🤡 Markus and McFeely 🤡: “Yeah, Bucky’s just a POW who had his entire agency explicitly removed in not one but TWO ways but he’s for sure guilty because we don’t want him to have fruit salads with Steve”

💙

imagine if the mcu was good

@luna-rainbow I didn't want to derail OP's original point, just wanted to say again how impressed I am that Bucky never gave in to Hydra, not in 70 years of torture; he never worked for them willingly. They had to electrocute him, use trigger words, drugs, beatings, brainwashing, freezing, and biochemical mind control (via experimentation on Bucky himself, if the implication from the Black Widow movie is to be believed) to get him to work for them. And after all that, they still never trusted him completely (see: all the guns trained on Bucky when he swiped that technician away while they were repairing his arm in CATWS), because they knew that, in his right mind, Bucky would never obey them. (Heck he still chose to save Steve before he knew who he really was 🥺) And he was still the best super soldier they had 🤣😭

Stumbled upon an old post about what awful lines were said about Bucky in TFATWS and holy fuck it is horrific.

"Your overextented life"

"Before you were his pet psychopat"

"Big cyborg brain of yours"

"They cleared the bionic staring machine and he killed almost everybody he's met".

Don't get me started on removing Bucky's arm without his consent. You DON'T take away someone's limb, especially not as a punishment for "bad behavior."

And people honestly wonder why some of us had issues with how Bucky was treated in that show. I remember people accusing us of not liking Bucky's story because "we don't want trauma survivors to find happiness and healing". Like I'm sorry but just because he's smiling at the end of the show doesn't mean his arc was written well. As a trauma survivor myself I don't have high expectations when it comes to Hollywood but Bucky's recovery arc (if you can even call it that) has been among the worst depictions of trauma and healing from it I've seen in recent years.

(I'd appreciate a link to that post so I can reblog it please, Anon! I was wondering the other day how many horrible lines there would be, if you put them all together. 😬 Yikes.)

.

*warning: this is gunna be salty af cuz I've been binge-watching House and have his acerbic voice in my head.

You're right not to call it a recovery arc, Anon. Bucky has never had a recovery arc, because that requires acknowledging he has something to recover from.

TPTB refuse to, because they want to paint Bucky as generic Crossbones dudebro villain, who needs to 'do better' after being a mind-controlled slave, and deserves to be verbally and physically abused.

As demonstrated by supposedly 'good' character X treating him like crap (ha! so hilarious! boys will be boys!) and/or not standing up for him when other character Y treats him like crap in front of them. (And yes I have to include Steve in this writing, too.)

Bucky in TFATWS is spoken of literally as Secretary Ross talked about Bruce et al in CACW. Comparing them to weapons. Things... not people. Just how a villain would talk about human beings. (And even badly-written!Steve was appalled by that, remember?) No alarm bells ringing in the TFATWS writer's room, tho? Hmm. Guess they were too lazy to watch the movies.

Although Disney skipped the actual arc towards happiness, to relegate SebStan to cheaper cut scenes, Bucky did have happiness and healing in the movies (thanks to Ryan Coogler, not the Russos. Thanks Ryan.)

But TFATWS had to shit on that, via the VA's Second-Worst Counselor. They wanted to take credit for what Coogler did -- by limp-dickedly retreading the exact same story beats (too lazy to come up with something original? too dumb? too reluctant to include Bucky in the first place?) Only with a different set of black people swapped in to replace T'Challa, Shuri, and the village people kids (because they're interchangeable? or because only black Westerners count, now? Ah but I'm forgetting that Arabic guy who came up to- uhh- thank the American Air Force? 😬 Genuinely jaw dropping. Gotta love those good clean Iron Man values.)

"I remember people accusing us of not liking Bucky's story because "we don't want trauma survivors to find happiness and healing."

I can't stand people who hijack that kind of therapy-speak to bullshit that that's why they like something.

IMO the truth is that fans don't want to admit that the writing sucks, that the writing of Sam has been sucking since CACW, because they like Sam and see TFATWS as his show -- when, jesus, is it really tho? Just because his name's on it?

Zemo and Walker got more attention and arc than Sam. Even Izaiah got the better speech. Steve got to demolish an American alphabet agency, what did Sam get to do in his show? Introduce the Flagsmashers when Sam is reluctant to dress in the flag, and he doesn't even get to lead them He gets stuck protecting the status quo?

