With ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ Sebastian Stan crosses over from parts unknown

Weird title to the article, but Sebastian cleanses my soul with his protection of Bucky Barnes (and genuinely being a humble person). If Bucky did have to get fridged, the only person who I think could change the writer’s mind about Bucky’s treatment is the actor who plays him. Characters who are put into bad positions who had no way out are oftentimes shoved aside and have their flaws highlighted. Bucky has become the beacon of this trope and I’m glad to see that Sebastian refuses to let Bucky become his own worst nightmare. Bucky is still a good person, even if he was tortured and brainwashed. Sebastian loves Bucky, and his portrayal of that love comes through strong.

ink-phoenix:

Can someone come talk to me about how they have to wipe Bucky every time he gets out of cryo before they even send him on a mission

Because I always imagined that him coming out of cryo would kind of be a blank slate state

But nope

He gets wiped and reprogrammed /every time/ they take him out of cryo – why. Has it happened before? At the beginning maybe, or further down the road, where they would not wipe him after cryo and realized that the asset had began reforming consciousness? Did he try to get away? Did he try to fight them? How many tries has it taken Hydra/Red Room before they figured out they needed to wipe him or he’d destroy the lab and everyone in it?

I was always uncertain on when Bucky would be forced to get his mind wiped; was it before or after cryo? Hydra would have wanted enough of a vessel to do their bidding, but an asset that can still be hyper effective in the field without any agency of his own.

For Hydra’s convenience, sticking Bucky in the ice without a wipe doesn’t make sense to me because of the lingering memories of the previous mission; those could fester during the time in the ice and release an extremely hostile Bucky Barnes on the other side.

Wiping after, which is confirmed by the movie, suggests that Bucky is a completely blank slate when they send him on whatever mission Hydra needs him for. He reverts to total submission (readiness “to comply”) to those who are able to trigger his Winter Soldier programming. His default is call sign is “soldier” with Russian trigger words and response.

I don’t think these words would work the same way if said in any other language or else Zemo would have said them in German (/Sokovian) or something. I think that Bucky’s default after wiping is Russian but is capable of conversing in several languages after the programming is reset.

Does Bucky as the soldier believe itself to be a Russian asset? It is the default in Captain America: Winter Soldier when speaking to the STRIKE team, though he knows when to switch to English when given a prompt to speak in that language. Bucky as the soldier must see itself as something other than regular Hydra agents or military personnel.

Does Bucky see himself as human? Is he a tool with human characteristics? As the soldier/asset, Bucky is allowed no sense of agenda beyond what Hydra puts into his head. Bucky is so smart and empathetic though, wouldn’t the asset pick up on not being able to have the same control of himself that others seem to have? He is stripped from any sense of self, and as a human, I couldn’t see Bucky being complacent with letting that happen for long.

Bucky as a tool, something other than human, something that only knows of being controlled and being the extension of others, is a state where Bucky takes on this pain as inevitable and continues to exist accordingly. The mind wipes took away Bucky’s connection to his humanity and left a shell to be filled with Hydra’s controlling force. Bucky has the ability to regain this humanity, and in congruence his defiance to Hydra, the longer he goes between mind wipes.

From Civil War, I believe that Bucky was wiped every time once he was taken out of cryo. The “Soldier” is at its weakest state, recently thawed and probably mentally in shock.

So going from that, does Hydra wipe Bucky before putting him into cryo as well? We have been told that a long enough time out of cryo proves to be dangerous, with the return of memories and the increased risk of rebellion. Bucky could go into the ice without any sort of mind wipe, but allowing the memories from the previous mission to sit in Bucky’s brain long enough in order for him to realize what is happening to him is not okay seems like a dangerous situation for Hydra to put themselves in. They would likely take as many precautions as necessary to keep Bucky under their control.

