#they’re either a troll or they have terrible literacy

[luna-rainbow]

This rather unpleasant comment turned up on my recent meta and I don’t want to start a fight (with a guest account, no less) on AO3, so uh, sorry Tumblr mutuals, here's my 1000 word rant.

Like okay, maybe my writing sucked and gave you that impression. The whole point of that meta was to tease out why he said the "I'm invisible, I'm turning into you" line despite it seeming out of character. And the reason it felt jarring was because we don't expect Bucky to be someone who says that. As opposed to, say, Tony-Manchurian-Candidate-Stark.

Disregarding why you thought it appropriate to leave a comment bashing Bucky when the story has "Bucky Barnes" tagged all over it, and why you'd conclude he's self-centered when he spent my entire meta worrying more about Steve's safety than he did his own, how do you watch the movies and not see that Bucky is one of the least self-focused people in MCU canon?

During much of his very limited screen time he's either being forced into certain actions or has absolutely no autonomy, but the few times he's had the ability to choose, he's never centered himself in that choice.

Here's 15 instances Bucky put himself last. Because I'm that annoyed.

1) He waded in to fish Steve out of the back alley and fought off the bully, and it's suggested that this happens frequently -- like, are we just going to dismiss this because Bucky is bigger than Steve? There are plenty of people who would have stood back or would have waited until help arrived, by which stage Steve would be in hospital.

2) He spends his last night before shipping out setting Steve up with a date, then half of that double date chasing after Steve and arguing with him because he was worried that Steve would either get arrested or successfully enlist and get killed. He didn't ask Steve to make this night about him, while a more entitled person would have because it was his farewell and not Steve's.

3) His first words to Steve when Steve untied him from the gurney was to ask Steve "Did it (getting the serum) hurt?" Even when he was the one barely able to walk.

4) "No, not without you!" even when the factory was exploding around them.

5) Despite being captured, tortured and experimented on, he didn't even hesitate when Steve asked him if he was going to be part of the team. I even covered this in my meta, he's tired and he's disillusioned and he just wants to get away from the war, but he doesn't because Steve asked.

6) He picks up the shield when Steve was down and moves/shoots to draw the Hydra agent's attention away from Steve and towards himself, which results in him being blasted out of the train.

7) He offered to move in with Steve despite the stigma around tuberculosis (and being poor and Irish and sickly) at the time.

8) The line that made Bucky break out of 70 years of brainwashing. It wasn't when Steve called him Bucky, it wasn't when Steve said "Your name is James Bucky Barnes", it wasn't when Steve said "You're my friend". It was only when Steve said, "I'm with you til the end of the line" because that was the oath of companionship and service that Bucky had made to Steve. The line wasn't about Bucky, but about what Bucky had promised to do for Steve. Like. This alone should prove my point.

9) He pulled Steve out of the water holding onto Steve with his one good hand while his other arm was broken (how did he even swim), even though he knew every moment wasted would put him in danger of being killed or captured, even though for him everyone was now an enemy. Despite all this, he pulled Steve out of the water and waited to see that he was breathing before he left.

10) Faced with an entire kill squad in Bucharest, Bucky still stuck to his rule of trying not to kill anyone.

11) His first words when he came out of Zemo's control was a horrified, "What did I do?" Instead of, you know, self-centeredly focusing on how horrified and upset he deserved to be that he had his autonomy ripped away again just when he thought he had been safe for two years.

12) He willingly went back to Siberia with Steve to stop the other super soldiers, despite it being the place where he was held, tortured and mind-wiped, and despite it being the place where he was made into a training puppet for the other soldiers.

13) Even injured and with his arm severed, Bucky grabbed onto Tony's foot to stop Tony from blasting Steve in the chest.

14) Bucky choosing to go back into cryo because he's afraid someone else with the Code Words will use him to hurt people.

15) Despite being in retirement, he took one look at the vibranium arm and all he said was "Where's the battle?"

I'm stopping here because I refuse to recognise EG!Steve and I also have trouble accepting TFATWS!Bucky's arc as canon.

