Still Haven't Thought Of A Good Title

Despite being team MVP on multiple occassions - first, by saving the quartet from a fiery death in the vault, then by staying and securing a getaway truck, then by recovering Bucky's vibranium arm, then by being the first to (note that there's no ungross way to say this) enter Bob to save Yelena, who moments earlier had called her a bad person - Ava barely gets any fan (or MCU...or Funko) love.

Ava does it all, saves their rag-tag team again and again. Moreover, she does it with flair, quiet confidence, and biting wit (RIP Walker's massive, throbbing ego)

WARNING, WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

LIVED:

The Line The Starling Girl The Caine Mutiny Court Martial Riff Raff Outer Range Them That Follow Top Gun Maverick Pink Skies Ahead Salem's Lot Battle of the Sexes Skincare Catch 22

DIED:

Bad Times At the El Royale Lessons in Chemistry

I LIVED BITCH!:

#the double meaning here fucks me up#because 'don't hurt her' when he and void are technically one and the same#when his biggest fear is that he DOES make everything worse#and that every bad thing he sees about himself will hurt her too by default

Bob’s characterization makes way more sense when viewed through a psychological lens rather than treating Sentry/Void as totally separate identities. Personally, I’ve always seen Bob as someone dealing with symptoms that align more with bipolar disorder or even BPD, which is often linked to early childhood trauma (something I relate to myself).

The extreme highs of Sentry and the crushing lows of Void feel more like emotional states or coping mechanisms rather than distinct personalities like with DID, which is what Moon Knight experiences.

I think portraying Bob as ‘different people’ kind of misses the point—it oversimplifies what he’s actually going through. He’s not switching between identities; he’s cycling through emotional extremes, and sometimes those states come with memory gaps or shifts in perception that make it easy to misread as something else. But at the end of the day, he’s still Bob 🫠

Walker was suspicious of Bob from the start

Walker saw Bob's eyes glow

Walker was the first one to ask whether the flying person was Bob

Yelena started getting more suspicious about Bob after talking with him in the electrical room

Their connecting "Bob" to "unidentified flying person" made more sense.

I mean, while I think there are differences in what Bob and Wanda did, even in terms of how much they were or weren't responsible for what happened, or how much they were aware of what they did, or if they would have been able to stop it, I don't understand why we would approach the whole situation as "do we have to forgive these guys?"

Like, they both messed up, they both hurt people, but we know in both cases that this isn't what they set out to do. They're both a victim of nobody really knowing how to deal with powers on a level as they have them, which also means, if they want to run away - which Wanda kind of did at the end of Wandavision - nobody can really stop them.

And I think this is a really interesting situation, actually - they both have to create guidelines for themselves, even when their mental health is acting up, or they're grieving or hurt. We have seen that they both try to remove themselves from the equation - Wanda by seemingly sacrificing herself, Bob by refusing to use his powers at all. I'm pretty sure neither of these situations will stick, and how they continue dealing with that, and with the people around them, is what's really interesting to me.

Clint in the vents and that’s his whole personality because he wasn’t fleshed out in the movies → Ava in the walls and that’s her whole personality because she wasn’t fleshed out in the movies

Thor eating poptarts and overusing proper words because English isn’t his first language and he’s the comedic relief → Alexei eating Wheaties and overusing proper words because English isn’t his first language and he’s the comedic relief

Natasha pranking and laughing at everyone from the sidelines because fanon decided she’s just silly like that → Yelena pranking and laughing at everyone from the sidelines because canon decided she’s just silly like that

Bruce being a sweet, soft-spoken, unassuming guy but also the most fucking unhinged monstrosity if you catch him on a bad day → Bob being a sweet, soft-spoken, unassuming guy but also the most fucking unhinged monstrosity if you catch him on a sad day

Steve being handed the de facto title of goody two shoes leader despite being the LAST person on board with this → Bucky being handed the de facto title of goody two shoes leader despite being the last person on board with this

He describes himself in the movie as having really high highs and really low lows. They never use the word but that’s clearly bipolar he’s describing. A manic episode followed by a depressive one.

The Void is clearly the representation of his depressive episode. Obviously. But I really think that fight as blonde boy Sentry was his mania.

It’s not the typical manic depiction we’re used to seeing, he’s very very calm during that scene. But a lot of times when experiencing mania people describe themselves as feeling indestructible, unstoppable. Bob literally calls himself a god. That’s, that’s mania, babes.

His mental health manifests in his powers. He literally becomes indestructible. He literally becomes nothing, a void.

And it's really interesting to compare this to the comic version, where at least in the original version, you also have the two states as metaphors, but it's more about drug abuse and mental illness as connected issues. Comic Sentry is the good hero Robert wants to be, the one who protects people and saves the world, and the Void is what he fears himself to be, every darkness, every bad thought, and the Void always tries to dismantle the good the Sentry has done.