That's the danger of 'media consumption' with Disney these days. Woke-washing.

It's... kind of like how fast fashion chains will greenwash their products, to pass off plastic fabric as organic material.

People who think of themselves as X-leaning, (or want to be seen as X), also want to believe they would recognise Y-leaning portrayals... but they lack critical thinking skills when it comes to media analysis.

So corps like Disney know they don't actually have to be left-leaning in their portrayals, because they can pass off any right-wing thing as a genuine progressive doodad just by cloaking it in the correct language or aesthetics.

(Hey, right wing writers! Want to make a dehumanizing ableist gag? Make a black woman do it! Ever wish sexual assault in the office could be shrugged at again? Make a white woman do it! (Make sure she's Upper Class and English, too!) Want to to make sure your protags can't be read as queer? Want to get away with basic locker-room homophobia without being nagged about it? Just play on the nostalgia of interracial 'buddy cop' movies, and - as usual - make a black guy do it! Want to portray the USAF as an heroic force in the Middle East? Make an Arab say thanks to a black American Airman! Wokewashing -- it covers all ills!)

Time was, Disney would only do this with their villains -- and you do get a hint of that Classic Disney long-coated predatory gay villain with Zemo.

Only now, instead of getting away with it because of widespread homophobia, Disney and fans can get away with it by accusing anyone who criticises of it being a homophobe.

But they're still writing the creepy gay scene-stealing villains. 🤔

Same with a shitty victim-blaming portrayal of a therapeutic 'arc'. The people who don't give a shit about that won't criticise it, and those that do- well, they must just hate trauma victims IRL, uwu. 😥

Insidious, isn't it?

Disney may be virulently allergic to giving SebStan anything significant to do these days, for fear of getting more gay cooties on Captain Comphet, or distracting from Captain Coloniser: Creator's Pet... but you cannot deny even those idiots M&M wrote a better arc for Steve and Bucky than the idiots that had a whole show arc to accomplish that for Sam and Bucky.

(Seriously, how do you fuck up in six attempts a thing you've already seen someone else manage in two? Oh- wait. Right. They haven't seen them manage it in two. They didn't watch the movies. 🤦‍♀️)

As far as friendship goes, I would have preferred Sam and Bucky ended as mutually-respectful frenemies (or even - imagine! both apologising for things they've actually voluntarily done to each other!)

Rather than just slapping some schmaltz onto a turd at the last second and calling it a rose. As you said: one instance of Mackie & Stan breaking character to smile at the end of a lazy montage does not equal a written arc. Let alone a well written one.

Hi! I just saw your post about how Bucky’s rule number two should have included him, and I totally agree with everything you said about that. But something that stuck out to me as odd about the whole rules system thing is, it seems more like something a psychiatrist would use to treat someone who didn’t have a good moral compass or some other issue like that? I could be wrong but “don’t do anything illegal” and “don’t hurt anyone” kind of sound more like things they’d say to someone with anger issues/sociopathic tendencies/other conditions with which harm to others and/or deviant behavior is a possibility. The show seems to imply that he was suffering from PTSD though, which doesn’t match up with that? I don’t know, I thought it was weird.

Thanks for the ask nonnie!

I won't pretend to be an expert on therapy methods but your point is solid and I've seen it mentioned a couple of times by people who do have a background in psychology. (As an aside, difficult anger control can be a part of PTSD - unfortunately it's the way a lot of men have been socialised to deal with fear and anxiety - but that's really not the way Bucky's been portrayed.)

Contract setting within psychotherapy is usually a good thing, because it sets clear professional boundaries and also means both the therapist and client have a common list of goals to work towards.

There was this chain of posts before (in case the gif doesn't work) but I agree. Look at the gesture she makes as she says "With your history, the government needs to know that you're not gonna..."

This is such a fundamental misunderstanding (or misconstruction) of his role in Hydra and of the actual nature of his mental health problem. Bucky's history is one of being tortured, mind-wiped and made to obey orders. Neither the Winter Soldier nor Bucky was ever aggressive until he received the commands to be.

