listen. i know it's not 2014 anymore and i know it's just a throwaway line and that the russo brothers didnt intend for marvel action blockbuster captain america the winter soldier to become the tragic gay love story that never was but man. having steve say "it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience" in a conversation about romantic relationships right before the bucky reveal is so cruel. it's not just about steve and bucky obviously having the shared experience of being "out of time," it's the fact that they've both been stripped of their humanity in opposite directions. steve is a legend, he is an american hero and a national icon before he is a human being the same way that bucky is a weapon and a killing machine before he is a human being. steve knows that anyone who falls in love with him in the 21st century fell in love with captain america first, and that's just not him. but then the one person who knew him first and knew him best and loved him (not captain america, that little guy from brooklyn) so much he died for it is alive, impossibly. and it's a miracle because he's back and it's horrific because he's back under the worst possible circumstances. but to steve, the winter soldier is worth tearing the world apart for because he's always been bucky first. they find each other and suddenly they're human again. and maybe, despite it all, being "out of time" becomes a blessing, because in this century they'd finally be allowed to love each other the way they've always wanted to. like real people do.
like. no. the captain america trilogy isn't about two queer men traumatized and alienated by war and modern life rediscovering and reclaiming their humanity through their love for each other. but. i mean. it couldve been
Did you know that between 1939 and 1941 the NYC Tax Administration and the Works Progress Administration collaborated to take photographs of nearly every building in all 5 boroughs of New York City? And that you can see these photos today thanks to NYC Municipal archiving? This is, obviously, amazing for hundreds of reasons. For the purposes of this post, it's fantastic because this is a very real address:
And when I put that address into the photo locator map, I get this:
Going from there, we can walk around the surrounding blocks via photographs. And if we assume that Steve and Bucky's pre-war apartment was fairly close to the Barnes', then these photos from 1939 to 1941 are a historically accurate trip to their neighborhood.
So, let's explore some pre-war Brooklyn. For your fic inspiration needs, your feelings, the general Stucky vibes, or just because:
160 State Street, bigger and without the map.
(If you ever feel like making the details of a fic incredibly historically accurate, there are so many real businesses to choose from in these photos.)
Like I said, there are pictures of nearly every building. This is just a small collection of the images I grabbed from the immediate blocks around 160 State. You can walk around the neighborhood in more detail, or anywhere else in 1939-1941 New York you want on the map I used. Â
I am looking for witches (gender neutral) who would be interested in joining an online coven, hosted in a discord server.
There will be channels to discuss spell work, astrology, tarot, crystals, herbs, sigils, moon cycles, and more, as well as a general space to chit chat and get to know each other and have fun!
Edit: Witches of all ages, gender identities, styles, and experience are welcome.
The server is now up and running! Feel free to join! Itâs just getting started to bear with me, and feel free to share with your witchy friends!
A welcoming witchy coven server, open to kind hearted witches alike! | 3 members
Why Emma, thank you so much for asking. Iâm not going to waste time before jumping into this because this is gonna get long so without further ado...
Steve Rogersâ Ending and How Endgame Doesnât Support a Causality Loop
and other such rambles
Last month, I came across a TikTok that proposed that Steveâs ending made sense because it existed within a causality loop. I would link the TikTok but I didnât save it at the time and trying to find videos on that app is impossible. You think Tumblrâs search function is bad? đ But I digress. The TL;DR of the video is that due to time travel and Steve choosing to go back in time to be Peggyâs husband, it created a causality loop where he was always meant to be her husband because he went back in time and stayed there. The TikToker supported his argument by using Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PoA), another film that uses time travel and has a clearly defined example of a causality loop. However, his argument is fundamentally flawed so Iâm going to combine my knowledge of my two biggest fandoms to tell you why.
Continued under the cut because I have no chill. Beware, it's long.
