#bucky is a victim not a villian

[buckydeservesthebest]

All of this.

I mean… how apathetic and unfair can anyone be to want to normalize a disabled person being dismembered by being taken away from his disability aid by a mechanism put is his prosthesis behind his back. A prosthesis that he did not even request to have in the first place. One that was given to him so that he could serve as a soldier and fight for Wakanda.

T'Challa himself recognized that Bucky was tired of fighting, his expression of disdain and misery at seeing the Vibranium arm as synonymous with being called to new battle says it all. (At least Boseman had more class in giving T'Challa a touch of compassion instead of acting like a proud and apathetic king who ignores the wishes for peace of a poor man who's seen too much already, and readying him for combat in the same way he orders the readiness of his other weapons.)

I would like to say that even though I would say it is canonical that Bucky is as well versed a fighter as Steve and T'Challa for combat.(Marvel's official website describes that he goes toe-to-toe with them.)

(The Winter Soldier didn't lose his first confrontation with Steve, and I would argue that he held the upper hand for most of the fight. In the second encounter, I think it's arguable to say that he seemed more focused on protecting the success of Project Insight rather than actually killing him. And in their last fight on CW, he was clearly able to neutralize Steve.)

Bucky was already described as an outstanding athlete in the Smithsonian panel. The canonical Mavel Dictionary: Visual Dictionary book describes him as a three-time YMCA welterweight champion (though admittedly there is no mention of this anywhere else, but that same book also confirms that Bucky was drafted and did not voluntarily enlist, so we can give him the benefit of the doubt).

Bucky was a capable enough leader to have earned his rank of Sergeant (E-5) in just one year and five months after he was drafted (January 1942). In WWII most sergeants, and the best sergeants, are considerably older than both their men and their lieutenants. This means that throughout the four years of the war, sergeants were mostly drawn from the older recruits and the existing cadres of corporals. Bucky was the youngest member of his team. Only very exceptional men between the ages of 18 and 26 can hope to possess the maturity looked for in a Sergeant.

Bucky was also 90% accurate at long-range shooting, which is why he was the team's de-facto sniper.

Side note: note how the role of sniper Bucky was always shown in a protective manner, by watching the backs of his comrades and firing only when an enemy approached them and not before. This is hardly ruthlessness, especially when you consider that Steve and the rest of the Howlies also used firearms.

And according to the Visual Dictionary book, his incredible sniper skills inspired the legend among HYDRA troops that their soldiers would drop dead as Captain America approached.

BUT...

Having said that, *this does NOT mean in the slightest that Bucky is innately ruthless and that violence is part of his nature.* Because being naturally talented either in hand-to-hand combat, as a leader, or by having good marksmanship is NOT synonymous with being ruthless and violent.

To say this is as absurd as saying that anyone who is talented in martial arts or marksmanship is a person who is naturally dangerous and should be kept under the radar because of the threat they possibly pose.

"God protect us from all the Olympian martial arts medalists, target shooters, world champion boxers, shaolin monks, they could easily kill anyone, they are potential dangerous criminals and a threat to society"... Do I have to explain why this reasoning is absurd?

The funny thing about this is that most of the real criminals, serial killers and terrorists are not even trained in hand-to-hand combat or in the proper use of firearms, much less are they the most talented people in those disciplines.

To say that a person who is skilled in combat or shooting is more likely to commit a crime and/or kill someone is extremely stupid, pardon the use of that word, but there is no historical or psychological basis for such an assumption.

It is indeed interesting, but most practitioners of any martial art, or fighting technique, are generally calmer than those who are not.

I will use myself as an example, my brother and I have been black belts in karate since we were 15 years old, and I can say that neither he nor I enjoy or look for fights because it is fun to kick someone's ass.

Actually, this idea totally disgusts me, I never remotely enjoyed the fights that were mandatory for exams every 4 months, nor did I ever enjoy having to beat up my classmates in defense practice, yet, (sorry if I sound pretentious, that is not my intention) I guess my brother and I demonstrated enough skill to get the black belt before some of our other classmates who were older than us.

Why am I saying all this? My intention is to clarify that the fact that a person is skilled in some fighting technique does NOT make him/her naturally ruthless or more prone to be violent than other people.

And the fact is that the ability to fight is part of the survival instinct of all living beings, the ability and willingness to kill someone if the situation forces us, is something that exists in each of us, even animals.

Any person, no matter how small and frail, is no less willing to be violent in self-defense or in defense of someone else than a super soldier (who didn't even ask to be one) who is also fighting for his life or the lives of his friends.

But for some reason, Bucky is the only person not entitled to use light violence (one that is not even lethal force) defensively because he is already considered ruthless and cruel. Where is the reasoning in this?

Bucky is canonically a NON-violent person, someone who has never actually thrown the first punch in a fight, one who waits for the conflict to start so that he has to respond.

This can be seen from the way he defended Steve from the bully in CA:TFA, he first stops him, positions himself in the middle of him and the victim (Steve) as a shield, waits for the aggressor to attack him, blocks his blow and it is up to that point that he responds the aggression, using the minimum amount of force to push the bully away.

The Winter Soldier himself is someone who does not attack first, but responds to violence once he is assaulted and not before, and when he does, it is very usually in order to protect something. This can be clearly seen in his fight against Steve in the Triskelion, he positioned himself in the middle of Steve and the computer, blocking his path so that he does not get to it protecting it. He does NOT launch the first attack, but waits for Steve to initiate the aggression and it is until that moment that he responds to it.

ALSO.

The Winter Soldier is NOT ruthless, this is a word that by definition does not apply to qualify him, because being ruthless implies that the person knows that his actions are ruthless, he knows that his actions harm a third party and he does not care or feel guilty about it.

The Winter Soldier is a non-person, someone with no sense of self, no emotions, he is a zombie with no mind of his own who is literally incapable of doing more than what his handlers command him to do. He can NOT reason the nature of his actions and thus be “ruthless”.

It's like saying that if a robot is ordered to kill someone, since it shows no emotions (because it literally has none), the robot is automatically “ruthless”. Of course not. And the Winter Soldier is virtually that, a mindless, emotionless body that is only programmed to follow orders.

Bucky is also a born protector and not someone who seeks conflict and enjoys fighting. (This is a great meta on the subject.)

Again, this is something T'Challa himself understands and acknowledges, so to say that Wakanda always considered Bucky a danger, and that he needed a permanent leash in case he got out of control is PURE. AWFUL. UNFOUNDED. BULLSHIT.

Even with the change in his personality in TFATWS, which is arguably out of character for him (only explainable due to extensive brain damage and C-PTSD that was never treated but worsened), Bucky literally never had an emotional outburst or showed an action that could have been considered aggressive and actually dangerous to anyone's well-being...

(And the only two times he showed anger was at Zemo! His former abuser, who continues to push his buttons and try to get under his skin by trying to plant self-doubt in his mind! Bucky has every reason to be more than upset with him for all that he wronged him!)

... not even towards Zemo, who he justifiably could have punched, when he held him by the neck and took back his notebook he didn't even apply pressure on his grip, otherwise Zemo would have ended up coughing and struggling to catch his breath.

And as rightly stated before, people forget that Zemo was an abuser of Bucky! Bucky himself being the one who was hurt the most by his actions! Because unlike T'Chaka's death which was not Zemo's direct intent, but one of the many lost from the explosion (he had a 50-50 chance of surviving like everyone else). The intent to hunt Bucky down and use him to cause damage was 10000% deliberate! So the Wakandans can't feel any worse about Zemo's prison escape than Bucky himself!

No one talks about how hard it had to be for him to interact with his former abuser and who stripped him of his autonomy by using him to cause harm. To say that Wakanda's bruised pride is more important than the trauma of Bucky having to interact with his former slaver who just kept pushing his buttons is horribly unfair!

Even in the firefight against the mercenaries in Madripoor, he showed frustration at having to be in that situation. “Dam it!” is the first thing he exclamis when the shooting starts, and he immediately covers Sharon and Sam trying to steer the safest path.

Bucky doesn't even shoot to kill those mercenaries, the first one seems to get hit in the arm and not the head, the second one clearly gets shot in the leg and not the head again... And the woman who was still attacking them at the end, he throws a pipe at her that hits her in the shoulder (one of the least life-threatening places) and not in the head or chest... And after that we can see Bucky's expression of shock and mortification for a moment, so much so that Sam has to reach out and drag him behind the door of the container! Where is the innately ruthless man that the writers want to sell us?

As well said before, this vision is totally fanon, NOT canon. The real Bucky we've seen for 13 years is literally the opposite of a ruthless killer.

Bucky is someone who despite understanding that it is not his fault what he was forced to do under mind control, that does not make him feel less responsible and that is why he wants to make amends for sins that are not his. A person as kind-hearted as he is cannot be recognized as such for that, and at the same time be labeled as ruthless. *For a ruthless person feels no remorse.*

No other mind control victim has shown such deep guilt and a desire to make amends to the people who were affected by his actions, as Bucky, and yet none of them have been considered “ruthless” or “naturally violent” for that.

Now about Ayo and the Wakandans:

"... they still choose to help him out of the goodness of their hearts.."

Sorry to burst the bubble @marvelandimagine but this is NOT so, T'Challa did NOT offer his assistance to Bucky just because of how magnanimous he is and because in saw in him a poor helpless man that no one else wanted to offer help to. T'Challa did it in the form of thanks for helping him find the real cause of his father's death, and also in the form of an apology for spending 90% of his time trying to kill him without first making sure to prove his guilt. (And to be honest, this assistance was something he *did* owe Bucky.)

The canonical comic Avengers Infinity War Predule literally states as much.

So while Bucky is grateful for the assistance Wakanda offered him, he does NOT owe them lifelong loyalty nor is he limited to only doing what feels right to them and did not represent a damage to their pride, because that is a stance worthy of a bully.

(But if the DM claim to have jurisdiction wherever they are… errr... does that mean that if they break into someone's house, they have jurisdiction and can do whatever they want simply because they are technically there? isn't that a narcissistic and supremacist attitude?)

