Look at his Ffffffffucking face in all of these gifs!
He is playing Bucky Barnes, trauma victim, attempting to mimic himself as the winter soldier in the way he moves and fights while still maintaining his humanity as Bucky Barnes. He is trying SO hard to not be the winter soldier anymore. The winter soldier is a hammer, Bucky Barnes is a fighter. When he has previously played the winter soldier in his hypnotized state, the fighting style is smash everything. No thought for his own safety, no arms up to block, no self-preservation. Just hit hit hit, just aggression straight aggression. But Bucky Barnes doesnβt fight that way because Bucky Barnes has a brain and strategizes, because Bucky Barnes is a sentient human being, not a machine. So here heβs trying to mimic that fighting style, but he canβt quite do it. He doesnβt quite put all his all into every move. Heβs pulling his punches just a little bit because he doesnβt want to kill everyone anymore, and you can see the struggle on his face during this whole fight. Itβs incredible! You can see every tiny bit of emotion on his face while ostensibly having zero expression. And when heβs released, you see the relief in his eyes that he didnβt fall into that well, and become the winter soldier again, that he didnβt let it go too far but every time he has to let it out it hurts him a little bit and Sebastian Stan lets us see that pain and it is stunning.
