Day Five // Civil War Blog Party // In Defense of Bucky Barnes

So here I am again, for Day Five.  I’m sitting here with my purple tea and feet pulled up on the chair because my peoples trapped a huge lint-covered spider under a plate underneath the computer table this morning and now I’m scared it has a family lurking in the shadows underneath the computer table and they’re gonna come out and eat my feet off.  And devour my soul. 

SPIDERS ARE FROM HELL. 

(The trapped spider has been disposed of…so it’s not actually near my chair plotting my demise.  But its children could be.  So I’m terrified.)

Sorry, got distracted. 

Day Five: FREE DAY! Do anything Civil-War like that you want!

TIME FOR THAT BUCKY POST.  MUAHAHAHAHAHA. 

Let's talk about James Buchanan Barnes, shall we?

Do you want to know that one thing that makes really, really mad?  When ignorant little mortals say things like, "How do you even like Bucky?  He's a bad guy!" and "I didn't like him, he was ugly and scary and a serial killer" and then this whopper, "Who's Bucky?"


SLKGSHLKGHKLSGHSKLG!!!!!!!!  HOW DARE YOU.  LEAVE MY PRESENCE.


Seriously though.  After watching Civil War for the second time, about 98.56 % of my friends said those above-mentioned things and nearly sent me into an apoplectic fit as I screamed at them, trying to make them understand that Bucky is NOT evil and Bucky is NOT ugly and NOT a bad guy and NOT a serial killer.

Because he's not any of those things, and it boggles me to no end how people don't see that.


Okay, so remember Bucky Barnes back in the 1940's?  Back then, back before Steve Rogers had become Captain America and was still a dandelion fluff of weakness and asthma, Bucky was his best friend.  He and Steve were like brothers.  Bucky looked out for Steve and got him out of bad situations again and again, like that fight in the alley.

Back then, Bucky was Steve's protector and partner-in-crime.  They grew up together, did everything together.  Bucky was good with the ladies, cocky, and not afraid to fight.

Then the army took him away to fight in the war and separated him from his best friend.

Bucky was then captured by the enemy only to be tortured and experimented on by HYDRA.  When Steve finally found him, strapped down to the torture table in the doctor's lab, one of the first thing's Bucky said to Steve was, "Did it hurt?"  He's clearly in terrible pain, but his first concern was that Steve.  What a sweet little potato he is.

Bucky and Steve were basically inseparable.  Once Bucky understood that Steve was now the Important Guy, he was perfectly willing to go with it and back his friend up.  They traded roles, now BUCKY was STEVE'S sidekick.

But then...just as Steve found him again.....he lost him.

And everyone thought Bucky was dead.  Steve thought that his best friend had died.


Then he came back.


In The Winter Soldier, Bucky was not the sweet, caring friend who had stuck with Steve through thick and thin.  He was a changed man. 

HYDRA had saved Bucky when he had fallen from the train only to turn him into a monster of their own making.  Since his left arm had been torn off in the fall, they created a new one; an arm made of metal.  HYDRA wiped his mind and proceeded to construct a totally new person, giving him new purpose and a new life.

The Winter Soldier was NOT Bucky.  The Winter Soldier didn't remember any of Bucky's life, all that remained of him was an empty shell that HYDRA filled with their poison.

The Winter Soldier is a ruthless, trained killer who is controlled by HYDRA.  He is not Bucky Barnes.  Metaphorically, Bucky is still dead.  Bucky was killed when HYDRA turned him into a killing machine.

Then Steve finds him again.  He still thinks Bucky is dead, and now when he finds him again alive and well after 60 years, Bucky doesn't even know him. 

*cue hysterical sobbing*  AND STEVE IS SO CONFUSED AND HEARTBROKEN AND THEN....

"I knew him"

This happens.  Bucky remembers.  Just for an instant...then HYDRA wipes his mind again and Bucky is once again gone.

Because this is how they controlled him.  HYDRA was constantly taking away his memories and wiping the slate clean to turn him back into a submissive soldier.  His muzzle is very symbolic, too.  He's just an abused, muzzled dog on a leash that HYDRA uses to do their dirty work for them.

But this assassin wasn't Bucky.  Bucky was lost somewhere, still dead inside the shell of a man that had once been him.

He didn't even know his best friend.

Then Bucky beings to remember again.  He's trying to remember.  He's struggling.  Then saves Steve when he should have killed him.  Watch the video:



Look at the horror in Bucky's eyes when he realizes what he is doing.  He's suffering, trying to remember.  And the remembering itself is agony.

So Bucky comes back, but he is still struggling with the Winter Soldier part of him that has taken over his mind and body.  He still can't remember much at all, and he keeps reverting back into Winter Soldier mode. 

There are scenes where Bucky is buying plums.  Did you know that he was doing that to try to get his memory back?  Apparently plums are useful for remembering things.

Bucky killed lots of people.  He killed Tony Stark's parents and he remembers.  When Tony asked him, "Do you even remember them?"  Bucky's sad response was, "I remember all of them." 

It was the Winter Soldier who killed those people, not Bucky. 

In Civil War, HYDRA has a method of brain wiping him by speaking a series of certain words.  They use this to convert him back into their killing machine.

To everyone who says that Bucky is a villain: first of all, how dare you.  He's not a villain, he's a victim!  He can't help it!  He's been tortured and abused into submission, his free will has been stripped away from him, he can't even hate his abusers because of this.  Bucky is trapped inside an experiment, a broken body inside a monster.

So please, stop calling Bucky a bad guy.  He's not. 

To end this post, here is a free style poem I composed about Bucky's transformation into the Winter Soldier. 



 

Falling through darkness

My name is Bucky Barnes.

They can’t make me do this

I can’t forget.

Pain, so much pain

My name is James Buchanan Barnes.

Everything hurts, everything is going black

Help me, I’m so afraid.

Falling, forgetting, they toy with my mind

I won’t forget you, Steve.

I’m stronger than this, they can’t change me

I can fight this.

While HYDRA turns me into a monster

My name is Bucky…

Trying to fight it, fighting the pain

My name is Bucky…

As they strip my mind away, as they kill me from the inside out

My name is Bucky….

I am not a monster

My name is Bucky….

I can’t stop them

Bucky…

Pain

Bucky….

Darkness

Who is Bucky…..?

A new world with one purpose in mind

Who am I?

Obey my masters, whatever they command

I am invincible but my life is pain.

I am a soldier, must obey my masters

If I disobey they hurt me, then darkness.

Fight and kill their enemies

I am powerful but I am still nothing but a muzzled dog.

Fear me.

I am the Winter Soldier.

Do you love Bucky as much as I do?