“Heil this, motherfucker,” says Captain America, shooting off a rocket.
Steve and Bucky find out Hollywood has been busy since they went away. A historical survey, including but not limited to: one set of exploded genitals, a brief interlude in France, Mel Gibson and other masterworks of casting, eight Academy awards, several dinosaurs, and something Tony Stark has ominously dubbed “the masterpiece.”
gyzym: you know what i keep thinking about, is a fic where bucky was like, fucking somebody else in the 107th, before they got captured, before he knew steve was coming over, because he was lonely and horny and pretty sure he was going to die, and whatever, just, whatever
and that guy died, maybe, or wasn’t in the HC, or just sort of…. vanished, after steve showed up, like everyone more or less did, for bucky
Nat: AUGH
gyzym: but in the ensuing years either he remained alive, and told people about it, or his journal survived somehow
and so bucky barnes became… kind of an icon, for the queer community? this famous war hero, captain america’s right hand, confirmed as having fucked other men by at least one primary source
and so when bucky is relearning himself, based on like, SHIT OTHER PEOPLE SAY OR HAVE SAID, he has to discover his own sexuality through the lens of having been analyzed as part of queer theory and history classes?
Okay but now I want fic of Steve’s time (weeks? months? years?) with the travelling show. Who wanted to break into Broadway, or the talkies? The guy he’d punch out every show, was that one guy with one role, or did the band and stage crew take turns? Did the showgirls take Steve out drinking afterwards and use him to win bets because he can drink anyone under the table now? Did he ever let anyone see his sketchbook?
Did he do his own stage-make-up for the shows, and get so flustered when someone else came after him with a brush for the short film segments? Do the showgirls brag about him to the film actors?
And did he get so, so awkward over “fondue” because he was absolutely sure he’d heard every euphemism under the sun by now?
museum curator, watching steve waltz into the smithsonian, the memory of having the stolen cap america authentic howling commando era uniform returned dirty and ridden with bullet holes still fresh in their mind: hide the VALUABLES
steve, reaching over the rope to poke at something on display: it’s my goddamn stuff???
I’M SAYIN’, every single level of management at the Smithsonian must have had an extensively well-documented migraine after dealing with the colossal shitshow raised by such thrilling items as “sock (woolen)” pulled from the pack of one “Rogers, Steve G., 1918 – 1945 lol whoops he’s back″
like i said in my initial reblog… all the people building stories out of this make me laugh with delight, but smithsonian & dc museum people adding their tags give me LIFE
… also steven grant rogers would be KIND and COURTEOUS to the front-line museum staff and not ask them stupid questions and you will pry that headcanon from my cold dead hands thankyouverymuch
oh steven grant rogers is KIND and POLITE and CONSIDERATE to front-line museum staff, he will politely move himself to the side so he doesn’t cause traffic issues if he gets recognized and a couple kids want pictures, he apologizes to security for causing a scene (he didn’t mean to! he thought his baseball cap disguise would work, bless him). he returns his maps (sweet and so unnecessary but then one of the volunteers can take a map captain america used and will probably sign for them back to their grandkids so that’s nice). the docents LOVE him; he’s both a Nice Young Man and also from Back in Their Day.
the collections and conservation staff however have sworn a blood oath of pure vengeance against him and nothing he ever does will change their minds. the textile conservator (we’ll call her lorraine) who had to restore the old captain america suit spent THREE YEARS OF HER LIFE on that stupid thing and it’s still too unstable to ever exhibit again. lorraine went through FIVE INTERNS, two of whom CRIED ON HER. she had to spend a fourth year making a replica because everyone was writing their representatives that the captain america suit wasn’t on display and they MADE HER DO IT.
like if steve thought any debrief in wwii he ever had sucked lol try lorraine, who has given up trying to catalogue what the fuck happened to that piece of shit suit and finally tracked down his cell phone number after six months of this hell project out of sheer bloody mindness and desperation and tricks him into her office through a series of absolute goddamn lies about idk public programming or some shit that steve might actually care about and then corners him and makes him give her a play by play of what, exactly, the fuck he did to that suit.
cuz, okay, listen. blah blah save the world blah blah, but steven grant rogers* stole a priceless museum artifact, bled on it, set it on fire, dropped it into the potomac, dragged it (WHILE WET) through river mud and god knows how many plants and bugs and microbes, got melting plastic and metal and shrapnel and other people’s body juices and skin and hair embedded in it–the only reason he lives is because he can give the full and accurate account of what the fuck he did to it and answer questions of how the fuck it can be slightly, slightly unfucked. not saved! not made to look like it was! certainly not able to be put on a mannequin and exhibited again! but like she can get some more of the mud and that chunk of charred plastic out maybe. otherwise, lorraine would have murdered that dumb bitch in a fit of justifiable rage, and no amount of charming “sorry ma’am”s would fucking save him.
imagine bucky barnes stealing his jacket back. and making adjustments for his new arm
IMAGINE THAT LORRAINE
I used to work at a museum with a massive costume collection and everything about this post is gold.
While I love all of this, I must ask…why WOULD Steve steal the Captain America Costume to go and fight in? Because, like, he was wearing his modified uniform to go rescue Bucky, he was lost in it…so probably what’s left over (unless there were multiples) was the Show Suit. Which was just for show. Like, he’s got better suits now. More practical suits than one designed for stage fighting. Multiples since he changes each movie. Fuck, a moderncostume would be in better shape, he’d just nick one from a costume shop. Peter can tell him how, I’m sure Peter’s done it before.
