âeven amidst the hatred and carnage, life is still worth living. it is possible for wonderful encounters and beautiful things to existâ â hayao miyazaki
Additional Tags: Grief/Mourning, Alternate Ending, Loss, Minor Isana Yashiro | Adolf K. Weismann/Yatogami Kurou, Reverse ending, the opposite of a fix-it fic
this is one of those fics that changes you. i seriously cannot recommend this enough, and iâm astounded by the fact that this doesnât have more hits and kudos because my god, it really did alter my brain chemistry.
itâs such a gorgeous, heartbreaking, and real portrayal of grief, and it is so deeply romantic. the understanding the author has of steve and sam is just so incredible, such a love letter to their characters, and iâm really gonna be thinking about this forever. please do yourself a favour and read this.
I've been out of the fandom loop lately, got kind of overwhelmed by everything, but then I log on and this almost made me cry. Thank you so much for your incredibly kind words about my story. I wish I could be more eloquent but, this means much more than you know.
With the rampant racism going on in the Sam and Sambucky tags on a daily basis, I thought Iâd put together a list of resources that people can tap into when writing Sam. Because idk if maybe y'all don't know any better but it's it getting so exhausting seeing your favorite character constantly mistreated or seeing hate crimes in his tag all day.
And listen as a white person myself, I HIGHLY recommend that you go through the stereotypes and tropes carefully and with a mindset of learning. I also highly recommend that if you get offended, defensive, or irritated about anything you read here, you inspect that. And if your first reaction is to double down and argue, inspect that too.
Addressing our biases is uncomfortable but not as uncomfortable as some of you have made people in this fandom with the way you treat Black characters and fans.
Do better.
Stereotypes & Tropes
The link in the heading above is a guide to quite a few harmful stereotypes and tropes to be mindful of when writing characters of color by writingwithcolor. I highly recommend you read through their content.
Below is a list of things we see most often in the Sam and Sambucky tags as well as links from sources talking about similar situations in other spaces:
Infantilization of white characters (At PoCâs expense): Bucky being framed as a helpless child who can't think for himself and that always being Sam's problem.
Black Man, Protecting his Traumatized White Wife: Sam always comforting and being concerned about Bucky when the comfort and care is never reciprocal, and when 'caretaker' Sam's only role/purpose in the story.
Writing a Comedic Black Character: Sam being over-the-top funny and saying things that are wildly out of character. Those incorrect quotes that frame him as joking but he's really mean and hateful, sometimes even violent, toward Bucky? Yeah.
Sam being sexually aggressive: why do people insist that Sam is the top in the relationship? That he's a dom, that he's rough in bed. There's absolutely nothing wrong with top!sam, but insisting that he's no-doubt aggressive and dominant in bed? Nah. Same goes for hyper sexualization.
Size Difference: Describing or drawing Sam as bigger or taller than his white partner when canon clearly depicts otherwise.
Villainizing Black Characters/Actors: Sam is always wrong, Sam is unfair, Sam is a bully, Sam is violent. Mackie is a misogynist. Mackie is homophobic etc.
Writingwithcolor also has this search engine that finds anything on their blog.
Resources for writing Sam as a well rounded character:
A lot of the time Sam is written without any depth or nuance. In many fics, he only exists to prop the white dude up. Very rarely is he written as the caring, badass, heartthrob that he really is. Be mindful of Sam's role in your story, is he always chasing Bucky's affection, are you using Sam as a reader insert to lust after Bucky? Do you diminish/ignore Sam's skills and knowledge to make the white dude look good/smart? Do you consider his trauma and mental struggles as well when you write about Bucky's and how Bucky leans on him for support? Remember Sam's POV does not equal a Sam-centric story.
Below are a bunch of links on how cool Sam really is to help you shape his character in your stories:
From the 2019 samwilsonbirthdaybang:
MCU Wiki (link updated by me since Sam is now Cap)
Marvel Wiki
A folder full of Sam meta
Complete Badass (reblog)
NCO (non-commissioned officer) and why
Sam Wilson Meta: A Timeline
Sam Wilson's USAF Rank
Sam Wilson is a US Special Forces Pararescueman, and a PTSD counselor.Â
Sam's role at the VA was a peer counselor, not a therapist. here's the difference.
