Amazing Work!

I’m going to write another (possibly last?) WalkerBaron story soon, this one set 5 years after the events of He’s My Collar.

Brief Analysis on Zemo

The fact that I, as a fanfic writer, can go deep into a character’s brain and pick out every little contradiction they have, every filthy sinful evil shit they’ve ever done, and lay it out on a platter for my readers, gives me such a power trip it makes me high.

But see, even though I see the worst parts of them, as a writer, I will always unconditionally fend for them and be on their side. I will justify their actions, I will make them appear sympathetic, I will make them vulnerable and you will be seduced.

Of course I’ll still slip you hints, I’ll show you their true natures once in a while. But will you believe? Will you want to believe? That is entirely up to you. This is the internal conflict/dilemma that I want to create 😈

There is a reason why people (including me!) love Zemo so much. The writers of the show have carefully designed him and revealed what they want to reveal, in order to elicit a very very specific type of response from the audience. They could have shown the car bombing on screen in visceral detail but guess what, they didn’t. They could have enhanced the consequences of Zemo’s manipulations on Bucky but instead, the writers chose to move on. Even with Zemo’s subtle commentary, his royal lineage- that could have easily been portrayed as some sort of narcissism or privilege! But it wasn’t.

I don’t think the writers forgot about all the incredibly EVIL things Zemo did. I think they strategically tried to make us forget those things, to trap us into an illusion.

I’ve been waiting for someone to say this for a long ass time

When Daniel Brühl's hair does that thing where one slightly curly bang falls out of place and on his forehead reblog if you agree

👏👏commitment right here, folks. I will be reading the docs just to firm up my characterization of JW for the fic I’m working on

John Walker: a study in story framing, character archetype, established canon details, and audience manipulation

There’s been a ton of discourse surrounding the character of John Walker, everyone has a lot of opinions. But having read many articles, posts, tweets, and watched reaction channels and video essays, I have found a common theme among them: a fundamental misunderstanding of the character due to the story framing.

In fact, the character of John Walker that exists in fandom discussions is more of a projection of what people think he is and what people want him to stand in for rather than the actual canonically established character that exists in the story of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. This is why I have decided to write this post along with an episode-by-episode breakdown, because I think John Walker the character has been completely eclipsed by John Walker the symbol, lost underneath the iconography that he’s been associated with and not really given a fair look as an individual person.

I should make it clear upfront; it is not my intention with this to tell people how they should feel about a character. Whether you agree with my points or not doesn’t really matter. My hope is that this at the very least provides you with a different perspective on the character and his motivations. Maybe have you consider him in a new way.

So, let’s start from the beginning.

——————————–

EPISODE 1

Story framing is important, it effects our perspective as an audience, and it is deliberately controlled by the writers and filmmakers to manipulate certain emotions and impressions out of us. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier expertly does this from the very beginning by framing John Walker immediately as someone whom we should not want.

Because the music is mournful and ominous despite the celebratory occasion shown on TV.

Because Sarah is upset.

Because Sam has his fists clenched and is unhappy and suspicious, and then closes his eyes in upset.

Because when dialogues like this is delivered, the show is purposefully playing into real life iconography and feelings that already raises our hackles.

Because Sam retired the shield and the hero position, so when someone else seemingly carelessly and casually steps in waving like a propaganda piece with a gun on his hip, and a grey flag symbol that looks so close to the thin blue line flag used by cops, there is something unsettling to us even if we didn’t consciously pick up on it, we just know that it goes against what we want and what our main protagonist wants. 

Because this strange person in a Cap costume winking looks like a jerk. We didn’t ask for this. 

As it’s always said, first impressions are important. How someone first perceives you decides how someone might judge anything that you do. If someone thinks you’re an arrogant jerk, then anything you do will be colored by that impression and they will never think well of your intentions. But if their first impression of you is kind and caring, then any mistakes you made is automatically given leeway because your intentions would be well considered. And in one fell swoop, the show firmly planted into the minds of every single person watching that John Walker is an arrogant jerk espousing propaganda no one wants and everything he does is automatically suspect and questionable. 

In fact, they even go the extra step to make that very clear by how the cast credits is used. Notice the difference between the image of Walker in Episode 1 and Episode 2-6?

The red mark over his eyes, blocking him from us, not only feels foreboding, it feels as if it’s warning us. 

So, when I say that John Walker was from the beginning set up to fail, it’s because he was, the story intended for it to be. We have to hate, question, suspect, and think the worst of Walker in order for Sam’s eventual reclaiming of the shield to mean anything or have that emotional catharsis. Because nobody wants to see Sam take the shield from a nice dude, it would be bittersweet or even mean, but if the story tells us that this guy is someone we can dislike or hate right off the bat because there is something vaguely “bad” about him, then we would root for Sam to take that shield.

There is a reason we don’t get Walker’s perspective at all in his introduction. He’s just this stranger we’ve been programmed as an audience to hate. We are not treated to Walker waiting to go outside and feeling nervous, or Walker doubting himself or perhaps even not wanting to take up the shield at first when it was given to him. The purposeful lack of his perspective is done so we only feel the weight of emotions from the Wilsons being upset, because we must relate to the protagonists.

