The comics handled this a LOT better. Too many fans don’t even seem to grasp he was brainwashed in the MCU, that he had literally no control over his actions. Like a demonic possession. That’s how thorough the brainwashing was. His entire personality, all his memories, his ability to even determine what foods he liked and the capacity to even choose to drink milk without being ordered to it- that wasn’t there. He couldn’t even “like” anything. It’s like his soul was elsewhere as a machine controlled his body. That’s how scary and thorough Hydra is when they break someone.
In the comics he went to trial for his crimes and it was Black Widow who produced a VHS tape of his torture, breaking, and brainwashing, that moved the jury to let him go. Some of them cried and vomited at watching the footage. Something like this SHOULD have been in the films but even Tony Stark never accepted that Bucky had no control over what he did and I am still bitter about that because it diminished both characters in Tony’s growth and Bucky’s exoneration.
