I do like the phrasing of "Let's take the shield back, Sam." Because it's the second episode where they were fighting and arguing a lot, but Bucky doesn't say "I'm taking the shield back" or act like he'll do it on his own anyway if Sam doesn't help. They're mad at each other, but they're a team! Partners! He respects Sam and wants them to take it back together! He trusts him! He cares!
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Has Bucky Read LOTR?
@eveningspirit asked this important question last week, so it got me thinking.
LOTR was first published in 1954-55. Bucky was in Hydra’s clutches until 2014. I don’t think Hydra provided “the Winter Soldier” with enrichment in form of reading material and if they had, it certainly wouldn’t have been LOTR, a book that goes against everything they stood for.
I don’t know if he had time for reading while on the run, but he could have read it maybe while recovering in Wakanda, though I think he was more busy with overcoming his brainwashing and getting back on his feet.
And if he had read LOTR, wouldn’t he have mentioned that rather than The Hobbit, as it would have been a more recent read (and, arguably, also a greater book)?
I think so.
(BTW, I highly appreciate that Bucky was just as huge a nerd as Steve, since he would have been 20 in 1937 when The Hobbit came out and of course he went and read the new popular kids’ book. ;) (Which I think also means Steve read it, too.))
So, if he hasn’t read LOTR, maybe someone should tell him about it (because he might not even know it exists yet)? And maybe once they are done with the current trip/mission/quest ;), he can take a long, well-deserved vacation and read it.
Although, I wonder, considering the themes in LOTR, would he find it cathartic or triggering?
I’m thinking of depictions of war and fighting from Tolkien’s own WW I experience.
And could he see a parallel between, say, orcs being as fully under Sauron’s command, his puppets as he was Hydra’s?
Would he sympathise with the enslaved people of Harad and Rhun (although, of course, some served Sauron willingly out of greed)?
Maybe he would relate to Aragorn or the Elves who live beyond human years and witness many terrible things as he had and have to go on while people they love die as all his friends his age have died?
Personally, I think Bucky’s closest parallel in LOTR is Théoden, who was under Saruman’s spell for a long time but who recovered and went on to do good and fix what he’d missed while not himself.
Except, of course, I don’t want for Bucky to end up dying a glorious death like Théoden, I want him to live and find happiness and friends and family and get to experience all the things that were stolen from him by Hydra.
Tl;Dr: I think he could have read LOTR, but it’s unlikely he did.
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