Well, as you saw I'm in a MCU Sam (Sterns) mood (I'm just happy to discover and think about a new Sam alright). So today I want to overanalyze every details about MCU Sam and talk about his story, the one that isn't told, the one they tried to bury even, that is still present.
We're gonna talk torture, abusive relationship, so if these topics are hard for you be cautious.
It's obvious how Sam's story was incredibly nerfed and cut off but it doesn't mean there's nothing to say about him. In fact there's a lot of little details here and there that are enough to explain what wasn't say, if you take the time to properly look at it (and by this I mean if you have no life, it's not that obvious honestly unless you're fucked up like me).
PLEASE keep in mind that I only saw the movie twice in theater when I wrote this (one month after my first watch) so I might be missing a few things or I might be wrong about quotes and stuff like that alright.
There's 3 huge things I will talk about here. I could make a different post for each of them but ultimatly they're all connected to the same thing : Sam's humanity.
1) I want to talk about his surounding, his prison, where he spent 16 years of his life
2) I'll talk about his design, his look, it's an addition to this post that I made about it
3) I wanna explore his relationship with Ross
So let's dive in :
I - Sam's safe space
First of all, I want to talk about his prison, because it will be the base for everything else. So let's take a look at it :
The first interesting detail is the (first) door they use to keep him caged. It's not like any other cell, this one has a very heavy lock (for obvious reasons).
I already mentionned how Camp Echo One reminds me of the Shadow Base he's locked in in Hulkverine. In the first page they explain how no objects are allowed because he could just break free and hurt with everything (and it will be proven because he will kill two guy and break free with a simple piece of paper). That's how dangerous Sam is through his intelligence and that's what it represents, of course. But the reason I'm showing this isn't because of such trivial information, it's because of how the lock is shaped. An eye. It could have a lot of meaning, it could be the Eye of Providence and so representing how Sam sees everything because it's a symbol of truth and knowledge. But it's also largely used in pop culture to represent conspiracy (which Sam is also about).
Now the third meaning I wanna talk about is the eye of Horus. Long story short Horus (a Falcon God, I'm mentionning it for obvious purpose) lost his left eye to Seth, it was restored, giving this very famous eye that is meant to protect from curses. That's the 3rd meaning, a protection against Sam, immediatly framing him as a devil entity.
Now keep all these meaning in mind and let's take a quick look at Sam (we will go back to his design later) :
His left eye is blind. Of course it's an hommage to McFarlane's design in which both his eyes are white but to me it's also a physical representation of the price he paid for knowledge. Like Horus, his eye was teared away. But the difference is it wasn't return and in exchange he got knowledge. So, kind of a mix of all these mythes.
But keep Horus in mind, we'll go back to that later. Let's go back to his prison for now.
It's different from the one we quickly see.
It's an open cell with nothing but a bench (most likely a very uncomfortable bed) and a light, similar to the ones in his own cell. It's also visibly small. It's hard to say if it's the only other cell with Sam's or if there's several like this one, it was used to show that there's nobody but Sam here. Was Camp Echo One build just for him or was it always here, hosting more prisoners but eventually it was emptied for Sam, to keep him a secret and maybe to avoid having him use the other prisoners. It could be both.
I personally think he ended up in this cell (or at least a cell like this one) and then got his bigger one.
Sam's cell has 3 "rooms" :
So you have the lab, the "computer room" and the "bedroom"
The lab is visually very hostil, from the red lights to the tools hanging everywhere and of course the torture beds and chair.
Especially the chair, in fact, in most shot it gets your attention :
Here because it's under a different opposite color (cold blue)
Here of course, through Joaquin and how it's in the center of the shot. Of course you have the moment Sam sit on it and make it obvious that it was the chair he was tied to while Ross injected him more gamma (probably through the cloned Bruce blood). In fact when Sam talks about his mutation you have an injection thing, whatever it's called in English, showing up (I'd suggest to click each pictures to properly see them, as they're very dark on a very light blog, making it difficult to properly see unless you click).
The chair is visibly painful. The mark on it make you think about rust so cold, rough (in a violent way) and so of course unsafe and painful. It also looks like a liquid dripped on it and you will inconsciously think about blood. This chair alone is enough to guess and understand the kind of pain and torture Sam went through, you have these visible metal handcuff to hold Sam still but also this kind of buckle (on this right, near Sam's left shoulder) probably used to put a strap and shit like that to tie him in harder.
but let's make it worst. Remember in Incredible Hulk when Sam kind of "awaken" the gamma in Bruce? He uses an electric choc. This chair was clearly designed after electric chairs, if anything the metal thing near his head is enough to have you do the connexion without even having to think about it. It's a modern electric chair.
