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Guys, I'm not gonna lie, this week was... rough. Usual grad school stressed coupled with the near-constant underlying COVID-19 anxiety made it really hard for me to devote a whole lot of mental energy to this project this week. But! I was able to mostly accomplish the goals I set out, so that's something.
Though I did get lots of research done on the topic of memory storage in the brain, figuring out a scientifically plausible way for how HYDRA removed Bucky's memories continues to be A Struggle. Mainly, because our only canonical knowledge of the process is that they shock his whole head, but uhhh the thing with memory -- particularly really complicated memories that have multiple sensory or emotional components -- is that they aren't just stored in one consolidated area that HYDRA could just zap; they're stored throughout the brain. Which leads to the question I've been pondering for months: how they hell did HYDRA shock Bucky's brain so badly that he forgot who Steve is but bad enough to turn him into a vegetable? I'm still trying to work though it. But oh man, the lack of any kind of detail in canon about what HYDRA did to Bucky is my villain origin story.
I also did a little comics reading this week! I read the first volume of Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet. My main goal with doing some comics reading is for Wakanda worldbuilding inspiration, beyond what's already been established as canon in the movie. It's definitely interesting seeing characterizations and Wakandan cultural things that are different from the movie and which things clearly inspired events in the movie. A major theme in this story is how T'Challa contends with some of his people being unhappy with his rule and choices he's made. I think that type of conflict is definitely something to be explored in a story set after Civil War and Black Panther -- how the Wakanda people respond to T'Challa's decision to open to the world. And more specifically, since this is Shuri's POV in my planned story, how the Wakandan scientific community responds to their innovations becoming known to the rest of the world.
What I accomplished this week:
Though I did get lots of research done on the topic of memory storage in the brain, figuring out a scientifically plausible way for how HYDRA removed Bucky's memories continues to be A Struggle. Mainly, because our only canonical knowledge of the process is that they shock his whole head, but uhhh the thing with memory -- particularly really complicated memories that have multiple sensory or emotional components -- is that they aren't just stored in one consolidated area that HYDRA could just zap; they're stored throughout the brain. Which leads to the question I've been pondering for months: how they hell did HYDRA shock Bucky's brain so badly that he forgot who Steve is but bad enough to turn him into a vegetable? I'm still trying to work though it. But oh man, the lack of any kind of detail in canon about what HYDRA did to Bucky is my villain origin story.
I also did a little comics reading this week! I read the first volume of Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet. My main goal with doing some comics reading is for Wakanda worldbuilding inspiration, beyond what's already been established as canon in the movie. It's definitely interesting seeing characterizations and Wakandan cultural things that are different from the movie and which things clearly inspired events in the movie. A major theme in this story is how T'Challa contends with some of his people being unhappy with his rule and choices he's made. I think that type of conflict is definitely something to be explored in a story set after Civil War and Black Panther -- how the Wakanda people respond to T'Challa's decision to open to the world. And more specifically, since this is Shuri's POV in my planned story, how the Wakandan scientific community responds to their innovations becoming known to the rest of the world.
What I accomplished this week:
- Read on long term memory storage and retrieval in the brain
- Read the first volume of Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet
- Read up on PTSD symptoms, neural mechanisms, and recovery
- Read the Shuri comics run by Nnedi Okorafor
