- 𝗤𝗢𝗧𝗪 #𝟯𝟴 + 𝗠𝗖𝗨 𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗕 | 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴

𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗙 ⠀⠀━━━━━━━━⠀⠀ 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞

⠀⠀⠀    𝗉𝗋𝖾𝗏𝗂𝗈𝗎𝗌 𝖻𝗅𝗈𝗀 ⠀ ⠀⠀ 𝗆𝗒 𝗉𝗋𝗈𝖿𝗂𝗅𝖾⠀⠀⠀⠀ 𝗇𝖾𝗑𝗍 𝖻𝗅𝗈𝗀

⌂      ⠀ ＞

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Ladies, Gentlemen, Everyone in between and out, your local winterwidow ambassador came back with her very first blog for #MCUClub. I’m not going to lie, I’m excited yet very nervous about this one. It’s a great opportunity to talk about the topic I’ve wanted to discuss for a while now, so it would be shame if I missed it! But enough of my traditional blabber and let’s move on to the question by itself; For February our them was Love/Romance and for this week our question was ❝ What is your favorite ship and your least favorite ship, why? ❞. As you could guess by either hints here or just 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 me, our subjects are Natasha Romanoff, Bucky Barnes and Bruce Banner. I had chosen Earth 616 (Comics) Winterwidow/Buckynat as my favorite ship and MCU Brutasha as my least favorite one. Today, our whole blog will be dedicated to the breakdown of these couples to explain my love and hate for them. Before we start, I want to put out that if you disagree with my opinion, it’s okay! Everyone has right to adore or dislike the ship they want. It’s important to respect each others’ opinion and sometimes even take it into consideration. Now, let’s dive into this madness of ships and histories!

𝗙𝗔𝗩𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣

Oh god, earth 616 Winterwidow. It’s impossible to put in words my love and sadness for this couple. Their relationship is Marvel’s one of the greatest yet one of the most heartbreaking creations. To explain all my feelings about them, I want to talk about that exact history of theirs which defined their relationships and themselves. When the topic comes to this couple, it’s impossible to dismiss their story — so sad, tragic and unfair. The universe never seemed to be good to these two.

The start of our story dates back far away to 1956. Natasha’s, then Natalia’s, father figure and guardian Ivan had been wounded by some gang. His wounds were quite serious, I’d even say almost fatal. Natalia was bringing Ivan some water, seemingly trying to help his injuries as we saw another character appear in the scene — James Barnes, at the time the brainwashed soviet super-agent, The Winter Soldier. He remarked that Ivan needed medical treatment and ed on an offer from his superiors. He brought the cure, the Russian variant of Super Soldier Serum. He promised that it would heal him and increase their life spans. However, in exchange his superiors required their renewed loyalty. Although Ivan was against the idea, she ended up agreeing on behalf of both of them. That’s how 28-year-old Natalia met the Winter Soldier for the very first time and ended up back with Russian Government.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t until 1958 when “Soldier” and Natalia 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 met at the Red Room Academy where she was undergoing espionage training. Soldier helped to train her in combat while also handled the unsuccessful Wolf Spider OPs program (male equivalent of Black Widow OPs program). Both of them were weapons, a cold killing machines that were meant to serve their country and win the wars. They were supposed to be that and that only; Still, it wasn’t long until they went off from their meanings and two fell in love.

The main reason I love these relationships so much is because of impact they had on each other, this deep bond and understanding they shared they shared was unlike anything else. Natalia and Soldier found comfort in each other, this understanding and affection both of them lacked. As Bucky said, something about Natalia touched what was left of his humanity, his feelings. After all these years of brainwashing and suffering, both of them finally felt alive, they felt 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣.

Despite heart-breaking circumstances, their relationship didn’t spiral into classic toxic dependency but was rather healthy one; that’s another reason for love towards these two. They both led one another to the right path and made their lives easier at certain aspects.

I’d say that they are epitome of “Right Person, Wrong Time.” Even only in Red Room these two survived the things no couple should go through. Living in a constant fear of when and how you will lose your loved one, knowing that you’ll never get to spend your life with them, that life will break you two apart isn’t what anyone deserves, whether you are regular people or super-agents.

Unfortunately, their affair wasn’t set to last as long as they would want to. It came to end way faster — after six weeks of training, Natalia was set to marry Alexei Shostakov, Soviet Pilot who Red Room promised her to. She had told this to Soldier in person, as you can see on the above. They tried to break up their relationship, Soldier even seemed to respect Alexei in one way. However, don’t let this fool you. Their relationships didn’t end this peacefully. They could wish it would end this way, in such quick and painless form.

Instead, we can see their relationship continue after the news about Natalia’s future marriage. Unlike on previous , it seems like Soldier isn’t fond of her future husband even when he acknowledges that marrying Soviet Test Pilot Hero is a great honor.