Again, keep that eletric choc in mind, we'll go back to that later.
There's also these torture bed that I assumed were for his own victims but now that we know he mind controlled people through light and at distance I guess it was also for him so you can imagine he went through more than one kind of experiment and torture.
So, as I said, you then have two rooms. A room with computers and shit where he was working it seems, the "tech" part of his lab kinda. I don't have much to say 'cause it's just a bunch of computer shit and what seems to be Ross' pills, it's probobably where he was making them, there's nothing very relevant other that some kind of "work desk" y'know.
The most interesting one is the second. It's a "bedroom", or at least his very personal space.
First of all, it's the only room with no red light and the only one with "normal" kind of lights.
There's A LOT to say about this shot alone so let me break this down for you
Now before I overly analyze this and find meaning in everything let's just repost this picture from Incredible Hulk of Sam's work space, also divided in 3 part. His very messy desk which basically looks like my bedroom with piece of works everywhere, it's a mess of things he loves. Science, books, plants, with a very specific kinda academia aesthetic. It's the reflect of his mind, a metaphor for an overly cluttered and very messy, quick and "lourd" mind (ADHD mind, basically).
Then you have the room where he injects Bruce with the antidode, Blonsky with Bruce's blood and where he gets gamma poisonned too :
You can see that the place they were talking is right behind Bruce and Betty because of the two lamps.
And then the place he stores Bruce's blood, kinda similar to the computer room in his prison because of the empty tubes looking like Bruce's blood.
It's not really THAT important, I just like how his prison is kind of build the same way than his favorite place. What's relevant, however, is the aesthetic of this place. It's the same as his bedroom for his main place, same as his computer room for anything computer and same as the lab for the lab.
So basically Sam tried to rebuilt his comfort zone in his prison (tried is the important part of this sentence lol). Which is only natural, of course, he tried to make his space as "acceptable" as possible for his own mental health (which is of course still not acceptable, thus the reason he became the person he is now). But it's a good way to show how Sam clings to his past life and to himself. Trying to bring everything he loves to keep them near him, to keep his humanity near him.
Look at all the details in his bedroom. A rug so the ground is less cold. A fan near his bed which is covered with a few blankets and a few pillows, hinting at how uncomfortable Summer and Winter must be. I think there's also a mug near the bed, it's hard to see tbh. You have the whole tea set of course, a shit tons of books, all his certificates (there's a lot, damn), calm landscape paintings. The lamps and furnitures aren't exactly the same as the one he had in his workspace but it's the same aesthethic. Except for the chair, the chair is the same :
All these details are just Sam, I mean the Sam he used to be, trying to stay the man he was.
Anthuriums are known for being a very good natural air purificator but also and MOSTLY because of how they symbolize hospitality. It's said they are able to bring happiness, that's why they're very often used in work space and living room, to brighten the place and make it comfortable but also welcoming. So basically it's a plant you put in a room to make it comfy and joyful.
Sam being Sam he probably cultivated them for both their very pragmatic purpose but also their symbols. And again, you have this very sad clue of how Sam tried to make his torture comfortable.
Sam seems to be into plants, in fact, from these anthurium to the one on his desk (with the trunk base), the tea set and this whole plant space in his previous life behind Betty and Bruce :
And also, of course, how the first time you "see" (or rather read) him in the MCU is when Bruce experiment with a flower that he told him to get and fails.
Another sad part is his "personal" computer background :
It's the college were he apparently studied given the certificate but most important the place where he worked as a teacher (where Bruce and Betty meet him). His computer is full of video of his classes.
That's what Sam misses the most, that's what his passion was about. Learning and teaching.
It's been 16 years but he still keep this background. Everything is about Sam's regrets, when Sam Wilson open a video of him teaching about brain, to serve the story of course and make it obvious for the watcher that he's the guy we're talking about and then Sam himself says "wasn't half bad looking was I", which is enough to have you understand how he also hates his look.
This Sam's tastes are totally opposing his comics self who'd rather spend his time in very modern places full of technology, while MCU Sam is more "old-fashioned" in that matter. Which I see as the symbol of his humanity.
If he ever comes back in the MCU as a full Leader, it would be interesting to have him go full modern and technology as well to properly mark this final step in his monster path, the final proof that he's no longer human, him totally letting go of his humanity by letting go of these artefacts of his past and drastically changing his own tastes.
