Yelena ⧗

ghosts in the metal arm

In the comics, Bucky’s brainwashing leaves him with enough agency that his past as the Winter Soldier is absolutely comparable to Natasha’s. Both were used and abused and manipulated, but they maintained enough control over their own actions that it is reasonable to question whether it mattered that they didn’t know who they truly were because they were still people.  In the MCU, they specifically wrote Bucky Barnes as a character whose agency was not just compromised but actually removed. It’s not just torture and coercion, though there are 70 years’ worth of explicit torture and coercion, it’s that for him to act as the Winter Soldier they have to cauterize out what makes him a person. In the MCU Hydra/the Soviets have not one but two ways to do it: the chair and the activation words. The Winter Soldier does not comply without them. This is not a question of a prisoner breaking after years of enslavement. This is explicitly shown as a mechanical way of erasing Bucky’s consciousness and capacity for consent. And it was a choice by the MCU to characterize his captivity like that, much like it was a (subtle) choice to make Bucky a man who was drafted rather than a man who enlisted.  And up to Phase 4 that had played out alright; the characters who see him as culpable are also shown to not be objective (Tony, for example, or Bucky himself). The audience knows better, though, because we are privy to all of the flashbacks and the medical torture and the him being bodily dragged out of cryo to be activated. But then the MCU actually had to confront its choices in TFATWS and they did it in the worse possible manner because they both chose to reinforce the narrative that Bucky was a powerless victim during his enslavement while making his recovery conditional on accepting responsibility for it. They pretend to sell Bucky along with the activation codes. There’s a whole pivotal scene by the firelight where Bucky finally does not respond to the activation codes and Ayo tells him he’s free and that’s because he was not free beforehand. In a storyline which places explicit moral value on refusing the serum, never once was it mentioned that Bucky did not consent to being injected with it in the first place. His situation obviously parallels Isaiah’s, not Steve’s.

But now the audience is being asked to see Bucky as someone who needs to make amends, not just because his therapist says so but because the moral compass of the series, Sam, makes it explicitly clear that what Bucky needs to do is “do the work”.  And this is INSANE. It’s insane. To have Bucky weep when the trigger words wash over him and still, still, try to have the audience buy into the narrative of his recovery as one where he needs to admit wrongdoing is absurd. It would be normal and expected of Bucky to feel wretched guilt over his past but the recovery is overcoming that, not reinforcing it. Bucky admits, word for word, that he had no choice and that would be bad enough, but the Winter Soldier was made to not even conceive of the possibility of choice. 

There can be no culpability without agency and guilt is not a measure of responsibility.

Like many things in this series, its stance on trauma was self-contradictory. It had Sebastian beautifully play up the depth of Bucky’s vulnerability and PTSD, only to then crush all the good work by dismissing the very nature of Bucky’s experience - which is that he was a powerless victim whose body and mind were violated to the point where choice and identity did not exist. It places the onus on the victim to accept that “he did that” rather than acknowledge things were done to him. It irks me that the series wants to be woke but can’t even handle the most basic theme of the #MeToo movement.

And yes, Isaiah definitely paralleled Bucky more than Steve, yet he got Sam’s full supportive anger against his perpetrators while Sam - the supposed moral centre of the story - teased Bucky about being a machine and an assassin while being fully aware that Bucky was “still having those nightmares”. Sadly, Isaiah’s ending also only acknowledged his achievements while deftly avoiding any retribution to the people who tortured him.

au where bucky’s full name is jamie “b” barnes and sam is samantha wilson :)

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~ jamie is nonbinary, something that wasn’t really accepted or understood in the 40s but they discovered themself in modern times. they realized that their identity can be whatever they want it to be instead of being controlled (by hydra or societal standards).

~ jamie’s time in wakanda really helped them rediscover their identity due to the language not using gendered pronouns and as jamie learned the language, they realized how comfortable it made them feel.

~ jamie was seen and referred to as an object by hydra, which contributed to their disconnect with femininity. their time in wakanda helped them navigate this strange feeling and understand who they really were

~ post endgame, jamie decides to come out to steve and sam, who are both very supportive and proud of jamie discovering their newfound identity. of course, steve isn’t really surprised by this.

~ sam, who i hc as bisexual, is cultured when it comes to the queer scene and takes this opportunity to introduce many aspects of queer culture to them. this allows jamie to see a side of sam that they’ve never seen before. sam in her element with her long-time friends. smiling and dancing and giggling with them. jamie is in awe and can’t help but begin to fall for her.

~ sam has been having a great time taking jamie to a bunch of queer events and introducing them to the culture. as jamie talks about the 40s and compares and contrasts their experience, sam can’t help but notice the sparkle in their eye and how happy they look in this newfound environment, especially compared to when they first met.

~ one day when the two complete a mission in new york earlier than expected, sam takes jamie to an underground queer bar. sam’s had a few while jamie is just enjoying the music. they both get on the dance floor and it only takes a few minutes before someone makes their way towards jamie. sam glances at the two but doesn’t think much of it… until the stranger starts dancing with jamie with their arms wrapped around jamie’s neck. to sam’s surprise, jamie puts a hand on the stranger’s lower back. a wave of anger suddenly comes over sam. she has the sudden urge to pull the stranger off of jamie. who did they think they were??? she decides to sit down by the bar and order another drink. there’s no way she was reacting this way over a dance. why the fuck was she suddenly feeling so possessive over barnes?

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