"... she feels betrayed by Bucky because Wakanda helped him and now he’s doing something that’s hurting her country..."

"Hurt her country"? How is Zemo's temporary freedom (from a prison that wasn't even secure enough to prevent him from technically breaking free on his own with a plan relatively always) supposed to put a nation as advanced as Wakanda at any kind of risk? Besides the damage to his pride, which seems to be the worst sin according to Ayo.

It is ironic, or rather hypocritical, that Wakandans see Zemo's temporary freedom as a “danger” to their country, when the DM themselves and the entire Wakandan council allowed Killmonger, one of the most ruthless criminals, who literally hired Klaue to steal Vibranium, and who actually exposed Wakanda to real danger, to be king. Just because he fulfilled the tradition of defeating T'Challa in combat. (Does it mean that a potential and real danger to Wakanda is allowed, as long as he technically fulfilled the traditions? Which means that respecting traditions is more important than actually protecting Wakanda? Isn't there a certain cynicism and lack of logic in this?)

But back to Zemo, once again. his temporary freedom did NOT expose Wakanda to any kind of danger, because there was not a single thing he could do to harm them.

And not only this, Bucky always had every intention of returning him to prison once his help was no longer needed, this is something Bucky talked to Ayo about and it's something she understood! That's why she gave an ultimatum of 8 hours before returning, something Bucky never objected to. So to say that Ayo dismembered and dehumanized Bucky because she felt “betrayed” is totally false.

And speaking of betrayal, let's look at what this word means and why I believe Bucky's assistance in Zemo's escape from prison doesn't fall into this category:

According to the dictionary, “betrayal” has two main definitions:

1. To not be loyal to your country or a person, often by doing something harmful such as helping their enemies.

Bucky is NOT an agent or guard of Wakanda who owes them absolute loyalty. Zemo's temporary freedom did not expose Wakanda to any kind of danger, because there was literally not a single thing he could do to harm them. Bucky was NOT helping or benefiting Zemo, but using him as a means to a greater good. So this definition doesn't apply in the remotest of ways.

2. If someone betrays something such as a promise, they do not do what they promised.

Bucky was not assigned the task of guarding Zemo and making sure he never escapes from prison. He never promised or committed to that task because it is not his responsibility. So this definition does not apply either.

In conclusion, Bucky did NOT betray Wakanda by any definition. Because once again, Zemo's temporary freedom did NOT expose Wakanda to any kind of harm NOR danger.

(I wrote a short post on why, according to the nonsensical script, Zemo's help was necessary. The canonical book The Art of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier says so, so it makes it clear that Bucky did the right thing by calling on his assistance.)

"...And then that time limit runs up, and he chooses to get in her way..."

Like... this was literally NOT the case. The DM showed up claiming custody of Zemo, Bucky literally never objected. The only ones who objected were John, Lemar and Sam. Bucky didn't intervene in the beating Ayo was giving John, *until* she was literally going to kill him by impaling him with her spear, a death that had nothing to do with her mission to capture Zemo, and ultimately it was because she was distracted by using Walker as a punching bag that Zemo had was able to escape.

Ayo got upset because Bucky stopped her from killing a guy whose death adds nothing. She started attacking him violently. Bucky tried to talk to her and simply defended himself using non-violent methods and it was in a fit of anger that Ayo made her low move and disconnected his arm.

Now it turns out that it was Bucky who was being aggressive and that's why Ayo was outraged and removed his arm?? This is a bullshit lie!

As correctly stated before, it is justified for Wakanda to have put a kill-safe on the prosthetic aid they gave Bucky WITHOUT any condition (knowing full well that ignorance of this mechanism puts Bucky's life at risk), because they wanted to have insurance in case, as one member of the production of the TV series said, "the situation arose", they could simply deactivate it... But they have no problem making a full Vibranium suit for a stranger who was one of those who opposed Zemo's arrest?

Let's pay attention to the words the production member used, “should the situation arise”. This goes beyond the idea that Bucky might “pose a threat to them”, this implies that that “insurance” is there for any time Bucky does something they don't like! And in fact that's what Ayo did, she disconnected his arm simply because she was upset that he stopped her from killing Walker... isn't that extremely low of her?

Now I wonder, Wakanda agreed to make a full Vibranium suit for Sam, someone who truly objected to the DM taking Zemo, and who called Bucky to intervene. It's only fair that they also put a fail-safe in Sam's suit to neutralize him in case he ever poses a threat to Wakanda, or in case he becomes mind controlled, no?

It's almost funny, but in the latest cut of CABNW, you can see the wings of Sam's suit have the same shock absorbing ability as Black Panther's suit, an ability that Bucky's arm does NOT have.

This is on purpose on the part of the production right? Now it turns out that Wakanda trusts Sam enough, a stranger they have vaguely interacted with, to include in his suit an ability that is special to BP's own suit??

Hypocrisy at its finest.... 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I think some people mad about the arm is not necessarily about the fact that Ayo disabling the arm itself, it's more of the fact that it was not necessary and the fact that Bucky had no idea they can do that. If I were to be honest, I think it was not that necessary because Ayo is well capable of taking him down without having to disarm him and she is definitely not threatened by him. I think what some people find upsetting about that scene is the fact that it kinda comes off as Ayo putting Bucky in a position where it would make him feel like he doesn't have full control of his own body after all. The Wakandans, especially Ayo, T'Challa and Shuri had every right to feel betrayed and upset but the point is they should have told Bucky about how the arm can easily be disabled like that, they didn't know Bucky was going to set Zemo free when they gave him the arm and regardless of the things they have done for him and if they were ones who gave him the arm, they should have at least told him about it, because it's connected to him, it's a part of HIS body. It doesn't matter if it was necessary to disarm him or not, the point is they should have told him about it because apart from the fact that it's his body and that it was a bit insensitive given his history, it's also a point of vulnerability, and the fact that she did it in front of Walker (and possibly Zemo) --- people who can easily turn on Bucky, could easily that to their advantage and attempt to disable it themselves. Just my thoughts on it.

Thank you for sharing your perspective, anon!

I’m going to use this long-ass reply to address this stuff with Ayo and also voice some thoughts I’ve had over the past few weeks seeing people paint Bucky into being this complete soft and harmless human that needs 25-7 protection which I don’t jive with — and this is me, a complete Bucky stan.

Many moons ago, I saw a post that compared 1940s Bucky moving with stealth and a loaded gun on the train to the Winter Soldier doing the same thing, essentially discussing the similarities and debating how much of non-brainwashed Bucky was in the Soldier. And I think the fandom forgets or chooses to neglect the following when painting him as this fragile, peace-loving guy:

Bucky was an incredibly skilled sniper in the United States Army. His job is to eliminate threats in the most efficient way possible, and he’s good at it. HYDRA gets their hands on him and + the serum, this gets magnified. It wasn’t like HYDRA turned him into someone with the ability and mental capacity to kill — that was already there. The brainwashing and torture just carved out the rest of him to leave those honed skills and an amplified ruthlessness with no moral issues, no sense of self to contend with. That ruthlessness is part of Bucky, whether people like it or not.

When Bucky is outside of HYDRA for the first time and hiding in Civil War and gets attacked, he’s so brutal in his actions that Steve Rogers, the man who literally was ready to die to save Bucky and free him when no one else believed in the good in him, intervenes because “Buck, you’re going to kill someone.” Bucky responds that he’s not going to kill anyone, but the fact remains: with or without HYDRA control, Bucky has a strong capacity for violence that hovers on brutality — again, what’s the most efficient way to eliminate or neutralize a threat? Like, I don’t want to kill you, but I’ll knock your ass out with cinder blocks to the chest.

Bucky has a good heart, he’s loyal, he’s smart, he’s caring, he’s the longest-standing POW in history and was turned into a slave for decades, put through unimaginable trauma and torture and horror with no escape. Bucky is also a strong and incredibly skilled super soldier who has a bionic arm, is a trained sniper, is unnervingly precise with knives, and self-describes himself as “semi-stable.” Zemo notes in the bar that “it didn’t take Bucky long to get back into form,” and he’s right because the ruthlessness and skill of the Winter Soldier is a part of him and always has been. We see it when he has his hand around Zemo’s neck and tells him he will kill him, when he rips the glass from his hand and throws it across the room.

And I’m sure the Wakandans know all this about Bucky, this light and his ability for hard-to-stop violence, whether from talking to Steve and Bucky or doing their own homework. And they still choose to help him out of the goodness of their hearts because he’s been put through hell and they believe they have the capacity to help him and it’s the right thing to do — they’re betting more on those positive attributes. And they put a failsafe on his arm, a literal weapon, and chose not to tell him. You know why I think that shows how much they did care about him? Because they could’ve blatantly come out and said “Hey, we don’t trust you,” and hurt him outright, but they didn’t because they’re betting on the light in Bucky to outweigh the dark or any future manipulation. That it’s a worst-case scenario function they hope to never have to use — so they’re prepared if shit hits the fan, and if it doesn’t, Bucky doesn’t have to be hurt feeling like he can’t be trusted. I see no issues here, they’re just being cautious.

Now coming to Ayo, my QUEEN Ayo. From that beautiful, beautiful opening scene, we get to see her support, her reassurance, her belief that Bucky will be able to work through this, even when he doesn’t believe it himself. She watches him fight and struggle and cry, and you can feel the hope in her and how moved she is when she gets to tell him it worked, he did it — he’s free. And she says it not once, but twice. And you can hear not just the comfort, but the PRIDE and warmth in her voice directed to him, who I’m sure she’s watched throughout the whole deprogramming process and gotten to know and is happy to see him work through the pain and come out on the other side.

And then she sees that same individual make a decision in freeing Zemo that she perceives as a “fuck you” not just to her country, but to her, someone who was charged with protecting her king. She could’ve just disarmed Bucky the second they met up, but she doesn’t. She takes the time to explain her side and her feelings, her guilt and her shame, and basically implies that she feels betrayed by Bucky because Wakanda helped him and now he’s doing something that’s hurting her country. And still, she doesn’t attack or just go get Zemo. She gives Bucky the benefit of the doubt and a whole 8-hour American workday to do what he has to do because again, she believes in the best of him. And then that time limit runs up, and he chooses to get in her way.

