five hundred spiders in a trenchcoat

Captain America: Infinity Comic #1 (2021)

We never got to see the scene where Steve & Co found out about the torture and mind-control used on Bucky. 

Because that should’ve been super important!

It would have vindicated Steve’s faith in him, proved Bucky’s victimhood and innocence, and turned Nat and Sam 100% around on whether or not Bucky was worth helping (whether or not it was worth them apparently wasting years of their lives helping Steve to find him). 

They’re supposed to have been: 

A) hunting down the remains of Hydra for years, 

B) familiarising themselves with all the Hydra info Nat dumped at the end of of CATWS, and 

C) hunting for Bucky-related information specifically amongst all that. 

Meaning they absolutely cannot have avoided finding, for example, all the places Bucky was tortured in, the specialised enhanced torture equipment (impossible to mistake for that used on a non-supersoldier), cells he was held in, all the specialised physical restraints, tailored for an enhanced person with a cyborg arm, documentation of his torture, witness testimony from surviving Hydra mooks at the Triskelion, etc., and seeing it firsthand. 

And for some of that time, they know Hydra had access to a magic mind-control stick, courtesy of Loki, and an enhanced person who can control minds (Wanda). 

So even if Steve didn’t find evidence of Bucky’s mind-control early on in his search, he and Natasha definitely do know that mind-control is possible (especially Natasha, given her roots in the Red Room and the fact that her bff was mind-controlled.)

Even if you ignored Nat and Sam’s personal backstories, which preclude both of them from being dismissive of a victim (a veteran who suffered a fall, a mind-controlled Russian ‘assassin’), it doesn’t make sense for Nat and Sam to still be trying to suggest Steve step back from helping Bucky, the way they do in CW. 

They cannot still be ignorant of what was done to Bucky, when they have been specifically investigating what was done to Bucky, and all that information has to have been impossible for them to avoid! 

Instead of which, the movie just skips right over the reveal to Steve and Sam of the mind control (going straight from ‘scene of mind-control’ to ‘scene of Steve being skeptical (which he shouldn’t and wouldn’t be)’ to ‘scene of talking about trigger words already’). Casually implying that either Steve and Sam already knew about it, or that Bucky has just explained it to them… 

But only off-camera. 

And yet, Sam is still salty and scornful of Bucky’s innocence (even when they have just seen mind-control happening, Bucky is suffering amnesia of WS acts in front of him, apparently just told him about mind-control, and then proves that he has his pre-war memories). 

So they imply the content of skipped scenes but then have characters act in ways that are… irrational, given the skipped content?? 

Who here doesn’t like some good old Winter Soldier angst? Raise your hands. Now leave, this post is not for you.

Just kidding. Stay if you want. But be warned: it may get a teeny bit angsty.

Okay, so, we all know The Phrase. We’ve had this phrase destroy our souls again and again, in the canon, in fanfiction, in our unruly daydreams about the beauty and tragedy of a certain brainwashed supersoldier.

Oh god. The feels. But on we go.

I want desperately to use this phrase in my fics for obvious angst purposes, but here’s the thing: I’m a native Russian speaker and a professional translator, and the Russian version of the phrase from the movie is cutting my heart into tiny miserable pieces every time I think about it. (Which is, admittedly, A LOT.)

So, what is wrong with it?

In Captain America: Civil War, we hear Bucky say in an accent heavier than his metal arm, “я готов отвечать” [“ya gotov otvechat’”], after being put into the mindless killer machine mode by a bunch of horribly mangled Russian words and phrases. According to the subtitles, it means “ready to comply.”

Except that it doesn’t. The Russian verb “отвечать” [“otvechat’”] has a range of meanings, from “to reply” to “to account for” and so on. The only context in which it can correspond to the English verb “to comply” is when talking about a gas pipe complying with safety requirements or a rant post complying with Tumblr community guidelines.

So, “я готов отвечать” can mean something like “I’m ready to answer [your questions]” or “I’m ready to assume responsibility [for something],” turning the scene into some kind of an interrogation or an investigation, while we all know that it’s neither.

There’s another version, straight from our dear Google Translate.

(I love Google Translate so much. It always proves that the need for human translators will never cease.)

What’s wrong with this one? Well, “я готов подчиниться” [“ya gotov podchinit’sya”] is much better in terms of word choice. The Russian verb “подчиниться” [“podchinit’sya”] does, indeed, mean “to obey, to submit, to surrender” and so on. The problem is with the verb form.

Verbs in Russian have two aspects: the perfective aspect, which indicates a one-time action, and the imperfective aspect, which points to a more ongoing kind of thing. Unaware of the context, Google Translate uses the perfective aspect, which turns the phrase into “I’m ready to comply, but only just this once, don’t bother me after that.”

The proper form would be “подчиняться” [“podchinyat’sya”] instead of “подчиниться” [“podchinit’sya”] (yes, it’s a one letter difference, but see how huge it is?). The whole phrase would then be “я готов подчиняться” [“ya gotov podchinyat’sya”], which might even pass for an adequate translation.

But there’s one more thing.