A compilation of Sam Wilsonâs personality traits
Sam's PTSD
Sam's age & Riley's death
More badass Sam Wilson
Resources for drawing/coloring Sam:
Here's a hint: he's not beige or grey. Too often do we see art of someone who is supposed to be Sam but he's one shade darker than the white dude. These posts go into detail with some great advise:
Creating Black Characters
Whitewashing & Colorism
Coloring gifs of poc
Y'all can't draw or color Black ppl to save your lives.
Color picking
Color theory & darker skin
Some examples of whitewashing skin tone: this, this, this, this and this. Loads more examples on whyaretheywhite!
Here's a visual:
see where this dude's skin tone is on the color picker:
compared to Mackie's skin tone?:
Look at the difference between those two shades! Remember whitewashing doesn't only refer to the lightening of skin, it also includes drawing Black characters with European facial features, and not incorporating the appropriate hair texture etc.
Additional resources & reading:
How to write fic for Black characters: a guide for non-Black fans
Colourblindness
White Authors and Topics to Avoid/Tread Carefully
Physical Descriptions:
Dark skin reactions to cold weather
Skin color changes due to health
Describing skin tone
Skin tone & food comparisons: it's weird. stop it.
Dehumanizinig Sam
Antiblackness in it's many forms
It's not preference, it's racism.
Antiblackness: Even more examples
It's not shipwars, surprise, it's also racism.
More Stereotypes
Interracial Relationships
For now that's it. I might add useful articles I come across to this post as time goes on. Please also add your own resources but fuckery will be blocked.
These resources are by no means exhaustive, they are just what i have used as references throughout the years. You will do yourself (and a multitude of Sam fans) a massive favor by being introspective about your role in this fandom and how it affects Black fans and other fans of Sam Wilson. Go and read the rest of the articles/posts on these blogs and apply the context to the Sam and Sambucky fandoms, the similarities are stark.
xoxo, a tired Sam fan who just wants to see him loved and respected.
âSamâs trying to restore order from chaos. And he is a good person but I think he sees issues as too straight forwards sometimes and is a little âby the bookâ
Seriously, what the hell do yâall even be talking about?
When has MCU Sam ever come off as âby the bookâ?
The first time we meet him he ends up harboring a couple of fugitives, stealing his wings from the government, and helping those 2 fugitives I just mentioned defeat Hydra.
The next time we see him heâs taking a brief break from secretly searching for a wanted man. By the way, heâs doing this so he can help him, not turn him in.
His third appearance is him quite literally going against the book by being the first person to vocalize their disagreement with the Accords.
Then heâs on the run for a long time, working in the shadows. And why is he doing that? Because, again, heâd literally just gone against the book and defied the government, and now heâs a fugitive.
I could go on, but⊠why should I have too?
Listen, yâall just have to start thinking before you hit post on this stuff. So many of you are saying so many things that simply arenât true and donât make sense, just to support your baseless points and itâs getting old.
This exactly! I stg these people mustâve watched everything, but especially Brave New World, with their eyes closed and their hands over their ears. Itâs actually amazing how incorrect they are about every single thing in the MCU, but especially anything having to do with Sam Wilson.
âThese people mustâve watched everything, but especially Brave New World, with their eyes closed and hands over their earsâ is the BEST way to put it cuz did we watch the same movies ffs? I can understand not being a Sam fan (actually not really) but did yâall pay attention to the movies at all? Even a little bit?
Reminder that it was Sam Wilson's voice, not anyone else's but Sam's, that was the first signal of hope to Steve Rogers that it wasn't over, they hadn't failed and he wasn't on his own just when he had accepted his fate and was ready to go down fighting against Thanos and his army alone. The range of emotions on Steve's face as he sees Sam flying in like the beautiful angel that he is. The way he can't stop looking at Sam in that last gif. I love them.
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