It's that time of year again!

[laeria]

The time of sweat, tears, exams, and hc_bingo cards! They're especially pretty and green this year and my prompts are LOVELY, especially the second row. And the fourth column. And, mmm.

Comments

[laeria]

Hellyeah! Have you progressed from liking to loving them?

I am firmly in camp love. I rewatched them the other day, now with accurate subtitles (I'm good with following dialogue in English (obviously!) but I always miss bits of Whedon-banter when I don't have it written down (Capsicle!)) and I'm now loving the little things. Like Steve. Like the fact that Whedon wrapped Steve up in this perfect little package of self-effacing self-loathing lashing-out don't-give-enough-fucks-to-be-curious-so-I'm-hiding-that-with-patriotism oh-wait-this-is-too-horrible-to-be-ignored masculine tragedy BUT still kept him entirely in the background. A bit like Shepherd Book, I guess? Well, like Shepherd Book: The Agnostic's Prequel.

Like, initially I hated the whole "He was an idiot!" "Just because he believed in ~heroes~?" conversation, because it's maudlin and anvily and totally unnecessary. But now I am okay with it, because, you know, hello all of Steve's self-definition issues. He can't just stay in his sepia-coloured angstgym, he has to go be a hero, because being a hero is what he knows. And being a hero means self-sacrifice.

Except, like, for all Fury and Coulson's nostalgia, you don't have THAT kinda hero in a 21st century Whedonflick. You have, like, Bruce and Natasha, and you have Tony, who follows the Buffy tradition of always finding an alternative. And to his credit, Steve adapts with minimum resistance. And, I mean, I didn't even realise how totally obviously symbolic the whole "Natasha jumping up from his shield" thing is. Him being a background character isn't just a perk, it's kinda the point, just like gods being comic relief is kinda the point.

So. Yeah. I like Steve now. I mean, I am still kinda offended that Captain America can even be a thing, but at least it was shown as an obviously insufficient/obsolete thing, so, woot!