WinterBaron

WinterBaron is the slash ship between and James "Bucky" Barnes and Baron Helmut Zemo from the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom.

Quotes
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. It was never personal. You were simply a means to a necessary end."

- Zemo to Barnes "Super Soldiers go against everything he believes in. He is crazy, but he still has a code."

- Barnes about Zemo "I took the liberty of crossing off my name in your book. I hold no grudges for what you thought you had to do. Goodbye, James."

- Zemo to Barnes

Fanon
The fandom started on April 2, 2021, when episode 3 of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier was aired. Some fans picked the name of the ship using a poll on twitter and "WinterBaron" got the highest votes. While some fans on AO3 used "Zucky", they were gradually following "WinterBaron" name usage. The ship has a quite large of Russian fandom in proportion which also uses "WinterZemo" and "Zecky" alongside with "WinterBaron".

On the first day the ship started, there was only 4 WinterBaron fanfictions on AO3, it then reached 600+ in four months following. On May 1, 2021 WinterBaron Discord (18+) was created as a medium for fans to discuss about the ship.

The dynamics of this ship is quite varied among fans due to the unpredictable nature of Zemo's character. Most fans have different takes on the ship. Some would argue that Zemo, being the man who loves his family dearly and treats his guests and employees nicely, would treat Barnes affectionately and help him through his trauma; some would argue that Zemo, being the manipulative man who broke up the avenger, would take benefit of Barnes's condition; and some others would take it in between. It is a quite popular fanon that Zemo has an unrequited pining on Barnes which led him not to kill Barnes despite his intolerance towards super soldiers.

During the flight to Madripoor, Zemo read another book underneath Barnes's amend notebook. The book was titled in German "Das Nein in der Liebe: Abgrenzung und Hingabe in der erotischen Beziehung" (translation: "How to Say No to The One You Love: Demarcation & Devotion in the Erotic Relationship"). Zemo was at the end of the section of the book which was titled "Same Sex Fantasies in Heterosexuals" and the beginning of "The Overt No in Love." Some fans speculate that this reading was directed towards Barnes.

Some fans have noted the similarities between WinterBaron and Hannigram since the first day Episode 3 of "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier" was aired, drawing some Hannigram shippers to the ship. They describe WinterBaron as the softer version of Hannigram. Both ships had their protagonists being framed by mastermind villains who later turned into their enemy-allies. The prison break planned by Barnes was the highlight of the similarities. The hype over their similarities was then encouraged by Bryan Fuller - the developer and executive producer of Hannibal TV Series - who liked a tweet about the ship. Nevertheless, there are also minority of fans who deny their similarities, arguing that unlike Hannibal, Zemo is an anti-supermacist who is also much less toxic; and watering both Barnes and Zemo as "Murder Husbands" would completely miss the point of them as characters.

This ship has gotten a lot hate from antis since its inception. Some antis confuse Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Zemo with his comic counterpart who is a HYDRA operative and connect the ship to Hydra Trash Party. On the contrary, MCU Zemo is an anti-supermacists who is hostile towards HYDRA. He had shown his distaste for HYDRA by hunting down the people who had been recruited by them, killing their operative, and considering them as supermacists which he despised.

Some antis also seem to confuse Zemo with Zola, the HYDRA scientist who had turned Barnes into a Super Soldier, considering the way they think that he had abused Barnes for years. The truth is he had only met Barnes for the first time in Berlin. It was several days before he got imprisoned for his crime.

Beside those two reasons, antis also have been shaming people for shipping Barnes with Zemo who had framed him for murder and reactivated his Winter Soldier programming. While acknowledging that what Zemo had done to Barnes was wrong, some WinterBaron supporters would agree that seven years ago Zemo had been consumed by vengeance and grief over his family's death, and that he was sorry for his action towards Barnes (As he told Barnes in the German prison). Some supporters believe that once Zemo got to know Barnes better, he eventually started to develop some respect toward him that he finally decided not to kill him despite letting a super soldier alive would go against his belief. Some also would agree that Zemo and Barnes had reached a sort of peaceful resolution at Sokovian Memorial where they decided not to harm each other and got Zemo's name crossed off on Barnes' book.

Fandom
FANFICTION


 * Баки/Земо tag on Книга фанфиков
 * Баки/Земо tag on Книга фанфиков

TWITTER


 * twitter@winterbarons/
 * twitter@inczucky/
 * twitter@inczucky/

TUMBLR



Trivia

 * Zemo and Barnes had their character original soundtracks blend together on a soundtrack titled "Attack, Soldier!" from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier : Vol. 1 (Episodes 1-3) album by Henry Jackman.
 * In 2021, on Marvel official site, Barnes is listed as Zemo's only ally, while Zemo is listed as both ally and enemy for Barnes.
 * The scene where Zemo was stroking Barnes' chin was improvised by Daniel Brühl (Zemo).
 * Zemo was mentioned by Sebastian Stan (Barnes) as one of his two favorite villains in People Magazine's Facebook live streaming.