Why do you ship BruceNat? Not at all hate, I'm just very curious. What's makes the ship work for you? Pros? Cons?
Hi, Anon! I don’t mind the question at all! If you’re just getting into the ship (welcome!), I have an insane amount of brucenat meta all collected here on ao3. It’s…a lot. This long meta in particular sums up the potential I see in the couple: brucenat + hearts of darkness.
Essentially, what makes the ship work for me is that these are two characters on a similar story journey. Both of them (besides being major, unrepentant dorks) are heroic, tragic figures. Their arcs can be boiled down to redemption from past deeds and a synthesizing of the dark and light parts of themselves. These are lethal, fearful people who just want to do good.
I started lowkey shipping them in Avengers because I really, really liked their tension. They quickly saw into the heart of each other— the good, the bad, and the ugly. By coming to terms with each other, they recognize their own place on the team. The Avengers “could use a little worse.” Bruce’s rage. Natasha’s manipulations. The parts of themselves they hate the most applied to saving the human race.
AoU has its faults, but there is a lot to love in terms of the exploration of Bruce and Natasha as a unit. I like that the narrative lets them be sweet and hesitant, while also taking them to some very dark places—Johannesburg and the Red Room. I’m a fan of angst, so the way they part works for me on a lot of levels.
Infinity War gives us only a glimpse into what might come of their relationship, but it’s clear to me that they’re both in great places to start (finish?) something. Bruce is rejuvenated, in a sense, and committed to “go be a hero.” Natasha is part of a found family, she’s confidently “not alone.” We’ve been promised a “showdown” between Bruce and the Hulk. We’ve been promised more screentime for Natasha. So I’m very excited to see what comes of it next year!
I’m posting an extended meta on the good, the bad, and the ugly of Bruce/Natasha in bite-sized pieces. Discussion welcome!
pt. 1: Hearts of Darkness & Threats / Honesty
Flaws / Compassion
The affect of the Mind Stone is something that the brucenat haters love to cast away in their quest to vilify the ship. But The Avengers and, later, The Age of Ultron makes it very clear that the Mind Stone is one hellaluvah paranoia machine. All the worse because it works on all the bad stuff that’s already there.
As described earlier, Natasha and Bruce have been able to play nice on the Helicarrier — but they’re showing signs of strain.
Natasha is on task as ever, getting information out of Loki — but she confronts him earlier than the movie implies Nick Fury ordered. She’s up against her toughest advesary and highest stakes yet, a trickster god who has her best friend under his thumb. Yes, she completed the mission. But she doesn’t follow orders to the letter, she has to get personal to get the mission done. This isn’t Natasha-as-usual.
Bruce is bristling over Tony’s ‘poke the bear’ approach to friendship and the lies that he knew SHIELD was hiding. They, like the General, don’t want heroes. They want weapons. But, at the same time, he likes being in the lab with Tony. He misses teamwork. He’s at odds with himself.
When Natasha comes in to confront Bruce, it’s with the intention of getting him away from the Scepter but her attempt at professionalism quickly devolves when Bruce starts in with the sarcasm. The Mind Stone has already gotten to them. Natasha is effected, but she’s better able to withstand it because her mind is made of marble, slippery but still strong where there are cracks. Bruce bares the brunt of it. His mind is a river, two streams that flood and recede.
[Even my short parts are too long...more under the cut.]
All bit-back righteous fury, Bruce asks her if she knew — an echo of “And Fury tells you everything?” A passing glance in Kolkata is now a bite to the jugular. She isn’t that naive; but she isn’t happy, either. They’re all on threat watch.
But even as they go at each other, there’s compassion, too. When Bruce tells the team about his failed attempt at suicide, Natasha puts her hand on her gun and takes every square inch of him in. He’s telling the group, but he’s telling her most of all. She’s scared, but even when he reaches for the scepter — just like Loki’s plan — she doesn’t go on the offensive, she doesn’t run. She lets him get a hold of himself. When the moment passes and he ducks away from her, she sticks close. Her fear is not bigger than her mission and will never be.
That’s what’s so fascinating about Natasha. Her whole life has been about survival — she graduated from Red Room at the expense of others and herself; she made a name for herself before she worked for SHIELD. She’ll purge and sacrifice herself, whatever it takes to survive (to an extent that gets shorter as she becomes more heroic), because that’s how she was raised. She’ll make calculated risks on her life, but (because) the thought of losing it (to The Hulk, to the Winter Soldier) terrifies her. But, even so, she’s loyal to the mission.