This bedroom is a metaphor of his evolution into the Leader, in fact. The room itself represent all the pain and abuses and tortures he go through, he covers them with everything he likes from his past life, as a way to cling to himself, to his life, to his hope and as I said, to his humanity. He kind of reclaim his "living" space by decorating it to his image to try to cover the pain and the hurt. Which is very like him 'cause he was such a positive person before that it's not really that surprising.
Now the last detail I didn't mention nor pointed at in screenshots on purpose are the pictures of his victims. He could have put them in his computer room or the lab, it's where he works after all, where he studied them. So why is it in the room.
Well, conveniantly to have Sam Wilson looks at it, but I also see it as a metaphor of Sam losing his humanity. He covered his prison with everything he loved, everything comfortable to him, as a way to cling to it and now he's covering it with his victims. His nefarious goal is invading his private place, erasing his humanity, basically.
But his humanity is still very visible, it's only the beginning. Keep that in mind. In this movie he's not the Leader yet, he's at the very beginning of his final transformation into it.
II - Sam's design
Of course this loss is also very visible through his whole design. That's why changing it was the right call. "Gngngn it's not comics accurate" to WHAT? To that one picture you saw on Google? Sam has A LOT of designs, each more grotesque and gruesome than the others.
Their only mistake was to make Sam's head a bit too small AND YET, even that can make sense according to his future. His Leader name was never dropped, his orange color was removed, his head is smaller, his blood is still visibly red AND you have this whole room existing to show what's left of Sam's humanity (and so that he still has humanity, even if he's losing it). Right now he's not the Leader, not yet. Now Marvel could very well bring him back and complet his transformation or just put him in the shelf forever because they're insatisfied with Cap 4 results, it's up to them but the door is open.
So back to Sam's design. Worth noticing that even if there's a lot of metallic shit in his prison, NOTHING reflects him. When Sam Wilson is here, he cut the lights (sure it was a way to give an horror vibe to this whole scene). I mentionned this a few months ago and to me that's the road they took :
He does reminds me of the phantom of the opera. I would love it if they explore that (if they ever brings him back as a full antagonist) and have him kind of expressing himself through someone else. That's what he does in comics after all, sending LMD or mind controlled people or people he just manipulated to do his stuff to avoid showing himself the way Eric uses Christine's voice to express himself. Would make even more sense given MCU Sam HATES how he looks like (thus nothing reflecting him in his prison), unlike comics Sam who thinks he's incredibly sexy as shown in Incredible Hulk annual 11 (I MEAN, I DO THINK HE'S VERY SEXY SO WHO AM I TO JUDGE).
I said it in my previous post but I'll say it again here :
"He showed himself when he started mentionning what he went through to Captain America and so, through Cap, to us. That's when he becomes more than a monster, that's when you see that he's a human and most importantly a victim."
A few days ago, this picture was posted from one of the person who worked on design (I don't have their name, someone send me these pic and I couldn't find the source).
It's the coat and shoes that were visible in some of the trailers scenes we never got so apparently they filmed a whole movie with this design (ok but as a French having an Alain Delon Sam is way too funny, sorry, I can't just not laugh at this idea). He has his orange shirt and his appearence was similar to the POP and leaked artwork one. So they went for that look first.
What's interesting to me in that first look is that it was kind of similar to Bruce in Avengers (like having their signature color on their shirt). It has me wonder if it's a coincidence or if they already wanted to slowly introduce a parallel between them.
And I'll tell you this as someone whose fav Sam design is the OG Sam, good thing they didn't keep it. Changing his whole design was annoying and had them cut off a huge part of Sam's writing I guess because it would have been too complicated to recreate all his scene but it's better. It was too casual and too simple to match the horror he went through, the abuses he personalizes but also because it was important that he looks "dehumanized" because that's what his tortures were about. Dehumanizing him, turning him into an emotionless thinking tank.
"They should have kept the orange!!" I get why you would say that, my fan heart also wished to see orange and while I understand why they didn't use it in the cell (because it's TOO FUCKING FLASHY he needed to stay in the shadow and so wearing dark) he could have worn it afterward, when he killed Sam Wilson's friend or when he gave himself in yes yes.
But I think having him wear black (or very dark blue) is better to avoid clashing with blue used to represent him and also to have him stay a shadow and this kind of Death metaphor they clearly wanted to give him, given a specific removed scene.
