How Zemo Cleverly Made MCU Fans Like Him, Despite Civil War
Some viewers of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier have remarked on social media how they like Helmut Zemo - leading to some speculating this could lead to a redemption arc for the villain. Posts describing how strange it seems to like Baron Zemo and dislike Captain America (in the form of John Walker) have received a great deal of attention and agreement. This isn't as surprising as such posts make it appear, however; just like Tony Stark is smart, or Steve Rogers is resolved, Baron Zemo in both his MCU and comics iterations is a master manipulator, and the same tactics he uses to ingratiate himself to other characters work on the audience as well.
Where John Walker is intended to play the role of the series' heel, Zemo showed in Captain America: Civil War that he works much more subtly. Remaining helpful only when it serves him, Zemo's greatest flaw is also a humanizing point that he ruthlessly weaponizes; by showing that he does not believe in redemption, even for himself, he self-deprecates and so becomes sympathetic. Were he pompous, full of himself, or even relentlessly zealous in his ambitions - all traits that Walker shows to greater or lesser extents - he would not be relatable enough to manipulate with any real effect.
Walker's specific manipulation of each of the protagonists plays into the audience's enjoyment of his character. Sam expresses concerns about the human costs of the conflict, and his own experience as a Black American; it costs Zemo nothing to show some human empathy, which he may even feel. Bucky struggles to balance his former role as an instrument of violence with his desire to pursue a better path, and Zemo enables him to indulge himself while still staying "on mission". Even Zemo's chiding of John Walker's serum jealousy helps him to push the soldier over the edge, while winning him audience acclaim for dunking on a bully.
None of this is to say that Zemo's arguments could not be persuasive on their own strength; his dislike for "super soldier supremacy" remains strong in the face of evidence that few characters have handled it well. Whatever his end goal is, however, it seems likely that he hasn't shared it with Bucky or Sam; in episode 4, Zemo tries to test the waters of his proposed world without super soldiers, only to face rebuke from Sam, since Bucky would have no place in that world. If this was a genuine suggestion, then the MCU has already made Zemo's perfect world impossible; it may however have been intended to create a simplified idea in Sam and Bucky's minds about Zemo's intentions.
Zemo's careful manipulations of the characters around him have made him more relatable and sympathetic as a villain, but carefully mask a ruthless interior. Whether or not his stated goals and motivations are true, the way that he presents them is intended to generate a positive connection with his ideals. It's therefore no great surprise that Zemo is rapidly becoming a fan favorite; the skills that he is employing are no less a weapon than a flight suit or a vibranium arm, but a good deal more subtle, and work on a metatextual level. Further episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will reveal his true aims in using them.
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