You Don’t Know?

john "living PR crisis" walker constantly convincing the public that he is dating each of his teammates:

It starts when the New Avengerz have like a really bad mission. A publicly bad mission. And they are trying to do damage control at a press conference. One of the more conservative-leaning reporters (who all only address their questions to John and maybe sometimes Bucky) starts asking questions like, "what has it been like going from being led by very decorated men in the military to being an Avenger under the leadership of Ms. Belova?" (basically implying Yelena is a bad leader because she is a woman). And John is. Just so tired and his body hurts and he is tired of being some weird pedestal for these annoying misogynistic racist people. So he just loses it. Starts ranting about how Yelena is the best leader he has ever had and that he would "follow her to hell and back without question you fucking losers."

And the press doesn't understand that John at his core really is that loyal when he trusts someone (and he has trusted Yelena since they got out of the vault together). So OF COURSE the press assumes that they are sleeping together.

None of the thunderbolts take it seriously--it's just some stupid gossip that will eventually pass on. (But Yelena does give John a hug when no one is around to thank him for supporting her).

Except.

It keeps happening.

Ava has a bad day spiraling about her childhood growing up in labs and John invites her to come with him during his visitation with his son. They all spend the day under the sun running around playing games before getting ice cream. The next day, the headlines read, "Current Avengers, John Walker and Ava Starr: Relationship Timeline (co-parenting?)."

And then, Bucky gets thrown into a wall during a mission, and John just freaks out, eyes glassy, and starts frantically petting him, making sure that he was okay. Someone takes a photo of John holding Bucky's face in his hands, looking terrified.

After that, during one of those PR "friendship test videos" (that all of them hate but Val forces them to do) Alexei and John are paired together and one of the questions is what is the other person's favorite food. And John's answer is not only right, but like insanely specific, i.e., the borscht from this shop in this random street in St. Petersburg, outside of which Alexei had his first kiss. Alexei talks alot, okay-and John had unfortunately asked what everyone's favorite food was as the resident cook and was plagued with a good enough memory even without the serum to remember every. single. word. Alexei said. (When this inevitably blows up, Yelena immediately makes fun of John for being such a whore that he goes for two generations in the same family).

Eventually, the press also start asking questions about who this random dude living with the team in the Avengerz tower is and John just immediately panics and say "he's my....guy?" (he had a blond moment and couldn't think of anything fast enough).

Name: Kallista

Age: 24

Relationship status: Engaged

Sexuality: Straight

Crush Initial: J

Followers: 16

Favourite mutuals: @luri-isa @itzzkaylaaa @multifandomer537 @birdboycrow and not mutuals, but awesome person: @busyheadkeepbreathing

Birthday: July 27

Favourite song: Youth by Daughter

I fixed that lol

THANKS FOR TAGGING ME 🤭🤭💕💕

Name: Oli

Age: 25

Relationship status: single 🥲

Sexuality: Straight

Crush Initial: R

Followers: 234

Favourite mutuals: @luri-isa @queenelizabeth1st @dwobbitfromtheshire @noxdemonart @monstera-mo @wasyno @mortallythoughtfulgurl @doingnotsogoodalso

Birthday: May 24

Favourite song: I can not pick one but my current go to is Berth by Gregory Alan Isakov

Age: not saying

Relationship status: dating someone! :D

Sexuality: unlabeled

Crush Initial: J

Followers: 15

Favorite mutuals: @busyheadkeepbreathing (sorry i know you literally tagged me but idk who else to put) & @madampringle

Birthday: March!

Favorite song: Jesus how do I choose? It typically depends on what mood I'm in but recently I've been listening to "Manchild" by Sabrina Carpenter on repeat.

That made me think about John going through the same kind of training during his time in the military. After all, what would it mean to rescue hostages without even passing the training that teaches you what it's like to be a hostage yourself?

John isn’t in Delta, which is similar to the SEAL team. He’s in something akin to that, but not as high up. The 75th Ranger Regiment was known for climbing the cliffs in Normandy. Other than that, they’re not fully known for much else. Sure, they were in Afghanistan and did some notable missions but the 75th wasn’t known for Afghanistan.

John in the MCU is obviously portrayed as more distinguished as he has 3 medals of honor. He’s obviously done some serious shit just to survive. If John was a real person and was married during the time he was in Afghanistan, it’s more than likely he wouldn’tv’e worn his wedding ring. If you were to get captured and taken prisoner, it’s a lot easier to tell if a person has loved ones to get back home to if they’re wearing a wedding ring. It’s also a lot easier to break a person that way. John also would’ve had to sit and watch through multiple beheading videos as they would’ve had to get comfortable with the idea of, that could be them.

Another thing about John’s fight style is how it would’ve had to evolve. In the military, especially in those groups, your team and its cohesion allows for the best chance of survival or mission success. Communication and ability to function under stress is key. If something breaks down, you need to be able to get it under control otherwise everyone might die. A lot of the time, you know when the attacks on base are probably going to happen. You know they’re going to take potshots at you (even if they suck at aiming). You just can’t shit your pants because other people are relying on you to step up or do your part.

In the military, you also have people there to cover your back. It’s why you’re in a team. It raises your level of survival. Unless something goes terribly wrong and you’re on your own. It’s why teams like Delta are oftentimes trained to work both on their own and in groups. If they’re awesome on their own and they’re even better on a team, then if something does go wrong, they’ll be fine. But again, John isn’t Delta. So he’s gonna work best with a group. It’s why he always looks out for Lemar, just as Lemar looks out for him.

The movie is based on a true story of a real veteran and is dedicated to someone who was in that same mission. The movie is graphic and vulgar but it prides itself on being accurate. Surprisingly, movie is actually pretty accurate with only a few, minor flaws.

This is one of those movies that a veteran, who was in the war on terror, probably could not watch until a year or more had passed after they had gotten out. This movie also does a great job of not portraying a good vs evil type of situation. Sure, there’s “protagonists” and “antagonists.” But not good or bad guys. The politics are more neutral in this film, leaving them in the background for just brutal realism. The end of the movie leaves you with the sentiment of “this is why an entire population could hate us.” It’s life over there during that time, both as the natives and the foreigners fighting.