It’s easy to ‘ship the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Cap and Falcon. They’ve shared too much screentime, and too many shy lopsided grins, to dissuade fans who’d rather consider them a couple. Over on Tumblr sashayed has just blown that ‘ship wide open. What started out as an idle curiousness over Cap’s running route in the beginning of Winter Soldier suddenly reveals: Steve Rogers had to purposefully be following Sam in order to meet him as many times as he does!
As internet theories go, this one is a lot of fun, going from tongue-in-cheek to eye-widening realization:
In the 2014 superhero movie “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” we see the characters of Steve Wilson and Sam Rogers encounter each other at four locations on Washington D.C.’s National Mall. Steve Rogers passes known love interest Sam Wilson, FIRST, running southeast on the inlet bridge at the lower edge of the Tidal Basin.
sashayed details the various points that Steve “laps” Sam and figures out Sam’s running route from there.
So like, first of all, just as a running route, it kind of makes no sense.
(A personal note: I think I’d actually like to try Sam’s route one of these days! But that’s not important right now…)
OK. So the distance between the first time Steve passes Sam and the first time he “laps” him is AT MOST about .3 miles.
Steve’s fast, but he’s not fucking Pietro Maximoff (olav hasholem), over here. He doesn’t run a <1-minute mile. At MOST, I guess, since he’s a superhero, he could be running a 3-minute mile on his morning jog. But you know what makes 900 times more sense? He passes a dude running, dude glances back to let him pass, sunrise hits The Face:
Steve is like ohHH god and, because his life is a mess, he ends up circling the Jefferson as many times as necessary until the dude comes by again.
Considering the running route and available walkways in the National Mall area of D.C., Steve circling to wait for Sam is actually the most realistic action, which is what makes this theory so much fun to read. sashayed goes even deeper with it in this Tumblr post and the logic is beautiful to behold.
[via Metafilter]
I’m not sure why fans can’t just let characters be who they are instead of trying to force them into relationships with each other.
I have no idea what’s going on here…
Comment #2 was removed by a moderator.
I’m not sure I care how they met, but I certainly only ‘ship’ them as friends. I’m the sap that actually cried because Cap needed a friend so badly, someone who knows what it is be a soldier, who can help him deal with his issues in terms he gets.
Okay, there is reaching, and then there is this. Ship whatever you want, but really this is probably just the editing crew keeping the the most scenic shots and hoping no one would pay too much attention to the geography.
Of *course* the “real” reason is that the editing crew wanted a bunch of identifiable DC landmarks in the shot.
But where’s the fun in that? This isn’t a logic puzzle, it’s a story, created by people who controlled absolutely every detail that was shown on screen, what if there was an actual thought process behind this? And if those people were lazy and really just wanted to show DC landmarks, fine, but one of the very beautiful things about the internet is that anyone who wants to can map out their own thought process about the possible implications of the carefully chosen images that were put on the screen, and discuss them. And while they’re at it, theorize about what Steve Rogers would think about the WWII Memorial.
The problem of mapping out the presumed route and speed like that is that the scene isn’t meant to be played realistically (versus how, for example, the fight choreography is laid out in other scenes). It’s a piece of physical comedy that plays upon old tropes from movies of – surprise – the 1930s and 1940s. Most of us would probably recognize the “oh come on, how is he passing me?” while the faster guy isn’t being observed from its use in Looney Tunes cartoons, but it’s actually a classic bit of Steve-contemporary humor. To rework that into some odd stalking motif loses not only the charm of the scene but destroys the provence of the tropes involved in it.
If this is someone’s headcanon, fine.
Headcanon still reminds me of Heavy Artillery
I want to be sure when I say this: a lot of people in general, and a handful of comments here, seem to be very harsh about fan critique as if it isn’t a valid literary-critical endeavour, and the reason why this puts me off is because the only functional differences between it and attempting to infer an obscure theme from a literary work are its intensity and its habit of being forward-facing on the internet.
The scene can, for instance, still be an homage to classic physical comedy tropes of the 30s and 40s while still being held up to a modern filmic observation, unless the joke is this one moment is divorced from logics of movement and location for the sake of comedy in ways that almost nothing else is in the film or in the franchise (and no, saying they’re superheroes doesn’t count, because in the universe being described, being a superhero is barely even considered uncommon).
You can do both. But also the air of condescension we’re accustomed to employing about fan literary/film meta doesn’t do anyone any favours. At the very least, it’s the tacit assumption that fan theories are lesser than any other lay literary endeavour in ways we don’t typically even consider. Is any lay approach to a work equally invalid? Hell, by this metric most university film studies or literature essays should actually be considered equally flippantly.
