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samwontshare · 3 years

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Analyse Bucky's submissive behaviour in the bank scene?

Hi Nonny!

Sorry for the delay, Tumblr ATE half my post and I was little frustrated with it before I went back to it. XD I also struggled a little bit with my own thoughts about submission because we never know what Bucky’s experience under brainwashing is actually like. How does he view or conceptualize the self?

This connects to my other post on the bank scene here, which is what I am guessing inspired your ask!

I think one of the most interesting things about Bucky as The Winter Soldier within the MCU is this duality of being an unstoppable killing machine everyone is afraid of while also having no agency of his own. You see this a lot in the bank scene, which I'll get to.

There's so much about Bucky's experience under brainwashing we don't know. The Wakanda Files compare it to being in REM sleep - he's awake in a dream but has no control over it. (I’m trying to get a copy of the whole book, this is just pulled from articles about it.) Shuri's logs from The Wakanda Files say:

"Hydra's methods were effective in making Barnes hyperaware and highly suggestible."

"An EEG on Barnes revealed just how murky and extensive his brain damage was. Hydra's Winter Soldier program subjected Barnes to electroconvulsive therapy followed by suggestive keywords and phrases to activate a brain soup knot that could take years to unravel. If we're able to reverse it at all. ECT is extremely painful, and Hydra didn't administer any dulling agents."

Referring to Bucky's limbic system - which is the part of your brain that controls (amongst other things) memory and behavior - Bucky's looks like a "Christmas tree on psychotropic drugs."

Bucky has some pretty extreme brain damage going on in the bank scene. What's interesting about that scene is that Bucky's brain is starting to form new connections after seeing Steve, which brings on flashbacks and dissociation. We can surmise that his serum brain is trying to heal itself, which is why he needs to be put under ice and wiped so often - to keep him compliant. (But even two years later, the serum wasn't able to fix his brain damage without Shuri's intervention. Which means that Bucky survived two years with a pretty gnarly TBI before we found him Civil War.) In this scene, I imagine it's like being in that state between wakefulness and sleep. You know something isn't right, but you can't do anything about it. There’s this nagging feeling something is wrong but you can’t place it or change the narrative.

In terms of submissiveness, this seems less a personality trait or trauma response as much as an intentional form of coercion by HYDRA. Bucky is submissive because HYDRA wants a cooperative weapon. Bucky is HYDRA property, after all, the Soviets even branded the arm. There's this super creepy way that Bucky is both treated with reverence by Pierce and like a tool. HYDRA even reinforces this by his scripted response to the code words: “Ready to comply.” What a power move by HYDRA given Zola’s notes in the Wakanda Files discuss how resistant to the brainwashing Bucky was. It’s a bit of humiliation even if Bucky can’t recognize it when he’s under. You can easily imagine 1945 Bucky snarling, “I’ll never comply.”

Let’s bust this scene down.

1) Accepting medical attention / mechanical work: So we start the scene with Bucky seated unmoving in the chair with three techs working on him. At least three armed guards are at the ready, but their backs are turned on Bucky. No one is strapping Bucky to this chair and no one talks to him. He seems to be getting IV fluids rather than y'know a glass of water. HYDRA seems to expect Bucky to accept medical attention and tech repair to his arm without any resistance. Bucky, for his part, is totally lost in his internal world. They still keep him in a locked location under armed guard when not on a mission.

2) "He's unstable, erratic." Bucky lashes out at a tech during a flashback. This isn't surprising - in the real world, people can and do lash out during flashbacks because they don't always recognize the people around them. The moment Bucky sees the guns, he freezes and dissociates until Pierce arrives. If fight and flight aren't possible, freeze is the only safe bet and dissociation allows someone to protect themselves from what's happening to their bodies. It's also possible Bucky is dissociating because he's having additional flashbacks (likely). Also by now the guard count has tripled. There are like 12 people with Bucky when Pierce arrives.

