#tfatws meta

[staying-elive]

A collection of my thoughts and headcanons to improve TFATWS

(Warning: Long post ahead!)

I was rewatching The Last of Us the other night and I really appreciated how, in a 9 episode (10 really with the 2ep pilot), it delivered so much plot momentum while still delving into multiple characters' backstories, with multiple episodes almost entirely devoted to flashbacks.

Like... with a somewhat modified plot and longer run time, TFATWS could've added so much backstory for both Sam and Bucky. Hell, they didn't mind spending CGI de-aging money on Fury in Secret Invasion so we could've used a little here too, no?

So, in a similar series structure, we could've had a 2ep opening pilot, really setting the foundational themes, then after Walker gets introduced as Walmart Cap, the next episode (after the recap) could've opened with an almost entirely flashback episode of Sam's time in the air force. (Walker might’ve even been in Afghanistan at the same time, depending on age/Blip years, etc. if you wanted to show them crossing paths, show Walker's always been entitled and a loose cannon, etc).

The episode could've A) shown Sam's awesome Falcon skills as a pararescue, B) given us Riley, whose loss we'd see echoed in Sam's grief and mixed emotions about Steve (and NAT!), and C) could've shown more Sam's reasons for being anti-authority and anti-institutional power, and a distrust in power structures that change their minds and agendas.

A headcanon I've had for a while is that even though Sam and Riley were trained and deployed as pararescue, eventually, maybe after their first tour trialling the EXO-7s, the military higher-ups realised that the Falcons could get in and out of certain regions/facilities, far better than a lot of other special forces crew. This meant that very quickly, Sam and Riley were being pulled from their pararescue unit and sent on more and more ops that weren't what they signed up for. Weren't of the 'rescue and recovery, saving people, bringing them home' variety. And this would weigh heavily on Sam's morals. Not only does he either not get all the info on these ops or doesn't agree with them, but he's also leaving his unit, the 58th, without him. Which could lead to guilt if some of his fellow soldiers are killed or wounded and not rescued in time, because the Falcons weren't there to save them. And of course, Riley's eventually death perhaps resulting from one of these dangerous ops. (Covered up officially as that 'standard night mission' which is all Sam's allowed to say.)

I think something like that could've shown Sam's disillusionment with government agencies and military institutions (especially when propped up by propaganda). And mirrored comments made by both Steve and Sam in Winter Solider and Civil War.

"The people giving me orders are down to zero..."

"Agendas change."

"What if this sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there's somewhere we need to go and they don't let us?"

"How long you gonna play both sides?"

Part of Sam's reluctance in taking up the shield could've been his past experience in his abilities being turned to something he didn't sign up for and ultimately misused. (Also a parallel to Bucky!) A conversation prior to Riley's death, between him and Sam, could've shown that growing distrust in what they've been made to do.

Anyway, then (this post's already too long lol), later in the season, there's an almost entirely Bucky-centric flashback episode (like Ellie's ep7 in TLoU). Maybe Sam's injured and in hospital after the fight with Walker for the shield (but also Lemar doesn't get killed, because i say so), and this leaves Bucky in crisis mode for personal and plot reasons.

I haven't nailed down the specifics of these flashbacks as much, but the general scope would include: Bucky being drafted (not freely enlisting), seeing his family happy pre-War (little Rebecca?!), Hydra (not torture porn, just as in he's turned into a weapon and ties in with his guilt/list later), hiding out post CAWS (bonus points if Sam DID find Bucky first, I can't help it 😉), isolation, but sees someone that embodies so much that's good and worth believing in (Sam), starting to heal in Wakanda (like with Ayo) (again, bonus points if Sam's there at least once).

All that to say, Bucky's themes could highlight his displacement and disenfranchisement from his time, all his family, himself, and that clawing back of identity and belief in Good Things. And because in my scenario, I have Sam incapacitated to prompt this time of Bucky self-reflection, these flashbacks show that Sam is one of those Good Things that Bucky has grown to believe in and gravitate to. Which shows onscreen WHY he's been so adamant that Sam take up the shield. (Even though he went about this is a counter-intuitive and unhelpful way, we can fix this too). Sam inspired good in him, 'brought him home' (pararescue parallel!), and Bucky believes Sam can do the same for a broken world.

*Sam obviously wakes up, plot continues, he goes home while Bucky (being unable to verbalise yet everything we the audience now understands) has gone off to find Zemo, beg Wakanda for a fancy, over the top, 'I'm sorry I've been a dick, but I love you, I believe in you, and this is here should you choose it and if you need it' apology proposal present.

(I jest. This can all be read as strictly MCU-approved platonic. But this is tumblr, and me, so let's be real 😉)

I also would add, in the last episode, when Bucky is in NY, a scene of him contacting an older Rebecca. (Maybe this is something Sam asks him early in the show if he's done yet and Bucky brushes off, aggravated. Showing that he knows he has family alive, but his fear and other issues have been keeping him from reaching out - like what's kept him from Sam.) Because then you have back to back scenes of Bucky reconnecting to his old family, leading right into the dock party with Sam (his new family!) Visually showing he's healing that bridge of displacement and isolation.

Anyway, if you've stuck around to the end, thank you! That's how I would've incorporated flashbacks into a rough approximation of a TFATWS show to flesh out Sam and Bucky in relation to the show's themes and each other. (Obviously, we could fix all the Flagsmasher, power broker, serum stuff too. But the general plot outline still works for the purpose of this idea.)

Thanks for reading 😘

[jbarneswilson]

riling myself up imagining the first time sarah holds a bite of food up to bucky to try and he just opens his mouth and automatically takes it from her fingers. there is something very special and loving and comforting and home-y and safe about a southern black woman who loves you hand-feeding you. especially if it is accompanied by a “here, try this, baby”

[bbyboybucket]

Okay besties, today I’m giving you the run down of Buckys finances and networth. Because as I’ve said multiple times, he’s obscenely wealthy despite the fact you’d never know by looking at him.