He's not a human anymore, only the shadow of who he was. In a design pov this is the right call. And that's why you gotta stop screaming "COMICS ACCURACY" because first of all you don't care about it apparently since most of you aren't even aware Sam had more than two design (literally the last time we saw him in comics he was a baby and the time before that he was A FUCKING BUILDING and in both he had no mustache and shit) and second because the MCU is its own thing with its own lore, a totally different kind of media. If you want comics book then do like I did with Hulk and stick to comics book, idk what to tell you. If anything the Loki serie should have taught you how you can be incredibly fucking comics accurate while still taking a totally different road in both design and writing. Remember when the MCU rebooted comics Loki design and nobody cared because it was trendy to love the MCU? I do.
And maybe your problem is just that you don't like the character, which is ok, y'know, it happens, you just don't like nor care about Sam at all, that's why you didn't like his MCU version, he's Just not the kind of character you like but no, the MCU didn't "massacre your boy" (he's not your boy btw, where the fuck were you all these past decade?).
So anyway, his design is still very similar to a few horrors we got in his comics, as I said the only difference is the head being a bit too small. The lack of facial hair isn't a problem, especially if he's still inspired by Jones' run like the first Incredible Hulk movie was. This is where the name Mister Blue comes from, in fact.
In this run, Sam lost his body and all his face, except for the lower part. So he's just a floating brain with eyes, a nose and lips. Before Bruce and co found out it was Sam, they would call him "lips" because that's the only thing he was showing and he doesn't have mustaches or beard (in Immortal Hulk he also have a few design without it). I saw someone saying "the Leader was never represented without a mustache or a beards" and I already proved them wrong with 3 different runs LOL (could also name Jenkins'), such superior comics reader you are...
I'm mentionning it because this specific shot reminds me a lot of how we saw him during the whole run before it was revealed to be this Mother Brain nightmare shit, same color code even :
To me Jones' run also impacted his MCU design. Not just David/McFarlane's.
But that's the thing with this movie, it's an hommage to the Incredible Hulk movie (which kind of make it an ok tier Captain America movie but a good Incredible Hulk one). There's a lot of stuff from the IH movie, even when Sam Wilson tries to attack him, he stops him with the sound attack Ross used on Hulk in Incredible Hulk before he beat the shit out of Blonsky.
When I was out of the theater my sister said "Tim is smaller than I thought" and yes Tim is kind of small (not that small tbh, 1m65, I know because I was looking at the height difference between him and Mark Ruffalo for, huh, science). Sam is, whith his gamma head, 1m76 so you remove at least 15cm to have his accurate normal height and you see he's actually small. Smaller than Tim in fact. He's also very puny and it was also very visible in the movie, he had "too big" clothes, making him look so thin and small. It makes Sam looks very fragile and weak. Which is the purpose, big brain, no muscles, y'know.
Also the way he stands like an autistic edgelord reminds me of this specific panel :
There's no much more to say about his body so let's talk about his face
As I said already it's visibly PAINFUL. His brainish head looks likea mix of brain matter and these bubbles you get when you have a very bad burn (now is the time to remember the electric chair, electricity BURNS). It's mostly present in the right side of his face, destroying his ear, invading his neck. So it has me think (but it's pure headcanon and speculation here, not a fact) that he was injected through the right arm thus the "burn" being more present here. There's a lot of still very reddish part on his head, as if it was still bleeding under the skin and so is either recent or still "moving/evolving". He has a lot of blue and red around the eyes and the nose, the red in his eyes, ear and nose (especially left part of his face) have me think that he probably had blood leak from here a few time, which highly remind me of his Thunderbolts era (the way he dresses with a hood on is also similar). His nose often bled when he was thinking too much.
Remember the Death Metaphor I mentionned above? Well, look at the light and makeup on this shot, his face looks like a skull.
He looks like someone who was beaten up or someone with a very serious illness but in a case or another he looks physically hurt and TIRED.
Ok quick reminder for people who haven't seen Incredible Hulk, that's Sam when he was normal :
Even when he's not as excited as he is in that moment he tends to move a lot, to talk a lot, to have quick movement and geste, he can't just stay still. It makes sense because MCU Sam is ADHD, thus the messy lab, thus the obsessive behaviors etc...
(This book is MCU canon and it was written by Peter David, the guy who introduced mental illness and neuroatypies to the Hulk lore, important side note).
And yeah, hummingbird (on crack) is a good way to describe him. His movements are so quick and kind of "lightweighted" so you picture this very small bird and his wings flapping incredibly fucking fast and all.
In Incredible Hulk that's how he looks like. Overly excited, overly expressive (through his face, his words and his movements), full of energy. That's why I often call him a sunshine, because that's his energy. He's as warm as the Sun.