To first tell you how Endgame (EG) doesnât support a causality loop, we must establish how PoA does establish one and does it successfully. The TikToker specifically mentions the scenes that take place at Hagridâs Hut surrounding Buckbeak the hippogriffâs execution, so weâll look at those first. What the film does really well is establish early on that there is something weird going on well before anyone actually goes back in time. There are three things that happen in quick succession during this scene which sets up the causality loop we see later in the film. First, a rock flies through the window and breaks a jar. Second, another rock hits Harry in the back of the head. Third, once outside, Hermione hears a branch snap and thinks she sees âsomethingâ. There are also two additional moments later on in the film once the Harry, Ron, and Hermione have come out of the Shrieking Shack which should also be noted: a wolf howl that distracts Remus Lupin in werewolf form from attacking the group and somebody casting a full-bodied stag patronus at the edge of the lake to save Harry and Sirius from the Dementors.
Of these occurrences, the first is arguably the most important because it does the most to establish that there is something going on outside of the Trioâs current understanding of their situation. The film makes a point to frame the jar breaking as Important Information the Audience Must Remember because it shows a visibly confused Hermione reacting to it as she picks up the rock for closer inspection and we the audience are given close up of it in her hand. Not only is it framed front and centre in the shot but the rock itself is very distinctive. Itâs almost wholly smooth but for a swirl of fossil, thus marking it as not just any rock but An Important Rock To Be Remembered. This was an intentional choice by director Alfonso Curon because he uses this rock to connect this moment to its mirrored scene later on once Harry and Hermione use the Time Turner.
The audience and the characters find out about the causality loop at the same time. There are clearly stated rules of time travel that say that they arenât to meddle with time but when Harry and Hermione see that Dumbledore, the Minister for Magic, and the executioner are on their way to Hagridâs hut they panic because their counterparts arenât leaving. Then, we see Hermione notice something in the pumpkin patch: a distinctive rock, smooth with a swirl of fossil. Again, we see have a close up shot with the rock centred to show its importance. Stylistically, itâs very similar to the shot we saw earlier in the film which gives the audience an emotional pay off for noticing the connection. When Hermione throws the rock and breaks the jar, it sets the causality loop in motion. The jar was always going to break because they went back in time to throw the rock that breaks it.
And itâs the same with all the other instances. Hermione throws the second rock that hits Harry in the back of the head to alert him to the fact they need to get out of the hut. Hermione snaps the branch and is almost seen by her counterpart in the past. Hermione makes the wolf call to distract Lupin from attacking. Harry, and not his father as he had assumed, casts the patronus to save himself and Sirius from the Dementors. But each of these moments are set up clearly in the âfirst run throughâ to set up their payoff when the characters realise, âOh, I did these things. They were always meant to happen.â From a narrative standpoint, these are planned out moments to clue the audience into the fact that thereâs something bigger at play. It keeps them âin the loopâ as it were.
This doesnât happen in EG.
To successfully have set up a causality loop that made sense and had the same kind of set up and pay off as we see in PoA, it would have had to have been established as early as 2014 in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CA:TWS). This does not happen. One of the main themes of CA:TWS is moving on from the past. Peggy Carter herself even says, âIâve lived my life, my only regret is that you didnât get to live yours.â Then saying soon after, âSometimes the best thing we can do is to start over.â Peggyâs character in Captain America: The First Avenger is set up as someone who acts as the backup/back bone of Steveâs own moral compass. When Steve falters at Azzano about what to about the captured 107th, Peggy is there to remind him of what is right. She serves a similar narrative function in CA:TWS. Steve is struggling with life in the present. Heâs just seen the helecarriers and argued with Nick Fury about protection vs fear after the botched Lumerian Star mission. Morally, heâs in turmoil and has turned to Peggy for council because heâs trying to find purpose in world where his rigid morality seems to have no place.
From the point of view of creating a causality loop, one would think that this scene in the hospital would be the place where an initial set-up could be made and alert the audience to the long term plan for Steveâs character. Instead, we have Peggy mourning the fact that Steve didnât get to live his life the way it should have played out, and why would a woman who has supposedly been married to another version of Steve tell him to move on? In addition, when Steve visits the Smithsonian, he watches a video where he sees Peggy talking about how he influenced her life and how during one of his missions, he saved the man that would go on to become her husband. This is the only mention of Peggyâs husband in the entire franchise until Steve reappears as an old man at the end of EG.