This iconic scene of The Soldier sitting placidly in Pierce's kitchen when someone entered the scene unexpectedly, and Pierce had to execute the maid himself. The Soldier did not inflict violence until ordered to. The only time he was aggressive against command was when he had flashbacks to his capture. And in Civil War, Bucky was only ever shown to be "aggressive" when forced to defend his own life (Don't tell me self-defence is now a mental health diagnosis).

From a therapy perspective, you're right - those rules are about curtailing someone's actions, whereas Bucky's problem was more about learning the confidence to make choices. This isn't someone who's going to act out, he's had 70 years of being tortured and conditioned into obeying orders. This is someone who's going to hesitate about committing to a choice, he's going to defer to others as much as he can, and maybe as he grows more confident, he starts making some questionable choices that tends to position his own well-being last because he's been trained to think he's the least important in the equation (and with a unhealthy dose of guilt).

From a narrative perspective, this was intended to reinvent Bucky as a "bad" super soldier, cos "there's never been another Steve Rogers", and paint Bucky as someone who would regularly do illegal and violent things, and is so sarcastic about the rules (because -- that's the least of his problems!)

Monstertober Day 6:

Below the lily pads🪷

Pairing: Swamp monster/Siren!Bucky x Reader

Warnings: Non con, death, Dead dove: do not eat, dark!bucky, beefy!bucky, forced breeding, p in v, anal fingering, sex in a forest, sex near a pond, drowning, marking/biting, mentions of blood, scratching, choking, praise, delusional!Bucky, victim!reader

Nicknames: Doll, sweetness, doll face

Word count: 2.1k

༻𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫༺

You plopped down on the couch with a huff, that was the final box. You’d finally finished unpacking everything and now you could relax. You raised your head and glanced into your new garden, which was the woods connected to your property. The sky was dark, aside from the silvery glow of the moon and stars which hung in the velvet blanket of the cobalt night sky—it was going to get way darker. The thought of being unable to see into your backyard, which was now so much larger than before, made your stomach churn “Buy outdoor lights, noted.” You slowly rose from the couch staring suspiciously out into the thicket of dark fir trees, if you stared for long enough you could see movement, one day of being here and your eyes were playing tricks on you already making you paranoid “I’m going to go mental here, aren’t I?” You joked, turning away from the darkness outside your french doors and instead turning your attention to your beautifully lit kitchen. Your stomach rumbled lowly, it was way later than you thought and the day of unpacking had left you famished.

Looking at the contents of your fridge made you sigh, you had enough for a basic meal but nothing fancy. You grabbed the two cloves of garlic you had left, the random half of an. onion and the two tomatoes rolling around freely in the fridge draw and dumped them on the countertop “Pasta it is…Do I even have any pasta.” You stood on your tiptoes opening the cupboard and began to rummage, you had enough spices to open a spice market, stocked up on medications, hot chocolate mix, extra coffee and an assortment of herbal teas, but no pasta. You said a silent prayer as you opened the next cupboard and there it was, a half empty box of spaghetti “Thank all that is holy!” You exclaimed, placing it on the counter as you pulled out a pot and a pan and put it beside the spaghetti. You swayed along to the enchanting sound of man singing as you filled the pot with water and placed it on the stove, it was a song you’d never heard before. You began to hum along, turning to your record player curiously to see what record you’d put on. It wasn’t on. You hadn’t put any records on. There were no houses for miles, you were alone in the middle of the woods; so there was absolutely no way it was from a neighbour. You threw open one of the draws and pulled out the biggest knife you owned, the blade glimmering in the overhead lighting of the kitchen as you held it defensively up in the air. Standing as still as possible, you stopped breathing momentarily to listen, your heart thumping in your ears as you cautiously stepped towards the singing. The sound was coming from outside. Biting down on your lip you tiptoed towards the glass, squinting in an attempt to see outside. You pressed your face to the chilly glass, goosebumps rippling across your skin. You couldn’t see anything but the reflection of your house's Interior.

You took a deep breath in an attempt to calm yourself, as your hand wrapped around the handle of the door, you begrudgingly opened it. Aware of every little sound; the swaying of the trees in the light wind, the metallic tick of the lock as you pushed on the handle, the crunch of leaves as small animals skittered through the woods. Every small noise made the anxiety rising within you worse. “Is anyone out here?” You called. Nothing. The smooth baritone singing continued.

