I rlly like what they've done this episode and imo it's the best possible way they could've taken things post endgame. HOWEVER the problem to me will always be that steve's incomprehensible ooc ending has left everything after off kilter in a way that can't be put right without rewriting endgame. the way they've written bucky's feelings is well done and sam getting the shield is great but steve's gaping absence is undeniable. If he had died it would be like,,, a justifiable sense of offness? Like of course everything is weird if their friend was suddenly torn away from them but that isn't what happened the mf CHOSE to leave and apparently told them abt it beforehand. It's just unfixably wrong.
itās really messed up to want your favorite character to have died but it would have made so much more sense? imo tony stark was the wrong character to kill off. he was already retired, and it would have been very easy to write around him. there was no major marvel project about his friends coming out. there was no reason a billionaire with a wife and kids and a business he can run from home would feel the obligation to continue being a superhero
steve on the other hand, pre endgame steve would never stop fighting as long as his body could allow it. even in the comics, when his body is aged to 90, he continues to fight. Iām not saying steve didnāt deserve a happy ending. because he did. but in my opinion nomad/fugitive steve was a content character. he had sam and nat by his side, he had bucky healing in wakanda. he had a family and a place in the 21st century that he had forged for himself. and he was fighting for what he believed in, not what the government told him he should believe in.
so I can see how this posed a problem, bc you want a show without steve focused on steveās friends and learning to navigate the world without him. sending him back in time to an alt timeline was probably the worst possible choice. killing him (as emotional and sad as it would have been) would have forced this narrative without tainting/ruining his character and the relationships the character had. sam, being forced to navigate becoming cap alone. bucky, his anchor ripped away and finally experiencing what steve had already been thru twiceāthe death of his best friend.
how could they have done this? itās very easy to imagine. steve hears samās voice in his ear. the battle ensues. but steve realizes the only way to end it is the gauntlet, and he knows itās a suicide mission, but it wouldnāt be the first time. he jumps on the grenade and puts on the gauntlet. bucky rushes to his side. they both know he is dying. they exchange the same lines as what endgame actually gave us
steve: donāt do anything stupid while Iām gone
bucky, crying: how can I? youāre taking all the stupid with you
bucky: Iām going to miss you
steve, light slowly fading from his eyes: itās going to be ok, buck....
(for all the st*ggy fans the fade out could have been steve dancing with peggy with fuzzy lighting, figuratively reunited)
how does sam become cap? WELL GET THIS!!! steve absolutely broken over the loss of his friends took to writing letters to them, and in one of them to sam, he writes how he always thought sam would be the best man for the job, and if he ever got the chance heād pass the shield to him in a heart beat, and he regrets not doing it before it was too late
the beauty of it is that the show could have functioned almost exactly the same, just instead of having to remember the No Good Awful Thing steve did, theyād be genuinely mourning and learning to come to terms with his passing
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