Captain America: Civil War (CA:CW) also offers an opportunity to set up the causality loop at Peggyâs funeral but again, this does not happen. The only family we are introduced to is Sharon Carter, Peggyâs grand-niece. When it comes to filmmaking, every choice made is intentional. From the hair and makeup to the clothes, to the music used, everything in a film means something whether it is to further character development, world-building, or the plot. Filmmakers have a limited amount of time to convey a story and anything that doesnât matter isnât shown. Therefore, we can conclude from the text of the film that Peggyâs husband doesnât matter to the narrative. The person in Peggyâs family who matters to the narrative is Sharon Carter which is why she is given prominence during CA:CWâs funeral scene. Had the causality loop been set up here, there would have been a defining moment like in PoA where the audience is clued into the larger story arc. Maybe someone says something, or he meets his older self, but that doesnât happen. It should also be noted that apart from a small scene in Ant Man, Peggy isnât mentioned again until EG.
In Endgame itself, the film still fails to set up a causality loop. It could be argued that this is the most important film for the set-up because this is when the audience gets the payoff. The first thing we see after the 5-yer time jump is Steve in a group therapy session for those that survived Thanosâ snap. Survivors share their stories and Steve talks about Peggy, a woman who has been dead in canon for 7-years and who died of old age. Itâs incongruous and sticks out because narratively it doesnât make sense for him to talk about her and not someone he watched disintegrate in front of his eyes. Steve watches his best friend and hundreds of others turn to ash around him and that film ends on his horrified face as he sits by his best friendâs ashes. Narratively, this is the thread that should carry through to EG but instead, he talks about missing his chance with Peggy. However, unlike PoA, there is no indication whether through dialogue or framing that clues the audience into Steveâs eventual ending at the end of the film.
Even when he goes back to the 70s, we see him looking mournfully at Peggy through the blinds in her office and a picture of him, pre-serum, on her desk. Steve and Peggyâs relationship prior to Endgame is supposed to represent the bittersweet loss of the life he could have had had he not sacrificed himself to the cause in CA:TFA. Then, since the audience knows from Steve and Peggyâs conversation in the hospital in CA:TWS that she moved on from Steve to live a happy life, we can assume that this picture is meant as nothing more than a fond memento of someone that meant a lot to her. Once more, there is no indication that Steve is ever meant to be her husband.
Itâs impossible to infer a causality loop here in the same way as we saw in PoA. In PoA, there is a payoff for every single unusual or weird moment the story presents the audience before and after the use of time travel but this is something thatâs completely absent from Endgameâs narrative. Steve himself doesnât even vocalise a desire to go back in time at any point in EG nor at any point during the other films he appears in. In fact, when questioned by Tony Stark about the possibility of âgoing homeâ in Avengers: Age of Ulton, he says, âThe guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out.â While it is indicative of his unhappiness in the modern-day, it does indicate a level of acceptance of the fact that this is his life and he has to make his peace with it. Heâs taken what Peggy said in CA:TWS on board. Heâs starting over and moving on.
With time travel, and Steve choosing to stay in the past came the fan theory that one of the pallbearers carrying Peggyâs casket in CA:CW is Old Man Steve, her husband. When presented with this fan theory, writer Christopher Markus said during an interview with the LA Times at SDCC 2019,
âI would very much like that. There is no set explanation for Capâs time travel . . .I mean, weâve had public disagreements with [directors Anthony and Joe Russo] about what it [time travel] necessarily means, but I love the idea of there being two Steve Rogers in the timeline. One who lived a long life with Peggy and is in the background of that funeral scene watching his young self carry his wifeâs coffin up. Not just for the time travel mumbo jumbo of it, but for the just weird, personal pain and satisfaction that would be happening between two Steve Rogers there. I kind of love it.â [emphasis mine]
This shows that unlike in PoA there was no intention of creating a causality loop prior to Markus writing EG with his writing partner Stephen McFeely. In fact, it makes clear that the actual rules of time travel were in contention and that even those making the film didnât have a unified idea of what they wanted to create in the first place. The fact that there is confusion surrounding EG's time travel is due to the fact that the people behind it, didn't seem to know what they were writing or consider the consequences of it.
