fucking up his entire morning routine 2 get another look at the cute boy
June 30, 2016 7:18 PM   Subscribe

I started thinking absently about Steve Rogers’ jogging route during my run today and then i couldn’t STOP thinking about it : an exegesis on the daily run of Steve Rogers (aka Cap) in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
posted by Greg Nog (78 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- frimble



 
Oh god I just saw this. It is glorious.

#REFUTE ME IF YOU DARE indeed
posted by larthegreat at 7:24 PM on June 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


This kind of [whatever you call it] is what makes the Internet great.
posted by yesster at 7:52 PM on June 30, 2016 [12 favorites]


OH GOOD, someone else posted this so I didn't have to. Truly, this is a masterpiece of fandom meta.
posted by yasaman at 7:53 PM on June 30, 2016 [4 favorites]


“SURE, HAPPY 2 HELP YOU HUNT DOWN UR ASSASSIN BESTIE WHO REPEATEDLY TRIED TO KILL ME, WHATEVER GETS ME OUT OF THIS SOULLESS GARBAGE PILE!” –Sam Wilson if he lives in fucking Arlington
/me mashes +1 button so hard keyboard snaps
posted by Punkey at 7:55 PM on June 30, 2016 [30 favorites]


Or nobody involved with that script has any idea that the Mall is more than two blocks across, which would also explain every other scene in D.C.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 7:56 PM on June 30, 2016 [6 favorites]


shh no it's because Steve Rogers is a flaming garbage pile of a person like most Marvel characters
posted by Punkey at 7:58 PM on June 30, 2016


I feel like this sort of fannish pedantry is the way-more-fun mirrorverse version of that shown in this other recent FPP.
posted by btfreek at 8:00 PM on June 30, 2016 [14 favorites]


They're right about Arlington tho
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:00 PM on June 30, 2016 [4 favorites]


Tumblr Cap fandom is, for the most part, intensely dedicated to making everything about the Captain America end of the MCU 10000% more sad, or 10000% more gay. Sometimes both at the same time, because that's the Steve Rogers and/or Bucky Barnes and/or Sam Wilson life: 10000% more sad AND more gay than you perhaps expected.
posted by yasaman at 8:04 PM on June 30, 2016 [31 favorites]


Oh no, fuck that noise. Arlington is fine. Love this stalker hypothesis regardless.
posted by stevis23 at 8:05 PM on June 30, 2016 [5 favorites]


In my experience, they're, like, 75% serious most of the time? I mean, there's some pretty heavy situational innuendo. Also, it's way more entertaining in a trashy comedic way.
posted by Punkey at 8:06 PM on June 30, 2016


genius, delightful, hilarious A+++ would click again
posted by mwhybark at 8:18 PM on June 30, 2016


Ok I am on mobile and can't find it but some genius put Celine Dion's my heart will go on swelling over captain's (swelling) muscles as he drags the helicopter down with Bucky and it is the best thing ever.

I had to tell my tiny kid who watched me shriek with glee at it that yes, the best friends survived and lived happily ever after, I promise.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:19 PM on June 30, 2016 [4 favorites]


One of the first films I saw some scenes filming and watched carefully for the shots had a romantic stroll up a street I was familiar, then the cut to the continuing scene was the lovers reversing their direction, same street a block back. Big jump I guess.

The cop&robber chase scenes in "The Town" were incredibly accurate following the tight winding roads in Bostons North End to "get over the bridge" to the projects.
posted by sammyo at 8:26 PM on June 30, 2016


Punkey, you're thinking of the Ultimates universe. Where everybody who isn't Spider-Man (Peter or Miles) is awful.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 8:28 PM on June 30, 2016


There was a woman pushing a kid in a stroller who super easily passed me about 5 times on one of my morning lakefront runs last summer.

So I find no flaws in this theory.
posted by srboisvert at 8:33 PM on June 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


Hmmm let me see here (flips through charts on clipboard) yes this checks out (charts are just pictures of big muscles).
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:34 PM on June 30, 2016 [35 favorites]


I mean, there's some pretty heavy situational innuendo.

