Forever Captain
is a series of Marvel Cinematic Universe fan fictions centered around Steve Rogers and his relationship with Peggy Carter, written by Phoebe Roberts. Roberts is best known as one half of the author and production team behind the Mrs. Hawking theatrical series.
Currently, there are nine installments in the series:
- Part I: Have That Dance
- Part II: The End of the Line
- Part III: As Long as He Needs
- Part IV: His Part to Play
- Part V: Boulder in the Stream
- Part VI: The Hemingway Trip
- Part VII: Respects to Pay
- Part VIII: The Favor
- Part IX: The Show
Tropes:
- Alternate Self: In returning to the midcentury, Steve eventually encounters the version of himself that was frozen in ice and woke up in the 21st Century. Their meeting is alluded to in The Favor, but the only time it’s been seen on-page is in Respects to Pay.
- Alternate Timeline: Steve is uncertain what effect his return to the midcentury will have on the proceeding of the timeline in this version of the multiverse.
- Alternative-Self Name-Change: Steve starts going by Grant Carter in order to conceal his presence in the midcentury, but the narrative mostly continues to refer to him as Steve. But in Respects to Pay, this marks the first occasion in the series where he personally encounters his alternative self. For clarity’s sake, the narration calls the younger, pre-time travel version of him Steve, and the older, post-time travel version of him Grant.
- Age-Gap Romance: In His Part to Play, when Howard Stark is getting together with Maria Carbonell, Peggy cannot help but note that Howard is thirteen years Maria’s senior.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Howard, declaring that he’s fallen so hard for Maria he’s considering what was previously unthinkable— asking her to marry him.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Rishun Hayward. She is first introduced as a housewife in the Carters’ neighborhood in His Part to Play, with a mention of her past “special service” during the war. But her special operative skill set proves invaluable to helping Steve during the action of Boulder in the Stream.
- Code Name: Zigzagged. Relatively early on in the series, Steve sheds the title of Captain America in order to live in domestic anonymity with Peggy. From then on, he is determined to leave it behind forever.
- Commitment Issues: Howard Stark, who had believed he could never stand the idea of being married— until he met Maria, that is.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Daniel Sousa gives off the vibe of having been this to Peggy— at least until he realizes that Grant (Steve) is the man she’s chosen.
- Doomed by Canon: Might count as an in-universe example. Steve knows how Howard and Maria die in his previous version of the timeline, and it weighs heavily on him as he contemplates whether he can or even should be trying to change the progress of history.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Mabel Atwater, the waitress Steve talks to at the nightclub where Howard takes him for his bachelor party, upon first laying eyes on Steve.
- Family of Choice: In The Favor, it’s shown that Tony has come to see both the Jarvises and the Carters as this in this version of the timeline.
- Feeling Their Age: In The Hemingway Trip, Howard makes it clear how much getting older is weighing on him.
- By Respects to Pay and The Favor, Steve is old enough that even his super soldier body isn’t as spry as it used to be.
- By Respects to Pay
- Flashback: A frequently used device across the series.
- His Part to Play flashes back to the events of The End of the Line in their entirety, when Bucky encourages Steve to do what he needs to take care of himself.
- Boulder in the Stream makes use of an extended Flashback B-Plot to the one occasion Steve was called back into action between 1947 and 1954.
- The Hemingway Trip flashes back to two other occasions Steve took Howard fishing.
- The Favor flashes back to when Tony went to tell the Carters that Captain America had been found and revived.
- His Part to Play
- Functional Addict: Howard is described as going through a period of this in The Hemingway Trip.
- Happily Married: Steve and Peggy. Edwin and Ana Jarvis. Howard and Maria— for the most part, at least.
- Heartbroken Badass: Steve is depicted this way, until his decision to return to 1947 and his reunion with Peggy.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Howard falls for Maria in a way that he never has before, because she doesn’t need him and isn’t impressed by him.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: There is a suggestion that Maria Carbonell is one of these, though she often uses her powers for good.
- Motor Mouth: Lottie Salazar’s nerves turn her into one.
- No Hero to His Valet: Edwin Jarvis to Howard Stark. While Jarvis is clearly devoted to and affectionate towards Howard, he knows the man’s foibles and frequently teases him about them.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Steve wears glasses with plain lenses and parts his hair on the opposite side in his identity as Grant Carter. Peggy teases him by saying he might as well, seeing as he’s basically “pretending he’s not Superman.”
- Pintsize Powerhouse: Rishun Hayward, whose petite frame belies combat and recon skills honed through special service during World War II.
- Pregnant Badass: Peggy keeps going out on missions even when she’s pregnant, with both Elizabeth and James.
- Secret Identity: Steve intends upon his return to the midcentury to completely retire from superheroics. To keep anyone from realizing who he is, he goes by his middle name and takes on Peggy’s last name, making him known to all only as Grant Carter.
- Shipper on Deck: Steve and company watch Howard and Maria’s courtship with hopeful fascination.
- Switching P.O.V.: While most of the series is told in third person limited to Steve, currently the one exception is The Favor, limited instead to Tony. It’s clear that this choice is because the whole point of the story requires a particular dramatic irony— that the audience knows the true identity of Uncle Grant, but Tony doesn’t.
- Time Machine: The temporal GPS Tony built in Avengers: Endgame.
- Time Travel: A central concept to the series. Its main thrust is following Steve Rogers as he returns the Infinity Stones to their places in the timeline at the end of Avengers: Endgame, and then time travels back to the midcentury to retire and built a new life with Peggy Carter.
- Underestimating Badassery: The strike team that attacks the Carters’ home in Boulder in the Stream. They are certainly not expecting this middle-aged, suburban stay-at-home dad to be the man who was Captain America.
