⍟✪ Drew ⧗𖤍

These are all notes that I've been waiting years now to share on @captainwidowspring's essay called Tearing Apart "Captain America": Civil War, but I figured I'd share them now since a) I'm sick of bottling them up, and b) I'm fuming at this stupid-ass movie:

There is… SO much to say about the Bucharest sequence. But most of what I want to say is about the final segment in the tunnel. It’s fucking asinine that Bucky throws a grenade at the ceiling. While granted it didn’t do a ton of damage from what little we can see, that moment and the resulting explosion has been spun wildly by Team Iron Man people; a lot of them will tell you without a shred of doubt or irony that Bucky’s grenade collapsed the tunnel and killed everyone inside but Steve didn’t care. Frankly with how desperate this movie is to shit on him I’m shocked they DIDN’T try to claim that’s what happened.

Dear god, prior to Multiverse of Madness the pen scene was my most hated scene in the MCU. Firstly, thank goodness Tony is such a loudmouth, because if he hadn’t let it slip that Wanda had been preemptively removed from the Avengers roster so Ross could legally waltz up to the Compound and say “we’ve decided there’s a chance you’re a threat, so you’re coming with us for a life sentence in my torture facility the Raft” (because make no mistake, that is 1,000% exactly what was going to happen). If he hadn’t tripped up by saying that he might’ve been able to gaslight Steve into signing the Accords. Also, it’s more than a little funny to me that Tony says “Ultron, my fault” here, because like… isn’t this movie’s whole MO “Steve Bad, Tony Good”? Why would they leave something that damning in proving the exact opposite? Just as a tangent, I think it’s amusing but relieving that at no point does this movie try to pin Ultron on Wanda. You’d think that would be a no-brainer.

Now…. oh my fucking god, I cannot begin to express the rage Tony’s WMD crack induces in me. First off, I get that he despises her because she’s living proof that he isn’t the good little boy he wants to think he is, but still, dehumanizing her to that extent is unforgivable. Secondly, him telling Steve to “GIMME A BREAK!!!” in response to Steve objecting to him giving Wanda that label… let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t fully process that when I saw this movie in theaters, because on every subsequent viewing, that moment legitimately makes me scream “FUCK YOU!!!” and shut off the movie to calm down before continuing. If I didn’t hate Tony before this scene, I sure as shit would have after it.

A part of me does want to like the scene with Wanda and Vision in the Compound, because him cooking for her and the two of them bonding over their powers is all good stuff, even if it is laughably generic and underwritten since the Russos couldn’t care less about either of them. But the scene is completely ruined when you realize he’s holding her prisoner there. With how wildly out of character this is for Vision, I have to agree with the assessment that he was only going along with it because he was still Tony’s slave at this point. Additionally, while “for people to see you as I do” is a sweet line on the surface, if you look at it in a less favorable light then it’s easy to read it as Vision gaslighting Wanda (“the world hates you, but I don’t” is gaslighting 101). I want to be charitable and say that wasn’t what he meant, but given everything else going on it’s worth pointing out.

I don’t really have much to say about Wanda’s escape from the Compound, other than that it’s amazing to me how everyone tries to twist it to say she was trying to kill Vision. Like, no you fucking idiots! Did you not see her literally crying because it pained her so much to have to do this?

One of the only moments in this entire movie that I unironically like is Scott Lang meeting Wanda and immediately saying “I know you. You’re great.” After being demonized so much by the world and the narrative alike, hearing something like that from a total stranger must’ve warmed her heart. It certainly did warm mine, and did a lot to strengthen my already very strong love of Scott. We Wanda fans are obligated to protect him at all costs.

The airport scene. The fucking airport scene. This shitstorm of a movie’s Magnum Fucking Opus, and the sole narrative reason the Accords exist at all. I hate it. I hate everything about it. OK that’s a lie, without all the context it has some great fight choreography and power play. But in context, this easily makes the number 4 spot on my most hated scenes in this movie. I’ll just hit the low-notes. Most of my most hated moments are how the scene trashes Wanda:

Tony not listening when Steve BLATANTLY FUCKING SAYS there are 5 more Winter Soldiers. Dude, you have no excuse there, he literally told you what was going on and you still tried to stop him! Even less excusable is Rhodey also not reacting.

