100 DAYS UNTIL ‘AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR’!

I need to hug this post. Seriously.

1/4 Hello! I'm sorry to bother you with this, but you're a really chill person from what I've seen and you love Steve, you're willing to listen and answer politely, and I don't know who else to turn to with this. I'm just so fucking sick of how Steve is used in fandom even by people who supposedly like him. Spoiler, they don't. They just want him as a trophy for [insert X]. Like, I read this hugely popular fic where Steve is essentially written as a selfish, incompetent idiot

2/4 who harangues Bcky and Sam into joining The Good Fight TM (post-CW) to the point where Bcky (lol) has to ~give him a lecture~ about how to treat Sam properly. It ends as OT3 (where Steve is treated as a sex-cessory, of course, lmao), it has hundreds of kudos, & yet no one seems to give a damn that Steve was basically character assassinated in it. Cherry on the cake is that when Steve mentions he went to Sharon for help getting Sam’s wings back, Sam is offended. Calls her “Carter”. Ok then.

¾ I get that fandom enjoys having Steve be pathetically codependent to their faves, as if he has no other friends who love him. I get that the angry!chihuahua Steve interpretation is popular to the point where that’s ALL he seems to fucking do in fic, as if there’s nothing else important to him. But to disregard his trauma, depression, suicidal tendencies, debilitating survivor’s guilt and the fact that he’s a damn veteran who has given up his life for his country and the rest of the world –

4/4 into “Steve doesn’t know how to live without war or violence! Ofc he’d keep dragging his (Fandom Approved) friends into this! He’s so selfish & boringly depressed, here we go again, Bcky/Nat/Sam/Chewbacca need to clean up his messes ~obvs~ since he’s so incompetent LOL can’t wait for him to die so someone else can be cap” is beyond galling. I’m tired of this. I’m sick of it being lauded. I can barely read halfway through a fic these days without back-buttoning in disgust and disappointment.

__________

Oh my dearest Anon, you have vented to exactly the rightplace. I know! I share your pain. Trust me on this. I am very, very picky aboutwhat fanfic I read all the way through. Part of that is not just that I’m ahuge Steve Rogers fan, which I am. He’s my main guy. I love him. But I also work full-time,I’m a wife and a mother. My spare time is precious. I have so, so many tabsopen for stories from authors that I trust that I have yet to read just becausemy reading time is so sparse. If a writer wants to catch my attention, to beplaced in front of the queue above the writers I already know are balanced andfair in their characterization, they had better be good about characterization,because characterization is the one aspect of writing I am most picky about. Itis the writers responsibility to build a trust in their reader, and to buildthat trust they need to follow the basic rules for character construct infiction writing, if the writers cannot follow those basic tenants, something justone creative writing class would show them in a heartbeat, or hell, even just alittle research into the craft, then I’m out. And I’m not likely to return toread anything else they produce. Basically it’s a writers job to sell thecharacters, even the characters who aren’t their favorite, especially thecharacters who aren’t their favorite. If their biases manage to leak throughtheir writing they are not doing it right.

Part of this might be the age of fandom. While there arethose of us, like myself, who are over 30, who have schooling and/or experience,a large section of fandom is very young. Some still in high school. Some incollege but they haven’t really learned yet or fine-tuned their craft. It is myhope that the more they write the better they’ll be at it. That one day they’llrealize that a) when you make one character the all-knowing, ‘right’ one, let’suse Bucky since that’s the example you gave me, you are actually not doingBucky’s character any favors, it’s not just Steve’s characterization who suffersin this. Gone are the Ian Flemming days when readers gave a pass to a lack ofrealism when it comes to building a protagonist. Were Ian Flemming try to sellJames Bond today - ingenious, undefeatable, sexually flawless James Bond - hewould be turned down. As a society we’ve evolved past that. We look forrealism. Identifiable characteristics. The biggest mistake a writer could makeis to make their character, any character, a stereotype.