In here we understand that Soldier isn’t ready to let go of Natalia, nor she wants to leave him. She loves him way more than she loved Alexei. Still, neither has say here. Not only that but if Red Room found out about their ongoing affair, they’d kill the Soldier. Natalia had been trying to protect him from that as much as she could, however he didn’t care about any risks, no matter if it was death or forthcoming marriage. He only cared about her and 𝙝𝙚𝙧 safety, not his own.

As much as this mindset of theirs warms my heart and highlights how much they loved each other, I should also it that 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 mindset was the reason why everything ended the way it did. Ending for this couple in Red Room was tragic... no, even that is understatement. It was rather horrible and cruel.

The beginning of ending started unexpectedly. The Winter Soldier was sent to mission to West Berlin. He was tasked to take out former KGB official who wanted to flee to U.S.A. He knew too much of Russia’s secrets to be kept alive. As always, Soldier was fully prepared for mission, there were no signs of failure until turned out that he wasn’t given a full information: his target had his little daughter with him, which was putting mission in danger. She and his target where running away from him together but eventually got trapped in alley.

Brainwashed or not, Soldier didn’t want to kill the man in front of the child. Yet he couldn’t fail mission either. Luckily, Natalia, the Black Widow showed up at the place all of the sudden. She volunteered to help him and his target told the daughter to follow the woman. She carried away the scared kid and comforted her, making sure that she didn’t see how her father was being murdered. In his mind, Soldier had labeled this mission as an absolute disaster.

Next day Soldier flew back to Moscow to meet his superiors. He expressed irritation with the fact that he wasn’t informed about the child being involved, on which the one of three men ironically replied saying if they should have told him about the target’s dog as well. The Soldier snapped at that and grab him by the collar with words “If Black Widow hadn’t been there...” after which his (I assume) Red Room supervisor dragged him away and told him that since target was neutralized, the mission was successful. Nevertheless, The Soldier refused to back down and told them that he 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 follow orders without hesitation but he needs to know all the information. One of men told him that he was forgetting his place and threaten that Karpov would hear about his behavior. Again, Bucky got even angrier and yelled at him in English “Then let him!.”

After that, his Red Room supervisor asked other two to leave the room, and give them for the moment. He agreed with Soldier’s concerns on dossier, However soon we saw this scene unfold...

He knew that The Soldier wasn’t always following the orders now. But no, he wasn’t talking only about this incident. We learned that The Soldier’s and Natalia’s romance had been officially seen, not only by his supervisor but also the others. The Soldier tried to deny it their relationship, knowing well that this would end badly. However, his supervisor continued his talk:

Oh lord, the way I absolutely 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 this . This!man right there, Bucky Barnes. He’s so stern and so protective about her. I can’t even describe how much these words, this quote means to me — “You think she belongs to anyone? Then you’re as foolish as the others.” He didn’t say that she was his own, he didn’t say that they were meant to be and he didn’t just toss away her to some man, 𝙣𝙤. The Soldier called him fool for thinking that Natalia ever belonged or would belong to someone.

He had always acknowledged and appreciated Natasha’s strength and independency. He was one of the first people who saw it in her from the start, who didn’t turn her into some weapon or a thing for his own benefit. Natalia was never downed in this romance, her character wasn’t weakened for the man but that man rather loved her strength and ed that side of her.

Someone might say that it is silly detail to worship but trust me, there are so many, almost even too many relationships in the movie and comics industry where women’s character, power or even whole story and goals are being thrown away and diminished to put her in relationships with someone. Seeing Bucky, The Winter Soldier, the man who casts fear upon whole world for decades, treat Natalia this way is absolutely amazing and heart-warming for me.

Even so, this conversation didn’t end well, as you could guess. The Soldier was dismissed while the his supervisor called the man named Dimitri on the phone, reporting the problem.

It isn’t clear when, where or how 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮 came exactly. We can only see the whole horror of situation on the above — The Soldier being electrocute while Natalia screams in fear and panic, begging to leave him alone. We can see that she is to take the guilt upon herself, only to get him released but it doesn’t matter to their superiors... could you even imagine what she felt at that moment? All this pain and dread. She had to watch her loved one scream in pain, unable to help him. Red Room punished them in different ways.

However, don’t let such ending fool you again. This couple is one hell of a fighter. Natalia refused to give up and went on to search for James, hoping to find him, and she did. In one of the nights, Natalia was again searching for him when she finally succeeded... but not in the way she would want to.

