The more I watch the scene with Phillips telling Steve they’re not going to rescue anyone, the more I feel Phillips is playing him. “Nope, we’re not going to go after them, because – and let me point out very clearly and specifically on this map exactly where they are – it is in dangerous territory and I will not order anyone to go in there”.
“Incidentally, Rogers, I know you have hero-issues coming out the wazoo and you want to be respected as a soldier and a man, so I will diss you to your face, call you a chorus girl, and basically wind you up to the point that you do something damned reckless and stupid without orders, because you’re the kind of dumbass hero who will jump on a grenade for your fellow-man or chase down an armed man while unarmed and barefoot in your shorts and I know this because I watched you do it before.”
“And Carter, if you’re about to say something, just don’t, because no one needs to know that I know exactly what I’m doing. It’s called ‘dance, monkey, dance’. And if he dies, wasn’t on my orders.”
You notice that he’s not exactly surprised about Steve being Captain Dumbass Hero. You’ll notice he’s also not massively surprised when Steve returns.
Colonel Chester Phillips. Didn’t get to be head of the SSR because he’s just a pretty face.
writers of avengers fic consistently misunderstand this phrase, and honestly i don’t blame them, it’s pretty confusing in context. bucky barnes is a sniper. snipers use rifles. fury was shot outta nowhere, by a sniper, presumably with a rifle. and if you’re not a humongous gun nut, you probably don’t automatically think slug == shotgun, not rifle. nor will you know that ‘rifling’ can mean two different things.
lucky for you, i am a humongous gun nut, so i’m here to sort that out for you!
okay, for starters, shotgun barrels are, in fact, rifled. and we all know you trace a bullet by the marks the barrel’s rifling leaves on it. so how could the winter soldier’s leavings make the ballistics techs at SHIELD shrug helplessly? well, because it wasn’t a bullet, it was a slug. a shotgun slug. and in shotgun slugs, ‘rifling’ doesn’t mean the grooves in the barrel, it means the fin-like protrusions on the slug itself, like so:
that’s an american-made big game slug, and it’s got those fins to keep it twisting despite the drag of the cork back end, which acts to stabilize it with air resistance. short range, but plenty effective if you’re hunting moose.
but the winter soldier was hunting bigger game: nick fury. through a brick wall. which is why he used something more like this:
stainless steel saboted slugs. as you can see, they have no rifling – that is, no twisty fins. they rely on their forward-weighted mass for their accuracy, which is tolerably good up to about 100 meters.
there are a number of russian makers of these, going back to soviet days, but you can also easily machine your own. these don’t deform on impact, meaning they wouldn’t have great stopping power against, say, a charging polar bear – but also meaning they keep their trajectory when going through obstructions like the wall of steve’s apartment. and that plastic sabot, or boot, which makes it fit tight and grip in the barrel, flies off when fired, taking with it any identifying marks from the barrel rifling.
i don’t think we ever got to see what bucky fired these from, but it would probably have been something like this:
a russian vepr 12 shotgun, which looks a whole lot more like a rifle than a shotgun at first glance. tactical shotguns like these are popular with law enforcement for the same reason bucky used one to shoot fury – urban combat. right through the dang wall.
so there you have it. ‘russian slug, no rifling’ means bucky came loaded for bear.
“There’s a great scene in The Winter Soldier where Captain America knows he’s about to be attacked by 20 men in a moving elevator, and says, “Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?” Evans performs it convincingly with equal amounts of mild boyish glee, amused lightness, matter-of-fact resignation, chutzpah, and confident menace. It’s a wonderful moment, in no small part because you realize just how much fun it’s become to watch Chris Evans excel at playing (and growing with) this character. It’s one of many moments in a Marvel movie that makes you realize there really was greatness in Chris Evans.”
Excuse me while I get extremely emotional for a minute. Last night I was blown away how amazing The Doldrums was. Every single second was absolutely beautiful. But something that really astounded me, and has since his introduction in A. Malcolm, was how Yi Tien Cho’s character has been portrayed.
Representation matters. A lot. But what’s more important than simply having POC represented on in mainstream media is the production behind that understanding *why* it’s important. How it affects the people watching – both POC and non-POC alike. Because whether we like it or not, mainstream media – television in particular – shapes how people view the world and how they view cultures not their own. I was so moved by it I had to tweet this out to show my gratitude.
Maril + Caitriona liking this tweet is so much more than a simple like. It shows that the cast + crew alike understand that, yes there are people like me out there watching. People who were absolutely terrified that my culture was going to be reduced down to a caricature rendering of outdated stereotypical views. These likes were reassurance. These likes meant, “Yes, we see you. Yes, we understand. We see the value.” Simple statements that nearly moved me to tears.
This production not only understands these failings of an originally poorly and offensively drawn character, but they didn’t take the easy way out. Instead of taking out his character entirely, pushing him to the background with no lines or meaning to speak of, or whitewashing him to the point of unrecognizableness, they decide to go that extra mile. They gave his character depth, meaning, purpose – they gave him true life for the first time ever. And most importantly they gave him and all the viewers respect.
