We know that HYDRA couldn’t completely erase Steve from Bucky’s memory… but maybe they knew that, and manipulated it to their advantage. It’s eerie how much a young Robert Redford resembles Steve Rogers during the 1940s:
Maybe HYDRA chose Pierce to be Bucky’s handler based on his striking resemblance to Captain America. Perhaps he rose through the ranks because of how well he could control Bucky, without using extreme violence. He would have been the perfect brainwashing tool.
So how many times did Pierce take Bucky’s love for Steve and use it against him? Is that partially how HYDRA made Bucky so complaisant, so willing to take orders from Pierce?
A young Alexander Pierce would just have to smile at Bucky while spewing lines about Saving the World, and The Greater Good, and Bucky would have listened. It would have sounded so familiar to him, manipulating the part of his brain that would follow Steve Rogers anywhere.
The manipulation is especially noticeable in the vault scene. Seeing Steve on the bridge confused Bucky, but Pierce brings him back to focus by lecturing him about doing his part to shape the century. Bucky looks abashed, until Pierce says: “[if we don’t do our parts]…HYDRA can’t give the world the freedomit deserves”.At those words, Bucky really looks at Pierce, actually considers him for the first time:
He has a bite to his voice as he replies “But I knew him” – so different from his submissive behaviour seconds before – because now that he remembers Steve, he doesn’t implicitly trust Pierce. Bucky looks resentful, like he’s seeing the manipulation for what it is, though he doesn’t understand why.
Even as his memories return, Bucky could be wary and nervous of Steve, confused by HYDRA’s manipulations. It could explain why he’s running from Steve in Civil War.
in the movie a little boy recognises steve at the captain america exhibit. it’s my headcanon that a little girl recognises bucky when he goes to the smithsonian exhibit to find out who he really is
because little girls have heroes too
“You should tie your hair back,” a little girl with pitch-black hair says to the Winter Soldier. He stares down at her, silent, but she continues undeterred. “Mommy says that we need to have our hair tied back or we’ll trip over things because we can’t see. She makes me wear these–” She displays her wrist, which is encircled by a rainbow of different hair bands. “–because mine keep falling out. You can’t fight evil if you can’t see it. I want to be a police officer when I grow up. Are you a…”
She trails off, her eyes steadily getting bigger. They dart to the large digital image of James Buchanan Barnes, then back to his face. The Winter Soldier’s eyes dart, too, over the exits and the crowd and the girl’s distracted mother–attempting to corral three other black-haired children–before landing back on the girl’s face, where an improbable grin has begun to grow.
“I knew it,” she whispers.
The Winter Soldier blinks down at her, thrown off by the delight in her expression. No one is ever happy to see the Soldier.
The girl reins in her wide grin and does her own scan of the crowd. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell. People can’t handle the truth. But I can.” She turns her shining eyes back to the Soldier.
Slowly, very slowly, the Soldier reaches out with hands that have broken, maimed, strangled, shot, stabbed, and ripped apart human flesh. His voice creaks out of him, rusty with disuse. “Can I have a hair tie?”
Without taking her eyes off him, the girl rolls a light blue one out of the rainbow and hands it over.
it’s saddens me bucky was the only howling commando without a hat. i wonder if that was a source of ire in the group
like barnes and your perfect hair
It’s funny because I noticed that too, but Bucky wore a hat or a helmet right up to the point he was captured, so I think this might have more to do with him not liking things on his head anymore. Take a moment to reflect on the implications of that.
But yes, I’m sure every one of them teased him about his hair too. It’s just so easy.
HAHAHHA HOW CAN THIS FUCKING FANDOM MAKE ME CRY LITERALLY ABOUT THE LACK OF A HAT I HATE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR
