I’m sorry the more I think about this the more it genuinely pisses me off.//
Honestly, this is what was always going to happen. Yall have been dramatic for absolutely nothing. This is what marvel does. They don't care as much as y'all do. Let's remember everybody was fighting against everybody in civil war and then they were working together in iw/eg🙄🤷🏽♀️. This is their thing, the same story over and over again. And years after the movie is done, you'll be like those team tony/team Steve stans who can't let go of a fucking movie that was just made for entertainment, not to be a thinker piece.
Honestly I was thinking about deleting this ask all together, but I’m beginning to worry that people have lost the ability to understand the bridge between art, media, and real life. Especially with the growing apathy and desensitization of violence towards minorities. Most of this rant won’t be directed solely at you, anon, but you’ve given me the floor so I’m going to take it. Just know that I understand why you feel the way that you do about marvel.
I’m an optimist, but that doesn’t make me naive. Growing up Afro-Latina in the south taught me my fair share of what the world is. Some people get fed up with fighting, I see it everyday, and I understand how life beats people down into becoming numb and accepting that this is just how the world is. I know you can’t trust people in power to do the right thing, I know marvel will always follow the money first instead of good story telling. But I don’t think that means we are “being dramatic for nothing.”
There’s a reason I gravitate so heavily towards Sam Wilson. He reflects everything I’ve ever seen on myself, my view of the world, and a hope for a better tomorrow. And why wouldn’t you try your hardest to hope things can get better?
Passion is a big thing that fuels me. And that’s not something to be ashamed of. If you are passionate about something, shouldn’t you want it to get better, shouldn’t you demand more? Why not use your voice to expect more from corporations or media pieces that you enjoy?
When we become silent, when we simply shrug it off, we end up unconsciously co-signing that poor behavior and allowing it to continue. And this can apply to anything, not just media consumption but real life movements too.
So why can’t both things be true? Why do you assume I can’t know how marvel operates while also demanding more out of them? I don’t think anyone can afford to be silent anymore when bigotry is on the rise and being far too normalized.
I am so heavy on my defense for Sam Wilson and my dislike of thunderbolts because it mirrors so much of what we see in the real world. The arts often reflect life and can feed into biases of our own perception of reality. When the art is more comfortable appeasing white audiences and allowing for dude bro fans to continue spewing “finally no more DEI”, that then does not become just a marvel issue. It simply validates the feelings of bigoted assholes who hold these racist ideals.
To conflate this to just being another Steve/tony thing, completely disregards the very real undertones of race that play into the current dilemma we find ourselves in. It’s not just a dispute between 2 characters, it becomes a broader issue that permits the racism in this fandom to show itself front and center because they believe they finally have a valid reason to hate a black character who they have waited years to discredit. When slurs are hurled at you left and right for calling out the BS for what it is; It. Is. No. Longer. Just. A. Marvel. Issue.
I guarantee you, the people who are so comfortable being openly racist online because it gives them a sense of anonymity, hold those same racist beliefs IRL. They just might be more subtle about it. But given the state of the world rn and our rapid slow fall into facism, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were comfortable being just as racist in person.
This is how we loose the arts, thinking that it’s impact on culture doesn’t matter and therefore we shouldn’t care. Or thinking that just because things have always been this way, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight for things to change. And right now we can’t afford to think that way.
there is a reason why they give john a black wife.
JD Vance has a Indian wife? And yet...
there is a reson why they put so much focus on his relationship with lemar.
Because "I can't be racist. I have a Black friend." is an age old line recited by every racist who isn't just throwing slurs around.
there is a reason why they portray john as incredibly willing to work with sam.
Because being the entitled white man he is, he expects Sam to fall into line and work FOR him. "It'd help if I had Cap's wingmen beside me."
A sidekick to make him look better by surrounding himself with everything Steve had, including his friends. But people are not possessions.
Seriously that whole post is a goddamn mess. "Sophisticated narrative choice" and yet you come away with the wrong interpretation and every single step. Maybe you do need it spelled out for you.
Okay, I have a question, and don’t fight me ‘cause I know how you girls like to tussle, but what in the actual fuck are the “New Avengers” doing? Yelena was right there in her dirty bathwater looking gross, practically getting a blow by blow of the situation from Peter, so why didn’t she towel off and go do something about it? Ain’t she the leader of the so-called New Avengers? That’s what y’all always say. And you’re always suggesting that she and Sam be co-leaders of a merged team, a disgusting and frankly disrespectful thought, but it’s y’all’s favorite headcanon for her drunk ass, so… again, why can’t she do her job and start kicking ass? She. Was. Right. There. I know the Thunderbolts probably hate to take any time away from their busy schedule of being government shills who likely routinely do more long term harm than good, but since, again, she was a stone’s throw away from the action, it seems like Yelena could’ve helped.
Or, who knows, maybe she couldn’t. I mean, for all we know Val, her benefactor and boss, might be in league with the Department of Damage Control - it certainly seems right up her alley anyway, what with all the evil and corrupt shit going on. And lord knows the Tbolts will happily be allies with terrible people doing terrible things, hence their boss and the literal team lineup, so… Like I said, maybe she couldn’t get off her but and actually join the fight, and simply didn’t want to.
By the way, I’m sure Sam was otherwise occupied. With what, we’ll probably never know because Disney/Marvel loves to sideline the character and give cameos and shoutouts that should rightfully be his to whoever their favorite white character is at the moment. However, since everything we’ve seen in canon indicates he hasn’t had a day off since the Blip, and clearly didn’t have any off before that, it’s probably safe to wager that he was busy somewhere else saving somebody else.
Honestly the petty side of me loved how incompetent as a hero and leader the movie made her look.
Yelena only caring about “big potatoes” (god that’s already gotten so cringe so fast) goes to show how little the so called new avengers care about saving lives. Yelena doesn’t fall far from her father’s tree of wanting the glory and fame it seems. They want to be seen handling the big world ending stuff but can’t be bothered with smaller events because it’s apparently beneath them.
And this is some of yalls top dog? Your favorite “hero”? Yeah ok don’t make me laugh.
I want someone at Marvel to explain why Daredevil Born Again gets (at least) three seasons despite being inferior in every way to the original series, and struggling in viewership every season.
And yet Wonder Man gets nominated for Emmys and that gets cancelled and no second season.
Anyway, I was just on ao3, and given the current state of affairs there, and in every other corner of the fandom tbh, I really think every genuine Sam fan who writes fics should start resharing their work. I’m so serious. There are Sam friendly fics written by authors who actually like the character. Just because they aren’t on the first page of whatever Sam related tag the reader is scrolling, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And, while we definitely need more, until we have them, people should just start resharing their old Sam friendly works again. Lord knows his tag and his ship tags could use them.
i really really really fucking hate it when y’all brush over the fact that steve left sam too, he didn’t just leave him with that incredible responsibility, but he left his friend, arguably (and it’s not arguably, that’s me being diplomatic) his closest friend since he was unfrozen, that has accompanied him through life threatening fights and wars and even had him thrown in an underwater black site prison
and he just left him
the man was legally dead for five years and you brought him back and you left him, AND you gave him a job, he didn’t even get a warning or a proper goodbye, bucky got something, at least according to the $2 russo brothers who MADE THE MOVIE yet they don’t know exactly what was said but something transpired between steve and bucky before steve went to return the stones and he told him he’d miss him
bucky got a goodbye, sam got a job and lost a friend
