Bucky Barnes and Peeta Mellark: The Tragic Similarities

"I think that most of us writers would rather have an audience than countless riches. If we wanted to be rich, we'd be doing something else," -John Green

In honor of Civil War being out for one week:

So, I finally saw Civil War on Saturday, and while this won't be a review, I'm going to discuss it for little. 

While it wasn't perfect, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was well executed with fabulous characters and motivations, which is what made this movie hit home the way that it did. The characters and the way that they changed and new facets of them were revealed was beautiful. As a sucker for good characters, this pulled me in. And this alone can carry nearly any movie. 

Some of its pitfalls were that they should have focused much more on the conflict between the Avengers, and less on the Zemo aspect. The clashing superheros - not just the action sequences, but the dialogue, etc. - is what made the movie so freaking awesome. 

Overall: not as good as Captain America 2: TWS, but still freaking awesome as these movies go. 

Now onto the title of this blog post. As you probably know, I am a die-hard Hunger Games fan. I was on the bandwagon relatively early, and still, it remains my favorite book series. However, I could totally go into an entire blog post about this, but, nevertheless, we've got to talk about the similarities between two tragic characters: Bucky Barnes and Peeta Mellark. 

Not all of these ideas are my own, as well as the critiques of Civil War. They are mostly a accumulation of my own thoughts, and others from the great, wide interwebs. 

1. They are both wholesome deep down inside. 

It is obvious that Peeta Mellark has always had good intentions. In the first book, the only thing he desires is to stay true to himself, and later in Catching Fire becomes self-sacrificial and entirely devoted to Katniss, even up until his capture in the Capitol. He was fighting for her the whole time. 

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Bucky, a sergeant in the army, is shown to be loyal and brave in The First Avenger. He fights alongside Steve with a vengeance, and supports him in all that he does. Bucky even goes so far as to risk his life for Steve, and falling to his assumed death. He was truly with Steve to the end of the line. 

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Truly, Bucky and Peeta are whole at heart, are self-sacrificial and loyal with strong souls. 

2. The government screwed with their brains to use them as a weapon. 

Now, the more obvious portion is that bad people scrambled their brains in order to use them for their agenda. 

Peeta was hijacked, not totally brainwashed, where they enabled a sort of fear conditioning. They would refresh a memory in is mind, and pump him full of fear-inducting drugs, more specifically tracker jacker venom, in order to change his view on the world. This transformed him into not only a tactic for the Capitol but a weapon sent in to kill Katniss. 

This not only ties in with Civil War, but with Katniss being used as a 'piece in someone else's games'. Both of them incited many deaths and war, much less than if they had been acting on their own liberties. 

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(I honestly could write a whole nother article about the similarities between Captain America and Katniss Everdeen/their trilogies. But for now we must focus on the task at hand: Peeta and Bucky.)

Bucky, however, was given a metal arm (as Peeta was given a metal leg) and was brainwashed multiple times. He then was programmed and pumped with super-serum and sent on assassin missions that he is later blamed for. 

Cap uses this as a compelling argument that the avengers would become exactly what Bucky (and Katniss and Peeta) were.  

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3. They have triggers. 

It is revealed in both of the third movies that some things can set our wonderful little characters off. While it's not clear of what exactly sets off Peeta, but he has flashbacks that are most likely triggered by violence, certain sounds and words, just anything that reminds him of his torture in the Capitol. These either send him into a PTSD-like flashback or back into the same thinking patters of the hijacking. 

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Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign. Homecoming. One. Freight car. These words send the recovering Bucky Barnes back into muscle memory of sorts, and flip his mind back into The Winter Soldier. 

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4. They are blamed for actions they did while 'under the influence'. 

The masses of District 13 hate Peeta for going against the rebels. However, he was tortured and forced into saying these things. Not only was he not himself when he strangled Katniss, and killed Mitchell, but he feels insurmountable guilt and many blame him for these things, as they do Bucky. 

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*MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CIVIL WAR* It is revealed that Bucky, as the Winter Soldier, killed Tony Stark's parents.  And Tony FLIPS SH*T - rightfully so - over this realization. However, Bucky was not aware of this and did not consciously do so. It was the Winter Soldier who killed them, but many people, like Peeta's case, aren't able to see past that. 

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5. Their 'lovers' believe in them, and are actually quite selfish in doing so. 

Katniss and Cap are selfish in different ways, but both hold unwavering devotion to their counterparts. 

Katniss can't love Gale, because she still holds onto hope that the real Peeta is in there somewhere. But she holds her distance, wanting to protect herself because she cares so much.  Many times in all three books, Katniss saves and treasures Peeta because she's afraid of being hurt by losing Peeta. 

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Steve's only connection to the life he loved is Bucky. And his selfish desire to get back to this life is mostly what is fueling his aggressive protection. Sure, he loves Bucky, but, like Katniss, a good part of his motivations are selfish because they don't want to lose them. 

How heartbreakingly human. 

source: instagram

Probably one of the most compelling similarities is Cap's and Katniss's heroic selfishness surrounding their loved ones. Peeta and Bucky are the only things that keep these protagonists anchored in their crazy worlds, and they cling to them, doing rash things in order to protect them, and in turn, protecting themselves. 

I realize that only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me. 

Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky. 

6. They are both smol and beautiful cinnamon rolls who need to be protected at all costs. 

Okay, maybe this was just a shameless plug for  #savebuckybarnesandpeetamellark2k16. 

But, oh well.  I bet you enjoyed this post anyways. 

~The WordShaker