Now first off, MatPat (my fav YouTuber who I’m so sad is retiring, literally adore him) did a mini theory a few years ago, calculating Bucky’s compound interest in previously earned money from WWII in his frozen bank account while he was presumed dead. It totaled out to $51,143. This is just the money that he earned in the 30s/40s and has grown interest on. This is assuming the money wasn’t given to his family and for the purpose of this post, we’ll go with that it wasn’t. However, MatPat didn’t account back pay, for disability pay, and other military pay/benefits.

So as a starter point, we’ll use $51,143. Next, I’m going to calculate his back pay from being MIA/POW because he would have been considered active duty. A MIA/POW is given back pay of 50% of the average per diem rate, for each day held in captivity. The 2023 rate is $157 per day, and I assume that would be similar for him because TFATWS takes place in early 2024. So that means Bucky would get $78.50 per day. There is no time limit on how far back pay can date to, so the entire span of Bucky’s capture is accounted for. As per the Smithsonian memorial in CA:TWS, Bucky was captured in 1944, making it exactly 70 years of capture. So, the back pay for those 70 years, is $2,005,675.

Next, we’ll look at the different forms of disability pay he would receive. I’m only going to look at canonical, confirmed disabilities for this. Bucky would be classified under SMC-N 1/2, where one arm was amputated above the elbow and/or was amputated so close to the shoulder that a prosthetic cannot be worn. Now obviously, Bucky does have a prosthetic but it is implanted into his body, as a majority of his left shoulder seems to have been amputated. Since he is single and has no dependents, aka has no children and is not taking care of any family, and he is still able to work, he would be receiving $6,182 a month.

He also has PTSD, which he would most likely get a 70% percent disability rating for, as 100% is very rare to receive for mental and is considered to be extreme impairment in daily functioning. (He could recieve 80 or 90% but I’m being generous here and trying to give the most realistic assessment). All this means, his mental illness pay for PTSD would be $1716 a month.

It’s also canonical that he has brain damage via The Wakanda Files book. We know in that book, he’s described to have pretty severe TBI. However, we don’t know anything of his symptoms and the book only describes of the brain scan looks bad and that the serum is keeping him from being more impaired. The VA uses 10 areas of impairment as criteria to rate the severity of TBI disability. The only canonically confirmed area that we know Bucky deals with is memory. Since we know no other symptoms and we know he’s not extremely impaired, I’m going to estimate he’d be rated at 50%. Which would give him a compensation of $1075 a month.

Now, we can assume Bucky is retired from the military. From being a retired sergeant, we can assume his monthly pension is around $5,482.

Reminder, all VA pay is untaxed. All of these together, his monthly salary is $14,455. However, this is not including disability back pay. The VA sometimes will pay a lump sum from back from when the diagnosis was made. Assuming the Wakandans were involved in Bucky’s trial and pardon, I’d assume some of his medical records were brought in as well. Back dating to when he was being treated in Wakanda, that’s 7 years, however we don’t know if the blip would count so for that reason, I’ll say 2 years. So, his lump sum would be around $215,352.

Now, endgame was in October, six months before TFATWS, meaning it took place around March/April. Within, the span of October to March, Bucky woulda have accumulated $86,730. Because even if his pardon wasn’t official yet in October, he would still receive payment for that month.

Finally, in grand total, all of this is $2,358,900. His networth would be in a similar, slightly lower range. Meaning: yes, Bucky Barnes is a millionaire and nobody would ever guess.

[luna-rainbow]

You know, back when I had such high hopes for TFATWS, the therapy scene had introduced three rules:

Don’t do anything illegal

Nobody gets hurt - “it’s kinda a big one”

“The whole point of the amends is to fulfill rule number 3!” - “I am no longer the Winter Soldier, I am James Bucky Barnes and you’re part of my effort to make amends 🙃”

(God typing that out just made my blood pressure go up)

(So the whole point of the amends is him telling people he’s making amends? Him telling people he’s no longer the leader winter soldier? Him telling people he’s Bucky?)

But let’s talk about rule number 2, cos it’s a big one.

In an alternate universe where a show exists that actually treated Bucky’s therapy properly, this was an important rule.

Nobody gets hurt.

And that should have included Bucky.

We know from previous movies he’s someone who frequently puts other people (that other person usually being Steve) before himself: whether it's in the first movie bringing up the rear for Steve or refusing to leave the burning factory without Steve or cheering for Steve without letting him see how upset he feels.

Or even that fated act of picking up the shield to lead the firing away from Steve that ended up with him falling off the train.

This gets worse as he goes through the Winter Soldier: we see him let the other winter soldiers overpower him until he steps up to protect the very guy who ordered them to hit him; we see him willingly submit to the electrocution, we see him stay doggedly on the Helicarrier to "finish his mission" even if that meant certain death for him.

Then post-Winter Soldier we see him placidly let them place him in the electric chair and only tears himself out when he doesn't want Zemo to wake the Soldier. We see him hold back from fighting Tony until Tony shoots at Steve. We see him choose to go back to cryo - the type of place he was imprisoned for 70 years - because he didn't want to hurt people.

Consistently, and particularly post Winter Soldier, Bucky has acted like it's okay for him to be hurt.

In a better universe, an important arc for him should have been realising he could still do the right thing without having to be hurt by it.

Nobody gets hurt - and it is kind of a big deal for a guy who's spent 70 years being punished until he stops acting good - that now doing a good thing no longer comes with pain.

[5ummit]

Rumlow & Bucky threatening people with a custom SIG Sauer P226 SCT

At first glance Bucky's gun in TFATWS may not look particularly special or appear to have any narrative significance, but I’m here to tell you that’s almost certainly not the case, whether intentional or not.

I already thought the parallel was fascinating when I first noticed these guns looked similar, but the deeper I dug the more compelling the story got. They aren’t just similar, they’re the exact same gun. Which ordinarily wouldn't be that all that special either, since many people use the same type of gun, but this isn’t some generic off-the-shelf model. In fact, I now think this custom P226 SCT is so unique as to be intrinsically linked to Rumlow, and I’m going to make the case that its reappearance in TFATWS is so remarkable that the gun (and therefore likely Rumlow himself) must hold some sort of significance for Bucky.

Buckle up, I’m about to overanalyze the shit out of this gun.

