#that yes generic take walker doesnt work
valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn:
At the end of the day Peggy is a far more comfortable character for Marvel and Disney than Steve ever was.
They wrote him as a fierce socialist who has no problem with fighting the system, taking down Shield, defying the government and having a speech in his movies about civil rights and freedom, speaking of politicians having agendas and standing up to the UN.
But when it comes to Peggy… she IS the system. She took an active part in Operation Paperclip, she worked alongside Zola, she was head of Shield for decades and she never fought against the system at all, quite the opposite. Do we ever hear what she thinks of civil rights? Nope, not a damn word. For all we know she’s perfectly happy as long as she keeps power to herself (in the case of Captain Carter) or enough privilege to do whatever she wants.
It’s never about helping the little guy, it’s all about her and her wants.
If Steve had avoided the plane crash and had returned to base, the very moment anyone implied they should pardon a bunch of nazis and hire them to work with them he would have stopped that immediately - he would have never forgiven Peggy or Howard for getting Zola out of jail, especially after what he did to Bucky (and many other soldiers he must have experimented on as well).
You know that scene in TWS where Steve tells Fury not only they’re fighting Hydra but they’re taking down Shield too? Well, he would have done something similar here - if the options are hire nazis or destroy the SSR he would have done the latter.
And so they’re not content with just claiming she’s his one and only true love, they have to portray her as a “female Steve” to the point of giving her his catchphrase? They were so uncomfortable with who Steve was that in their desperation they replaced him with her, they sent him back to effectively get rid of him and brought her to the present fully expecting the audience to get behind her like we had done with him but that’s quite simply never gonna happen. She’s nothing like Steve and she will never be.
Steve is an uncomfortable character for Disney. So is Sam. Neither of them can or would endorse who and what Disney is, not if they write them correctly and not make them total strawmen. Which I’m terrified of.
Peggy is incredibly weird.
I mean that she’s weird in that the only thing holding her back is sexism, and she’s in a world where that is apparently the only true axis of oppression that exists. She’s set up in a way that means she could have been written to be honestly empathetic. But Disney also can’t acknowledge that there is such a thing as racism in their world- the closest they have come to it was TFatWS, and that was… weak at best. Peggy only showed that she was exceptional, that she was personally able to overcome, but not see where the world needed fixing.
That’s honestly the problem with a lot of superhero media. Superheroes are innately conservative. They want to preserve what is, not change things. Usually, the people wanting change are written as villains. It’s a really gross shortcut- show how the world has let someone down, and wanting to take the matters extreme enough to actually achieve change are seen as extreme, unless its up against a villain like what we had in Black Widow- someone who is operating outside of the norm and is safe to vent upon. Even that got pushback though.
But a white woman like Peggy- a beautiful princess who only needs to be acknowledged for her exceptionalism to become one of the men and not change anything of note- is not a danger the way Steve (disable, poor, subtexually queer) and Sam (black, poor) wouldn’t. She weaponizes her femininity to uphold the status quo, while both Steve and Sam want to bring it down.
She doesn’t stand for anything.
Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head. Steve, Bucky and Sam appeal to a very different demographic to Peggy. There is something inherently marginalised about all three of these men, and by nature, what they stand for. And there is something very…political about what Steve and Sam stand for. I think this is partly why I object to the reading that Civil War happened purely because Steve wanted to be selfish and protect Bucky. I think Civil War is the first movie to start diluting Steve’s moral stance and minimising the importance of what he’s fighting for. Steve’s motivation is personal, they tell you, handwaving away what the Accords mean to privacy and individual responsibility.
We knew CEVans’ contract was ending, but they gave him an ending that was in opposition to Steve’s entire belief system. They stripped the heroism away from Steve before they kicked him out of the MCU. They are performative about the way they sell Sam, and have made him conformist while not given him any opportunity to discuss his values.
And I think you’re right, neither Steve nor Sam represent the America they want. It’s telling that they voice more sympathy for Walker’s plight than they do for Sam. Sam is relegated to hurt on behalf of other people, but not be a person with his own hurts.
Walker - able-bodied, golden child, broken only by using the serum at the wrong time. Just like Peggy - able-bodied, privileged, held back only by her sex. And you’re right…for dudebros that’s kinda the fantasy, isn’t it? A woman whose “only” flaw is being a woman? Who is attractive, posh, smart, powerful, kickass…with no moral viscera to speak of. The perfect soulless doll for you to project your own belief system onto.
