Lostinthewanderingblue - Untitled

So I wrote up all this stuff weeks ago and drafted it and forgot about it until I seen these tags from @kahuna-burger

And they are absolutely right. And I’m so glad someone agrees with me on this analogy, because this is EXACTLY how I see him, and exactly what I get into below. This is the whole thing I was writing up previously:

“The winter soldier was treated like a living weapon.”

Mmm, yes. The whole living weapon thing is not a wrong metaphor. But I’d argue that there’s something else far more accurate (aka what the now added tags say).

He wasn’t their weapon. He was their dog. In such an uncanny way, almost literal sense. I wouldn’t even say a guard dog, I’d actually say he was Hydra’s hunting dog.

I mean think about it. Really. They actually treated him like a dog.

He wears a harness. He wears a fucking muzzle for gods sake.

But that’s just the bare minimum of similarities.

What do they do when he gets out of line? To punish him, to put make him obey and learn to fall back into good behavior? They shock him. Just like how people have always used shock collars and electric fences for dogs. When he’s been “bad”, when he does something he’s not supposed to, he gets shocked to correct that behavior.

They also smack him and get physical. People don’t do that with weapons. There’s no point in that. And you wouldn’t wanna damage or harm a weapon. But people do smack dogs. They hit their dogs when they don’t behave or do something wrong because harm, pain, and damage will teach it. Just like it teaches him. And they’ll heal so it’s not a concern.

He was trained to obey commands. Just like dogs. He does any little thing he’s told because he’s conditioned with a rewards system. He even has specific command words that trigger compliance. Just like you teach a dog to sit or roll over with trigger words, he has em too. I mean literally, he has a Pavlovian response to said words. And what was the original Pavlov experiment done on? A dog. The only difference is he doesn’t get physical treats. His treat is praise, which they manipulated him into being desperate for. They even go as far to incentivize him with this praise (think about the bank scene, where Pierce praises him), just like you would present a dog with a treat when you want it to do a trick. Hell, actually praise is a way you reward dogs too, because they listen and learn when you tell them they’re a “good boy, good dog”.

Hydra asserts their dominance over him just in case he turns on them, just to remind of who’s the “alpha”. Because they know (just like big dog owners) that he can tear them up, he can attack and shred them to pieces, but if he thinks he’s not the “alpha” then he’ll back down.

And yeah, he’s protective and reliant on his “owners” like most dogs would be. But like I said, not just a guard dog. A hunting dog. Because just like people teach their dogs to track down and go after bears, squirrels, dear, etc. he was also taught how to track down stuff to kill. Stuff that his owner wanted dead. That’s his whole purpose, to hunt for them.

Also, think about how Hydra obtained him. It’s like if a person saw an injured dog in a ditch, brought it to a vet to heal up, then took it home to have as their own pet. Because that’s exactly what they did with him. It’s just the owner was an abusive one.

He wasn’t treated like some expensive tank or powerful arsenal of guns. He was treated like well trained hunting dog.

If trench warfare were made-up, it would be the most on-the-nose anti-war satire ever created. Bunch of young men shooting at each other from inside open graves, slowly rotting even as they fight to stay alive. Every so often, they get to move a few hundred metres to dig a new grave for themselves somewhere else and this is called a victory.

Some Avengers headcanons

Scarlet Witch is Cassie Lang’s second favorite Avenger. (Scott, obviously, is first.) That’s why Scott makes a point of saying “I know you, you’re great too!” to her in civil war, and why he later starts learning magic tricks for Cassie.

Bucky has named every single goat he tends to after people he knows. The most reckless one is named Steve. The one that constantly tries to headbutt him is Sam.

Shuri has an extensive database of memes about life in the palace. Her brother and Okoye are the only ones who currently have access.

Peter occasionally doodles spider suit designs on the margins of his homework without thinking about it, and then has to tear them off before handing it in. His teachers are still under the impression that he has a homework-hungry dog.

Clint has purchased each of his children a bow and arrow set for their tenth birthday. He already has one picked out for Nathaniel.

Sam has a special charging station for Redwing set up right beside his bed. He occasionally has Redwing fetch him water or turn of the light so he doesn’t have to get up.

Natasha has a bad habit of borrowing other people’s stuff without asking. Especially sweatshirts and jackets. If it’s kept where she can access it, it’s fair game. If you borrow her jacket without asking, however, expect a big fuss.

Wanda has a lingering habit that she got from growing up poor, homeless, and hungry - she stockpiles food. She hides it away in her room without really thinking about it, and the others occasionally have to go through and bring it all back to the kitchen so they don’t get ants.

Vision tries to avoid the internet, especially after what happened to Ultron. He thinks it brings out the worst in people, and doesn’t quite trust himself to be unaffected.

Steve has always debated getting a pet, but after losing his whole world he’s a little hesitant to let himself love something that he knows only has a lifespan of ten years.

On occasion, T'Challa will intentionally misquote vines to annoy his sister.

When Bruce gets nightmares, he watches obscure crafting and decorating videos on YouTube to calm himself back to sleep. Hearing the generic video background music has him yawning like a charm.

Thor always stocks up on Midgardian food before heading back to Asgard. Lucky Charms is his current favorite.

Peter likes trying to do things upside down just to see how different it is. He’s very familiar with having to explain to Aunt May how pouring himself a drink wound up with orange juice all over the kitchen.

The first thing Aunt May does once she discovers that Peter is Spiderman is examine the suit - she removes the tracker the second she finds it. This is why Peter surprises everyone when he shows up in Infinity War.

Scott has a ranking system from 1 to 10 on how enjoyable each of Cassie’s kid shows are for adults. That way he knows which ones he’s going to need his phone as distraction to sit through.

Lila Barton is the only known person in the world who has gotten away with putting a pink bow in Natasha’s hair.

Nick Fury keeps a couple dozen bottles of aspirin in his desk - one for each of the Avengers, labeled with their name - and he’ll pull from a specific person’s bottle whenever they are giving him a headache. One of the ways he judges performance is by seeing how fast it takes him to go through that person’s bottle.

I just learned that Pluto was discovered in 1930! Meaning that when Steve went into the ice, Pluto was a planet (as it should be), and when he woke up, it wasn't. Like, who had to tell him? Was he rightly horrified? Did no one bother to tell him and he just hears it randomly one day??? I need answers!!!

Did they ever reveal how Captain America was thawed? Because I’m picturing a bunch of Shield agents with hair dryers and I don’t think that’s quite right.

Just don’t, Pati. DON’T.

It is my headcanon that there is a gun on the table in this scene because The Winter Soldier has been trained to arm any of his handlers who are not already armed while in his presence so that, if they so choose, they can put him down at any time.

Later, it takes Steve months to figure out why Bucky gives him a knife every time they’re in the same room.

Scarlet Witch by Lukus Werneck

sometimes writing feels less like creating and more like trying to unravel a very stubborn knot of vibes.

Steve Rogers is a firm believer of museums giving back the artefacts that they stole, not only because he genuinely believes people deserve to have their things back, but also because the Smithsonian refuses to give him back he shit, and if he doesn't get his family recipe book his mother's jacket and his father's hat, god willing he will-