# The Curve Of Steves Back # Many Thoughts Head Full

# the curve of Steve’s back # many thoughts head full

Credit @dyke4bucky on Twitter.

sam’s face when natasha agrees with tony about the accords is sending me

shadow, you’ll travel to what waits ahead (x)

The Anti-Christ came and went, but no one noticed because he wasn’t worse than the current state of the world already is. The rapture followed, but no one went to Heaven, so we didn’t notice that either. We’ve been living in Hell for the last 5 years, and no one has noticed, yet.

Voice, agency and power in the Smithsonian scene in CATWS

I wrote a post yesterday about the symbology of pictures in the Smithsonian scene of CATWS, and I mentioned a topic that now I feel like exploring more.

In yesterday’s post I argued that the scene contrasts how Peggy is seen as older (both in the 50s footage and in the parallel scene where Steve visits her in person), in color, and we actually hear her speak, both in the footage and in person; and how Bucky is seen in pictures and wordless footage, “frozen” (eh) in the 40s, and even when we meet him in person he’s literally muted and stuck in the appearance and age he had in the 40s because he was literally frozen for most of the time that has passed since then.

Then I was chatting with @winterofthedarkestlight​​ and it occurred to me that the contrast goes beyond just Peggy and Bucky.

I once saw a video that analyzed the use of music in the MCU and it argued that the Smithsonian scene should have eliminated the museum voice that narrates Steve’s and Bucky’s story, because it adds unnecessary “noise” since it provides information that we already know from the previous Cap movie (unless they assumed that most people didn’t actually watch it). I personally agreed with that, but yesterday I realized that the unnecessary noise actually serves a function in the logic of the scene.

There are, in fact, a lot of words in the Smithsonian scene. Quotes and captions on the walls and panels, the narrating voice, Peggy’s video. A lot of people are speaking, directly or not: Peggy, the academic team that put on the exhibition and wrote the texts, the President of the US whose quote is featured at the beginning of the scene. Two figures are silent: Steve and Bucky. Steve literally starts the scene putting his finger in front of his mouth, to ask the child who recognized him not to reveal his identity. Bucky is seen first in his solo panel, then in the footage with Steve, who figuratively also “died” in the 40s (just like the Peggy Steve knew “died” and only lives in the black and white picture in Steve’s compass). 

Steve and Bucky are silent while other people talk about them. Steve has lost control over his own narrative: he’s literally in disguise, pretending to be someone else, while the exhibition speaks about him in terms that are not Steve’s. “A symbol to the nation, a hero to the world–the story of Captain America is one of honor, bravery and sacrifice”… blah blah. Steve doesn’t have a voice, and doesn’t have agency over his figure and the meaning of his actions. He’s become a tool in the hands of the dominant power system, that pushes a certain kind of patriotic propaganda of heroism in the war against the Nazis… a shiny surface painted over a much darker reality. That’s why it’s so important that he gives his speech about what courage and heroism means for him over the intercom when they take the headquarters: he stops being silent, he uses his own voice and reclaims agency over his own narrative (in fact, by putting himself in the symbolical place of Pierce, who was the authority that would give the speeches in the building, and replacing that narrative).

Parallel to Steve’s runs Bucky’s narrative, of course. He’s been subjected to the same thing, except obviously in a more horrifying way. He’s been robbed of control over his narrative, stripped of agency and stripped of his own identity to the point he doesn’t know his name (similarly, Steve is called Captain Rogers or Captain America, and when Peggy says his name in the video, she corrects herself: there’s no more space for Steve to exist).

Neither Steve or Bucky, although in (apparently) very different ways (Steve, after all, is also fighting Hydra’s battles at the beginning of the movie, Steve simply doesn’t know…), are not in control of who they are and how others perceive them. (Which is also why Steve starts the movie with a “stealth suit”, monochrome and meant not to be seen, and later picks his old suit which is meant to be seen and recognized, by Bucky but also by everyone else - “if they’re shooting at you they’re bad”, he tells Sam, which also translates in “if they’re shooting at me and you, a walking flag and a giant bird, they’re easily recognizable as Hydra agents”.)

The scene in the Smithsonian, with the “twin” scene afterwards of Steve visiting Peggy, emphasize how the Steve-Peggy relationship can no longer happen (age gap aside), and possibly could not actually happen outside of the war even without Steve’s missed time. Because Peggy has a voice; she’s one of the figures who has agency, and, while she’s no longer in the business because she’s gotten too old and sick for it, she’s held power through a large portion of her life. She’s one of the speakers; she’s been one of those holding control over the narrative (of Steve, among the rest). Again, her responsibility over Hydra’s flourishing (and, more or less indirectly, over what happened to Bucky) inside of Shield through the decades should have been addressed in the third Cap movie, because it’s just something that had a lot of narrative potential. I’m not saying she should have been framed as a villain, but at least re-framed in a more critical way: Fury was not a villain in CATWS but still acknowledged he was part of the problem, and took a step back and handed the reins to Steve. The narrative never acknowledges that the original Shield founders were part of the problem, and CACW instead makes a nonsensical mess of a plot (if we can even call it a plot, because it goes nowhere and is just a pretext for Tonypain) with Howard Stark and just kills Peggy off screen and uses another woman to send through her words because women are interchangeable, so.

Anyway. CATWS suggests, at least, that Peggy is on the sides of the ones who have a voice, thus power. Steve, on the other hand, doesn’t share that experience at all (and you know what Steve thinks about shared life experience and relationships), but he instead shares Bucky’s experience of silence and loss of control over his own identity and purpose. Again, while the ways Hydra uses the two of them are very different, they’re genuinely just two sides of the same coin, because Steve starts the movie just as much as a pawn of the system, he just has the material, physical, emotional and cognitive tools (including the support of Natasha and Sam) to break out of it earlier. (Can you believe CACW doesn’t actually give Bucky a single chance to actually… face… Hydra at all. I’m not saying he should have gotten revenge because that’s not a good narrative, but he deserved to get some closure in regards of his abusers, instead of getting more abuse and just getting to suffer because of what he’s suffered before.)

I’ll finish this post here because I have accidentally entered the not-civil-war-friendly zone and we don’t need me ranting again today, but I just wanted to say how fascinating it is that such a small scene like the Smithsonian visit can hold so many layers. They just don’t make ‘em like they used to, uh.