Coincidentally, I just recently watched The Hurt Locker, which has Mackie doing some drunk shirtless wrestling with Jeremy Renner (aka Hawkeye). So, you know.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:40 PM on June 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


Has The Whelk seen this?
posted by domo at 8:42 PM on June 30, 2016 [6 favorites]


This is the reason I have Internet.
posted by nicebookrack at 8:52 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ultimate Cap was so awful that the Ultimateverse must be the evil goateed mirror universe to the MCU, in which Ultimate Garbage Cap is the opposing balance to MCU Steve, too good, too cinnamon Christ for this world.

So I hope that doesn't mean that MCU Peter Parker turns out evil, because the Ultimate spider-people (Peter, Miles, Gwen, MJ, May, Jessica) were the joys of my heart and the lights of that mirror universe.
posted by nicebookrack at 9:02 PM on June 30, 2016 [3 favorites]


Ok I am on mobile and can't find it but some genius put Celine Dion's my heart will go on swelling over captain's (swelling) muscles as he drags the helicopter down with Bucky and it is the best thing ever.

It's all coming back to me now.
posted by not that girl at 9:05 PM on June 30, 2016 [9 favorites]


So, I actually got to watch part of this scene being shot when they filmed in DC a couple of years ago. I woke up at ass-o-clock and hauled myself down to the Lincoln Memorial on a tip from Twitter, and was rewarded with being the ONLY PERSON (other than the film crew) who showed up to watch Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie run laps around the Reflecting Pool. For like an hour. Y'all, it was magical.

Also, fun Movie Magic trivia: the shot where Steve laps Sam as they run along the short end of the Pool? They did that by stationing a body double a ways down the long side of the Pool, so Chris just ran straight at the camera and past it, and then the camera swung to follow Mackie around the corner and got the shot of him chasing the body double, already running fifty feet ahead. It was neat!

Also, yes, the t-shirt was that tight in person.

(also also, I am apparently the person who introduced the phrase 'sadness errands' into tumblr's lexicon and I still feel weird about it.)
posted by nonasuch at 9:12 PM on June 30, 2016 [74 favorites]


There was a woman pushing a kid in a stroller who super easily passed me about 5 times on one of my morning lakefront runs last summer.

that baby was actually a brainwashed russian assassin sent to kill you
posted by poffin boffin at 9:18 PM on June 30, 2016 [18 favorites]


I am not even part of this fandom (she doesn't even go here!) and I think this is delightful.
posted by karayel at 9:18 PM on June 30, 2016 [6 favorites]


Idk nonasuch, I feel like sadness errands has been a pretty valuable gift of a phrase for fandom, though I understand how you could feel weird about it. There are way worse fandom legacies though! And I for one salute and thank you for Steve Rogers' sadness errands.
posted by yasaman at 9:21 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


Any time I see a movie shot in a city I've lived in, I'll be thrown purify he story going "Wait! If you were walking from there to Uptown, why would you cross that bridge?" "What happened to the interior of [bar]?" "Is the collapsing of space part of the plot?" It's very nerve wracking.

Fortunately, no good films get shot in Providence.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:26 PM on June 30, 2016 [4 favorites]


Here is a Stucky fandom story:

My oldest kid is 21. We're in the process of legally adopting them after they were cut off by their bio-fam for being genderqueer and trans.

Oldest Kid and I have a lot in common, and one of the things we share is a love for Stucky.

So last year for my birthday, OK gave me a button with a drawing of Steve & Bucky kissing on it, and I put it on my wallet.

I have a bunch of buttons on my wallet. The Stucky one, an #I'llGoWithYou one for trans bathroom support, and a whole bunch from my favorite button maker, beanforest, including "Fortinbras should arrive at any moment to turn this mayhem around," "do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an ass," and "kind, caring, compassionate, and kinkier than you'd expect."

Jump forward to June 15, just two weeks ago. I have Kid #2, aka The Lego Savant (age 15), and Kid #3, aka The Brain aka The Universal Beloved (age 12) with me, as well as two of their friends, and we are checking into our hotel for a major Lego convention. The Orlando shootings were three days earlier.

Our desk clerk is a little bit flaming.

He says to me as I take my credit card out, "Oh, can I look at your buttons? I love buttons."

I hand my wallet over, he looks it over, and he hands it back to me, observing that his favorite is the Gregor Samsa one.

I say, "Not Steve and Bucky kissing?"