The English phrase doesn’t have a first-person pronoun. In fact, it doesn’t have any pronoun at all. It doesn’t indicate the speaker in any way, because the one saying it isn’t supposed to be a person. The ‘who’ here isn’t important. What is important, is that whoever (or whatever) it is, is ready.

Here, have a tissue.

The Russian phrase, however, begins with “Я” [“Ya”], which means, unsurprisingly, “I” and is not syntactically mandatory in this case. Just like in English.

Moreover, it doesn’t figure much in standard military expressions. Why waste precious army time on such meaningless things as personal pronouns? Again, there are no persons here. Only soldiers.

My personal favorite for rendering “ready to comply” in Russian is “готов служить” [“gotov sluzhit’”], which means “ready to serve” as in “to serve one’s country.” Or one’s captors. Take your pick.

Oh wait, you’re not allowed to choose. Sorry.

The pros for this version are: it’s a standard phrase that indicates one’s willingness to obey and submit and is primarily used in the military context. Moreover, it’s a standard Russian phrase, and seeing Bucky utter it like some common Soviet private would be so much more heartbreaking. (Yes, even more.)

The cons are: it’s a standard phrase. As far as I understand, “ready to comply” isn’t standard military lingo, so maybe the Russian version should reflect that as well. Or maybe I’m overthinking it.

In conclusion? Marvel couldn’t splurge on an actual Russian speaker to proofread a couple of sentences, and now I’m forever torn between wanting a phrase that sounds like idiomatic Russian instead of machine translation and wanting to make a recognizable fandom reference.

Fandom life is hard, people.

I also do it to them when we watch films with English translations…

But, this is why I try to simply imply the language is different without translating anything.

HOWEVER. I read many fics with google translate Russian and I still love them. ❤️ For me, it’s the writing, not the translation.

This is precisely what chaps my hide so badly about the misuse of the quote “Well-behaved women seldom make history,” because this is precisely what the author was actually trying to say.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is a domestic historian who developed new methodologies to study well-behaved women because they were

1) so vital, and

2) their lives were rarely recorded in the usual old sources.

“Hoping for an eternal crown, they never asked to be remembered on earth. And they haven’t been. Well-behaved women seldom make history; against Antinomians and witches, these pious matrons have had little chance at all. Most historians, considering the domestic by definition irrelevant, have simply assumed the pervasiveness of similar attitudes in the seventeenth century.”

They made lace, and sold it to the aristocrats. Real lace (the stuff you see on old outfits in museums, not the machine-made stuff you might be familiar with from today) is stupidly difficult to make, takes a lot of time and skill, and, well:

If you watch this through, you’ll hear her say this is DOMESTIC lace. This is not fancy, this is for household objects. You can imagine what it would take to make some of the elaborate pieces you see on old aristocratic clothing, and see why it was so expensive and valuable. (Incidentally, if you’ve ever heard the music from the musical 1776, in the song where Abagail and John are trading letters and he’s like “ma’am we need saltpeter” and she’s like “dude we need pins,” THIS IS WHAT THEY NEEDED THE PINS FOR. That song was based on real letters between the two.)

And this is all those revolutionary Revolutionary women did, every free moment of every day. They pulled out their pins and their bobbins and they made lace until they couldn’t see straight, and they sold it to revolutionaries and royalists alike, anyone who would pay. Yard upon yard upon yard of lace to earn cash to translate into rations and bullets.

The war was won by a women’s craft. Not even a “vital” women’s craft like cooking or cleaning. It was won by making a luxury item whose entire purpose was to say “look how wealthy I am, I can afford all this lace.”

Lace was not the only source of income for the Revolution. But it was a major one, and it is extremely fair to say it turned the tide.

The look on Ciri's face tells too much. Of course Geralt hasn't told Ciri, hasn't told any of them.

“Yes, I am” Jaskier offers her his biggest sincere smile though he thinks he might be grimacing.

Ciri in her charming petulant way says "Wow" and then proceeds to turn around towards the stairs. Jaskier tries not to feel insulted. He is aware of who he is. The contrast between him and Yennefer (Geralt's true love) is painfully immense. Sometimes he wonders if destiny was wrong about him or maybe she wanted to play with him, a mere pawn on Geralt's destiny. The bridge that'd bring Geralt and Yennefer together. But, if that's the truth, if Geralt wasn't meant for him why did he fall in love?

Alone on his cold room he decides he's going to tried, one last time, to be what Geralt wants, needs. So he throws away his colorful clothes and puts on a pair of black pants and a plain black blouse (borrowed from Cöen). He tries to be as useful as possible, quiet, focused, regal, smart and a good company for anyone that wants to talk to the strange bard, he's a good performer after all, the best there is. At least Vesemir doesn't scold at him that much anymore and Lambert is more willing to tolerate his presence. He still sings, in a cellar on top of the main tower, the echo is divine. He writes and sings about heartbreak, hoping, waiting, wanting, and letting go.

Geralt notices of course, he can see the way he holds himself. Like he's hurting. Maybe he is. Ciri asked him a few weeks ago why he didn't tell anyone about Jaskier being his soulmate.

“You’re going to give me answers.”

Maybe… If Bucky takes a souvenir back from the Potomac?;;;  (/□＼*)・゜

Cap and Bucky WIPs.