While Bucky Barnes was first introduced to the MCU a decade ago in Captain America: The First Avenger, he has changed drastically, in so many ways, since that moment. He has even been the focus of entire films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War.
He’s consistently a popular and important character in the MCU, especially when it comes to Captain America. While Steve Rogers has passed that mantle on to Sam Wilson, Bucky came right along with it. He saw a great deal of change over the course of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, both at Sam’s side and on his own.
10 Bucky Righted Many Of The Wrongs He Believed He Was Responsible For
Bucky Barnes is considered the longest-term prisoner of war in history in the world of the MCU. He was captured and forced to serve H.Y.D.R.A. as the Winter Soldier, committing many terrible acts after they brainwashed him and turned him into a weapon to do so.
Bucky feels a great deal of responsibility for what he did, and so he started righting the wrongs that he feels he committed as the Winter Soldier. By the end of the show, he not only righted many of those wrongs, but he learned that he was not actually responsible — and that righting those wrongs must also include reclaiming his own autonomy.
9 Bucky Has Been Working To Move On From Losing Steve
Before Bucky knew anyone else, he knew Steve Rogers. They were inseparable from childhood and constantly at each other’s sides in the MCU. In fact, the entirety of Captain America: Civil War begins because Steve is unwilling to back down from Bucky’s side. After losing Steve, however, Bucky is forced to face the harsh reality of a world he never expected to have to deal with: a world without Steve.
It takes him a long time, but he’s able, by the end of the show, to at least start living in a world that doesn’t have Steve in it anymore. It may be a long road, but Bucky knows he has to keep living, even when Steve is gone.
8 Bucky Has Started To Look For New Relationships & Bonds
In losing Steve, Bucky lost practically the last remaining relationship he had. If he wanted to have any friends — or, indeed, to know anybody at all — he had to start seeking and forming new relationships and bonds.
While he had a few at the beginning of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he wasn’t his real self, nor was he fully committed to anyone he knew. However, by the end of the show, he had actively begun to seek out, form, and build new relationships with people in his life, including with Sam Wilson and his sister, Sarah.
7 Bucky Has Become A Team Leader & A Superhero
Before Steve Rogers came overseas in Captain America: The First Avenger, Bucky was the leader of his own military group. While Steve most often took over teams after that, Bucky was still a strong leader, even if he wasn’t always the one in charge. His life as the Winter Soldier made him a more solitary figure than ever.
As a result, he was a lonely person who was determined to work on his own more than anything else. By the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, though, Bucky had become a valued member of a team, as well as a team leader in his own right. He’s also a superhero — whether he’s the White Wolf, the Winter Soldier, Captain America, or just Bucky Barnes.
6 Bucky Accepted A New Captain America Who Wasn’t Steve Rogers
It was incredibly difficult from the start for Bucky to accept anyone besides Steve Rogers as Captain America. Steve chose to pass the shield on to Sam and not to Bucky, which Bucky accepted because he trusted Steve’s judge of character.
However, Sam turning over the shield to the government made Bucky doubt everything — including the title of Captain America, as well as Sam and Steve both. By the end of the show, Bucky not only accepted a Captain America who wasn’t Steve, but he specifically accepted and embraced Sam in the role.
5 Bucky & Sam Have Become Genuinely Good Friends
Sam Wilson was first introduced to the MCU through Steve Rogers, whom he got to know while the latter was trying to help Bucky Barnes in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Though Steve knew both Sam and Bucky first separately, he is also the reason that the two of them know one another at all.
They did butt heads at first and were actively fighting at the beginning of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but their relationship grew and developed over the series. By the end of the show, the two of them were genuinely good friends who enjoyed spending time together and wanted to help one another, no matter what.
4 Bucky Made Amends — Even When It Was Hard For Him To Do So
Making amends for his actions when he was the Winter Soldier was difficult for Bucky. It became even more difficult for him to do so when he realized that getting revenge was not the same as making amends. He had to do terrible things that hurt him even if they would eventually help other people — including telling Yori Nakajima that he was the one who killed his son, R.J. Nakajima.
He saw Yori and Leah before he left New York and decided to move on from the half-life he had been building. Even when it hurt, Bucky learned by the end of the show that he had to make amends in a way that was healing for everyone, even when it was hard to do so.
3 Bucky Is Comfortable Enough To Be Himself Around Sam & His Family
When The Falcon and the Winter Soldier began, Bucky was incredibly uncomfortable around pretty much everybody. The only person he really trusted anymore was Steve Rogers, and a few people in Wakanda, such as Ayo.
Being in New York isolated him from those people, and thus isolated him from most of his remaining relationships. The end of the series saw a Bucky Barnes who was not only comfortable around Sam Wilson and his family, but happy to go and spend time with him and other people at a cookout.
2 Bucky Came To Terms With The Fact That His Actions As The Winter Soldier Weren’t His Fault
Steve Rogers spent a great deal of time reminding Bucky that his actions as the Winter Soldier were not his fault. While Bucky refused to agree, Steve repeatedly insisted that he was forced to do what he did.
However, by the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky has come to terms with what happened to him. While he still feels responsible for what he did, he expressed to Yori Nakajima that it wasn’t his fault, that he didn’t have a choice in what happened.
1 Bucky Is Finally Doing What He Wants To Do With His Life
Ever since Bucky had to fight in World War II, he’s had to live by somebody else’s rules. He’s been controlled in some way or another for nearly a century.
By the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, though, Bucky is finally able to start doing what he really wants to be doing in life. He’s re-establishing relationships, he’s choosing his actions, and he’s living his own life for the first time in so long that he practically has to relearn how.