He says, "Give that back to me." He looks at it again, and says, "Oh, well—boys kissing," with a dismissive little flip of his shoulder and hand that means, "This is something I see so routinely that I didn't even notice it." We chat a bit about Captain America's need for a boyfriend while we finish checking out. He gives me free wi-fi because this is the kind of thing that happens when one has just made a Queer Family Connection. A friend of mine once got free pie this way.

The teenagers and I take to calling him, very affectionately, Matthew The Obviously Gay Desk Clerk. "Are there any more pillows?" "I don't see any, but they'll bring some more up. Call the front desk and ask Matthew The Obviously Gay Desk Clerk about it."

I am a big ol' queer who is rarely read as one in public. My partner is a man, I've always been kind of low-maintenance femme in my self-presentation, and I'm fat, middle-aged, and a mother of four, which for most people erases any idea that I might have any sexuality at all, let alone a queer one. I often see gay, lesbian, or trans-seeming people and wish we could do that mutual-cruise acknowledgement thing, but it rarely happens.

That my Steve And Bucky Kissing button allowing MTOGDC and me to recognize each other feels kind of big, especially three days after Orlando. MTOGDC is young, and I somehow want to reach out to him from my position as a big ol' middle-aged queer, and comfort him if he needs it, or just to let him know that someone who is old enough to be his mother thinks it's wonderful simply that he exists, or to comfort myself. I have an impulse, and I order a book for him from Amazon (bless the two-day shipping in such situations).

Before the book arrives, he and I have another conversation, in which I tell him that he is MTOGDC, and he says, "Bi, actually," and I say, "Oh, my god, I'm so ashamed, how could I have jumped to such a conclusion, I mean, jeez, seriously me too."

The book is Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, which is appropriate because its title quotes our first conversation, and because it is about a previous generation of gay men, the AIDS dead, watching a new generation grow up. When it arrives I find myself feeling hesitant to actually give it to him. I often have these kind of affectionate impulses that I think might be kind of weird, but the Nerd Herd (as I was calling the four teenagers I'd brought to the Lego convention) encouraged me to do it.

"It's not too weird?" I asked.

The Lego Savant's best friend (a total flamer, although he has not come out and maybe he never well), says, "It's a good kind of weird."

The Lego Savant says, "There are a lot worse ways to be weird," which from my very own teenager I take as a high compliment.

So I write Matthew the Actually Bisexual Desk Clerk a letter, in which I tell him what it meant to me to be visible to him as queer, and I tell him some about my 21-year-old, who was very freaked out after Orlando, and about my 8yo son who we mistook for a girl when he was born, and I wish him every happiness, and I put it inside the book, and I manage to gift-wrap it in flyers for Lego-related websites that were in our welcome packets, and my 12-year-old, who is everyone's favorite person, drops it off to MTABDC on the way to a Lego BattleBots competition or something.

The next morning, there is an envelope under the door of the room. I think it's our bill, but when I open it up, it's from Matthew. And he says:
In light of recent events in our community, your letter and gift, as well as the joy of hosting you and your beautiful family, was a treasure. While Matthew the Obviously Gay Desk Clerk does have a good cadence (and might be a good heroic alias), the opportunity you provided for me to speak my truth, and your willingness to hear it, was very empowering. Thank you. You really turned my week back in the right direction.

Matthew, The Very Clearly Queer Desk Clerk
And that is the story of how Stucky fanart helped me and another queer person connect with each other and heal a little bit of the world in the days after it had been badly broken once again.

Stucky 4ever.
posted by not that girl at 9:42 PM on June 30, 2016 [189 favorites]


Fortunately, no good films get shot in Providence.

Only great ones.

Complex World site
posted by zippy at 9:45 PM on June 30, 2016


Fortunately, no good films get shot in Providence.

Hey, now. You're saying The Purge: Election Year isn't good?
posted by JDHarper at 9:52 PM on June 30, 2016


Steve Rogers is a flaming garbage pile of a person like most Marvel characters

FIGHT ME
posted by praemunire at 9:52 PM on June 30, 2016 [7 favorites]


FIGHT ME

We mean it lovingly, but there is definitely a reason I had to coin the term 'sadness errands.' His life is a disaster.
posted by nonasuch at 10:12 PM on June 30, 2016 [6 favorites]


His life is a disaster.