First, let’s look at the facts:

Out of the dozens of guns seen and used in CATWS, the only person to use a P226 is Rumlow. Even after he loses his customized SCT in the scene above, he's seen with another standard P226 in the next scene, which suggests he heavily favors this model. Side note: Knowing this, my new headcanon is that Rumlow is a former Navy SEAL since P226′s are famous for being beloved and carried by SEALs. Plus, everything we know about him lines up perfectly with that background.

Excluding the Winter Soldier’s P220, no one else in CATWS is seen carrying any SIG handgun model. All other SHIELD and HYDRA agents pretty much exclusively use Glocks, which further confirms this custom P226 SCT is undoubtably meant to be Rumlow’s personal handgun (he’s also seen with this same gun in the scene where they’re hunting Steve down at the mall).

Out of the dozens of guns seen and used in TFATWS, the only person to use a P226 is Bucky. Yet again, no one else in the show carries any SIG handgun model with Glocks by far the most common.

This is the only gun Bucky uses in the entire show. The only other gun Bucky even briefly holds is the submachine gun he takes from one of Selby's goons before dropping it seconds later. Additionally, the fact that Bucky has this gun in two completely different scenes, set days apart in different locations, confirms this isn’t just some random gun he borrowed temporarily in Madripoor, but his own personal gun that he purposefully chooses to carry.

Not only are Rumlow and Bucky’s guns the same basic model, they’re specifically the Super Capacity Tactical (SCT) variant, which is already fairly uncommon, but on top of that and more importantly both guns appear to have the same very specific, very unique customizations to the point where I’m almost certain it’s the exact same prop. While the standard P226 SCT is pure black, multiple parts on both of these guns (hammer, takedown lever, magazine release, decocker, etc) have a silvery finish instead, which you may be able to see a bit more clearly here and here. Some of the parts are reminiscent of the Equinox version of the P226, but it’s not a perfect match and notably the SCT doesn’t seem to have ever been made in an Equinox variation anyway. The most interesting features to me though are the bare-metal front and rear cocking serrations, which again are reminiscent of the Equinox except the rest of the slide is still all black. In all of my research that’s not something I’ve been able to find on any other P226 and is not just a part you could potentially buy and swap out. To achieve that look the slide would have to be very deliberately hand-sanded or machined. This detail, combined with the other custom parts, undoubtably makes this gun one-of-a-kind.

Now some may try to argue that if we look at other Marvel movies we might find that this particular prop has been reused before and this gun is not as unique in-universe as it might seem. Don’t worry, I’ve looked into this too. At least according to IMFDB’s current records, not a single P226 SCT, much less one with these customizations, has ever been identified in another Marvel property. Rumlow’s gun in CATWS and Bucky’s gun in TFATWS are the only instances this gun, or anything like it, has shown up.

Maybe the reappearance of this gun was just meant to be a cool Easter egg for eagle-eyed gun enthusiasts. Maybe it’s meant to be something more. I don’t know and I honestly don’t care. Because here’s the thing, regardless of what was originally intended (death of the author and all that), the facts remain and they paint an undeniably compelling picture of something that has actual narrative weight.

Whatever Doylist reasons this gun may’ve been chosen for Bucky out of the dozens, if not hundreds, of potential options, if we just look at the facts and try to make sense of them in-universe one thing is clear: there’s no way Rumlow and Bucky would both have this exact gun by pure coincidence. It’s not standard issue for SHIELD or HYDRA and it’s not some run-of-the-mill, off-the-shelf weapon Bucky could’ve easily picked up somewhere on a whim. He made a deliberate choice to acquire and carry this gun. And given this custom P226’s extreme uniqueness paired with Rumlow and Bucky’s likely history, there are really only two possible scenarios that I can see:

Bucky sought out and somehow recovered Rumlow’s gun from the wreckage of the Triskelion at some point, making it quite literally the exact same gun.

Bucky tracked down the same already uncommon model and specifically customized it to match Rumlow’s favorite gun (which he would’ve had to have been very familiar with to get all of the details just right).

Either option is intriguing, to say the least. It certainly brings up more questions than answers, namely: What is the significance of Rumlow and/or his gun to Bucky/the Winter Soldier, and why does Bucky care about it so much that he took the considerable time and effort to either recover the original or recreate an exact copy?

[Disclaimer: By no means am I a gun expert, but I did try to be thorough in my research. A lot of my conclusions are based on info pulled from IMFDB, though not all of it. While IMFDB isn’t perfect, as it’s just a publicly run database and not an official source, I’ve found it to be quite comprehensive when it comes to popular shows and movies and its contributors are generally very skilled at identifying weapons. However, if any gun experts think I’ve made a significant error, let me know!]

[logicheartsoul]

MattJen & Sambucky Parallels (Finale Edition)

[rainbowsuitcase]

This came to my mind thanks to a joke but. Of course my brain made it sad.

The expression on Bucky's face.

The realization that for someone who knows what they're doing, removing his arm is really easy.

The realization that not even the people who helped fix him, the people who made sure he was safe, don't fully trust him.

AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN TELL HIM THEY COULD DO THAT

[amarriageoftrueminds]

*points originally in a tag-dump under another post about* Bucky's goodness + Steve's belief in him 

+ the fact that the superserum worked on Bucky is empirical proof of his goodness:

+ this is also why the serum worked on Isaiah Bradley. + imagine if Isaiah had been made the Winter Soldier instead

Seriously it's a pretty eye-opening thought exercise to put any other character in Bucky's place and see just how poorly he's treated.

Do people really think Steve would hear about a man who had the same magic ‘only works on good people’ juice as him, tortured and enslaved by Hydra for decades… and then just NOT help him?

imagine if you had Sam saying 'Steve this 'Isaiah' guy he's not someone you save he's someone you stop.'

Nat saying 'Steve I know this matters to you but let the police handle Isaiah someone will arrest you if you interfere, it will inconvenience us all.' (LOL Nat have you met Steve who wrote this)

Sam agreeing, 'maybe Nat's right maybe we shouldn't bother helping Isaiah against the police in case they shoot at us,' and dismissing the fact that Isaiah could do good: ‘1945, maybe.’ 

When Isaiah was the guy that pulled Steve out of the river?

