Am I the only that thinks Bucky is going to be the more lighthearted one of the two in the Falcon and Winter Soldier series, cause bro:
Sam looks so annoyed in every scene with Bucky. In this gif, he’s stressed, the “I left my oven on and I’m pretty sure that’s my building burning in the distance” kind of stressed and BUCKY LOOKS LIKE AN ACQUAINTANCE HAPPILY JOGGING ALONG AS UNWELCOME MORAL SUPPORT AND IT SEEMS TO BE CONSISTENT WITH THEM. Even when they’re fighting Peter, Bucky doesn’t grow more frustrated he’s kind of just like, “Damn,” and Sam is like, “mOTHERFUC-”
These situations are among the worst Sam has ever been in.
Bucky? Shit, any day Nazis are not electrocuting him is a fucking great day.
There’s no way Bucky is resentful that Steve passed the shield to Sam. If anything, he’s fucking thrilled, because now he gets to work alongside another Captain America and laugh his ass off every time Sam makes a clumsy mistake.
Like I bet at some point Sam throws the shield and just completely forgets how math works, so when it hits the wall at one angle, it doesn’t come back to him.
Sam, taking the walk of shame to retrieve the shield: I fucking hate my life.
Bucky, wheezing and holding his phone: I got it on video and sent it to Steve.
Hey fellas, either one of you know which way the Smithsonian is? I’m here to pick up a fossil
Endgame writers ignored Natasha and Sam’s friendship so I’ll just do it myself
Sam was crushed that he never saw her again. He came back in Wakanda expecting his dorky assassin friend to there ready to kick ass, but he never saw her. Once he found out, he was in shock. He’d just been fighting by her side and all of sudden she’s gone. When it starting to sink in, he mourned with Clint. He helped Clint, he remembered how destroyed he was after he saw Riley die and understood how traumatizing her death would be in a way no one else did. Clint and Sam had an unspoken bond afterwards, two brothers who lost a sister. It took months for Sam to stop making inside jokes out of habit of Natasha being there to laugh with him. Everytime he was answered with silence the grief hit all over again. Sam took even longer to not instinctively ask for her help or make sure she’s okay over comms when in a fight. No one said anything though, they’d just move on instead of correcting him. Steve growing old was hard on Sam, his best friends vanished so suddenly. He missed Steve, his Steve, the reckless dumbass he’d follow to the end of the earth. But Natasha’s death left more of a hole in him though. Steve got to live his life. He married, grew old, he got to be happy. Sam missed him but was happy for him. Knowing Natasha, he could guess how she must have been suffering over those five years. She died without getting to live, she led a desperate team when others left. He asked Rhoedy about how she had been over those years, they ended up talking for hours about her. Sam was proud of Natasha, she never gave up on being good and stayed strong when no one else stepped up. But he regreted not being there to tease her, to get her allow herself to express how she feels, to stay in the compound as much as he could so she’d not be lonely, to just be there for her. He felt like he failed her, even though it wasn’t his fault. He’d lost a part of him, he’d lost his sister and he missed her. After over a year, Sam visited D.C. again. He went to the spot where they met. A tree by the road, to anyone else it was just a tree, but to Sam it was where he met Natasha. He left a small figure of a dinosaur skeleton at the base of the tree. Sam finally found that fossil she was looking for, and left it for her to pick up someday.
one thing i don’t think sam wilson is given enough credit for is his first interaction with steve. sam was employed by the department of veteran affairs, specifically to help people with ptsd and to run support groups. he recognizes someone suffering from the condition when he sees them, even if that someone is captain america.
he eases his way into conversation with steve, keeping it light, and then says “must have freaked you out coming home from the whole desfrosting thing”
& then steve sighs, looks away, makes the below face, and says “takes some getting used to” & immediately tries to extract himself from the conversation. this isn’t something that steve talks about. he says it was nice to meet sam, and begins to walk away.
the thing is, no one has pushed on steve. they ask him how he’s doing, he gives them some vague, bullshit response, and they let it go. but not sam. he knows that if he lets steve walk away, if he doesn’t extend a branch right now, he’ll never see him again & there may never be another person who will be capable or willing to provide him the help//support he so desperately needs.
so sam says, “its your bed, right? your bed. it’s too soft.” its a small, personal, but largely universal detail that stops steve in his tracks. he’s caught off guard and vulnerable.
& when sam asks steve if he misses the “good old days”, he’s actively studying steve, taking in his body language and what he says
when steve is about to leave, sam extends one more branch, and he says “anytime you want to stop by the va, and make me look awesome in front of the girl at the front desk, just let me know” , which is an important distinction from “come down to the va for a support group meeting”
I think we need to talk about Endgame here for a second. Because when we see first see Steve five years later he isn’t fighting, he isn’t leading (that’s Natasha), he’s working as a support group leader trying to help whoever and however he can. That sort of therapy and those sorts of skills he could only have learned from Sam. And that’s why I’m so happy that the movie ended with him passing the shield on to Sam. Bucky was one of his oldest friends but Sam was the person to reach out and make sure he was okay after finding himself 70 years in the future. When left with nothing for a second time, Sam was the person he wanted to honor and the example he used for how to keep going. Steve spent the movie trying to live up to who Sam thought he could be and that’s why I think there’s no better person to be carrying the shield in the future.
idk how you watch catws and not pick up on the fact that sam is absolutely a mirror of steve… they even straight up say it in the film.
“I do what he does, just slower”
okay we gonna do this because Sam is a reckless motherfucker that absolutely mirrors Steve’s characterization and i’m goddamn tired of people grossly misinterpreting his character b/c it fits in better with their two dimensional therapy dog version of him
Sam doesn’t like taking orders, he’s not pliant or obedient. He does what he believes is right and damn the rules (sound familiar??). Theres a reason they fucking hit it off so well right from the start.
Following that we have Steve turning up on his doorstep looking like a building got dropped on him. And what does Sam do?
Yeah sure… I’ll let a couple of avengers who just told me everybody is out to kill them into my house. Sounds like a good time. It’s also a bit telling that Sam knows exactly where his suit is. Ten bucks says he’s actually tried to steal it before but couldn’t quite manage it on his own.
And then we start getting into really no holds bar Sam:
Y’all like to forget Sam brought a two inch knife to a gun fight and won. Not to mention, he clearly walks around with a knife on him at all times… not just in his car, but on his person.
Sam gives no fucks and will take you out. Winter soldier? Bitch try it
Some hydra fool who won’t stop talking Nazi nonsense?
Fuck this guy. he’ll take him on in nothing but a fucking t-shirt.
Oh and remember that building that Steve jumped out of? Might as well top that by jumping out of the same one, just about 20 stories up.
Cool, cool, cool.
Going feet first towards the rotor blades of a helicopter, knowing if you miss your legs are mulch?
No problem.
Steve wants to track down an international maybe still brainwashed assassin?
When do we start?
And of course, this wouldn’t be complete without the penultimate Steve/Sam comparison.
So to everyone who trashes him, or does him a disservice by making him out to be nothing more than a therapist who can fix Bucky and Steve I have one thing to say. In the immortal words of the legend Samuel Thomas Wilson himself, “Man, shut the hell up.”
