Yeah, it is.
You know, I think the Steve/Bucky relationship in this movie suffers from two problems. Actually, make that three.
The first and most obvious is clearly a bad case of NO HOMO. I do think the movie as a whole, and the Steve/Bucky relationship in particular, were intentionally gutted and left to bleed out all the emotions on the pavement so as to minimize the risk of them coming across as too gay.
It was a deliberate choice not to let Steve and Bucky share a hug now, when they had no problem hugging in CATFA. It was a deliberate choice to have Steve keep his helmet on during some of the more emotional moments, instead of removing it like he did in CATWS. It was a deliberate choice to remove Steve’s smile, the smile that we saw in the first trailer, from the final cut of the vice scene. It was a deliberate choice to have Steve barely react as Bucky was put in a cage, denied a lawyer, faced the prospect of being institutionalized without his consent, and in the end decided to get frozen again because he didn’t believe he had any other option. It was a deliberate choice to have Steve bring up the insignificant memory of a girl Bucky dated (HE’S STRAIGHT YOU GUYS), instead of a memory that spoke to Bucky’s character, to Bucky’s goodness and worth as a person in general and to Steve in particular, like for example the memory of that time Bucky made sure to let Steve know that he wouldn’t be alone after his mother’s death.
The second problem is that the creative minds behind this mess don’t think Bucky’s character has any value whatsoever outside of being used to further Steve’s own plot and character development. Whenever they’re forced to comment on Bucky per se, and not Bucky in relation to his usefulness to Steve’s arc, they say vague shit like: “it’ll be interesting to see what kind of person he is in the next movie” (it’s always the next movie). This, I think, is the reason why it didn’t even occur to them that there might be the need, at some point, to hear Steve ask Bucky: “how are you?”. It’s also part of the reason why the idea that he could actively work on healing from the aftereffects of his trauma isn’t even contemplated. They essentially view Bucky as a plot device.
Weirdly enough, this ended up hurting Steve’s character more than Bucky’s, because in so many instances they have Steve also acting as if Bucky is just a plot device. “He’s alive,” he says to Natasha when they’re being arrested, and that’s it. That’s literally the extent of Steve’s caring. He does not want Tony to kill Bucky, but he’s totally fine with Bucky believing himself unworthy of Steve’s devotion, and he’s totally fine with Bucky deciding to store himself away until he can be fixed, like a broken toy.
The third problem is that they’re ableist as fuck. Which is the other part of the reason why the idea that Bucky could actively work on his recovery isn’t contemplated. In this context, Steve never doubting even for a second that Bucky might not be the bomber until well after he’s been captured, acting cold and angry toward Bucky for things that were completely out of Bucky’s control, makes perfect sense. Once again, it’s Steve’s characterization that suffers the most for this, because in order to distance him from Bucky’s perceived… villainy? Craziness? Instability? He is written as insensitive and kinda victim blame-y.
Ironically, the fact that Bucky is INNOCENT could have been a perfectly good, NOT GAY reason for Steve to defend Bucky in this movie. Wouldn’t Steve defend an innocent man, ANY innocent man, from prosecution? I like to think he would! NO NEED FOR GAY FEELINGS, or even FEELINGS IN GENERAL. Steve is doing the right thing! Except. Markus and McFeely (and the Russos, because let’s not forget they basically co-wrote this) do not believe that Bucky is innocent. Or they don’t want to believe it, because they know they did a huge disservice to Tony’s character by having him act in a way that directly parallels the literal villain of this story (because they’re lazy and unimaginative and couldn’t think of a better way to write a conflict between two heroes other than: let’s have them try to kill each other.)
Instead, they decided to push the angle that Bucky is Steve’s last link to the past. They even killed Peggy to REALLY DRIVE THE POINT HOME. That was a safe angle, an angle that didn’t risk making the viewers feel anything for Bucky other than a vague idea that Steve was being selfish in wanting to save him. That was what they really wanted us to take away from this movie, they told us outright. Steve is selfish for wanting to save Bucky, because Bucky is not worth it. Because Bucky’s only good as a memento of Steve’s long lost past.
If it seems like Steve isn’t really interested in Bucky as a person, just as a symbol, it’s because that’s exactly how Steve was written.
The only good thing about this movie is that it stops JUST THIS SIDE OF the kind of awful that can’t be fixed in future movies. But will future movies do it? As long as they’re in these guys’ hands, I absolutely don’t believe so.
It’s a pity because up to a certain degree, it would make sense for Steve and Bucky not to be on the same page now. It would make sense for Steve to be weird and awkward around a Bucky that he feels he does not know anymore. It would make sense, it actually would be very in character, for Steve to not know how to talk to Bucky, how to comfort him, how to reassure him that he is valued for who he is, not just for what he represents. Steve is not, has never been good at comforting people. That has always been Bucky’s strength. So yes, it would make sense for them to need time to come to terms with how much they’ve changed. It would even make sense for Steve to be hurt, and a bit offended, that Bucky apparently didn’t want him back in his life. That Bucky probably never even planned to reconnect with him. It would make sense for Steve to be clinging to the memory of the old Bucky and to need time to adjust to the reality of the present Bucky. This could have been, could still be, a very interesting, extremely compelling story, if the filmmakers were even remotely interested in telling it. Alas, they are making absolutely clear, with each new interview, that they aren’t.
But you know what. This is a story that fanfic writers will tell, and will tell better. Actually, they already have.
