Tag: interesting

Untangling Bucky Barnes

copperbadge:

I don’t think it’s exactly a spoiler to say that Bucky will probably have a significant presence in Captain America 2, given that the subhead name of that film is The Winter Soldier. So I thought I would take a minute to talk about how Bucky has interacted with the Captain America narrative since the forties. Partly because the comics tell a significantly different story from the film, which affects the balance of power between the two men, but also because it’s kind of hilarious. 

There are significant spoilers for the Winter Soldier comic book arc behind the jump, so if you want to go in as unspoiled as possible by comics, you know what to do.

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Written pre-Cap 2, but still very interesting and worth reading for a basic primer on Bucky through the ages in the comics.

The Super Soldier and the German Psyche

actuallyclintbarton:

katiebakes641:

Hoo boy, we’re going deep down the rabbit hole with this one.  I hope you’ll bear with me, as this might be will be a disturbing post.  Here, have some shirtless!Seb as a precautionary measure:

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(source)

He’s laughing at me because I’m kind of a masochist.  Anyway, check back with him if you need to.

I have German heritage on both sides of my family – my paternal great-great grandparents came over sometime in the early 20th century (don’t know much about them) and my maternal grandmother grew up in Nazi Germany.  Plus I was a history major specializing in European history from 1871 to the Cold War.  So…I know some things.  You could chalk up all that to another reason this movie was like catnip to me.  That said, it will take a bit to unpack all of this, so bear with me.

The idea of there being a superior race was pretty much unheard of before European imperialism and the Atlantic slave trade.  Before then, Europeans didn’t have much cause to compare themselves to the rest of the world.  But over the course of the 17th-19th centuries, that small part of the globe came to control the remaining 85% of the world.  Suddenly, they were faced with millions upon millions of “savages,” and had to justify their superiority.  Their right to subjugate the rest of humanity.

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Eugenics started [in America], Germans just ran with it.

THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS.  This is something that we do NOT get taught (or that we didn’t get taught when I was taking community college history classes, let alone high school), and I know it’s just an aside, but THANK YOU.

Nazi Germany based all its initial forays into eugenics on programs in America that were active in over 20 states.  That may not really be the topic of this post (which is a good one), but it is very very important to make sure people know.

copperbadge:

nehirose:

skyfallat221b:

WHAT IF ▬ Clint hasn’t been seen since the Avengers because he had other duties to attend…

insp. by the-age-of-the-understatement's submitted mini fic.

a) this is adorable

b) before i got to the one about ‘mama’ i totally thought someone had put together a pic/gifset for copperbadge’s hawkey and anklebiter verse.

Awww, I’m sure Clint had many nights during those first six months where he was like PLEASE LET HER MOTHER RANDOMLY SHOW UP AND DECIDE SHE WANTS HER AFTER ALL.

Being fair, if Izzy’s mother had shown up and asked to have Izzy back, Clint would have gone ballistic and fled with Iz.

sweetestel:

amuseoffyre:

peggylives:

sabacc:

Steve ‘did it hurt – a little’ Rogers

#/SCREAMS ABOUT HOW SKINNY!STEVE’S CHRONIC PAIN PROBABLY FUCKED UP HIS PERCEPTION OF PAIN FOR LIFE  #STEVE ROGERS ‘OKAY YEAH THAT’S UNPLEASANT’ WOULD PARALYSE ANYONE ELSE  #AND THAT’S NOT THE SERUM  #THAT’S SKINNY STEVE THROUGH AND THROUGH   (via beccabuchanans)

Don’t even start me on the fact he’s spent his whole life trying not to make a big deal of when he’s ill. He doesn’t want pity or sympathy. He doesn’t wanted to be treated like he’s weak. He doesn’t want to be looked down on because ‘he can’t take it’.

You only ever hear Steve Rogers scream once, and when he thinks people think he’s being weak, he stops and never screams again. Not unless you count the moment he sees Bucky fall to his death.

#that little punch to the ground#like ‘tough it out rogers’#’the bullies used to hit harder than this – this is nothing’#damn it steve#steve rogers (via mistymountainking)

actuallyclintbarton:

optimysticals:

furiouscuddles:

blandmarvelheadcanons:

Clint has given each Avenger a name in sign language.  Thor is the letter ‘T’ in the motion of a hammer.  Steve is a salute with an “R”. Hulk is an “H” over the bicep, but Bruce is the sign for doctor followed by the letter “B”.  Natasha is an “N” being shot from his other wrist like a widow bite. His own name is a “C” being drawn back like a bow.  Stark is an “S” taking flight, unless Barton is mad at him, then he fingerspells “A.S.” for Anthony Stark, but accidentally on purpose adds a second “S”. 

actually this is how giving names work in sign language! usually you sign the first letter of the persons name and a motion that summarises them as a person, or something that reminds you of them!

