A

“Everytime I close my eyes I see their faces.”

And there's no way they would've served in the war and won

And it's tailored made to them

If Steve didn't force himself into the war, Bucky would've been officially dead, and the Winter Solider would've been born earlier

But he did, and he still lost Bucky

Multiple times

Its tailor made to them, and there is nothing they could've done without becoming different men

Bucky was always going to war

He was drafted. And unless he wanted to become a criminal, he had to go to war.

His number was 32557038. The prefix 32 was used for draftees out of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York.

James 'Bucky' Buchanan Barnes was always going to die in ww2

The Winter Solider was always going to be born in ww2

Steve would've never been able to keep Bucky alive regardless of if he served or not

The only way to avoid the tragedy was to be different men. And that would make it a different story.

Sometimes I think about how genuine Bucky and Steve’s friendship is and how much Bucky must have loved Steve because just think about it. Bucky was very intelligent and excellent in school, he was a great athlete, he was attractive, he had everything to be one of those guys that are total assholes specially in times like the 40’s. Like, let’s be for real. In real life, people that have all those characteristics that pre-war Bucky had are not always the nicest, or at least, they don’t become best friends of people like Steve. Steve who had countless diseases, who was not very appealing to girls, who would always be ignored or taken for granted.

But Bucky did.

He became Steve’s best friend. He was always there since they were just little kids and as he grew bigger and noticed that his best friend didn’t so much, he still was always there. He always took care of him.

And maybe I like over analyzing his character so much, but that just made me think of what a great fucking person Bucky Barnes had to be to be considered by CAPTAIN AMERICA his best friend.

Even after all those years, even after Hydra, even after the serum, when Steve found out that Bucky was alive the first thing he wanted to do was to save him. And in Civil War he fought his own teammates and went against the government just for him.

"I'd figure I'd wait...for the right partner."

"Kinda hard to find someone with shared life experience."

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

—

Sebastian Stan on Bucky’s mindset when he decides not to let Steve die

Ok, I’m probably the last one to notice this, but even if I am, I’m bringing it up again bc it’s very important and very sad and I need to cry about it.

He stops and stares at Bucky. Out of surprise, of course, but it’s not cursory. He doesn’t look at Bucky as if he was simply another POW Erskine’s soldier has rescued.

He’s looking at his test results. He’s collecting data. He knows that Barnes should have never been able to climb off the table. He shouldn’t be standing. He probably shouldn’t even be conscious! Much less keep up with a successful serum test subject. Zola knows in that moment that his research is valid. It’s been proven. He can replicate it if need be.

Which I think gets at the above meta/commentary — WS is not just a soldier, he’s a highy trained Super Soldier.  He can go toe-to-toe with Steve on basically everything — hand-to-hand combat, leading a team (he leads a team when he’s tracking Nat/Steve), and taking down a large # of machines/men single-handedly.

The difference, then, is the drive.  Which is that WS has none.  He is a ghost that simply follows orders (and when he doesn’t, he gets wiped.)  Bucky has no direction, so he goes where he’s pointed.  One thing I find so interesting about mcu!WS is how neutral he is.  There’s no Soviet brainwashing (we see Pierce giving him The Talk, but he doesn’t seem to actually care), no misguided sense of right or wrong.  Just … nothing.

Of course, Steve was like that, too, at the beginning of the film — just following orders and muddling through life.  But Steve knew enough to be dissatisfied by that, to Want Out.  Which is why he’s Steve.

too bad the mcu's powers that be didn't care to explore steve or bucky's backstories beyond catws, or else we could've gotten an actual appearance from Sarah, but that's ok future projects can fix this /copium

but anyways Steve is canonical Momma's Boy, I wish marvel would remember lol

now if only marvel could also remember that Bucky Barnes is a protector and steve's guardian angel with a shotgun (or i guess sniper rifle, during the war)

cuz if marvel did then they could be genius and retroactively give us flashbacks/scenes in the past that put Bucky back there with little Steve and show interactions between Bucky and Sarah and have Steve's mom thank him for looking out for her fighter of a son, and also retroactively include scenes of Bucky's family reacting to their kid choosing to pick up the disabled little bullied Irish kid and decide he must protect hehe

there's too much good shit there that sets up the true nature of Bucky and Steve's friendship, which i feel like marvel writers kinda forgot over the years and replaced it with caricature-ish flat understanding of both Bucky and Steve, so such scenes would be good to remind writers and the audience of why they've been caring about each other and give insight into their parents

Am I the only one who gets the vibe that, quite apart from wanting to unravel any plot-threads which undermine the specialness to Steve of the Token Female they bothered to put in the Cap movies… they don’t want Steve to be a Mammy’s Boy, cuz they see that as less acceptably manly and cool?

Like: Tony is allowed to obsess over what his dad thought of him, across multiple movies (and ditto what the Odinson boys thought of Odin’s opinion of them) but mothers only matter if, and only while, they’re being fridged?

Ditto with Bucky’s mother too, now I think about it (at least his dad also gets zero mention or exposure). And it would be so sweet and easy to have flashbacks of kid Steve and Bucky – it would even save them the hassle of having to pay for the adult stars, to film!

Also can you imagine kid-Bucky, already a worrier, asking Sarah what Steve’s dad died of and finding out he died from having bad lungs and this just unlocking a whole new level of nightmares for him about Steve and his ’fuck you imma fight everyone in this dirty dank alleyway with bad air’ attitude. 😩