Something to note about the peter scene. He’s not blocking bucky’s other arm, and Bucky is a trained killer. He could absoLUTELY crush this insect of a child. He’s dumbstruck because this is the first time Bucky has heard his enemy’s voice and it clicks
I’m fighting an actual child
“This is a baby. Who put this baby in a warzone? I can’t just fight a baby!”
Thank the Russo brothers for a) shooting outside in a real setting with practical effects not CGI, for going with a shaky cam that actually added to the sense of immediacy and wasn’t annoying as fuck.
Let me tell u what makes this scene so great. It’s the fact that Steve has a match, an equal. He mows down the goons on the Lemurian Star, escapes SHIELD HQ by fighting 15 people in closed quaters, jumps off a buliding and blows up a plane, then within hours he meets up with Natasha and survives a missle strike. He has no match, no equal in this world. That’s what happens when Batroc challenges him – this scene shows us that men think they can go toe to toe with Steve but they simply can’t.
And then this scene is a rare beast. It’s an action scene that is actually a character building scene. We saw the WS blow up Fury’s car and shoot him, but that could have been any common soldier. Sam could have deployed the mine. Natasha could have taken the shot a Fury. None of them could survive in no holding back fight with Steve.
Within seconds, Bucky has Steve off of him (usually if Steve is close enough to hit you, it’s game over for you), then disarms him and uses his weapon against him. Bucky dictates the speed and the path of the fight, and while Steve tries to attack, most of the time he is dodging. This tells us the audience, several things: a. Steve is in actual danger, b. Steve, judging by his face, is scared (remember what beatings he has taken up unitl now) and therefore c. for the first time in 3 movies, Steven Grant Rogers, Captain America, is not safe. The stakes are real. You are feeling the adrenaline Steve is feeling, even if you are not sure why. That’s what makes this scene a masterpiece.
As much as I agree this is the greatest fight of all time, part of me is still disappointed each time I see “goat fight” on my dash and it’s not accompanied by a gif of two goats having a tiff.
Interesting to note: Bucky had all his memories back, but he started a new life without contacting Steve. Fandom seems upset about this, but I think it makes perfect sense; it fits with the ending of CATWS, when Bucky visits the Captain America exhibit.
Because, like he said, Bucky doesn’t want to fight anymore. He doesn’t want to be a soldier or be involved in this superhero mess. And as Civil War showed us, that’s Steve’s entire life. As long as Steve remains Captain America he will always be fighting these battles. It never ends.
We know that Steve’s been struggling with this for his entire plotline, but Bucky doesn’t know that; he only sees the Smithsonian exhibit. He thinks Steve wants to be this legendary superhero, but Bucky is just done with that story. Being a superhero (or serum-enhanced, rather) has only ever lead to trauma and torture for Bucky. He followed Steve in CATFA and worked with Captain America despite his reservations… and it killed him. Then fighting Captain America in CATWS almost killed him again. So Bucky couldn’t align himself with Steve – in fact, he was terrified when he saw Steve dressed like Cap, waiting for him. Like he said, it always ends in a fight, and Bucky didn’t want history to repeat itself. He knew that if he stayed with Steve, he would be caught up in Captain America as long as Steve was – he would fight alongside Cap as long as he was able. But Bucky just wanted to be free, for once, so he chose a life without Captain America, without Steve. It wasn’t really working, but he was trying to get away.
So Bucky didn’t contact Steve, mostly ran from him and these superhero fights… until Steve put down the shield. Then they walked away from it all, side by side. No shield, no metal arm, just Bucky and Steve supporting each other, closing that chapter of their lives together. It’s exactly what they both wanted, but couldn’t do alone.
In Infinity War, when the army in Wakanda is charging forward to meet Thanos’s army, you see Steve and T’challa fly past everyone because they both run super fast. But Bucky is just as fast. And Bucky was not with them. Bucky looked at the army of weird alien monsters and thought to himself “I’m not in any hurry to get to that. I’ll jog it.”
Bucky, watching Steve and T’challa sprint headlong toward a possibly deadly fight: My god, now there’s two of them.
I know opinions are divided on how Civil War treated Steve, Bucky, and Stucky: some of us hated it, others are disappointed or felt it was lacking, and some are still going over the possibilities.
But let’s talk about what we did get out of this film, in terms of cute headcanons and characterizations for Steve and Bucky!
We saw Steve and Natasha basically acting as adoptive parents to Wanda, teaching her how to be a superhero, with Sam taking over when she caught a ‘villain’ so she wouldn’t have to hurt anyone. Then Steve turned off the newsreel about the accident and made sure Wanda knew it wasn’t her fault. And, when Steve got snippy at General Ross for upsetting Wanda?! So cute. They all recognized that she was just a kid, and kept her safe every step of the way. Protective!Steve is everything.
(Even Rhodey – when Ross handed Wanda the Accord she looked so overwhelmed and terrified, but Rhodey reached out for the contract so Wanda didn’t have to face it. AND Clint protected her from explosions at the airport. The tiniest moments, but I loved them so much).
Sam and Nat flew to London to be with Steve at the funeral, even though they didn’t know Peggy that well. Best friends for life!
Bucky in his little apartment in Romania! With his caramel kitkat bars! And his plums! And his photo of Steve from the Smithsonian museum! We didn’t see much, but there were all kinds of little tokens that showed he was trying new things and had made a life for himself in those two years. He was healing, however slowly, smiling and socializing.
Hi Anon! Yeah, I get what you mean: Marvel’s been vague about Bucky’s conditioning under HYDRA, which can make his actions difficult to understand: was he brainwashed, or mind-controlled? FWIW, here’s my interpretation of Bucky’s conditioning in Civil War:
First HYDRA brainwashed Bucky, likely through torture and psychological means, to make Bucky believe that what he was doing was right. We know this because of Pierce’s words: ‘Your work has been a gift to mankind’, ‘[we’re] giving the world the freedom it deserves’, etc. Since HYDRA was Bucky’s entire life, doing their work was the ‘right thing’ because Bucky didn’t see the aftermath of his actions; he only saw how HYDRA reacted to them. He complied, they were happy, so the event was Good.Brainwashing is a scary thing.
Next, fear was a huge part of Bucky’s brainwashing, to take any choice away: if Bucky didn’t do what HYDRA asked, they would likely kill him (or worse). It’s directly shown in the scene where Bucky’s handler puts a gun to his head and tells Bucky to get him out of the cage of SuperSoldiers, no matter what. It leaves him no option but to follow their demands.
I’m assuming that both of these elements will be explored if Marvel ever decides to venture into Natasha’s storyline, because they were likely brainwashed with the same method. It’s not foolproof, but it’s very, very effective, and more importantly, the individual is still their self: it just forcibly alters their perceptions. Bucky knows something about the situation is wrong, but he doesn’t quite know why, because he’s doing what is asked of him.
The more I think about the opening scene in Civil War, the more I’m convinced that HYDRA only fed Bucky intravenously. He never had actual food.
Because the Soviets defrosted Bucky, dragged him to the chair and shocked him, and then prepped him for a mission; HYDRA did the same thing in CATWS. In both scenes you can see an IV connected to his arm, as well as all the tubes connected to Bucky while in cryo. He also ignored Pierce’s offer for milk (which was sarcastic, but still), and he’s never seen eating and/or drinking as the Soldier – there’s not even a cup of water sitting nearby in the prep stations.
It’s no wonder that Bucky took such pleasure in buying a few plums – after decades, he can finally have real food.
hannahbelleeeebackup 