Tony firing a barrage of live missiles at Wanda and Clint. I’m not terribly surprised, since as mentioned before he loathes Wanda and would like nothing more than to be rid of her, but this is still beyond despicable.

You can tell the Russos hate Wanda as well since they literally only let her interact with Tony this one time, and SHE’S the one who is framed as being in the wrong. Even moments later when she pins him under a car they went to the trouble of adding that bit where FRIDAY says “multiple contusions detected”, which makes literally no sense with how durable the Iron Man armor is supposed to be. I’m certain that was put in to further trash Wanda.

Another example of the Russos hating Wanda is them having her say “you’re pulling your punches” in response to Clint bantering with Nat. Obviously from an in-universe perspective there isn’t a ton wrong with this, as she likely was just frustrated with him messing around when they needed to get to Siberia ASAP. But from a narrative perspective there is no doubt in my mind that the framing is trying to say “Wanda is so evil she wanted Clint to murder his best friend! What a bitch!”. Fuck you!

A third example of shameless Wanda bashing is when Rhodey blasts her at point-blank range with a sonic cannon that could have burst her eardrums in order to stop her from saving Steve and Bucky’s lives. Vision taking out the tower in the first place was also insanely out of character for what it’s worth.

Vision firing his beam with that level of intensity to apparently take out Sam’s engines was wildly irresponsible. It would’ve melted the pack entirely, and I’ll bet you Tony at least would’ve just kept flying. But yeah, he hits Rhodey instead, and Sam gives up his freedom to turn around and see if he can help. But what does Tony do? FUCKING SHOOTS HIM POINT-BLANK!!!!!!! The fact that this isn’t the most despicable thing Tony does in this movie is mind-boggling to me.

I’m gonna go a little bit into conspiracy theory territory here, but bear with me. Vision saying he only hit Rhodey because he was “distracted”. I am beyond positive that it's intended to make you think that Wanda made him shoot down Rhodey, probably because the Russos want you to think she’s so evil that she’d want to kill Tony’s best friend just to hurt him. I’m sure another factor in this was so you’d think “serves that bitch right!” when Tony sees Ross’s men torturing her on the Raft immediately after this.

I don’t have a ton to say about Nat’s final scene, aside from how loathsome Tony’s insult about her not being able to shake being a double agent is. Again, fuck him! It’s also sad to me that a ton of people ignore that in favor of seething at Natasha over her completely true retort about his ego.

The Raft scene. Where do I even fucking start? For one, something like that couldn't have been built fast, so the government was clearly planning this for years. Secondly, Tony not reacting in the slightest to the sight of Wanda being tortured just fully cements him as a vile, irredeemable bastard. Thirdly, Sam noticeably has a huge bruise under his eye that wasn't there in the airport fight, implying Ross's men tortured him for information. If they did that to him, I don't want to imagine the sort of things they could have done to Wanda. Fourthly, Tony outing Clint's family's existence to Ross is quite possibly the single most evil thing he ever did.

sam literally did nothing except dodge a blast that the vision sent to kill him. if tony wants to get mad at someone for hurting rhodey why the fuck did he give vision a free pass

also, sam is the only one on the team with actual medical training. if your best friend was hurt, would you blast the only person who could help them in the fucking face?

Bucky (Steve’s best friend since he was a tiny child) was going to be shot on sight, no trial, for a crime Steve wasn’t even sure he had committed. All this after Bucky was turned into an assassin against his will after being a POW. You know, not his fault at all, all that jazz. So Steve “reacting poorly” was trying to save his best friend’s life.

Tony reacting poorly, in this particular instance (oh man, there are SO many instances though), was him ATTACKING a man who was in no way involved in putting his friend’s life at risk. In fact, Sam was the intended target and, despite that, still chose to try and save Rhodey…the man who ordered the shot at Sam to begin with.

In simpler words: Steve acted quickly to save someone from being killed because he didn’t see another option.

Remember, at that point in time, Steve had no indication that Bucky hadn’t reverted to his old ways and he might have possibly been a danger to those around him. Steve was there to stop him and to prevent as many casualties as possible.