Slipping on the pair of hiking boots you’d left outside to dry, you squeezed the knife; mentally preparing yourself to venture into woods.

You were deep into the forest by now, the singing was getting louder. You were close. “Singing stranger! Your voice is lovely, but this is private property and it’s late. You’re really freaking me out here, so if you could…maybe leave, that would be great.” The singing stopped, leaving you to listen to the soft chirp of crickets. You pushed aside some brambles allowing you to see a clearing and a pond surrounded by overgrown aquatic plants; long, thick brown pond reeds towered tall and piles of bulrush outlined the small waterhole. A small section of the bank was not overtaken by plants, a flat slab of rock that was damp as you advanced towards it bending just enough to swipe your fingers through the moisture. It had no smell, you thought maybe one of the fishes had splashed the water on it. Thinking that brought you solace. Looking closer at the pond, you adored it. It needed work that was for certain but you could definitely clean it up, add some lights around it and place a bench close to it to make it a cute picnic spot. Your shoes sunk into the mud as you crouched down next to the pond, watching as the reflection of the pale moon was distorted in the ripples of the water. You reach towards one of the water lilies, trying not to fall into the pond as you lean forward. The tips of your fingers brush against the soft, yet firm, petals and you try to pinch it between your outstretched fingers to pull it closer. You miss it. You glance down at the bank of the pond before shuffling closer to the edge, you repeat your actions from before but this time you're able to reach. You pull the flower closer, the pink of the petals becoming clearer as the lily pad parts the water drawing closer to you. Something wet and slimy grazes your ankle, making you release the lily, you fall backwards into the mud as you squirm away from the water edge. You let out a scream as a viscid webbed hand seizes your ankle, you kick and squirm against the tight hold.

“There’s no need to be scared, doll. It’s me, the stranger who was singing. You said my voice was beautiful.” From the clear water emerged a man with murky green gils framing his clean shaven face. Despite being in the water his hair was completely dry, the moon casting a blue glow down on his pushed back brown locks. His blue eyes were warm, welcoming and crinkled at the corners from the wide toothy grin stretched across his face, all of his teeth were pointed and curved like a shark. Murky water glided down his defined chest, as if his skin was covered in wax. You laid paralysed in the mud as he used his free hand to prop himself up on the bend of his tail, his scales glinting in the moonlight. Peaking out of the slit below his waist were two erect dicks, tinged green like his scales and ribbed. A bead of precum leaked down from the tip onto the other one below it causing it to twitch in response. You woke from your paralysis, scrambling on to your knees, Bucky lurched forward pushing you back into the mire “Where do you think you’re going, Doll? We haven’t even started yet.” His claw-like nails cut through your shirt and shorts like butter exposing you to the chilly autumn air, his nails scratching your skin deep enough for it to bleed as he cut through your clothes.

“Get the fuck off of me!” You screamed kicking at his muscular tail, Bucky dug his nails into your sides making you yelp in pain—stopping your struggling as you felt the burning pain travel across your nerves.

“Stop struggling, Doll.” He hissed, spit flying into your face. You wiped it away with your arm and turned your head further to look at his face

“Make me.” You spat, grabbing a handful of dirt and throwing it at him. The warmth left his eyes and his smile fell, his cold stare remained locked on you as he slammed your head into the mud. You choked and spat as sludge entered your mouth.

“That wasn’t very nice, sweetness. I know what's best for you, so just lie still.” Bucky warned raking his claws across your back to pull you closer, he held both dicks in his hand lining them up to your hole. You tried to wiggle your hips away from him but he mercilessly slammed into you the tips of his dicks painfully bashing against your cervix as he stretched you open; a dull burn radiating through your waist. Your walls constricted around him trying to force him out of you, he thrusted against the resistance making an agony akin to period camps spread through your stomach. Bile rose in your throat as he continued his pounding, using you like a fleshlight. You felt the tip of his needle-like fingernail pressing against your rose bud, your screams of resistance were muffled by the mud as he forcefully shoved his thumb into your tight ring, a stabbing pain travelling across your back “So tight for me. All for me.” He moaned, draping himself over you and biting into your shoulder blade. White hot pain surged across your back corrupting your senses as white flashed across your vision. You began to struggle with new found vigour. But it was futile his body weight alone kept you pinned to the ground. Bucky’s snake-like tongue lapped at the blood flowing from the teeth shaped puncture wound hungrily. “Taste so sweet, doll. Never gonna let you go, you’re gonna have my babies.You want them don’t you? Want me to make you a Mommy.” Bucky whined, the thrusting of his hip causing more water to slosh out of the pond and splatter against you both.