A.S.

s

Well, really, from what I’ve gathered it actually varies on how giving names works. I’ve seen the “first letter of your name as a sign that describes you” but then some Deaf communities say absolutely not, you don’t do that, they just get a sign or two that together in context mean that person. So (again, from what I’ve been able to research) it depends. Some people would find this way of naming people 100% accurate and some people would find it 100% INaccurate.

The Concept and Representation of Villainy in Iron Man

mcumeta:

I’ve been thinking about Marvel Cinematic Universe a lot lately (‘No!’, I hear you cry, ‘We never would have guessed!’) and because my BA in English will otherwise just gather dust, I’ve decided to do a series of essays on the films. Because goodness knows I don’t write enough as it is.

The first film I will look at is Iron Man, and the representation of villainy as portrayed in the film.

Iron Man was released in 2008, by which point the USA had already been involved for several years in the second Gulf War in as many decades. Words like terrorist, weapons of mass destruction, and insurgent are now part of the American vocabulary in a way they weren’t before 2001. The Middle East has been front and centre of news reports on and off since then.

In the opening scenes of Iron Man, we are dropped into a scenario which we are expected to recognise and understand: an unnamed middle eastern country (you can tell because of the desert landscape and the random peasant with a goat by the roadside) with US military operations ongoing and armoured vehicles. And we do. This is the place where the terrorists come from, according to all the news reports, and this is where the war on terror is being fought.

So far, so clean-cut.

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kath-ballantyne:

shanology:

awesomethingsandsuch:

shanology:

awesomethingsandsuch:

capslockapocalypse:

poutysoldier:

Steve’s first shield was neither the shield he had before he saved the 107th, nor was it the vibranium shield we’ve all become accustomed to. 

Steve’s first shield was Bucky. 

SHU T U P SHUT UP SHUT UP

And he was technically his last too. 

It’s interesting to consider the parallels between FA and WS and how it seems to speak of some punishment from trying to upset the natural order of things. Bucky is Steve’s protector and savior. That’s the way the universe has seen fit to arrange things. Steve’s post-serum hero man persona started to flip this, but ultimately he couldn’t save Bucky because that is just not the way it works…that’s not his role and the punishment for trying to fit into it was failure. 

And at the end of WS, you think the whole movie has been about Steve once again trying to save Bucky, but it’s not. Steve is the one lost and lonely and has nothing to make him happy. And then Bucky comes back. And, yes, Bucky is going to need some help (a lot of help), but essentially Bucky’s reemergence signals the start to Steve being saved. And at the end when Steve’s horribly injured and falling from the hellicarrier, that’s the moment the dynamic is starting to shift back to what it’s supposed to be and is, significantly, the thing that begins the Winter Soldier’s deprogramming.

And, even worse, Bucky is actually able to accomplish what Steve failed to do – save his friend from falling. Because that is the role he is supposed to play. That’s his “mission”, I suppose, in life. And while Steve can look out for Bucky and help Bucky, ultimately saving Bucky is not Steve’s mission.

But by letting himself be saved by Bucky, he is saving Bucky because he’s allowing them to play the roles they were meant to play, unlike what he did in FA. And that’s the only way either one of them can actually survive (and be happy). 

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Seriously though, this is brilliant.

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Also *puts on reading glasses to continue my 3,000 word dissertation* I think Bucky’s natural role as savior and protector didn’t just extend to Steve (though Steve fit perfectly in place as his best friend because they complemented each other so well), I think Bucky, at heart, is this way with everyone. He naturally takes care of people and sticks up for people. It’s an intrinsic and inherent part of his personality.

Then you have poor Steve inadvertently messing with that in FA and it leading to tragedy. 

Then, in WS, you have Hydra coming along and trying to do the same thing – twist Bucky away from his natural state of a giver/shield into someone who shoots through crowds of innocent people, if I’m recalling correctly, may have even murdered children (people more familiar with the comics can let me know if that’s hinted at like I’m remembering?) and, maybe most unnatural of all, is ordered to kill Steve.  And they’re doomed to fail too because they’re upsetting the natural order of things. 

Which is why I think – because so much of Bucky’s identity is tied up in saving/protecting, specifically Steve – that if Bucky has a brief appearance in AOU, it will be in some form of unexpectedly swooping in and saving Steve. Because I think he can hunt down Hydra and regain his memories, but he will never full be himself until he falls back into that role. Through shielding Steve, he will finally become who he really is at the core. 

You are killing me with this. I hope the Russo brothers and Sebastian Stan are reading it.

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OMG this!!!

jabberwockypie:

medievalpoc:

frank-e-shadow-tongue:

supernatasha:

part-ofthecult:

supernatasha:

Hogwarts Founders
» Idris Elba // Lucy Liu // Hrithik Roshan // Angel Coulby

While I do love that whoever made this did a good job matching actors to characters, the one issue I have is that Hogwarts is in England and what founded several centuries ago. I’m not saying that there wouldn’t have been blacks or asians in England at the time, but it’s still a historical inaccuracy to depict them as anything other than white Englishmen, since the culture of England at the time wouldn’t have had room for blacks and asians as anything other than slaves or traders.

