I’m glad you pointed out in your Sam post the line that Bucky says in TB about how Sam “has the shield” I felt like I was on the only person that picked up on that & was bothered by it. Saying he has the shield sounds like anyone can hold it vs saying “well he’s Captain America” which carries weight. The choice to word it like that was very intentional & I hate it so much.
Thunderbolts has a few moments like that, and I'm annoyed but not surprised at how many people miss it.
- Val talking about the Red Hulk and how there are no more reliable heroes. Sam defeated the Red Hulk, put him and two other bad guys in jail, prevented a war. Yet here is the villain of Tbolts subtly calling him an unreliable hero. This statement is never checked by the movie, letting it stand as a "true" statement to audiences - especially those who didn't bother seeing Cap 4.
- In fact, even Bucky repeatedly doubles down on the silly notion and message that nobody else would show up, even though Sam has been showing up for three years in universe as Cap, and is rebuilding the Avengers, which Bucky knows about.
- not Sam related, but Val also makes a straight up Aryan joke about how she had Bob dye his hair as Sentry. This is also never checked or challenged. Just figured I'd mention it. It goes well with the racist tones of this movie.
- Sam is never called Captain America, but there are SEVERAL jokes about how Walker used to be Cap. Sam is referred to by name multiple times in the post credits, but never as Cap.
- if you want some more charged things - the movie includes several black characters, and impacts several characters who are black but not depicted on screen. On screen: Congressman Gary, Olivia, Ava. Gary gets screwed over by Bucky, Olivia gets screwed over by Walker. In both cases the emotional journey of the white ""hero"" is centered. We don't get to experience sympathy for the black people in this movie who get screwed over. Ava is part of the blunderbolts, but she gets screwed over by the narrative - she has a few lines and moments, but is left out of merchandise and overshadowed by every single white person on her team. Which is everyone else in her team. The movie also mentions Sam, who gets screwed over, but we focus on white people being annoyed with him or sad about the situation with him. Again, a black character is negatively impacted, but not the focus of where the movie wants the audience to invest sympathy. And then there are the Wakandans, who Val has harmed, yet they are neither mentioned nor is the harm done to them by the white protagonists' choices acknowledged or depicted.
- this is Sam Wilson's only mention in any project outside his own, and the movie uses that opportunity to put him down. And the fandom eats it up. Tbolts stans by and large conceive as Sam as in the wrong, because they take the movie's "yay the white terrorists get to be avengers down" moment as triumph and not a bad in universe outcome. This has led to a noticeable increase in racist commentary about Sam Wilson.
- I'm gonna repeat it here: the movie refuses to call Sam Captain America, and belittled him as "having the shield", which implies that him having it is the only thing thst gives him any leeway. It is condescending, it is nasty, and it comes from Bucky, who cannot be arsed to stand up for the person who HE WANTED TO BE CAP.
I hesitate to call what this movie does and represents "micro aggression". It's just aggression.