And that’s the final straw. She’s angry, she’s guilty, she’s frustrated, and she feels betrayed hurt by someone I think she did respect and care about, someone whom she worked with and helped and supported when he was his most vulnerable. Did she “need” to disarm the arm to fight Bucky? Probably not. But is she doing it in the heat of battle and adrenaline and a whole bucket ton of emotions, including what she sees as the White Wolf blatantly disrespecting her country and her as a person and even friend and she just says fuck it, I’m done? You hurt us and me, and I’m going to hurt you back? Oh yeah. And Bucky looks shocked, not because he’s a poor fragile baby and “oh no, my arm, how could you?? my TrAumA”, but in the dual realization of “oh shit, how’d you do that?!” and “oh shit, I think I crossed a line here.” And also, I don’t think a single person in that room would be able to recreate the disabling sequence other than Ayo — it’s way too targeted and specific for someone like Walker to pick it up in the whole three seconds it took.

People need to stop reducing characters to these black and white extremes of soft and hard, of good and bad. Doing so completely devalues and ignores the REALITY of the complexity of being human, and Bucky and Ayo are both great examples of that played by stellar actors who portray that range and depth extremely well. End of the day, my thought is that the failsafe in the arm was justified and people need to stop coming for Ayo based on this ridiculous narrative that Bucky is too traumatized and sensitive and too much of a fave to ever be challenged or he’ll explode into dust. Boy deserves a life of freedom and healing and mental health support, but he’s also still a formidable opponent with the capacity for violence and skillset to kill. People are more than one thing.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!!

[buckydeservesthebest]

I want Bucky to do something really magnificent in Thunderbolts like be the only person who can calm Bob down and stop him becoming The Void, or can bring him back from that. Like Natasha with Hulk.

This may shut up Tony fans at least for a while.

I feel you dear anon...

I think the general idea we've been shown of the Thunderbolts, both from the trailers and some interviews with Seb, is that Bucky will have a role akin to that of a mentor and guide for the rest of the TBs:

"A guy coming into this group that was chaotic and degenerate, and somehow finding a way to unite them."

Just as he was seen giving Yelena advice about doing something about her past now, or living with it forever...

I think the same could work for Bob, as no one better than Bucky to understand what it feels like to lose control over himself, and fear being a threat that can end up hurting others...

Although it has not been openly stated, all indications are that Bucky may suffer some degree of derealization and depersonalization disorder as a result of C-PTSD and irreparable brain damage..

That could explain why he has difficulty differentiating himself from the Winter Soldier and fears that a part of "him" is still there. Even though we know that the Winter Soldier is NOT an alterego or an independent personality, but a programming, ergo, a non-person...

But the point is Bucky could come to understand and empathize with Bob's struggles, and therefore be the most qualified to try to help him overcome them...

[fandomfluffandfuck]

S, I just came up with this idea. Listen..

Sebastian just losing it for Steve, he loves Chris, he's fucking weak for him. But sometimes, he looks at Steve on the screen in CA:TWS or Civil War, and just can't take it, he wants that guy. And imagine him talking Chris into role playing Steve just for him, when he's got the blonde hair, the bulk and all that. He just wants to be treated well by Steve, and not as Bucky, just himself, he can't help it.

That was it thank you very much.

I do love this idea! I love it a lot. And I think this kind of fits with my fic, "Character Bleed," obviously it's not the same concept, but if you haven't read that, I think you'd like it 👀

I mean, we know that Chris feels like this for Bucky on a PG level. Remember that con panel where he said he has a soft spot for him, bursting out with "I was gonna defend Sebastian, he's not a villian, he's a victim really!"? I remember it well. I especially remember Sebastian's happy little, 'he loves me' wiggle. It was the cutest!

(16:53-17:21)

So... I can totally see this happening with Sebastian in a PG-13 to R-rated way 😏 and I would like to imagine that it spills out of Sebastian accidentally, too.

Over the years and years of playing these characters, so much of Sebastian has become tangled up in Bucky, so much of Bucky is tangled up in Sebastian (which reminds of the top Chris quote in this gif set, too), and after the years of being with Chris, his infatuation still the same, maybe even worse now, realistically, it's only natural.

His heart speeds in his chest whenever he sees Chris and, usually, the effect is the same when he sees him larger than life on screen, portaying a character. Chris only has one face and it's just so goddamn handsome. He can't help it. C'mon! It's not fair! What's a man supposed to do?

And no matter how embarrassed Sebastian is of his simmering, latent, years long crush on Steve Rogers because of his affection for his boyfriend, Chris Evans--who is real and not fictional and more than enough, of course--he'll never say it willingly.

It only comes to a head because of the fucking sledgehammer to the head that is Nomad Steve Rogers.

That's so much closer to the Chris that Sebastian gets to love every day with his thick beard and his natural, untamed body hair and just his bigness, but it's also still so Steve.

It's Steve elevated.

It's Steve irresistible.

It's Steve knee-weakeningly hot.

So knee-weakening that when they're shooting, Infinity War over one of the the weekends, too wrapped up in each other to go out with the rest of the crew, hitting the town, it happens.

They're wrapped up, consumed in each other. Sebastian is pressed roughly back into their rented apartment bed, the sheets mused and ruined, the air thick, and his legs are spread as wide as they can be but they're still tense, still squeezed tight around Chris' impossibly broad shoulders. Those fucking shoulders--they're just so huge that he can't not press against them, no matter how shamelessly he opens himself to be taken and he loves it.

He loves how little and surrounded Chris makes him feel, always having to fight to make room for him. He's so big. Larger than life especially when he's been bulking and working out like a madman for the silver screen. Jesus, it feels as though Chris hardly fits between his legs sometimes. Like. Shit. He belongs there, between Sebastian's legs, having his way with him, wringing all the pleasure he wants from him. But he's so big!

Big and heavy, pressing down on him. Keeping him in place as if he would dream of going anywhere else. He dreams of this--Chris' palms broad and hot and owning, gripping handfuls of his thighs and ass, groping him, leaving finger- and handprint bruises where no one else will see. Underneath his costume, bruises that will ache when he stretches later, warming up for stunts and making his face warm with the secret, too.

(If only the makeup artists could see, they'd tease him and tut at him, playfully scolding him for getting it so hard when he knows he has to be on camera. Couldn't he have waited a few more days? Couldn't he have controlled himself for a little longer? God, Sebastian shudders impulsively, hot.)

So, Chris' there.

He's taking up space there, between his legs. Big, broad, and feverish, taking handfuls of him, taking mouthfuls of him, devouring him, first leaving marks across his skin with his lips and teeth and tongue, then sucking him off like he wants to kill him. Murdering him with how good it feels. Hot. Wet. Tight. Sucking him down, the slick, soft insides of his cheeks, the thrilling edge of his teeth, just hinted at, the depth of his throat.

Oh, God.

It's so distracting. He's so good. So good at this. He's gotten so good at this over the years that Sebastian is losing his mind. He loses his mind every time, now. He knows just what he likes.

So, Sebastian's grasping the sheets, fisting them so hard his knuckles are white, whimpering. Breathless. And Chris does fucking something, something with his tongue that he can't comprehend when he's so hard, throbbing, he just--

Sebastian arches and moves, feverish, squirming, reaching swiftly, grabbing and holding onto Chris' hair, dyed dirty blonde and long enough to really fucking hold on.

Then, to make it worse, Chris goes with his frantic hold, letting himself be directed, humoring Sebastian for now, until he wants to take control back; he dives deep, deep throating him, humming, letting him sweat with the vibrations that gut him. So overwhelmed with how fucking erotic it is, how good it feels, Sebastian is groaning, mouth open. He can't think. He can't stop.

It simply escapes him.

He can barely see through the tears in his eyes, his head spinning, but he's blinking, staring down at his shaking hands fisted in that blonde hair, and whining, "St-Steve!"

Suddenly, Sebastian is cursing how good of an actor his boyfriend is--how willing he is to "yes, and" because while Sebastian wants to curl up into a ball, tingling with arousal that's being rapidly taken over by superheated embarrassment, his nerves spitting and sparking like faulty wiring, Chris is chuckling. Just for a moment, though. The dark vibrations feel like fire. Hot as fuck. But that laugh, rich and dangerous, disappears and is replaced with Chris' touch. Chris has let go of one of his thighs to gather his right wrist, then his left--Sebastian hadn't even realized his hands had unweaved themselves from his golden fucking head of hair, making him see double, but they had. His hands are covering his own mouth. They were. Chris is putting them back in his own hair and he's--

"Ohh, oh, God!"

He's making him hold onto his hair and he's pushing himself down, down, pressing his nose to the flat of his lower stomach, swallowing around him, making him feel so good that his hips jerk sharply up. Chris doesn't choke and Sebastian dies. Just a little bit. Dying. He's sucking him like a beast and he's just, just... it's like he's urging him on, it's like he's--

Without his hands to cover his mouth and shut himself up, Sebastian moans again, "Steve!"

It's like he's trying to get him to say it!

Between his legs, Chris is determined, there's just the hint of a smirk on his mouth, curled up around his aching cock. And in his eyes--

Sebastian knows that look.

Fuck.

He knows it!

He knows the determination; he knows the steel in his gaze; he knows the dangerous glint and he fucking sees Steve.

"Pluh-please, please!" Sebastian gasps, overwhelmed, trying to hold himself off but failing spectacularly, "please, Steve!" His outcry is immediately followed by half-whimpering, half-panting, "'m sorryy!"

He's so fucking embarrassed that his face is tingling; he couldn't be blushing more, but he also can't stop himself, his body is rushing, pulsing, throbbing, and too sensitive to stop. It's too much! There's no brakes, only more gas.

Steve, Steve--Chris, er, whatever.

