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.
Tony Stark’s first words when he gets back to earth are “we lost” and “I lost the kid,” and if you don’t think that humanity comes first and then immediately Peter Parker for Tony Stark then idk what to tell you. Tony Stark risked everything to bring Peter Parker back! He was not going to go down that rabbit hole of time travel until he looked at Peter Parker’s picture. And Harley was at his funeral!!! Iron Man 3 was in 2013! And Harley was at a very private, very personal send off that the superheroes had for Tony. He and Happy were the only people there not actually related to a Super which means that Tony considered Harley as his family. Listen what I’m saying is, Tony Stark had three children and after everything has been said and done in these movies, he has proved that he is the guy to make the sacrifice play. For humanity, for his kids.
Somewhere out there Ho Yinsen is turning to Tony Stark and saying, “you didn’t waste a single second”.
Ok but now I have this image in my head of Tony in some kind of afterlife, like his own personal heaven. It looks like his lab, not any specific one, rather it’s made up of all the best and favorite tools, parts and pieces from workshops throughout his life. He’s sitting at a table working with a small device, nothing really important just something keeping his hands busy, when he calls out “JARVIS pull up the Life-streams”.
“Any preference for this particular viewing sir.”
“Just the family this time J,” Tony replies as a number of glowing blue screens appear in front of him, “wife and kids.” Pepper and Morgan Stark, Peter Parker and Harley Keener come into focus a moment later. He spends his time relaxing like that, watching over them as he tinkers.
Footsteps approaching from behind pulls some of his focus several hours later, he doesn’t turn around, keeps his eyes on Morgan, Harley and Peter working together on an as of yet unidentifiable lego set. Visitors aren’t exactly rare but they’re not all that common either and Tony never knows quite what to say to the people who have come to see him.
“So this is the legacy of the great Tony Stark.” Familiar words said in a tone vastly diffierent to how they were once spoken startles him enough to look at the figure that draws up next to him. Ho Yinsen settles beside him peering curiously at the screens acting as windows to the lives of his loved ones. Struggling to come up with something to say to the man who gave him his second chance at life he turns back to the screens and focuses on Pepper, she’s having lunch with Happy he notices either talking about SI or reminiscing about him with the amount his name keeps coming up. “How’s the family?”, comes out before he really thinks about it. An amused huff is his immediate answer as Yinsen leans back to take in the rest of his surroundings.
“They are well Stark, enjoying the time we now have together”.
Silence falls between them for several beats before Tony swallows down the anxiety he can feel threatening to rise, “so, how’d I do?”
Ho Yinsen finally turns to face Tony Stark and says, “you didn’t waste a single second “.
In the funeral scene, the parting shot of the old arc reactor, placed on top of the flower wreath, was beautiful. That device is technically the reason why the MCU exists — it saved Tony’s life all those years ago in Afghanistan (then in Los Angeles) and morphed into a symbol of his heart. Both literally and figuratively. As soon as Tony built himself a new arc reactor, he told Pepper to dispose it. Instead, she kept the reactor and had it inscribed (Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart). Long after Tony had the shrapnels removed, and built far more complicated arc reactors, I loved that the two of them had held onto the original one, despite everything they went through. Between 2008 and 2023, Pepperony survived a break-up; they were attacked in their own house; they lived through multiple world-ending catastrophes as well as the actual end of the world. The reactor became a symbol of their perseverance, their love for one another — it was a promise, it was a guide that led them back to each other. It was their North Star. In Iron Man 1, it was Pepper’s voice that pulled him back from the brink — of certain death — and inspired the idea of making an arc reactor. It was fitting that in Avengers: Endgame when she put the arc reactor on top of the flower wreath, she was finally letting him go.
the least thing that he can do is go get her body, give her a funeral.
sam volunteers to come with him, but clint goes alone. they only have so many pym particles, after all, and clint isn’t sure what he’ll do when he sees nat, isn’t sure if he wants anyone to see him break down.
when he comes back to earth, the other avengers are kind enough to ignore the tear stains.
–
clint almost doesn’t give the eulogy.
he asks maria to do it, after tony’s funeral, knows that she can come up with one off the top of her head, one that would probably be better than the one he had worked on for hours.
she shakes her head, though, gives him a sad, small smile.
“she was your best friend, barton. you knew her best. and you were there when…you were there for it. it’s only fitting that you’re the one to do it.”
the podium looks like a gallows to him.
he can’t do natasha justice in one speech, can’t even begin to scratch the surface of her.
but he has to try.
–
shuffling the note cards that his speech is written on, the words dry up in clint’s mouth as he looks out at the assembled crowd. they feel fake, forced.
so he puts down the cards, and just talks.
“i, uh…i met natasha when she was still working for the russians. sent to kill her, actually. she was – she was fucking terrifying, honestly, in that uniquely tasha way of hers, y’know? people make threats, but tasha never really had to. she’d just fix you with that look, and you knew what was coming. but she was more than that. she was so much more than a scary badass assassin, though that was pretty cool of her, too.”
he has to stop for a moment, try to gather his thoughts and fight back the sobs that are already rising up in his eyes.
“i had the honor of being her first friend at shield, and getting to know her and help her become the hero she died as. she was funny and kind and wicked smart, and seeing her open up was…it meant a lot. she’d spent so much of her life being hurt and hurting people, never allowed to make her own decisions, and living like that – it fucks you up. but she didn’t let that slow her down. she never let anybody define her. honestly, this speech feels kinda ridiculous, ‘cause i know i can’t explain her with it.”
maria gives him a comforting smile from the front row, and clint takes a deep breath, forcing himself to continue on.
“another thing about her was…she liked sugary foods. a lot. like, seriously, you couldn’t have any cookies or candy around her, she’d always find it and steal it. thor lost a lot of poptarts that way.”
thor nods solemnly, and clint almost laughs.
“but yeah, she always treated having sugar like it was some kind of present. she wasn’t used to it, y’know? didn’t have much of that stuff growing up in the red room. didn’t have much of anything, really. and she…she could’ve used that as a reason to be selfish, i guess. but i don’t think that ever crossed her mind. she was selfless, only ever wanted to help people, make sure that they were all okay before she even thought about herself. and she…she died to save the universe.”
the room is quiet, the stillness only broken by a few tears.
“she died to save me. she did so fucking much for me, and i-now i’m never gonna be able to pay that back. the black widow was so many things to so many people, but above everything she was just tasha. she was my best friend. and if i could see her again, i’d-i didn’t tell her i loved her as much as i should have. ‘cause i did. i do. always.”
he has to take a moment, then, to bury his face in his hands and try not to cry, even though they all know that he’s sobbing.
“but we…we have what we have when we have it. that’s what she always said. so let’s make the best of it, everybody, you hear? it’s what she’d want us to do. just make the best of it.”
