That Is Literally Not What I Fucking Meant And You Know It. I Meant Sam Did One Occasional Nice Thing

That is literally not what I fucking meant and you know it. I meant Sam did one occasional nice thing because that's who he is as a person and I specified that he is not Bucky's therapist and isn't his job to do that, so don't go there

(I only just watched the show yesterday before I posted this, but holy shit three years of that bullshit?? Sorry for coming off strong there, I don't blame you then if people have been that fucking dense for three years)

things about recovery and therapy that TFATWS did right: Sam, who has 10+ years as a PTSD and trauma therapist with lived experience of his specialist field, notifying Bucky when his symptoms are presenting or worsening (such as when Bucky starts staring off, an extremely common symptom of PTSD) or deescalating situations wherein Bucky has been triggered (the notebook, most interactions with Zemo...), while still framing it all as light hearted jokes appropriate for their type and level of rapport (i.e that of a colleague/friend rather than a clinical therapist)

things about recovery and therapy that TFATWS got wrong: basically everything else. they didn't frame it as a critique of veteran psychological care like they could have, they framed it as ha ha no bullshit therapist lady makes comic relief scenes at the expense of her client's health

(I also can't be the only one who thinks Bucky was assigned the wrong speciality for his therapy, his trauma aligns closer with survivors of cult conditioning, kidnappings/hostage situations, abuse and/or sexual assault than the strictly war veteran angle the show took. Not all therapy is the same and not all trauma requires the same kind of care, and just because Bucky was a soldier does not necessarily mean the kind of trauma he experienced and the care he needs is tied to that.)

So I've seen a couple people now say they're not sure why fans are against Bucky being in the senate or think he must be being forced to somehow, considering we've already seen him as the Secretary of State in What If...? and I wanted to explain why I personally would find it extremely out of character if he's willingly a senator in Thunderbolts*

For the sake of ease I'm going to refer to Earth-82111 Bucky as Secretary Bucky and Earth-19999 Bucky as Primary Bucky.

Based on everything we know about Primary Bucky, I don't see how he'd have any reason to WANT to be there and it feels very contradictory to the path they've set him on ever since Civil War.

It all pretty much comes down to the fact that Secretary Bucky and Primary Bucky have led two entirely different lives since the war, around the time there was a divergence in their lives. Their experiences from around the age of 26 onwards have made them into separate people, despite being technically both Bucky. Sebastian Stan's even said he was surprised by his lines as Secretary Bucky because they're so different from the Bucky he's used to playing.

The point of divergence in their lives is of course the train. Secretary Bucky never fell from the train and lost his arm, he was able to be rescued by Captain Carter, so he didn't go through any of the experiences that Primary Bucky has that would make his character detest the idea of being in government.

Secretary Bucky stayed the light-hearted Bucky we met in early CATFA. He never woke up during a horrific surgery to instal a bionic arm where he'd had his real one torn off in the fall, he never experienced decades of torture, brainwashing, forced assassinations and dehumanization. We can't say for sure how much Secretary Bucky knew about Isaiah Bradley and the men of his squadron, but we do know that Primary Bucky knows about them and withheld that information from Steve, which is huge. Primary Bucky knows which governments and organizations (like SHIELD) are corrupt and in what ways, has stood against the American government both as the Winter Soldier and by his own volition, he was framed for an event that led the world to agree on mandatory registering of a specific demographic of people I wonder where he might've seen that before, and has teammates who were kept on the Raft. He saw his own government, the American government, violate their own citizens the way HYDRA did him; injecting them with unknown substances that irreversibly changed their bodies, then punished Isaiah for doing the same thing they hailed Steve as a hero for, and further violated Isaiah by taking his blood without consent and creating more soldiers from him. Primary Bucky was a victim of HYDRA, the clear bad guys, but Isaiah and his brothers-in-arms were victims of the supposed "good guys", and on that fact alone I cannot see any way Primary Bucky is anything other than disgusted and mistrustful of them, if he doesn't outright hate the government. Primary Bucky has also learned a lot from being friends with Sam, how it wasn't Sam's fault for putting down the shield when the government and the country they're in put him in an extremely difficult and impossible situation out of pure racism, about how their country views heroism and its very white standards for it, and how it's not as simple as it was for Steve or John Walker for Sam to have the shield and be Captain America. He saw the US government make one promise to Steve's memory and then immediately disrespect it.

Secretary Bucky seems happy to serve his country and does so by choice, and like I said, we don't know how much he knows about SHIELD's corruption or what the government he serves did to Isaiah and the men of his squad but it's safe to say the different lived experiences he's gone through make him view his government in a positive light and he's very likely never been a number 1 enemy of the state, while Primary Bucky looks completely miserable having to wear that pin during the entire trailer.

Of course you could argue that Primary Bucky has become a senate as a way to try and change things, but the thing is he also knows better than most what goes on in the shadows and I'd say has a very grim perspective on how realistic his chances would be. He's seen and experienced how futile bureaucracy in their world is for making significant change, and idk it just doesn't feel like Bucky's style considering he chose vigilantism over "proper" processes with dealing with HYDRA remnants and the Flag-Smashers.

I'd say it's in character for the Bucky of Earth-82111 to go into politics and end up where he is, he led a completely different life that was never shaped the same way as Bucky from Earth-19999. It feels extremely out of character for Bucky from Earth-19999 to go into politics, echoes of each other or not, their initial 26 years of shared life experiences wouldn't overrule the catastrophic changes 19999's experiences would make to his mind set and opinions because people's loyalties and thoughts change depending on what information they have. Primary Bucky knows and has seen things Senate Bucky has not, so his opinion has been changed and updated from where they were at 26.

80 years is a long time for a lot of deeply impactful things to diverge them further away from each other, even if they all echo one another, regardless of how identical the first quarter was. That's just my opinion.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) || Thunderbolts (2025)

@azriona

Saw your tags and you raise a valid point, and I can believe that version of Bucky getting into politics since obviously he did, but that version of Bucky never went through any of the reasons I listed for why main MCU Bucky wouldn't willingly do the same

Secretary of State/Earth-82111 Bucky never fell from the train so he never got tortured by HYDRA, became an assassin, worked against multiple governments across the globe, or shared commonality with Isaiah Bradley that had been done by their own government rather than a shady Nazi society, was never put on a leash by the law for crimes he was also a victim in and victim blamed for, and has likely also never been to Wakanda. He had a whole different life.

They're two different people after all that, Sebastian Stan even said himself he was surprised when he saw his lines as Earth-82111 Bucky because he's so much different from primary Bucky

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

I was going to keep the bingo to the sfw card but I've been getting tempted by that nsfw card... I've not written smut in years, maybe I should get back into that

Bucky "described as academically gifted, reads obscure for the time nerd books, gadgets gadgets gadgets gadgets, is always shown seamlessly using the latest tech and plays into his therapist's perception of him being from the 40s by giving her a flip phone instead of his actual phone so he doesn't have to share his private life with her, literally a cyborg and is deeply socially confused by the modern era" Barnes: I want to spend my last night before the war at NERD CON and forget my date exists, omg look Steve the car flew!!

Steve "described as a strategic genius yet punched a monitor screen thinking it would stop an AI, cares that the tech works so he can break it/crash it/cause anarchy with it, 'it appears to run on some kind of electricity', practicality is the goal unless it's fun to be Extra, famously uses the same weapon he used in the 40s, and collects friends like Pokémon everywhere he goes in the modern era" Rogers seeing a flying car: ...huh yeah that's real cool Buck. anyway, I'm gotta go break the law for the sixth time brb