I'm wondering where that book is too. Also I missed ALL the Bucky-Natasha interesting interaction somehow. Might've lost it in Bucky's hair. Gotta go see it again.

I'm working on a fic to resolve that question as we speak. If I don't obey the fic muse when she speaks, she may stop speaking to me altogether.

Am I remembering the timeline right? Did Howard have the drugs in his car trunk that they pumped into the other Winter Soldiers?

I thought that looked like Kree blood that was being pumped into the super soldiers.

Which is interesting considering what's happening on AoS right now.

That's what I thought too, Nora.

Sorry. More CA:CW (which I always read as "CAW CAW!") babble. But! I keep thinking about the contrasts in grief and trauma we get here, I just can't get away from it and Steve and Tony are both fucking swimming in it at the worst possible moment. And, well, Steve and Tony process it so fucking differently.

Steve's been described as the guy who won't bleed all over someone else--and we've seen it twice now: people in his life die and he basically isolates himself as his first response (interesting Bucky and Natasha parallels here in the post-funeral scenes for both, each actively seeking him out and refusing to let him do that entirely). Tony just sort of hemorrhages all over the place (I don't say this as a criticism: he's not actively trying to spray arterial trauma, but his methods of coping-by-avoiding are often so very, very, very loud and shit gets messy fast). Neither coping mechanism--because not bleeding all over someone else basically means you're busy walking around with emotional internal bleeding--is especially healthy. They've grown to like each other, but man, they so, so, so do not understand each other.

God, they're both falling apart at the seams here. It's a lot more obvious--especially with Steve--on the second viewing (not being in 3D helped a lot). And it's just so fascinating to watch them both shatter in that last fight. Three solo movies, two Avengers movies, we've seen Steve angry a lot--but it's almost always been righteous or focused and channelled into a fight. I think this is the first time we've seen it actually go into seriously primal territory. It's just, ultimately, such a violently human fight.

And it's just so fascinating to watch them both

Man, yes. All of this. I don't think I've ever been as shocked-but-not-really by anything in any of the MCU movies as when Steve slammed his shield into Tony's chest (Iron Man suit, okay).

Another thought:

It seems like Tony has been actively trying to deal with his grief over his parents' death, and regret over not being a better person or a better son or whatever. That was the whole point of the simulation at the beginning, right? And then to have that thrown back in his face, that they were murdered by the person who's the cause of his disagreement with Steve? Ow.

I wonder how many people are annoyed that their summer blockbuster popcorn movie is making them think about motivations and "Maybe nobody is the good guy."

Bucky still needs hugs.

And a headband.

#TeamHeadband