(And meanwhile the CIA have given police, that Nat and Sam are telling Steve not to interfere with, orders to shoot Isaiah dead on sight? quelle surprise)

Steve would still be arguing that it should be him to bring Isaiah in, since he's least likely to die trying. 

He would still have put taking down the Insight helicarriers first, and been reluctant (but willing) to dislocate his arm for that very important reason. 

He would still have lifted up the steel beam pinning Isaiah down

(and probably still tried to talk him out of his mind-control, even if he failed.)

imagine if everyone (Sam, Nat, Steve, Sharon, etc.) saw Isaiah -- when mind-controlled -- suddenly demonstrating a drastically different personality

and imagine if Steve and Sam saw Isaiah waking up with amnesia.. then proving his memory of his good, non-WS personality... but Sam was still rude/hostile to Isaiah anyway, insisting he and Steve should not be ‘cool' with him (then telling Isaiah he hates him). 

Tony saying 'I don’t care that Isaiah was mind-controlled he killed my mom imma murder him just to spite you for not trusting me not to murder people.'

imagine if you had the therapist telling Isaiah he needs to be monitored by the state to prove he’s not giving into his innate violence, giving him rules to follow like a child, (and he’s pardoned, not exonerated, meaning he had to admit to crimes he wasn’t responsible for in order to get a modicum of freedom) and that it’s bullshit to suggest Isaiah just wants some peace

Ayo telling Isaiah 'you are free' 😌 as he finally escapes his bondage, watching him cry with relief, then: ‘SIKE! we put a booby-trap in ur limb the trust was a lie.’

Sam cracking jokes about Isaiah's trauma, dehumanizing him as a killing machine 

taking part in a plot where Isaiah has to pretend to be WS, be sold to another human being, and have rape jokes cracked about him, 

but then still being like 'listen Isaiah if you really want to apologise f̶o̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶l̶a̶v̶e̶  you should just do the work.' 😔

*event horizon voice* DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEE?? 😬

[captainwidowspring]

On Nico's Ability to Defend Himself

An often-overlooked aspect of Nico's death scene in TFATWS is that there was literally nothing preventing him from thwarting John's attempt to kill him, and keeping it from being a death scene; he just didn't so that there would be a reason for the Captain America title to be stripped from John and given back to Sam. I feel like a major reason why a lot of people don't pick up on this fact, and instead perceive Nico to be defenseless (aside, of course, from the shamelessly manipulative framing) is that in the Siberia incident, the incident Nico's death scene is frequently compared to, Tony, after he lost the upper hand, didn't really get a chance to do much before Steve disabled his suit. It thus didn't stick out too badly when Nico also didn't do much before John attacked him with the shield, even though there was a lot more he could have done. Therefore, let's examine the two situations to see how they are different.

This is how the shield incident played out in Siberia. Near the end of the battle, Tony had managed to gain the upper hand and inflict serious damage on Steve. After Steve refused to stop defending Bucky, Tony prepared to straight up blow Steve out of the bunker and down the mountain: but right before he got the repulsor shot off, Bucky grabbed his leg. Irritated, Tony turned and kicked Bucky in the head with his metal boot. Then, before Tony had the chance to do anything else, Steve grabbed Tony and hoisted him into the air; Tony tried to use the jet packs on his boots to get out of the situation, but too much damage had been inflicted on them at that point for them to be of use, and Steve threw him to the ground. Steve then immediately rushed on top of Tony and punched his face mask three times out of sheer fury, after which he broke the helmet by hitting it twice more with his shield and then tore it off. He subsequently raised the shield, which caused Tony to frantically raise his arms to cover his face, and this allowed Steve to have a clear shot at the arc reactor, which he brought his shield down on and broke.

Now, considering how thoroughly biased Civil War is against Steve, and how much it sought to act like he was the one in the wrong—even though the entire Siberia fight was literally just Tony having a temper tantrum and Steve and Bucky trying to survive it—the creative team certainly wouldn't have minded if Tony had cried out in fear like Nico did, as it would be quite useful for the propaganda efforts. Therefore, there is clearly some reason why he didn't.

And it appears that there are two main reasons for this. The first reason seems to be that everything simply happened too fast. Indeed, the entire incident, from Tony preparing to shoot Steve to Steve disabling the arc reactor, took place in the span of about fifteen seconds. And Tony totally wasn't expecting Steve to grab him; presumably, he assumed that Steve was injured enough that taking his attention off him for a few seconds in order to kick his friend in the head wasn't a big deal. He underestimated the strength that poured into Steve's limbs when he saw Tony so callously abusing Bucky, as well as the fact that Steve is a supersoldier, so he can move really fast when he wants to.

So there was the element of surprise, and there was also the fact that Tony probably would have been a little stunned, both from the impact of being thrown to the ground, and from being hit in the head multiple times. It must, of course, be remembered that Tony was wearing a full-body metal suit, so no actual harm was inflicted upon him, but Steve is a supersoldier, so even with the layer of protection the impacts would certainly have been felt. These factors combined to produce the effect that, when Steve raised his shield, rather than take the time to yell anything, Tony simply prepared himself to face what was about to happen, which he thought would be Steve attempting to end him. But fortunately for him, he was wrong. Steve wasn't trying to kill Tony; Bucky was still alive, so Steve was able to contain his fury enough to refrain from a killing blow, and he hit the arc reactor instead.

Now, let's look at how Nico's death scene played out. After John pursued Nico for a bit, and managed to fend off a concrete trash can that Nico threw at him, he was able to hit Nico with the shield as Nico ran into a square. This forced Nico to stop to keep his balance, which allowed John to hit him again, and this finally knocked him over. Nico then tried to get back up twice; the first time John hit him with the shield again to keep him down, and the second time he put his foot on Nico's chest to pin him to the ground and stop his escape attempts. Then, since he couldn't try to get away anymore, Nico waved his hands and nervously insisted, "It wasn't me." He said this because, given the role he played in Lemar's death, he was well aware of why John might be mad at him specifically, for more than just being a friend of Karli. John, for his part, had been preparing to interrogate Nico about Karli's whereabouts, but this clear falsehood evidently filled him with rage, and he raised his shield in a fury. Rather than make an effort to block the imminent attack, Nico simply repeated, louder, "It wasn't me!" even though it was clear that John was not about to accept his garbage. And then, of course, since Nico wasn't about to actually do anything, the beating with the shield commenced.