I will never not be grateful to the entire production for this change and never not applaud them for not caving to the pressures of a dominantly white Hollywood culture. All my praise and applause to you, Outlander. Thank you.
Anthony Russo: Look at those character arms… Joe Russo: We were focusing so hard on his character there.
‘Captain America: Civil War’ Audio Commentary
I just want to point out the irony here—that as gratuitous as this scene is, it actually is character development. You can tell from the way Steve’s straining that he’s at his breaking point. He’s a super soldier, but there are limits to his strength and he’s teetering on the edge. Despite that, we one hundred percent believe Steve is willing to let himself get ripped in half here rather than let that helicopter go.
Why? When we all saw this scene in the first Civil War trailer, the Russos said Steve was fighting for a passionate reason. There’s only one person Steve would be fighting this hard for—Bucky. No one had any doubt. Seventy-some years ago, Steve failed to hold on to Bucky and it ruined them both. He’s not going to let him go again, and we see that internal struggle manifested here physically.
The interesting thing is—as heroically as this shot is framed—we can see this as valor or sheer, stubborn idiocy. After all, Steve is fighting a helicopter for Bucky and “Bucky,” brainwashed, just threw Steve down an elevator shaft and tried to kill most of his friends. The Bucky Steve is hanging on to here may or may not be the Bucky he actually wants to save. But Steve is taking a chance, risking it all on the belief that his friend is in there somewhere and if he can just hang on long enough, then they’ll both get through this.
It may be incidental, but the glowing lens flare here draws particular attention to Steve’s chest—assuming you’re not too entranced with his arms—and emphasizes where the core of the matter lies. Steve is being pulled in two directions and his heart is at the center of the conflict. If he’s smart and wants to save himself, it’s as easy as letting go (one hand or the other). But he’s Steve and this is Bucky and, no, he’s not going to let go.
For anyone getting their knickers in a twist over Steve’s AOU line about “language,” just remember:
Bucky Barnes
had the world’s
biggest
potty
mouth
…And Steve was the one calling him out on it half the time.
So even if Steve Rogers does occasionally curse (and I’m not saying he wouldn’t – he grew up in Brooklyn and he was a soldier, it stands to reason he knew how), as an officer he was responsible for keeping his men reasonably respectable, and likely got into the habit of playfully chiding Bucky about his foul language.
So when Steve says “it just slipped out” – he probably forgot for a moment, in the heat of battle in winter in Europe, that he wasn’t in occupied France with the commandos, and it wasn’t Bucky cussing on the radio.
This isn’t Steve with a stick up his ass. This is Steve right out of the comics, still ridden with PTSD and occasionally forgetting which theater of war he’s in, slipping into the comfort of teasing his best friend.
Oh boy. I’ve been saving this one because the sheer number of things Bucky has used to kill people overwhelmed me, tbh. It’s going to be … a ride. Here we go.
Yeah. So first of all, The Winter Soldier undoubtedly comes prepared to kick your ass. He’s not going to find himself without a weapon. The thing is, even if he does somehow blaze through the frankly astonishing amount of accoutrements he arrays on his person, he’s still not going to find himself without something that will kill you. Even if his arm is put out of service (or blown off, RIGHT TONY) he’s not going to be without something that will kill you.
Apparently the Winter Soldier’s arsenal is officially pornographic material…..but we knew that already didn’t we.
If any of my MCU nerd rages get taken down, I have them all on AO3. I’m going to update them now just to make sure any added or updated info is included. But. Yeah.
(You can read this without the visual aids on AO3.
March 10, 1917 – James Buchanan Barnes is born, and we were all officially fucked.
July 4, 1918 – Steven Grant Rogers is born, and somewhere in Brooklyn Bucky’s mother wept …
June, 1924 – Steve’s mother is bedridden from illness associated with Tuberculosis.
September, 1930 – 12-year old Steve and 13-year old Bucky meet for the first time in Hell’s Kitchen, where Bucky scares off bullies trying to steal Steve’s money. What were they doing in Hell’s Kitchen? No one knows. Steve tells Bucky he’s been living in the orphanage ‘on 8th’ since his mother’s death. Which is odd since Bucky was apparently at her funeral when they’re both legal adults in a flashback scene from the Winter Soldier. For the purpose of this timeline, info from the movies will take precedent over info from the various tie-ins. Meaning Sarah Rogers is basically Schrodinger’s Ma for the next 6 years.
1936 – Shrodinger’s Ma finally actually dies fo sho of Tuberculosis. Bucky breaks everyone and their mother’s heart with his ‘til the end of the line’ line.
I came here to add this bit that I just stumbled over and found that this post had like 500 more notes than I was expecting…..hi? I’ve added more info to the AO3 version of this, if you’re interested in this kind of stuff.
I saw this cover go past on my dash, it’s from Captain America No. 33, 1943, and recognized the name on the sign.
Brenner Pass was the pass through the Alps that was the focus of Operation Cold Comfort. I just thought that was interesting
Tumblr Exodus 