MCU misconceptions: Batroc v Captain America

Ever since Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released in 2014, there's one character who has often been a hot topic of debate on the battles forums - The Batroc.

It seems if you have an opinion on the fight between Steve and Batroc, you're in one of two camps:

1. Batroc nearly beat Cap
2. Batroc was fodder and Cap never took him seriously

I'm about half way here - I'm about half way. Make no mistake, Steve was never in any real danger of losing. The gap between peak humans and super soldiers in the MCU is huge. That said, it's clear from the official behind the scenes statements that Cap was challenged in this fight. For a peak human to do that without any weapons, is quite frankly, a great feat.

Here's what GSP (the actor for Batroc) had to say:

"My character is a French mercenary who is an expert in the martial arts and is also an Olympic weightlifting champion. He doesn’t have any superpowers, but he’s a very strong and acrobatic guy who gives a little hell to Captain America.”

Per GSP's words, Batroc can give Cap "a little hell" - which naturally entails that Cap was troubled by Batroc, just not to a great extent. Now many will point out that an actor's words on their own character shouldn't be taken seriously, which is a fair point.

With this in mind, Chris Evan's own stunt double (someone who has every right to hype up Cap instead of his opponent) stated that Batroc was a "sufficient foe" for Cap. Remember, this guy actually participated in performing the choreography of the fight, and was informed on the details of the fight.

If we take a look at the fight, its clear that Batroc is impressive:

First, it's clear that Batroc hits hard. He was able to push Cap back, even in spite of Steve blocking with his shield - his shield should absorb some force from that kick and it still knocked him down. Granted he had the element of surpise stat difference between humans and super soldiers cannot be understated.

Even when Batroc is on the ground and has little leverage, he's able to fight Cap from awkward positioning. Cap keeps up, but it's clear that he has to put in work:

Now let's take a look at this instance. Many claim that this is an example of Cap owning Batroc because he parries everything Batroc did. While he did indeed part everything, it's the sheer fact that he pressured Calp by driving him back on the defensive and forcing him to parry which makes this impressive. Batroc, a peak human, has just forced Captain America to parry all his blows. And he remains the only peak human in the MCU to have done this.

This is similar to above, we see him pressure him but also successfully create distance from Cap once Cap had a hold of him and knee bashed his mid section.

Conclusion

While Batroc was never really going to beat Steve, he pressured him and forced him on the defensive. The behind the scenes officials backs this up and it's clear tthat his skill and agility is deadly.

Funny timing of this blog. ;)

Yeah lol

I'll reply in PM, I do agree that Cap wasn't going all out as you said

I feel like this fight/scene was to show two thing; 1) How skilled Steve is & 2) that Batroc was/is (can’t remember if he’s still alive) is above your average fodder. Things ended pretty quickly when Cap got serious, but I suppose it’s a good showing and almost a moral victory for Batroc that he even got Cap to that point in anyways since Cap has such a huge advantage when you consider his shield and physicals gap. Wasn’t Batroc in The Falcon & Winter Soldier? If he was I can’t remember if he got any additional showings, I only went thru that series once.

Giving trouble to a suppressed super soldier is do-able for MCU peak humans - Widow does it to Cap in a tie in, Hawkeye to Panther, and Taskmaster to Red Guardian if that counts.

@mazahs117:

In his first fight with Sam, Batroc managed to pull off a win against him inside of a plane and in their second fight, Batroc stalemated Sam who had the shield and his thrusters despite being unarmed.

• I don't know anything about any tie ins. I think I saw something about Cap v Widow in a tie in before, but it was sparring. So that's not representative of a real fight
• All we know of Clint v BP is that he got him in a hold off screen somehow. So a lot of variables there. He then got owned after
• RG has some nice strengths stats but he s characterized as being slow, unskilled and also a liar (about his fights with Cap)

Why post this then immediately delete?

@ashconwell: Oooh yeah. I gotta go back and rewatch those

Some things I would like to see considered in this analysis: intent of the fighters, opponent knowledge, typical behaviors of the participants, sound fighting strategies, and understood capabilities of both beyond this fight.

He does it pretty often.

Yeah fair suggestions. I'll aim for that if I do a part 2. Most of my blogs recently have been focused on Star Wars, but for some reason I felt compelled to revisit this fight simply because it's so contentious over the years and keeps rearing its head. It definitely does deserve a more comprehensive analysis as you said. It felt quite nice to revisit this scene.

No I don't, why do you lie so much?

You know that as a mod I can see all your deleted comments?

Batr-ook

Ok

Well, scrolling through all the deleted bumps in threads must be hell.

GSP is a GOAT , even if he realistically should not be able to fight Cap , if someone like him agree for a cameo , you should atleast allow him to do some cool stuff instead of getting 1 shotted immediately.

To me, there was clear intent that Batroc was highly skilled and even has beastly stats for a human and thus managed to give Cap a little trouble.

Bump.