Latest Posts by hbleak - Page 4

Hot take: I unapologetically like John Walker, like, not even in a “he is morally gray and interesting” kind of way. He was brave and had good intentions, he just wasn’t as quick to search for peaceful solutions and had several realistic flaws such as being insecure, ambitious and quick to follow orders for the establishment. Most people (on tumblr) just hate him because he is white so he must be evil or symbolically represent male white priviledge or something, because he didn´t romanticize terrorism as the writers made Sam start doing, and because he “unfairly” got the shield (The shield the dumb ass writers made Sam DECIDE to give up so they could have that sweet drama? THAT shield?). People say that Steve Rogers would have never done what John did, not even after his literal best friend was killed in front of his eyes, ehem… did we even watch the same movies? Did everyone just forget about that scene in Civil War after Tony tried to kill Bucky?

His reasons for murdering that terrorist  guy that took part in the killing of his best friend and for wanting to apprehend a potentially dangerous group were waay more understandable than any of Karli’s actions AFTER she started killing innocent people “to send a message” while still claiming to have the moral highground instead of, you know, keep stealing and distributing food and medicines like they were exclusively doing at the beginning or something.

I get that it sucks the writers made the flag smashers the villians (I hate what they did with the good hearted and idealistic Sharon Carter as well), I myself would have prefered if Karli had been writen as an anti-hero or even new hero who teams up with Sam and Bucky, maybe the flag smashers could have been divided into different factions, some more extremist than others, and a government guy could have been the real or worst villain, but that sadly didn’t happen. The moment they wrote her blowing up that building full of unarmed people though, she was a self-righteous murderer just like Zemo, which would have been fine if that was the point of her character.

 I was very irritated by the way the show writers, via Sam, tried to minimize her actions and make us feel sorry for her, dehumanizing the people she had killed in the process. We barely ever see her victims, they are mostly faceless entities who don´t matter in comparison to “poor well intentioned baby Karli”.

 If the writers wanted to send the audience a message about “doing better” for refugees they could have done so by making the flag smashers the heroes that have been unjustly framed for the terrorist attacks (Which would have been an AMAZING plot twist), or writing them to be more complicated by making most of its members stand against the extemism of certain factions of the group, or by showing the good things they do, making them fight armed guards only. They should NOT have made terrorism seem “cool” and “trendy”, the deaths of civilians “necessary”, and the terrorists the “real” victims of… *gasp* being called… terrorists! The poor babies, noo, so offensive! The correct term is freedom fighters, nooo! 

Needless to say, the woobification of the poor baby terrorists didn’t work for me and I wasn’t exactly horrified by Karli´s death or impressed by Sam´s corny victim blaming speech where he doesn´t actually give any practical ideas on how to solve the refugee crisis caused by the snap but sure does love to say the government officials all, indiscriminately (Maybe AOCortez or someone was there? I mean, idk), deserved to feel powerless as hostages because that, apparently, will make them sympathize with the people that made them fear for their lives instead of, I don´t know, seeing them as way too unreasonable to negociate with??

Now, I would have preferred for John Walker´s actor to play Lemar and viceversa, because I get that black characters get killed to motivate white characters far too often, so it would have been nicer to see it done the other way around for once. For John Walker to be the new flawed yet good hearted war veteran who has to redeem himself after making a huge mistake born out of pain for the loss of his friend, someone who has to develop and learn different tactics other than violence in order to defend people, someone who has to learn to question the status quo… and he just happens to be black like Sam. Their rivalry would not be even implicitly about race, but exclusively about differences in methods and about who gets the Captain America legacy. We could still have Bucky hating on him, the funny rivalry moments, no changes.

But sadly the writers needed a character to represent the white that didn’t deserve Sam’s shield but only got it for his race, or for looking similar to Steve, which is an important theme, but one that was perfectly explored already with the plotline about the original black supersoldier who was erased from history, and one that didn´t work for me because they made Sam give up the shield willingly BEFORE it was given to John, a war hero, so all I am getting is that simply being chosen for something important and accepting it because you think you can do the job, wanting justice for a friend, and not trusting terrorists to change their murderous ways is what made John “less than” Sam and Bucky.

