Wild take: Barnes is the Good guy (p.2)
okay so yall can review my p.1 , i've refined some stuffs, in p.1 i've provided evidence of how he actually has animal regression (which is shellshock, i just didnt know the literal term for it)
ANYWAYS in this post i will tell ya what it means if hypothetically Barnes has shellshock (which is proven in p.1) and how it shows more about his character
First, Barnes is the Good guy
And i dont define good guy as a guy who doesnt do harm, but rather a guy who has good intentions
In psychology we have HSP (hyper-sensitive people), it's about people who's being affected the most [0]
Barnes is a protective guy, behind all of his decisions is [1]"how can i protect my guys"and [2]"how can i give them justices they deserved"
He knows the trade off, in order to save your troops you have to prioritise your people over others regardless of how inhumane or unethical it might cost, i truly believed when he shot those villagers he didnt do it to satisfy his ego or showing off his dark desires (unlike bunny who killed the villagers for fun)
Dude did it because he was in rage [0][2], he suspected them for killing his guy- Manny, before he even got there [2]
"BUT it's still fucked up, and he cant excuse the undone harm" that's what others will tell me, and that's true! That's because he internalised the toxicity in war [0], specifically toxic masculinities (power and dominance)
if he was naturally a bad guy he wouldnt just do the killing he woulda joined the r*pe his soldiers did to that villagers, why he only joined the killings? because no matter how fucked up his internalisation is, his core character remains as being protective
"Devouring Mother", this is the literal term describes Barnes as a character, selfless but when the "children" (refers to Elias, Chris) get independent the "mom" (Barnes) freaks out!
That's why he lashed out he killed Elias and almost did the same to Chris, he wanted them to stay under his control so he could protect them [1], it counts as dark psychology but not a guarantee for "hey this is definitely a bad guy!"
This is not about denying his vicious decisions but about the roots of them and the unexpected outcomes, it shows that you cant be a "good guy" in all scenarios and how things will be perceived against your will
Maybe it's the beauty of it when the dark overshadows the good so well once you have a taste of it you'll realise how exquisite it truly is