Bruce doesn’t have a mission; he has an ideal — science should improve lives — that gets more/less ambitions the better/worse he feels about himself. Bruce is a survivalist against his will. The suicide reveal is absolutely pivotal to his character. Bruce won’t let his monster get control of him. He doesn’t see an end so he tries to end himself. He’d rather take his own life than take others’ lives. He values life, because all he wanted as a child was for his mother to stop hurting. He’ll take a calculated risk and use the monster (starting in TIH), but he’s able to do that because he’s constantly sacrificing pieces of himself for the sake of control.
They’re faced with these horrors in themselves at a moment of truth. After the confrontation literally explodes in their faces (moments before Bruce saves the day by finding Loki; not that anyone but Natasha has time notice), Bruce and Natasha are separated from the team. Whatever the haters like to say, the Bruce/Natasha dynamic is just as present as Steve/Tony — antagonists who learn to work together as a team. While Steve/Tony are learning to work together on an engine, Bruce/Natasha are working out their issues in a much more visceral way.
Bruce is about to change, and Natasha is trapped. Natasha (after waving away help, because she does value other people’s lives and because she knows they’d be no use) uses the only weapon she has at her disposal. She tries to talk Bruce down:
Natasha: I swear on my life, I will get you out of here. You’ll walk away and never —
Bruce: Your life?!
Bruce’s response is essentially, ‘Why should I care about your life?’ or ‘What does a monster care about life?’ That stops her.
Does Natasha mean what she says? She probably doesn’t realize it when it comes out of her mouth — but all of a sudden she’s not lying to save herself. She is sorry she dragged him into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. She watches him change, sees the pain of it. How hard he’s fighting it, even though he’s right. He shouldn’t care. But he does, and she does.
There’s so much compassion and agony between them when Bruce looks over the moment before he loses his mind and himself. “Bruce,” she says, because she sees the person inside the monster. But Bruce is puny and the Mind Stone is infinite, and so the monster wins.
There’s definitely a monster-movie approach to the rest of the scene. We need to feel that the Hulk is scary to buy the premise that adorable Bruce is a potential liability. And we need to see how the team’s least powered member (barring zombie Clint) can stack up against the team’s most powered member. She obviously can’t beat him (even Thor can’t) but she holds her own admirably.
The other thing the rest of the scene does is show us that the Hulk is not an intentional killer. He attacks when provoked, but the Other Guy still hesitates before the killing blow. Natasha, as observant as she is, would never miss a thing like that.
when his hair falls in his face ... color coded speak ... I’m such a fool for sacrifice ... I’m unforgiven ... I found a martyr/he told me that I’d never/with his educated eyes/and his head between my eyes ...’cause he’s off paying for his crimes/and he’s got no time for mine ... every night I pray the sun will rise ...
AH!
Full lyrics under the cut.
"Coming Down"
I found God
I found him in a lover
When his hair falls in his face
And his hands so cold they shake
I found the Devil
I found him in a lover
And his lips like tangerines
And his color coded speak
Now we're lost somewhere in outer space
In a hotel room where demons play
They run around beneath our feet
We roll around beneath these sheets
I've got a lover
A love like religion
I'm such a fool for sacrifice
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
I've got a lover
And I'm unforgiven
I'm such a fool to pay this price
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
I found a martyr
He told me that I'd never
With his educated eyes
And his head between my thighs
I found a savior
I don't think he remembers
'Cause he's off to pay his crimes
And he's got no time for mine
Now we're lost somewhere in outer space
In a hotel room where demons play
They run around beneath our feet
We roll around beneath these sheets
I've got a lover
A love like religion
I'm such a fool for sacrifice
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
I've got a lover
And I'm unforgiven
I'm such a fool to pay this price
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
Every single night pray the sun'll rise
Every single time make a compromise
Every single night pray the sun'll rise, but
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
I've got a lover
A love like religion
I'm such a fool for sacrifice
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
I've got a lover
And I'm unforgiven
I'm such a fool to pay this price
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
Every single night pray the sun'll rise
Every single time make a compromise
Every single night pray the sun'll rise, but
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
It's coming down, down, coming down
