I’m bored and feeling extra salty and nostalgic after watching Captain America: Winter Solider, so I’m gonna need to vent really quick.
So you’re telling me…after all this..
And the obvious—nearly tangible sexual tension. Intense stares and both of them initiating unnecessary physical contact just to touch each other.
Constantly emotionally confiding in each other before anyone else. No matter how bad the situation was.
Multiple kisses and clear flirting from Nat and heart eyes from Steve. Body language!
Steve putting himself in harms way to protect Nat on multiple occasions throughout the mcu.
The literally tens of times they silently communicate. Showing how connected they truly are.
Literally being attached at the hip in every appearance. Constant foreshadowing and coupling symbolism.
That Marvel still.. STILL didn’t make them official? STILL?! What more do you need—alright i’m gonna just go in.
Peggy literally said to Steve in WS “all we can do is our best; and sometimes that best we can do is start over.” This was clearly meant to refer to Natasha and Steve moving on and living his life. It’s as clear as day that this is what that scene was meant to foreshadow and allude to. Acceptance, healing and overall growth.
Peggy said “my only regret is that you didn’t get to live yours {his life}.” Peggy didn’t want Steve moping around and hung up on something that happened almost a century ago. She loved him, and it was very clear that she was giving him permission to move on and grow. Plus she already had a husband and kids over the course of her life.
Peggy said “start over” “none of us can go back”. The Russo’s put these lines in the film and still decided to make Steve go backwards in his arc and be with Peggy. He went backwards. This not only anticlimactic but also not healthy. The next course of events for Steve’s arc should’ve been to accept what happened, heal and find his freedom by moving forward with Nat. Not constantly obsessing over a compass and being blind to the love right next to him because of it.
It baffles me how Marvel/The Russo’s had Steve giving Nat heart eyes one minute then ignoring her the next because of a compass. I get it he’s a man out of time, I get that he misses Peggy and has this yearning inside him. But this should’ve been resolved after Peggy’s death in CW.
Now you not only have Steve obsessing over a woman from almost a century ago. But now a dead woman from almost a century ago. While being blind to the partner that fate has brought him in Natasha Romanoff.
Poor and lazy writing. It’s painting Steve as this obsessive creep with no emotional coping tactics so for over a decade he fawns over the picture of a woman that he last 70 years ago. Rather than making an effort to move on like any other normal person.
Marvel failed to give Steve any real emotional depth. The only internal struggle they tried to give him was looking at that compass every once and a while. They never even introduced the idea of healing from his loss and accepting his circumstances in the future with his new family. It was always ‘Bucky this, Peggy that, 1940′s, old man jokes’. When realistically Steve and Natasha alike would be dealing with some serious emotional issues. His heartbreak and yearning for a time long past. Her childhood trauma and trust issues. Issues that we occasionally saw them confide in each other for before any one else. They clearly had a strong foundation of trust in their relationship. Which is saying something especially on Nat’s end.
Everything, everything had been lined up BY MARVEL THEMSELVES for Steve and Nat to be the next Pepper and Tony. But the never executed when everything was perfectly set for them.
The foreshadowing with Steve and Nat is so prominent throughout the entire mcu. On the scale of obvious and subtle. And we know that marvel does everything on purpose. And yet they tripped at the finish line and never sealed the deal on the couple that should’ve been.
Steve and Natasha should have been together period. There are no if’s and’s or but’s. It was foreshadowed through the entire mcu. Purposely BY MARVEL. They were soulmates, two sides of the same coin, they balanced each other. Steve and Nat had one of the strongest and best relationships in the entire mcu. Even going back to their first meeting. There’s always been a spark. They’ve always had this unspoken thing.
Even silent exchanges between the two. Going back to avengers 1 Steve and Natasha immediately clicked upon meeting while the others were trying to murder each other. When they walked on the deck of the helicarrier together. When Steve launched Nat into the air mid-battle and she caught onto the chituari ship. And Steve had that ‘what a woman’ look as he looked at her in awe. This was their FIRST MOVIE and their future relationship and chemistry was already put into place.
