Look at how Steve caresses Bucky’s face in the first gif; making sure he’s real, he’s alive. We always talk about Bucky in this scene, but there’s so much emotion in Steve’s face. He barely dared to hope Bucky was alive; and yet here he is, broken and bruised but still Steve’s Bucky, and Steve just reaches out and touches him so softly.
That is the best description of Steve I have ever seen
I was always so confused about if Joss Whedon had seen The First Avenger. Because Steve swears in the movie. Not like hard, its a PG-13 family movie, but he does swear.
I think Joss Whedon falls into the same trap as bad fic writer, where he thinks Steve is a farmer from 1950s Kansas instead of Irish Catholic kid from 1920s Brooklyn.
Steve Rogers is 400 pounds of righteous kickass in a 100 pound body and by using the serum the army found room for only most of it.
he thinks Steve is a farmer from 1950s Kansas instead of Irish Catholic kid from 1920s Brooklyn.
this is it. this is the description for how steve is so often mischaracterized.
My grandpa was born in a Brooklyn tenement in 1917. He was five-foot-nothing, fond of bare-knuckle boxing and once flipped my 6′1″ uncle to make a point. Enlisted in Dec 1941, got shot and blown up and turned down a medical discharge twice, but took the bronze star (which he tossed in the back of his closet). He cursed in two languages and told ribald stories about french prostitutes. He cared deeply about doing what was right even at personal cost, and would give you the shirt off his back. He learned how to use a computer just to spite my father telling him he was too old. He climbed on his roof at 87 to fix the chimney. At 89 he threatened to kick my husband’s ass if he broke my heart, and my husband was like “I genuinely believed him and was kind of scared.” When he died, people filled the largest room in the funeral home, then the line stretched down the hall, out the door, and down the sidewalk. I heard dozens and dozens of stories that could all be summed up as “Here’s how he helped/stood up for me” and/or “I really thought he was going to get himself killed with that”. My last surviving great-uncle said he was best summed up with “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
This is the man I think of when I write Steve.
I just want home to see my family, and my father and I got talking about Grandpa.
He was a first-generation American, and a life-long New Deal Democrat. He was fiercely patriotic, wore US flag hats and proudly spoke of his military service, but he was ready to take my uncle to Canada to save him from Vietnam. He loved politics, and the last political thing he did before his death was to vote for Barrack Obama. He called me to tell me about it, and about how proud he was of how far we’d come.
My Dad and I agreed on one thing. God, we are so, so glad he’s not alive to see what’s happening now.
(TBH though–I’d be less worried about him being sad than dragging his 100-year-old ass down to a protest rally. Learn us whippersnappers a thing or two about punching Nazis)
This is the scene where M’Baku calls out Shuri during the challenge. I love that everyone surrounding her snaps to action, but please check out Shuri’s body-language here.
Look at her face.
She is looking M’Baku dead in the eye. Her stance is open and relaxed. She’s not the least bit intimidated.
Also notice that Shuri’s mom and most of the Dora aren’t pointing those vibranium spears at M’Baku.
They are effectively holding Shuri back.
….Just something to think about.
M’Baku: have been overseen by a CHILD who SCOFFS at TRADITION
when bucky fell from the train steve rogers was not only blaming himself and trying to drink himself into a coma unsuccessfully (both of which we discuss a lot), he also told peggy carter “im not gonna stop until all of hydra’s dead or captured”. not only was steve in tears, grief drinking and blaming himself, you also kind of have to read avenging rage there. like steve “i don’t want to kill anybody” rogers is perfectly ready to kill these people with his fucking bare hands for what they did to bucky
You can think this stance is Steve being stern, or showing off his arms (which I’m sure the producers of these movies love), but it’s really just Steve protecting himself.
Because what does Steve know how to do? Lead. Fight. He’s a soldier.
What is he doing in all these GIFs? Talking. Listening.
When he talks to Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger on their way to the lab where he’ll ultimately be transformed into the guy whose arms you can’t stop staring at, he remarks that their conversation is the longest he’s ever had with a woman.
You think Steve’s conversations with men were any longer? Outside of Bucky, MAYBE?
From personal experience I can tell you that there are different ways to cross your arms. What we see in this GIFset may just be a personal tic for Chris Evans that was accepted as a character choice for Steve Rogers. As someone who struggles with anxiety myself, crossing my arms is a way of protecting myself while trying to not look like I’m protecting myself. So maybe that’s what Chris is doing here.
Either way, look: he’s not pointing his elbows. He isn’t making a show of prowess with his arms; he’s guarding himself. This posture makes his arms wrap around his stomach and support his spine so that it’s not as difficult to stand-up straight–which is something that, when you do it, forces you to expose yourself, physically and emotionally.