I keep seeing people wanting to see Bob become a hero as Sentry and with how the movie presents it, I think that’s missing the mark.

In the film, he was terrifying as The Void but he was also scary as Sentry. He had no way of being kept in check. He was clearly not in his best state of mind (reads as manic) and he had the power to make any and all bad choices. In a way being Sentry has the potential of more harm because he wasn’t able to be talked down in that state. (Granted the team didn’t really give Yelena a good chance to try, but still)

Bob acted in a harmful/dangerous way as both Sentry and The Void. If he’s going to have a power set in future projects, become a hero, it can’t be with just the Sentry powers/look/persona. It’s gotta be something new - a meeting/melding of the two personas he’s presented. In a way he’s gotta just be Bob.

Yeah, and from there it continued to build up. He went from just seeming more confident to "I'm a god actually" pretty quickly, and then he was suddenly at aggressive and paranoid, and was choking someone (which, yes, it was Val, and she treated him abominably, but what if Mel hadn't stopped him? Val's a normal human, he could break her like a twig.). Which given his past with that abusive father is pretty alarming and clearly wasn't meant to be something positive.

If he’s going to have a power set in future projects, become a hero, it can’t be with just the Sentry powers/look/persona. It’s gotta be something new - a meeting/melding of the two personas he’s presented. In a way he’s gotta just be Bob.

Yeah, exactly.

I hope they don’t just turn around and make him superpowered good boy as Sentry.

He describes himself in the movie as having really high highs and really low lows. They never use the word but that’s clearly bipolar he’s describing. A manic episode followed by a depressive one.

The Void is clearly the representation of his depressive episode. Obviously. But I really think that fight as blonde boy Sentry was his mania.

It’s not the typical manic depiction we’re used to seeing, he’s very very calm during that scene. But a lot of times when experiencing mania people describe themselves as feeling indestructible, unstoppable. Bob literally calls himself a god. That’s, that’s mania, babes.

His mental health manifests in his powers. He literally becomes indestructible. He literally becomes nothing, a void.

And it's really interesting to compare this to the comic version, where at least in the original version, you also have the two states as metaphors, but it's more about drug abuse and mental illness as connected issues. Comic Sentry is the good hero Robert wants to be, the one who protects people and saves the world, and the Void is what he fears himself to be, every darkness, every bad thought, and the Void always tries to dismantle the good the Sentry has done.

I keep seeing people wanting to see Bob become a hero as Sentry and with how the movie presents it, I think that’s missing the mark.

In the film, he was terrifying as The Void but he was also scary as Sentry. He had no way of being kept in check. He was clearly not in his best state of mind (reads as manic) and he had the power to make any and all bad choices. In a way being Sentry has the potential of more harm because he wasn’t able to be talked down in that state. (Granted the team didn’t really give Yelena a good chance to try, but still)

Bob acted in a harmful/dangerous way as both Sentry and The Void. If he’s going to have a power set in future projects, become a hero, it can’t be with just the Sentry powers/look/persona. It’s gotta be something new - a meeting/melding of the two personas he’s presented. In a way he’s gotta just be Bob.

Yeah, and from there it continued to build up. He went from just seeming more confident to "I'm a god actually" pretty quickly, and then he was suddenly at aggressive and paranoid, and was choking someone (which, yes, it was Val, and she treated him abominably, but what if Mel hadn't stopped him? Val's a normal human, he could break her like a twig.). Which given his past with that abusive father is pretty alarming and clearly wasn't meant to be something positive.

If he’s going to have a power set in future projects, become a hero, it can’t be with just the Sentry powers/look/persona. It’s gotta be something new - a meeting/melding of the two personas he’s presented. In a way he’s gotta just be Bob.

Yeah, exactly.

I hope they don’t just turn around and make him superpowered good boy as Sentry.

He describes himself in the movie as having really high highs and really low lows. They never use the word but that’s clearly bipolar he’s describing. A manic episode followed by a depressive one.

The Void is clearly the representation of his depressive episode. Obviously. But I really think that fight as blonde boy Sentry was his mania.

It’s not the typical manic depiction we’re used to seeing, he’s very very calm during that scene. But a lot of times when experiencing mania people describe themselves as feeling indestructible, unstoppable. Bob literally calls himself a god. That’s, that’s mania, babes.

His mental health manifests in his powers. He literally becomes indestructible. He literally becomes nothing, a void.

And it's really interesting to compare this to the comic version, where at least in the original version, you also have the two states as metaphors, but it's more about drug abuse and mental illness as connected issues. Comic Sentry is the good hero Robert wants to be, the one who protects people and saves the world, and the Void is what he fears himself to be, every darkness, every bad thought, and the Void always tries to dismantle the good the Sentry has done.