But in Brave New World? He's TIRED. Zero energy. No expression, no movement. In fact everytime he moves he seems so slow, so heavy as if every movement was a burden. Just like it was physically visible that he had a great time doing science, feeling alive, it's physically visible that he doesn't live anymore. He's broken, not only mentally but also physically.
When in IH he was mostly showing enthousiasm, passion and happiness, the only emotion you'll see on him in BNW is rage. The only emotion you hear in this emotionless voice is anger and annoyance, the only time he shows emotion it's when he violently shakes out of anger and screams (PEAK Sam btw, Sam losing his shit is typical Sam behavior in every fucking piece of media he's in, it's kind of his trading mark at this point).
I know it's just a fiction but do you ever think of what 16 years cut off from humanity and the outside does to the mind? Because I do, I had a glimpse of it and I can tell you that even through a small glimpse I lost my own light so imagine actually living it.
He barely moves, his arms are often against his body, unlike his past self who was talking a lot through his body with A LOT of hand gestures. The only moment you see him move his hands (other than in a practical way to use something) is during his introduction to Sam Wilson. It's hard to see in the dark but when he says "yet here you stand" he raised his hand in annoyance to kind of "point at him" the way you would wave at something annoying while complaining. So again, his hands are used to show the only emotions he feels. Anger and annoyance.
BUT ANYWAY, people criticized his lack of emotion and movement through that post credit scene that leaked day one before even watching the movie because HEY it brings clouts but it's the best part of his character to me. His total lack of emotion. Going from a very goofy energy ball to a cold homocidal, nothing more explicite than that to show how someone suffer. His pain is very obvious, at least to me. He doesn't need to describe the tortures he went through (which, I think, was the idea earlier in this project because the first leaks told about actually "showing" videos of his tortures and not just a record of him talking with Ross, but maybe they didn't want to be too graphic idk). Because it's just obvious through the way he talks and move (and look, of course).
Basically MCU Sam is this meme :
Maybe it's that obvious for me because I project a lot and one day I'll make a post about how this MCU Sam is the perfect allegory for disabilities through his self disgust and how he was abused by the State (Ross being a literal representation of a Gov).
But it's not about that so let's go back to our matter.
Let's take a look at their house :
A big house with a pool (not visible on this shot but clearly visible when Sam is on the phone) and the US flag.
It was your typical wealthy patriote family, the representation of the broken and corrupted "American Way" he's fighting. It's less obvious because they removed the whole "anti-US" part of Sam's writing but it makes sense, when you remember he's supposed to be, they're not "innocents" to him, they're part of the problem so it's an acceptable sacrifice.
Sam doesn't do collateral damage, he punishes people who are guilty of supporting the system he's fighting.
Even if for some reason they tried to remove that part of him, it's still here. Sam is still that vengeful anarchist who tries to break an unfair system and the people profiting off of the weak.
I'm sad and angry they removed all these cool anti US sentences from Sam we could ear in trailers. Not even for myself, because I'm used to have underused Sam and to have to explain the intentions and shit myself (and I have fun doing this anyway) and to be cursed and screwed over and to jinx my fav things and people through my own existence apparently lol, but I'm upset for Tim Blake Nelson himself. I have a parasocial relationship with him, in the way that he makes me happy in very difficult moment of my life, even if I don't know him nor feel like I do, y'know, it's not that kind of parasocial relationship where you create a whole-ass relationship on your head. But he made me happy so I genuinely care about his feelings, in a grateful way, I guess, but also maybe a selfish one because as long as he's happy with his work I know I'll have happiness too. And he was just SO HAPPY about Sam's dialogues that I can't help but think it might have been painful for him to see everything they removed and this idea annoys me the same way that I felt so angry at Dune 2 that I still cannot watch the movie.
And I'll tell you what my guess is.
And I love this movie, alright, I love it. But just because you love something doesn't mean you shouldn't point at its flaws, especially when it's basically about not hurting the feelings of ultra rich folks who made their money by killing people by having a MCU version of their current biggest fear.
I recently saw a comment of someone saying they hated lads like Sam who punish everyone over that one guy who hurt them and it was a fascinating comment because yes, that's kind of what he looks like now. But with all these details in mind and this obvious shot on the US flag on this house, it's more understandable (at least for the insane obsessive nerd I am) that he wasn't punishing everyone but only people who were guilty of supporting an unfair and murderous system that only profite the rich.
And it was the idea to "punish" these anarchists through Sam with this new final cut.