What all of this shows is that an argument of a PoA style causality loop doesnât hold water. The film doesnât support it, nor do any of the previous films, because there arenât any indicators for the audience to latch onto. There is no moment of the rock breaking the jar, or the patronus chasing away the dementors, no moment where that the audience is told to hold into this information for later because thereâs some timey wimey stuff going on. Ultimately, when examined, there is no set-up for a causality loop that supports the theory he was always supposed to go back and be Peggyâs husband, particularly when examined against a film that successfully lays it out from the start.
Right, the more academic (lol) part of this post is done. I just want to address one more TikTok that bothered me because I have opinions and MCU Captain America is my Mastermind specialist subject.
The TL;DR of this one was that Steveâs ending made sense because he got out of the fight and was at peace and that that has been the ultimate goal of his character arc. This person argued that Steve used the Avengers to distract himself from the fact that heâs this man out of time and he canât find peace without a fight which to some extent, I agree with. I donât deny that that is a major driving force to his story. We see that in Age of Ultron with his WandaNightmare. I donât deny that that is key to his character. However, this creator then made a comment at the end of this video to the tune of, âbUt BuCkY iS hIs StOrY aRcâ and tried to play it off like this wasnât true or that people were wrong to think that this is the case.
These two things arenât mutually exclusive. Theyâre both true. Theyâre intertwined. But you cannot say that Bucky Barnes isnât at the heart of Steve Rogersâ story. Bucky was the catalyst for every single one of Steveâs movies. He becomes CA because of Bucky. He goes against SHIELD because of Bucky. He defies 107 countries and the Sokovia Accords because of Bucky. You take Bucky out of the equation and what do you have? What happens in those films if you take Bucky Barnes out of the equation? Viewing it objectively, and even without shipper goggles on, you simply cannot sit there and claim that Bucky Barnes isn't a defining component to Steveâs story. Steve Rogers is motivated by Bucky Barnes. Steve Rogers is motivated by the depth of their relationship and the fact that Bucky Barnes is one of the few things connecting his new present to his old life.
You can definitely see the fact that Steve is uncomfortable in the modern world. He doesnât address any of his trauma but he still attempts to move on. However, if they wanted him getting out of the fight and finding life as a civilian to be the natural end to his story arc then there was a way to do it which didnât require him going back to Peggy. It would have been a better and more satisfying ending if heâd actively chosen to retire because I often see the argument that him going back to Peggy is him finally allowing him to be selfish after shouldering so much over the past decade or more. If Steve chose to retire and put himself first, then that sends a better message. Heâs still getting the chance to âbe selfishâ but heâs not throwing the life heâs built away. At this point in EG, heâs spent a huge portion of his adult life in the modern-day. This isnât the future for him anymore, itâs the present and heâs lived a life and made real connections with people. The MCU does a piss poor job of showing the interpersonal relationships between the Avengers but he is at least shown to be friends with Sam, Nat, and Bucky.
But he goes back to a delusion. Or an idea of something that was never his in the first place.
When I see people make these videos and share their opinions, I can see their points but itâs like theyâre taking EG on its own when that's impossible. Endgame only âworksâ if you have the context of 10 yearsâ worth of films. You have to at least be somewhat familiar with the characters, who they are and what theyâve done up until now to be able to make sense of it.
However, in saying that, they wrote and filmed the movie in a way to make you think you didnât have to take into account anything youâve seen in the past ten years. If you only watch Endgame, you only see a grieving man mourning the love he never had. You see a man, regretful that he didnât get to be with woman he loved. So at the end, of course it would make sense that he goes back to her. But you can only do that if you completely divorce Endgame from its ten-year canon and in a franchise like this where they make a big deal about everything being interconnected, it simply doesnât work. Steveâs story arc in Endgame is incongruous to the narrative arc weâve been presented in previous films.
Ultimately, Endgame is a movie youâre supposed to watch once and then not think about again. Itâs made for that first viewing when everything is shocking and exciting because if you stop to think about it even a little bit, it falls apart under scrutiny.