As for how the fandom treats Steve in particular?  Using him as a whipping boy to prop up theirfavorite? Also, again, that’s immaturity. And also an act driven entirely byemotion with total absence of logic. Let’s say you, as a writer, or just areally big fan of a character, want to sell your favorite character so thatothers may come to appreciate him. Or, in the very least feel empathy towardsthis character and their situation. Let’s again use Bucky in this (just as anexample, I’m not trying to pick on Bucky). But here is the thing, you don’tneed to convince fellow Bucky fans. They are already convinced. They are onboard. They get it. What you need to do is appeal to the people who don’t giveBucky a thought. And how do you convince them? It sure as hell isn’t byattacking another character, that’s for sure! If I, as a Steve fan, see a Buckyfan attack Steve to prop up Bucky, I am going to be closed off to anything thatBucky fan has to say. It’s a defensive mechanism. i.e. ‘You’re attacking myguy, you’ve just made yourself and your character the enemy, I’m not givingyour words any credence’. Thus this person has not achieved their goal of convincinganyone of anything. In fact they made the situation worse because now the onlything I’m convinced of is that this characters’ fans are rabid.

With age comes wisdom and hopefully fandom will get pastthis. But yeah, they do it, and it’s awful and it makes no sense and uses nologic but we learn and grow and hopefully one day the people doing this willrealize that they’re creating this either/or situation, creating sides, whenthere doesn’t have to be any. That Marvel fandom is actually big enough foreverybody. And none of the leads are going anywhere. Disney owns these guys,they are going to milk them for every marketing and merchandizing penny theyare worth, so if anyone honestly believes they are going to kill off a popularcharacter whose likeness is sold on everything from lunchboxes to Kleenix theway Steve Rogers’ is, and this while they can have a Captain America, a Falconand a Winter Soldier all at the same time thus three times the amount of potentialproduct, a reality check is long past due. The people believing that need toget a clue. Disney is not the comics and they are not going to do anything thatwill affect the bottom line. Fandom needs to get over the mantel passing thing becauseit’s not going to happen in the MCU unless the actor requests it because they’redone. The only reason they killed HanSolo is because Harrison Ford asked them to, if he hand’t? They would havemilked him, too. Also, another thing to remember, online fandom only makes uproughly 1% of a movie’s viewing audience, so even if a fic like this seemspopular? It’s only popular amongst percentage of a percentage of 1%.

Until then I read pretty much every Steve-centric pairingthere is and I have a list of really talented authors I trust with Steve, andtrust me, I’m very picky about that, so if you’d like Anon, I can make a reclist for you. Just let me know. Also, you are most welcome to come vent to meabout this at any time. I feel you. As a Steve fan who genuinely cares andidentifies with the character I get exactly what you are saying. We can bepained by this together.

inspired by the amazing @starksquill‘s superfamily edits, here’s Tony and Steve being funny on instagram (joke stolen from Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds)

more superhusbands au

Meta 1 Steve and Endgame

Spoilers of course

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Let’s talk about the “pep talks” in CACW - Steve and Wanda’s chat in her room and Tony and Peter’s chat in his room.

I see folks talk about the mentoring parallels, or even suggest that the talks are identical. I DON’T see anybody talk about the key, crucial difference between them.

One of the mentors was talking about sustainability, and one of them never talks about it.

Look. Superheroes are just like any other caregivers: counselors, social workers, nurses, paramedics. If they’re gonna address what taking care of other people is really like, they’ve got to figure out what’s sustainable for them… not just physically but emotionally and mentally. Caregiving is brutal fucking work. Burnout and compassion fatigue and spiritual damage are always hovering close.

Steve is engaging Wanda directly on the issue of sustainability - specifically on the issue of limitations. Not being destroyed by one’s mistakes. Acknowledging the fact that one person can’t always protect everybody, it’s impossible.  “If we can’t find a way to live with that, next time maybe nobody gets saved.” Steve is sharing his hard won understanding of what works for him… when he loses somebody on his watch, he pushes past his own guilt and grief because there’s somebody else out there who might be helped by his future actions. He is still capable of good. He focuses on them to keep going.

I won’t call stoic soldier Steve a paragon of flexible mental health… but here he has great wisdom. He has humility, and that’s the key. He can admit that he failed, and accept it, and know that he still has gifts that help others. That’s something he knows deep in his bones. This humility allows him to collaborate well with others so that individual, personal limitations are better compensated for.

