I Want Steve Rogers Back For Selfish Reasons (retconning An Ending That Undermined Ten Years Of Character

When the war is over.

Scarlet Witch by Lukus Werneck

went to miami to recover father sotirios. and made some new friends.

these animals... they are wise. I recruited them to avenge my dear brother. I was then escorted out of the sea world.

in these troubled times, remember sam wilson. who when faced down by an enforcer of fascism, ready for aggressive physical assault - after listening to him deliver a monologue designed to intimidate about domination, superiority and pain, responded with a quick and resounding “man, shut the hell up”. 

When a piece of media's title consists of the names of its two leads, I feel like it makes a difference whether those names are conjoined with an ampersand, or whether they write out "and" in full. "A & B" versus "A and B" – these are fundamentally different species.

How did Clint and Caps relationship evolve from the "fuck you old man" mess it was in the early avengers

to understand their original dynamic, we’ll have to go back to clint’s childhood. first, clint’s father abused him, then orphaned him at age 8 by drunkenly crashing a car. strike 1 for father/authority figures.

his next father figure, the swordsman, acts as a mentor teaching him swordsmanship, knife-throwing, how to improve his aim, etc. clint looks up to him and practices hard to be part of the circus’ act, but discovers swordsman is stealing some of the show’s earnings, so swordsman tries to kill clint, breaking both of clint’s legs in the process, and leaves him for dead. strike 2.

older brother barney thinks clint wasted a good opportunity for them to work with the swordsman, so he leaves too. kind of a strike 3.

while clint heals, trickshot trains clint extensively until he thinks clint is finally ready to earn his keep. clint complies to try to make him happy. turns out trickshot was just prepping clint for more criminal activity, and he ends up shooting clint to a tree and leaving. strike 4.

by now, clint’s been abused, abandoned, or both by all of his father figures. he tried acting like a better son, brother, or mentee to please these figures in the hopes that they would act better towards him in return. clint now sees that it did nothing. by now he’s old enough and skilled enough to perform as a main act in the circus circuit, incidentally still being mostly run by criminals, so all authority figures are running together as “not to be trusted” at this point.

when clint joins the avengers, he’s thinking he’ll be part of a bona fide, revered team, as an equal member. instead, he finds out that all the founding members of the avengers are leaving, the other members are barely-reformed young villains (which he also is but that goes over his head), and a recently thawed captain america is being put in charge. as you might expect, he’s not thrilled.

now, everyone clearly sees cap’s put in charge because (1) he’s captain america (2) he’s led platoons (3) everyone else is like 19 and was a villain’s lackey like 1 week ago, and (4) he’s captain america. but clint sees: (1) some dude thinks he’s the boss of me! (2) i don’t need some dude to be the boss of me!! (3) it never goes well when some dude is the boss of me!!! (4) bosses don’t last long anyways, so i should be the boss of me and everyone else!!!!

even though cap demonstrates effective leadership, clint’s just waiting for the other shoe to drop. he trains with cap begrudgingly, because his last trainers had ulterior motives. with every instruction from cap, clint lets any possible objection he could have be known. if he can’t think of one, then he’ll just insult cap for being old. he completely resents cap’s authority over him.

but the other shoe never does drop. steve, being recently thawed and going through his own issues, left the team for a short period. clint thinks “a-ha! i knew he would abandon us!” but cap quickly returns. and unlike his other father figures, cap repeatedly shows genuine support, belief in clint, and concern for his well-being. as cap’s actions prove time and time again that he’s different, clint starts to warm to him; but still throws some insults to show that he’s ready to disobey an order at any moment. the insults become more half-hearted.

by the time hank pym comes back to the team, clint was regularly training with cap– and actually enjoying himself.

naturally, his defense mechanisms mean he’s still a little combative…

but over time, clint’s jeering shifts to friendly teasing. he always lets his objections be known and still argues often, but for things he has actual reasons for and no longer just because. soon enough, clint practically idolizes cap. everyone knows this because it’s completely transparent.

and so, cap will always have a soft spot for clint 

and clint will always call him old. and they will insult each other, forever

I love when characters have an idea about them having a Role in a narrative. I love when characters view themselves as The Hero who needs to Fix Everything, even at the cost of their own life or health. I love when characters view themselves as villains, as two dimensional Things in a story and not a person who can change and grow. I love when characters view themselves as side characters without agency or personalities. I love when characters are Wrong about what their role in the narrative is. I love when the narrative actively acknowledges how much this can fuck a person up. I love when characters base their morals or world view off of fiction and view the world through that lens. I love when characters view themselves as fictional. I love when characters think the world operates off of fictional rules. I love when characters have Feelings about being fictional!!!

So this is very random and more or less a 'crack treated seriously' idea but I keep thinking of it every time I listen to the Captain America movie soundtracks.

AU where the serum gives Steve the ability to hear the 'soundtrack' around him. Of course he doesn't tell anyone because it'd make him look like he's crazy but he slowly catches on to what seems to be happening.

He picks up the USO dances really fast

He legendary at knowing when something bad is going to happen because he can hear the boss music

He's unconsciously good at timing his 'heroic' moves and moments since he can hear the pace pick up

He can vibe check someone instantly

Just imagine:

Steve on a mission with the Commandos: *Hydra music starts playing*

Steve: Ah, great we got company

Commandos: ???