I guess what I am trying to say is that John doesn´t deserve half the hate he gets and maybe if the writers had changed his race from the comic books then his character would have suffered less from being placed into a specific “personification of white male priviledge” box here on tumblr. No offence to the actor though, he was great.

Fake captain america needs to choke on his star spangled banner

Why was Isaiah recognised as a victim, but not Bucky?

(Just to be completely clear this is not me trying to take away any attention or downplaying the horrible and horrific things that was done to Isaiah in any way. Its just me wondering why they recognise Isaiah as a victim, but not Bucky)

Yes Isaiah went through racism as well, which is obviously horrible. But other than Isaiah and Bucky have a lot of parallels.

Had the supersoldier serum forced on them

Imprisoned for decades before managing to escape

Experimented on without their consent during their entire imprisonments

Tortured and abused during their entire imprisonments

Lost almost all of their loved ones because they died during the decades they were imprisoned

Lost everyone and everything they knew before their imprisonments

In tfatws they recognise what was done to Isaiah and that he was a victim as they should, but for Bucky they do the opposite.

For an example, lets look at how they talk about what dr Nagel admitted to. Dr Nagel dehumanised Isaiah and worked on samples from him from around 2014 to 2018 so around 30 years after Isaiah managed to escape, and they recognised the horribleness of that as they should. However he also admitted to working on the winter soldier program (aka the torture, abuse and anything else that went into keeping Bucky as the winter soldier) from around 1992 to 2014. So he was participating in Buckys torture and abuse for over 20 years! But that isnt even mentioned after dr Nagels said it and explained that was the only reason he was hired by the government and was able to experiment with the samples taken from Isaiah in the first place. Dr Nagel literally admitted to being one of Buckys abusers for over two decades, and no one even mentioned it?! No one called him out on what he had done to one of the main characters?! What the hell?!

I mean for all the talk about how Buckys trauma isnt more valid than others, the same isnt said for any of the other characters. All trauma is valid and should be treated like it! And just as Buckys trauma isnt more valid than Isaiahs, it goes the other way too. So why do they validate Isaiahs trauma and victimhood but do the opposite for Buckys? Is it because Isaiahs was racially motivated? I mean obviously that adds another layers, but Buckys trauma also has additional layers (what they did to his mind and being used as a weapon). However I would never invalidate either of them, because I recognise how wrong that is. Unfortunately the writers and creators of tfatws clearly didnt realise that.

I didn't like Falcon and The Winter Soldier myself. For a number of reasons. This article explains some of them: www*forbes*com/sites/erikkain/2021/04/27/the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-review-biggest-problems-preachy-politics-captain-america/

Thank you for sending me THIS article. The author neatly summarizes most of problems. Most, because I would also add the fact that TFATWS retcons some stuff from previous MCU movies, the timelines of some stuff just don't make sense and Sam and Bucky are sometimes OOC. And I hope that Sharon is a skrull, because otherwise her character doesn't make sense.

The biggest problem with MCU now is that they have a world that had a giganctic global crisis after 50% of the population wanished. Probably famines in some regions, wars in others, maybe even a few countries stopped existing at all. And five years later, when things started normalising, the population of the whole wolrd doubles in one day. There is no food for these people, no jobs and no place to live. Probably new wars because of it. Generally a very interesting settings for a story, but instead this show ignores all of this and hammers to the audience a message that.... racism is bad. And we should "do better". What exactly that means we will not know because the answer is too complicated, and Disney just wants simple stories with familiar faces. They sell better.

Some good points

https://mobile.twitter.com/latxcvi/status/1384293950953902086

https://href.li/?https://mobile.twitter.com/latxcvi/status/1384293950953902086

“WandaVision” was not perfect. It had some writing errors and the narrative would have been better served as a movie and without the TV format gimmickry. However … it is a masterpiece in compare to “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”. There was so much bad writing in this series that I pretty much gave up on enjoying it by the fourth or fifth episode.