“No!” You shrieked, hoping that for some reason anyone was in the vicinity to be able to hear you. You couldn’t give a shit if they were trespassing on your property, if they could help you then nothing would matter. He pushed your face deeper into the mixture of mire and swamp water, you dug your hands into the sludge below you endeavouring to not suffocate. You became frantic as you felt the oxygen left in your lungs running low, the taste of mud and swamp water entered your mouth through your nostrils making you gaged as you suffocated. Survival instincts took over your mind, dulling the stabbing pains throbbing throughout your entire body. You needed to get him off, or you were going to die.

“You don’t mean that, Doll, you’ll come to terms with it eventually. You’ll melt when you see how beautiful our children are going to be, I’m going to pump you so full of them. Your stomach is going to swell with our children.” As his thrust became more brutal he lent more of his body weight on your head. Your lungs burned, desperate for air. Your screams making bubbles in the ooze, you were swallowing dirt but all you could think of was survival. Your hands flailed behind you grabbing for the swamp monster, why you felt the firm skin of his torso you dragged your nails across it furiously. Trying to hurt him so he’d get off you. But your attack just fuelled his fire “I didn’t know you liked it rough, sweetness. You should have told me.” He purred, slamming into you with harsh, shallow thrusts. You felt warm puffs of breath against your throat before an intense, excruciating pain shot through your neck; his teeth tore through your skin as he bit down harder and harder tearing the muscles and skin from your throat. You couldn’t even scream, he’d torn out your vocal cords. The warmth of your blood against your freezing skin gave you a small moment of comfort as you felt your life fading away. Your body was so heavy, you couldn’t lift your hands. Your clawing and squirm slowed, the haze in your mind feeling as thick as the mud you were laying in. The pain stopped, everything stopped.

“Doing so good for me, Doll. I’m gonna cum. That’s it, relax for me. That's it. Gonna- ah-” Bucky gave a few more weak, shallow thrusts as his hot seed filled you. He pressed a soft kiss to your bare shoulder, stroking your dirty, wet hair. He let out a soft chuckle “Already asleep. That really took it out of you? Didn’t it, doll face. You did so well.” He whispered, picking up your limp body and turning you to press your face into his chest “I can wait to start a family with you, Doll. You’re gonna be such a good Mommy.”

Tag list: @alina02 @winterslove1917 @unabashed-lover-of-fictional-men @petesey @getwellsoontana @feyfantome @alexxavicry @ashenc-blog @floral-recs @renster05 @redbloodedgurl @shrekwreck @sweetwrathoflilith @cjand10 @flamefoxxrecs @addie5587483 @little-bunny0523 @sojuxxi @adoreyouusugar @teambarnes72 @wintasssoldier @gryffindorqueensworld @aerangi @itwillgetbetter @taramaria @anniellacinamon

by nutvv3

rambling about catws!Bucky because time is a flat circle

Lowkey tough being a Bucky stan (hehe) out here bc atp the mcu just doesn’t know what to do with him and it’s absolutely tragic because catws is a great movie and a huge part of that is how beautifully they presented the Winter Soldier. Like he is undeniably (personally don’t @ me) the best part of that whole movie. Last time I went this insane over analyzing actors’ facial expressions was the hunger games and that’s basically the peak of fiction for me. So, here’s me doing exactly that

warning: no beta we die like my vocal chords watching catws for the first time

Something that sits at the forefront in my mind abt Seb’s acting as the Winter Soldier is how good he is at being blank. Normally when I think of blank, no thoughts head empty acting it’s just a completely unmoveable demeanor and from what I see in fics it’s a common interpretation that the Winter Soldier is just an empty husk. And while he’s definitely a lot less sentient than he seems to be in the comics I don’t think he’s as robotic as people like to write about (and how I like to read abt so dw this isn’t me trashing on that).