Make Mine Marvel!
posted by EatTheWeek at 10:17 PM on June 30, 2016 [3 favorites]


Yeah, I mean, MCU Steve has done nothing wrong in this life, ever, and I love him, and I will FIGHT YOU if you come for him, but he is a low-key mess.

What am I saying, there's nothing low-key about the mess that is Steve Rogers. See: the entire tumblr post that is the subject of this FPP, Steve's total lack of chill when it comes to Bucky, Steve jumping out of things without a parachute, that thing he does where he smiles but it's just deeply depressing because you can see him dying on the inside, how he turns into a puffy-eyed tragedy every time he cries (this is physically painful to me fyi), that hilariously non-apology apology letter to Tony in Civil War, I could really keep going.... Anyway, Steve is a mess, it's just that the veneer of Captain America patriotism covers a lot of his messiness. It's great.
posted by yasaman at 10:25 PM on June 30, 2016 [14 favorites]


Bless the MCU creators and Chris Evans for completely turning my head around on a character who I used to think was only useful in comics to make Superman look less patriotically bland in comparison. I mean, I didn't outright hatefully pray for his death like I used to for comics Tony Stark (god bless RDJ forever), but I was like, oh, here's Captain America in my comic again, that's nice, I guess. And then the MCU turned the comic kaleidoscope light enough to reveal the beautiful fucked-up Steve Rogers swan that had been shining through the boring Captain America duckling all along.
posted by nicebookrack at 10:46 PM on June 30, 2016 [20 favorites]


Also, off-topic, BUT I finally realized why that Tumblr looks so familiar: it hosts the greatest soothing cat videos on the interwebs, BUTTER THE CAT!

(The cat is not named Butter. The cat is being buttered.)
posted by nicebookrack at 10:49 PM on June 30, 2016 [8 favorites]


And then the MCU turned the comic kaleidoscope light enough to reveal the beautiful fucked-up Steve Rogers swan that had been shining through the boring Captain America duckling all along.

Psst...

...he was always there.
(I mean we have to wait out this Hydra "well, actually" nonsense, but whatever.)
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:23 PM on June 30, 2016 [3 favorites]


My favorite underplayed element of Steve Rogers is his art. I can't think of any other superheroes who keep a sketch diary* and I wish Cap creators would play it up more. Think of the shit Steve has seen. Think of that seventy year gap inbetween the two series of sketches. What caught his eye in Normandy? On Planet Kree-Lar? Have any of his friends ever sat for him? Which pencils does he like? Marvel put out a comic fetishizing every gun in the Punisher's closet but we can't get a Cap's Sketchbook Special? Come on.

It killed me to watch the Avengers deleted scenes and see that half of them were of Cap drawing, and they all got cut! They gotta let MCU Steve break out that sketchbook. I hope Sharon remembered to snag it for him when she snuck him and Sam their gear.

*Kyle Rayner, I suppose. Never get to see him draw either.
posted by EatTheWeek at 11:57 PM on June 30, 2016 [9 favorites]


Any time I see a movie shot in a city I've lived in...

Yeah, I have certainly been known to have opinions about the technically correct, but in practice completely wrong train travel in the second Thor movie.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 12:16 AM on July 1, 2016 [3 favorites]


I feel like this sort of fannish pedantry is the way-more-fun mirrorverse version of that shown in this other recent FPP.

Goofus finds something illogical in that thing he likes and responds with sneering condescension.

Gallant finds something illogical in that thing she likes and crafts a hilariously elaborate fanfictional explanation to justify it, thus winning the no-prize.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:01 AM on July 1, 2016 [20 favorites]


My friends have been warned about certain topics. We had some weird weather and one of them posted "Hail!" on Facebook and I jumped in straight away to comment "Don't. Even. Think. About. Doing. It."

Slightly more on topic, we always know when they get movies shot in Australia wrong. Someone survives.
posted by nfalkner at 1:01 AM on July 1, 2016


I love that tumblr post so much. I wish I knew what it is exactly that makes me think about Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes for like 50% of my day all the time. They are so compelling!

Marvel has announced the dvd release date for Civil War and promised deleted scenes and extended scenes. We may just get the Stucky movie we deserve!
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 3:55 AM on July 1, 2016 [6 favorites]


I think Steve would love the WWII monument...
posted by ennui.bz at 4:09 AM on July 1, 2016




We may just get the Stucky movie we deserve!