3) "Mission report." We don't get a lot of glimpses into how HYDRA communicates with Bucky, but this phrase seems prominent. Bucky is definitely in an "only speak when spoken to" situation unless he's giving orders on a mission, where he speaks Russian. (There seems to be a big difference in how Bucky is treated on mission and how he's treated between missions.) When he doesn't respond appropriately, he's met with violence. Bucky doesn't respond to this violence with surprise or retaliation or even fear. He hardly seems to notice Pierce backhands him; his look of confusion is about Steve. He actually has a moment of rebellion when he asks, "The man on the bridge, who was he?" Steve's not "the target" anymore.

4) "I knew him." That Bucky asks Pierce and expects an answer is interesting; HYDRA are his people, the only people he actually knows. Bucky looks to Pierce for direction, not just mission directives but for information when he's confused. He also doesn't hide that he knows Steve; it doesn't occur to him. Was he trained to report these incidents or is Pierce the only authority figure he recognizes? He makes good eye contact with Pierce when he talks, which is interesting. I wonder if that was trained.

5) "Your work has been a gift." I think this moment is really interesting because Pierce tries to talk to him almost like a child who's misbehaving. He praises his work with a creepy reverence. Bucky is the reason HYDRA was able to grow so powerful. At "I need you to do it one more time," Bucky looks away. I think there is an internal battle going on here. He doesn't want to hurt the man he knows, but (literally) can't disobey Pierce - he’s never had a reason to disobey before, that he can remember. "But if you don't do your part, I can't do mine." Bucky blinks, looks down and clenches his jaw. He looks conflicted. Bucky then rebels again when he says, "But I knew him." This time he looks directly at Pierce, blinking rapidly, grimacing. He's starting to question the dream.

6) "Prep him." He has a moment of agency when he asks about Steve but when his handler makes a decision he complies. I don't think Bucky has enough self-awareness at this point to make waves. He knows Steve but has no context for why. He's been spoonfed the idea he's helping the world on a righteous path; the only people he knows tell him so. They talk about him like he isn't there, which I imagine he's used to. He no longer speaks, just watches and seems resigned to what's going to happen. The techs push him back without warning and he doesn't resist. Even though he looks genuinely upset about the wipe, he opens his mouth for the guard. The moment the machine turns on and the restraints snap, he's in a full panic but still, tragically, doesn't resist. The wipes and the ice must be two of the most familiar experiences Bucky has, if Bucky is allowed to retain any of these memories at all. I imagine that he must retain some personal info between missions (aside from updated world knowledge) because he never seems confused about why he’s working for HYDRA when they wake him or why they call him Soldier.

In the field, Bucky orders men around and makes the tactical decisions, but off mission, Bucky seems silent, easily maneuvered by others. He’s touched without permission on a regular basis. There seems to be some use of praise rewards by his Handlers when they want him to comply. There seems to be punishment when he doesn’t. But how does Bucky view punishment and reward? Are they important to him? Do they impact his decision making?

What's hard to analyze about this scene is how Bucky views himself. That's the eternal question I have. How much of HYDRA's party line does Bucky believe? Does he even have the capacity to have his own beliefs? Most of the time, Bucky is not in control of his own body. A lot of times when someone has lost their personal memories, their world knowledge is still intact. But Bucky isn’t JUST experiencing memory loss - his whole limbic system has been altered, which would impact basic functions like remembering to eat/drink or regulating emotions or connecting emotional responses to real world stimuli (reading social cues, associating memory to feeling).

What makes Bucky’s story so different from many characters who have spent extended time under torture or have been coerced into serving their captors is that Bucky has had his agency and identity fully removed. He didn’t make a hard choice under impossible circumstances - he never had a choice. Any time Bucky begins to remember his identity, he’s strapped down and it’s forcibly and painfully removed. Any time Bucky becomes self-aware or starts to ask questions, he’s wiped. He’s a witness to what his body does without any say and to questionable understanding. We genuinely don’t know what Bucky is able to think or feel when under HYDRA’s control and the MCU doesn’t tell us much. Bucky is almost always silent as The Winter Soldier.

Not sure if this is what you had in mind, Nonny, but that’s where my mind went! XD

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes meta #asks #this is so long I am so sorry #cw torture #cw trauma reactions

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