Chris won't have it, though.

Chris isn't just looking at him with that bastard fucker, stubborn stare that's pure Steve Rogers--Steve Rogers who won't and doesn't know how to put his head down and give up, not giving up now--Chris is lowering his voice and putting that lilt in it that's booming, authoritative, and empowering.

Actually, that voice is not so different from his usual, deep, rumbling, this-is-making-my-dick-hard voice, and the association is going to ruin Sebastian for the rest of his life. Every time they're on set from now on, he's gonna think about this and he's gonna fucking die of mortification.

Chris has so easily slipped into that voice. That role. Criminally easily, he's started being Steve.

Steve.

Steve ordering Sebastian around like he's making calls on a battle field as he pulls off his cock with a slurp, leaning his broad shoulders back, confident and cocky, a fucking leader, "you're gonna cum for me, baby. C'mon. I see it. It's right there. I know it is." While he talks like that, he jerks Sebastian off hard. Dick wet and sloppy from his dreamy mouth. Squeezing his throbbing hard-on until Seb gasps hard enough his throat hurts, he's going raw.

"You're gonna gimme what I want, baby," Steve tells him, "and you're gonna show me how pretty you are by cumming."

Sebastian is just a man.

Just a man on edge with an order to fall over it. So, he cums.

Hard.

He cums, pumping, throbbing, and shattering in Steve's hands. A fucking wet dream worthy man--his flowing, blonde hair, his voice, his beard, his stupidly broad chest and shoulders, his torn, dusty uniform, his hands, and those fucking gloves. Sebastian can see those gloves, his rolled uniform sleeves, exposed forearms, all of it. He can see it painted on the back of his eyelids as his eyes roll back, breaking apart with pleasure.

He makes a mess of Steve's beard and plush lips and the site of it, when he manages to peel his eyes open, it makes him wanna cum again.

Now.

Please.

[waywardsou2]

Hot take, like very hot about Bucky Barnes

But calling Bucky a villian when he was the victim

Is like it saying it was the fault of the person who got raped

I don't know but if you look at Bucky and think he's the villain then I think we've been watching some very different movies

He was taken against his will,his mind and spirit broken down until it was nothing, he was experimented on, trained and dehumanized. They took anything Bucky about him and killed it replacing it with programing and commands. He didn't have a choice, all that time he was back seat driving in a body that wouldn't comply. He is not the villain, he is the victim. And no one apologised for making him the weapon

[buckydeservesthebest]

This is why Skogland and TFATWS production's logic of "to heal, Bucky has to allow himself to be responsible, say 'I did it', and stop hiding behind excuses of lack of control" is utter shitty cynicism!

Because literally Bucky has ALWAYS taken responsibility for what his body did. Even when he understands that he had no control over it.

And not only that, the first thing he asks upon regaining consciousness and control is "what did I do?" and not "what did they do to me?"... Bucky has never given two cents about the damage his handlers may have done to him in his most vulnerable state... That doesn't matter a damn to him. What he cares about and is terrified of is the damage his handlers may have forced him to inflict on others...

If this is not being one of the most noble hearted people... then I don't know what is...

@whumptober | Day #30: "What have I done?" Captain America: Civil War (2016)

[ovtrojeon]

steve rogers tried tries so hard to keep bucky barnes safe all the time and the one time he finally manages to save him, bucky is frozen in order to get hydra out of his,

and steve is alone again.

[backonefish]

not sure why the mcu is still so intent on painting bucky as someone who needs to “amend” and “serve” to right his wrongs. or that he should move on from the image that steve had of him - aka a victim and not a villian. theyve decided that the only way forward for bucky is to be forgiven by people who have suffered because of the winter soldier - as opposed to bucky forgiving himself.

first zemo acts like he forgives bucky, when... what did bucky even do to hurt zemo?? wasnt it the other way around???

even sam, who is a va therapist, is pushing the dialogue that the only way forward for bucky is to amend. the entire conversation felt so uncomfortable bc it very much felt like victim blaming and that bucky wasnt doing enough work, or the ‘right’ work to move past his trauma. 

not once do they label bucky as a trauma victim who wasnt in control of his actions but a casualty of a system that used and abused him. 

[buckydeservesthebest]

This is all part of the list of endless victim-blaming in TFATWS. It's ironic… no, it's cynical that they wanted to show Bucky as someone who “could give power to others” or “that HYDRA was his people”, if they themselves acknowledge that the Winter Soldier was a tool of HYDRA, that he was mind-controlled and thus, everything he did in this state was because he was forced, for redundancy's sake.

This is from the books: "The Art of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" and "The Official Marvel Studios' The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", which are canon because they were written by the series' own pruduction.

So how could Bucky “give power to someone” when Bucky as a person did not even exist!?

Talking about “the rules” that Dr. Raynor imposed on Bucky, as the therapist who shared on Twitter her opinion on this whole therapy thing said, there's really nothing therapeutic about it, because it feels like a power play between her and Bucky, where it just emphasizes his lack of control by the mere fact of being forced to take mandatory therapy. “The three rules” play the same power play, because they are something that Bucky clearly did not create for himself nor did he help create, and were imposed on him by someone else. Rather than rules they are orders he must follow, feeling no different than the orders HYDRA gave him as the Winter Soldier.

And of course, as luna said, the purpose of these rules in the plot, are in order to antagonize Bucky and make him look like “someone who tends to commit illegal acts and violence because this is nature”. I mean, even just talking about what we saw in the series, we're talking about the same man who held back his punches the whole time he was fighting bad guys so he wouldn't have to kill them. Bad guys who didn't have the same problem trying to kill him mercilessly. The irony is that Sam, portrayed as “the voice of reason” in the series, also had no problem going straight to killing his enemies, the opening scene of TFATWS literally showed him killing left and right, blowing up two helicopters full of unconscious people. Sure, none of these people were innocent. But the problem is in how it was shown as not a bad thing, when Bucky just detaining Senator Atwood and turning her over to the authorities was considered a violation of rules one and two (“not doing something illegal” and “no one gets hurt”) by Dr. Raynor.

The level of inconsistency, or rather cynicism, throughout the series reaches an absurd level….

Regarding the specific issue of rule #2 “don't hurt anyone” and why on two occasions Bucky asked Dr. Raynor to remind him of them…. While I feel the intention of the production was definitely to vilify him, as commented above, which literally goes against the peaceful nature we've seen from him over 13 years. From Bucky's perspective, I always felt that the reason he twice asked “what was rule number 2?” was because of that constant fear of hurting others that we saw him struggle with, and not because “he feels he wants to hurt others and needs restraints to force himself not to”, but literally quite the opposite. because he actually fears that no matter what he does, he's going to end up hurting others…. Because he believes that just remembering what he was forced to do as the Winter Soldier, means that “there is a corrupt part of him”, and that since the Winter Soldier was programmed to kill/hurt or others, and “that part is still in him”, then “he would inevitably end up hurting others”.

To summarize this perception: the Winter Soldier was created to hurt others. Bucky has memories as the Winter Soldier = The Winter Soldier is still there =The Winter Soldier is a part of Bucky = Bucky is going to end up hurting others.

Oh and that gesture Dr. Rarnor made with her hand…. UGH that gesture! All it does is make everything worse! All this does is make Bucky see that his prosthetic only serves to hurt others, and not see and accept it as a part of his body...

AND HURTING ANOTHER IS BUCKY'S BIGGEST FEAR, which is why in the Wakanda flashback, when the trigger words were being tested and Bucky asks “are you sure about this?”, Ayo replies “I won't let you hurt anyone”. Because she knows that the thought of ending up hurting others is what truly haunts Bucky!

And the problem is that this idea was NEVER challenged, not only the fact that it is a lie that the Winter Soldier is an equivalent to an evil alter-ego, but that Bucky was never corrupted by HYDRA, nor that they turned him into a monster who only seeks to hurt others. This was NEVER denied neither by Dr. Raynor nor by Sam nor by the plot. This is included in the idea that the super soldier serum corrupts whoever uses it, everyone but Steve of course. This is meant to make the point that Bucky is “doubly corrupted” in some way...

No one EVER told him or reminded him that he is indeed a good man… because that is all he has proven time and time again. Rather, the idea they wanted to sell us is that “to redeem and de-corrupt himself, Bucky must do the work”…. Because according to the production, "Bucky has never proven himself to be a good man or done anything heroic until the moment he rescued the hostages in chapter 6"….

Really!? What about literally all the sacrifice he made from the very beginning!? Going from the moment he was recruited by the army to the moment of the rescue of those hostages... Literally since Marvel first introduced us to Bucky 13 years ago, all he has done is put himself last, prioritizing the greater good.

Hi! I just saw your post about how Bucky’s rule number two should have included him, and I totally agree with everything you said about that. But something that stuck out to me as odd about the whole rules system thing is, it seems more like something a psychiatrist would use to treat someone who didn’t have a good moral compass or some other issue like that? I could be wrong but “don’t do anything illegal” and “don’t hurt anyone” kind of sound more like things they’d say to someone with anger issues/sociopathic tendencies/other conditions with which harm to others and/or deviant behavior is a possibility. The show seems to imply that he was suffering from PTSD though, which doesn’t match up with that? I don’t know, I thought it was weird.

Thanks for the ask nonnie!

I won't pretend to be an expert on therapy methods but your point is solid and I've seen it mentioned a couple of times by people who do have a background in psychology. (As an aside, difficult anger control can be a part of PTSD - unfortunately it's the way a lot of men have been socialised to deal with fear and anxiety - but that's really not the way Bucky's been portrayed.)

Contract setting within psychotherapy is usually a good thing, because it sets clear professional boundaries and also means both the therapist and client have a common list of goals to work towards.

There was this chain of posts before (in case the gif doesn't work) but I agree. Look at the gesture she makes as she says "With your history, the government needs to know that you're not gonna..."

