How Stucky was Queer Coded

Coding/Subtext

When Steve realized that The Winter Soldier was Bucky, he dropped his shield and refused to fight him. A well trained assassin who could kill him in a heartbeat. Then there was the whole Bucky remembering him, but I already discussed it.

Steve was in so much shock that he let himself get arrested. He then blamed himself for what happened to Bucky even though there was nothing he could've done. He said, "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

Then back to the fight on the helicarrier. Steve risks his life for Bucky just like he did in The First Avenger. Steve drops his shield in this scene because he doesn't want to hurt him, which contrasts picking up the shield for Bucky in The First Avenger. He tells Bucky TO KILL HIM. Then Bucky says "You're my mission." Then Steve says "Then finish it. Cause I'm with you to the end of the line." He gave Bucky permission to kill him, he knew there was a chance that he couldn't break through Bucky's brainwashing, but he still took that chance. He loved him so much that he gave him permission to kill him. He'd rather die by his hand than live without him.

Then Steve breaks Bucky's brainwashing, which is like the act of true love. It's actually been confirmed that the only reason the brainwashing broke was because of his memories of Steve.

The closing scene of the movie is Steve looking at Bucky's file, which mirrors Peggy looking at Steve's file at the end of The First Avenger. Which, again. Peggy is Steve's canon love interest. They parallel a canon love interest with a "friendship."

Then, there's 2 years between Winter Soldier and Civil War. In those 2 years, Steve had been actively trying to find Bucky. 2 YEARS. During that time, Bucky was trying to lay low in places like Romania (which is a nod to Sebastian Stan who lived in Romania until he was 8) and trying to remember things.

Next, I'll talk about Captain America: Civil War. Oh, boy. That whole movie was incredibly gay. Even Sebastian Stan, who plays Bucky, admits as much. He said, "Look, maybe it was a little bit Brokeback Mountain at times, I mean I'll admit, it was a little I won't quit you."

Like. You know something is gay if one of the main cast members even admits as much.

There's quite a bit to this movie, but I'm only going to talk about the things pertaining to Steve and Bucky.

In the movie, Bucky is accused of bombing a building that was resposnible for killing and injuring many people. The whole world is looking for Bucky and trying to kill him. The only person that believes he didn't do it and tries to help him is Steve, and Steve gets some of his friends to help.

At one point, a character who previously appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier showed up in Civil War. His name was Rumlow. When he went up against Steve, he started talking about Bucky. (Rumlow was a part of Hydra therefore he worked with The Winter Soldier.) He said "You know, he knew you. Your pal, your buddy, your Bucky." He says "your Bucky" which is used possessively, like Bucky is Steve's. Yeah, that sounds romantic. You don't use that for platonic relationships. The mention of Bucky distracted Steve from his mission so much that it allowed Rumlow to detonate a bomb which killed people. Later, Steve was talking to Wanda and said, "Rumlow said 'Bucky,' and all of a sudden I was a 16 year old kid again in Brooklyn."

The "your pal, your buddy" was probably added in there so it wouldn't just be "your Bucky" which sounds ever gayer.

One of Bucky's trigger words to become the Winter Soldier is seventeen, and all the words are strongly theorized to have meaning in Bucky's life. Bucky is a year older than Steve, so what the hell happened when they were 16 and 17? (This one is mostly a joke and probably just a coincidence, though.)

Another thing. When Steve goes to Bucky's apartment in Romania to rescue him from people who are trying to kill him, we see that he has a notebook. In that notebook there's a big picture of Steve. Bucky had been using that journal to remember Steve again. He's relying on his memory and trying to get his memories back by focusing on Steve. And like....c'mon. You have a huge picture (that's not just a picture but a drawing) of "your best friend" on the first page of your journal? That's kinda gay, my dude.