What made this series worse in my eyes was that it made Sharon Carter a villain.  And it did so with BAD WRITING. She became the MCU’s Daenerys Targaryen … but with even more shoddy writing. Fuck this franchise. It’s been slowly going down the drain since “Age of Ultron”. It has finally hit rock bottom, as far as I’m concerned. Unless the franchise manages to fuck up the third Spider-man movie, like it did the other two.

the favoritism of the creators can be traced very clearly, especially when it comes to the consequences of the actions of the characters. John executed a terrorist in a state of passion and was deprived of everything for this without proper procedures. Bucky and Sam were walking freely around the city with a particularly dangerous terrorist, who was deliberately dragged out of prison by Bucky, forcibly seized a shield from a government agent and staged a brawl in madripoor (and the fandom shouted that Bucky would definitely be punished to the fullest extent!! yeah, of course…), but they got absolutely nothing for it, as if it never happened.

I’m not saying that John shouldn’t have faced the consequences. I say that everyone faces them, except the main characters (sharon, john, karli and etc). you either make sure that everyone is responsible for their actions, or that no one is. seriously, it was just funny (and sad) to watch.

I’m going to post separately because I don’t want to keep hijacking the interview quote that someone who clearly loved the show posted.

When TFATWS first ended I was disappointed, but not resentful. Sam and Bucky got where they needed and Anthony and Sebastian looked like they genuinely enjoyed the time making it. There was healing, albeit a bit awkwardly rushed in episode 5, but it got both the characters to a better place than at the start.

Then I watched interviews about the creative process and I haven’t stopped fuming since. Skogland freely admits that she had no idea about the characters or the story before she came in to pitch her idea, which was simply “this is the most important story of the century”. Which of course it is, but her wording gives a sense of how she approached the telling - she is using the characters to tell a particular story, rather than telling a story about the characters while addressing those same issues they want to convey.

Now there’s nothing wrong with writing a story around the portrayal of a social issue, particularly one as topical as TFATWS did. But crafting a story around an idea, then using established characters takes a level of finesse that neither Skogland nor Spellman had - as well as a level of love and respect for the characters’ histories that neither of them cared about.

The level of pain on Sam’s face when he heard about Isaiah being imprisoned and experimented on for 30 years is completely undermined by his lack of empathy for Bucky - who was imprisoned and experimented on for 70 years. We can meta the heck out of those scenes (and I have - check my AO3/shameless plug) but it doesn’t change the sense that the intention of the creators was to make us horrified at the the prolonged victimisation of a black man, while at the same time minimising a very similar victimisation of a white man. Throughout the series, Sam empathises immensely with Isaiah and Karli, but barely sympathises with Bucky and John Walker - while pre-TFATWS Sam definitely would because managing vets with PTSD was his line of work.

As someone who enjoys writing stories, I know how hard it is to use the "connect the dots" method of story writing, because it's always hard to connect dramatic scenes in a logical way that works within the world and for the characters. Civil War did it with some success, but here the creators were barely trying. I also know that as a writer you need to be very cautious about your biases, because it's so tempting to always keep your favourite character in the best possible light which inevitably means another character will have to do all the problematic things to push the plot along or create conflicts. This is the sense I'm getting with TFATWS and that's what irks me the most. It just reeks of lazy, biased writing, because half the time it completely broke Bucky's character and didn't make sense for his motivations. Keeping Sam "in the best possible light" also meant he avoided conflicts at all costs which ironically made him come across like a pushover who sympathised more with his enemy than his friends and allies.

I might come across sounding like I hate Sam but I don't - otherwise I wouldn't have just written 16k words from his POV. I hate what they've turned both him and Bucky into for TFATWS, by using him to sell a particular story without making the story about him, as it really should have been. And let's face it, Sam-Bucky only worked because of Stackie's amazing chemistry, because as much as Anthony waxes lyrical about the "tenderness" and "bro code" between Sam and Bucky, I definitely couldn't see it on screen for the first 4.5 episodes until they suddenly became a married couple in episode 5.

it’s “funny” to read tweets about Sam and Bucky supposedly respecting Lemar more than John when it’s not fucking true. Most of the time they did not perceive his existence and did not react to his death in any way, forgetting about him after a second, and also Bucky got out of the car when Lemar says “battlestar”, and you praised this behavior when he literally showed him demonstrative disrespect for nothing. but no, the main characters are saints and have never allowed rudeness and disrespect to others, and only John is the worst.