What hes really taking are the mementos and stuff. His old sketchbook (he offered to trade a new one! but that’s not how that works, Steve), photos (they eventually get him to settle for reproductions by giving his mother a larger part of the exhibit in exchange, it’s a whole massive negotiation), little things like his old watch and such. That kind of deal.
Plus, like, he’s probably got some sense that older fabric degrades and is not in as good of condition, so he probably just went to Lorraine and everyone else in that department and was like “okay, who’s got a friend who can make me a WW2 accurate replica to run around in? Because Coulson and Stark keep giving me tight pants and it’s annoying, I’d like some 1940s pants, please, and I have 70-plus years of pension to pay for ‘em.”
Bucky mentally preparing himself for death is so fucking upsetting because after all of the torture he went through, after all of the physical and mental pain, he survived because Steve saved him, and here he is ready to die for him. He lets himself have this moment of fear because he knows what’s coming, he knows that he’s going to die and he allows himself to accept how scared he really is. He knew what he was getting in to when he made the choice to fight side by side with Steve (because what other choice was there really?), and part of him probably always knew this was how it would end – he was either going to live for Steve or die for him, the only thing left for him to do was to acknowledge his unhappy ending when the time came.
FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT POSITIONING BUCKY’S SACRIFICE AS HIS CHOICE MEANS THAT IT WAS THE LAST TIME HE EVER GOT TO EXERCISE HIS OWN FREE WILL.
But this is actually really important, though, looking through a biopolitical lens, because in fact that choice (his choice to sacrifice himself, to die) got taken away from him. His “resurrection” as the Winter Soldier is a denial of his right to die, his right to decide what to do with his life, his body. That type of control is a horror that we tend to think of as a horror above or beyond death; there is something worse than death, and it is losing what we think of as the basic embodied human right of inhabitation of, autonomy over one’s own body. That’s what he’s about to suffer, and it kind of turns this scene from tragedy into horror story.
Ok. But the level of gay in Captain America: The Winter Soldier continues to astound me.
Like, not only do Steve and Bucky have a phrase like a wedding vow that they say to each other, which gets introduced to the audience in the context of Bucky asking Steve to move in with him, and that later is so emotionally impactful that it breaks through 70 years of brain washing and Bucky remembers it before he remembers his own name. Not only does Steve apparently spend his free time hanging out in his own exhibit in the Smithsonian, staring longingly at old photos and videos of Bucky. Not only does the issue of Steve’s love life get repeatedly raised in the set up before Bucky comes back. Not only do Steve and Bucky’s interactions fit really neatly into a lot of epic romance tropes. Not only is Steve literally willing to die rather than hurt Bucky more than he’s already been hurt, even though as far as he knows Bucky has shown no signs of recognizing him.
But also on top of all that, there’s the whole “shared life experience” discussion (not “similar” – shared!!!) which could only refer to Bucky, which takes place shortly before the Winter Soldier’s true identity is revealed. I mean, it could hardly have been more obvious if they were like:
Steve: Believe it or not, it’s hard to find someone with shared life experience.
Natasha: Yeah. That makes sense. Where on earth are you going to find someone who lived through your childhood in Brooklyn and the war right along side you but who also understands what it’s like to get the serum and be frozen? I mean, I just have no idea who could possibly fit that description. Why don’t we ask that dude over there with the mask and the metal arm? Maybe he can help.
I would also like to submit that the song that plays literally seconds before Steve first encounters the Winter Soldier:
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice Then kiss me once again It’s been a long, long time Haven’t felt like this, my dear Since I can’t remember when It’s been a long, long time
You’ll never know how many dreams I’ve dreamed about you Or just how empty they all seemed without you So kiss me once, then kiss me twice Then kiss me once again It’s been a long, long time
I mean, I’m sure the only reunion song they could pull from the 1940s has explicitly romantic text. It’s only the 40s, I’m sure no other material was written about people coming back after prolonged absence.
Okay so I love things with Peter and Shuri confusing the others with memes but consider this…
Steve Rodgers has been studying pop culture to try to “get with the times”. He probably doesn’t know how much the average adult knows, so this man has seen ALL of the memes, just because he thought that they were common knowledge.
Peter and Shuri: THIS BITCH EMPTY
Steve, without looking up from his phone: yeet
Peter and Shuri: I’d do anything fow you Captain Amewica-
Steve, without even a hint of malice in his voice: Then perish.
C A N O N
peter and shuri: mr. white wolf i would die for you
steve: Big Mood
Big mood
Shuri: I’m a lesbian
Steve, unbothered: I thought you were American
Shuri: So I’m sitting there
Steve, unbothered on his phone : Barbecue sauce on my titties
Shuri: And they were roommates–
Steve, not looking up from the article he’s reading, quietly: Oh my god, they were roommates.
Peter: Road work ahead??
Steve, turning on his blinker: Yeah, I sure hope it does
steve, holding back thanos with his Bare Hands: iM a bAd BiTCH you CANt kill mEE
Shuri and Peter: Two bros, chillin in a hot tub,
Steve, climbing into Bucky’s lap: five feet apart cause they’re not gay
oversimplification of steve’s character, development, and the actual events of cacw for the sake of trying to make tony look more right? check, check, and check
Steves done nothing but leave his comand since he steped into europe way back 1940-somthing. Okay? And wanna know why, because it was the right thing to do (just like giving up the sheild- if it meant having to go avinst everything he stood for -was thr right thing to do.) (also it meant getting away from tony so plus.)