Natalia found him just put away like some useless toy. It had turned out that after the Soldier was deemed unstable, he was being put away in cryostasis between missions. Absolutely petrified and heartbroken by such image of her lover, she broke into the tears. But she still couldn’t do anything about it, no matter how much she wanted to. Natalia anyway ended up marrying Alexei Shostakov for long six 6-7 years until the government faked his death, and she spiraled into grief, eventually ending back up in the KGB.

HOWEVER! Again don’t let Marvel fool you. This is still not the end of this couple. Our story continues after whole decades and lifetimes, in 2007. At the time, Ed Brubaker had been working on Captain America comics since 2005 and in 2007, the world finally saw the yet another amazing comics of his — Captain America: The Death of Captain America. Unfortunately, I can’t get into the plot here as it’s very complex and we’ll go off topic. I’ll only note that it revolved around the assassination of Steve Rogers who was considered criminal (post-Civil War). Bucky had been free for around two years already (since Captain America: Winter Soldier, 2005), all of his memories where brought back by cosmic cube. However, no one knew about it, as he was hiding. Meanwhile, Natasha was Avenger and worked for SHIELD whose new director was Tony Stark.

The plot is absolutely insane and long, so I’m only going to note in the series, Bucky ended up picking up the Shield and becoming new Captain America in order to honor Steve’s memory. By the time he did it, he and Natasha had once fought and later worked together — After their first meeting, Natasha recalled their Red Room history while talking with Tony, we even saw some flashbacks. Bucky recalled that he was her trainer in his thoughts and expressed concern for her as he didn’t want to hurt her during the fight. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until middle of comic when these two finally talked about their relationships.

The following scene happened recently after Bucky had picked up the shield and got on the news, and Natasha came to inform that they won’t be able to work together, now when he’s public figure. Bucky; He was seemingly upset by the news, after what Natasha asked if he ed their time in Red Room:

Oh, look at my babies 🥺. when I tell you that I screamed during this scene, I really mean it. I love Bucky’s words in the first , it just really shows that after all this years, he still loves her and appreciates her. Their relationships is the only bright, happy thing in over fifty years of pain and brainwashing, it’s nice to see him out it that way. As we see, Natasha hasn’t forgotten him or their love either. After this kiss, we can officially say that the romance between them had started again. Throughout all Ed’s Captain America comics, we witnessed a lot of Buckynat and a lot of sweet and beautiful moments between them. These series are huge, so I can’t dig up everything but I’ll show you and talk about some of my favorite moments that show why I love them.

Natasha’s for James — hell yes. Bucky had been struggling and being unsure about being Captain America for a while since he picked it up but constantly, she was always there for him at these moments. ing your partner in tough times and uplifting them is important part of healthy, good relationships. Natasha genuinely believed in him and his powers, she wanted him to do the same. She knew that he was able to do it, she knew that Steve would be proud of him and she constantly reminded him of that.

Besides comforting and joking around the topic to make him feel better, Natasha isn’t afraid to call out or snap at Bucky either when needed. He can easily spiral into the self-blame and throw himself into danger afterwards. Natasha knows that she should take it seriously and put away all other stuff when it comes to that. It’s another important trait that I love about her and them.

She thew him a birthday party, oh my god. How can someone not love this moment? Or appropriate Natasha for this. She wanted him to feel happy and included. For Bucky, someone that spent past fifty-plus years in pain and loneliness, that was huge gesture. It’s really heartwarming moment.

This little moment, just small phrase shows us the harsh, heartbreaking understanding between them — understanding of survival, of death and life, of guilt, murders and responsibility, living through decades and thousands of lives. It’s the feeling that only a few people in Marvel universe could have, and they are one of them. However, between them it’s still a special thing. Very special thing.

They never forget the past of their relationships either. They it but as much as it makes them happy, it also reminds them of pain they had to go through at the end. I love that both of them objectively view it all and recall both good or bad moments without romanticizing any of it. They rate it objectively and that’s a great thing, in my opinion. However, they are also understand that it’s heavy topic for both of them. So, Bucky tries to keep it short and distract Natasha and himself, shift focus on reality.

Natasha and Bucky don’t have easiest of jobs or lives, their past makes them even more complicated, as well as enemies who are always ought to destroy them. Belief and trust in each other is important here. No matter what happens, where they are or what another false thing one of them will be accused of, they’ll still believe them and stand by they side, offer their help and rescue them. They always have each other to rely on and trust which is amazing

At some point, Natasha also found Bucky’s sister, Rebecca and they visited her together. Although she had been ill and forgot a lot of things, Bucky was anyway happy to visit her. Rebecca seemed to even love Nat and appreciated that she looked after him.

Bucky almost even ended up almost dying during one of the battles. I’m just going to leave this ^^ without any further words. Just- yeah. That being said, don’t think that this couple was ought to have happy ending. Universe doesn’t seem to want it for them. However, this wasn’t where everything ended. He lived here.

