the more bucky fanfics i read the more i want to analyze them deeper and deeper
there are some themes that are explored and built upon that don't really appear in the films, they emerged in the fanfiction realm and became explored deeply through dialogues between many different works.
Memory and dis-continuity of identity: the fact Bucky was thought to be dead, brainwashed, and now returns "back from the dead" is foundation to basically all of these, but from there it sharply diverges.
In some fics, Bucky regains a lot of his memories and remains the same person he was when Steve knew him in the 1930's. In other fics, "Bucky" persists only as a haunting, a ghost that still clings to the body that once held Bucky Barnes, but is now host to a new, different person.
Who, then, is the Winter Soldier? Sometimes he is just a vacuum, a state of being totally denied personhood. He does not have a name, he is referred to as "it," he is powerless and empty.
Almost always, Steve wants to help him remember. He misses his friend. But remembering is not the same thing as being. In some stories Bucky is able to survive, and claw his way back from total annihilation. But in other stories, Bucky doesn't survive. He has to grieve for his own death.
In both of these kinds of fics, writers sometimes explore, to varying extents, The Soldier as his own, distinct person, a separate identity. There are some fics where Bucky and the Soldier are like two persons inhabiting one body, a broken, scared man and a powerful, unfeeling machine taking turns as the primary personality, or simply coexisting and conflicting within. Then there are the fics where the Soldier is just the new custodian of Bucky's body and what remains of his memories. And then there are the fics where both identities are shattered and irretrievable, and our hero has to build personhood from scratch. In any case, the story must end in a synthesis of Bucky and the Soldier, whether he becomes both or becomes neither. And the story must have room for grief.
Abuse and survival behaviors of trauma: A major subgenre of these fics, consists of stories where Bucky is rescued from Hydra and transitions to viewing the Avengers as his new "handlers."
After a lifetime of horrific abuse, Bucky's brain and his body have developed deeply embedded adaptations for survival. His nervous system is completely rewired around following orders, placating his abusers, and the certainty of pain. It is simply impossible for him to understand that he is "safe."
Being given choices and shown kindness gives Bucky extreme stress, because his body is absolutely certain that a threat of horrible punishment is hiding in these things, but he cannot see where. His survival has always depended on understanding the rules of what prompts his abusers to hurt him. The rules of this new environment are unknown, so he is terrified.
The certainties his body knows can't be reasoned with. In fact, the other characters are often clueless at the depth of the hellscape Bucky is still trapped in. He has to experience, over and over and over again, that it is safe to express preferences, to show feelings, to say "no", to like things, to want things, to ask for things, to take care of his own bodily needs without being expressly ordered to.
Like I said, it's a whole subgenre of fic and it's often very funny in a heartbreaking way, and it is also a compassionate exploration of how the effects of trauma are adaptations the body makes to help a person survive something unbearable.