This is such a fundamental misunderstanding (or misconstruction) of his role in Hydra and of the actual nature of his mental health problem. Bucky's history is one of being tortured, mind-wiped and made to obey orders. Neither the Winter Soldier nor Bucky was ever aggressive until he received the commands to be.

This iconic scene of The Soldier sitting placidly in Pierce's kitchen when someone entered the scene unexpectedly, and Pierce had to execute the maid himself. The Soldier did not inflict violence until ordered to. The only time he was aggressive against command was when he had flashbacks to his capture. And in Civil War, Bucky was only ever shown to be "aggressive" when forced to defend his own life (Don't tell me self-defence is now a mental health diagnosis).

From a therapy perspective, you're right - those rules are about curtailing someone's actions, whereas Bucky's problem was more about learning the confidence to make choices. This isn't someone who's going to act out, he's had 70 years of being tortured and conditioned into obeying orders. This is someone who's going to hesitate about committing to a choice, he's going to defer to others as much as he can, and maybe as he grows more confident, he starts making some questionable choices that tends to position his own well-being last because he's been trained to think he's the least important in the equation (and with a unhealthy dose of guilt).

From a narrative perspective, this was intended to reinvent Bucky as a "bad" super soldier, cos "there's never been another Steve Rogers", and paint Bucky as someone who would regularly do illegal and violent things, and is so sarcastic about the rules (because -- that's the least of his problems!)

[vampirescholar]

anyone: “bucky is a villian”

chris evans:

[siren-of-redriver96]

How MARVEL failed Karli Morgenthau

For The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, there have been a few reviews from those who have seen it online, and with them came tons of critizisms on differing aspects of the show - and while I could go on quiet a bit about them too, I want to talk about Karli Morgenthau and her cause, the Flagsmashers - in particular how the writers of MARVEL have completely and utterly failed them.

(spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier)

Disguised ideas

The Flagsmashers are introduced to us as dangerous, but well-meaning anti-heroes, marginalized activists who want to help those who have been displaced and put in need by the Blip - they also want the world administrations to not entirely abandon the structures and senses of community established after the Snap. If you wrote the story from their perspective, it would be close to a YA novel - a group of teenagers and refugees who get super powers and use them to help others against a world that is about to abandon and disregard them.

On the paper, it seems the heroes are set up to eventually find a common ground with them - realizing that the people they want to help can be better supported if they team up and find a solution outside of their current plans.

But that is not what happens.

In fact, what happens is completely disconnected from how the Flagsmashers are introduced.

As Honest Trailers put it “Don’t worry, they’ll kill just enough people to qualify as villians (without having joined the militairy and by that, by MCU standards, having a license to - I could go on too about MARVELs relationship with the US army, but that would take too long).

Getting back to topic - the point where Karli Morgenthau, without the apporval of her very much shocked team, blows up a building full of unarmed soldiers, and claims it to be justified, is dramatized as the turning point for her character, the point where this good-hearted activist turns to violence to proove her point.

It is also incredibly hamfisted into the story. Karli turns evil within the blink of an eye, and it feels that way.

Furthermore, if we look at moments where the directors seem to rub into our faces that this was bound to happen, guys... aka the moments where she puts on a weirdly displaced smile before fighting someone physically ... we see that even Erin Kellyman can’t make sense of it, no matter how much she tries.

Karli, the way she is portrayed between these scenes, is not enjoying violence. She‘s not enjoying having power over others just because she can - in fact, it’s this very concept she is fighting.

An moving onto her team - they are shocked, but keep going along with her ideas - and the plot punishes them for this behaviour, first by humiliating them (at least that’s what it felt like when Bucky and John Walker stopped and belittled them like unruly teenagers caught spraying) and then by having Zemo kill them, followed by zero mention shock from any of the heroes. Bravo.

Ultimately, the writers perpetuate several pretty concerning ideas - Karli falls victim to a trope we’ll discuss in a moment, and the overall message seems to be (and we’ve seen this before as well) that even someone with good ideas and a valid point can’t be trusted, because they'll eventually turn to violence just because they can and think others will too - this reeks of telling us we should not support people who protest for very much needed changes when it comes to very urgent problems, because you can’t trust them.

And I have a feeling that the next season of TFAWS isn’t really going to adress the people whom Karli and her friends tried to help. Because Sam asked world governments to do better publicly, and so they will ... right?

Karli could have told him better - and oddly, so could we.

Insensitive treatment of real-life parallels

The parallels to present day discussions such as the refugee crisis and protests against different kinds of injustice and opression across the world in this series are pretty clear - but I want to specifically talk about how the show seems to draw some lines (and yes that pun is intended) concerning the comparsion between Karli Morgenthau and probably the currently most present teenage activist, Greta Thunberg.

Again, the fact that they have a young, female character who is leading a cause, not afraid to bend the rules to face the adults isn’t the problem - it’s the progress she makes the MCU is implying.

Because - correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t see Greta or any present day teenage activist resorting to violence or even mentioning that they would.

Like I said, Karli’s fall came completely out of nowhere. And while, of course, it’s just a show, real people don’t act like fictional characters - it’s still rude, and not even subtely, to write this. In particular, it paints activists and refugees as potential full-on villians, no matter how noble their cause initially seems.

Going back to what Karli could have told Sam - let’s talk about him.

On YouTube, a reviewer has critizised that Sam trying to be a centrist is kind of an odd choice - especially considering his main inner conflict of how he, as a black man, can represent a country which has wronged his people massively in the past and continues to do so in the present. He’s still working for this countries very controversial militairy and tries to talk Karli out of her plans (until her message reaches him in the end) - going so far as to call her a surpremacist “because she thinks she knows better”.

But what does he mean exactly?

It kind of sounded like he was saying her perception of what world governments and big cooperations involved were going to, or, more specifically, not going to do for the people she was trying to help was wrong.

...

Looking at our world, any news headline, any report from anyone who has been failed by first-world governmentship ... is. she. wrong???

I can’t speak for everyone, but I, just as one example, can personally tell you that the country I live in (Germany) has openly and publicly been failing to reach the goals it wanted to fight climate change for several years.

Greta did her best to wake up the world, but the governments don’t make anything close to the necessairy progress - and if you do even the slightest research on how they “plan” to achieve it, it just gets worse, at least in Germany.

And that’s just one example. I could go on and on about roughly 20 situations in the USA.

So - Karli isn’t a surpremacist, Sam, she‘s just tired of all the bs. She’s tired of politicians making empty promises and resources being kept from those in need. She wants to make a change herself when noone else will.

Even superheroes often fall into the trap of not bettering the world, but retaining the status quo. And if we look at the end of this show - not much changes. Sam will try, but - like I said, the victims of the Blip aren’t going to see much change.

The Swerve

This term was first coined by Tom Frome online as to describe a situation where a villian becomes too relatable, so they do something violent and usually out of character to remind the audience that they are the enemy.

For Karli, her swerve begins with the bombing in Vilnius, and she begins to frequently excert violence from then on.

In another review I’ve linked below, it was also brought up that Karli’s actions don’t match what she says. She’s verbally and often very appearently concerned for the situation of innocent people, but then switches to random violence, cheerful smiles before a fight and threatening Sam’s family over the phone with no explanation that was given to us.

The character seems to be composed of two sides that don’t match and don’t communicate - a violent hooligan and an empathetic activist. I kind of get the feeling the writers wanted her to be first and to hell with her ideas, but decided to include them anyway to a level that confuses one over who she becomes when she stops talking.

I’m kind of baffled how a team of writers as well-payed as the ones at MARVEL can produce this, but I digress. It may also have something to do with an info online when the show came out about a rewrite made to the script that changed a global pandemic as the main conflict (and the Flag Smashers actually stealing a van full of vaccines for those in need in the beginning) - maybe Karli was changed too?

Either way, her “character development” doesn’t work. The one that might have would have been one in which she doesn’t swerve, eventually begins to trust Sam and carries out the final battle alongside him and the others, perhaps against Zemo and the Power Broker.

But the writers also had to justify, and make it not to tragic for the audience, that Karli ultimately dies. Because it feels to me like they had no interest in carrying on with her as a character.

Wasted potential

By the end of the show, the people Karli and her friends tried to help are still in the same situation - Sam told world governments to do better, but are we to assume this had a lasting effect?

The show and her had a certain potential to continually adress what effects and consequences both the Snap and the Blip had on the world, and how people continue to deal and struggle with it.

It could have included Karli as a sort of, yes, Robin Hood, a kind of rogue hero of the people who shows up constantly across the world and uses her powers to help those in need. Here we could have had development, aka that she turns away from “smashing flags”, but not from trying to make governments aware of what needs to be done and occasionally pirating resources before making a getaway.

This show could have intervined her development with that of John Walker and his wife, maybe Eli Bradley, Isiah’s grandson (I still suspect he’ll become a character with some degree of inherited super serum powers in season 2), a revived (Agents of Shield did that) or how about not killed Lemar Hoskins, and have them team up with Sam and Bucky ...

As you can see, the series had tons of potential, but they went too big too fast and wasted 3 seasons of material in one. Also, I still suspect MARVEL wasn’t really interested in anyone but the main protagonists and John Walker. Plus - I’m not saying they did Karli dirty because she’s a girl, but the show divides the few female characters it has into family members and criminals.

Anyway, I think this essay is long enough now - last but not least:

what a waste of an perfectly fine Erin Kellyman!

looking foward to see her in the Willow series - hope they do her justice with the script this time :)

Thank you very much for reading :)

Links to other reviews of the show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W-bLVjF16k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tQ6_b6cePE

[lamentingwclf]

It’s just as well. You are not the first person to be manipulated by elitist blogs using face claims of color to lure muns or blogs who have harassed me and my mutuals with anonymous hatred. I still hope we will see you again someday.