I read a post on here that was either a meta or rant that I def reblogged but don’t feel like looking for that was either or about or mentioned how the Winter Soldier is def a powerhouse but that’s just a building that was made from the frame of Bucky’s own combat skills from the war.

I think his sentience is somewhat similar to that in how he isn’t so much as an empty bodyguard and more like a tunnel-visioned fighter. His mind isn’t a blank slate in a body that’s blindly committing violence but a constantly calculating fighter (a trait I also think was just built off of Bucky’s own violent skills derived from the war) whose mind is occupied only by whatever violence he’s committing.

Seb’s facial expressions as the winter soldier present this well. Again, when you think of the empty husk the Winter Soldier is you’d expect little personality and emotion to be acted out as that character. The thing is, he’s not an empty husk. Seb does a good job at having existent and moving facial expressions without any real human emotion being shown by them. When the Winter Soldier furrows his brows as he fights or thoughtfully looks offscreen when he pulls off his goggles(?) in the lead up to the reveal he’s only expressing the slightest bit of acknowledgement to whatever is happening. Particularly, usually in fight scenes when people do the former it’s to make the character look mad or determined. When the Winter Soldier does it it’s just there. Sebastian manages to move his face in ways that should indicate fully-felt emotions but still only add up to a blank face.

Perhaps in that way the Winter Soldier is somewhat robotic not in the way of an emotionless android but rather an intelligent algorithm.

so, blah blah blah Sebastian is really good at acting blank. But what about when the Winter Soldier does show emotion. Disclaimer that in my rewatch I only saw the highway fight/reveal and the helicarrier, not when Fury and Steve get attacked in his apartment. With this, the first time I believe we see the Winter Soldier breaking out of the emotionless mask is the cute little bout of panic he has shortly after the mask/muzzle comes off, when his eyes get big and be looks off in a way unlike before where instead of it being the slightest indication of thought and strategy it’s a genuine feeling of panic and confusion. This is very much in contrast to moment before after he asks who the hell Bucky is and shoots at Steve. He says the words, but that’s it. His face doesn’t move to accommodate any sort of emotion any normal person would be feeling when they said that sentence. His mouth simply moves as he asks (though the blankness is still broken by then because I have doubts the 100% Winter Soldier would ever take the time or express the confusion that’d come with asking that question). Immediately after he clicks back into reality and the mission at hand when he shoots at Steve he doesn’t return to his before blankness. His eyebrows furrow and this time it’s not simply an unconscious physical result of being focused or whatever but he’s genuinely confused and desperately trying to follow what he’s being made to do. Up until that point, not once does the Winter Soldier bother to halt anything he’s doing in a fight if not necessary. This is the first time he personally hesitates.

And then the helicarrier scene. Oh lord almighty the blessed helicarrier scene. By here the Winter Soldier is back to Winter Soldier-ing, blank and emotionless no matter what movement his face makes. And he stays like that for the entire pre-fight pleading Steve’s doing in that bridge(?) thing. UNTIL Steve says “please don’t make me do this”

Now I noticed this in my rewatch yesterday and then while I was rewatching the scene on yt to write this I fought for my life trying to figure out which cut to Bucky in that convo in which he does it, so I damn-near thought i hallucinated it. But I swear to god his head tilts down and his eyebrows go up. It’s similar to the facial movements he does before when he’s full Winter Soldier where his face moves but it doesn’t indicate any actual emotion being felt. This time however it just somehow does. He’s pleading, for what I literally cannot think of but his face moves only slightly and it somehow spreads the full feeling throughout his entirety. In the next cut after that he doesn’t have that same emotion, but it was there.

From then on the curtain is ripped. Now Bucky fights and he scrunches up his face and all of the sort and he’s not only expressing emotion but he’s doing it so blatantly. So blatantly in fact that I can tell he seems to feel almost desperate.

Remember earlier when I mentioned that not once does the Winter Soldier bother to halt himself unless necessary to survey the situation or something the sort. Yeah, none of that is here. He’s unbelievably sloppy, not as fast and hit-for-hit with Steve as he was during the highway/reveal. And throughout the fight he only gets slower and slower, his face scrunches and moves more and more., and he wastes more and more time talking and trying to make Steve suffer and feel how he’s getting hit as if to prove to something or someone that he’s not succumbing to the memories bubbling up inside him and straying from his mission.

