(Before we start, this is a positive post about their relationship btw. lol)
The portrayal of the continuation Steve and Bucky’s
relationship in Civil War has divided opinion among fandom, specifically
whether they talked to each other enough after finally being reunited after
death and time and torture. Putting to one side discussion of what we should
reasonably expect from a Marvel movie in terms of emotions and talking about
them, whether there was time for it with a war going on, and if the writers
were intentionally no-homoing us (because then this would be a dissertation and
not a Tumblr post lol):
To articulate my own perspective of
disappointment briefly: of course the magnitude of Steve’s actions in Civil War
indicate just how much Bucky means to him, and “actions speak louder than words” after all,
but watching moments between characters (and re-watching on a loop for 5 hours…or
is that just me) is much more rewarding than just thinking about an abstract
concept in your head. We as a fandom obviously thrive on moments to gif and
quotes to paste all over everything. Especially after all the beautiful things
Chris has said in interviews about Steve and Bucky and quotes like “I’m with
you to the end of the line,” and “Even when I had nothing I had Bucky,” from
The Winter Soldier, it’s disappointing to not have nearly as many quotes and
overemotional moments like that in Civil War. There’s nothing between Steve and Bucky to rival the
sheer level of emotion in the Helicarrier and Potomac scenes in the Winter
Soldier, and Civil War can seem emotionally stunted in comparison.
However, as someone who was also initially
disappointed by Steve and Bucky’s
interactions, after thinking it over I think it’s not that the writers
didn’t give them opportunities to talk about their feelings,it’s that Steve
and Bucky had those opportunities and just couldn’t do it. Steve asks Bucky if
he knows him and Bucky says he only knows about Steve from reading about him,
but later on the Quinjet demonstrates that he remembers specific moments
together with Steve. He was lying,
like Steve said; he can’t even talk about it because it clearly means too much
for him to emotionally process, especially into words. He’s been living
alone for two years after decades of being less than human, Bucky doesn’t know how to go about expressing his emotions
to Steve.
Bucky opens up another opportunity when he says
“I’m not sure I’m worth all this,” and Steve can’t even reply. He
pauses for so long trying to find a way to express how deeply untrue that is as
we watch his expression cycle through multiple emotions, but it’s too much for
him to even put into words. Instead he settles on reassuring Bucky that the
things he did were not his fault, that they didn’t affect his worth as an individual
or to Steve. Soon after, Steve indirectly lets Bucky know just how much he is
worth it by asking him about one his memories. Not in a way that’s careful
because of Bucky’s fractured memory, in a way that acknowledges the reality of
their awful situation: just a normal “Hey, remember that time…?”
between long-time friends. He’s letting Bucky know how much their shared
history and their friendship means to him in a way that doesn’t create a
stressful outpouring of emotions that Bucky clearly isn’t ready for. When Steve
directly asked Bucky “Do you know me?” he avoided the discussion.
When Steve prompted Bucky with a casual “Remember this?” Bucky opened
up and showed that he did. He laughed and smiled and made a joke, and they were
able to share the first moment of casual friendship between them since their
past lives. Even reaching out and touching each other like they always did.
They care about each other very much, they want
to communicate, but not only is Bucky still in a very fragile place – that he
can’t handle the weight of their past, of what’s happening to them now, when
confronted about it as directly as “Do you know me?” – but so is
Steve, who wants to know if Bucky remembers, if they can get back what they had
but, when confronted with Bucky thinking himself unworthy of Steve’s devotion,
can’t even gather his words together enough to directly respond to the idea.
Steve has never done well with putting his emotions into words or accepting
them from others that care about him, it’s not surprising how emotionally
stunted he is now after undergoing more loss and suffering on such a grand
scale. It’s also not surprising that Bucky is emotionally stunted, not just
because of what was done to him during his 70 years with Hydra, but since he
still, even now, has things in his mind that other people put there against his
will. That’s why he wants to go back into cryostasis, he doesn’t what to
process who he could be now or the relationship he could recover with Steve
until he is the only one inside his own mind.
(Not to say that they couldn’t have hugged in the mid-credit scene…but
Steve didn’t look so good, I think he might have cried and that wouldn’t have
been good for Bucky. *laughs and cries at the same time* I would’ve liked for
Steve to say something as simple as “I’ll miss you until then,” but I think even
that might put emotional stress on Bucky, which Steve clearly doesn’t want to
do.)
None of this is to say that I don’t think you
could possibly disagree and shouldn’t have a problem with how their
relationship was handled: that’s fine and I don’t want to argue about it! As
someone that was disappointed but then basically had an epiphany on how to
interpret all this in a way that made me want to lay down on the ground and cry
about Steve and Bucky in this movie a lot more than previously, I just wanted to
share that there is definitely a way to read their relationship in the movie as
an emotional and realistic continuation of their beautiful story and hopefully I might be able to turn around the opinion of some others that were disappointed and you can enjoy the movie more! But it’s definitely hard not to want more between Steve and Bucky when there’s two year waits between movies!
If you recall in a previous interview Seb said he was holding onto a picture on his phone from the CATWS filming, and that he’d share it with us later…this is that photo.
Zynn's Exodus 