Thunderbolts Headcanons:

Favorite 4 marvel things in no specific order:

Black Widow

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Thunderbolts*

The Falcon And The Winter Soldier

I love these so much please talk to me about them

Thoughts on Bob's powers in Thunderbolts

(cut because major spoilers and also it's kinda long)

I don't know much about the thunderbolts comics(feel free to correct me), but from what I understand he has the power of reality manipulation(like Wanda, I want to do another post talking about their similarities)(side note: he also had a dog he was really close with in the comics and that wasn't put in the movies??? Marvel give your characters their emotional support animals back)

This means that he can do just about whatever he wants. Anything he wants to do, he can manipulate things around him to do it.

As seen in the fight between the thunderbolts and sentry, talking with Val, and becoming the void, he can do many things, including: change the temperature of objects(boil water, melt Walker's gun), teleportation/super speed, telekinesis, super strength, being indestructible, flying, causing people to relive their memories, some sort of darkness??, telepathy(? I do not know about this one, the only evidence I have is that he was in Yelena's shame room the first time, but there is also evidence that he cannot read people's minds, so I am undecided. This may have to do with what I will talk about next), and there's a good chance that's not all his powers. Like I said, he can probably do whatever he wants to.

But he doesn't seem to do that often, this may be because he doesn't know what he can do before, or he lost his memory afterward, it's hard to tell because we don't see the 14 months to understand better, but I have some theories that may play out in Doomsday.

When can he do this?

I think it has to do with the fact that he's bipolar

(disclaimer, I am not bipolar, I do research for writing purposes but I may be wrong, please correct me if I am)

When he's sentry, that's mania, he feels unstoppable, like a god, like he can do anything. So he does. He is unstoppable, he beats the thunderbolts up and shows off his powers.

But I also think we see another instance of his powers in a mania episode. When he's at the vault.

This may not make much sense at first, hear me out.

In the vault, underground, he says the team is better off if they leave him behind, he doesn't care if he dies and he thinks he's worthless. That's pretty depressive.

But then the team cares for him. Yelena drags him around but makes sure he's alright, she shows that she understands how he feels, they're somewhat similar, and that may be the closest thing to a friend Bob has had.

And then they're driving out, they're being questioned, they're gonna get caught.

And what does Bob do?

Sacrifices himself for them.

He goes out and attracts people's attention to save his friends. This may look like a suicidal depressive thing, because he's pretty sure he's gonna die to save them, and it probably partly is, but I can see mania there.

You can have mixed symptoms, both manic and depressive symptoms at the same time. In this instance he's: making poor decisions on the spur of the moment, looking like he's having quick thoughts and actions, and being very confident in a bad situation. These are all symptoms of mania. But he's also putting himself in a situation where he knows he'll die. Suicidal.

But he looks like he knows what he's doing. He's not scared, he's not agitated, he looks into the guns, and he looks confident. Like he's accepted that he's gonna die and he doesn't care.

And he's not hurt.

Both times he's had a manic episode, he's not able to be hurt. He's confident. In one instance he know's he'll die but he's still confident he's doing it for a good reason, and in the other instance he's absolutely sure that he's gonna win.

So he does.

He feels indestructible, he is indestructible.

Flip side, if he's in a not-quite-the-void-but-still-pretty-depressed situation, I'm pretty sure that he is able to get hurt.

Now, we don't see this in the movie, I can't think of a time where you can see him visibly hurt, but then again, I'm speculating on his powers, so humor me.

If he's depressed, sad, thinks he's worthless and can't do anything, I think his powers will reflect that, he'll lose his powers, not be able to do the same things, and be able to get hurt.

Now the void? I'm not sure. That looks pretty much like a direct embodiment of his depression rather than him feeling depressed. It almost skips right past the ability to get hurt back into the indestructible phase again. It's hard to hurt someone who's hurt so much that they don't care.

But it's weird in a way. When he's in the final shame room, when Bob attacks Void, the void smiles, looks at him confidently, talks like he owns the place, and doesn't get hurt.

Is it mania again? Maybe, I don't have the experience or qualifications to say for sure, but then again, if only just a little bit, it sure looks like it.

So his powers play directly off of how he's feeling at the moment.

Manic? He feels unstoppable? His can do anything, manipulate reality in a way that he'll always win.

Depressed? He feels worthless? His powers aren't there, he gets hurt, and he's just as human as the rest of them.

Again, these are just my thoughts, I may be wrong, you can correct me, we can have a discussion, we can come to an agreement or think our own thoughts. I would love to hear anyone else's takes on this, I think it's really interesting because there are so many ways to think about his powers!

Feeling insane about this

Thunderbolts Sparring

How good are all of the Thunderbolts(Yes I'm still calling them that I don't care) at sparring? This is what I think. List is from worst to best(Bob not included)

5. Alexei Shostakov: Yes, I know he's a super soldier, here me out. Alexei is very strong, but in a group like this, being strong isn't as big of an advantage as you would think. He can throw someone around yes, but does he seem like he has the amount of training everyone else has? No. Against unenhanced people he's amazing, when fighting with trained assassins? I actually think he would lose first.

4. John Walker: Yes, he's like, the best in the military, that's also not super cool compared to some training the others have. I do think he would beat Alexei in a fight because he has the same strength but more training, but he would lose to some of the others because they are trained better, have different skills, and have more control over their strength. I do like to think he's somewhat still learning how to control his strength. Even though he has military training, with the serum he seems like he would rely more on his strength than skill to take down an opponent.

3. Ava Starr: She would be so much higher if she could throw a punch better. With her skillet, she doesn't even need to fight and she would be absolutely amazing at dodging. I think she would easily beat John and Alexei by dodging and trowing a few well aimed punches. Though I don't think she is the best and hand to hand fighting. With a weapon? Amazing, you're probably not winning. Hand to hand? She probably needs a little bit of practice. She seems more of a spy with a gun than a soldier.

2. Yelena Belova: She's a widow, what else do you want? I think she would be able to beat both previous super soldiers because her fighting style is so different and she's very quick on her feet. I think she could also beat Ava because quick enough reflexes would be able to get her before she phases again. She was an assassin, she could definitely beat around a lot of people.

1. Bucky Barnes: I headcannon that he trained the young widows in the Red Room so yes, I think he could beat Yelena in a sparring match. Maybe it would go back and forth a bit, but for the most part I think Bucky would be able to win. He was an assassin for far longer, has the super soldier serum, and has a vibranium arm.

These are just my thoughts and how I write the characters, I would love to hear how anyone else interprets their fighting styles!!!

a small collection of recent sambucky doodles

@alittlepeculiar this is what I was talking about that one time

Part two because I’m obsessed with them