My question is: what is Steve Rogers’s body count?
…
We don’t talk about that a lot because he’s an American Hero ™ and American Heroes don’t ever actually kill people even when they’re, you know, soldiers in the actual fucking Army. The American Hero has to show mercy and give everybody a second chance and any time the Bad Guy dies, it has to be because he made a mistake that lead to his own death. The hero can never actually just fucking murder him in our stories because that would be wrong and a true American would never do something like that.So, like, has Steve Rogers ever shot a dude in the face? Has he ever snapped anybody’s neck? Has he ever been struggling for his own life and used his shield to take a life?
If you have either canon comics knowledge or just Opinions and Feelings, please feel free to share. Because, like, dude was a soldier in WWII on the European Front fighting Nazis, kicking open doors with gun literally blazing, so he’s obviously killed people, but we never discuss this. How does Steve reconcile killing? Does he feel guilt? Is he comfortable with his actions? Has he killed people since he got pulled out of the ice? How does he feel about taking human lives? Does he talk to anybody about it? Does he just internalize it and let it eat him up inside?
This is an excellent question, so I decided to look into it (in MCU, not the comics, sorry). Turns out it’s incredibly difficult to determine Steve’s on-screen body count because 99% of his kills are unconfirmed/ambiguous—which, given that Marvel is now owned by family-friend Disney, is obviously deliberate, and made easy by the fact that Steve’s weapon of choice is his shield (blunt force trauma, no penetration, leaving no obvious marks). A metal Frisbee doesn’t look like much of a weapon, right?
However, as a traumatologist in spe, I know for a fact that a shield thrown hard enough to embed itself in a metal bulkhead would definitely kill anyone it hit, especially if—as here—it’s aimed directly at the person’s head:
There’s a good chance almost everyone Steve hits with the shield full force ends up dead/severely incapacitated and probably disabled for life.
Tag: wintercyan
JUST NOTICED LAST NIGHT THAT BUCKY WAS ALSO ON A DRIP IN THE ENTIRE CHAIR SCENE
I know it’s a fucked up scene, I do, but that to me just is nOPE. What the fuck are they putting into his system on top of the mind wiping and the physical abuse and the conditioning.
wait, what?
THE TUBE ON THE BACK OF HIS RIGHT HAND, IS THAT A DRIP?
Dr. Cyan calling in here, and yes, that is absolutely a peripheral IV cannula on his right hand. Watching the scene carefully you can see the IV stand on his right, with two infusion bags attached (sorry for the crappy images, maybe someone can grab a better screenshot if they have the DVD):
If you watch frame by frame, you can see that Bucky pops the connection tube off when he attacks the med tech; it dangles freely from the IV bag when the guards move to point their guns at him. In real life he’d probably have torn the cannula out of his hand entirely; it happens all the time with little old ladies in my ER so I was disappointed the directors didn’t draw on that particular body horror/’ouch’-factor here.
The infusion bags appear to be one 1,000 mL isotonic saline or D5W/D5NS (dextrose/glucose in a saline solution) for tissue rehydration, and one 500 mL isotonic saline, most likely a diluent for injectable/parenteral drug administration:
Which drug? Well, it could be any HYDRA concoction, but I’d put my money on the tried-and-true fallback of some benzodiazepine. BZDs/derivatives are anxiolytic (anxiety-reducing), hypnotic (sedative/sleep-inducing), anticonvulsant (good for when you’re electrocuting someone’s brain), amnestic (affecting memory), and myorelaxant (muscle-relaxing), a nice cocktail for working with the Winter Soldier – and hey! paradoxical BZD reactions include aggression and violence (such as attacking attending medical staff), and it may also cause anterograde amnesia as well as internalised feelings of turmoil, anxiety, depression, and loss of the ability to experience and/or express feelings. Plus, withdrawal can cause depression, depersonalisation, derealisation, hypersensitivity, psychosis, and suicidal ideation – sounds like a lot of Bucky-in-from-the-cold fanfics, am I right?
Seriously, writing this, I’m wondering where the withdrawal!Bucky fanfics are – the fics I’ve read all focus on his mental issues, but what about the physiological ones? I’d really like to read a fic about Bucky coming off whatever HYDRA pumped him full of – now that’d make for some neat hurt/comfort (and a lot of curling up on Steve’s bathroom floor shaking and puking his guts out).
(When I get my hands on a HD copy of the movie I’ll have a look at the rest of the medical setup in that scene. I’m especially interested in the screens behind the chair – maybe some more medical meta to be explored? Please send any screenshots my way if you have them!)
Hey, zooeyscigar – angsty fic reference here!
knitting in the dark 