We joke about Steve’s patriotism as his strong suit, but his actual strength was his sense of moral right. His whole philosophy is summed up in the line “I don’t like bullies” in the first movie. Steve loves his country. He loves it enough to be at the front of the line trying to fix what he sees as moral wrong in it.
steve rogers is patriotic in the most real sense: he represents the concept at the core of the american ideal, the concept of freedom that is the reason our political system is designed to adapt and alter itself for constant improvement.
he is not loyal to any momentary leader or agenda, and when those leaders and agendas stand contrary to his core ideal of self-determination and freedom from oppression, he’ll speak up without hesitation.
honestly, i never would’ve thought captain america would be my favorite superhero, but he’s the activist i aspire to be.
Captain America is loyal to nothing but the dream.
The problem with Captain America’s image in the public mind is that people recite the first line of his byword and ignore the last part :
“My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
“This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree besides the river of truth, and tell the whole world—
—No, you move.”
Steve Rogers is a radical and that’s why I love him.
what she means: captain america has been a huge part of my life and chris evans’s portrayal of one of my favourite characters got me through dark times and introduced me to a same but different incarnation of this character that i love. chris evans has played this character with such dignity and grace and has shown time and again that he understands the core of who steve rogers is; and despite his anxieties about taking it on, he’s grown so much in his time with steve rogers and has come to do his best to exemplify steve’s values on and off-screen. marvel is huge on legacy characters and of course the next captain america will be his own actor & character & person, but chris evans is steve rogers, and the last few years have been such a great & wonderful journey with him.
“We don’t trade lives”– Captain Steven Grant Rogers
That’s the thing about him. After Civil War, a lot of people argued that Steve’s actions were selfish because he acted simply out of love for his best friend rather than doing what’s right and honestly now? When someone says something like this I wonder if they know Steven Grant Rogers at all because let me tell you, he would do the same for a complete stranger who was in a tough spot and needed his help. I mean, Vision even fought against him in Civil War, and look at him.
I would actually propose that Steve’s decisions are always based on what he believes is right—even if it means standing up against the very people he loves.
I keep seeing people argue that he’s blindingly selfish when it comes to Bucky; people also seem to conveniently forget that henearly died fighting against Bucky during Winter Soldier, because even his love for Bucky couldn’t stand in the way of saving millions of lives and keeping HYDRA from taking over the world.
What’s amazing and admirable about Steve is that he somehow manages to balance his beliefs about what is right with his unconditional loyalty to all of his friends. It’s especially apparent in Civil War:
He didn’t shy away from sharing or even completely owning up to the blame for what happened in Lagos, refusing to let Wanda carry that burden on herself.
After hearing about the UN bombing, his first instinct was to call Natashato ask if she’s okay, because he didn’t take it against her that she took Tony’s side. He respected her decision and just wanted to see if she was okay.
He took Bucky’s side this time instead of fighting him not because he was his best friend—although of course that’s part of the consideration—but because Bucky just revealed that there were five more Winter Soldiers just like him, and Steve’s initial understanding of what Zemo meant by toppling an empire was taking control of these Winter Soldiers to take down a country, and that is what he couldn’t allow to happen. He didn’t even stop to consider what country it was, because his loyalty wasn’t confined to just America; he just knew that he couldn’t let any country fall if he could help it.
He owned up responsibility to what happened to his friends when Secretary Ross incarcerated them, and took the risk of breaking them out, because he could never leave behind his friends, especially not Sam, who had been completely supportive of him despite voicing his own apprehensions; but also Scott, whom he was open to about the risks from the very beginning; Clint, whom he knew had a family to protect; and Wanda.
And most of all, he owned up to the blame on the pain he caused Tony, apologised to him while respecting Tony’s anger at him—even giving back his shield when Tony asked him to, despite his shield being such a integral part of who he is, the way Mjolnir was to Thor—and willingly gave Tony the space and time away that he needed; but also—and this is the most important part—promising Tony that no matter what happened between them, no matter what will happen between them, no matter what Tony feels towards him, he will always be there for Tony. He gave Tony that phone because he wanted to give Tony the choice to contact him, wanted to let Tony have that initiative, and he wouldn’t impose himself on Tony if Tony didn’t want him to. He respected Tony’s choice to cut him off, but—this should be stressed—he made it clear that he wasn’t cutting Tony off from his life.
And on a related matter, it should also be noted that the Steve Rogers of Civil War is also the Steve Rogers who had been betrayed by both SHIELD and HYDRA in Winter Soldier, who found out that the very organization he was working for was in fact using him covertly in their mission to take over the world.
This is why he said:
“[The Sokovia Accords] just shifts the blame. [Organizations] are run by people with agendas, and agendas change. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go? What if there’s somewhere we need to go and they won’t let us?”
