DAMN THOUGH can we have a moment of appreciation for how different Bucky’s fighting style is compared to WS??
Credit for this absolutely goes to Sebastian Stan’s character work. In Civil War when Bucky is in a fight/in danger he’s literally so expressive, compared to the Dead Eyed Murder Glare™ we’re accustomed to from the Winter Soldier.
Like REALLY:
And it’s such a neat thing because Civil War Bucky is still super competent, he’s got the WS’s skills, but he’s also FREAKING THE HELL OUT HE DIDN’T ASK FOR ANY OF THIS
HE JUST WANTED TO BUY SOME PLUMS FFS
these wide-eyed OH FUCK facial expressions are like half the reason why the GET REKT jokes are so freaking funny, because it’s so different from how the Winter Soldier would’ve acted [[*analyzes a meme*]]
But this is IMPORTANT because one of the things I was so relieved about from this movie was that it emphasized the separation between the Winter Soldier persona and Bucky’s ACTUAL PERSONALITY when he’s not being mind-controlled and forced to kill people.
Yeah, I have my gripes/nitpicks about the movie, lots of us do – but on this particular point I’m SO pleased with the respect that was shown for Bucky’s character. Most of the fans take it for granted that ~Bucky Barnes Is Not A Villian 2k14~, but he could have been written off that way!!! Even just by making less of a distinction between the Bucky that was controlled by Hydra and one who has his own internal life & personality.
I think we should appreciate the fact that the characterization we got could not have happened without collaboration from the creatives in charge: clear direction from the Russos, the writers using a strong narrative device like Bucky being programmed by trigger words, and of course Sebastian Stan acting his face off and totally changing his body language depending on which version he was portraying.
Sebastian Stan proved his acting mettle when he stole CA: Winter Soldier with only a handful of spoken lines and only his eyes visible for like half the damn movie. In CA: CW, though, he takes it to a whole new level. The whole time, he’s viscerally aware of what Bucky’s state of mind would be. He showed us, with his face and eyes and body, whether he was Bucky or the Winter Soldier.
very good observation here about how important Sebastian Stan’s facial acting was in CACW. ESPECIALLY for movie audiences who aren’t as in tune with the fandom – who were the people still calling the winter soldier a “villain”. By having him react, being freaked the fuck out, and overall being the opposite of a MurderBot, you get a much more sympathetic character – and making the tragedy that much more astute when you see how he was stripped of his will with a series of words and powerless to fight them.
Which also makes it THAT MUCH MORE impressive and really shows just how strong Bucky and Steve feel for each other when Steve was able to snap him out of it in CATWS with “I’ with you till the end of the line”.
It’s been five years and I still don’t know why people don’t think Bucky was such a vintage!geek in the 1940s
Knows by heart how many women there are in New York and casually throws that in a conversation he has when he’s on his way to a science fair
“LOOK AT THAT FUCKING FLYING CAR" “Holy cow” feels
Best friend is a kid who is into arts and takes books with him to the army
“STEVE YOU’RE KEEPING YOUR SUPER HERO OUTFIT RIGHT??”
Smithsonian tells me Bucky was “an excellent athlete who also excelled in the classroom” – like, his grades were good enough Smithsonian thought “hey we should mention that”
If my math teacher wasn’t lying to me, you needed some pretty great math skills to be a good sniper in WW2, so there’s also that
People say “Oh Bucky was into science” but no, god, he was a full-blown nerd