The only person I remotely allowed to manipulate me is you - and that's because i agreed to the changes in Bucky's story that inevitably caused this. The fact that every story we had revolved around your main character to the point we couldn't have a single thread that didn't mention her? It was utterly ridiculous and by the end of it, Bucky's responses were struggling. Not to mention, on multiple occasions the changes to the story I agreed to not only went against the lore i used for my character, but made his story null and void. The fact that he had a twin? Who was taken first, and Bucky was only taken and turned into the winter soldier because of his twin versus the actual canon story line? Or how about changing the entirety of the events of Civil War so that they revolve around your character? Do you know how utterly and truly hard it was to write? | But the biggest issue I have is, do you know how racist that sounds? I think you put it as an "exotic canon of color"? What the actual fuck is that? Not to mention you essentially removed Shuri's involvement in creating his arm because you HAD to have it be your character. So essentially your character is better than the whole of Wakanda. Mkay. The only person that's spreading hatred or attacking anyone is you. You can play the victim, you can make me the villian, that's fine. But the lack of accountability of your own actions in all of this. I'm not coming back. I'm not going to write with you again. And I don't want to continue a friendship that almost entirely ruined this muse for me. I've had enough drama here on tumblr. It's not good for my mental health.

[buckydeservesthebest]

That's my main problem and why I hated that episode.

What we saw in What If? is a direct contradiction to what we've seen in the MCU. There the Winter Soldier was completely stripped of his agency and his literal ability to control his actions. The production itself has acknowledged that the Winter Soldier's programming takes away his ability for choice and self-determination, and that he always acted against his will. What If? Bucky not only does seems to retain enough freedom to make his own decisions, as well as retain his emotions, when MCU Bucky literally has a damaged limbic system which renders him incapable of feeling emotions (until an outside emotional stimulus like Steve, helps), but also seems to willingly cooperate with the orders HYDRA gives him. As you rightly say, it's more like the Comic Bucky version, where he's a man with amnesia that HYDRA indoctrinated and turned loyal to them. When MCU Bucky no longer obeyed the orders his handlers gave him immediately after he recovered a fragment of his memories and personality, and in the end, that was exactly why he fled at the end of TWS.

What If? Bucky seems to have enough personality of his own to pretend to flirt when MCU Winter Soldier couldn't even answer Pierce's sarcastic question about whether he wanted milk, which literally was a mockery of his lack of ability to make a choice.

What If? Bucky was even able to resist trigger words when MCU Bucky was incapable of this in CW, and it was only until Wakanda removed the programming from his brain that those words no longer had an effect.

That's an abysmal difference between the two versions and why MCU Bucky's level of subjugation is exponentially worse.

 But in conclusion: What If? Winter Soldier *IS NOT* MCU Winter Soldier.

Bucky Barnes in 'What If...?' S03E03

[usernamesuggestionsarefunny]

Hot take: I unapologetically like John Walker, like, not even in a "he is morally gray and interesting" kind of way. He was brave and had good intentions, he just wasn't as quick to search for peaceful solutions and had several realistic flaws such as being insecure, ambitious and quick to follow orders for the establishment. Most people (on tumblr) just hate him because he is white so he must be evil or symbolically represent male white priviledge or something, because he didn´t romanticize terrorism as the writers made Sam start doing, and because he “unfairly” got the shield (The shield the dumb ass writers made Sam DECIDE to give up so they could have that sweet drama? THAT shield?). People say that Steve Rogers would have never done what John did, not even after his literal best friend was killed in front of his eyes, ehem... did we even watch the same movies? Did everyone just forget about that scene in Civil War after Tony tried to kill Bucky?

His reasons for murdering that terrorist  guy that took part in the killing of his best friend and for wanting to apprehend a potentially dangerous group were waay more understandable than any of Karli's actions AFTER she started killing innocent people "to send a message" while still claiming to have the moral highground instead of, you know, keep stealing and distributing food and medicines like they were exclusively doing at the beginning or something.

I get that it sucks the writers made the flag smashers the villians (I hate what they did with the good hearted and idealistic Sharon Carter as well), I myself would have prefered if Karli had been writen as an anti-hero or even new hero who teams up with Sam and Bucky, maybe the flag smashers could have been divided into different factions, some more extremist than others, and a government guy could have been the real or worst villain, but that sadly didn't happen. The moment they wrote her blowing up that building full of unarmed people though, she was a self-righteous murderer just like Zemo, which would have been fine if that was the point of her character.

 I was very irritated by the way the show writers, via Sam, tried to minimize her actions and make us feel sorry for her, dehumanizing the people she had killed in the process. We barely ever see her victims, they are mostly faceless entities who don´t matter in comparison to “poor well intentioned baby Karli”.

 If the writers wanted to send the audience a message about “doing better” for refugees they could have done so by making the flag smashers the heroes that have been unjustly framed for the terrorist attacks (Which would have been an AMAZING plot twist), or writing them to be more complicated by making most of its members stand against the extemism of certain factions of the group, or by showing the good things they do, making them fight armed guards only. They should NOT have made terrorism seem “cool” and “trendy”, the deaths of civilians “necessary”, and the terrorists the “real” victims of... *gasp* being called... terrorists! The poor babies, noo, so offensive! The correct term is freedom fighters, nooo! 

Needless to say, the woobification of the poor baby terrorists didn't work for me and I wasn't exactly horrified by Karli´s death or impressed by Sam´s corny victim blaming speech where he doesn´t actually give any practical ideas on how to solve the refugee crisis caused by the snap but sure does love to say the government officials all, indiscriminately (Maybe AOCortez or someone was there? I mean, idk), deserved to feel powerless as hostages because that, apparently, will make them sympathize with the people that made them fear for their lives instead of, I don´t know, seeing them as way too unreasonable to negociate with??

Now, I would have preferred for John Walker´s actor to play Lemar and viceversa, because I get that black characters get killed to motivate white characters far too often, so it would have been nicer to see it done the other way around for once. For John Walker to be the new flawed yet good hearted war veteran who has to redeem himself after making a huge mistake born out of pain for the loss of his friend, someone who has to develop and learn different tactics other than violence in order to defend people, someone who has to learn to question the status quo... and he just happens to be black like Sam. Their rivalry would not be even implicitly about race, but exclusively about differences in methods and about who gets the Captain America legacy. We could still have Bucky hating on him, the funny rivalry moments, no changes.

But sadly the writers needed a character to represent the white that didn't deserve Sam's shield but only got it for his race, or for looking similar to Steve, which is an important theme, but one that was perfectly explored already with the plotline about the original black supersoldier who was erased from history, and one that didn´t work for me because they made Sam give up the shield willingly BEFORE it was given to John, a war hero, so all I am getting is that simply being chosen for something important and accepting it because you think you can do the job, wanting justice for a friend, and not trusting terrorists to change their murderous ways is what made John “less than” Sam and Bucky.

I guess what I am trying to say is that John doesn´t deserve half the hate he gets and maybe if the writers had changed his race from the comic books then his character would have suffered less from being placed into a specific “personification of white male priviledge” box here on tumblr. No offence to the actor though, he was great.

[margokesses]

Sighs

Just because the show didn't coddle bucky and made him take responsibility for his actions for the winter soldier doesn't mean he was "villianized".

[backonefish]

I posted 2,403 times in 2021

186 posts created (8%)

2217 posts reblogged (92%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 11.9 posts.

I added 305 tags in 2021

#mine - 58 posts

#funny is funny - 35 posts

#tfatws - 34 posts

#stucky - 30 posts

#im cackling - 27 posts

#fic things - 26 posts

#i love - 25 posts

#evanstan - 25 posts

#always hate endgame - 24 posts

#i love him so - 21 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#its annoying that this same company on the one had says steves grief over peggy is so strong that it justifies him creating another timeline

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

im just thinking about the sex scenes in Monday and i feel the conversation around them took away from their meaning? (as sebastian said would happen)

when chloe and mickey connect its at a purely physical level. we see that through the sex. theres a vulnerability and a high that comes from being physically intimate with someone, especially someone youre physically compatible with. 

when they talk to each other, cracks appear and its like, mhm... maybe we aren’t the best for each other, but they never go down that road, because they use sex to cover those cracks and remind each other why they first connected. we see it at the van, after the party, etc. 

and the climax (pun not intended), where theyre high and trying so hard to use sex to reconnect, they *finally* “talk”, and we see that sex cant really repair that rift. they still try, getting naked on the bike, in all that vulnerability, and its *still* not enough. 

76 notes • Posted 2021-04-22 15:01:45 GMT

#4

Insta knows whats up

84 notes • Posted 2021-03-03 19:44:24 GMT

#3

not sure why the mcu is still so intent on painting bucky as someone who needs to “amend” and “serve” to right his wrongs. or that he should move on from the image that steve had of him - aka a victim and not a villian. theyve decided that the only way forward for bucky is to be forgiven by people who have suffered because of the winter soldier - as opposed to bucky forgiving himself.

first zemo acts like he forgives bucky, when... what did bucky even do to hurt zemo?? wasnt it the other way around???

even sam, who is a va therapist, is pushing the dialogue that the only way forward for bucky is to amend. the entire conversation felt so uncomfortable bc it very much felt like victim blaming and that bucky wasnt doing enough work, or the ‘right’ work to move past his trauma. 

not once do they label bucky as a trauma victim who wasnt in control of his actions but a casualty of a system that used and abused him. 

103 notes • Posted 2021-04-18 04:33:54 GMT

#2

do you ever feel sad because your love story will never compare to steve and bucky’s? 

176 notes • Posted 2021-01-14 17:49:04 GMT

#1

I could write an essay on that birthday post, and you know what. I’m going to. 

First of all, just the Stucky. All the stucky. He is literally referencing the gayest pub scene ever - I’m not following captain america, im following the kid from brooklyn.

Till the end of the line. 

Whatever it takes. 

His mission!!

Sebastian literally went to his stucky archive, picked the most meaningful scenes that spoke of their love and trust and devotion to each other and threw them into this post to draw parallels of how much he adores Chris, how much he loves him, how he will do anything for him. 

AND he used a picture that talks about Chris’ political activism. We know Chris’ propensity to draw attention away from personal to politics (*cough cough*) and Sebastian pretty much created the perfect birthday post FOR Chris by ensuring his political work was front and center. 