It’s simply because he doesn’t want any of his friends to be betrayed by the government the way it happened to him; which is exactly what happened by the end of the movie anyway. The point I’m trying to make is not that he’s right—the politics here is tricky and there’s no one way to do it right—but simply that he didn’t make his point out of selfish reasons and he sure as hell didn’t do it just for Bucky; he did it because he wanted to protect his friends from the agendas of organizations who might end up using them like they did to him.
And most of all, he didn’t want to undermine the safety of anyone or any country just because of the ever-changing politics and agendas of people.
Fast forward to Infinity War, and people are criticizing his choice to save Vision instead of destroying the Mind Stone immediately (and killing Vision in the process). Barring the fact that I find it highly disturbing that people are even suggesting murdering a friend(yes, I consider Vision as someone with life—but that’s a whole other issue that I’m willing to discuss another time), I also want to point out that Vision can also be considered as Tony’s son, in a much truer way than even Peter Parker.
Bruce even said it directly: there is so much of himself and Tony in Vision, making them more like family—especially because there is so much of JARVIS and Ultron in Vision, both of whom are alsoTony’s creations. In choosing to protect Vision, Steve in essence did the best he could to protect not only a friend and comrade, not only the person Wanda loves, but also Tony’s son, when Tony couldn’t be there to protect Vision himself, regardless of whether or not Tony has already forgiven Steve.
Steve did his very best to do the right thing for Vision, for Wanda, for Tony, because he unconditionally loves them all, regardless of how they felt about him.
And that moment in the Avengers compound when Steve was watching Wanda’s face crumple when Vision himself was suggesting that he should sacrifice himself, that moment was incredibly poignant too; because seeing the empathy flicker across Steve’s face, he must have been reminded of his own missed chance of a love and life with Peggy, and he didn’t want Wanda to experience that—precisely because he knew what the heartbreak felt like.
“We don’t trade lives,” Steve declared. And to the very best of his ability, he would always, always mean all of them.
steve rogers was an irish-american with disabilities growing up in 30s new york in a gay neighborhood and some people actually believe he would be conservative
“with disabilities”? what disability does he have
Seriously?
wait…did people think that Steve was just some skinny dude that was otherwise healthy?
Sometimes I just kinda wanna cry because in the MCU, Steven Grant Rogers:
Was violently bullied throughout his childhood and into adulthood.
Watched his mother waste away and die.
Was an orphan by his mid-to-late teens.
Grew up in poverty, during the Great Depression, as the child of immigrants .
Grew up color-blind, partially-deaf, malnourished/stunted, and chronically-ill, in a culture that was so big on eugenics that Nazis took their cues from the US systems.
Signed up for the army and then dove on what he believed to be a live grenade because he believed the best use of his life was to exchange it for the lives of others.
Fought on the front lines of the bloodiest and most horrific war in human history, where he undoubtedly witnessed terrible violence and atrocities.
Watched his best friend die and lived with the guilt of believing he was responsible.
Crashed a plane into the ocean, fully believing he was going to die.
Was frozen alive.
Woke up to find that nearly everyone he’d ever known was dead and gone, and his home was changed nearly beyond recognition; he could never truly go home from the war. Ever.
Lost his shot at happiness with the one woman who ever actually looked at him when he was small and frail, and had to watch her mind come apart, and later carry her coffin.
Found out his sacrifice – the thing he gave up his life, his friends, his whole world for – was in vain, and that HYDRA had corrupted the legacy of the people he loved.
Found out his best friend survived, and that he’d abandoned him to a fate worse than death, and got to then live with THAT fresh guilt.
Is seen by most people as Captain America; almost no one sees Steve Rogers.
Was only 26 years old, biologically, during the Battle of New York.
Has not had the time or resources to cope with any of this.
Headcanon: tho raised irish-catholic, he no longer practices. however, it formed a lot of the way he treats people in terms of respect. the commandment that says “love thy neighbor” was ingrained in him, especially since people didn’t always treat him well.
Heartcanon: he remembers everyone’s birthday, no matter when he met them. if you tell him once, if he overhears you in conversation, anything, he will know. you bet your ass there’s a well thought out gift waiting for you when you get home with his signature on it, wishing you a happy birthday
Gutcanon: he’s in love with bucky. whether romantic or platonic doesn’t matter. it’s love.
Junkcanon: he will treat you reeeeeeeaaaaal nice in bed. anyone who sleeps with him agrees: if you look up the term “lovemaking” in the dicitonary, it’ll be Steve Rogers in all his glory, treating you right with all the intimacy and sensuality and attention and love true gut wrenching, heart breaking, you-are-the-stars-and-the-universe-and-my-everything kind of love. the kind that when you both have moved on, you always remember it as the most soul touching type of sex you’ve ever had
Spleencanon: specifically aou centered, he swears like a goddamn sailor.
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