In the other scene, Tony listens to Peter reflect back to him exactly how Tony feels about being a superhero - saving the world is entirely up to him. The language may sound parallel to Steve’s, but in reality its meaning is completely different. “When the bad things happen, they happen because of you,“ Peter says. Now that some event has given Peter his hero identity (and ever since Tony got his, way back), evil and tragedy is now entirely about them. It’s about their ability to stop it. They are defined by their failures. This is in no way sustainable.

This is built on an immature narcissism that can be grown out of. Peter is a sweet kid who takes on too much. Hopefully he’ll grow past this soon. Tony hasn’t gotten there yet. Tony still has no ability to face his own limitations with any peace. This has been his trajectory for a while and we are watching him crumble because of it. His panic attacks about it overwhelm him and he won’t get help. He has been comprehending the depth of possible threats for years but has only ever conceptualized the solution coming from him and his tiny self alone. So, since he thinks the solution must come from him, he sees his own limits as betraying the whole world, and refuses to acknowledge or address them. He doesn’t know how to truly collaborate with anybody else. Despite being surrounding by compassionate, gifted people, Tony puts it all on his own shoulders, and so he finds only inadequate solutions.

Tony unilaterally leaps at the Accords partly because of this issue - because he intuits that they somehow address limitation, and he craves some resolution to this pain he’s in. But he still doesn’t do the work. He doesn’t look at ALL the consequences and the structure of the Accords. He still won’t let go of the narcissism that underpins every decision he makes. He hears Peter reflect that youthful short-sightedness back to him and he has no wisdom to offer to counterbalance it.

Steve imparts practical guidance to a young Wanda struggling with her own gifts and limits. Tony sees in Peter a kindred spirit at about the same level of emotional maturity.

Tumblr: Don’t go see Doctor Strange, everyone. It’s going to be just a shitty movie. It’ll be so terrible. Just don’t go see it. It’s gonna be so bad.

Me:

I’m sorry but once Peggy was so established in the MCU, Sharon should never have left the comics. Especially if all she was going to be was a love interest. Using Sharon to dispel any question of Steve’s sexuality made Steve and Sharon look bad. And the entire thing undermined and was disrespectful to Peggy. Peggy and Steve had the best romance in the MCU. If Sharon needed to appear, it should have been as a friend and nothing more. Regardless of comic canon.

*adjusts glasses* I’m sorry, Mr. Evans, but it appears that your request to conclude your run as Steve Rogers has been denied due to *highlights portion of document* the lack of a legitimate Captain America 3 film. Please re-submit your request when said movie has been filmed and completed, thank you 👍🏻

On Sharon Carter

First of all, ugh. Second, whyyyyyyy?

I am a huge fan of strong women being portrayed strong and independent in movies. Seriously, we need more of those women. What I absolutely hate is people believing a woman has to be a perfect know-it-all in order to be strong. Just, no. In writing, mainly fanfiction, this is called a “Mary Sue”. For those who don’t know, a Mary Sue is a character that is perfect. She knows everything, can do everything, is super brave and loved and wanted by literally everyone.

Now, the reason I’m putting this first is that so far I feel like Sharon Carter is going to be a Mary Sue. Not in the actual sense of course, because in fanfiction a Mary Sue is most of the time the author in a much more perfected version, but in a larger, a little modified sense.

Sharon’s been bugging me since her very first appearance in Return Of The First Avenger which is fascinating since she has really little screentime. So allow me to explain myself a little further.

As of now what we’ve seen of Sharon is:

her being super nice

apparently Nat approving of her since when on the Lemurian Star she asks Steve if maybe he wants to ask out the nurse who lives across the hall from him and at the end of the movie she asks Steve to call her because “she’s nice” (and honestly Nat is not exactly the person to approve of people easily)

her being super brave since she speaks up against Sitwell and demands to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. should be hunting Steve and later on she stands up against Brock Rumlow to stop the launch of the Helicarriers

her being a perfect shot when she practices shooting at the CIA shooting range

I know she didn’t have much screentime yet but everything we’ve seen so far puts her into a pretty perfect light. I’m also taking the one short moment from Civil War we’ve already seen into consideration where she apparently goes up against Bucky which is something no person in their right mind would do because HIGHLY TRAINED AND PROFESSIONAL KILLER.

