blessedharlot:

Im aware that if everything else in the MCU were the same, and Nat and Bucky had one simple ordinary-looking conversation between them, I would feel a lot different.

A huge part of my response right now is that my puzzler brain sees an unresolved puzzle. They havent had a conversation or made eye contact onscreen, with him in his right mind. This is odd by itself, but after multiple movies chock full of references and set up to a backstory, its really suspicious. Theyve opened a door, and not used it… but they havent closed it either.

Steve has three close friends in this world. When it comes to those three friends relating to each other, two sides of that triangle are pretty full. Sam and Nat have seamlessly worked togther for years. Sam and Bucky have such immediate chemistry to their distaste for each other that their banter is a highlight of CW for a lot of people. Some audiences are clamoring for a buddy movie starring Steve’s two friends who hate each other.

The third side of this triangle is just inexplicably empty, and has been for years now. Nat and Bucky are kept apart, ALL the time, for no clear reason? They havent been allowed the simplest most casual conversation or eye contact. Oh they stood next to each other once, in all this time. And no talking or peripheral vision was allowed in that moment it seems. Despite being two people critically important to Steve – despite frequenting the same Steve orbit – they havent looked at or talked to each other onscreen since Bucky regained himself. This absence is WEIRD and its only gotten weirder as time has passed.

If we had ever gotten that, I would be less suspicious. With an ordinary looking conversation, I would have let go of some expectations. If there had been a single simple exchange in all of Wakanda. If there had been some interaction in front of the Quinjet. If there had been any tiny moment of colleagueship written into either CW or IW. Any simple ordinary quick interaction over any mundane subject between two people who seemingly shouldnt have anything more between them than Sam and Bucky do.

Thats another layer of this. Sam-Bucky banter is a fan favorite. Most fans have thrilled at Sam grousing at Bucky. You’re telling me they couldnt think up anything entertaining that an even harder friend of Steve’s could say to Bucky? Or anything more supportive that could come from someone whos actually been brainwashed? Or anything *angrier* from someones Buckys injured far more than Sam? This content is sitting there in plain view, repeatedly untouched. Or avoided.

This is not an ordinary lack of content. This is why Im suspicious. I believe people are framing the timing issue all wrong, thinking that this wait lessens the probability of a backstory. THIS is the more suspicious timing to me… not that we havent gotten a reveal yet, but that we’ve come this far and the door to a reveal they first set up in CATWS – in 2014, four years ago – is still wide, wide open. This is whats missing. It would take so little to move on from this – it would take the tiniest moments to close that door and they havent yet. Until I see this, Im gonna wonder. Maybe it comes in A4, and there’s nothing there. But I am suspicious that theyve waited this long to do it.