Nico just lay there and was obediently killed, even though there was literally nothing stopping him from simply catching the shield and keeping it off his chest. His arms and hands were not at all restrained—indeed, he was waving them around—and unlike John, who had acquired a gash on his head, Nico was completely uninjured, so there wouldn't have been any pain distracting him either. And as we saw earlier, Nico is just as strong as John—he was able to restrain John so effectively that Karli would have been able to easily stab John if Lemar hadn't stopped her—and his evident fear would likely have given him enough strength to cancel out John's rage. So he would certainly have been able to keep the shield off his chest until Sam and Bucky, who appeared shortly afterwards, could save him if they wanted to.

Indeed, Nico didn't save himself even though, as evidenced by the fact that he did actually have a chance to cry out, he was dealing with a much less challenging situation than Tony was. For one thing, John bringing down the shield on Nico's chest was not at all a surprise. After John had pinned Nico to the ground, Nico had time to say, "It wasn't me" before John made any sort of move: and after John registered what Nico had said, he shifted his shield, which had been on his arm, into a two-handed grip, and then raised it. Nico clearly saw this coming; indeed, this is what caused him to shout "It wasn't me" a second time. And John's intentions at that point were obvious, so it's not like what happened with Tony where Tony thought that Steve was going to do one thing but he did another; it was pretty clear where John's shield was going, and this would have been plenty apparent to Nico since terror tends to make time slow down. So he had ample time to catch it.

Additionally, Nico would not have been stunned in the way that Tony was. Tony was slammed to the ground and then received five forceful rapid-fire close-range blows to the head, which is several hard impacts in a short span of time. Nico, by contrast, was hit once with the shield, then was knocked by John to the ground. This was a much shorter distance to fall than the overhead bench-press position that Tony was thrown from, and there were even stairs to break Nico's fall. Thereafter, Nico was hit with the shield again—and he hadn't gotten very far up, so he didn't fall very far back down—and then John thwarted Nico's final attempt to get up by pushing him down with his foot. In addition to the fact that the push was much gentler than getting hit with the shield again would have been, as before Nico hadn't gotten very far up, so he wouldn't have hit the ground that hard.

Therefore, in contrast to Tony, who received six sharp blows pretty much back to back, Nico received three fairly spread out blows—after the first hit with the shield, John had to close the distance between them and wind up again before hitting him a second time to knock him over, and then Nico fell to the ground and started to get back up before he was hit a third time—as well as a kind of shove. Nico thus did not receive nearly as harsh a pummeling as Tony did. And on top of that, he is a supersoldier: so even if his treatment had been rougher, Nico would have a much higher tolerance for pummeling than normal human Tony would.

Hence, Nico would not only have had plenty of time to see what John was doing, but he also would not have had to contend with the disorientation that Tony experienced. There is no excuse for why his only reaction to John's attack was yelling.

And here's what makes the fact that Nico didn't try to defend himself even more ridiculous. Even though Steve's attack was much more rapid, forceful, and unpredictable than John's was, Tony STILL did the logical thing and was ready to try to catch Steve's shield. Indeed, you can actually see a bit of strategy in his response to Steve raising the shield. Tony knew he wasn't strong enough to entirely keep the shield off his face since his suit was failing, so rather than try to stop it from hitting him, he was instead planning to try to grab the shield during its descent in order to slow it down and cushion the blow. As Steve brings the shield down, you can even see Tony open his fingers as he expects to encounter the shield. Nico did not do anything of the sort, he just aimlessly shouted as he passively lay there and waited for John to kill him. But come on! If Tony, who was just a normal human encased in a suit of rapidly failing metal, and who had been completely taken by surprise with a harsh walloping, could make an attempt to stop Steve from killing him (even though, as it turned out, he didn't need to), then Nico, who was a supersoldier, and who had received far less of a thrashing, could definitely have tried (and succeeded) to stop John from killing him. Especially since, unlike Tony, he actually would have been able to completely stop the shield from hitting him.

There is another difference between the two situations that is very interesting, however. Tony, for his part, was well aware that he was acting dishonorably. For instance, a little after Tony began his assault, when Bucky was trying to run away and Tony was intent on pursuit, Steve stood in front of him and said, "It wasn't him, Tony. Hydra had control of his mind." But Tony already knew this, so he simply responded "Move," in a way that clearly indicated that he didn't care and didn't want to hear it. And a short time later, when Tony prevented Bucky from escaping, Steve tried again to get through to him and said, "This isn't gonna change what happened," but Tony replied, "I don't care, he killed my mom." Tony knew that Bucky wasn't to blame for his parents' deaths, and that killing him would not help anything: but since he was angry with Steve for refusing to accept the Accords and all their rights-violations, he saw the revelation as an excuse to attack both Bucky because he knew it would hurt Steve, and Steve himself because Tony knew that Steve would not just stand by while Bucky was being assaulted. He ignored Steve's attempts to reason with him because he figured that he had enough power to be able to do whatever he wanted, and he also correctly guessed that Steve and Bucky would continuously hold back against him, even though they shouldn't have. And because of these things, before Bucky's intervention, Tony had been about to do something that could have quite possibly ended Steve's life. So when Steve regained the upper hand and Tony was at his mercy, Tony was aware that he had no right to ask Steve to spare him, because when he had been in Steve's position, he had been ready to potentially end Steve's life without a second thought. Therefore, he said nothing; his only response was to see if he had enough strength left to hold off Steve.