The way I see it, Bucky was wiped before cryo to keep him from thinking too much about what the asset was made to do just previously (the longer Bucky sits on these memories the more I see the guilt of it tearing him up inside and causing trouble). After cryo, Bucky was then wiped again so that Hydra could inject the new mission into a clean state of mind.

Maybe Bucky wasn’t wiped before going into the ice, but I could only see that causing problems for Hydra in the long run. I see Bucky’s ability and healing factor being able to pick apart what he was forced to endure connect it to hate aimed toward his oppressors. If there is any form of dreamlike state in cryo, Bucky’s brain must be doing some serious healing during this time. Leaving Bucky with as little as possible to build from during his time in cryo would be the path of least resistance for Hydra.

So that leaves Bucky with two different states between mind wipes:

Out in the world, Bucky is actively in the field, taking direction from others and being filled with evil intentions. He takes this on as an unknown burden and continues forward despite his own comfort. The trigger words do not seem to last for long, or they are less effective when not used on a regular basis, or when not coupled with the mind wipes (or Bucky hit his head on the helicopter and was already out of the winter soldier mindset so there’s not really a clear answer here). But Bucky’s memories are actively forming, he is recently wiped, but is making new memories and in a state of hyper awareness, only allowed to pull on information in his head that would be deemed beneficial for Hydra’s uses.

If Bucky is wiped before cryo as well as after, that leaves Bucky as a blank slate while he goes into the ice for an undetermined amount of time. I don’t think Bucky has a quiet brain when this is happening. When initially entering cryo, Bucky is compliant and weak from the electricity. But every single time he goes in with nothing, and delves into his own head and rebuilds his world and what he knows. The horror builds inside his head until the ice melts again and the soldier might not know who he is but he knows he doesn’t want to be here, but he’s thrown in a chair that makes his stomach twist and the screams of his terrors and thoughts of rebellion are quieted down to a murmur until he’s out in the world for too long again.

gabbiegallery:

‘Cause I’m with you ‘til the end of the line.

buckycap:

bucky giggling and smiling so widely when he tells steve that he used to wear newspapers in his shoes

bucky having tears in his eyes while watching the winter soldier murder tony’s parents

bucky begging and crying out for zemo to stop when his winter soldier codes are being said

bucky buying plums in his spare time and keeping a picture of steve in one of his memory notebooks (which had chocolate bars on top of it)

bucky firmly telling zemo that his name is not james, it’s bucky

bucky saying that he remembers all of the people he’s killed while being the winter soldier

bucky protecting steve from tony and getting his arm shot off in the process and even when he’s down and in pain from losing his arm he can’t let tony get to steve

bucky thinking that he’s not worth all of this to steve

bucky deciding that instead of living his life in a constant state of fear and paranoia he’ll go back into cryo for the safety and protection of others and himself until t’challa can find a cure

teatotally:

In the bank vault scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when we first see Bucky, he’s being bombarded with fragments of memories of Steve and his own “death.” When I was watching it recently, I noticed that one of the things he doesn’t do much of at first is blink. When Pierce enters the vault, Bucky’s not even blinking at all, simply staring straight ahead, completely lost in his memories and confusion, and trying to piece things together. But if you look at the gif above, you’ll notice that right after Pierce backhands him across the face, Bucky’s staring off toward the right, unblinking, until he begins to say, “The man on the bridge…”

In the dim recesses of my minor in speech communication brain, I remembered some information about cognitive function and blinking, so I looked up what might be going on in this scene, and it’s really fascinating. Blinking (aside from its physical requirement of keeping the eye moist) is related to certain cognitive processes; most people punctuate their speech with blinking between phrases and at the ends of sentences. People also time blinking so as not to interfere with receiving new cognitive input (less blinking while they’re solving a problem, for instance, and then blinking more when they’re done).

A 1933 study showed that the rate of blinking was low during tasks requiring concentration and intense mental activity. However, “unfocused or rapidly changing internal states such as disorientation, emotional excitement, frustration, and anxiety seem to be associated with high rates of blinking.”

