Bringing the War Home
is a series written by dirgewithoutmusic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it' focused in the women of the MCU. Each fic is a thoughtful of an specific female character.
'Bringing the War Home'' provides examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Connie, who was initially only a name Peggy called Maria, becomes a character of her own, and is given her own story as the dark haired girl Bucky takes double dating with Steve to the Stark Expo in Capitan America: The First Avenger.
- The Atoner: Discussed. Natasha wants to atone for her past deeds, and both Clint and Laura Barton argue that she was a brainwashed child soldier at that time. Clint points out that she has a thing for seeing debts where there aren't any , and only ever in directions that put her into battle. Laura notices that Natasha saved Clint's lives three times on the first year they worked together and still thinks she owes him.
- Broken Pedestal: SHIELD, to both Sharon and Natasha. Subverted with Maria, who helps bring it down and go on with her life.
- Be Yourself: Maria is the person she wanted to be and that person is brash, non-nonsense and fearless.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Maria notices that Sharon Carter needs to be a protector.
- Foil: Natasha and Sharon. They were both raised with a great familiarity with weapons and the weight of legacy in their shoulder, both were devoted to SHIELD. But, as Natasha notes, Sharon was raised with heroic tales, while Natasha was raised to destroy things rather than protect them.
- Innocently Insensitive: An interesting variant: Maria Hill don't understand Natasha, and when Fury 'dies' and Natasha touch the body and bow her head, Maria think she is looking for a pulse. It don't occur to her that it might be grief.
- Shrouded in Myth: This applies to Melinda, Sharon and Natasha. The effects of their reputations in their lives is explored.Sharon collected names as she went, almost by accident. Later, she would wonder if that was how Natasha felt, that as she went she kept finding names dropped in her lap, thrown in her face, built up like a wall around her.He probably didn't even know it was going to touch her, this frozen vigil, this death. Nothing touched the Black Widow. Natasha was comfortable with everything.The Cavalry once killed a hundred men, they say, on other days, around other campfires, these future agents of SHIELD, these gossipy children. (...) The Cavalry killed twenty—fifty—a hundred men, and Melinda May saw the light go out of each of them.
- Generational Saga / Master-Apprentice Chain: There is the generational theme of Peggy having been Maria’s mentor and Maria being Sharon Carter’s.
- Not So Stoic: Natasha is disturbed by the lack of trust of her colleagues.What was it about Rogers that made him trustworthy and made her only useful?
- Stealth Insult: After learning that Coulson is alive, Laura sends him a fruit basket of whole pineapples (he is allegic).
- Swapped Roles: Natasha notes how the roles between she and Clint change during The Avengers; now she is the SHIELD agent and he is the brainwashed assassin.