This man has spent days sitting on this image, coming up with the perfect birthday message to not only remind us all that he knows and loves Stucky, but he also knows and loves Chris. 

Excuse me while i scrape myself off the floor. 

187 notes • Posted 2021-06-13 19:16:24 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[buckydeservesthebest]

My pal @tragicfantasy-girl already made an excellent and thorough contribution, but I still want to give my two cents addition.

First of all, it seems to me that saying that “the world has moved past the need for Bucky stans”, is at the very least, a very dogmatic statement on @wenellyb part. Because by its own definition, being a fan doesn't come from the fact that it's “necessary”, it comes from the empathy, sympathy, congeniality one feels towards a certain character. No one can prohibit someone from being a fan and much less their right to express the thoughts and opinions they may have about it, freedom of expression is a basic right.

Secondly, as my friend rightly said, the OP just makes it clear that Bucky fans do need to exist. And not for the sake of fangirling/fanboying but because Bucky is the agglomeration of many (too many) of the worst experiences anyone could ever experience. He was a prisoner of war, he was exposed to decades of physical and psychological torture, he was subjected to ECT during these 70 years which caused him irreparable brain damage and this subject has never been talked about. Bucky is an amputee, disabled and suffers from C-PTSD (a much more severe version than simple PTSD), depersonalization crisis, depression, anxiety and many other mental illnesses. The number of people who can relate to him to one degree or another is overwhelming.

We Bucky stans never try to minimize all the trauma and suffering that Sam and other characters have gone through. Almost every Marvel character suffers from some sort of trauma and of course this is important and should be treated with great respect. But it must be recognized that even within traumatic experiences, there are levels of severity that are based on both the duration and the level of short and long term damage that these experiences entail.

When we say that Bucky is one of the victims who have suffered the most, it is not only because he endured one of the longest lasting and most damaging tortures to anyone's psyche, but also because unlike absolutely every other character, be it Clint, Erik Selvig, Helen Cho, Jessica Jones, Yelena and the other BWs who were victims of mind control, or Isaiah who was a victim of imprisonment and experimentation, Bucky does not enjoy the right to be recognized as a victim of either mind control or imprisonment and experimentation.

Bucky has been actively blamed over and over again (with the exception of Steve of course, and T'Challa) for a situation in which it is perfectly well known he is innocent because he had no agency. Bucky is blamed for the harm his captors caused others, as is the case with Isaiah's “Even your people (HYDRA) weren’t done with me” situation. HYDRA is NOT Bucky's people, they were his kidnappers and enslavers. Because yes, Bucky was a slave of HYDRA, because he was under the total domination of a third party, which is one of the definitions the dictionary gives to the word slave.

I have seen several of the stans complaining about how Sam was mean/unfair or still treated Bucky like he was still the Winter Soldier or like he was responsible for his crimes as the Winter Soldier, which is all untrue by the way.

Yes, Sam did hold Bucky responsible for what he was forced to do as the Winter Soldier, and this on more than one occasion, whether from jokes that aren't funny to serious statements:

"You were stopping all the wrongdoers *you* enabled as the Winter Soldier" Ep 05.

"They cleared the bionic staring machine, and he killed almost everybody he’s met." Ep 03.

"We're not assasins" Ep. 02

And don't get me started on the ableist jokes Sam made about Bucky's condition:

"What’s going on in that big cyborg brain of yours? I can actually see it. I can see the gears turning. Oh, they’re malfunctioning, shutting down. Yep, they’re on fire." "(...) the bionic staring machine (...)" "I get it, why you want me to talk to *Freaky* Magoo over here"

Isn't Sam treating Bucky badly in these situations? Isn't he being unfair by blaming Bucky for what he “did” as the Winter Soldier, knowing full well that he didn't have the remotest control over his actions? Isn't he having a discriminatory attitude with all that ableist banter?

As tragicfanstasy-girl rightly said, Sam's fans hold double standards by getting upset because we don't acknowledge Bucky's "bad" treatment of Sam, when they refuse to acknowledge all the victim-blaming and ableism Sam subjected Bucky to. Where is the fairness in this way of reasoning?

To accuse Bucky of treating Sam "badly", just like that, is not only to remove all context from the situation, because “treating badly / mistreating” implies that this behavior comes out of nowhere, for no apparent reason, and that it is generally done with the intention of making the other person feel bad.

That is why I would not use the term “treat badly”, because none of Bucky's behavior comes from malice or bad faith. As my friend rightly said, it comes from the pain, depression, self-loathing of a suffering person.

But let's look at the whole context a little deeper. More than anything else, what Bucky did was to express his displeasure and disapproval about Sam's decision to give up possession of the shield (it's what give up something means), nothing else.

And here's the kicker, Bucky did NOT criticize or judge Sam as a person, he criticized his specific ACTION/DECISION of giving up the shield. At literally no point did Bucky ever insult him or use derogatory terms towards him or label him as incapable of protecting Steve's legacy, something he originally did agree to do.

And I mean, if we think about it, there ARE compelling reasons for Bucky and anyone else to disagree with Sam's decision, and NOT for the fact of him not wanting to wield the shield, BUT for the act of giving up its possession. Giving up its possession to the museum that the government owns. The same government that has proven to make terrible decisions time and time again. The same government that wanted to have control over enhanced people. The same government that confiscated Steve's shield and Sam's wings for being against it. The same government that has proven to be anything but trustworthy and fair.

So therein lies the problem for Bucky (besides wanting to protect Steve's legacy and the emotional attachment he feels towards the shield), the problem is that Sam put the shield in the hands of those who could misuse it, and literally that's where the whole problem with Walker came from.

To summarize (and I apologize if I already said several times), the problem for Bucky was NEVER that Sam had not wielded the shield or that he had not adopted the mantle of Captain America, because he was in possession of the shield for months after Steve's death, and did not wield it, continuing to maintain the alias of Falcon. And that was fine, no criticism of Bucky comes from this fact, but again, from the fact of having ceded possession of the shield to those who could misuse it.

(I mean, even if the shield had been kept in the museum, there was a risk that anyone could steal it and do whatever they wanted with it.)

Everything Bucky said to Sam about the shield was NOT meant to make him feel bad, but to convince him to do something about it, get it back and put it back in good hands, or rather, put it in Sam's hands. Because despite everything, Bucky NEVER doubted for a second that Sam was the right one to wield it and be the next Captain America. Bucky continued to actively support and believe in him, that's why he gave him the shield once they took it away from Walker, and that's why the favor he asked the Wakandans was to make a new suit for Sam.

It's unfair to say that Bucky was a asshole to Sam, when he helped him with his mission to capture the Flag Smashers, even when it was none of his business. Bucky actively defended Sam both in combat, and from the racist attitude of the cops in episode 2, as well as Walker's attempt to intervene in Sam's mission for trying to reason with Karli in episode 4: “he knows what he's doing”.

Again, at absolutely no point did Bucky doubt that Sam was a good and capable man and the right one to carry on Steve's legacy. None of this is “treating badly” if you ask me.

The first thing Bucky did when he met Sam was blame him “You shouldn’t have given up the shield”. No “hello”, no “good morning”, no “how have you been Sam?, when we know that Sam has been checking up on Bucky, and texting him but Bucky didn’t reply. So Bucky ghosts Sam, and only comes back to blame him about giving up the shield.

Besides the fact that Bucky did have reason to express his displeasure about Sam's decision, and as tragicfantasy-girl explained earlier, Bucky's attitude does not come from malice or bad faith, but from pain, guilt and grief.

My pal gave an incredible introspection as a person who has sadly gone through traumatic experiences. These points of view are very, very important because they offer a perspective that people who have not been through a similar situation may not understand.

I cannot speak from this point of view, but I can offer my opinion as someone who lost a very close loved one and who has not yet overcome a grief that has already lasted 3 years. So I can say from my own experience, that losing a close loved one generates a very strong emotional attachment to their belongings and we become very over protective of them, and anything that may represent a lack of respect towards those belongings is considered a very serious offense. It is true that everyone grieves differently, but from what I can see, Bucky grieved very similarly to what I experienced. This is one of the many reasons I can empathize with him. And if I see one of the possessions my loved one entrusted to others being misused or disrespected, I will not hesitate to express my outrage at the person causing the situation. I wouldn't even have the head to greet them kindly first.

When you live a very painful and recent bereavement, the last thing that goes through your mind is to be the kindest person to others, and you just prefer to isolate yourself, you don't want to have to see anyone... At least that's how I lived it...

To say that Sam was checking on Bucky is a very specific interpretation of the fact that he sent him messages. This could mean many things, not necessarily that he was looking out for Bucky's welfare. In fact, in an interview that was done for the series, where Seb and Anthony were present, the interviewer asked what the content of those messages would be, and Anthony jokingly replied “Hey, did you kill someone?”, and everyone agreed that that was most likely the type of messages Sam sent to Bucky. Actually, this is consistent with Sam's character who tried on more than one occasion to dissuade Steve from his attempts to save Bucky, behaving consistently hostile towards him by making unkind remarks before every little remark Bucky made, always expressing the dislike he felt for him.

So, nobody can't blame Bucky for not wanting to respond to those kinds of messages, which are nothing more than mockery of all the severe trauma he still suffers.

Not only did Bucky actively support and believe in Sam, and never try to express his displeasure at his continued ableist and victim-blaming comments (because unfairly Bucky believes he deserves them), but the plot had him apologize for his own white privilege as well as Steve's! Bucky had to apologize because Steve made a decision (to give the shield to Sam) without considering what it would mean for a black man. It was Steve who put that burden on Sam, NOT Bucky, because he had no say in that decision. If anything, if anyone should apologize for that situation, it was Steve and NOT Bucky.

TFATWS revolutionized around the injustice of racism and how people in the black community can and should be considered victims for that, but it never addressed the issue of the injustice of victim-blaming over all the time Bucky has been held responsible for everything he was forced to do under mind control, and how he also deserves to be recognized as a victim. Sam, Sharon, and everyone gets a pass on blaming Bucky for the harm he was forced to commit, something only HYDRA is responsible for, just because “they too have suffered injustice”. NO, suffering injustice does NOT give you the right to be unfair to others.