On Lemar Hoskins, I do wanna say that 100% y’all were never supposed to care about him as a person or a character in his own right and it’s evident w the way this fandom be acting that most of y’all never did. First of all, I’ve seen a lot of “explanations” about how Lemar is supposed to be a parallel to Sam or Bucky or he’s supposed to be a subversion of the Black Sidekick. He’s not a subversion of nothing. He’s a Black Sidekick and a Fridged One At That, All Played Straight. None of the racial themes of this show tried to portray are safe from being absolutely shafted by this instance of this colorist (because he is one of the darkest characters on the show, if not, the darkest) and anti black moment.

These writers never wanted you to care about him more than you sympathized with his killer and her cause, not more than you hated (or loved, if you’re one of those people) John Walker, than you rooted for the heroes.

Y’all don’t know nor acknowledge how absolutely traumatic it was for many black viewers to see a dark skinned black man brutally murdered before his eyes and to have the notion of wanting justice for his death (because that /is/ what they did whether you hate John Walker or not) being demonized as shown to be unrelenting violence.

Or to show his killer, another black person, but one significantly lighter in a sympathetic light to the point where she is the one given all sympathy by making it “an accident” therefore “not really her fault” or “her cause is good because it’s okay” or the fact that we, as an audience, even if she is a leftist villain portrayed as evil (she is) because of propaganda doesn’t mean she herself isn’t leveraged above the dark skinned black man that when she “accidentally” kills him, she is framed as this traumatized hapless victim who is allowed to get away while her ally is killed to show “How Far Gone” Walker is, even though, once again, it’s the demonization of wanting justice for a dead black friend.

Only for her to say that his life did not matter. . . (Which is FUCKED to make your character say when she’s played by a black actress) But she has a tragic backstory and she’s a leftist portrayed wrong. . So it’s fine!

And sometimes, he’s woobified and made into the perfect black boyfriend/sidekick/best friend to Walker bc of course he did, that’s a what fandom does with black characters with white best friends! because he can’t escape being a trope even in death.

We’re not supposed to remember his quotes, what he did, what he felt, how he was shown to us onscreen and we are never showed him onscreen if not next to Walker, even his parents’ grief is given to Walker. We can’t see his parents grieve independently because he was not a main character. Not in the way Walker is, Karli is, Sam is, Bucky is. These characters like Sam and Bucky don’t mention Lemar after his death in ways that are supposed to be remembered by the viewer, and Karli is somehow allowed to just say his life didn’t matter. In the end, we were supposed to watch him die and then watch this dark turn.

Even if people expressed criticism of the scene or outrage, it still manages to somehow tie back to other characters. “John Walker could’ve gone dark another way!” Should not be the first response to that scene. John Walker going dark shouldn’t even in be in mind.

It should be “Lemar Hoskins should’ve been allowed to live. Lemar Hoskins should’ve gotten screentime, agency, and the chance to be a character in his own right.”

Watching ep1 of TFATWS (because I'm a masochist) and I swear when Raynor and Bucky are discussing the amends and she says "So, you did it all right, but it didn’t help with the nightmares" I can't help but facepalm myself so hard.

Of course it doesn't help with the nightmares you doofus, it's making them worse.

First you tell Bucky he has to make amends, basically telling him he's responsible for the WS murders and aggravating his guilt. Then you make him go after corrupt people who have achieved some form of power thanks to Hydra and you make him approach them, face them, tell them his name and if that wasn't bad enough he has to reassure them that he's no longer the Winter Soldier and "they're part of his efforts to make amends".

I'm going to say this again: you're making him tell these people who benefited from Hydra and abused the power Hydra gave them that he's no longer the WS and he's just trying to be good this time.

Basically he's reliving his trauma, he's reassured everything he did was his fault, you're not addressing his mental state at all and you just want him to follow 3 stupid steps so he can prove to be the little obedient soldier you want him to be. And fuck his mental health, I guess.

I'm sure many people have talked about this already but I needed to vent. I swear that line gets on my damn nerves.

I've been seeing a lot of posts insulting the people who are critical of of how TFATWS dealt with Bucky's trauma, claiming that we "want him to suffer". In reality the only reason the MCU wants us to believe he's healed (despite not doing the work) is that they can't be bothered to properly deal with it and just want to 'move on'.

Sharon Carter? More like Karen Sharter. 

She is NOT a real patriot.

I would let Steve Rogers bite me.