Like, I know MCU writers are pathetic at sympathy, but I never expected the same from someone purporting to be Loki's fan, of all people. To call Bucky's singular snide remark "pity party"? Bucky did not, for the entire CATFA, complain about his 2-3 years of war experience (and if you haven't been at the frontline then please don't even attempt to belittle how horrific it had been), nor did he complain about the forced labour they had been put through in Azzano or the experiments Zola did to him on that gurney. Bucky also did not, at any point after CATWS, talk about the horrific experiences he went through under Hydra, nor did he ever ask anyone to give their attention to his pain or his trauma. His "I'm turning into you" remark is literally the closest he came to making it a "what about me" moment, and my meta was about why he emotionally came to that breaking point. Not once since that moment did movie!Bucky ever try to take a moment and turn it into something about himself.

And just to finish off, acting in self-interest is normal human behaviour on the spectrum of self-preservation, but that isn't even the pattern for Bucky. Bucky has always focused his choices on making life easier or better or more right for Steve. Bucky is not self-centered, but he is most definitely Steve-centered, and on that point I will accept no objections.

#I know I’m preaching to the choir here but here it is #i don't normally say this but #the rudeness of some people! #they’re either a troll or they have terrible literacy #bucky barnes #pro bucky barnes #stucky #stucky meta #bucky barnes protection squad

[wcamino-confessions]

Response to the Lowercase Aesthetic Rant

Read the rant here -> http://aminoapps.com/p/ifp26y

I’ve formatted this in a way that’s simply me responding to each section of the original author’s points.

–

Introduction:

Hi.

Grammar and Illiteracy:

Those of us who attended elementary school know what grammar and literacy consist of. We don’t need you to remind us by giving us the Google definition. I haven’t seen someone complain that the lowercase aesthetic means someone can’t write correctly. The complaint is that most of us think it just looks stupid.

Also, I enjoy how you two defend that “most people who implement the lowercase aesthetic into their typing pay very close attention to their grammar and spelling”, and then in the very next paragraph you two state “grammar rules are not something every human is required to implement into their typing or writing…” because you’re trying to defend a subject by covering every corner, and the blanket doesn’t reach.

If you’re writing a story don’t use abbreviations…? It’s a ridiculous excuse and is completely counterproductive to being a successful writer in real life. Lowercase aesthetic or not, NEVER use abbreviations. I can hear every English teacher ever wincing that I even had to say that.

The Freedom to Type:

We know it’s up to them to decide how they type. We’re just poking a little fun because, again, we just think it looks stupid.

I’m already seeing a trend where you two are using the few users who have ever insulted lowercase aesthetic authors for being illiterate, and spinning it around as your main defense. At least so far. That was the whole point of your previous section so you don’t need to mention it again here. It’s kind of redundant.

“If the way someone types isn’t to your liking why comment about it?” - Because as long as my comment is constructive and not written with the intent to bully then I’m allowed to do what I want. They put it out on the internet so both positive and negative feedback is inevitable.

I don’t think ANYONE has ever said the words “the way you type is illiterate and wrong. I dont like it.” Just admit we’re petty and we’re getting worked up over something as ridiculous as the way someone TYPES. It would be a much better argument than yours so far.

What Is a Typing Aesthetic:

Do I even need to read this? Shouldn’t this section been the first one? This section being here means you intended for us to know what typing (specifically lowercase) aesthetics were already, so now it looks like you’re following the Amino rant trend and defining every little thing.

A word of advice to all ranters - if you’re writing a rant make sure the subject is addressed in the beginning so the flow isn’t interrupted when you have to back up in the middle of your rant to explain what you’re even talking about.

You two say the “sole purpose of having a typing aesthetic is to make the writing look more professional, much cleaner and aesthetically pleasing to scan over.”

(Before you go onto mentioning the grammatically incorrect argument *again* but I won’t even talk about it this time.)

But the point is that the main complaint AGAINST the typing aesthetics are that they DON’T look professional or clean. No human in real life, either, will look at your lowercase essay and think to themselves ‘Holy shit, that’s a nice looking aesthetic’. No, they’ll ask you what you were thinking when you were writing it and make you redo it the proper way.