So Tony, in the face of Steve's attack, didn't yell anything because he knew that what he had done was indefensible: and it is due in part to this modicum of contrition that Steve was able to contain his rage enough to spare him. Nico, meanwhile, had been doing something similarly heinous. He had been actively engaged in trying to kill John because John was Captain America, and when Lemar frustrated the attempt on John's life, Nico was also the reason why John was unable to protect Lemar from Karli's subsequent death-blow. And just like Tony, Nico had been relying on his strength to protect him from repercussions. So what he had done was just as indefensible as what Tony did: but instead of taking the smallest bit of ownership of this, he tried to completely absolve himself of responsibility for what had happened, and this resulted in his downfall. For while John had clearly been intending to just interrogate Nico, the fact that the person who had held him helpless while his best friend was murdered was trying to act like he was not at all responsible for what had happened caused him to lose it, and this resulted in the shield incident. Now, Nico definitely should have made it clear that he was surrendering if he intended to, and even apologized if he genuinely regretted what had happened to Lemar: and again, when the attack did happen he could have easily fended it off. But if he had simply recognized the fact that he was not worthy of John's mercy since he had not been prepared to show mercy to John, and remained silent like Tony did, the shield-attack would never have happened in the first place.

But in any case, as mentioned above, Nico didn't try to defend himself because John needed to kill him, so that the show would have an excuse to take the Captain America mantle from John and give it back to Sam without it seeming too dubious. (Though considering that the incident ended up resulting in Sam and Bucky attacking John for the shield a very short time after he literally lost his best friend, the show completely failed at that.) Not to mention, if Nico had put up a fight, this would have highlighted how much he was still capable of threatening John, and put lie to the show's attempt to act like he was helpless. Particularly since, again, if he had tried to save himself there is no reason why he would not have been successful.

Now, it is important to also remember that Nico was definitely not surrendering, the other widespread misconception about his death scene. He kept trying to fight John until he literally couldn't—he threw a concrete trash can at John while he was running away, and tried to get back up twice after John initially knocked him over, which is not something someone who wanted to surrender would do—and then after John had him pinned, all he did was try to disingenuously absolve himself of responsibility for Lemar's death, rather than trying to apologize or making it clear that he was surrendering. But on top of the fact that Nico wasn't trying to surrender, and refused to own up to what he had done, he was perfectly capable of surviving John's attack when it happened. These things make his death scene, as well as the subsequent reaction to it, completely ridiculous and utterly nonsensical.

[gay-jewish-bucky]

Why does everyone at Marvel studios (besides Seb) hate MCU Bucky and say he's never done anything heroic? Why do they constantly force him to suffer as if he was responsible for his victimization? Why do they turn the reveal of his sexual abuse into a joke? Why can they sympathize with Ultron and Thanos, but not Bucky?

Sexism!

The nature of lot of the abuse and exploitation he's faced is, in western media, mainly carried out against women, sometimes queer men (like Arnie Roth). Conversations around his female coding within the MCU have largely stopped but it's very important to remember. The patriarchy punishes all men who step out of line, and this is a very good example of that phenomenon.

To them, because of this, he is a failure of a man. He is weak. He is complicit because men can't be victims and still be men. he is not worthy of respect or accolades.

His fans as a whole tend to be people who are frequent targets of overt misogyny, they generally aren't those who believe in and participate in enforcing the expectations of white, western manhood.

You know who does believe in and patriciate in that? The people who have actual control over his character's arc and treatment in the MCU. The one person with power who actually understood Bucky (Stan Lee) died and since then they've been saying the quiet part out loud.

They've also robbed him of the female coding and anything that could be read as contrary to their oppressive standards of masculinity from his character (this includes cutting his hair and robbing him of the softness he had even after everything he'd been through, not letting him have a cat because yes I've heard people outright state he's "too manly" to own a cat) in an effort to force him to be a "real man".

[frosted-luckycharms]

ok so i was thinking about the moment in tfatws when bucky sees the waving cat statue and like, reaches out to stop its paw from waving and seems confused when it keeps on waving anyway. this little moment is so funny and fits so well with bucky the way i see his character (*cough* TYP bucky *cough*).

and it’s not like, oh bucky’s this grumpy dark brooding assassin who hates fun and wants this annoying toy to stop waving at him. 

it’s more like. bucky sees things very analytically. he likes to understand how things work. he pays attention to little details other people don’t think about. so bucky sees this cat waving at him, and he’s curious how it’s doing that, whether it’s powered by inertia or by a motor or something else. so he reaches out to see if he can stop it by holding it still with his hand, and is fascinated when this doesn’t work. he CARES about this little cat decoration thingy and is interested in it and curious about it and confused by it, and i love that.

[staying-elive]

I so wish Figaro had been in TFATWS. Would've been so easy even if Hollywood doesn't like working with animals.

I can imagine it though.

Figaro chilling in the kitchen as Sam and Sarah talk...

Sam could've given him a cute little boop or a little forehead kissy kiss like he does to the boat. 🥹

Speaking of the boat, Figaro could've been chilling in the background while Sam worked by himself...

*bonus points if he gets another little kiss boop after Sam kisses the engine. (He's so cute 🥹😭)

(I'm just imagining him sleeping on that shelf in front of the window)

Figaro chilling while watching Sam and Bucky work...

(This would be his audition process for future fellow Cat Dad Bucky 😆)

Bucky waking up and Figaro's just chilling on top of him...

('Congratulations, human, you've made it through to the next stage.')

Basically, Figaro would be all of us! 🥰🥰🥰

Also, sets up nicely Bucky going... "Yeah, I want one of these too. This is nice." (Enter Alpine!)

Seriously though, from a more meta angle, Sam being a cat dad would've been a subtle hint to him not being the extrovert open book many people mistake him for. He doesn't open up easily until the time and effort is taken for him to trust someone. Plus I've always headcanoned that Sam adopted Figaro after he left the air force and Riley died. Like he became a support animal that helped Sam get up in the morning and take care of himself because he had a little buddy to also take care of.

Because I also imagine Figaro chilling in the background of Sam's CAWS home...

(Of course Nat would trust Sam right away. He's a Cat Dad! 😁)

And then during Endgame, Nat could've had Figaro with her! (Maybe Sam's neighbour who'd looked after him after Sam was a fugitive also got blipped and Figaro was sent to the Avengers Compound...)

Especially since this scene between Nat and Steve reflects on the people they've lost. i.e. SAM! The missing third person of their fugitive trio 😭😭

Basically what I'm saying is... I want more Figaro! Everywhere. He represents love and grief but also healing.

Love is stored in the Cat. Thank you.

