So yesterday I posted a meta on how the Winter Soldier essentially is the world’s deadliest child and how he threw tantrums over Steve treating him like a friend, and I’d like to expand on that today. Because I honestly believe that it was Steve’s kindness that managed to crack the Winter Soldier’s programming and send it crumbling.
(I’m going to differate between Bucky and the Winter Soldier, because I believe the Winter Soldier is a semi-personality of his own, built upon Bucky’s original personality like a Medieval church built upon a Greek temple. If that makes sense.)
Neither Steve nor Bucky recognize each other at first, for understandable reasons. The Winter Soldier is active and thus Bucky is completely dormant, so he has no possible way to remember Steve. Steve is faced with a masked assassin who has even got Natasha unnerved; he has no reason to suspect it might be his not-quite-as-dead-as-previously-suspected childhood friend.
And their fight is vicious. Since neither recognize each other, neither pull their punches and it’s the closest we get to see someone wiping the floor with Captain America. A lift filled with SHIELD elite? No sweat. The Winter Soldier one-on-one? Steve fights defensively and only gets a few hits in because the Winter Soldier is that effective a murder weapon.
But then, then, we get to the iconic scene where Steve recognizes the Winter Soldier as Bucky. The Winter Soldier, still in control, doesn’t react to it other than in a what the hell are you on about way.
This changes when Steve doesn’t act.
It wouldn’t surprise me if “targets” has tried to fib the Winter Soldier in the past, to stall for time or prepare for a counter-attack. But it’s painfully obvious that Steve has no cards up his sleeves. He is genuinely stunned and probably couldn’t tell you his own name at that moment.
Lots of people have commented on how the Winter Soldier hesitates for a moment before throwing himself back into his mission. This is the first crack in the programming, and I think that hesitation we see is the ghost of Bucky. HYDRA managed to program the Winter Soldier to not recognize Steve’s face, but they couldn’t bury Bucky so deep that he wouldn’t react to Steve calling out to him.
The Winter Soldier has never known kindness or friendship or love – he’s a tool, what point is there in wasting such attention on a weapon? So when faced with Steve not defending himself, the Winter Soldier does not know what to do, it’s not part of his programming, and deep down within him Bucky starts to throw himself at the walls. I think that is what makes the Winter Soldier aim at Steve again; the world is shattering around him, inside him, but his mision is always his mission.
This carries over in his next scene, with Pierce. He’s unsure, questioning, a little bit violent. When ordered to have his mind wiped, he doesn’t fight it. Maybe he thinks things will return to normal, that he will be rid of the voice screaming inside of him to save his target protect him save him.
Of course, that doesn’t work. Not at all in fact. Because on the helicarrier we get this:
The Winter Soldier doesn’t attack Steve. He is an assassin, a sniper, his advantage is in his unexpected first attack. But here he just stands before Steve, acting the part of a mountain, firm between Steve and Steve’s target.
And Steve? Steve talks. He tells Bucky he needs to get past him, please remember we’re friends, I really don’t want to this, I’m sorry.
marlowe-tops has an excellent meta on this fight which I highly recommend, and the gist of it is that while the Winter Soldier has his Mission, he can’t remember it because Bucky is screaming at him to not fight Steve. This time both of them are pulling punches, not wanting to hurt each other; before things escalate, they are almost having a shoving match.
Of course, things do escalate, and the Winter Soldier shoots Steve three times. (But deliberately avoids the head). Then Steve, because there is no Rogers without Barnes, runs down to save the Winter Soldier from being crushed to death, and the Winter Soldier snaps.
His mission saved his life. His mission, whom he can’t bring himself to kill, saved him and now calls him friend. His missionfriendmissionfriendmission says he won’t fight him. Calls him James Buchanan Barnes and the voice inside him screams louder and everything comes shattering down.
The following fight isn’t as much a fight as it is a physical scream of anguish. The Winter Soldier is crumbling, Bucky is fighting to get out, and Steve takes the punches and won’t fight back. He only pleads for Bucky, it’s me, Steve, remember me, please, remember me, I’m your friend.
Just look at the Winter Soldier’s face here.
Look at the last one. Look at it real closely. Do you see how it goes from fear/confusion/anger/shock to… something softer? As he subtly turns to Steve and tilts his head down, Bucky recognizes Steve.
Steve. What have I done?
I’m not saying that Bucky returned to stay and that the Winter Soldier is gone; quite the opposite, I think Bucky only managed to break out at that exact moment. But he’s awake, no longer dormant, and could make the Winter Soldier dive into the river to save Steve and make sure he was breathing before leaving him.
There’s a long journey ahead and it will be filled with pain and heartbreak, but the cracks have been formed and will spread. The Winter Soldier’s programming is breaking down, and I cannot see any other cause for it than the combined force of Steve’s undying loyalty and love for Bucky, and Bucky’s bone-deep one for Steve – and how Steve proved that devotion all over again.
(gif sources: rebloggy.com & glassconduit & fluffalos & kirknspock)
This final moment, this moment where the man who had always protected little Steve Roger has him on the ropes is the moment where Bucky can’t and won’t be contained anymore. He always, always protected Steve. Always. In the back alleys of Brooklyn, on the front lines in Germany. It didn’t matter. No matter how big and powerful Steve got, Bucky would always protect him.
And now, Steve is on his back, bleeding, helpless, vulnerable, and for the first time since Bucky can remember, Steve isn’t fighting back. He isn’t running either, but Steve always fought back. Steve never lay down and let someone hurt him. No matter how big. No matter how strong. He would always fight.
And Bucky, somewhere under the armour of the Winter Soldier, knows that and knows that he can’t and won’t let this be the first time he isn’t there to save his friend. Bucky may hate what he has become and know all the things he has been used for and to kill, but the one person he can’t and won’t kill is Steve. Not now. Not ever.
There’s a line from the first film which sums up their whole relationship: not without you. And that is the essence of who these two men are. They are two halves of a whole. Not without you. And Bucky, under all the drugs and pain and torture and conditioning, will never let Steve down.
That is so beautifully put and exactly, exactly.
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knitting in the dark 