Put into place by the same man who later decided to come out of left field with that Black Widow-Hulk storyline. Like, what?!
Steve was the only person for Natasha and Natasha was the only person for Steve. All of Marvel other attempts at giving them romance outside of each other was terribly forced and not fleshed out enough to be believable.
Steve and Sharon was forced and made zero sense. That kiss in CW was poorly timed and not built up to at all. It was just like “hey you’re here let’s kiss cause why not?”
It 👏🏾made 👏🏾no 👏🏾sense! Especially considering all the tension, mutual trust and foreshadowing that the Russo’s have consciously and purposely wrote into Steve and Nat’s relationship.
Steve and Sharon had only about ten minutes of screen time together across WS and CW and now suddenly they’re kissing? They smiled at each other once. They had no chemistry. I swear the Russo’s just wrote that in cause it was convenient. How did that make sense or progress the story or their arcs at all? It was so random. Not to mention the fact that since the Russo’s wanted to put Steve with Peggy (after foreshadowing Romanogers in all their films); Sharon is technically his great-niece. They knew this and still forced the kiss and forced a way to put Steve with Peggy instead of with Nat. Why?
Nat and Bruce was beyond forced, out of the blue and made even less sense. Where did Bru*eNat even come from? Especially coming off of WS. They never even tried to explain where this random Widow-Hulk storyline came from. So Nat just randomly has no memory of all of the things her and Steve went through together? The kiss, the flirting, having each other’s back, the sexual tension? Her and Steve just randomly forgot about that?
They bedroom scene with Bruce and Nat in AoU is almost cringeworthy cause the whole time I’m thinkin ‘when tf did this happen?” Seriously when, how, why? Bruce and Natasha are not and should’ve been a thing. Their interactions have never even been slightly romantic. No all of the sudden Nat’ s all over him after being lowkey scarred by the incident with the Hulk in A1.
And Steve is too busy staring at a compass and Nat has this random romance with Bruce after like three completely bland scenes together in avengers 1. Joss Whedon clearly didn’t know how to handle female characters (that said he didn’t even handle Cap well) and he just wanted to fit in the actually pretty sexist ‘pretty lady and a monster’ trope. Hence he forced it into the narrative of AoU. When it made no sense whatsoever and came completely out of left-field.
Steve and Sharon should’ve never kissed and Bru*eNat should’ve never been even insinuated to be a thing. That’s not even just my opinion, that is just common sense and basic understanding. Honestly I could probably bring up hundreds of points about why romanogers should’ve been made official. I could write an entire encyclopedia.
Nat came to comfort Steve after Peggy died. Steve called to see if Nat was okay after the UN was attacked. Nat betrayed Team Iron Man because of Steve. Not because she disagreed with the accords, but because she felt loyal to Steve Rogers as a person and as a partner.
Especially by IW they should’ve already been a thing. You’re telling me that these two breathtakingly gorgeous people never even thought of going down on each other? Especially after CW when they were on the run together for TWO YEARS? What are they robots too now? Sexuality and emotion were completely left out in regards to Steve and Nat and each other. Like hello, they should’ve at least kissed in the bedroom scene in WS. That scene legit felt like the beginning of a porno and nothing. The Russo’s had to intentionally write these scenes this way.
But why? Just to not go through with the reoccurring theme that you’ve been keeping up for six years. Endgame was their last chance; and they flopped.
So after Steve shed one single tear after Nat died in Endgame; he’s suddenly okay now and goes to marry the woman that he kissed once 70 years ago? Get tf out of here with that mess? What? No grief, no mourning. He knew Nat for 12 years and he moves on in a few hours. But he kisses Peggy once and he’s still obsessed with her almost a century later? Really, really marvel?
Marvel completely and utterly failed Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and shippers of the two. And in regards to their failure surrounding the canonizing of romanogers, they failed as storytellers.