[burberrycanary]

Still Left with the River (The Paradox of Motion) ∘ a Stucky Post-TFATWS Fix-it

I’ve finished Still Left with the River (The Paradox of Motion), which is a post-Endgame, post-TFATWS Stucky fix-it that involves a lot of food.

Food serves many roles in the story, picking up from how eating together can be social and communal as we see at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Food also holds memories—finding what you ate as a kid again or pulling back up shared memories that haven’t come to mind in a while. And food is part of how this story is a complicated love letter to New York City.

But, especially for Bucky, food is a doorway back into the world. It’s a way to be kind to himself and experience pleasure with his body that was tortured and controlled for so long: turned against him. Food—restaurants, bars—are also a way for Bucky to get out of that brutally bare apartment and be around people again; to have a chance to form new connections in a world where pretty much everyone Bucky has ever loved is gone. What he has left is New York, which like him is still here, however changed—rebuilt over and over, transformed beyond recognition maybe but persisting in its bones, in the essential parts.

But then Steve’s body has experienced a lot of pain in his life, too, and he knows a hell of a lot about loneliness.

In this story when Steve comes back, Bucky is generous enough to want to share with Steve some of what he’s found—parts from their shared past that have endured into the present and some of the tender-pale and fragile-green shoots pushing up out of Bucky’s destroyed and rebuilt life—while Steve is struggling to find his footing in a world that’s once again changed while he was gone.

To borrow a line: I love you. I want us both to eat well.

Of course, Bucky would be generous with Steve. But also, after loss piled on loss, Bucky has somehow gotten back the only other person on earth who could understand so much, who can remember with him. Though regaining something isn’t the same as getting to keep it, which Steve and Bucky know all too well.

“Steve.” Bucky’s thumb runs back and forth through the fine short hairs at the nape of his neck. “C’mon. Come upstairs. You’re gonna love this. Gołąbki and kopytka. They do it right with fried onions and a little sugar on top. Everybody forgets the sugar.”

Leaning closer, Steve thunks his forehead right into Bucky’s, which is a small jarring hurt he didn’t mean.

“But not us.”

“That’s right,” Bucky says quietly. His warm living breath fans out against Steve’s face, from the corner of his mouth across the lower half of his cheek. “But not us. So c’mon, you mook. Up.”

Still Left with the River is a story about survival. It’s a story about food, art and grief.

For those curious, a list of foods in the image from the story are below in the cut.

1) Classic halal cart chicken shawarma

2) Fries, served with aioli not ketchup, that came with their lamb burgers and...

3) Orval trappist ale

4) Grocery store cookies, the kind that come on a plastic tray

5) Pastrami sandwiches

6) Peak summer peaches

7) Sorrel (aka Jamaica)

8) Gołąbki with rice and meat

9) A huge diner breakfast with both pancakes and hash browns

10) Old fashioned sugar cookies

11) Whiskey (I figure Steve has been around enough to pick a good bottle by now)

12) Harissa cake (aka Basbousa)

13) The NYC cheese slice speaks for itself

14) Horchata, and...

15) Oreja tacos

[dharmasharks]

On the bizarre avoidance of loss in FATWS

Reflecting on Marvel’s phase 4 storytelling, I think we can all agree that much of the content shares the same unifying theme: moving on. It’s an inversion of the question our original heroes reckoned with during the snap:

Where do we go now that they’re gone?

Peter grappled with Tony’s legacy and living up to it. Wanda mourned the stolen future she planned with Vision. Clint confronted his survivor’s guilt and grief over Natasha’s death.

In FATWS, the absence of Steve’s looming presence is felt by the entire planet. And it is so deeply, unbelievably weird that Bucky Barnes has no thoughts or feelings about it whatsoever.

To be clear: I’m not talking about an expression of romantic love, unrequited or otherwise. (Not because I disagree with that characterization, but because, unlike Steve Rogers, I’m still stuck in the darkest timeline.)

No, I’m talking about the 10+ years of storytelling in which the trajectory of Bucky’s life has been determined by the gravitational pull of Steve Rogers.

But it’s more than that (literally) undying loyalty to Captain America. We know that so much of Bucky’s very sense of self is inextricably tied to Steve.

‘Member that time Steve had Bucky, even when he had nothing else? Well, even when the Winter Soldier had nothing—no memories to shape his identity—he had Steve. Steve was the guidepost Bucky followed to find himself again. We know this because we’ve seen his first memories (Steve), that museum visit (giant picture of Steve), and those notebooks (filled with giant pictures of Steve).

But really, it was Steve’s unwavering faith in him that gave Bucky the chance to return to himself. Twice. At a great personal cost, across multiple major blockbusters, Steve saw the good when no one else did—including Bucky. (See CACW’s: “I don’t know if I’m worth all this, Steve.”)

So where do you go when that person is gone?

And why, over the course of a 6-episode series, don’t we see a titular character wrestling with this character-defining question?

The closest (only?) acknowledgement of Steve’s role in Bucky’s life comes from the emotional, heated admission, “If he was wrong about you, then he was wrong about me.”

It’s a strong line! Not because it’s one of two scenes that gives poor, talented Sebastian Stan something to work with. But because it’s finally some characterization and motivation based on human connection instead of loyalty to a freakin’ shield. (The shield is an inanimate object! Bucky and Sam just lost Steve, who is a person! Maybe they should talk about Steve, the person who is gone, in therapy! Just a thought!)

Steve’s judgement of Bucky’s character, his trust and recognition is still the compass by which Bucky orients himself.

Let’s say Bucky was happy for Steve and came to terms with his decision. We should still get to see him come to terms with this crucial dang question:

In an unrecognizable future, where do you turn and who do you trust, when you’re still learning to trust and recognize yourself?

Where do we go when they’re gone?

I don’t know why Bucky didn’t get the chance to confront and grow from that loss as Peter, Wanda, and Clint did. I can’t explain why he doesn’t express so much as one measly feeling about the end to a 100-year relationship.

Maybe it’s all the bad therapy. Maybe the writers had to tap dance around a future Chris Evans cameo.

Maybe it’s Disney-Marvel’s aversion to and subsequent devaluation of Steve and Bucky’s relationship.

It’s a real mystery!