Until finally Steve says “I’m with you til the end of the line” and fandom was never the same

and neither was Bucky, because despite the fact that his luscious locks are blowing all over the damn place, all over his face, we see down to the atom what he’s feeling. It’s the Winter Soldier’s end of the line, and now Bucky is here to get fucked over by the mcu’s writing.

Again, catws is my favorite mcu movie in terms of acting and writing and the reason why is because they did so well at writing such a horribly tragic victim. I stay saying that Seb is one of the best actors in the mcu and the reason why is because of how agonizing his performance of the winter soldier’s mental turmoil is. So why on God’s green Earth is the mcu so intent on making some bullshit atonement plotline (or a poor attempt at showcasing Bucky’s internal guilt that comes off as an atonement plotline, depends on who you ask) and throwing him in with anti-heroes/villains when it really doesn’t fit what his arc should be AT ALL???

anyway god bless Sebastian for being damn-good at acting out agony

me knowing i'm about to ruin some lives with a certain pair of gay cowboys in the near future

“Kevin Feige revealed the full roster for the upcoming Thunderbolts film, wherein less than savory characters are conscripted by the government to do some good.”

Please tell me more about how Bucky is a less than savory character who needs to be conscripted by the government to do some good. I honestly find this framing revolting, for him and for Yelena, so good work MCU. Happy victim blaming!

And before anyone tries justifying it with comics!Bucky leading the Thunderbolts for a spell take a second and figure out how MCU!Bucky and comics!Bucky have COMPLETELY different levels of agency in their captivity.

Badflower for Bucky

I just need to share this somewhere. I went to a Badflower concert last week and it was Amazing. They are spectacular. Look them up and know that everything about their songs is actual talent. No autotune there guys.

Anyway, I digress. I've been listening to more of their music the last few days. Trying out new songs from their other albums. "Machine Gun" took me by surprise. Good job youtube random shuffle. It is... fantastic. I highly recommend it if you love rock music, Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, and whatever in between.

Just wow. Bucky, big bro and mama's boy hanging around the dance halls and reading science fiction, terrified and forced to fight a war that he wanted nothing to do with because of the draft.

Steve, sickly and told he was better off dead his whole life, aching to join the war so he could prove he was worth a damn to someone and being denied until the government decided he could pass for a lab rat.

Bucky, traumatized from being experimented on by the enemy, doesn't know how to cope with the things he's seen and done and the things done to him but when told he can go home he stays because his best friend found an in somehow to this hell. He'll be damned if he leaves him there alone. Falls an unfathomable height trying to protect that friend. Probably wishes for death but is found by the enemy instead.

Steve, devastated at the loss of his world, loses a piece of himself and never recovers. He goes from being peaceful to wanting all of Hydra dead, to pay for what they've done. No one questions it. No asks. All the better. Better a patriot than a waste of space with a gun. He pulls a suicide mission to end the pain.

Both come back to the modern world. No one asks questions. No one cares. Fury puts Steve to work, keeps him in the dark, preys on that restless energy. Never a free meal. Wakanda fixed Bucky's head so now that war is coming it's time to pay up. You can have a limb if you fight. Who said you got to retire? Both of you owe your country.

We're not paying for your therapy or your meds. Be grateful. You're fine. You're useful. We gave you a roof because we can still make use of you. Your body we mean. Who cares about you?

Steve is a hero. Bucky is blamed for his actions under torture and told relentlessly to make amends. Steve is untouchable. Bucky is fresh meat.

*dark, brooding male character with a bunch of trauma and the weight of the world on their shoulders, hair dark and oily and lined with silver from stress, bearing through his situation with gritted teeth and probably not having a happy ending* me: hmmm yeah this is awesome but there's something off...

*headcanons him as a butch lesbian* me: ohhhh ffukc.... Oh ggod. I'm gona throw ufp..

this bitch has no idea how close his ass was to getting named dundy

Why wouldn’t you want Bucky to have a solo project? With one they could finally do right by him.

After everything they did to him so far, all the ways they failed him, you really still believe they'd do right by him if he got a solo project? If so, I admire your faith and optimism, but I sadly don't share it.