You end on the grammatically incorrect and illiterate point again. Just thought I’d point that out.

Phone Capitalization:

I’m not even going to read this one through because I believe that mistakes are okay when a phone is involved. What’s not okay is centering a whole aesthetic around it and defending it knife and tooth instead of pressing the UP button - because honey, I had a flip phone when I was your age and if I could do it that way you can do it now.

Opinions 👏 are 👏 opinions 👏 no👏 matter what 👏 your 👏 preferences 👏 are.

Sorry about that. Apparently we’re taking a break and being cool by punctuating our point with emojis instead of arguments.

Back to our regularly scheduled program now-

Negativity and Constructive Criticism:

I agree that going to a post and making a sole comment about the aesthetic is kind of a dick move, but you know you can delete comments right? If the person is trolling delete their comment. If they’re being mean take a screenshot of their comment, grab their profile link, and report them to an officer.

Me commenting about PREFERENCE on the other hand by stating that the aesthetic used is not appealing to me, though, is not “lashing out…”

Criticism is everywhere. As an artist myself I find it very annoying when people defend their work by claiming the faults addressed are intentional instead of working around it. You shouldn’t ignore opinions just because they aren’t praising everything you do. Every popular creator ever has been through much more negative feedback than you two have yet faced and their suggestions tend to always be along the lines of 'toughen up and use it as motivation to improve’.

Most the time when I read on Amino I don’t do it because I like the author, but because I’m reading for an experience. When that experience is interrupted - even if it’s as something as silly as an aesthetic - my initial reaction will be to tell the author why I had trouble finishing their story. If that’s seen as lashing out perhaps you should consider an alternative hobby that doesn’t invite feedback at all - that way your feelings will never get hurt!

Community Thoughts:

READ THIS PLEASE

I need to sit down for this one and take a deep breath because this shit gets me so pissed off.

Using the opinions of others doesn’t add much to your story if they’re not inviting in any new points. In English there’s a lesson about using counterarguments in your essays to further your opinion, and this is the exact OPPOSITE of that.

Instead of inviting the very opinions you two are ranting against you take the safe route and bubble the rant with meaningless opinions. I don’t know a single one of the people you used the opinions of, either, so it’s not like its impactful to me. If you’re going to use an opinion grab a PC officer, or a curator, or a leader. Those people’s opinions would be valued MUCH higher than two users with no tags, a Supportclan warrior, and a Musicclan warrior that most of us have never heard of.

Basically stop making these sections if you’re not going to use a relevant person or someone who tries to argue against you for a counterargument. It adds nothing.

Conclusion:

Wait, that was your main point - that aesthetics “shouldn’t be a fire starter”…? Because honestly I thought the issues about tagging aesthetic writers with the phrases 'grammatically illiterate’ and such was your main point (with other issues sprinkled in). You didn’t even include that same sentance in your thesis (not that you have a thesis) so why it’s here in your conclusion beats me. You did have a section about negative feedback but honestly it doesn’t resonate with me as much as the grammatically illiterate points do.

Also, don’t ever say that aesthetic posts are discriminated against ever again. If you can’t see the issue with that statement then you should just silently remove that sentence and never ask why.

I really do understand your point of view on the topic, but I think you wrote it in such a way that it’s now fodder for my own opinionated rant - so here we are!

My Conclusion:

This rant was poorly written in an (objectivly) terrible aesthetic with very little structure to it. Some points were out of place or overused. The length of it was unnecessary because these two could have cut out some sections entirely (What is a Typing Aesthetic + Community Opinions) and we’d be in the same place we are now.

For future rants I reccomend opening with a thesis statement to come back to in the conclusion and collect counterargument opinions against the point you choose to make. Spend some time explaining why you think those opinions are wrong and try not to be redundant with the same arguments against them, because I can easily see this happening.

Alternatively, if you can’t bring yourself to do that much ask a PC officer/curator/leader for their opinions and slide those in. Also state their status so the people reading know who they are and why they might be important opinions.

Signed, A tired ranter who knows their post would be taken down should it be posted on Amino 💫

#submission