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.

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.

The dynamics of this ship is quite varied among fans due to the complicated 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. Most of the ship is open to interpretations but 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.

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. These similarities draws some Hannigram shippers to the ship. The fans describe WinterBaron as the softer version of Hannigram. The similarities include both ships having their protagonists framed by mastermind villains that later turned into their enemy-allies. Prison break planned by Barnes was the highlight of the similarities. The hype over the similarities was then encouraged by Bryan Fuller - the developer and executive producer of Hannibal TV Series - who liked a tweet about WinterBaron. Nevertheless, there are also minority of fans who deny their similarities, arguing that unlike Hannibal, Zemo is an anti-supermacist who is much less toxic; and that watering down Barnes and Zemo as "Murder Husbands" would completely miss the point of their characters.

WinterBaron has gotten a lot hate from antis since its inception, especially on twitter. 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 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 that they think Zemo had abused Barnes for years. The truth is Zemo 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, the fans also deals with blacklash for shipping Barnes with the person who had framed him for murder and reactivated his Winter Soldier programming. Some antis insist that Zemo and Barnes inevitably hate each other. While acknowledging that Zemo's action towards Barnes had been wrong, some WinterBaron supporters agree that 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, he started to develop some respect toward him. This was shown by the way Zemo decided not to kill Bernes, despite letting a super soldier alive would go against his belief. Some fans also 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' list.

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.