Please don’t take this as me being racist, this is just me with a debilitating and incurable need for historical accuracy.

So let’s see. The Sorting claims it’s origins about a thousand or so years ago in it’s song, which implies the 1000s. JK Rowling described them as “medieval,“ which is about 500 to 1500, again agreeing with our 1000 date. So let’s work with that. We’ve got a pretty decent timeline to work with here. 

There have been black people in Scotland since “classical times,” and black moors present in James IV’s royal court in the 1500s, plus there’s St. Deiniol in Wales in the 500s, implying black people were also in the religious court instead of all just slaves and servants. Therefore, could a strong and fearless future-Gryffindor have ancestry native to the Isles? Hmmm.

Hannibal of Carthage was definitely not white (at least not in the modern sense). As a matter of fact, many Mediterranean descended people are mixed with Central Asians, South Asians, and North Africans so… But anyway, in 1555, black men were learning to be interpreters in London to help with trading in the Ghanian region. Here’s a coat of arms with black people on it dated 1616. Also, literally how do you not know about Dido Elizabeth Belle, an aristocratic lady of Scotland from the 1700s???

The Romani migrated out what is now modern day India and Pakistan in about the 1000s, so add in that they’re wizards who can fly and all that jazz, they could’ve easily gotten there within a year or two and settled in Scotland once they learned white people weren’t treating them very kindly. There you go, that’s how a South Asian Slytherin made it to Scotland just in time to found Hogwarts.

Here’s desi people of color from the Indian subcontinent, called Lascars, who had been sailing in Europe from as early as the 1400s, possibly earlier, still fitting that there could’ve been wizards in the British Isles about a hundred or so years earlier. Art from the 1600s showing brown men in turbans. Here’s an Indian man who in the 1700s ran a successful restaurant in England and taught white people to shampoo their hair lol.

Japanese emissaries came to Europe as early as 1584 and observed there were already Chinese and Japanese slaves among the overwhelmingly black slaves, something blamed on Christianity, which was part of the reason why Japan vehemently became isolated from that point.

Also about East Asia, Mongolian Genghis Khan made it to about Poland-ish in the 1200s, so it’s not a far bet to say the Chinese (who were also conquered by Khan on his way to Europe) could’ve found their way to Scotland around that time or a few hundred years earlier. Along with a smart cookie who would go on to be the founder of Ravenclaw.

Native Americans, of course, have been present in Europe for a while. In the 1500s, Manteo and Wanchese arrived in London. There’s evidence the Vikings and Indigenous Americans were friendly long before when Columbus blah blah, and there’s even evidence of Native Americans in Holland that’s like 2000 years old. Could a kind and loyal future Hufflepuff be one of those mixed race indigenous American-Africans?

ALSO considering the fact that Binns (the history professor at Hogwarts) specifically stated that witches and wizards were being persecuted and Hogwarts was built out of sight of Muggle eyes, it’s completely possible that POC came to Scotland and built the castle happily for other magical humans to have a safe place. Since HP universe is a fantasy anyway, read these article while you’re at it.

So yeah, I understand your implication that you don’t want to be racist or anything like that (bc being called racist is ofc so much worse than actually being ignorant), but POC were not just traders and slaves in the British Isles, they were a fuckton of other things your history books aren’t telling you (or trying to intentionally steer you away from). So me having an all-brown cast for a location in a dominantly-white place I’m sure is irking the fuck out of you, and that makes me so glad to see you confronted with that “incurable” need for historical accuracy you have.

And check out this rad blog: Racebending Harry Potter.

how come the only time people mention the enslavement of black people in Europe is when they want to deny our presence in fantasy fiction?

And that’s what it really boils down to pretty much every time.

Because someone couldn’t deal with a single photoset with characters of color in a FANTASY setting. None of the “fact checking” is really necessary, because that isn’t really the issue. Fantasy fiction isn’t something that should be subject to “proof”, but when it comes to racial diversity, it invariably is every time.

It’s my hope that with Medievalpoc, this endless quibbling about what is and is not “historically accurate” can be done away with, and Toni Morrison’s quote here can become creative people of color’s realities:

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When I saw the first comment I was going “Oh, I hope medievalpoc will tackle this!”

Also awesome casting.

youneedacat:

“Towards a Behavior of Reciprocity” by Morton Ann Gernsbacher.  Not captioned as far as I can tell.  It mostly goes through a bunch of studies showing the best way to “improve autistic social skills” is to train nonautistic people to behave reciprocally (with give and take) to autistic people.  And how weird this is given that “lack of social and emotional reciprocity” is a criterion for autism, not for nonautistic people — yet it’s the nonautistic people who lack reciprocity when it comes to autistic people, and autistic people show plenty of reciprocity if we’re shown it first.

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)