Walker is not the hero of this story, he’s not the protagonist of this story, if he was, then the story would have framed his unveiling as Captain America in a completely different way, and we would have been treated to a sympathetic look at what he was feeling about taking on the shield, we would have had an inside look at his mindset before he walked out there and looked into that camera and winked. But because we the audience lack that important context that was deliberately kept away from us, our views on Walker formed and solidified without it, and then we all stewed on those feelings for a whole week. 

By the time Episode 2 rolled around to open with Walker’s perspective, the damage was already done, it was too late, because people had already made up their mind about what kind of a person he was, and even those who might have given him a chance was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

The show had very clearly made sure that John Walker was always going to have an uphill battle in the eyes of the fans, however fairly or unfairly. And that deliberate and purposeful removal of his perspective and context would be the key to how the character will be misread. Because the reality is, Walker hasn’t even done anything wrong yet and people have already made assumptions just because of one wink, just because of his mere presence. There was no objective consideration that Walker winked because he understood having to put on a cheerful public facade, no consideration that he could have been told to play along nicely for the cameras and directed to look there and wink, no consideration that he didn’t ask for this job but was ordered to do so and is as much a “victim” of the government as Sam. Because the show had already used every trick in the book to make us feel bad and ominous about his presence, the audience would automatically assume the worst.

CLICK THIS LINK TO CONTINUE TO EPISODE TWO AND THE REST OF THIS 219 PAGES AND OVER 28K WORDS ANALYSIS

Simu Liu I need an explanation

(translation on right: my dad is more handsome than your dad)

I’m lonely

Reblog if I can go on your page and write stupid things in your ask box whenever I'd like to.

do it, I fucking dare you

HI ARE YOU LONELY?

sorry i just wanted to tell you that i love the way you write tqm

AHHH THANK YOU <3 <3 <3 I'm actually planning on putting something else out today (the 2nd part to my roadtrip trilogy)- so im hyped that u like my writing! Also wanted to say, it makes my day when i scroll through the walkerbaron tag and see new posts under it XD i appreciate ur updates hehe

love u too! have a very good day 😊🍀

If in Thunderbolts, Zemo and Walker team up (WalkerBaron), I’m headcanonising:

- Walker calling Zemo a ‘lil bitch’ on the daily

- Walker raising his shield to protect the both of them from falling debris and Zemo just standing under the shade in mild wonder

- Zemo bitch slapping Walker

- Walker pours Zemo’s finest wine into a cut to ‘disinfect’ it, Zemo letting out an unholy screech, and downing the entire bottle in response

- Zemo bitch slapping Walker again

- Walker trying to undermine Zemo’s authority by looming over him, Zemo responds by purposely walking in front of him and suddenly stopping just to make John crash into him

- Zemo calling Walker ‘Agent’ instead of ‘US Agent’ out of spite

- Zemo sidestepping John’s advances like siiiiiike we gotta be pRoFfEsSiOnAl

Then later justifying their relationship by saying “It’s a mutually beneficial exchange.”

- Zemo always trying to discreetly keep John in his peripheral vision, because that man was his temporary protection and lifeline

Bonus:

Zemo tries to guide Walker down a bad path to justify killing him eventually. Walker takes the bait. But little does Zemo know, the man drags Zemo down alongside him, topples Zemo’s little moral pedestal right into the depths of depravity.

Now that’s a relationship I’d love to explore.

Awesome, nuanced analysis of Sokovia and Zemo’s character!

Been thinking a bit about Zemo’s character arc & tragic backstory.

As a member of Sokovian nobility, he was ostensibly raised to be proud of his country and heritage. He joined the army out of patriotic duty (it’s not like he needed the money). He could trace his lineage back generations; his son was going to be his future legacy.

And then all the things he loved or fought for in his life turn to dust.

His entire family dies, and his homeland gets smashed to bits and absorbed by neighboring countries. Suddenly, he’s a dying breed - there won't even be Sokovians in a generation or two, as ethnic Sokovians get acculturated in the diaspora. The language and unique customs will probably die out. It’s only been a few years since the Ultron catastrophe, and nobody even visits the memorial to Sokovian dead. The world is moving on.

At first he latched onto revenge, targeting the Avengers… and then what? Where does all that energy go now? He’s got nothing left to live for, but he’s always been a very disciplined man, so he’s still planning, plotting, calculating. He might as well start some shit. Revel in the chaos.

And if it kills him in the process, so be it. He thinks he should have died years ago, anyway.

Bro…… you are me……. I am you…….

Am I the only one who usually is only capable of shipping one person for one fandom, although I may like a lot of the other characters very much?

* By “shipping” here I mean actively spending time searching gay ships centered around that character and reading fanfics.

(I’m only talking about myself, who’s incapable of shipping heterosexual couples)

For the MCU, although I love most of the heros and villains and even, uh, just normal citizens, I’ve been only interested in Bucky centered ships.

That being said, now here comes the first exception: now I just desperately need some Wenwu gay ships……