#ACTIONS OVER WHICH HE DID NOT HAVE THE REMOTEST CONTROL BECAUSE HIS CONSCIENCE DID NOT EVEN EXIST!

[buckydeservesthebest]

One of the things that I find interesting about the situation of the other mind control victims, is that in comparison, the degree of subjugation and inhumanization that Bucky suffered was far worse in every way...

I mean, unlike him, absolutely none of the other characters were stripped of their identity, they all knew who they were, they knew their names, their family and their history. Each of them continued to exist as a consciousness/person. HYDRA broke Bucky's mind, for decades they tried to erase, remove and take away everything that made him himself, and it was only until they succeeded that the Winter Soldier's programming began, not before, because as Zola's notes said, Bucky's will continue to resist. To force him to do what they wanted, Bucky had to cease to exist, and even then, despite all their attempts, his memories and emotions continued to surface over time, which is why the erasure of his memory and the use of trigger words was mandatory before every single mission.

Regardless of how the other types of mind control work, neither Clint, Erik, Bruce, Jessica, Luke, Yelena nor the other Black Widows had to be "broken" before they began to comply with the orders of their mind controllers. Perhaps there was indoctrination in the case of the Black Widows as infants, but it was precisely because of this that they were not "broken" morally and psychologically, because nothing they did under mind control went against the beliefs the Red Room instilled in them, quite the contrary.

It also seems to me that there is another big difference between Bucky's case and that of the others. And is that unlike Bucky, all the others had a certain degree of freedom that allowed them to be able to perform actions that required more thought and planning. As in the case of the BW, who to be able to do complex jobs such as espionage and infiltration had to be able to act, pretend, lie, make decisions on their own to fulfill their mission, *without* the need for Dreykov to order them to do so. It came from one of the BWs the idea to request Taskmaster's intervention after Yelena defected. One of them even told Taskmaster to "smile"! An indication that they retain their emotional capacity.

Clint played an advisory role for Loki, thinking and offering the most efficient tactics and plans to accomplish his goal. Erik offered his scientific knowledge for the same. The point is that they kept their ability to think at a complex level, so that they both thought on their own about the best way to help Loki. In Jessica's case for example, the act of assassinating Reva Connors was not exactly the order Kilgrave gave her, he told her to "take care of her", and while the order was ambiguous, the idea or impulse to "kill" technically came from Jessica.

Interestingly, both the mind stone and Kilgrave's mind control seem to make their victims believe, to a certain degree, that they want to do as they are told to do. That's why in Clint's case, the respect he felt for Fury influenced his intention to kill him, as Loki told him. Kilgrave's case is clearer, as all those who have been controlled by him feel that they want to "please" him. Even the case of the Black Widows seems similar, as Yelena said "you are fully conscious, but you don't know which part is you". And if I remember correctly, Jessica also questioned at some point which part of her was the one following Kilgrave's orders.

When the Winter Soldier was activated not only did Bucky not exist, but the remaining non-person was under a trance that forced him to comply with the orders of his handlers, he was not even conscious of what was going on around him. That's why the missions HYDRA assigned him were "simple", assassinate a target, leave no witnesses, retrieve objects and/or protect his handlers. No espionage, infiltration or advice on planning and tactics, no actions that required more freedom to think on his own. He didn't even understand Pierce's sarcastic question about whether he wanted milk, because he had no wants. He couldn't even speak unless he was ordered to do so! Each and every one of his actions were, what I'd call, robotic, programmed, without a level of reasoning or complex or abstract thought, unlike all other cases of mind control.

And the irony is, of all the mind-controlled victims who were forced to commit murder, the only one who suffers endlessly with remorse is Bucky! The only one who feels like a monster who does not deserve forgiveness is Bucky! The only one who feels he must make amends is Bucky! Neither Clint, Yelena or Jessica feel they must right the wrongs they were forced to do.

The horror of being controlled is never addressed for Bucky like it is for Clint, Erik, Jessica, Bruce, Yelena, even for minor characters like the people of Westview.

THIS. Each of them have said "poor me, I'm a victim of abuse by a third party and suffered greatly". *They recognize themselves as victims*. Bucky has not once complained about the 70 years of torture and enslavement he suffered, or the life that was taken from him, or the identity stripped from him, no... because what haunts him are the crimes he was forced to do, and on top of that he believes he is the victimizer and not the victim in these situations. And yet some Marvel executives dare to say that he "hides behind the excuse of lack of control"!? He has literally never tried to excuse himself! He has literally done the complete opposite, believing himself to be solely responsible for the wrongs his captors have done, for a situation in which he didn't have the remotest agency.

But of course, everyone else can be recognized as 100% innocent by the rest of the characters, by the premise of the show and by the production itself. Everyone, absolutely everyone, but Bucky...

I swear this... this situation, this unfairness outrages me, infuriates me, makes my blood boil and turns my stomach beyond what any words allow me to express....

🤡 Markus and McFeely 🤡: “Yeah, Bucky’s just a POW who had his entire agency explicitly removed in not one but TWO ways but he’s for sure guilty because we don’t want him to have fruit salads with Steve”