Day Four of Bella's Blog Party is to pick a character from the opposite team I like and talk about him/her and/or defend him/her.
Obviously the character I choose from the opposite team is Bucky.
I mean, I love Steve. Duh. Who wouldn't? But if we are just choosing a member that's NOT Steve, it would be Bucky. Think about this. He is Steve's friend from way back. He always had Steve's back. Even after he was rescued in CAFA, he immediately deferred to Captain America, and literally followed him into death. He didn't choose to become the Winter Soldier. The Russians messed with his brain and made him a dangerous weapon, but it was never something he chose. In fact, once he remembered who Steve was, and who he was, he went into hiding. He didn't "do that anymore." The only reason he came out of hiding was because THIS man...
...Baron Zemo, lost his family in Sokovia and, blaming the Avengers for their deaths, was determined to destroy them from the inside out. So he framed Bucky for killing the king of Wakanda, which brought hordes of policemen swarming to find and capture the Winter Soldier, thus making Steve lose his normally cool-headed perspective to ignore the law in order to protect his best friend.
Bucky has a really tragic story. He's left for dead in the Alps after falling from an impossible height in CAFA, but apparently due to whatever the Russians did to him while he was in their prison, the fall did not kill him. Instead, he is found and apprehended by HYDRA agents, and programmed to become their assassin. He is transformed from the good old Brooklyn kid Steve knew, into a mindless killer who's only job was to comply.
Steve - "What you did all those years, it wasn't you. You didn't have a choice."
Bucky - "I know. But I did it."
The thing I like best about Bucky, he knows fate has dealt him a cruel hand, but he never complains. Even while Steve is trying to keep him safe, Bucky takes each obstacle step and step and accepts it for what it is.
"I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve." - Bucky Barnes
Even at the end, when Zemo plays footage revealing Bucky was the assassin who killed Tony's parents, Bucky never tries to shift the blame. He just stands there as the video plays, watching Tony slowly losing it, quietly ready to take whatever violence Tony throws at him (which, by the way, I totally get. I dare you to stand and watch your parents get viciously murdered by the best friend of your friend, and just shrug it off).
Tony - "Do you even remember them?"
Bucky - "I remember all of them."
And then, after all is said and done, Bucky chooses to go back into cryostasis, because he is still programmed to be dangerous. He would rather be put on ice indefinitely than to be the cause of any other problems for Steve. And I think that was the most heroic thing done in the movie.
That's a wrap, until tomorrow!
God Bless!
Cat
He's a terrific character- the fact that they brought him back really shows the value of Ed Brubaker's original comics plotline that worked so well bringing Bucky back.
ReplyDeleteAnd Zemo's a bastard, but a compelling one!