Unless he was a zombie.

POV. John walker kills a terf.

TFATWS ending

I haven't been able to go onto any Bucky posts because they're usually accompanied by John Walker antis, so I don't know if anyone's actually discussed this. But it doesn't sit right with me that we watch Bucky go through the entire season atoning for his past as the Winter Soldier, only for it to end with him still going by The Winter Soldier. This show really stopped caring about Bucky at the end, and we couldn't even stay for the apology to Mr. Nakajima they've been building up since the first episode. I'm already not too pleased that Falcon is no longer going to be a character, it would have been interesting to explore more into "Captain Falcon" or even retire the shield entirely instead of giving up his original name to an already existing character. Even John Walker gets to be his own character (US Agent). Quick rant: I don't know how people can look at the new Cap and call it representation, we had representation in Falcon. The show wanted to discuss race by having Sam represent a country that supposedly doesn't represent him, and in doing so, ironically rid us of an original black character in favor of a yet another white character (This is an observation on blackwashing, not an anti-white post). And before you say: "Cap is a black character", just remember, under every John Walker hate post, you'll find people quoting "There will never be another Steve Rogers". If you immediately saw John Walker as trying to replace Steve whenever he held that shield, it would be a double standard not to feel the same when Sam holds it. Both wanted to do something good with it, but only one got the chance to be taken seriously

"The fact that I'm at risk of seeing a *John Walker anti's opinion at any point during my day is a human rights violation"

For example:

....😐😑😐😑😐....

Wtf does any of this even mean? Telling people not to cosplay because of your twisted interpretation of a fictional character?

"He's not in any way removed from reality" >He's a fucking super soldier with a vibranium shield juiced up on a serum that enhances the human mind and body. Wtf are you actually talking about?

"There's no need to cosplay a guy who is fighting to maintain and uphold white supremacy" >WHERE??? Where do you see ANY of this?? Is it because the mean white man has the shield and the poor black man doesn't, even though the black man gave it up in the first place? Last time I checked, the only one who gave a damn about Lemar dying was John, Olivia and Lemar's family. Everyone else disregards him the SECOND he was no longer in frame.

It's more likely you live in reality with people like Sam and Bucky who are too stubborn to see common sense.

Also, since y'all are still mad at Nico dying...HE'S A SUPERSOLDIER, YOU CAN'T EXACTLY PUT THEM IN HANDCUFFS. IT'S EITHER WILLINGLY SURRENDER (which he did not do, and more than likely had no plans of doing) OR DEATH. It was seen as brutal only because blood finally found its way on the shield after years and years of Steve beating other criminals to death, but what other alternative was there? Fucking get over it already, Jesus.

It's clear some of you are letting your hatred of white men compromise your judgement. These kinds of opinions are just you telling everyone you are incapable of reacting and thinking for yourself, you'd literally be content if Marvel jingled a pair of keys in front of you.

John: Stop right there!

*The mysterious clocked man looks back*

John: La- Lamar!?

Lamar: Who the hell is Lamar?

*The mystery man runs away while John stands there shocked*

Imagine John watching his future child pulling a John Walker just like him.

Imagine if John gave Lemar the serum

I was just reminded of the fact the writers actually made Bucky and Sam BREAK John Walker´s arm over that stupid shield (Stupid as in the comical importance it is given in the show when it could have simply belonged to Sam from the beginning without the bullshit drama, there, I said it) minutes after Lemar died and John is clearly in a vulnerable state of mind. 

Ehem… wtf? I love Sam and Bucky but I hate this moment so much I am just going to imagine it is as canon as Steve going back in time and abandoning his friends and Sharon to be with a married woman (Meaning, I am in denial, these are not my Sam and Bucky).

Of course most fans don´t care (More like, they actively celebrate it) because John just killed a man (Which doesn´t stop those same fans from feeling bad about characters with as much blood on their hands, but that is another issue), but these are supposed to be the heroes of the story, the moral compasses to contrast John´s impulsiveness, which I admit is a huge character flaw, to show how much “better” they are than him. And yet they can´t even wait until John is in a more balanced mental state to go for the shield?