You don’t have to agree with it or its closing premise. (Full disclosure, I don’t even feel any particular way about the film or the characters’ appearances in the franchise as a whole, and I still find the theory fascinating and compelling.) But I don’t think it’s too much to ask that you state your disagreement with those arguments, or fan theory/fan meta overall, without being so dismissive of the people who engage in it, its value to those communities, or the genuine observation applied.
There are probably some interesting comments that can be raised in a general conversation about male slash that touch upon the reality of male friendships. Almost all my male friendships now are with other gay men, and – as can be common with gay men, I did sleep with some of them before we became friends, which is certainly not something most female friends, or male/female friends might say to one another irrespective of sexual orientation. The friends I have, our relationships are not a precursor to a sexual or loving relationship. On the other hand, in high school and college, I had a number of male friendships, almost all of which turned out to be heterosexual. Sure, I can think of one or two these long ago friendships where I felt a sexually attraction, and several where I felt a closeness that could have, under different circumstances, turned into an intimate or loving relationship.
In my opinion, what is sometimes viewed as UST is simply not really there, but on the other hand, you can re-watch some scenes between two actors and you can see some of the same charisma that you might see in a romantic comedy or drama. One good, quick way check this is to look at the fan made videos: you can tell the ones where they had to cut scenes between Peggy and Steve with Bucky (or Tony, or Sam, or whomever) scene to create a romantic or UST situation in the videos, and those (and I’m not thinking MCU here) where a fan actually took an uncut scene from something and you can see the sparks there.
With Steve and Sam, I personally don’t see it. As to #11, you’re correct in some respects: people aren’t going to accord a fan based theory or critique the same respect they might to someone else who nominally has a platform as say an art critic or say a literature professor. That said, it behooves the person putting forth any critique or theory to do so as eloquently and persuasively as they are able to and to be prepared to defend themselves in any case.
My take, the comment (#6) about Steve needing and getting a friend is what’s the situation here, particularly given that they are both veterans of actual combat situation and Sam’s role, post active duty. Sam probably doesn’t understand the Man out of Time aspect of Steve Rogers life and, from his other fellow Avengers he can get support for the fame, back-lash, etc. situations that arise from that, but veterans, particularly of combat duty, are probably best for that situation, which Steve certainly has prior to Civil War (and given that Bucky’s being frozen for a unspecified time, probably beyond).
Or, you know, the people who made the film might have been as cavalier with city geography as the makers of every other film shot in a famous city.
@_FDS no. 12: Yes, I think it fits the tenor of the films that Wilson is like ~sparkle~ and then Rogers is like ***oooooohhhh*** and then they flirt a bit, possibly date a little at some point when nobody is shooting at anybody, but end up as friends. And Rogers actually setting up the “On your left” scene by circling the Jefferson Memorial is definitely in character for Pins Out of the Flagpole Guy. He only has problems talking to women, after all.
I’m willing go accept Steve Rogers did his homework before meeting Sam Wilson. Just a bit too convenient in how they meet.
Also, I have been tracked around a park by an admirer who was trying to create “chance” encounters. So I’m open to idea Rogers was following Wilson.
lol, this is pretty fun, but ahh, if these two characters count as having an impossible without planning meeting, then every movie is full of totally gay stalkers or you know, non gay stalkers.
Oh, fun fact: The backstory set up for Steve Rogers in the current movies places him in what was then the gayest neighborhood in NYC. As one commenter put it, it would be unrealistic if he didn’t nearly trip over a sailor having sex with a male prostitute on his way home from the store, or get propositioned himself. So whether he ever explored non-straightness or not, he was most definitely aware of its existence back in the day.
Lol!
I don’t quite subscribe to this ‘slash’. After all, it’s totally Bucky/Sam – they’re even getting a legit rom-com!
Is it realistic that their meeting was chance? Ah, no. Nothing about Steve strikes me as quite that cavalier with his friendships. Was he stalking Sam? Maybe, but I really don’t think it was for quite what @sashayed was insisting.
He needed a friend. He needed a confidant.
While openly admitting he needed help with his emotional and mental wellbeing is probably unlikely for Cap, given his history and the era he was raised in, seeking out friendship with a Vet that also happens to run a therapy group is perfectly reasonable.
To go at it in a slightly underhanded way, by researching Sam and then ‘bumping into him’ on the street when he’s more confident about things is, whilst a little skeevy, I believe a perfectly reasonable behaviour to ascribe to Cap.
This whole movie revolves on themes of trust after all. Steve needs to trust Sam before he can approach, and needs their first ‘official’ meeting(s) to look natural. Though I’m sure Sam would not be insulted if he knew they weren’t.