If by "deleted scenes" they mean "We deleted that kinda-creepy Steve/Sharon kiss nobody wanted," maybe.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:04 AM on July 1, 2016 [6 favorites]


If by "deleted scenes" they mean "We deleted that kinda-creepy Steve/Sharon kiss nobody wanted," maybe.

Ha! I wish. I read an interview with Chris Evans where he said that they filmed longer scenes with him and Sebastian and they were all shorter in the final movie. So I have [probably misguided] hope. It's probably just gonna be like 20 minutes of extra Vision scenes. Sad trombone.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 5:12 AM on July 1, 2016


Fortunately, no good films get shot in Providence.

The Underdog movie was shot in Providence and weirdly clearly so, I remember I saw at least one trailer or poster and immediately recognized it. Also, before my wedding we had lunch at The Hot Club where they filmed part of Something About Mary, I guess (never seen it). This is not disagreement, merely comment.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:33 AM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


At least they didn't take the Georgetown Metro.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:35 AM on July 1, 2016 [5 favorites]


This is awesome, and I'm onboard with Gay Dirtbag Cap, but this:

So like, first of all, just as a running route, it kind of makes no sense.

Was written by someone who may understand gay dirtbags, but doesn't understand gay dirtbag distance runners.
posted by middleclasstool at 5:41 AM on July 1, 2016


I think Steve would love the WWII monument...

No one loves the WW2 monument.
posted by The Whelk at 5:53 AM on July 1, 2016 [5 favorites]


And this is why I love fanfic.
posted by chainsofreedom at 6:09 AM on July 1, 2016


Oh no, fuck that noise. Arlington is fine. Love this stalker hypothesis regardless.

This times a million. People dissing Arlington in this thread need to get out of Rosslyn and Ballston (although these places also have their charms). If you've only been to those parts of Arlington, you haven't been to Arlington.
posted by longdaysjourney at 6:17 AM on July 1, 2016 [6 favorites]


No one loves the WW2 monument.

I wasn't a fan when I first saw the design and it's definitely not the most moving war memorial on the Mall (Vietnam), but now that it's been there for a few years and I've had multiple opportunities to see WWII veterans and their families interact with the memorial (they uniformly love it and are so touched that people have not forgotten them and what they did), I like it quite a bit. It's definitely a throwback to the "traditional" memorial and it feels like the designer watched every WWII movie ever made before sketching it up, but it does successfully convey how massive the war was, and it's terrible human cost (every star on the memorial represents 100 military deaths, and there are over 4,000 stars). And the water elements are fantastic, both drowning out the noise of the city and making the site a very peaceful place, which is a small miracle given the central location of the memorial.
posted by longdaysjourney at 6:25 AM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


it does successfully convey how massive and terrible the war was

Really? The one thing that I don't see in the WWII memorial is any kind of reminder that "war is bad." The entire monument reads as AMERICA'S GLORIOUS VICTORY, and really sticks out in contrast to the others.

Unsurprisingly, it was designed and built right around the period that the country decided to rush into Iraq.
posted by schmod at 6:32 AM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


This also reminds me of all of the other movies and TV shows that have a staggeringly poor comprehension of DC's geography.

It's like any drive/walk between two places in DC takes you past the Jefferson Memorial or Washington Monument. The first season of the West Wing was particularly egregious in this regard, and I liked to interpret it as Bartlett's staffers all being DC newcomers who were pretending to know their away around town, but were completely lost all the time.
posted by schmod at 6:38 AM on July 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


I am now envisioning Sam Wilson crowding onto an Orange Line train in Ballston on his way to Rosslyn (which I imagine is the Metro station that serves the Triskelion). I wonder if Metro still catches on fire in the MCU...
posted by enjoymoreradio at 6:38 AM on July 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


Everything catches on fire in the MCU.
posted by schmod at 6:43 AM on July 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


>This also reminds me of all of the other movies and TV shows that have a staggeringly poor comprehension of DC's geography.


A counterpoint is The Americans, which manages to convince me that it's set in Washingtonia, despite being filmed in Brooklyn. Whatever New York locale they used to stand-in for Rock Creek Park was suitably convincing.
posted by enjoymoreradio at 6:45 AM on July 1, 2016


The one thing that I don't see in the WWII memorial is any kind of reminder that "war is bad."