In these Captain America series, Bucky eventually ended up being forced to give up the shield when he got exposed for being Winter Soldier. After series of events, world thought that he was dead while he just went underground. Our story of Natasha and Bucky continued and ended in Winter Soldier 2012. Here, Bucky was still working underground with Natasha in his Winter Soldier uniform. Plot of this comic isn’t easy either, I’m just going to note that here, one of his old “students” that he trained in Russia ended up waking up from cryostasis and escaping. His name was Leo — he hated big hatred for Bucky and wanted to take revenge on him. Aware of his romance with Black Widow, he ended up kidnapping her and brainwashing her into forgetting her whole life. Leo wanted to earn her love and take her away from Bucky, in order to hurt him... eventually, Natasha did end up being rescued by she couldn’t anyone. The scientists managed to recover all of her memories, all memories besides ones of Bucky. While Steve (who was resurrected in previous comics) and others told him not to give up and let scientists work on her further, Bucky refused to allow them that. He said that Natasha had been messed with her mind enough times and he won’t let it happen on his .

I actually reached photo limit LMFAO, so I can’t add more s- I’m an idiot, I know. So, I’m going to quote some of thoughts that Bucky was having when he realized that he lost Natasha and she’ll never him. s of them will be in comments:

“Never even even realized how 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩 I was without her. But I always 𝙬𝙖𝙨. Just some lost Soldier who forgot he had home until she gave me one”

“... he [Leo] still wins. I try to imagine my life without her, and all I see is... 𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙣... and 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠. But at least I’ll be the 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙣𝙚 feeling it. I take solace in that thought... and hold on to it as for as long as I can. But it won’t last long.”

“”The Black Widow.” The men who trained her threw the title around like a slur. Claimed that no man could resist, much less survive her. But she wore it like a medal. One only she’d known the courage to earn. Thanks to Leo it’s a sick joke now. He’s cut me out of her mind. I’m worse than dead. I never even existed. I will never forget the price she’s paid. What he did to her just to hurt me.”

HOWEVER, don’t think that their story ended here. Their story still goes on and it’s messier and more confusing than ever. They’re not together but oh boy is Marvel constantly brining it up. Nevertheless, that story is topic for another blog. They are far, far from full ending.

𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗧 𝗙𝗔𝗩𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣

Small note before we start: As I’ve run out of image limit and will probably soon reach character one (We’re 20k+ character in here), I’ll try to keep this short and NOT sweet because we’re talking about my least favorite couple. I won’t go into the history of this couple or break it down in as much details as Buckynat since all of you know their history and watched MCU Movies; their history doesn’t even carry the big weight, so there is no point there. I’m just going to straight up jump into the reasons.

Brutasha had always felt forced to me. I’ve tried giving this couple chance many but there is no chemistry, there is no build up and Natasha’s character has been horribly underwritten during their whole affair. In the first Avengers movie she felt nothing but fear for Bruce and Hulk, she knew she couldn’t defeat him and she knew he could kill her. I’ve seen some explain that she fell for him because she wasn’t able to manipulate him and that fascinated her. However, for her cinematic AND comics character that is simply wrong and out of character. For Natasha, it’s inherently hard to fall for someone, respect them as such level and especially trust them, there is no way that after so little time she’d fall for Bruce to the point where she overstepped herself (and writers stepped over her character) and chased Bruce even in AOU, after getting constantly rejected.

Natasha’s very smart educated woman. She simply wouldn’t chase anyone like she chased Bruce — she can take rejection and she always understands it, the best example for it is her relationships with Daredevil in comics.

In the comics, Natasha always struggled with her personal life to the point where it was almost nonexistent by her own will. She was always afraid to get comfortable somewhere or get attached to someone due to her work. For a while, she even refused to take in Liho (her cat) to her home, even when she came to her every night... The Black Widow especially would never put her personal life first over her work and suggest someone to run away with her, especially when she had zero build up with that someone like she did in this infamous scene.

Trope of Beauty and The beast and them bonding over their trauma could be great. I feel like this couple could have potential if writers actually researched Natasha’s character and didn’t bring her down for Bruce, diminish to “I love you, please love me and let’s run away together and forget our job” kind of trope which is absolutely unacceptable from her side. If writers made Natasha hold herself the way she should and way she is, and gave us proper build up and slow-burn before such deep love confessions, this could work. I don’t know how else to elaborate this because for ME, Brutasha is simply

nothing but horrible writing of relationships and Natasha that can be seen from afar- 🤷🏻‍♀

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That’s it for today. Thanks for your attention and reading this huge Buckynat bible- to respect each other’s opinions in the comments. Goodbye, stay safe my loves :heart:

#curatorreview