Captain America: The Winter Soldier/YMMV

These things about Captain America: The Winter Soldier are subjective - not everyone will agree with all of them.

• Angst? What Angst?: As Natasha lampshades, Steve, a veteran of World War II, doesn't have much reaction to learning that the conflict was All for Nothing considering HYDRA's survival. It lead to the Alternative Character Interpretation of him being a closeted Blood Knight.
• Author's Saving Throw: After the previous film's perceived glamorization of war, this one makes clear that War Is Hell and involves doing some very shady things.
• Even Better Sequel: Considered quite a step-up from the "So Okay It's Average" reception of Captain America: The First Avenger.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Though the film tries to push Sharon/Steve as a couple, most fans are of the opinion that it succeeded in showing why Steve/Natasha would work better.
  • Other fans go the Ho Yay way and prefer Steve with Sam aka the Falcon.
• Foe Yay: Steve and the Winter Soldier. Even more after the Soldier's revealed to be Bucky.
• Ho Yay: Steve and Sam. Meet Cute at the park, playful "Oh you" style of camaraderie, Steve confiding about his past to Sam and then running to him when he's in trouble. Doesn't that sound like the plot of a Second Love movie?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Fury's claim of "last time I trusted someone I lost an eye" becomes hilarious after Captain Marvel.
• It Was His Sled: HYDRA survived Captain America: The First Avenger to return as the Big Bads via infiltrating SHIELD from its inception.
• Iron Woobie: Steve goes through Hell in this movie, and understandably breaks down at The Reveal, but does his best to hold on.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Aside from Fury, every hero in the movie is shipped with Steve. Case in point, it "gave birth" to the quite popular Sam/Steve ship.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Big Bad of this movie is a QUITE spoileriffic example. Alexander Pierce is the US Secretary of Defense, a member of the World Security Council, and a commanding member of HYDRA, who have evolved from a Nazi science Cult to a fascist conspiracy group dedicated to bringing about One World Order under their banner. Pierce had the Winter Soldier assassinate his old friend Nick Fury so Pierce can take control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Project Insight, intending to use the project to massacre hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, who could stand in HYDRA's way. (He failed, but NOT for lack of trying) Along the way he frames Captain America as a rogue agent who has to go on the run, kills his fellow members of the World Security Council, and shoots his housekeeper (not before apologizing to her) just for walking in on a meeting he has with the Winter Soldier. And he does all of this with calm, affable composure towards his enemies, attempting to make them understand that Utopia Justifies the Means.
• Memetic Mutation: "Hail HYDRA."
  • "On your left."
  • Screencaps of the scene where Steve is ganged up by Rumlow and his people in an elevator are very often used for memes involving unpopular opinions or Incredibly Lame Puns.
• Memetic Loser: The absent Hawkeye. This is a film populated by Badass Normals whose consequences shake the world. Him being absent from it only furthered his detractors' belief of his uselessness.
• Ron the Death Eater: Steve's dumping the Project: Insight helicarriers atop Washington D.C. and leaking all of SHIELD's data. As the movie takes pains to emphasize, that was the only option in the time they had. But a quick stroll on Archive of Our Own reveals that legions of fans believe Steve's only driving factor in doing all that was to create a new crisis that would need more Avengers (namely him). Avengers: Age of Ultron showing that Steve's greatest fear is that the fighting will one day end and he won't be needed anymore only threw fuel on this fire.
  • Played for Laughs regarding his stealing his WWII outfit from a museum. How dare he get Stan Lee fired?
• Signature Scene: Steve fighting HYDRA goons in the elevator.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Sharon Cater/Agent 13. She has some mild Ship Tease with Steve, directly questions Pierce and stands up to Rumlow in the climax but her overall plot contributions are negligible. In the comics, Sharon is Cap's love interest.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A common complaint about the film is that it sets up a very good question about the tradeoff between freedom and security... only to pull a copout and reveal HYDRA as the villains instead of casting SHIELD in shades of grey.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The film clearly appeals to a 2010s audiences' fear of drone strikes. While that is still a relevant fear and political issue, it never dominated the headlines quite as much as it did back then.
• What an Idiot!:
  • Surely, the first thing Steve Rogers would do when he learns that the Winter Soldier killed Howard and Maria Stark to silence them would be telling Tony Stark as soon as possible and explain everything very well to ensure that his best friend understands that said Soldier, who happens to be his other best friend Bucky, was Brainwashed and Crazy and ultimately just as much a victim of HYDRA as Howard and Maria, thereby allowing Iron Man to process this in a safe environment surrounded by friends. Nope. He sits on it for two years and when Tony finds it out, in the worst possible way, he understandably feels betrayed when he learns that Steve withheld this from him, and it destroys their friendship for seven years.
  • After learning that HYDRA is everywhere, Steve and Natasha's first thought for refuge is not, say contacting any of the other Avengers, but to contact a Veteran's Affairs counselor that Steve met during his morning workouts a few days ago. Granted Sam wasn't an agent of HYDRA... but within the context of the movie, there was nothing stopping him from being revealed as one. Especially since genuine SHIELD agents in the comics are HYDRA moles in the film.
• The Woobie: Surprisingly, The Winter Soldier becomes this as the movie goes on. Because not only he's Brainwashed and Crazy almost all the time and pretty much an Empty Shell when not, he turns out to be none other than Cap's best friend Bucky.

---

Back to Captain America: The Winter Soldier