I don't think that's the purpose of the Memorial, but YMMV. I can't look at this field of stars and not be moved.
posted by longdaysjourney at 6:45 AM on July 1, 2016


"I have to stop the Serpent Society from killing all of Congress, but everything's single-tracked!"
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 6:47 AM on July 1, 2016 [4 favorites]


I wonder if Metro still catches on fire in the MCU...

My theory for how SHIELD managed to build those helicarrier bays under the Potomac was that whenever someone asked WTF was going on down there, they were just like 'Silver Line construction' and no one questioned it again.

Actually, Silver Line funding being diverted to helicarrier bay construction would explain why the fuck it took so long.
posted by nonasuch at 6:50 AM on July 1, 2016 [25 favorites]


despite being filmed in Brooklyn.

They got better at this over time, it was always fun to play "spot in the NYC flag in the background" in season one.
posted by The Whelk at 6:55 AM on July 1, 2016


In the MCU Stark Industries has revamped the DC metro so that escalators never break, trains maintain themselves, capacity is doubled, the new trains don't look like a bowling alley from 1996, and the purple line truly exists... Some people can ship Cap and Bucky, but I'll take my fantasy metro.
posted by codacorolla at 7:05 AM on July 1, 2016 [18 favorites]


It's definitely a throwback to the "traditional" memorial

yes, like back in the old country, a memorial to the glorious defenders auf der Vaterland..

also, I'm sure Steve's sketchbook is full of muscular eagles doing muscular eagle stuff with other muscular eagles, drawn with anime eyes. there's a reason it's not featured more prominently in the movies.
posted by ennui.bz at 7:11 AM on July 1, 2016 [3 favorites]


also, I'm sure Steve's sketchbook is full of muscular eagles doing muscular eagle stuff with other muscular eagles, drawn with anime eyes. there's a reason it's not featured more prominently in the movies.

How dare you. how dare you. Steve's complicated and not-great feelings about the dangers of patriotism is part of what makes his life a garbage fire!!!

Like, the dude who is REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE with rah-rah America is the one who gets dressed up like a walking flag and forced to high kick so that he can sort of help free people from oppression, so he DOES IT, but he kind of hates and resents it. And then dying for his country and waking up to find out his country is a HUGE UGLY MESS and people have misinterpreted everything he ever stood for and made huge robber baron profits off of his face that isn't even his real face because he gave up his real face to try and save some lives?

OH MY WORD. I mean, I'm sure he likes actual eagles, and that he watched the National Arboretum eaglets hatch on the webcam and everything. But Steve Rogers and his feelings about America are less "CAUSE I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICANNNNNN, WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW I'M FREE" and wayyyyyy more "oh no what did I do. Did I do this. What happened? Are these people serious? Did I let FDR down????????"

Anyway, his sketchbooks are probably full of socialist utopias and/or pictures of his mother on her deathbed and/or furtive tiny scribbles of Bucky's shoulderblades circa 1939.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:20 AM on July 1, 2016 [38 favorites]


the water elements are fantastic, both drowning out the noise of the city and making the site a very peaceful place, which is a small miracle given the central location of the memorial.

I love the water alone enough that I really like the WWII memorial. I get the criticisms (although much of the monumental core looks fascist if you're looking for it, even ignoring the actual fasces), but I find it pleasantly peaceful. I think being sunken a bit also helps with feeling a little less overbearing that it seems on paper. It's not my favorite memorial (that's FDR), but I usually stop there for a bit when I take out of towners to the mall.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:23 AM on July 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


In the MCU Stark Industries has revamped the DC metro so that escalators never break, trains maintain themselves, capacity is doubled, the new trains don't look like a bowling alley from 1996, and the purple line truly exists... Some people can ship Cap and Bucky, but I'll take my fantasy metro.

If you want you can find support for this in Agents of SHIELD, which shows that in MCU!Metro uses surplus NYC subway cars.

(Also:

People dissing Arlington in this thread need to get out of Rosslyn and Ballston (although these places also have their charms).

Hello from Crystal City!)
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 7:28 AM on July 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


I feel like this sort of fannish pedantry is the way-more-fun mirrorverse version of that shown in this other recent FPP.