This is a no-no in my eyes. It couldn’t have been that hard to just have her keep her mouth shut when Sitwell demands S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to hunt Captain America. It also wouldn’t have killed anyone to have her miss a few shots on that shooting range, she’s no Hawkeye after all.

As of now, she just seems too perfect in my eyes. I am of course always up for being proven wrong but everything just looks a little to peachy at the moment. A character with flaws who actually can’t do whatever he wants and get it right at the first try is much more interesting.

Something I’m also having a problem with: they seem to try to turn her into another Black Widow. Outfit-wise. When I looked at those new promo pictures I had to take a second look to realises I wasn’t looking at two Black Widows but in fact Natasha and Sharon. It looks a little like they took Nat’s outfit and photoshopped Sharon’s head on it. No. Just no. That’s not how we do it. If you want Sharon to be a super badass and respectable character make her a unique on and don’t copy something that’s already there.

But major difference character-wise: Nat has flaws. She struggles. Things go wrong for her. She has a heart-wrenching past, that thing with Bruce didn’t work out entirely as planned. She’s stubborn. She makes mistake. As far as we know Sharon is pretty perfect overall. Badass fighter, brave woman, she gets Captain America (come on, we can still turn this around and pretend it won’t and never will be a thing… please). Seems pretty great to me. But this is a character I don’t want to see. I want and need characters I can identify with, not a perfect Miss Plastic.

One more thing about this matter and then I shut up: Steve doesn’t need a love interest. Honestly. In my eyes it would be amazing to let a character like Steve Rogers stay single. For one because he doesn’t need it. Second, it would be amazingly representative. There are so many young people out there who still believe they need to be in a relationship to be happy or have some kind of worth. Seeing a man like Captain freaking America not be in a relationship would be incredibly reassuring and soothing.

I mean, just think about it. That man looks like a god and has a great personality (though even Captain America has his flaws). Everyone would expect him to be in a relationship. So take the chance, surprise everyone and let him stay single. Because yes, he’s basically perfect but that doesn’t mean everyone will immediately fall into his arms.

Okay, I think I’m done now. I’ll make an additional post if more comes to mind.

THIS. Thank you.

How is steve =/= cap? I get it but i kinda dont get it.... Im sorry if this infuriates you but i think youre the best person to answer it...

In the MCU, Steve Rogers is a person; Captain America is a character. 

In the MCU, Captain America was a character created to sell war-bonds. He was literally a product of war propaganda. Steve Rogers, the person playing Captain America, had no say in what the character said or did, so there is no way he can be portrayed as a reflection of Steve Roger’s opinions or desires. Steve was an actor playing a part and that part was defined by his employers 

When Steve went to the European Theatre and started actually participating in the war, he was not playing a character. He kept the name of Captain America, but he was acting as himself. He still had little to no say in how his image was used by the media or the news reels of him filmed in Europe. After the ice, Steve had absolutely nothing except for a character he played in the 40s. At that point, Captain America had 70 some years of mythos piled onto him by literally everyone except Steve Rogers. And literally everyone expected Steve to be Captain America. He didn’t have a choice in the matter, he was awake for a week and was thrown back into active duty, not as Captain Rogers but Captain America. When Fury greeted him as ‘Cap’, that wasn’t a shortening of his title, that was shortening of his stage name. 

In the MCU, Captain America has encompassed Steve Rogers to the point people don’t even see Steve Rogers anymore. I know that in the comics, its different, so I totally get the confusion, but no seriously. Steve =/= Cap. Steve can’t equal Cap, he has been given little to no chance to influence the character of Cap, and instead has been forcibly shoved into the role to the point where, in WS, he is fucking contorting himself trying to make his life work.

And it doesn’t because holy crap Steve is miserable

oh yes

whom else is still bitter captain america civil war wasn’t an actual captain america film