If one more person says “Wouldn’t you try to hurt someone if your friend got injured uwu???” I’m going to go feral

1) I hope to the good God in Heaven that I don’t lash out in anger for literally no reason like that (although with my temper it is likely I would say something hurtful).

2) Even if I did, that doesn’t mean it’s okay. Even if my temper got the best of me and I lashed out with fists or words, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to do so. I would be in the wrong, and I would (rightfully) apologize. My emotions do not give me a pass to hurt others.

3) Tony Stark is a grown ass man wearing a suit of extremely dangerous weapons. His “lashing out” can have even worse consequences than a normal person’s response. Therefore, he should be extra careful of his actions. Even the slightest mistake on his part could cost lives.

4) Sam was not a threat. He was not armed, not acting suspicious; in fact, he was vulnerable to attack because he let his guard down. Plus, he risked his own life to catch Rhodey. Tony attacked him because he was angry and Sam was there. That’s it. And that is inexcusable, period.

5) SAM FUCKING WILSON DIDN’T TOUCH RHODEY. HE DIDN’T FIRE THE SHOT, HE DIDN’T FORCE RHODEY TO GET HIT, HE DIDN’T TRY TO KILL RHODEY OR HARM HIM IN ANY WAY DIRECTLY PRIOR TO AND DURING THIS SCENE. SAM WAS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR RHODEY’S INJURIES IN ANY WAY. HE WAS COMPLETELY INNOCENT.

6) If Tony lashed out at the person actually responsible (Vision), and if he realized it was wrong to do so, then maybe I would be more understanding. As it is, he’s an asshole.

Also Tony Stans: wouldn’t you react in the same exact way? It’s a reasonable response

Uhh no. I learned when I was 5 years old that hitting other people just because I’m upset is wrong, so I can say for a fact that no, I would not physically lash out at someone for ANY situation.

Tony, who was in contact with Ross and probably stood and waved at the jet as they took the chained up Avengers away, knew that they were being brought to an illegally-run supermax prison in the middle of the ocean.

Hell, he visits them there to interrogate Sam on where to find Steve and Bucky.

But he never tells Steve.

Now, we can correlate the approximate time it took for Steve to locate the others by calculating the arrival time of Steve’s package to Tony.

Tony gets the package from Steve, and immediately after he opens it, he gets the message from Ross that someone broke the Avengers out of the Raft.

If we assume Steve bought the phone and wrote his letter the minute he got to Wakanda, and had it in the mail to Tony by that evening, it would have taken approximately 8 days to get to the Avengers Tower in New York via Fed-Ex, even with rush delivery.

(At least, according to an online Fex-Ex calculator I used.)

At the absolute minimum we’re looking at eight full days of Steve trying to locate and break out his friends.

(And seeing as he’s got a reputation of single-handedly storming bases without a plan, I think it’s safe to say that he was flying their way on a jet the second that he pinpointed their location.)

Which means that it took almost eight days for Steve to track the other Avengers down so he could rescue them.

Eight days of them all being kept in tiny cells, not allowed to get any exercise or fresh air or real light, and all of them being told that they are to spend the rest of their lives there without the hope of a trial or release.

Eight days of Wanda being locked in solitary confinement for 24 hours a day, unable to move because of the straitjacket and being shocked whenever the guards feel like they need to give her a warning. 

And I would actually like to take this moment to point out that solitary confinement isn’t as innocent and harmless as everyone in fiction likes to make it out to be, either.

In fact, here’s a great post by @scripttorture on the topic of solitary confinement and its affects on the victim.

Check it out here.

Being in solitary confinement for a week - especially with exasperating factors like poor living conditions, restricted movement, artificial light/air, no clear release date, pre-existing trauma/issues, and the threat of electrical torture from the guards -  would have very likely been long enough to have lasting negative affects on Wanda’s mental and potentially physical health.

She’s likely going to have trouble interacting with others. She will likely get depressed or suicidal. She may suffer from hallucinations or mood swings. All of her pre-existing issues are likely going to get worse.

Steve is on a timer to get them out ASAP.

And Tony purposefully delayed that.

The worst part is that Tony wasn’t sure if Steve would even be able to locate the others at all.

