#a related note: it wigs me out how zemo calls him james and not bucky like everyone else does

[chaossmagic]

As I’m rewatching TFATWS episode 3, “Power Broker”, I’m noticing how palpably anxious, tense, and uncomfortable Bucky is around Zemo despite trying to mask those emotions and convince himself and Sam that breaking him out and using his intel is ‘a means to an end’.

He doesn’t look at him, not directly, not if he can help it, except when he first goes to see him in his cell and deliberately stares him in his face when Zemo is trying to provoke him with the old Winter Soldier code words. Like he’s trying to stand his ground in front of his tormentor and torturer while he has the initial confidence and adrenaline for it. 

After that? He goes quiet. He says the bare minimum he has to and doesn’t look Zemo in the eye. He’s subdued and nervous and becomes clipped, abrupt - scared, even, maybe, because of the things that Zemo represents and his physical presence is a trigger for him. 

Even Sam expresses concern when Bucky goes to meet Zemo in his cell by himself. He doesn’t want him to face him alone because he knows what it means for Bucky and that it would be re-entering a deeply triggering situation for him. Hence his initial sort of ‘stare down’ of Zemo at first because he’s trying to prove to him that he’s bolder and more confident than he feels.

And then Zemo tells him he’ll have to pretend to be the Winter Soldier again.

#personal #helmut zemo #bucky barnes #the falcon and the winter soldier #a related note: it wigs me out how zemo calls him james and not bucky like everyone else does #because it's still kind of othering for bucky since that's not his name and it's not something he readily identifies with #so that itself is also an anxiety-inducing thing #anyway it's a very realistic portrayal of someone having to face the person who hurt them again and i know because #i have been in that position and get very anxious/nervous whenever i see someone i recognize from school #which was the place of my own trauma #so i get it