The MCU and the wasted potential of Bucky/WS/Seb
I don't think I'll ever not be pissed at just how much Marvel fucking wasted Bucky/Winter Soldier/Sebastian. It infuriates me just how much they're wasting a character with the best potential on multiple fronts
It's well-known knowledge that Bucky is one of the fan favourites of the MCU, especially since CATWS. Like, this cannot be a "corner of the internet" thing, right? And Marvel has got to know this since Bucky is one of the characters that appear in the most number of MCU projects. Seb and Tom Hiddleston are the only two actors to be in every single phase of the MCU with a significant role. Buck's pick rate in Marvel Rivals is pretty high tier. Seb goes to a bunch of cons and fan events because of Bucky's popularity. A lot of headcanon/shitpost in fandom social media include Bucky (and Loki) with the original six avengers line up. Bucky (and Loki) are the only two non-heroes (in the traditional sense of the word) in the Avengers Figure Collection exclusively selling in ToysrUs where I am. Stucky has been within the top 10 ships with most works of all time for the past TEN years. Shanghai Disneyland's official merchandise includes this very popular stucky pin for fucks sake
So at least from what I observe, Bucky's popularity is obvious to anyone who spends time in the MCU fandom.
If we look closer into it, we can talk about how Bucky is a metaphor for a lot of demographics that find solace in him and in the MCU movies/fandoms, including SA victims, PTSD patients, trauma survivors, etc., but that's a whole separate essay on it's own. But here are some really good ones: x/x/x/x/x
And given the most basic economic theory of supply and demand, shouldn't a character so beloved by fans, i.e. a character with a high demand, be given better projects, stories and screentime, i.e supply?
But noooooo. In CACW, some can argue that he was basically the "sexy lamp" of the story, what was supposed to be centred on his recovery and reunion with Steve ended up being Avengers 2.5/Iron Man 3.5. He gets sidelined in IW and Endgame (which, fine, it's an enormous cast, a world-ending threat and two Avengers movies) and then GETS ABANDONED BY HIS BEST FRIEND (no I will never not be angry about this) In TFATWS his trauma gets dismissed and he has to "make amends" for crimes that he did not have any consent in committing (i.e. mens reas doesn't not apply to him), the narrative framing him responsible for the winter soldier stuff from start to end. What-ifs was random as all hell and still heavily fed into the whole (under-developed) relationship that led to him getting abandoned, lending moments from his relationship and movie with Steve to Steggy. Thunderbolts* doesn't have a lot of him, and while I love the movie dearly and Bucky's role in the movie works, he's very much the driving motivator/"mentor" archetype as opposed to part of the main group until the end.
You have a fan favourite character, a character that many, many people want to see, want to watch his story, and yet you never give him a good story or spotlight post CATWS, even those there are so many stories to tell.
Here's the thing. I would never wish anything remotely close to the Winter Soldier to happen in real life. It's cruel, it's criminal, it's fucking inhumane.
That being said, given the very limited knowledge we have about the Winter Soldier through the MCU, mainly CATWS and CACW, it's a fascinating study on cognitive psychology.
How much was Bucky dehumanised as the Winter Soldier? Was he programmed into a living machine, not even recognising itself as human, as the same kind of being as its handlers? Or was he biologically/neurologically programmed into obedience and/or aggression, similar to the optogenetic mouse experiment? Did he believe himself to be an agent of HYDRA, genuinely loyal to the cause until "Bucky Barnes" started kicking in?
What the hell happened between CATWS and CACW? Did he have to remember how to be a human again? How much did he remember? Did he need to relearn how to eat, drink, sleep and piss? Did he need to relearn regular human social interactions? How did all his brainwashing bullshit and metal arm thing affect his regular physiology when there was no longer a team of scientists maintaining his physical body for him? How did memories come back? In gentle waves or crashing tsunamis?
And frankly, the winter soldier program a far more interesting dive into the super soldier thing instead of the messy storylines from TFATWS and CABNW: we know that he was injected with the super soldier serum since CATFA in Azzano, but when did Bucky and Zola realise that it worked? Why wasn't his transformation as drastic as Steve's? Did the serum take time to build up into the eventual Winter Soldier physique, or did he have to take more shots? How did they come up with the procedures to suppress "Bucky Barnes"? Why did they need both the brainwashing and the code words since given what's shown in CACW, the code words override him no matter what? Why those specific words? Why Russian?
The most interesting (albeit inhumane in reality) part of the character's history was never shown, all swept under the rug with some flimsy flashback or two line explanation, or a device for another plotline.
And yes it's fascinating to see fan's interpretation on what happened during these blanks, God knows how many Winter Soldier fics and Winter Soldier recovery fics I've read, but that begs the question: Why the fuck isn't canon exploring this part of history when there are so many questions to answer and so many stories to tell?
Especially when the actor himself has plenty of ideas.
This might be the part of the whole thing that makes me the maddest.
Seb, Golden Globe Winning Actor Sebastian Stan, wants to do a Winter Soldier project.
And yeah I get the whole contract thing, but Seb's in a stage of his career where money isn't the biggest concern, art is. A while ago during the Tokyo Comic Con he said that he'd be happy to do another Thunderbolts* movie. He's currently in talks for the next Batman movie (which was the trigger that led to me writing this lol) so he's not "moving on" from comic book movies or anything, he's looking for good stories too tell.
Which, as the previous section stated, a winter soldier solo project would have a great potential to be.
On top of that, Seb fucking loves Bucky. He calls Bucky his brother. He wrote the foreword for the collector's edition of the Winter Soldier comics. He took less than 1.5 hours of screentime across 14 years and acted his whole soul into it, making a character so iconic that he became a fan fav.
If given a good script for Bucky/Winter Soldier, I don't have any doubt that Seb would take it.
And that's the most frustrating thing!
You have an ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE, GOLDEN GLOBES WINNER, POWERHOUSE OF AN ACTOR WHO WANTS TO EXPLORE HIS CHARACTER THAT HAS ENDLESS STORY POTENTIAL
IT'S PRATICALLY A TREASURE TROVE
WHAT THE FUCK MARVEL WHAT THE FUCK
