#mcu wont let sharon and peggy have a visible familial relationship for shipping drama watch them do it

[thesharondefenseleague]

Imo i think while Peggy is the subject of bad character writing it's recognized less because unless she had a limited presence in the MCU ( unless you watched Agent Carter which most didn't). Sharon has the same problem tho to a much higher extreme because unless you are following behind the scene stuff or read the comics you get very little of Sharon before TFAWS. Its bad writing but if thats too large a part of what you got for the character its what you now have to judge the character on.

I will say that kind of take on Peggy is much less common and has more to do with not liking how they are handling Peggy now rather than bad character writing alone. But I do think this becomes a problem for many female characters in fandom in general.

Because they are often written badly compared to their male counterparts. And while it's not their fault they are written like that they are fictional characters. How they are written is to a large degree is what they are.

But I think in MCU specifically ( since they are based however loosely on the comics) its also based on fandom latching on to the comic canon vs not. For example its common to hear about comic canon vs the MCU depiction after a movie comes out.

After the Avengers for example people talked extensively about Hawkeye how he is in the comics. And many mcu fans were like damn I know comics and MCU are seperate things but thats a shame they didn't go with that version that seems like so much more fun. Many who didnt read comics started incorporating that version of Hawkeye to their fan content some even started reading Hawkeye comics.

Alternately similar things happened with Bucky and Sharon. People pointing out things like oh Bucky was actually Steve's kid side kick in comics and Sharon had Natasha's role in WS. But unlike with Hawkeye there was less lamenting of what could have been. People felt that the story hit better with Bucky as an adult who was Steve's best friend getting brainwashed. And they felt they liked that position more with Black Widow who they already knew getting this new character dynamic with someone. Rather than bring in another character to put in that position.

So the fan works often didnt bring in that version of Sharon and Bucky.

So imo the frustration with bad character writing is emphasized more when there is a contrast to better wrtten characters ( either other characters bring written better or the same character having been written better in a diff incanation).

And they are shit on that more when there isn't really a version of them a good chunk of people prefer to see instead ( like Sharon for example especially in the movies im seeing more defense now though of the character in the show but might just be people I follow and its actually uncommon).

While the fandom might mourn the loss of good character writing and try to use fandom to fix things in fic if there is a version fandom prefers more ( like Natasha in AOU ).

You get it.

Peggy, Sharon, and Bucky all fall under the same umbrella (with Sam too, and everyone except Fury, Natasha, and Maria) where in a movie starring Steve, their characters essentially worship him. They’re all Steve’s fans who love him unconditionally. In the comics, they had no problem calling him out when he did stupid shit, especially Sharon. But not many people were willing to read their comics because the obsession over how pretty the actors were drowned out any character complaints. Only Hawkeye received enough (very much deserved) complaints that led to the Fraction/Aja series picking up sales and fans. So it allowed Hawkeye to get better writing. They don’t know what to do with the other three, so Bucky’s character plateaus on wanting a new Cap that he approves of, Sharon’s writers bashing her while viewers ask what the fuck, and Peggy just being written to fill in Steve’s shoes because the actress wants to keep working with the MCU and his actor wants to do anything else.

~Mod R