I want to watch Winter Soldier today in preparation for tonight, but I really do need to work and do laundry and take a walk. Maybe I can just march in place in front of the TV.

Ah! Is that where he fucked up his wrist?

Yeah, he said in an interview the helicopter scene is where he "tweaked something" that still isn't quite right.

You'll know, as soon as you see it, which scene it is.

Uh, yeah, so I've been reflecting on just how underwritten Natalia was in this episode.

I just keep coming back to how much more nuanced the final showdown would have been if Nat had been there, too. Nat has every reason in the world to hold a grudge against Bucky, since he put a bullet in her. But! Nat knows EXACTLY the kind of guilt that Bucky is feeling, since she, too, is a reformed assassin. Also! Nat knew that Tony's parents were assassinated by Hydra, and she ALSO chose not to tell him. There's got to be some fallout for that, right?

So Nat potentially has all the feels that Steve, Tony, and T'Challa have, but she gets written out of the final act, she's expected to deal with it like it's no big deal, and her pain doesn't count, I guess because her pain isn't a man-pain?

I thought Nat was written pretty well. I also thought she walked out after she told off Tony, which didn't seem out of character. There was already an enormous amount of plot and character to service in 2.5 hours. Having her in the final showdown would have been Too Much for one movie, I think. I'm a big Natasha fangirl, but I wasn't surprised or annoyed that she left and wasn't in the big showdown. Besides, how could she have survived it, when Iron Man, Captain America, and the Winter Soldier almost killed each other? Putting on my Writer Hat, I can see why she wasn't there. I can also see Natasha NOT holding a grudge against Bucky for shooting her - she understands it not being personal and him not being in his right mind, in a way that Tony couldn't understand in that moment. And wait, how did Nat know about Tony's parents? I missed that. If she did, there's still time for that fallout, there's two more Avengers movies coming, and she'll be better served by having that showdown when there aren't three overpowered crazy men trying to annihilate each other in the room.

But I do agree that we need more Natasha. We always need more Natasha. Except for romantic soggy JossWantsMoreBabies! Natasha, we can do without that version.

Oh, also, there was a thing that didn't seem to follow with the plot of CA:TWS but I decided I didn't care that much.

Namely, those trigger words for Bucky weren't ever mentioned before. Seems like they would have been used if they hadn't been made up just for this movie. But, I don't care, because it was awesome and I heart Bucky.

And wait, how did Nat know about Tony's parents?

She found out about it at the same time that Steve did, when Mainframe!Zola showed them.

Right. Well. It's not much of a stretch, for an assassin to keep secrets. "Don't tell" is probably her default setting.

I think Natasha not telling Tony is a thing he would expect--I think that Steve not telling him came, to him, out of left field: that this friend of his Dad's, this friend of his, would keep that from him, is a far bigger gut punch than the co-worker/friend/spy who you already expect to never be telling you something. Seeing it directly after Ultron, I was actually really happy with how they wrote Natasha, even if her role can always be larger in my mind. I like that, unlike Ultron, they really did remember that Steve and Natasha are friends.

In somewhat related topics: who would like to discuss with me the Rolling Stone pictures of CEvans. Because I kinda want to talk about those almost as much as I want to talk about the movie. Because holy fuckballs.