Don´t kid yourselves, this may be a cool “yaasss finally!” moment for most of the biased audience, but in my eyes, it just portrays Sam and Bucky as not caring about either Lemar nor the flag smasher that was just killed in place of Karli. They just jumped at the first opportinity they had to grab the shield when it was probably going to be taken from John later by the government anyway, as if it was all they cared about. 

They acted like petty schoolchildren fighting over a toy and were willing to physically harm someone who had fought with them and even saved their asses one time when it was not their friend who had just died in front of their eyes. They showed no compassion whatsoever, and I hated that decision from the writers on Sam and Bucky´s behalf.

You want to talk about how John didn´t deserve the shield? You want to talk about how Steve decided not to kill Tony in the end of Civil War? Fine, John is too impulsive and emotional for the shield, and I agree that flag smasher should have been arrested, but how about the fact in this scene neither Sam nor Bucky acted as compassionately as Steve did when Wanda blew up a building accidentally, for example? Different circumstances and levels of culpability, I agree (Like, it is hard to find a 100% similar scenareo, Wanda´s situation was a complete accident, but one she caused and killed lots of innocents), but Steve did what was best for both the victims by calling for emergency services, and for the person responsible. He continued caring for Wanda and worrying for her.

And no, it wasn´t done for “safety” reasons, what use could it have been to take the shield away from Walker when he had already taken the serum and was a “weapon” himself? (As far as I can remember, he had already taken it, correct me if I am wrong, but if I am wrong then this is much worse for the writers, as it would then make no sense that it took so much effort for Bucky and Sam to break his arm) It is clear the anger was directed at the flagsmashers, not random civilians, and the fight had already finished, there were no flag smashers around. 

Sam and Bucky broke John walker´s arm to get the shield because they wanted it, as simple as that, they cared more about an inanimate object (As much symbolism as it has, that is all it is) than any of what had just happened,  more than the deaths, more than John having just done something  terrible, more than his pain over losing his friend that very same hour, more than anything else. Of course I blame the writers and am outraged on Bucky but especially Sam´s behalf (Didn´t he counsil traumatized soldiers, what gives?), but following my own logic, in universe, that is what happened, and I just can´t see how is is that they are much more worthy of the shield than John himself.

I often think about how John Walker, still trapped in that dark abyss of emotional despair and pain and loss, still dissociating, with no one who can understand how he feels willing to actually help him process those emotions, with no way to access medical help and therapy, and left adrift to drown on his own with all the cards stacked against him, STILL managed to pull himself out of the darkness and do the right thing because he genuinely wanted to do good things all along

He could have kept falling deeper into the darkness. He could have let that anger and desire for revenge consume him. It would have been all too easy. The whole world was against him and he could have said fuck them all. But he didn’t. Because for all the “bad” the serum may have amplified in him, it also amplified everything about him that was good too. It amplified the man who wanted to do the right things and help save lives. Because that’s why he became Captain America in the first place. His genuine good intentions was never an act. It wasn’t for the cameras or fame or attention or to trick Sam and Bucky. He wanted to help. He always did, even when no one believed in him or wanted to give him a fair chance.

Fck it, Battlestar fancam

Every anti John Walker post makes me realize that there is no objective reason to hate John Walker, only subjective, and that's fine. It's only when people start making up shit to hate him for (like he abuses Olivia, or he's a racist, or a psychopath, comparing him to Homelander or Peacemaker 🙄). That's my biggest problem with antis.

I understand if people dislike him because they can't let go of Steve Rogers just yet. (I mean I was the same way at first, but it was Sam and Bucky's unreasonable stubbornness that changed my mind). You don't have to like him, you don't have to be a fan, but if you have to create and warp existing context to extreme and stupidly wrong lengths in order to justify your hatred of this character WHILE supporting actual childish and unhelpful behaviour from Sam and Bucky, then of course you're gonna have people disagree with you under your anti posts. It's not because we're "pressed", it's because you're wrong but you're still trying to pass it off as fact.

