Is It Just Me Or Does No One Seem To Remember That Bucky Is An Orphan? It's Not Even On The Fandom Wikis.

Is it just me or does no one seem to remember that Bucky is an orphan? It's not even on the fandom wikis. I don't just mean the comics but in the MCU too, Bucky's always been an orphan, it's even mentioned in an interview. It paints him being the eldest of four and his protectiveness of Steve in a new light and generally how good Bucky is with kids too. The guy has serious "big brother who had to become a parent to his younger siblings" energy

this is why Bucky has a different therapist in my fic series, because the one mandated to him in tfatws was making him worse and she was not only grossly unprofessional and at times smugly cruel to him, but it was a crushing sign that marvel really only cares about depicting mental health journeys when it's Tony.

Tony's issues stemmed from a completely different place than Bucky's so their arcs cannot be written with the same angle, yet they are.

Tony's journey was rightfully about atonement because his sins were his own making, he chose to do what he did prior to reforming. Bucky is completely different, same as characters like Natasha and Gamora; Bucky does not need to atone for anything because he was as much a victim as those he was made to kill.

I always hated the gag about the "notebook thing" because Bucky's spent decades seeing hundreds of abusive strangers scribble down notes about him that he was never permitted to see or have disclosed to him, never knowing if those notes would lead to more agony or "just" being frozen again. He was placed under a huge amount of dehumanizing scrutiny with zero disclosure or consent, and it's horrific that his THERAPIST identified that trigger and used it as a power play over him....

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Since it came up recently, link to that therapist on twitter 👆 who was discussing Bucky’s terribile therapist in TFATWS and how they should’ve been. 

Transcript:

“As a therapist myself I’ve had a lot of feelings about Bucky’s therapist on TFatWS, and have decided I need to rant a little to let it all out. I’ve worked w/active duty, trauma survivors, and court ordered clients, so here’s some therapeutic conjecture on Bucky’s therapy:

Aesthetically her office and presentation don’t fit for someone who has been through the trauma that he’s been through. A client like this would need something non-threatening and safe- the whole vibe is overly formal and official in an office building, not at all therapeutic.

6 months working together she calls him Mr. Barnes and then James-he has identity issues and is struggling with who he is, so I think that one of the 1st things they would have done is figure out what he is comfortable being called, by whom and what that means for him.

He is still full out lying to her about pretty much everything including PTSD sx—I’m not saying clients never lie if they have good therapists, but if after 6 months he still doesn’t feel like he can be truthful at all then they haven’t built any trust/ solid therapeutic rapport

The pen and notebook thing-that’s clearly a trigger for him, there’s no reason to antagonize him and take notes in session like a punishment, it’s a power play on her part and it only emphasizes his lack of control in being forced into therapy (she should know his hx w/notebooks)

The whole little arm motion she made when she said “they need to make sure you don’t…” – that made so much light of what has happened to him, he probably feels like his arm is only good as a weapon and things like that will not help him accept it as part of his body

The rules, UGH the rules—from how they were talking about them clearly not something he actively created for himself, more like directives that he’s been ordered to adhere to—something fed to him and reinforced, feels like a way to sign off on liability only

THE AMENDS—this is probably my biggest issue. Amends are for people who need to take accountability for their actions and the repercussions of those choices. He had NO choice. He was a victim of horrific crimes against him, and framing it in a way that he needs to make up for

the crimes that others used him for is abhorrent. The lack of trauma informed care as astounding in the way it is being framed that he has to atone for sins that weren’t his. Its clearly reinforcing the idea in his head in ep 2 when he says “HYDRA were my people”.

NO, HYDRA were your captors. They were not your people. That type of thinking needs to get deconstructed and challenged. He can dedicate himself to bringing good into the world and righting wrongs that happened WITHOUT taking on the responsibility of those actions.

Her whole attitude and demeanor were condescending and demeaning. I know some people have said “I love how she calls him out on his bullshit!” That’s not what I see happening. I call my clients out on their shit all the time—this was not that.

And I can only do that with clients ONCE we’ve built the type of relationship where it’s going to be therapeutic for them to hear it, and it’s done intentionally and with purpose. She just came off shaming and mean because they don’t seem to have any form of therapeutic rapport.

She said “you have no history, no family”- there is no therapeutic reason for that, and she’s wrong. He most likely has family alive (he used current tense when talking about his sister) and he was close to Shuri and TChalla, his history is vital to understanding him

When she said “Look, I know that you have been through a lot, but you’ve got your mind back. You are being pardoned. These are good things. You’re free.”—Yeah this feels really dismissive and like toxic positivity. “I know you’ve been through a lot BUT BE HAPPY!!??”

He certainly doesn’t seem to feel like he’s free (especially having therapy mandated), and you can’t just tell someone they’re free. I felt like she was pretty much just like, “shake it off, look to the future!” which feels really shitty when you’ve experienced excessive trauma.