Everything, absolutely everything within the TFATWS plot was focused on vilifying Bucky, and making him look like the cause or at least a participant in all the evils and tragedies that have taken place in everyone's lives. “Bucky's people hurt Isaiah”, "Sharon became a criminal for helping Steve to help Bucky", "Bucky was thoughtless for not thinking about what it could mean for a black man to be Captain America". In none of these situations did Bucky have a word.

And talking about Bucky hurting people, I have NEVER seen a Bucky stan talking about how awful what he did to Yori was. He befriended a man knowing full well he had killed his son? What kind of mindgame was he playing.

This is one of the most misguided and out of context takes I have ever read.

There is NO mind game, because all Bucky was trying to do was make amends for the damage done to others that he believes he is responsible for. Yori lost his son and became a lonely man, Bucky couldn't revive him but he could try to somehow fill the void his loss left in his father's life. That's why he tried to spend time with him, tried to be there for him, and his company was good for him. Leah recognized him. Yori already knew that his son had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, ending up being one of the many killed by an unnamed assassin who broke into the hotel where he worked.

Knowing the identity of the person who pulled the trigger brought absolutely NOTHING revelatory or healing for Yori that would allow him to find closure. That's why Bucky didn't tell him, not only because telling him that would only put Yori through a new grief, but because it would prevent Bucky from being able to continue to be there for him. It's because of all this that the scene of Bucky telling Yori the truth is one of the most criticized by fans, BECAUSE IT OFFERS NOTHING HEALING FOR EITHER YORI OR BUCKY.

And please don’t get me started on how they tried to make Ayo the “bad guy”, when Bucky had just broke out Zemo out of prison, the guy who killed King T’Chaka, without thinking about the consequences and the impact on his Wakandan friends.

Again, there is a very pronounced misinformation and lack of context here. Bucky assisted Zemo in his escape, because according to the plot and the writers' logic, Zemo was the only one with the resources to discover the origin of the new super soldier serum and track down the Flag Smashers. The book The Art of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (which was written by the production of the series itself, which makes it totally canonical), offers more information about the whole issue of Zemo's escape from prison. It is clearly stated there that before resorting to his intervention, Bucky and Sam had already exhausted all other available options, the last card being Zemo. And it is also stated and I quote, “Zemo refuses to help from behind bars, so Bucky assists him in his escape.” This implies that Bucky first tried to get useful information from him, without having to release him from prison, but he refused. So again, according to the plot, Bucky did the right thing by assisting him in his escape because Zemo was the only one who could offer help.

No one ever said that Ayo or the Wakandas were the “bad guys” for wanting to go arrest Zemo, Bucky himself understands how this impacted their pride. And at no time did he refuse to hand him over to them, he just asked them for a little more time, because his intention from the beginning was to return Zemo to prison, and Zemo himself knew it. Ayo understood that, and that's why she gave an ultimatum of 8 hours before returning. Bucky understood it too. That is why he never objected to the Dora's intention to arrest Zemo after those 8 hours.

What we do consider unfair on the part of the Wakandans is the fact that they hid from Bucky the existence of the fail-safe that disconnects his arm, his prosthesis, one that they gave him without any previous condition, without considering that Bucky's ignorance of this fail-safe could be potentially fatal for him, in case he found himself in a situation in which he was hanging for his life by his left arm, and that by pure bad luck something activated that mechanism.

All of this coupled with the objectification associated with Bucky's disability. The way in which Ayo dehumanized him horribly by removing a part of his body, all this in a form of power game, in which Bucky has no control over even his own body.

And worst of all (or I don't know what's worst in all this anymore) is the "reason" - if you can call it that - why Ayo did it, simply because she was upset that Bucky has stopped her from killing Walker, something that had nothing to do with her original mission of capturing Zemo. And frustrated by that, she blamed and dehumanized Bucky.... To say this was totally unfair on her part is an understatement.

We are not hating on Ayo as a person: but to the action of removing the ability aid from a disabled person. It's like if someone took away Dr X wheelchair or Matt Murdock's sight stick.

The dehumanization towards Bucky in TFATWS is treated with the same disrespect that James Gunn handled in Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special, in which with much mockery and ableist comedy, his prosthesis was treated as a mere object and not as what it is: an ability aid.

It is because of all this and many many many more things that we Bucky stans continue to raise our voices about all the injustices and mistreatment that Marvel has subjected him to time and time again. Not because we believe he is the only character who has suffered, but because he is the only character who has not been done justice. Because he is the only character within all of Marvel that has been denied the right to be considered a victim, when everyone else can be without issue.

It is alarming how many posts still exist and are still being shared where Bucky is still considered guilty for what he was forced to do as the Winter Soldier, even though it is well known among fans that he had no remote control over his actions. The level of victim-blaming that exists is disturbing. And not only because this is an injustice to the character of Bucky, but because it is also an injustice to everyone who can relate to him in this regard.

These are a couple of comments from a Twitter user, in which the person was affected on an emotional level by all the victim-blaming that was shown on TFATWS as if it wasn't a bad thing. Who knows how many people have been affected by this and we just don't know. “If Bucky is guilty for a situation he had no agency in being mind-controlled, then I, who was not brainwashed, am certainly guilty, even though I had no opportunity to offer resistance.” Do you realize the impact this has on people???

So NO, we will NEVER shut up and stop asking for justice for Bucky, because asking for justice for him also means asking for justice for all those people who can identify with his suffering.

The world has moved past the need for Bucky stans. They serve no other purpose than to write long stories explaining why their characters is the most miserable character, who has suffered the most, has had the most unfair treatment in the world and then forget and dismiss anyone around their character. Let’s not forget how entitled they act whenever there is a big announcement for Sam’s character, and immediately demand the same for Bucky. Even though there are 364 other days where they could do the complaing for their character, they conviently choose the day there is a big announcement for Sam’s character to complain and make demands they have no right to make, instead of praising Sam’s character just once in their life.

And honestly, I don’t even think they really like Bucky as a character because they absolutely refuse to see him as he really is or see the ways their character has grown.

Like Tony Stans before them, and unlike any other fans in the MCU, Bucky stans have the ability to always paint their character as the victim no matter what the circumstances, act as if their character is the only character to have ever experienced trauma in the history of characters. And they absolutely to refuse to see the flaws of their characters or any bad thing they do, They will blame all the bad things their character does on literally anybody BUT the character. They refuse to acknowledge that their character isn’t the only one who has feelings and who has known pain. We are slowly being freed from Tony stans, it’s time for the same thing to happen with the Buckies.

The last strike is that now they somehow came up with the idea that Bucky’s and Isaiah’s stories are somewhat similar. Excuse me but what???

What is surprising to me is that I never see this kind of behavior coming from Steve fans, Natasha fans, Thor fans and so on. Maybe I missed something.

It’s always the same fandoms that decide on one specific interpretation of a character and stick to it no matter what is happening on screen. They insist on Bucky being the one who needs to be taken care of, when Bucky in episode 5, and episode 6 was the one who was taking care of Sam ( getting the suit, helping with the boat, supporting with the flagsmashers). Do you even watch the shows your character’s involved in or do you just live in your headcanon? Do you even realize that you character is making progess and that unlike your headcanons Bucky seems to have more the profile of a nurturer once he starts healing? Bucky still has a long way to go, but have you seen him giving away that notebook? Starting to make amends the right way? Do you not see his progress?

They insist on Bucky being the one being hurt but turn a blind eye when Bucky is doing the hurting. And let’s not even talk about what happens when the other character interacting with Bucky is not White…

I have seen several of the stans complaining about how Sam was mean/unfair or still treated Bucky like he was still the Winter Soldier or like he was responsible for his crimes as the Winter Soldier, which is all untrue by the way. But then they never mention why Sam didn’t open welcome Bucky with open arms.

The first thing Bucky did when he met Sam was blame him “You shouldn’t have given up the shield”. No “hello”, no “good morning”, no “how have you been Sam?”, when we know that Sam has been checking up on Bucky, and texting him but Bucky didn’t reply. So Bucky ghosts Sam, and only comes back to blame him about giving up the shield. And even when Sam tells him he’s upset about the shield being given to Walker, Bucky keeps pestering Sam. And it keeps being that way for a major part of episode 2 and 3. 

And yet I have NEVER seen any Bucky stan talk about how Bucky treated Sam badly during that time.

Do you guys not remember the scene where Bucky apoligize? I just don’t understand, even Bucky understood that he f*cked up, and changed his behavior, why can’t his stans?

And talking about Bucky hurting people, I have NEVER seen a Bucky stan talking about how awful what he did to Yori was. He befriended a man knowing full well he had killed his son? What kind of mindgame was he playing.

And please don’t get me started on how they tried to make Ayo the “bad guy”, when Bucky had just broke out Zemo out of prison, the guy who killed King T’Chaka, without thinking about the consequences and the impact on his Wakandan friends.

Bucky stans don’t even acknowledge the feelings of other characters than their own. They did it with Endgame Steve with blablabla how unfair he was to abandon Bucky, even though Bucky knew Steve was leaving. And they are now doing it from Sam.

I really like Loki as a character but I’m sometimes annoyed at some stans that want to insist that he isn’t a villain, never did anything wrong and even go to the lengths to paint him as a victim when he killed actual people. But usually Loki stans don’t reach the levels of Buckies when it comes to putting on blinders whenever they are thinking about their characters. Most of them acknowledge Loki’s flaws and his wrongdoings and like him anyway. As they should.

Bucky stans need to step aside and leave Bucky’s character to people who really know how to appreciate him, who (unlike them) want his character to heal and be happy and see him as he is, flaws, wrongdoings, mistakes and most importanly who also see his growth. 

Most importantly, leave Bucky’s character to people who know how to tag properly and won’t tag a post that doesn’t even have Sam in it with “Sam Wilson” just to get more traction for their post.