Tony thinks Steve is dumb - he’s made no secret of this. What reason, then, would Tony have to think that Steve would be able to track down the others in any kind of reasonable amount of time without help?

Tony doesn’t know that Wakanda is offering help.

What reason would Tony have to think that Steve is going to be able to arrange the gear or transportation allowing him to get to the Raft and help?

What if Steve hadn’t been as clever as he actually is? What if he hadn’t been able to find them for two weeks? A month? Six months?

Tony didn’t care.

He didn’t care if his teammates were suffering or being abused, he didn’t care if their basic human rights were being violated, he didn’t care if the prison conditions they were being kept in very clearly violated half of the UN’s rules on prisoner treatment.

He would rather turn a blind eye.

Tony was feeling petty because the others decided to listen to Steve about the super soldier threat instead of meekly doing whatever Tony said and blindly signing off on the Accords, and so he left them all at the Raft to rot without so much as a word to Steve about where he could find them.

How hard would it have been to tell Steve where they were? One word shouted after him in Siberia? Messaged to him at any point in the week after Tony tried to kill them? Some type of hint at where to find the others? Hell, even something so immaterial as an anonymous appeal to the UN about prisoner conditions?

But no.

Tony was not only willing to let them all live out the rest of their lives in indefinite detainment without a trial while he lazed about his mansion in luxury and did nothing to amend the Accords like he’d claimed, but he wasn’t going to so much as tip off their only chance at rescue as to where they were all being held.

So, this thing is absolutely not trying to be a brainless fun teehee girliepop movie. It is indeed a deeply stupid film, but not on purpose. You can tell there's a genuine effort there to be artsy and meaningful! They're trying to use color symbolism and to make commentary about arousal and sex and abuse and offer some perspectives on gender and classism! This thing wants to be deep so badly that it's actively got a shovel in one arm and a fire hose in the other.

And that's what I've sort of found with most of this white woman made media with underlying racism and/or major insensitivity, which is that it's not that it's all supposed to be I guess "brain smoothing" good times.

It's that for a lot of it the lowkey racism isn't incidental, but rather a vital component of the fantasy they're trying to sell. They don't want you to point it out because that is a load bearing bit of bigotry that actually appeals to them.

White supremacy often gets sold to white women on the idea that they are desirable. Yes, ladies, you might be a second class citizen, but you're a beloved second class citizen who will be cherished and protected by your strong husband, who will keep you from being stolen away by savages who want to rape you. And isn't the idea of being so desired that there are savages who would risk dying to steal you away kind of exciting too? It's akin to the poor white men getting sold on the idea that they at least get to be part of the same group as the rich white men, that they are allowed to be above other men, even if they're still getting fucked over by classism.

White women on the whole are usually well aware that the second class citizen thing is at least kind of bullshit-y, but, it's harder to pry some of them away from the appeal of being the object of irrational desire. Heck, in some ways embracing the appealing aspects help with embracing the idea that it's also a bogus deal, since a component of it is that white women are beautiful victims and martyrs whose suffering is an aspect of their appeal. Which on the one hand is like, yeah sure y'know that makes sense, a lot of people want to be desired and to be told that their suffering is real. The trouble is that this comes as a package deal with the white supremacy baggage, it's not just being desired, it's being the desirable white, it's the dangerous exotic savages, the victim of the covetous gaze of said savages and also of masculine aggression in general, it's the only truly finding your match with a white guy, it's being innately and universally more desirable, and etc etc. It's a whole specific romantic fantasy that you can't really leave intact and pry away from the racism.

I've always loved the fact that Captain America is an artist in the comics, it feels just so fitting for the character that is supposed to embody ideal of freedom and fighting for it. Cause what is art after all?

A little nostalgic piece to keep feeding into my newfound hyperfixation. Till the end of the fucking line.

Never been to USA cause I'm poor af, but hopefully I'll manage to visit Brooklyn one day. It's been on my dream list for about as long as Japan after all, though I can't remember what started it all.

I know drawing fat characters isn't super popular, and finding good tutorials can be hard. But this pattern of "Fat characters, as long as they're not really fat." Is starting to grind my gears.