What’s cool about that scene is that you can actually see the different kinds of baseline power and skill when each person fights against Bucky! It creates a situation where each superhero, just as they are, has to fight without warning.
Sam gets taken out immediately because the Soldier sneaks up on him. He didn’t get a chance to think or plan, which is how Sam operates in a fight – in CATWS, he came from behind and took out the HYDRA soldiers. But as soon as he’s conscious, Sam makes a tactical decision, just like a soldier: he goes after Zemo, because he knows he can’t take Bucky on without any gear. Sam recognizes the distraction for what it is – Zemo’s escape:
Tony fights intelligently, using the environment to his advantage. He sneaks up on Bucky, uses sonic and flash bombs, and anything he grabs becomes a weapon. He also twists the battle to always centre around his tech, which takes split-second calculations in a fight. But when that tech fails… physically, Tony is just a regular man, and he’s easily defeated.
Then Sharon fights. She’s FBI trained, bold and unafraid, and could easily take down a skilled fighter… but she’s only human, and she’s inexperienced in fighting enhanced beings. She’s also not skilled enough in her fighting style – her movements are more about force (which does nothing to Bucky, being inherently stronger). When she tries to bring Bucky down, Sharon puts her weight onto Bucky’s metal arm, and uses her fists to fight, so Bucky just shakes her off. It’s not enough.
Natasha takes over, and you can see the difference immediately: she’s exceptionally skilled in combat and has been trained to fight enhanced beings. She sneaks up on Bucky while he’s distracted with Sharon, hitting vulnerable areas and then backing out of his range. Natasha uses her Widow move, coming at Bucky from behind, using his human arm for leverage so he can’t toss her off, and she gets quite a few hits to Bucky’s head using her elbows, not her fists. Nat isn’t enhanced, but she’s holding her own… until Bucky defeats her with the metal arm. But I find their fighting styles to be eerily similar.
T’Challa then enters the fray. It’s now Enhanced vs Enhanced, and you can see how the playing field levels in terms of physical strength: T’Challa’s punches are more effective, and his hits cause Bucky to stumble. But T’Challa underestimates Bucky’s strength, likely because he’s never fought The Soldier before now. He’s also inexperienced compared to Bucky, because he’s young and new at this; you can see him experimenting in his attempt to subdue Bucky. It’s a time-consuming fight, but Bucky would have won in the end. So there’s potential – T’Challa thinks on his feet and is a skilled fighter – but without the suit, he’s not quite there yet.
And, like all of them, T’Challa is only trying to detain Bucky, not kill him… but the Winter Soldier is willing to kill them, and that makes a huge difference. The caged animal is always going to be stronger and more volatile, and that automatically gives Bucky an edge.
What the Winter Soldier doesn’t realize, though, is that Steve is in the same boat; he doesn’t care what has to be done, as long as he gets Bucky back. After he gets over the initial shock of Bucky’s mindcontrol, Steve is a formidable opponent: he’s enhanced, he’s skilled, he’s experienced, he’s familiar with the Soldier’s fighting style… but mostly, he doesn’t care if he lives or dies. He’ll go down with Bucky if that’s what it takes. And that’s where Steve wins over the Soldier: his love for Bucky gives him that upper hand.
(Okay, I went off on a tangent. But I just really like that scene!)
I love the idea of Clint teaching archery lessons at the mansion on the weekends. He must just have so much fun. Especially when people suck at it.
[Dr. Strange 8, 2016]
The best part is that not only does he teach archery classes for other superheroes in his spare time, apparently he gives them grades. Do you think he went to the teacher supply store and bought a book of blank report cards, or just made his own? Do they get a certificate if they pass the class? Which superheroes have their archery certificates framed on the wall?
I am 100% convinced that Clint deliberately dug up a dot-matrix printer from somewhere and he prints terrible, hideous certificates of achievement with little ASCII archers in the corners to give as diplomas. (If you do especially well he breaks out the mimeograph and gives you a special purple one.)
They are treasured prizes in the superhero community and Steve’s went for fifty grand when he donated it to a charity auction.
Tony has two on his office wall, one for Iron Man and one for Tony Stark, from back before his identity was public. They’re in fireproof plexi on either side of his diploma from MIT.
The relationship between Tony and Howard Stark feat. Steve Rogers.
Bonus:
One of the things that never fails to PISS ME OFF about MCU fandom is how nobody ever addresses how fucking UNFAIR all of this is to Steve himself!
