100% Crack Theory That Is NOT Supposed To Be Taken Seriously, It's Really Just A Combo Of Bucky's Absurd

100% crack theory that is NOT supposed to be taken seriously, it's really just a combo of Bucky's absurd location hopping and coincidence.

Bucky's serum that Zola gave him was adapted using the Space stone and just happened to be compatible with Bucky's naturally high spatial awareness so it worked. It spatially locked him, ie making him immune to other people's spatial powers, and gave him the ability to slip in and out of space as flashy or subtly as he likes, and being Bucky/WS he's always gone the subtle route. It's how the Winter Soldier gained a reputation for being a ghost, and how Bucky seems to just disappear in a blink in scenes or implausibly show up in entirely different locations at speeds too fast for even a super soldier to be capable of.

Maybe he isn't really aware he can do it either and it escaped Hydra notice because it's bending space and reality in a specific way that mortals don't tend to be able to compute unless they're Wanda or a trained sorcerer. He uses it way more as the Winter Soldier because in that state he uses everything available to him to complete the mission, even powers he's only subconsciously aware of/uses like muscle memory or instinct. But as Bucky he's not so one track minded and can't consciously use something he's not aware he has.

Bucky can teleport in the comics but it's through the use of technology. It wouldn't be the first time Marvel has changed its characters' power sets and origins around, just look at the Maximoffs, Kamala and even Sam, who can talk to birds in the comics and has a real bird companion, but only has a drone in the MCU.

It really made me laugh rewatching CACW where he's just constantly showing up out of nowhere, popping up in completely different locations with not enough time for even a super soldier to get there and disappearing into thin fucking air so quickly it's frequently a running bit with the other characters doing double takes over where tf he just went. (I've seen so many commentators and reactors call out how the fuck he moves through the building so fast in CACW, and his dramatic exits? Where he's just gone? Outta nowhere? Even for a big scary elite Hydra super soldier that's ridiculous. It's not just editing weirdness either, it's something that's acknowledged IN UNIVERSE by multiple characters.)

On a final note it's fucking hilarious to imagine Bucky either somehow never noticed or just assumed it was something every super soldier could do too so never brought it up since they don't exactly go around stating their powers out in an itemized list lmao

Every time I see these two running together I think about the fact that super soldiers can effortlessly out run cars and realize Bucky has been slowing himself down to keep pace with Sam since the moment they became allies even though he doesn't technically need to. Like come on just admit you enjoy Sam's company goddamn

SEBASTIAN STAN as BUCKY BARNES Captain America: Civil War (2016)

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.)

“Looks like breaking all those laws is treating you well.”

THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER (2021) dir. Kari Skogland

Man literally just uses whichever hand was nearest to the gun first, that's it, he's an elite assassin why would he only use one hand for weapons? I hate the left hand theory so much.

Sebastian is also a lefty who was forced to learn to write with his right hand as a kid, so naturally there's going to be a lot of overlap with picking up props etc.

“Bucky’s the winter soldier again!!!!! He’s shooting with his left hand!!! He only uses his left when he’s the winter soldier!!!!!”

I present to you:

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: Civil War

And

Falcon and the Winter Soldier

I wonder if it'll ever be explained why they were never able to make a successful recreation of the serum from Bucky's blood. We know Hydra and the Soviets tried, presumably with his blood, but it always failed and they ended up having to steal from the Americans at least twice to be able to end up making Alexei and the Winter Soldiers into super soldiers. What about Bucky's specific strain, that presumably Schmidt had Zola perfect, meant it only worked for him? It's implied Bucky wasn't the first pow that Zola did this to, he's just the only one who survived.

I mean the Tesseract was in Hydra's possession at the time, so that might've been involved in Bucky's creation (and after some googling I've found out I'm not the only one who's theorized this). Hydra immediately then lost the Tesseract and therefore, without infinity stone's energy to trigger it, none of the serum recreations attempted from Bucky's blood worked.

Bucky's serum in the comics is the Infinity Formula given to him by Nick Fury, but it has no relation to the infinity stones. It wouldn't be a stretch to link them for the MCU though, considering how Bucky even became a super soldier in the first place is still mostly a big fucking mystery 13 years later, all we've got to go on is "Zola must've done something idk."