someone took a different path doesn't mean they don't love you anymore.

And that sometimes people's choices don't have anything to do with you.  But knowing this fandom I know know what's that gonna look like for Steve.

I am just afraid we've didn't reach the true peak "Steve was a monster for leaving" discourse. 

Your thoughts on the topic? And I wish you a lovely day, my lovely. 🙂

My thoughts are, as usual, much aligned with your thoughts, my friend, which in this case yes, is concerning.

One of my issues here is that I’m sure the antis are starved for content. They expected/felt entitled to 6 hours of Steve bashing, and that hasn’t happened. What we’ve gotten instead is fond memories, respect, protectiveness. Which these people consider a crime against God, so given the slightest opportunity, they’re going to jump up and point and, “See, see? They’re upset! They’re mad at hm for leaving! They don’t actually love him at all, they’ve just been repressing their hate this whole time!”

Because these people don’t know or don’t want to know how adult relationships work. They don’t know or want to know that it’s not a binary, 0 or 1 thing, and that it’s normal to experience mixed emotions about something. That you’re allowed to be happy that your friend is happy, but miss them too, and feel sadness over what that means for you.

Maybe Bucky’s pissed at Steve, on some level, for leaving, and for giving Sam the shield only for Sam to give it to the government. Especially after what Walker’s now done with it, Jesus. And while Bucky isn’t in a position to keep harping on Sam for giving it up because he has no real understanding of Sam’s thought process and experience of the world versus his, I can understand why he’s doing it. It’s not right, but on a human level, as Steve’s best friend, I absolutely get why it’s going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a full-on blowup. He left, and he gave you the shield, and you handed it off to them, and now look what happened.

For Sam’s part…Steve put a lot on him. He did. And no, I’m not saying this in a fuck Steve, he’s a piece of shit way. He just objectively did, coming back decades older and handing off the shield. Everyone in EG already had about 300 million heavy things to process, and now this? Steve had decades to decide what he was going to do with that shield. Sam didn’t. Now we know, ultimately, that Sam is capable of carrying that burden. We know that, unlike Walker, Sam understands the legacy and responsibility attached to it. Hell, he probably understands it in ways Steve doesn’t. We know, ultimately, that Sam will accept that mantle and carry it gracefully.

Sam doesn’t know that yet. Sam doesn’t have to know that yet. Just like Steve is not an extension of Sam or Bucky’s wishes, just there to do or be whatever they need, Sam is not an extension of Steve’s. Sam is allowed to have doubts, mixed feelings. Hell, it’s part of what separates him from Walker.

That being the case? With Bucky’s persistent remarks about Sam giving up the shield—as if he knew what would be done with it after—Sam too would be more than entitled to a blowup here. He never expressed interest in being the new Cap before EG. He lost 5 years. His nephews are young men, as he tells Rhodey. His sister is struggling. He’s got his own things going on aside from just Steve, and there’s a good chance that Bucky, in a moment of anger over the whole damn situation, is going to blame Sam for the blood that is now quite literally on the shield.

We saw how Sam reacted when Walker called him Steve’s sidekick or wingman or whatever he said in ep two. Sam is not an extension of Steve, or a lesser version of Steve. Sam is not just an instrument to keep Steve’s wishes going. If Sam has an angry moment of being put in that position, seen that way, then he’s allowed to. But, as stated earlier, too many Steve antis don’t understand or want to understand that human beings are contradictory creatures with mixed emotions, and that that is normal. So yeah, the minute either of them says a word against Steve, if that does happen, the antis will throw out the last 4 hours of content and take it as proof of their headcanon that everyone on this Earth or any other hates Steve, as well they should.

sam wilson who lost his best-friend and helped other veterans deal with their trauma while suffering from his own survivor’s guilt.

sam wilson who risked his life multiple times to help steve rogers without a second thought.

sam wilson who looked for bucky after S.H.I.E.L.D fell. 

sam wilson who went to peggy carter’s funeral with steve to keep him company.

sam wilson who wants to help his sister and keep their family business alive.

sam wilson who wanted to help isaiah bradley after knowing about him for a total of 10 minutes. 

sam wilson who promised sharon carter that she would get to go back to her family. 

sam wilson who almost blew his cover while he worried about bucky at the bar. 

sam wilson who is going through family problems and still does his part in making the world safer. 

sam wilson who is a funny, smart, strong, kind, caring, beautiful man who deserves the world. 

sam wilson, everybody.