It's odd to me that Sam Wilson will forgive Bucky or fucking Ross and even kind of forgiving Zemo (not totally, but still) but not Sam Sterns. He went to him for what? To tell him to go fuck himself? (but that's kind of my problem with this whole movie, Sam Wilson complying to everything Ross, so the embodiment of US Gov, wanted him to do).
It's easier to have empathy and pity for MCU Sam than his comics counterpart (and yet, he's also tragic in his own way, like, he was abused by his parents and bullied by pretty much everyone else so) because his past life is VISIBLE, even if you haven't seen Incredible Hulk you can't miss it, who he was, because even if you don't analyze everything you saw, you still saw it and inconsciously you learnt so much about his past life through all these little details, but also consciously through the certificate, the video etc ... It's something even comics Sam lack of, this obvious pathos like Tim said. This is kind of frustrating to me in fact, how comics Sam's past was never explored.
(I'm also very frustrated because I'll never see whatever they cut off of this movie, even the first version of Sam and as his biggest simp it is my divine right to see it. Don't get be wrong, I LOVE what we got and as I said changing his design was the right call but I'm just curious and I wanna know everything about him so I would have loved seeing this)
My other fav part of this Sam, other than his whole cold attitude, is his eyes. How it glows, of course (even the blind one, even if the glow is less visible and kind of look like a light reflecting in a cat's eyes. It was also a nice lil' touch, how it kind of glow but different from the other eye), but also how they gave him a white blind eye. Remember Horus? Now is time to talk about that.
While I don't think Sam is a metaphor for Horus, I do find some similarities between them. Horus lost his left eye to Seth who teared it away. It got fixed, creating the eye we talked about above. But in our case, his eye is lost and Sam now as infinite knowledge, like his comics self, to the point of clairvoyance. That's why I find this eye symbolic very interesting, seems like a mix of all mythos.
Horus left eye also symbolize the Moon and Sam being a very obvious metaphor of the dark and death I think night (and so Moon) suits him. In fact I've been connecting him to the Moon since my first watch, as you saw if you follow my fanarts WIP lol so obviously the Horus inspiration is something I like, even if it might not be the intention at all, it still works very well. But the way his right represent the Sun also matches, because as I said Sam's energy and enthousiasm used to radiate like a Sun (also why I think the shadow figure works well, Sam being nothing but the shadow his sunny past project). After all, egytians Gods weren't manichean. No real Good or Evil.
III - Sam and Ross' relationship
Without going as far as what happened between Seth and Horus, there's an ambiguous relationship between Sam and Ross (I'm not saying ambiguous as in "sexual" or "romantic" but rather as "strong", could also be friendship, "family" kind of bound etc... it's up to your own interpretation).
It's your typical toxic relationship with a violent abuser. They will physically abuse you, mentally abuse you, cut you from everything you love and then proceed to kind of "comfort" you with little compliments but they're not real compliments, it's more of "you're a loser but I see your full potential" kind of compliments.
A few months ago I blocked a dickhead who never truly understood why but basically they once commented under my art that they didn't like it but "saw my potential" so I told them to go fuck themself and they went "b-b-b-but it's a compliment" to which I said "no get lost" basically. Later, they cameback saying "you're a little bud who will become a beautiful flower" under another art. I told them to leave me alone and never talk to me ever again because it was a very obvious fucking redflag but that's the kind of shit I'm talking about. This "you're not good enough yet but you'll be", it's something also often used in the art industry to justify you being underpaid and shit like that. It's a very common manipulation that is present everywhere and that you need to be very extra careful of because it WORKS VERY WELL. The goal is basically to break your self-estime and have you think nobody will ever care or accept you ever again, except for that one abusor who will present themself as a savior, teaching you how to behave to "unleash your full potential" (of course the real reason is TOTAL CONTROL over you).
It's very easy to guess that's what happened between Sam and Ross because when Sam called him, Ross tells him angrily "I helped you more than anyone else" and Sam answers "only to get what you wanted". He could answered like "bitch you're the one who put me here to torture me to begin with what the actual fuck are you even talking about you goddamn piece of shit" but he says "only to get what you wanted" so he aknowledge that Ross did help him, even if HE WAS THE ONE PUTTING HIM IN THIS SITUATION AND TORTURING HIM. Sam's bedroom is also a proof of that, how the fuck do you think he got all these things? Who gave it to him? It's Ross. He built this toxic relationship with him to get his full loyalty and to get total control over the nerd. And it worked.