Whatever the reason, we’re left tiptoeing around the real, human, and emotional heart of the story. It’s how we ended up with the bizarre love affair for the shield, an object, as a stand-in for Steve, the person.

(And really, why is Bucky so worked up about that dinner plate in the first place? You know, the one Steve dropped, twice, for him? And then kept on helping people without? Because Steve is a person and not a shield, which, again, is an inanimate object?)

Listen, I miss Steve, too, boys! I really miss him! He fucked off to the past and left us all here to fix this shitty boat by ourselves. Sam, Buck, can one of you please mourn his absence even a little bit, so we, the audience can do the same? No?

Why not?

Why don’t fans of the Captain America franchise get any of the closure and catharsis Far From Home, WandaVision, and Hawkeye delivered, or at the very least attempted to? Even Dr. Strange got his closure with Christine, and that relationship had all the juice of a wet noodle.

I’m convinced it all stems from an unwillingness to acknowledge the actual conflict at the heart of this character, at this stage of their journey: where does Bucky go when Steve is gone?

I’m not going to get into the troubling redemption arc Bucky gets saddled with in place of reclaiming or reckoning with that identity. But maybe all that heavy-quote-unquote “character growth” would have felt honest and earned if it was purchased with any of the emotional equity we’ve accrued over the last decade.

Instead, we’re asked to believe that Bucky saw Steve—who was his last connection to the past, who he knew before he knew himself, who was the barometer for his own strength of character—as Some Guy with a Very Important Shield. And mourned his absence accordingly.

Or, hell, I don’t know. Maybe short-haired Bucky is just a skrull, too.

[luna-rainbow]

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!)

[5ummit]

It’s been 7 years since Civil War and I still mourn for the Bucky Barnes story we should’ve gotten.

I mourn for how quickly they showed him integrated back into society after CATWS. One moment he’s almost killing his best friend... and the next moment he’s living on his own and seems just fine. Sure, he’s a little quiet and awkward and sad, but he’s mostly pretty normal. Outside of the first half of Civil War, there’s very little evidence at all that would lead anyone to believe Bucky used to be the world’s most feared assassin, who was trained and molded into the perfect weapon through unimaginable pain and psychological manipulation. This man spent the better part of his life as a ruthless, mindless killing machine programmed to do nothing more than follow orders. You don’t just walk away from that without being fundamentally and irreversibly psychologically altered. Even the removal of the trigger words wouldn’t change that.

To clarify, I’m not talking about his lingering feelings of guilt and sadness. I think Seb has done a great job with getting that part across at least. I’m talking about his behavior. About way he interacts with other people and how he handles situations. He doesn’t act like a formerly-brainwashed ex-assassin who was treated as less than human for literal decades and who, by all accounts, should have the most severe form of PTSD known to man.

I just don’t buy the Bucky we see post-CATWS and particularly post-Civil-War. I don’t buy that Bucky would be joking around and flirting and basically acting like Just Some Guy – a grumpy guy but still Just Some Guy – and his recent haircut sure isn’t helping the situation either. That he wouldn’t always be a little bit on edge, a little bit animal (kinda like the way we see him at the beginning of Civil War but then never again). That being in the heat of battle wouldn’t sometimes make him either shut down or completely snap and go into a violent fugue state where he subconsciously reverts back to the brutally efficient methods of the Winter Soldier (we almost got this in TFATWS but they couldn’t commit).

Now maybe he received some absolutely incredible therapy in Wakanda. Maybe it worked wonders on him! The problem is I don’t buy it because I never saw it. I never got to see him struggle to learn how to be a person again. I never got to see him fight back against the thing Hydra turned him into.

It just sucks because I love everything about the concept of Bucky and the Winter Soldier, but the parts they’ve chosen not to show or address are, in my opinion, the most interesting parts of his character. But more than that, the lack of follow through and disconnect between what he was and who he seems to be now makes it really hard for me to see him as a fully-realized person in canon. It’s like my brain registers perfectly who he was in CATFA/CATWS and even kinda sorta now in TFATWS, but there’s this giant chasm in between them that mentally feels like fuzzy static.

How long did it take him to fully shake off the brainwashing and conditioning? When did he start thinking of himself as a human being with agency again? Did he ever have to fight the desire to return to Hydra, the only thing he’s known for 70 years, or was it an easy choice? How long did it take him to start recovering his memories? Has he recovered all of them? Does he now remember everything that happened before and during his time at Hydra? How long did it take him to stop flinching at every sound and expecting Hydra to track him down? How long did it take him to relearn how to interact with people like a normal person? How did he afford food and shelter between CATWS and CACW? How and why did he end up in Romania? Did he travel there immediately after CATWS or did he live somewhere else first? Did he get actual therapy in Wakanda or did they just work their science-magic to remove the trigger words and send him on his way? Is the the soldier still in there? Does he still have to consciously stop himself from using deadly force every time he’s in a fight? Is that why he deliberately avoids carrying any weapons now?

I have so many questions.

Fortunately we have fic and fanon to help fill the void but we shouldn’t have to. Bucky Barnes is one of the most interesting and unique characters to ever exist. There’s so much good stuff to dig into here and it’s been wasted.

They squandered the original opportunity to explore this part of his character when they turned Cap 3 into an Iron Man film, a decision I will forever be mad about (fuck you RDJ/Tony for stealing Bucky’s movie), but they finally had the perfect chance to make up for that with TFATWS! Bucky was getting his own show (6 hours of content!), and with it, plenty of time to really dig into his psyche and lingering trauma! I had hoped to see him relapsing a bit and falling into old patterns. Or maybe being triggered by something and having a panic attack. Or even just talking about his time in Hydra and how it felt to be used like that and his struggles to regain his humanity afterwards (instead they fucking gave Hawkeye the emotional “I was a weapon” speech that Bucky rightfully deserved). But other than that opening nightmare, a few brief teasing lines from Zemo about the solider still being in there (which was never followed through on), and the shittiest excuse for “therapy” I’ve ever seen, we really got nothing.

From everything they’ve shown us, and particularly from the ending of TFATWS, it’s clear Marvel believes Bucky has already “healed” and there’s little left to discuss or explore and it makes me incredibly sad.