marvel:

tchailla:

marvel:

alright, hang on a fucking minute.

if bucky were a woman in the mcu, y’all would be so angry. why?

because bucky barnes, as he exists currently, is used mainly a plot device for steve rogers in the mcu.

look, i love bucky, so this isn’t coming from a place of hatred (if anything, it’s disappointment that we don’t have a bucky who’s more fleshed out and less dependent upon steve); his character is cool, but as of recent, his personal character development has been set aside for steve’s character development and Angst. 

now, back to the whole “if bucky were a different gender you’d hate him” thing i mentioned earlier:

if bucky were a woman, we’d hate the absolute reliance he has on steve. bucky relies on steve to protect him, fight for him, and clear his name (as evidenced in civil war). bucky isn’t independent, and doesn’t operate separately from steve for any meaningful amount of time. 

bucky barnes is an interesting, captivating character, but less so in his mcu counterpart currently. (marvel feel free to take this as a challenge)

bucky barnes has been through hell, arguably worse than steve has. he’s had his brain stuck in a blender and poured back into him, and he’s still missing pieces. he’s killed people, made enemies, and probably suffers ptsd from hydra and the things he did as the winter solider. but once steve doesn’t need bucky for his plot, back on ice goes bucky. think about that. i mean, yeah, i guess icing himself is a ‘good’ idea at the end of civil war, but maybe it was because the writers don’t know how to write bucky without having him rely mainly on steve’s own plot. 

listen, bucky is a good character, but as soon as he’s anywhere next to steve rogers, he becomes a little lost puppy dog incapable of handling his own shit.  and yet, does he get to do anything about that? no, he gets himself a new arm and rejoins steve as his side hoe plot device (oh and forget letting bucky talk about his problems, let’s just shove him into another war shall we)

(I would almost argue that the winter solider has better characterization than bucky barnes does but that’s another post entirely)

I agree with all of this, and I just want to add––when Natasha was shown to be interested in Bruce and emotionally opening up to him, everyone went mad because she is a strong woman and there is no reason for her to even want Bruce’s support. Likewise, Sharon was (I think justly) disliked for being Steve’s random love interest in a weird timing in cacw.

And yet, when we so much as say “hey, Bucky deserves better than to just be glued to Steve’s side 24/7″ a lot of st/cky shippers especially get annoyed and assume that st/cky = bucky being Steve’s angst side plot.

If Bucky didn’t have such a big potential with the other characters, I would perhaps be less annoyed. But Bucky has basically spoken to no one other than Steve (and for a little bit Sam and Shuri) in all of the movies he’s been in, and I find it odd, because his story actually affected a lot of people. I mean even when Tony found out he killed his parents, the story was turned back to Steve and his lies/secrets. We didn’t get Tony & Bucky bonding over the issue, and Tony perhaps feeling guilty for even lashing out at Bucky since Bucky did not do that by choice, etc. We didn’t get Bucky speaking to like, anyone, in cacw about what he wants to do or where to go, and Steve kept making all his decisions for him.

Frankly, I think steve & bucky’s relationship in mcu is just badly handled and Harmony is right about saying how if Bucky were a woman, everyone would be angry about that stuff.

We don’t get bucky interacting with anyone else, really. 95% of the time he’s spent thus far on-screen has been either next to steve or him doing something that *surprise* benefits steve’s plot, and not bucky’s. honestly, y’all would call it like an abusive fucking relationship if bucky were a woman, simply because steve’s idea of “oh, let me just make bucky do all this shit and not, idk, talk about the past LITERAL ALMOST DECADE OF BRAINWASHING AND TORTURE but oh my angst-filled gaze into the side of the camera should suffice.”

nah, fuck that noise. steve rogers and bucky barnes are good characters, but they melt into one giant STEVE ROGERS ARC with a little bit of bucky i guess?? every time they’re both on screen.