And so when the guilt trip doesn't work anymore, Ross tries to use empathy (which is also part of the basic mental abuse schema) "you gotta understand my position" with a sad and threatened voice instead of the angry one he had seconds ago.
Sam answers him "oh but I do" (now THAT'S THE COMICS SAM SASS I LOVE) and then adds "you let me rote in that prison". He's upset because Ross abandonned him here. He will mention the torture he went through to Sam Wilson but never to Ross, he only mention that he forsook him.
"It was my curse to watch your betrayal written in probabilities". Curse and Betrayal are strong words, in the way that Sam obviously took it personally, I mean more personally than he should given it's the guy who put him in that cell and experienced on him and turned him into a monster computer, it shouldn't surprise him nor hurt him that Ross would do that AND YET. Yet it did hurt him to see Ross betrayed him because he thought Ross cared for him.
"If Sam is so smart and knew Ross would betray him, why did he help him anyway?" that's why. Because that's what toxic relationship are about, it's about making sure that your emotions will take the best out of your logic so you stay and you suffer and normalize the abuse you go through and you even feel grateful to your abusor because "at least they take care of me even if I'm a shit" and once they leave you feel angry not because they broke you, but because they were everything you had left and they abandonned you. Because you feel like you're not even good enough for a toxic relationship, because that's how broken and "mind controlled" you are. That's the relationship Sam had to Ross.
It's probably why Sam keeps telling Sam Wilson "he will never change" angrily, because he probably believed in that himself, because Ross probably told him the same things he said to Sam Wilson and told him he would save him too because he changed. And Sam believed in that.
And it makes sense, I mean, Ross was probably the only human being he saw in 16 years. He probably never talked to his warren or anyone else, only Ross. He knows for Betty because Ross probably had these little talk with him to have his sympathy. That's probably what Sam is refering to when he says (with his sass again, urrgggh his sass is sexy af) "I miss our little visits".
Note how he says "OUR" visists and not "YOUR"
Because (at least to Sam) it was THEIR moment, a moment between him and Ross. And I'm sure it was very intimate little moments of Ross promising Sam his freedom and his life, giving him presents to make his torture somewhat "acceptable" in his mind. Talking about his own life to get his trust. Maybe even taking care of the obvious wounds the gamma doses made.
You see when Sam decorated his prison in a way to cover his pain by hope? Well, that's what Ross is to Sam. He's his hope. Because he's the one who brought him all these physical touch of hope, because he's the one who promessed him he would get out and because he was probably nice to him, from time to time.
Ross leaving Sam to rote was Sam losing his last connexion to hope and to humanity, through Ross.
Ross isn't just the guy who could set him free, he's also the guy who could clean his name, because remember, Sam was framed like some kind of terrorist (or worst).
He doesn't want to kill Ross, he wants him to feel what he felt because of him. That's why he turned him into a monster, physically but also in his inability to control himself and his emotions, like Sam, and that's why he wanted to "destroy his legacy" and have him being hated by Betty forever. Because Sam lost his loved ones but also their love and respect when he was framed as a terrorist or whatever. But also because Betty is Ross' hope, it's the reason he changed, but it's also the reason he did the worst possible shit and did what he did to Sam.
In the same way, Sam helped him did terrible shit, because he was his hope. And he also changed for him. Well, to fuck him up, but it was still for him, even if it's in a negative way. There's this huge parallel between Ross and Sam, very similar to Bruce and Sam in comics.
And I'll go as far as saying that mind control is also a metaphor for that. I mean, yes, it's also because Sam do mind control people in Peter David's run (I miss this power...) but it's also because Ross mind controlled Sam through his affection and empathy. This is probably why it is so "acceptable" to Sam.
Ross had a very obvious and strong hold on Sam, but Sam also has one on Ross. During the flight fight when Sam was trying to Hulk him out, for exemple. It was mostly fear, of course, Sam has now the power to destroy Ross' life (and worst). Anger also, Ross seems incredibly upset at Sam, even BEFORE he knew it was him for the White House he called him a bastard angrily. Something happened between them after Ross betrayed him, maybe Sam lost it like he did after that call and threatened (or even attacked) Ross during his last visit. I can totally see how it happened honestly, Sam congratulating Ross maybe, then asking him about his freedom and Ross saying something (or worst, saying nothing at all and just leaving) that prove Sam's prediction about his betrayal true, Sam lost his mind over it and got very agressive and voila. It's very easy to guess Ross promised a Presidential Pardon to Sam so their bound broke the moment he became the President and failed Sam.