As the saying goes: If you wanna hate a character, at least hate them correctly

Hot take: I unapologetically like John Walker, like, not even in a “he is morally gray and interesting” kind of way. He was brave and had good intentions, he just wasn’t as quick to search for peaceful solutions and had several realistic flaws such as being insecure, ambitious and quick to follow orders for the establishment. Most people (on tumblr) just hate him because he is white so he must be evil or symbolically represent male white priviledge or something, because he didn´t romanticize terrorism as the writers made Sam start doing, and because he “unfairly” got the shield (The shield the dumb ass writers made Sam DECIDE to give up so they could have that sweet drama? THAT shield?). People say that Steve Rogers would have never done what John did, not even after his literal best friend was killed in front of his eyes, ehem… did we even watch the same movies? Did everyone just forget about that scene in Civil War after Tony tried to kill Bucky?

His reasons for murdering that terrorist  guy that took part in the killing of his best friend and for wanting to apprehend a potentially dangerous group were waay more understandable than any of Karli’s actions AFTER she started killing innocent people “to send a message” while still claiming to have the moral highground instead of, you know, keep stealing and distributing food and medicines like they were exclusively doing at the beginning or something.

I get that it sucks the writers made the flag smashers the villians (I hate what they did with the good hearted and idealistic Sharon Carter as well), I myself would have prefered if Karli had been writen as an anti-hero or even new hero who teams up with Sam and Bucky, maybe the flag smashers could have been divided into different factions, some more extremist than others, and a government guy could have been the real or worst villain, but that sadly didn’t happen. The moment they wrote her blowing up that building full of unarmed people though, she was a self-righteous murderer just like Zemo, which would have been fine if that was the point of her character.

 I was very irritated by the way the show writers, via Sam, tried to minimize her actions and make us feel sorry for her, dehumanizing the people she had killed in the process. We barely ever see her victims, they are mostly faceless entities who don´t matter in comparison to “poor well intentioned baby Karli”.

 If the writers wanted to send the audience a message about “doing better” for refugees they could have done so by making the flag smashers the heroes that have been unjustly framed for the terrorist attacks (Which would have been an AMAZING plot twist), or writing them to be more complicated by making most of its members stand against the extemism of certain factions of the group, or by showing the good things they do, making them fight armed guards only. They should NOT have made terrorism seem “cool” and “trendy”, the deaths of civilians “necessary”, and the terrorists the “real” victims of… *gasp* being called… terrorists! The poor babies, noo, so offensive! The correct term is freedom fighters, nooo! 

Needless to say, the woobification of the poor baby terrorists didn’t work for me and I wasn’t exactly horrified by Karli´s death or impressed by Sam´s corny victim blaming speech where he doesn´t actually give any practical ideas on how to solve the refugee crisis caused by the snap but sure does love to say the government officials all, indiscriminately (Maybe AOCortez or someone was there? I mean, idk), deserved to feel powerless as hostages because that, apparently, will make them sympathize with the people that made them fear for their lives instead of, I don´t know, seeing them as way too unreasonable to negociate with??

Now, I would have preferred for John Walker´s actor to play Lemar and viceversa, because I get that black characters get killed to motivate white characters far too often, so it would have been nicer to see it done the other way around for once. For John Walker to be the new flawed yet good hearted war veteran who has to redeem himself after making a huge mistake born out of pain for the loss of his friend, someone who has to develop and learn different tactics other than violence in order to defend people, someone who has to learn to question the status quo… and he just happens to be black like Sam. Their rivalry would not be even implicitly about race, but exclusively about differences in methods and about who gets the Captain America legacy. We could still have Bucky hating on him, the funny rivalry moments, no changes.

But sadly the writers needed a character to represent the white that didn’t deserve Sam’s shield but only got it for his race, or for looking similar to Steve, which is an important theme, but one that was perfectly explored already with the plotline about the original black supersoldier who was erased from history, and one that didn´t work for me because they made Sam give up the shield willingly BEFORE it was given to John, a war hero, so all I am getting is that simply being chosen for something important and accepting it because you think you can do the job, wanting justice for a friend, and not trusting terrorists to change their murderous ways is what made John “less than” Sam and Bucky.