Finally, I think that the downfall of a lot of these âSteveâs ending makes senseâ posts is that made by people who are most certainly MCU fans but not Steve Rogers fans and it shows.
oh god look i have huge thing for justâ just finger sucking. likeâ yes, i am brain dead, i need it. sooo since you want smutty prompts, i guess thatâll be my contribution? đ
Ok so this isnât really about finger sucking but it includes it? i hope thatâs ok!
Stucky smut below the cut:
Bucky's knees may be getting rug burn. He doesn't know anymore, and frankly, he couldn't care less. All he can feel is the good kind of ache in his thighs, gentle vibrations right against his prostate, and Steve's fingers pressing down on his tongue.
He is currently under Steve's desk as SHIELD. Steve's office is the one room in the whole building without cameras, and thank god for that, because whoever is manning the security footage would get an eyeful of buck-naked (ha!) Bucky kneeling under Captain Rogers' desk between his legs at 2:30 in the afternoon with a vibrating butt plug, his arms tied at the wrist behind his back, and Steve's fingers stuffing his mouth full so he doesn't give them away with his lewd whines.
He doesn't know how long he's been there. Hours? Days? He can no longer open his eyes, his eyelids too heavy with pleasure. The vibrations are at too low a setting for him to get off, so all it's doing is slowly drive him nuts, sending sparks up his spine and into his brain.
He can't even remember why he's here, and how on Earth Steve managed to convince him to do this. He probably used his puppy dog eyes, and said some shit like Itâll be fun Buck, câmon. The bastard. Even after 70 years Bucky is still not immune to him.
Steve, the bastard in question, is currently in a video conference with someone important. Probably the president, but who the fuck cares at this point? When Bucky's whines and moans of desperate pleasure had become too loud, Steve had grabbed his jaw and shoved two of his fingers in for Bucky to suck on. He had done all this without looking away from the video conference, making Bucky feel like a fuck toy, who's only purpose is to be wet and ready for Steve when he--
Fuck. Without Bucky noticing, Steve had gotten the remote to the plug and had turned up the setting. Bucky's eyes roll back in his head, his knees spread, and his back arches as he chokes on his breath. Holy shit. He might actually come from this. He didnât think it was possible, but somehow this is really working for him. Not that heâd ever tell Steve that.
Feeling Bucky move, Steve presses down harder on his tongue with the pads of his fingers, conveying without saying anything the consequences there would be if Bucky gets too loud.
Frantically, Bucky sucks on Steveâs fingers, running his tongue between them and along the callouses, almost sobbing with how good he feels. He starts trembling, shaking like a leaf. He canât focus on anything else anymore, just the pleasure emanating up his spine, liquefying his brain. He keeps mindlessly sucking on Steveâs big fingers as the tension in his groin and muscles gets higher and higherâ he arches his backâ
The tension breaks, and sobbing around Steveâs fingers, Bucky melts. His brain is dribbling out of his ears, he thinks heâs drooling, but he couldnât give a damn. He canât care remember a time when he ever felt this good.
Slowly, his brain gets online again, and he realizes that at some point Steve turned off the vibrations and pushed back his chair to look at Bucky, to watch him come undone.
âDonââ Donâ you have a conference?â Bucky slurred when Steve removed his fingers, his head lolling on his shoulders.
âBaby, itâs been over,â Steve said. âI knew when I turned up the plug you couldnât keep quiet, so I waited until it was over.â
âOh.â
âCâmere, lemme untie you.â
Bucky shuffled forward on his knees, groaning as they creaked in protest. When he got to Steve, he collapsed on his leg.
âThat was good, Stevie,â he mumbled.
âYeah?â
âYeah. Real good.â
Steve chuckled as he untied Buckyâs wrists, pulled them around to him, and massaged his arms.
itâs been a year since i drew my first stevebucky and to celebrate (?) that i want to share this with you sdasd they mustâve tested the trigger words somehow right?Â
btw this isnât new art, itâs from my healing zine but i had never shared it here
vaporwave
2087
stormborns
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
germansingergirl
romaincrisis