HELLO breach of confidentiality, just introducing herself to Sam as his therapist and confirming it to Walker and the whole police station, it doesn’t matter if they know he’s in therapy you do not break someone’s privacy like that, he still deserves some control over his tx.

Ordering Sam into a session, NO, he’s not your client and you don’t know him well enough to know if that’s appropriate or if it would be harmful to either, and you haven’t asked your client for his consent to have another person in his session

Forcing a trauma victim who was stripped of his bodily autonomy for 70 years into a physically intimate exercise with a coworker that he’s barely interacted with in the last several months? NOPE, just reinforcing to Bucky she has control over him the way his handlers used to

To me, I think she is more focused on signing off on his psychological eval that he isn’t a liability rather than any actual healing or attention to his trauma. This unfortunately isn’t unusual in the military where “mental health treatment” is focused on being mission ready.

They are making sure he’s ready to be an “asset” w/ mandated therapy, which he shouldn’t even be forced to do as part of his pardon because he shouldn’t have needed a pardon at all because he was a victim of horrific war crimes, brainwashing, and dehumanization for 70 years.

I’m just saying, if that was me he would be on my big squishy couch, bright open windows, bowl of Hershey kisses, random fidget toys, and two therapy dogs laying all over him while we work through that trauma and he builds back his identity and finds the calm he wants so badly.

And yes he would probably need someone who would see through his BS, call him out when he needs it, not be overly “touchy feely”, but only if he feels safe and there is trust, where he gets to work on what HE wants, not what others think he needs.

Anyway thanks for coming to my TEDTalk, I❤️my work and I think being a therapist on retainer for the Avengers would’ve been a fucking trip, they all needed a team of mental health professionals at their disposal 24/7 and things would’ve been so much better🤣

ps. They can be a good therapist and just not be a fit for the client, that happens regularly. We know when to make it part of the conversation and when to refer out. Nothing good is going to come out of a contemptuous therapeutic relationship, mandated or not.

pps. That whole situation and the scene with Zemo was so rough. I can’t imagine how much it brought back the violation, humiliation, anger, and helplessness of when he was the WS. I’m just imagining him having a therapist he trusts and being able to process that afterwards 😭😭😭"

as someone who knows very little about the American governmental system... is it even realistic that Bucky is a senator/candidate, outside of the simple fact that it goes against everything we know about his character for the last 13 years and is deeply ooc and weird?

Can someone with his history actually become a senator? Dude has killed like...a lot of people, specifically American citizens to keep it relevant to this context, and he's openly broken the law and gone against multiple governments in some of the most wild displays of anarchy alongside Steve and the Avengers. Also I don't think he's been a consistent enough resident of any state even if you take out the Blip?? At least 9 years right? Bro has maybe been on American soil for 3 years, pre AND post Blip, and that's being generous assuming Thunderbolts takes place in 2024-2025.

I don't know how realistic it is that he's even able to run for senate? I'm not an expert, not American, but it just seems absurd.

The main take really is that Bucky Barnes as a senator is one of the stupidest things, what the hell

Bucky Barnes and Kaine Parker in the MCU would be such a based, rat bastard combo and I'm already mad we don't have it

Tom Holland looking like he hasn't slept in six weeks with blood on his teeth as Kaine, and Bucky trying real hard to be as patient as Steve was with him but goddamnit this spider punk makes it difficult and oh now he has a twin (? because who thinks of clone first!?) who's oddly sunshine, like the complete opposite of the homicidal one, and definitely seems to know Bucky even though he's no idea who Peter is

Karli, completely forgetting who she's talking to: I'm fighting for something bigger than myself, and with all the bodies you've collected have you ever been able to say the same?

Bucky Barnes, orphaned eldest child becomes parent to the younger siblings syndrome man who grew up protecting a weaker kid against bullies, WW2 veteran that ended up experimented on in a Nazi POW camp to be unwillingly turned into what she signed up for, then continued to fight until he "died" even though he didn't have to anymore, fought in the battles against Thanos and has spent the last month fighting anyone who breathes wrong to get Sam acknowledged as Captain America: have I ever what?

if Bucky does fully become the Winter Soldier again in Thunderbolts* I don't see it as "undoing" anything and I'm getting annoyed with all these articles and posts about that "ruining" or "undoing his character arc". People in recovery do relapse, relapses happen, and demonizing them doesn't help. We haven't failed because a relapse is not a failure and it's not undoing anything: it's a natural part of recovering. No one is a robot that magically bounces back and never falters again.

If done right it's important to show a character getting back up from a relapse. I've had a couple relapses over the last ten years and it hurts to see people act like that's some kind of character failure or bad narrative/writing choice, when it's sadly just realistic. Relapses can be devastating and it's vital to depict a character pulling through one and finding that consistency towards recovery again.

Granted I don't think Marvel will do it any justice at all if that is the case since they've glossed over pretty much all of his recovery already, but I can dream