#I don't consider myself anti-sambuca; more anti this-version-of-sam being treated as if he's treated bucky well in canon when he hasn't

[amarriageoftrueminds]

i feel like it's been so long since civil war at this point s*mb*ckies have forgotten that sam really never fully understood why steve even bothered with bucky and treated him like a lost cause that steve was foolish to try and save, pretty much the only other people besides steve who have ever extended any real compassion to him were t'challa and shuri

Anon, you’re so right!

It's an absolute injustice to the potential of Sam's character as a trained healer of both bodies and minds not to have him see what Bucky truly is.

I didn't mind Sam saying 'he's not the kind you save, he's the kind you stop' (or words to that effect) in CATWS.

After the freeway fight but before he'd ever had a chance to read Bucky's casefiles.

But years later?

When he's been with Steve, hunting Bucky around the globe, and, y'know, would've been in a position to see Hydra torture chambers up close in person (and note the lack of revenge-corpses put there by Bucky, proving his current non-violence!)

Put also in a position to read Bucky's horrifying medical history, (which Sam would understand best, of anyone on Team Cap!) and to hear stories from Steve about the person Bucky is, and from Natasha about how life under Russian brainwashers is...

To have Sam then act as if Bucky is a write-off, still, is just shonky characterisation. 

(Doing things like, for example, being a dick to Bucky because the Winter Soldier just punched him; when Bucky was being electrocuted, screaming for Zemo to stop. 

Sam’s expertise should have him being neutral to Bucky, at least. 

But instead he’s saying, eg. ‘oh and just like that we’re supposed to be cool?’ Yes, Sam, just like that! 

It’s supposed to be his specific area of expertise, above anybody else’s, to be able to distinguish between the Soldier and the victim screaming in agony. 

Even if he personally doesn’t get along with Bucky, and doesn’t intend to help him with counseling like he did (stranger) Steve, if Sam is in character, he wouldn’t be treating Bucky as untrustworthy or criminal; simply because he would know, as a professional counselor, that he’s not. 

It makes you question why the writers think Sam is even there, if he doesn’t believe in the possibility of Bucky’s innocence? 

His purported background should mean he’s there because he can professionally recognise that innocence, and because his morals tell him that helping Bucky is therefore the right thing to do. 

Not because Steve thinks it’s right and Sam’s merely going along with it. 

The show had Sam strenuously objecting to going around with Zemo, because he’s a bad guy, and he acts the same about Bucky in the films. 

So why would he be friends with Steve at all, if he believes Steve is friends with bad guys? Why would he help Steve look for Bucky for two years, if he still sees Bucky as indistinguishable from the Soldier? 

It just doesn’t make sense.

Here’s an analogy: Robotics is Tony’s whole thing, so imagine if he ignored a robot or couldn’t recognise it as one. 

That would be bizarre, right? 

Never mind whether Tony liked that specific robot, or intended to help fix it. Robotics is his main skill, so at the very least he would be able to spot a robot when he sees one, if he’s written IC. 

Sam being mean to Bucky right out of the gate, before they’ve even spoken to each other, (telling him ‘I hate you’ within a couple of hours of meeting him), as if he believes Bucky is a bad person, is a failure of Sam’s specific stated skill set; comparable to Tony not being able to recognise a robot. 

It would be fine if Sam was a naturally unfriendly person with no expertise with counseling POWs or veterans; but it’s not fine if he is gregarious and kind and is supposed to have that specific innocence-recognising expertise.) 

So: it’s OOC. 

Bad writing. 

It makes it seem as if Sam being a Pararescue and a Counsellor was only tell and not show; because he's only shown giving bad advice, unless it's to a famous man whom he obviously admires and wants to impress. And doesn’t care about a veteran POW friend of a friend?

As a V.A. counselor of ex-POW and people with PTSD, if Sam were as good as his job as we're expected to believe (oh dear, we've got another Peggy Carter situation here) he should've been the person most likely, after Steve, to be able to see Bucky's innocence, and subsequently treat him neutrally and/or well. 

(Actually: Cap Quartet, Sam and Nat should've got it in a way no one else could, albeit for very different reasons.)

We see this neutral/benign treatment of Bucky from T’Challa, who isn’t an expert recogniser & rescuer of POW veterans, isn’t Steve’s friend, hasn’t dedicated two years of his life to rescuing Bucky, and isn’t as well-informed about Bucky as Sam is. 

(And then the writing has Sam giving T’Challa attitude, too, for no damn reason?! Why are they writing Sam like this?? 

It seems like they’ve just gone ‘well they were in a fight with him 5 mins ago so Sam must automatically hate them, right?’ without knowing that it contradicts Sam’s personality & backstory. 

But hey, who gives a shit so long as it’s funny, right?) 

Yet as soon as Bucky allegedly shows up planting a bomb at the UN (even though he's a sniper, not a demo expert, ffs! not to mention 50 lbs heavier and twice the width/height of the guy in the video!) Suddenly everyone, Sam included, (and Nat!) is trying to dissuade Steve from going to stop his childhood friend being shot in the head... 'while resisting arrest.' For a black man not to have empathy for that, at least, beggars belief. Sam could recognise the Accords would be abused but not recognise the injustice of this? BS!

And no one ever seems to point out that it was Sam who decided to tell Tony where Steve and Bucky were, when Tony had just been doing his damndest to fight them -- as if Sam would just turn around and trust the rich white guy who shot him out of sheer spite like half an hour ago?? 

(Again, it’s Sam shown being friendly and bending over backwards for a famous white man, even when it’s most illogical, just because the creators like Tony.)

I wonder how Sam felt when he saw how beat up Steve was, when he came to the Raft, because of him telling Tony where to go? (Or rather the writers, stupidly, having him tell Tony.)

I bet they'd never write him apologising to Bucky for costing him an arm?

So... yeah.

Even after FATWS, when you realise Sam didn't actually welcome Bucky to visit him...

(And only allowed him a- not even a bed, just a couch!- to sleep on because he was jockeyed into it, and his sister and nephews had already met Bucky and warmed to him. And then gave Bucky the same dangerous shitty victim-blaming advice they put in the mouth of that Annabelle Lecter.)

...Bucky is still in a situation where only Steve, T'Challa, Shuri, and Ayo, have ever showed him any real compassion. 

(Although you can tell the FATWS writers think what they’ve written is Sam and Zemo being compassionate).

After co-headlining an entire series?

It's fucking heart breaking.