This can make you look “tough” and “together” when really you’re just holding your body together.
This is to say nothing of the fact that each and every one of these moments in the movies are moments of vulnerability, especially the reveal of Jarvis’ destruction by Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron (HELLO, Jarvis is artificial intelligence, a computer program, helpful and witty though he is, that Steve has sympathy for), comforting Wanda after the events in Nigeria in Captain America: Civil War, and, later in the same movie, talking to Bucky for the first time since they fought on the crashing Helicarrier in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Steve has broad shoulders and big arms; he is a specimen (to quote Erin [Aaron?]) of physical prowess; but let’s not forget that Steve’s heart was bigger than his body before his transformation, and was bigger after as well.
Steve never cared much for his body, which is why he had no problem standing up to that bully in the alley behind the movie theater, or going through basic training in the military, or throwing himself on what he thought was a live grenade to protect others. His heart is so big that he acts without thinking, throwing his body into danger to save others. But when no one immediately needs saving, when he just has to stand there and… be Steve, when his heart is just… exposed, what does he do?
I just can’t get over that scene on the helicarrier like…
The entire time they were fighting, Sam’s calling Steve “Cap”.
Up until Bucky knocks him “off” the helicarrier.
Then he screams “STEVE!”
Because he’s absolutely terrified for his friend. Shit just got realer than real.
This is more frightening than Steve voluntarily jumping off the previous helicarrier with no warning. It didn’t scare him the way this does… neither of them were prepared this time around.
Here’s another friend and partner falling out of the fucking sky.
But here’s one he CAN save if he moves fast enough.
And if you notice, he’s not actively trying to shoot Bucky down dead after Bucky hinders him the first time, he’s trying to distract Bucky and get him to move enough out of the way so that he can immediately fly down to save Steve.
That’s his priority.
Then Bucky clips his wings and sends him falling.
He saves himself and yet his immediate worry is for Steve.
Even when he gets grounded, Steve’s nowhere in sight so he’s looking for him. He’s back to “Cap” when it comes to communications. But that one terrifying moment where it wasn’t Captain America that was falling… it was Steve… that shakes him up a bit.
He’s glad Steve was able to avoid the fall but he’s permanently out of the helicarrier fight so he can’t be there anymore and he’s so regretful over that.
But Maria Hill calls and he’s on Rumlow because that’s something he can do. Every little bit helps. He can do this.
He does what he can- the best that he can- so that others may live.
I fucking love Sam Wilson so much.
And now let’s jump movies to CA:CW… Sam is willing to commit treason to help out Steve. And who’s he helping? None other than the guy who kicked Steve off a hellicarrior and made Sam feel useless in trying to save his new friend. He complains only slightly about it but he faces off with his teammates, all to defend this friend of Steve’s. When it becomes obvious that not all of Team Cap is gonna get out of there, Sam is the one who tells Steve to get on the jet and take Bucky, no one else was gonna make it. Once they are flying off Rhodey is in hot pursuit and Sam’s only goal there is to distract Rhodey long enough for Steve to get away. But… It turns into a duel of ‘who’s the better pilot’…when Rhodey is shot down (because Sam was better and able to dodge Vision’s hit) Sam could have gone on, he could have caught up to Steve to help him in Siberia. Instead he saw what he lived through, the thing that caused his PTSD, he was helpless as another friend was shot out of the sky. He was so guilt stricken when he got to Rhodey, guilty cause he was the better pilot and now another friend is possibility dying and he is so sorry….
Listening to the Captain America theme and the Winter Soldier theme I’ve noticed that Steve’s Theme is more melodic and instrumentental and Bucky’s theme is very electronical and sounds like just a bunch of machine noices but in the end of Steve’s Theme you can hear Machines like in Bucky’s and in the end of Bucky’s theme you can hear a Piano like in Steve’s. Henry Jackman truly worked the “I’m with you ‘till the end of the line” into the soundtrack and I don’t know whether to hate or love him for that.
Time for some more rambling. I’m not sure if this is something that’s already been touched on in the fandom, but I was rewatching the The First Avenger recently and I’m pretty sure the train was set up by Hydra to be a trap for Bucky…
Let’s start by looking at the scene where Steve rescues Bucky from the Hydra munitions factory. When Schmidt sees that Captain America has infiltrated the facility, he sets the building to destruct. Zola sees what Schmidt is doing and he freaks the hell out.
Now, Zola is normally a groveling worm when it comes to Schmidt. He knows better than to stand up to him; but there’s something that tips him over the edge here–if just for a second.
We already know there are a handful of other munitions factories across Europe (which is part of the reason Schmidt can be so casual about blowing up this one). Wanting to save the weapons might be part of Zola’s reaction here, but that really isn’t reason enough for him to risk Schmidt’s anger (which can be deadly). At this point in time, there’s nothing in the factory they can’t afford to lose.
