#i mean... Bucky represents so many marginalized groups in society

[buckydeservesthebest]

It is interesting, or rather predictable, that Antonia can be recognized as a victim and never blamed for what she did under mind control, because well... she is a woman, and "women are always victims". Even if after regaining her freedom, like Yelena, she continues to do dirty jobs like contract killings, theft, etc, as will be seen in Thunderbolts.

There is also the case of Echo, who no matter how many crimes she committed while working for Kingpin, was never depicted as one of the bad guys, but rather as the victim of life's adversities that led her to that life of vandalism. We are supposed to sympathize with her, and by the way, her disabilities as both a deaf and an amputee were NEVER joked about at any time. Even Clint's hearing problems were not the subject of jokes either, and if I recall correctly, there wasn't a single joke about Thor's one-eyed situation either, or Fury's… and if there were it wasn't for a derogatory purpose, unlike Bucky.

We can conclude that: both Clint and Thor are disabled male characters, but at a much less severe level than Bucky. Clint was also a victim of mind control but at a much less invasive, damaging, severe and lasting level compared to Bucky.

Thor and Clint are blamed subtly for crimes or mistakes they committed while conscious, of course. But in the end they are still heroes, still a symbol and still respected and loved by their friends, by society and also by Marvel production.

But Bucky is the only one who does not have this privilege, in the eyes of Marvel he will never be more than a “former villain in search of redemption”, redemption that he will never fully achieve, because according to them “he will always have to take responsibility for what he did and recognize himself as guilty”, in the words of Kari Skogland. They are deliberately denying him the opportunity to become a hero from the beginning. They are never going to allow him to step out of the Winter Soldier's shadow and be something more.

And why? As you rightly say, it may be because of the bad luck of being the combination of being the only male character to have his agency and identity taken away from him, subjected to the will of a third party for decades, and who is also disabled and amputee.

Bucky is literally the embodiment of the worst experiences anyone could ever suffer, and he is the only one who is blamed and vilified for it...

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