Steve in the car with Natasha and Sam: *Winter Soldier track starts playing*

Steve: oh no

Everyone: How do you always get so pumped up for missions?

Steve: *bopping along to the action music*

*Pierce's character gets introduced with concerning undertones in the orchestra*

Steve: I don't like you

Steve in the elevator with the STRIKE team: *ominous music growing*

Steve: sigh

Sam Wilson and the Art of Moving On as an International Fugitive

all this interesting meta on disability going round lately has me thinking about Steve and Bucky and disability 

so here are some varied thoughts/questions about things I don’t really see much in fic/meta: 

Steve spent much longer as a disabled person than an enhanced person so he’d probably have a lot of habits or patterns of thinking that revolve around the disabilities he no longer has, eg: 

waking up every morning bracing for the moment of ‘okay, which of the things is bothering me today?’ and it doesn’t come

spring / big open grassy spaces (like parks) are a problem because of pollen; animals are a hazard because of allergies; fall/winter is a problem because of heating and colds and flu and slippery sidewalks; beaches are good because no pollen but bad because shirtlessness; crowds are bad because of his hearing, and so on. 

Would he still avoid all these environments without realising he’s doing it, or deliberately seek them out because now he can? 

how long after serum did it take for Steve to stop trying to wedge himself into spaces that pre-serum him could fit? 

I’ve long headcanoned that the reason Steve leans on things is because he’s subconsciously still resting a back that no longer needs to be rested. 

(Ditto for why he cocks his head; he’s channelling sound to his ‘good’ ear.) 

if you think about the aspect of disability as a form of living in a world that is not designed/adapted for you to easily navigate, then do both Steve and Bucky, despite being super, still fall into that category? 

Everything around them, that was not made for them, was made for people of a different size and strength than them. So there might be all kinds of adaptations they have to improvise to make their environment livable; like reinforcements of furniture, doors, shelves, drawers, cupboards, eating utensils, vehicles, clothing, weapons. 

(Imagine being so strong that every tube of toothpaste bursts in your hand, door knobs just come off, and every pedal in a car seems to be on a hair trigger.) 

How are you supposed to use a car when there’s a chance you might accidentally rip the steering wheel off? (HILARIOUS, yes, but seriously!) 

How many towels and pieces of clothing have Steve and Bucky torn? 

What about art? Does Steve need metal handles on his brushes and pencils? Firmer brushes or softer? Thicker paper/canvas? 

What about touchscreen technology? How do they not crack screens? 

What about the bed. How does a bog standard flimsy ikea bed survive two enhanced men using it? For purposes.  

As the friend of someone who was once also smaller, weaker, and slower than him, Bucky might have an easier time handling this ‘everything is small and flimsy’ environment than Steve (it might be like living in pre-serum’s Steve apartment.) 

if you headcanon that they both have enhanced hearing and sight, too, then would they also be sensitive to, eg. noise pollution in a way un-enhanced people aren’t? 

Do they have to have extra soundproofing? Ear plugs at night? Avoid crowds? Is the city a difficult environment for that reason? 

If they have enhanced sight, does that mean they can perceive dirt and dust more acutely than a normal person? Are they assiduous in cleaning because of this, or lax because living in dirt and dust can’t harm them the way it can a normal person? 

(Do those two things cancel out? To them it looks like they’re living in a mildly grotty environment but to non-enhanced people it looks spotless? Would them both coming from being in a neat military environment affect this too?)

What about taste/smell? Can they detect chemicals in modern foods that wouldn’t bother an unenhanced person? Do they have to alter their diet to account for that, or again, are they indifferent because those chemicals can’t harm them? 

Would Bucky have diet problems after Hydra? (What was the Soldier’s feeding regimen?)

Sound is one of the common anxiety attack triggers for vets with PTSD, so how would they navigate that + enhanced hearing? 

Speaking of mental disability, hyperarousal is another common side effect of CPTSD - so how would Bucky and/or Steve handle that when their very senses are themselves hyper? 

Flashbacks are another problem for PTSD sufferers, so what are their triggers and how do they each navigate that? 

(If Steve’s bad associations are all from WWII, does that mean old things are dicey for him? If Bucky was tortured in a reclining chair, does he have a problem with modern recliners, or environments with those kinds of chairs, like dentists and hair dressers?) 

And about Bucky’s arm: 

does he experience phantom pain? problems with proprioception? if it’s a removable prosthetic does the join cause pain/irritation?

does he learn how to do things one handed just in case? Consciously or unconsciously? 

does he buy things adapted for one-handed use? 

does he ever forget one of his hands is stronger than the other and damage things because of it? 

does he alter things to be reinforced on the left side? (Does this make them unusable for Steve?) 

How do people treat Bucky now that he has a visible disability? 

does he hide it because of how people treat him, or because it outs him as the Winter Soldier, or both? 

how does he feel about having to hide a disability for that reason? 

does he use disabled services (bathrooms, parking spots) and get shit from karens for not ‘looking’ disabled? 

how does he feel about other disabled people, now? 

given that most people don’t have super hi-tech prostheses like him, how do other disabled people feel about/treat him, especially if they’re poor/er? 

how do he and Steve feel about disability representation, now?