I guess what I am trying to say is that John doesn´t deserve half the hate he gets and maybe if the writers had changed his race from the comic books then his character would have suffered less from being placed into a specific “personification of white male priviledge” box here on tumblr. No offence to the actor though, he was great.

the story of John Walker is not that he is an irredeemable villain who can’t be saved

(quote inspired by Avatar the Last Airbender)

Dumbest TFATWS contradictions

"Steve would never use a gun" *Storms Hydra base literally guns blazing* "But they were Nazis" >And the Flagsmashers are terrorists, next. "Steve would never kill" *Tosses henchmen off Helicarrier* *Kicks dudes out of windows* *Throws grenades at henchmen* >You'd have to be willfully dumb to think a Supersoldier throwing a Vibranium shield at people's heads is not fatal >Kills way more guys in the first Avengers, but blood only now gets on the shield somehow >Hey, maybe Cap should have, as Sam put it, "tried listening to them..." "But he surrendered" *Throws water fountain at John* >Therefore, still an active combatant. *Didn't actually surrender, but instead diverted blame* >Which makes it a heat of the moment situation, rather than a cold blooded murder situation like antis are making it out to be. >All the bad guys Sam and Bucky killed, you've never ONCE seen them fear for their lives until it was John's turn to fight back. More manipulative bullshit. >Of course, it wasn't the right decision to do it in public, but to act as if it's completely irrational makes no sense. He's a soldier, wtf do you think John and Lemar were doing in Afghanistan? Or Steve Rogers in Germany? >It isn't bad that Steve killed bad guys, but with John, it's a problem because the ominous music, the leering, villainous camera angles, blood on the coveted shield, the shocked civilians (and Karli), made it so. "He was unarmed" >He was a Supersoldier- he IS a weapon >Also, how do you go from being a Supersoldier to being helpless? They're just like John, it's not like he unlocked some new level of power after Lemar died, they didn't even really have a reason to stop fighting, other than the show setting John up. Even MORE manipulative bullshit. >Zemo kills an unarmed guy, Sam and Bucky are like, "Don't do it again, bestie", but John, they're like "This isn't you, give up the shield. No one else has to die." "I'm a Black man carrying the stars and stripes. What don't I understand? Every time I pick this thing up, I know there are millions of people out there who are gonna hate me for it." *Iron Patriot: Ceases to exist apparently* Also, missed opportunity to make Bucky the voice of reason for John after losing his best friend and partner, seeing as Bucky and Steve could have been the perfect parallel for John and Lemar. But no, tag team the shit out of an emotionally compromised man while the show acts like it was the right thing to do. In Civil War, Zemo cautioned against putting Steve Rogers on a pedestal, he can kill or have his actions result in the deaths of any number of people but as long as his intent was good, he can do no wrong, because he's a hero. Sound familiar, antis? Not saying that killing bad guys is wrong, Steve and John are soldiers, a soldier kills, but what's important is that they kill the right people. Antis conveniently omit that understanding when it comes to John though... Think for yourselves, you're ignoring reasonable sequencing of events because you're too sprung on the Steve, Sam and Bucky crew to see the show is using cheap tactics to cover up sub par writing and avoidable contradictions. You'd have to be willfully obtuse to ignore that there are more good things to say about Walker than Sam or Bucky. Antis, tell me you can't comprehend characters with depth without telling me you can't comprehend characters with depth.

credit to https://zemoscurl.tumblr.com/ for the amazing tik tok

Antis on tumblr are so cringey with their hatred of characters mixed with performative activism, it is all like:

"Lol you like this BLAND!! Pallle ass wHiiite character" and then they simply stan a different white character themselves.

Or the typical:

"I headcanon everyone in this show as lgbtq except this one character I hate, they are straight because I personally headcanon them as such and it totally gives me a suuper valid motive to hate them for some woke reason" or worse, they headcanon the characters they dislike as homophobic or racist with no canon evidence.

If they lack imagination, antis will just give the character they hate a different nickname based on a distortion of their real name, you know, like children in kindergarden.

I am not even against essays explaining why people hate (Or love) certain characters, I am all for the drama as long as there are actual arguments based on canon and not petty insults.

I think about how the last thing we heard Lemar say to John was “think of all the lives we could have saved that day if we had that serum”

And then when John got the serum, he couldn’t save Lemar’s life

But when that truck with the hostages was going to fall, John, with the strength of the serum, was able to grab onto it and keep it from falling — yes he ultimately couldn’t pull it from the edge but if he hadn’t kept it from falling, Sam wouldn’t have had the time to get there to grab it

In the end, John did exactly what Lemar thought they could do with the serum: save lives