Except for Bucky.
Sergeant Barnes is the first one to show signs he might survive his stint in the isolation ward. He’s the first one to show signs that he might be responding to Zola’s attempts to create his own super soldier. That research is only located in one place, and Schmidt is about to send Zola’s breakthrough up in flames. The moment Zola realizes he can’t stop Schmidt, he makes a break for the lab to try to rescue his notes. Of course there’s no way he can carry Bucky out of there, so he has to make do with what he can get.
In a painful twist of fate, Steve does Zola a favor by saving Bucky.
Take a look at this standoff on the scaffold. Here the audience is meant to focus on Steve and Schmidt going head-to-head for the first time; but pay attention to Bucky and Zola. This is their standoff, too. Follow their line of sight. They’re not looking at Steve and/or Schmidt through most of this scene. They’re looking at each other, and you can almost see the realization on Zola’s face that his experiment might just be saved.
Don’t you dare look at Bucky like that, you asshole.
Also, can I just point out the look on Bucky’s face when he spots Zola?
If looks could kill.
Not to mention his face when he sees what Schmidt looks like under the mask. Sure, Bucky’s line asking Steve if he has “one of those” is meant to be a joke for the audience; but I think Bucky’s experience as a character is a lot different from our experience outside the fourth wall. He’s genuinely scared–for Steve, for himself. You can see the trace of tears in his eyes.
Bucky knows something awful has been done to him at the hands of Hydra, and he doesn’t know if he’s going to lose his humanity, too.
Jump ahead and Captain America and the Howling Commandos are now laying waste to anything and everything Hydra. Things are looking bad for our villains.
This is an interesting line, because the movie doesn’t exactly tell us what Zola’s mission is. Maybe we’re supposed to think his mission is to make sure the weapons are finished in time to meet Schmidt’s timeline for world domination. Or maybe it’s to kill Captain America. And maybe those things are part of his job, but as Zola himself says, “I merely develop the weapons. I cannot fire them.” His primary job is research and development, not tactical planning and defense.
Now that Hydra is up against a super soldier, it’s likely that Schmidt is anxious to get his own super soldiers into combat. The easiest and fastest way to complete that research, of course, is to retrieve Sergeant Barnes. (In theory, Zola could use Steve for experimentation if he caught him; but he would have to start the experiment from scratch. Peggy made it clear earlier in the film that it would take them years to find out the formula using Steve’s blood. Chances are good the same would apply to Zola. The work on Bucky is already underway, it’s Zola’s own handy work, and Bucky’s still weak enough to be an easy catch compared to Steve.)
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that, directly after Schmidt gives Zola the ultimatum to “finish his mission,” we cut to the Howling Commandos laying in wait for the train. They’re hoping to catch Zola, whose location has somehow been leaked, and it quickly becomes clear that the scummy doctor hasn’t been caught by surprise. In fact, everything indicates that Zola was the one laying in wait for them. He’s surveilling the entire train from a command center and issuing orders to strategically placed Hydra soldiers.
When Steve and Bucky board the car, Zola deliberately separates them.
Divide and conquer is a tried and true tactic, but look at the difference in the opponents sent after them. Steve is given a huge opponent armed to the back teeth with a Tesseract energy gun. But Bucky? Bucky faces off against onetraditionally-armed guard. (EDIT: In a subsequent viewing I noticed he actually faces off against two guards, but the second one is barely seen and is removed from the equation fairly quickly.)
Why wasn’t that guard given an energy weapon too? My guess would be because Zola didn’t want his guinea pig harmed too badly. Bullet wounds can heal, but disintegration is forever.
It might also be telling that when Steve and Bucky are back in the same compartment together, Zola screams “kill him” not “kill them.” It’s up for debate who Zola meant for the guard to target; but since he was initially sent after Steve, it’s my assumption that’s who Zola meant for him to shoot.
As we all know, the plan goes horribly awry on both sides and Bucky falls to his seeming death. Zola is captured and, when Colonel Philips tells him that “the last guy you cost us was Captain Roger’s closest friend,” Zola barely acknowledges it with a creeptacular grin.
He knows. He knows whatever he did to Bucky would keep him alive. And, as it turns out, even as a captive Zola will gain the means to finish his little experiment.
bucky may never know about steve’s cried so hard his nose stopped up grief in the midst of a world war and a bombed out bar. one man and a bottle of hard liquor, one man left in the wreckage of what should’ve been solid ground. his steve, stone cold sober and wishing to god he could be numb just the once. his best friend in a military uniform with bloodshot eyes.
maybe someday bucky will find out about steve crashing the jet and realize that particular timeline of events was driven by a furious one man show hellbent on avenging him.
the1timetraveller 