Hello! I noticed you have a lot of posts analyzing the details of marvel movies, and there was something in the Winter Soldier that I thought I’d ask your opinion about. No pressure for a response!

This is about Alexander Pierce’s little speech in the bank vault scene. It seemed kind of weird to me when I saw it. You wouldn’t talk to a soldier or a professional operative like that, it kind of sounds like he’s talking to a child. He uses language that will be personable - “I need you to do it one more time” - instead of making general statements on behalf of the entire organization. One explanation for this in my opinion is the brain damage Bucky had. I’m wondering how much that had an effect on the way they treated Bucky, and how he may have perceived their treatment of him in his own mind?

Thanks for the ask! Sorry it took me 3 days to get back to civilisation LOL

My impression of that scene changes on a regular basis 🤣 The scene is very ambivalent and whatever interpretation you have would be based on your own headcanons for Bucky. Some people point to this scene as proof that Bucky had a choice in what he did. Some people see this scene as Pierce taking advantage of his physical resemblance to Steve.

My assumption for Bucky is that the brain frying meant Bucky struggled with complex information and wasn't able to make complex decisions.

My most recent view is shaped by a story from a psychologist about someone who had a background of trauma, and their protective mechanism was to completely disintegrate who their sense of self was. They acted out what other people expect them to do, without ever knowing who they were or what they wanted for themselves. The person was a "people pleaser", who always said whatever made people happy even if it was conflicting information, "because they were afraid of punishment", not because they wanted to deceive or manipulate others. If you asked them something about themselves - their wishes, how they felt, what they thought, they couldn't answer because the identity doesn't exist.

It...reminded me a lot of Bucky, who was forced to have his own identity erased to become the Winter Soldier.

Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century, and I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves.

I think the way Pierce approaches him is using a few tactics:

When someone is a shocked state -- which Bucky was in, because his mind was in overload from seeing Steve and having some of his memories come back -- they often respond better to tone of voice. Pierce takes a quiet, intimate tone of voice with him, which helps give an illusion of closeness.

When someone is in Bucky's brain injured state, they also tend to respond better to simple phrases rather than something complex and abstract. Pierce does speak in abstracts, though -- and quite possibly Pierce knows Bucky wouldn't have the capacity to process the more complicated phrasing that are blatant lies. Bucky would understand the simpler sentences. "Your work has been a gift", "I need you to do it one more time", "if you don't do your part, I can't do mine". It is pertinent to note that these instructional sentences are much more straightforward in their wording and easier to follow/obey.

If we take Bucky as someone who doesn't have a sense of self, there is no anchor to what he knows or wants, so the only thing he can responds to is positive and negative messages from outside. Pierce first gives Bucky a carrot "your work has been a gift" before applying pressure. And...my other headcanon is that Bucky is driven by loyalty, which boiled down to its essence is a need to please and protect those he thinks are his people. He's not capable of making his own judgement in this state, so he relies on people he trusts to tell him what's right to do. It's also pertinent to note that what Pierce says gives nothing for Bucky to hang onto about what himself -- he's not given any hint about his identity, his previous beliefs or wants, and he's not given an opportunity to speak. "This is what we want and you've always done the right thing, so you'll do it again, right?"

Pierce probably also knows that Bucky's loyalty is to persons, rather than to organisations (Bucky being not keen to join the army is a good indicator that he doesn't get swept up by crowd sentiment and tends to be loyal to the few people he believes in). This is another reason why Pierce would take a personable tone with Bucky rather than speak about the organisation. It is also interesting that Pierce invokes "freedom", which is something more representative of Steve, but perhaps a word that Bucky responds to because of its familiarity.

I don't think that this scene indicated that Hydra or Pierce was kind to Bucky though. Many abusive/exploitative dynamics will have these little islands of superficial kindness between long periods of abuse and depersonalisation. If anything, it was clear from what followed ("Wipe him") what Pierce offered was an ultimatum, and abuse victims are very good at recognising an unspoken threat even if it's presented in a friendly tone. Pierce gave Bucky the illusion of a choice and Bucky's expressions indicate he understood what the "choices" were - do what he was being asked, or go through the wiping and be made to do what he was asked. Nevertheless, Bucky chose defiance, because when Steve called his name, he suddenly had an identity, whereas with Hydra he didn't, and that was important to him.