But there's more than that, because sure during that flight call Sam uses Ross' fear and anger at first, but after that he uses the same kind of manipulation we were talking about above. Praising Ross' strength and power, when he yells "YOU CAN CRUSH THEM ALL", for exemple and even before that (very interesting and comics accurate to note MCU Sam also get carried away and loose control of himself and his emotions when he is) and it's visible through Ross' eyes that this idea sounds very seductive to him and how hard it is to resist that temptation (which I like a lot, because comics Sam is the embodiment of temptation, like, people know they can't trust him but they'll follow anyway because of the promesses he gives and shit like that, so again, very comics Sam of him to do that).
It's also interesting how Sam gets carried away in this conversation. His voice slowly changing, from that cold emotionless low speech to a higher excited one, to the point of totally losing it when Ross calm down. It was a cool comics accurate Sam moment too.
For a very brief moment, when he talks with Sam Wilson about his heart and shit, Ross shows remorse for Sam, explaining that he thought about having him move (so keeping him but in a better place, I assume) but he was afraid he would lost Sam and so his heart treatment so instead he betrayed him (which is fucking dumb when you think of it. Like of course he will either stop it anyway no matter how bad you torture him or just poison your ass). And in that moment, right before calling him a colateral damage, he just looks at the ground with guilt. He does feel bad for Sam.
My theory on that is, because he changed, because he spent time trying to get Sam's trust by talking about his own problems, his daughter, trying to get close to him to have his trust, Ross got attached to Sam. I mean, Sam does (did) the same job as his daughter, he's around the same age.
Deeper than that, Sam is also the Bruce he never got, in the way that he had a concilient scientist with the same kind of knowledge he can both use and abuse.
Sam was a way for Ross to get everything he wanted. From his ambitions, to his health. To a way to unleash his anger and ressent toward Bruce. But also, maybe, as a way to be paternal to someone.
Before I go to another topic I just wanna share this song because in every lyrics I think it perfectly matches what MCU Sam feels toward his relationship to Ross (and himself) :
It's not important but I think in term of music, I feel in term of music and I am totally unable to express myself without music (if you follow my work you'll notice that I very, very often connect lyrics or song to what I do, especially through instagram stories).
CONCLUSION :
I already said it but I'll say it again, this Sam ISN'T the Leader and that's probably one of the few reasons he wasn't advertise at all. To keep him a secret and a shadow menace (THANK YOU for keeping him secret FOR ONCE) but also because he's NOT the Leader and they didn't want people to assume he was (too laaaaaaaaate for that though).
(also obviously because they didn't have the time to do merch and posters in like 6 months).
I think the initial idea was to have him as the Leader. It's visible through his first design, the orange shirt but also the way he was standing with his hands on his back in leaked early artworks and of course all the merch we got so far where he's named THE LEADER, so he was meant to be called the Leader rather than Samuel Sterns.
In a recent interview, Julius Onah explained that the post credit scene was different at first, teasing the Illuminati but they changed it because they had a "better and bigger view" of the future of the MCU. One of the reason, of course, is to avoid a Kang fiasco again and to be vague enough to be able to change a few things if needed.
But they changed it during reshot to match the future of the MCU. And Sam was also changed during these reshot, to change his design, mostly but it has me wonder. Is it the reason he's not the Leader yet? We don't even have a namedrop, he's just "Samuel Sterns" right now.
Is it because Marvel is planning to bring him back (like Zemo) later in a more Leader-ish version?
I mean, there's a reason they brought back every gamma folks. Do you think they would recast Ross for ONE single movie if he wasn't important in the future? Do you think they would introduce Skaar if it wasn't to make a Hulk related project soon (by soon understand "the next decade")? Do you really think Sam wouldn't go after Bruce when he's the reason he's what he is now? In fact having Bruce's blood make his weird "brotherly" gay obsession for him in comics even more relevant, now they really are "brothers in blood". There's a lot to say, in fact, about the potential relationship between Sam and Bruce and how interesting it could be but I'll keep that for another post.
And that's my conclusion. This Sam had a lot to tell and he gives me hope that it's just the beginning of his Leader journey. Now it's up to Marvel Studios to turn this rewriting mess into a very smart move and unleash his full potential in another project or to let it sink forever. But for once I do have hope, 'cause a lot of people want a real Hulk project with him too so maybe they'll do something about it. Whatever the future hold.
And if they don't, then I still have my own headcanon, fanarts and theories to give him and Tim the writing they deserved. Because that's what being an artist is about, it's about dreaming and I'll use that to make the best out of what's remain and give Sam the treatment him and Tim deserved.
Enjoy~
