OP, here. I have the outline of a plan rattling around in my head, and it will be a long, long fic when I eventually get to it in the queue. I thought I'd put the concept up here to gauge interest and believability before I commit to writing a research-intensive monster of a fic. This is part of a much larger AU universe I'm working in that takes science and reality a lot more seriously but still manages to produce a Captain America and a Winter Soldier.
It turns out that with 1940's science a suspended animation process would be just barely possible, as long as the scientists didn't care too much about the long-term health, safety, or sanity of their test subjects. The Soviets actually were working on suspended animation in the 1940's, and they had some promising results in animal studies (see the Zombie Dog Experiment). I'm currently working on tackling realistic suspended animation for another fic, and the research for that has been a mix of fascinating and disturbing. That will eventually come into play here once the Winter Soldier has been created.
Mind control is another one of those topics that is popular in science fiction that a good dose of science could make even more terrifying than it already is. This is another area the Soviets actually were researching, and there are some allegations that they used Vietnam-era POWs as test subjects. Then there's the famous Patty Hearst case, where there is still debate over whether she was brainwashed, developed Stockholm Syndrome, or was acting of her own free will. The type and degree of mind control used on Bucky is also interesting because it makes the Winter Soldier a much more psychologically nuanced character? How much of the Soldier is Bucky? How much is what was added by Hydra? How much of Bucky did they have to remove? How much agency does he really have? How much awareness does he have of his own condition? Then you combine that with a really buggy suspended animation process where he doesn't stay unconscious the whole time, adding layers of psychological trauma on top of his already scrambled psyche, and you have a very dangerous, unstable assassin on your hands.
And that's enough 2am headcanon rambling for now.
If anyone else wants to do their own fill, by all means go ahead! The more the merrier. :-)
Re: Break Him Down Gently But No Less Cruelly
It turns out that with 1940's science a suspended animation process would be just barely possible, as long as the scientists didn't care too much about the long-term health, safety, or sanity of their test subjects. The Soviets actually were working on suspended animation in the 1940's, and they had some promising results in animal studies (see the Zombie Dog Experiment). I'm currently working on tackling realistic suspended animation for another fic, and the research for that has been a mix of fascinating and disturbing. That will eventually come into play here once the Winter Soldier has been created.
Mind control is another one of those topics that is popular in science fiction that a good dose of science could make even more terrifying than it already is. This is another area the Soviets actually were researching, and there are some allegations that they used Vietnam-era POWs as test subjects. Then there's the famous Patty Hearst case, where there is still debate over whether she was brainwashed, developed Stockholm Syndrome, or was acting of her own free will. The type and degree of mind control used on Bucky is also interesting because it makes the Winter Soldier a much more psychologically nuanced character? How much of the Soldier is Bucky? How much is what was added by Hydra? How much of Bucky did they have to remove? How much agency does he really have? How much awareness does he have of his own condition? Then you combine that with a really buggy suspended animation process where he doesn't stay unconscious the whole time, adding layers of psychological trauma on top of his already scrambled psyche, and you have a very dangerous, unstable assassin on your hands.
And that's enough 2am headcanon rambling for now.
If anyone else wants to do their own fill, by all means go ahead! The more the merrier. :-)