steve

a lot of people are incredibly mad about his ending in this movie. contraversially, and true to my trend, i’m going to defend it.

steve’s arch since the first avengers movie has been about him being less ‘ill give up my life for the many’ and more ‘i need some me time’. in his first movie, he’s Captain America™️, branded patriotism sold to the masses to support the war effort. he maintains this role both in the campy tv show character and in the actual soldier fighting with the howling commandos character. even the 70 years in the ice he’s probably still marketed as the embodiment of america’s success. also important is the establishment of peggy as a key element to Steve’s story. we see bucky, we know he’s important, but he’s not as integral as peggy in the first movie. the first avenger establishes him as a selfless and very easily manupilated character and provides a complete opposite to tony’s incredibly selfish and arrogant character at the beginning of his series.

the winter soldier has such a quick curve in his character from ‘needs of the many bugs’ to ‘needs of the few, or the one buck’. he learns more about the modern world and you bet your ass steve will have an issue with how people be these days. when he’s in the museum, he doesn’t smile once. he’s a veteran. his sacrifice and that of his friends is being sold and eaten up by the public as a spectacle as he’s left to deal with the trauma of war and missing out on 70 years of the world. i’m p sure it’s in this movie where we have that moment with him and peggy where’s she’s in the hospital, so again we know she’s still incredibly important to him and his story. but bucky is the central villain to the plot, so now we learn why he’s so important to steve. bucky coming back gives some level of reassurance to steve to see another person he knows, but his best friend is trying to kill him. thus the plot thickens. steve’s mission is to eradicate hydra for the whole movie, he just also wants to save bucky. he doesn’t yeet himself onto two helicarriers to put in those chips just to save bucky, he does it to protect the potential victims of the insight programme, the potential of getting his best friend back is just a bonus. steve is still kinda in the ‘needs of the many’ state of mind in this movie but we see small shifts in how he treats fury’s desires to maintain shield by immediately turning them down, and he’s less naïve from the first movie by distrusting natasha. but again remember that his story almost directly parallels tony’s in their subtle overarching plots regarding selfishness verses selflessness. they’re shifting in their perspectives across their movies to be what each other was.

civil war was an adventure, but it’s also where steve becomes completely self indulgent. he starts a war defending his position, beliefs, and bucky at the cost of a lot of public safety and discourse. (please note the avengers movies never really added anything to caps character n just sorta made him campy so they’re not that integral here) sokovia killed a lot of people, but steve has seen all that before in the wars so it doesn’t bother him as much as it does tony. so steve is against the sokovia accords limiting his freedom in his actions, which would probably also affect his ability to find bucky if it was properly monitored, and goes against his personal interests but might actually be better for the greater good. steve literally gives up on tony and their friendship at the end for bucky, to protect him. by doing this he also gives up his role as an avenger for a while, becoming a threat because he was more interested in his own affairs than what he could do to help the masses. while tony signs the accords, both because of his own guilt but he also makes a lot of smart decisions to try and make the world a safer place, and every attempt by tony is meddled with by steve until it crumbles. but despite all his troubles with bucky, we can’t forget the scenes of peggy’s funeral (gonna forget about sharon carter here as well bc that was a bit of a yikes). reminding the audience of how much he’s lost of his old life and how important peggy is to his character. even whedon had a moment in aou to show how much steve truly wants to see peggy again in the mind manipulation scene with wanda.

in infinity war we don’t get much time to do any real character development for anyone but it’s because it was sort of like a filler chapter to get to the good stuff in endgame. which is where steve’s arc finishes. he is the only one who’s had to deal with this kind of loss before. to loose everything you know and be in a completely different reality from the one you know. so he’s not affected, and he’s trying to get everyone to think like him because he knows there’s no point in wallowing. the rest of the movie we see the old selfless steve come out more and be more dominant because they have the chance to bring back bucky and fix everything.

but then we have the ending, that everyone hates. at this point we have to remember, steve knows bucky is safe, bucky already knows what steve is going to do through some heavily implications in the scene, and steve was the only one not to interact with his designated lost one during their time travel when the opportunity arose. he didn’t sacrifice it because he know it would affect too much. tony and thor? fuck time i wanna see my dead parent (which is fair and i don’t blame them and the scenes were incredibly moving but i’m proving a point), and there is a steve under the ice in this world as well, who will fix all the hydra stuff when his time comes. steve goes to peggy to live the life he always wanted. i can’t exactly imagine he’d be running around changing everything with everyone recognising him as the Captain America™️. he went to spend the time with peggy that he missed by sacrificing himself the first time. he went to have the family steve has always wanted at his core. he saved the universe, he was just about ready to do it single handedly before those portals opened, and now he just wants peace. he gets to be selfish now. and he deserves it! he’s done being the hero, and his contract is up, so the most satisfying and canonical ending we could get is the one that we were given. yes i think steve would probably have spent more time with bucky, but it was the end of a very heavy and long movie, having a steve and bucky montage would not have worked.

we got an ending where steve got that dance, finally, and the role of captain america has been handed down to a really good choice (i thought it was gonna be bucky too, but i’m strangely more happy with sam and i think it fits better). steve finally got to be selfish, he didn’t even kiss and tell. he’s finally an old man who lived his life with the longest running love interest he’s had. be happy for him for five minutes and you’ll realise he deserves it.