In the above gif, you can see that Bucky doesn’t blink at all while he’s more focused on the memories that are assaulting him, but then as his internal state starts to change and he wants to talk, he blinks repeatedly when he says, “The man on the bridge.” He keeps blinking in quick succession as he remembers Steve saying, “Bucky?” and continues, turning his gaze up to Pierce: “I knew him.” The blinking has slowed at that point.

Once Pierce lies and then starts in on his little carrot speech, Bucky goes back to blinking only when his eyes change focus or he moves his gaze. Sometimes it’s not even a full blink, just a small movement of his eyelids, like below.

An example of these processes the researchers mentioned was: “While searching one’s memory for a name, one tends not to blink; then, when the name is located, blinking occurs.” Bucky basically, throughout Pierce’s bloviating, is continuing to process his internal emotions and retrieve information, so he doesn’t blink much at all. The researchers believed blinking is inhibited when activities are not dependent upon visual input – and here, all Bucky really does is half listen to Pierce yammering, not entirely focused on him, only glancing at him occasionally. And even more interestingly in terms of this scene, the lower blinking rate extends to visual memory as well, not just receiving new input. All those thoughts and feelings roiling in his mind are Bucky’s primary focus, not Pierce’s empty rhetoric. Until…

Bucky says something about Steve, and his memories, again. Then he blinks multiple times in rapid succession.

Here you can see him blink slowly once, turn his attention to Pierce’s face, and then say, blinking rapidly, “But I knew him.” He’s accessed those visual memories, he knows he knows something, and he doesn’t care about the new input from Pierce, so the higher blink rate is indicative of his emotional turmoil every bit as much as that little grimace is.

“The rapid changes in visual input level resulting from the closing and opening of the lids may cause massive interference in visual processing areas.” I mean, all I can do here is make flaily hands while I sit in a bathtub filled with the crystalline tears I’ve cried for Bucky.

When Pierce gives up on the carrot and goes for the stick, Bucky goes back to not blinking much at all. Even when they shove him back in the chair, he doesn’t blink.

I don’t know if Sebastian Stan or the directors knew any of this, or if Sebastian did this blinking thing deliberately as part of his acting process, but damn. He just deserves all the awards for such a subtle, amazing performance here. This incredible fucking movie: 16 months later and we can still find stuff to talk about. It’s agonizing and heartbreaking and I don’t think I’ll ever be over this scene.

weknownotnow:

potofsoup:

yetanotherobsessivereader:

When I look at Bucky’s face in this scene, I just see terror.

He’s trapped on the same train as Arnim Zola, and he’s terrified of being recaptured and experimented on again.

Ever since his rescue from the Hydra facility, there’ve been signs that he’s not ok.

Bucky stops faking a smile the moment Steve turns away from him.

At the bar when Steve is recruiting the Howling Commandos, Bucky sits apart from everyone, tossing back whiskey like someone struggling with bad memories. He’s already got the thousand yard stare. And when he talks to Steve, it’s with an edge of false bravado.

When Steve first finds Bucky, he was repeating his name, rank and serial number like a mantra, a sign that he’d probably been interrogated and/or tortured. Another blogger pointed out that the bruises on his cheek and forehead look like they were caused by the equipment used to wipe him in CATWS. Zola, in all likelihood, had already begun the process of breaking Bucky down.

Can you imagine the courage it took for Bucky to follow Steve onto that train?

When Bucky said “I’m with you to the end of the line,” he meant every single word.

And yet he manages to pass it off with the Coney Island Cyclone joke! You KNOW Bucky just wants to vomit, and not from the ride down to the train, but from what’s waiting for him there.

#all the bucky feels #wartime bucky is my favorite bucky #because for the first time in his life he’s faking it to steve #and steve doesn’t see it #he is already invisible #becoming a ghost was just the natural next step potofsoup how dare you with these tags

steverorgers:

(insp.)