The Winter Soldier is a victim : brainwash

A simple thread

My idea for this thread comes from the huge work that @616buck put into a buzzfeed kind of investigation about Bucky Barnes.

Reading some comments i noticed people saying that in fact Bucky should be punished for what he does as The Winter Soldier.

For giving an opinion about that i check most of the comics that talk about the abuse and mental torture that Bucky's been through.
You can disagree and i prefer not going into complicated things and talk about essential things.

Hope you like !

What kind of torture Bucky suffered ?

You certainly knows it but Bucky's body was find in the late 45's by a Russian submarine who presume that his body contain super soldier serum.

The body was transferred for blood test.

After discovering that the body was a normal, the scientists were confused about what to do with him.
Then a miracle, Bucky was alive but in addition to his missing arm he had no idea about where he was and who he is.
His combat skill was the only thing left.

Only ? It's a lie because Bucky always have his primary memory, he knows how to talk he was still able to be an excellent fighter, all that disappeared was his previous life memory... Bucky Barnes was gone the only thing left was the soldier...

Then the Russian had an idea.
During the 50's they begin to work on Bucky's body and "The Winter Soldier Project"
Replacing Bucky missing arm by a cybernetic one, idea of the MI-6 robotic division.

The idea of the Soviets was simple... Bucky was still able to act like a normal American, which was perfect to infiltrate US lines during the Cold War.
That were Winter Soldier first missions...

But let's go back to what truly happens to Barnes.
The MCU make us think that a few shocking therapy and cryo were enough to control Barnes but in fact it was not

To truly control a human, you need more than that.
About the Winter Soldier it was simple, Bucky Barnes should definitely disappear because even if he was found with no memory they were still possibility to activate Buck past with triggers.

So what's a trigger?
To be simple a trigger is a word or a sound that wake up in you or your brain something very special.
It could be a sensation or a memory of your past like when you're an adult and hear or see something that brought you back to your childhood.

That's the first thing to erase from a person.
If he has nothing left to hang on to you can do everything with him.
But doing that is extremely long and painful, you need to work and psychic blocks and erase mnemonic triggers.
Don't understand ? You need to break the person.

For Bucky it took years...

Imagine a guy burning in front of you the most precious pictures of your past as they disappear in front of you and in your head.

Bucky's being a symbol the Soviets need to work a lot on him.

I could stop here but let's continue.

In 2014 "Bitter March" The Winter Soldier is send on a mission to track down two nazis scientists.
During the mission he is against Nick Fury and Ran Shen, agents of SHIELD.
In this mini Rick Remender shows a perfect use of what i was talking about.

During his mission, Bucky is hit, shock and punch.
As he face his enemy he see flash back of Cap and his older life.
The comics takes place in the late 60's.
As the story goes Bucky take control of himself by seeing glimpse of his past.

We're able to see the Soviets control on him and their reactions as the Winter Soldier remember about Bucky.
As you see that's the first time they see the Soldier breaking from the programming.

At the end of the story we see scientists working on Bucky's mind and talking about the triggers that could cause some problems.
The brainwashing scene look a lot like Cap 2 one for the record.

So we now seen that brainwashing a person is not only about electricity, but the so called "memory suppressing machine" as a lot to do of course.

We don't know that much about this machine but for what i understand this machine is a quick way to clean the mind of a person.

You need to use her before and after a mission.

We can also see this machine as a quick way to not shown all of the mind treatment the comics use.

Don't get me wrong i know the MCU's Bucky suffered from many mind treatment.
But again every one is allowed to see these movies it would be really dark to show what Bucky's really been through in more than 60 years.

Going back to the comics now.

In many Winter Soldier stories it is implied that the Brainwashing and mental conditioning is still a part of Barnes and that you can activate that again.

In 2012 Brubaker series on the Winter Soldier.

Bucky is confront to URSS agent he trained back in the Cold War.

"Project Zephyr" has for purpose to find three men that the Winter Soldier train on the idea of being as much American as possible.

Then activated them in USA.

In this story Novokov one of the Zephyr men brainwash Nat and program her to take down Bucky.

After a long chase Novokov implies that the only reason that make Bucky failed is that he is not program to kill.

Then we witness a Bucky who re activate his Winter Soldier self and killing program to understand Novokov and Nat.
The fact that what Soviets put in Bucky could be activated like that is horrible in a way.

Let's talk now about what programming the Soldier really implies.