Steve didn’t make Howard act like a douchewad; Steve didn’t seduce him, or court his favor, or do anything to try and get Howard to put him onto such a high pedestal that Tony would spend legitimate effort trying to knock Steve off it every time he’s in an insecure mood.
No, Steve fought a war, in the best way he knew how, and if that included dying, then fine, it included dying. He doesn’t deserve Tony whacking him over the head with Howard’s failings as a dad every time he turns around. That was never Steve’s fault, but Tony never lets him forget about it either.
As a parent I get especially angry about this. Because by pinning blame on Steve, who is 100% without fault in this scenario, they’re excusing Howard’s shitty parenting and culpability. And that’s disturbing.
Steve is not responsible for Howard’s issues.
…The only one responsible for Howard’s issues was Howard.
If one truly believes in accountability and they want to be accountable for their actions, then part of accountability is not creating or accepting excuses.
Not only isn’t Steve responsible for Howard’s behavior and Howard’s weird Steve fixation, Steve isn’t AWARE of it. Steve comes out of the ice remembering Howard as merely a friend. For Steve all of Tony’s resentment and hostility comes out of left field.
Maybe Tony telling Steve he grew up hating Steve at least was the dawning of understanding.
Yes, yes yes – Howard’s shitty parenting/putting Steve on a pedestal wasn’t Steve’s fault at all; but Tony’s resentment is equally understandable.
Can we talk about the gif where he sees that his arm is gone, again??? Can we talk about the dizzy way he comes up, already off balance with the lack of weight? Or the way his eyes widen and then he looks like he’s going to throw up?? I mean, guys. GUYS. This is fantastic portrayal. He’s seen his arm gone, again. Cue flashbacks, nausea, and fear. He’s a weapon, at least in his own eyes; the arm is at least one kinda big reason that he is a weapon. So that last flash of emotion is fear, because he’s lost a big advantage, he’s off balance, he’s experiencing some major ptsd and Sebastian gETS IT IN ONE GIF. He portrays all of this that Bucky is going through, clearly and emotionally, and I’m in the span of a few seconds. This is amazing.
Vision has no hair anywhere on his body–no armpit hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes. No fingernails. His skin tastes like metal. Sometimes, he forgets to breathe for minutes or hours at a time.
Captain Marvel smells like burning. When you touch her, your hand comes away cold because she’s absorbed your body heat. If she gets cut, she bleeds light. She can tell you what the inside of an explosion feels like.
Bruce Banner vomits after de-hulking. His skin is always red and peeling. He looks sick, like he has a fever, and he ingests more medication than actual food. There are blisters on his lips.
Tony Stark has a huge, sunken scar on his sternum where the arc reactor was removed and his chest aches each time he takes a breath. He has callouses in odd places–so does the whole team, really–and there is a permanent bald spot on the back of his head where it has been cut open every time he gets thrown around in his suit.
Spider-Man sometimes forgets which way is up–if you put him in a room with identical walls, floor, and ceiling, he couldn’t tell you which is which. His hands and feet are prickly to the touch, even through his costume. He is very nearsighted.
The Scarlet Witch has no sense of boundaries; if you can’t tell she’s spying on your thoughts, why should she stop? She doesn’t do it out of any malicious intent, just out of curiosity and convenience. She never loses arguments.
Thor speaks about events that happened thousands of years ago as if they were last week. Cats arch their backs and stare at him. Something about him–his eyes, or his skin, or the way he moves–seems slightly off, like he doesn’t belong on Earth at all.
stuff like that.
Bucky struggles with aphasia and has speech pathology issues from the head injury that caused his amnesia (because let’s be honest, retrograde amnesia -without- traumatic brain injury is just a cop-out.) It’s not like he ever really had to talk while he was the winter soldier, anyway, so nobody really noticed or cared.
Erik Lensherr is consistently iron-deficient and has to take supplements because some of it gets caught in the crossfire when he uses his powers, so he bruises really easily. He’s almost constantly disoriented balance-wise, and sometimes he wakes up with many, many small coins stuck to him.
Charles HATES hospitals. He can’t deal with the sheer amount of people pleading with god for the pain to go away. Sometimes, without realizing, he answers questions people haven’t asked yet. Sometimes, he flinches a bit for no apparent reason, when people think just a little too loudly.
Apparently Marvel has partnered with Coca-Cola to make some Christmas-y videos featuring some of the Avengers’ firesides (…as to why, your guess is as good as mine).
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