A thousand times this. I posted last night that other thread a lament that the minor art form of in-universe explanations for weird shit was dying. Eggs on my face because I wake up to a post done the right way, with the wit and playfulness that comments on popular genre fiction need.
posted by mark k at 7:34 AM on July 1, 2016


I posted last night that other thread a lament that the minor art form of in-universe explanations for weird shit was dying.

A coworker came into my office the other day to ask if I thought it was possible to "prove" a fact about a fictional universe, and how much control the creator of said universe ultimately had over the truthfulness of that fact (specifically he wanted to discuss a claim that Mace Windu was the second most powerful Jedi), and somehow this ends with me explaining headcanon* and Steve-Bucky shippers to an perfectly normal person who likely had no interest in learning about these things.

*"That's canon with one N, not *pantomimes firing cannon from head*" is a thing that I remember doing, so that's cool.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:40 AM on July 1, 2016 [8 favorites]


Both cannons can sink ships
posted by The Whelk at 7:50 AM on July 1, 2016 [18 favorites]


Anyway, his sketchbooks are probably full of socialist utopias

I like to think of Steve's sketches as being a little like Tom Otterness's work for the MTA.
posted by praemunire at 9:05 AM on July 1, 2016


What longdaysjourney said. People who bash Arlington should maybe try visiting places that are more than 500 feet from an Orange line stop.

Mildly amusing otherwise.
posted by tavella at 9:51 AM on July 1, 2016


You cannot talk about Steve Rogers and Tumblr without American Captain (speaking of sketching).

I wish the artist had time to keep it going, it was so good.
posted by emjaybee at 9:53 AM on July 1, 2016 [5 favorites]


Steve was happy to be out of uniform. People seemed to recognize the stars and stripes more than his face, which was cowled half the time that he was on TV anyway. When he was Steve Rogers, he might get the occasional second glance from a passer by, and rarely someone stopping to take a selfie, but mostly he was able to move around DC as a man instead of as a hero. The surly, self-contained nature of DC's professional bureaucrats was sometimes a boon in addition to a burden.

Although he could have taken his motorcycle to the meeting, he instead relished the opportunity to ride the train. Comfortable seats, clean smelling air, and deliciously air conditioned interiors amid the sweltering Washington summer. The StarkIndustries logo, of course, made him slightly uncomfortable - but he was comforted in research he had done previously that the metro cars were the product of a subsidiary instead of being run by the tin can himself.

Steve was broken out of his reverie by the arrival of his train. A calm, roboticized female voice announced its arrival at Woodley Park Station. Because of the on-the-tens arrival schedule, there was no rush to get a seat, even despite the fact that it was nearing (what had previously been known as) rush hour. Steve walked into the car, sitting down at a window seat, tracing his hand absentmindedly over the brushed chrome arm rest. The specially designed microfibre cushion sighed lightly as it took on his weight, pushing back comfortably against his back and buttocks.

Truly, taking the metro was a pleasure. After the meeting, Steve realized that he had a rare evening free to himself. He could pop down to Arlington to visit Sam for dinner and drinks. He could use the newly built purple line to quickly go over to College Park to see Bruce's lecture at the biology department. Hell, later he could even take a streetcar for an evening stroll at the National Harbor.

In a rare lull of the action of being an Avenger, The District was his oyster, and the metro his shucking knife.
posted by codacorolla at 10:10 AM on July 1, 2016 [17 favorites]


Caveat: I have not seen, and do not plan to see, Civil War, so sorry if that doesn't fit with the current MCU timeline.
posted by codacorolla at 10:16 AM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


sorry if that doesn't fit with the current MCU timeline

My main objection is that it reminded me the Purple Line doesn't exist IRL yet. I also laughed a little at the "clean smelling air/air conditioned interiors". I WISH, says the lady who rode home last night on a Green Line train with the heat cranked up to about 95 for no apparent reason.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 10:30 AM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Thank you for posting American Captain, emjaybee. It is truly the answer to "what is Steve sketching, anyway?" plus also sadness errands and ALL THE FEELS.
posted by epersonae at 10:49 AM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Steve Rogers is the only man who can listen to "The Only Living Boy in New York" in a montage and have it be melancholy instead of sad boner dude time.
posted by nicebookrack at 11:00 AM on July 1, 2016


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