Absolutely in love with this art commissioned from @negativesd09 of the fuzzy boooys!! Shoving the art into my mouth

So, I had nearly everything queued up for this appreciation week except the last few days and I planned to finish up one of my 'in defense of...' metas for John. Life got in the way and I don't think it'll be done in time, so I'll just post a piece of it. Stay tuned for when I finally finish the whole thing :P

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I was fairly indifferent to John Walker when he was introduced to the MCU in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier a few years ago. I had no prior knowledge of the character other than a vague recollection that Walker had filled Cap’s shoes for a bit in the comics and he really didn’t capture my attention enough at the time to dive too deeply. I didn’t hate him - I thought they told an interesting story with him and he struck me as a decent guy that made a brutal mistake in the fog of war following the death of a man that was likely closer to a brother than a best friend - but I didn’t love him either. That tends to happen pretty often when you have so many characters in a franchise. When I tuned in, I was there for the bromance between Sam and Bucky. Spoiler alert, I still love that bromance. 

Fast forward to Thunderbolts dropping on Disney Plus. I put it on in the background while I was getting a few things done, not expecting Walker to be the one that caught my attention. The problem is, it wasn’t for the reason that Marvel likely would have expected. I found myself struggling to remember his character from the series a few years ago and asking myself (and the internet) “Walker wasn’t this inept in Falcon and the Winter soldier, was he?”

And the answer to that is a resounding no. This was a West Point graduate, Army Ranger, a man that ran special operations all over the globe, and was shortlisted and eventually chosen when the US government decided they needed to replace Captain America and Sam turned the job down. 

I found myself wondering how we went from all of that to a man who was confusing space in the tower for outer space.

So I went back and I did a deep dive that showed a good, deeply loyal man struggling and eventually breaking under the weight of expectations and what struck me as a some imposter syndrome (like the good millennial John is 🙃). I found a story that I don't even think the writers actually meant to tell: one of how many of our vets are treated when they come home and how that ripples out, especially following a trauma like John experiences with Lemar's death.

ghostwalkerrr !!!!

Least Understood Aspect(s)

John is kind. It gets overlooked quite a bit because of the assholery that he shrouds himself in like a protective layer (especially after Lemar's death), but when his guard isn't up, we see it in the way he wants to protect people

and looks after them even when there's friction.

It's in the way that, even when he's under an incredible amount of stress, he doesn't brush people off.

Ok rant over bai

Hey everyone, I'm so happy to announce that voting for WinterAgent Nights, our WinterAgent NSFW Prompt Week is now open! You'll get to vote for up to six (6) of your faves! Voting will be open until Friday, January 23, 11 pm EDT.

WinterAgent Nights will be held April 5th through April 11th, which will hopefully give you all lots of time to prepare. <3

Vote with the form linked below: