Thunderbolts* ​spoilers - Blog Posts

Thunderbolts* summarized in one sentence

various different flavors of depression

Okay I caved, come join my Thunderbolts* server!!! I need a place to yap about this goddamn movie. Still semi in construction but good enough to go live right now so go inhabit it and we can ramble together :)))

This server is 16+ btw!! God please everyone be nice, I'm modding it by myself for now and the less drama we have the better!

The real found family of Marvel.

Thunderbolts* proving it really was the friends they made along the way

I love them dearly <3

This makes so much sense 😭😭😭 we are SO BACK. Now, who's writing the fic?

GUYS I FIGURED IT OUT

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

Tony being a big-mouthed asshole that’s secretly haunted by his past mistakes which involved publicly supporting the US military via PR stunts as a weapons manufacturer → John being a big-mouthed asshole that’s secretly haunted by his past mistakes which involved publicly supporting the US military via PR stunts as a weapon himself

My mind:

i love the thunderbolts with absolutely everything in me but guys. did no one but sam learn anything from catfa or catws

Did I think Thunderbolts was cute? Yes.

Do I also fundamentally disagree with a government run superhero team that borderline disrespects everything Sam Wilson went through to remake Captain America? Also yes.

America’s Ass. America’s Ass(hole).

When Bob said something like “the highs are so high but when it’s low……” I had tears in my eyes. One sentence, that I myself have said so many times but hearing it caught me so off-guard.

If anyone finds the movie’s ending stupid, all I can say is this: sometimes you just need enough people to care. You just need someone to force their presence in your life. You need to hear, over and over again, that you are enough - not because you’re not listening the first time someone says it, but because your own voices are much louder and much more recurrent. It’s someone bringing you back to a consciousness that helps you realise you’re not as worthless as you actually feel… as useless. And sometimes, having that helps so much that it will get me through the day without a black silence echoing all around me. And that’s what Thunderbolts does. That’s why it actually matters beyond being in the MCU and being a movie.

Another nice thing about Thunderbolts* is that there's just no romance at all. It's been too long since I've watched something that didn't have romance in it and I didn't realize how much I needed that. Its a breath of fresh air.

The scene of them all saving people from the void was so Avengers 2012 coded and it gave me goosebumps I can’t stop thinking about it

also where the hell was spiderman

damn girl that was the best black widow movie I’ve ever seen

I saw Thunderbolts on Labor's Day (May 1st) which is a holiday in my home country so it was a free day for me. I should had stayed at home, I should had went to the beach, hell I should had went to do hiking. But no my stupid ass decided to go and watch that movie. So I wasted my free day for nothing; and now I'm at work tired, frustrated and mad 😑🙂

This all of this 👏🏾👏🏾✊🏾

Play by play thoughts while watching Thunderbolts. This is the only way i'm gonna get through it. 🫡

Spoilers below.

Not really blown away by any of this fight choreography, or the filming of it.

Antonia says literally one line before she's killed. Imagine dragging the actress out for the premiere for this. Extras have more lines

What was it that the senator called Val's plan? Sounded like 'Guardians of Vengence propaganda'. Google translate of the subtitle said Guardians of Revenge. But can't quite hear it clearly.

Bucky wasn't as creepy as I thought he would be with Mel. But still kinda creepy. Where's the tactfulness?

Also... he does sound rather stupid

Hmm, at least Ghost calls Walker out when he says "Actually I was the official captain america"

Ghost says "Before you publically murdered an innocent man on the streets" (he says 'define innocent' 😡)

Walker is completely insufferable

Bob says: "I thought you said you were Captain America"

Walker: "why are you laughing"

Bob: "because you're an asshole" I like Bob.

Okay, Bucky does seem a bit creepy with Mel

When they're climbing up the shaft it would've been so easy to add the line "Would be easier if one of us had wings... you know who has wings? REAL Captain America"

Wow, Walker is a really shitty dad and husband. Divorce that man, Olivia

I hate Red Guardian

"Ahh second coming of Captain America! I too was state sponsored super soldier" 🙄😡

Oh, Olivia did leave him. And took the kid. Good for her

Getting bored honestly

Sebastian seems bored too. His line readings are not giving

Is Sentry's suit CGI? This looks weird

Wow....this fight looks terrible!

Particularly the part where John attacks, then Bucky. Their movements are so slow and stilted, then has this CGI glaze look to it when they're thrown around. Bucky does not seem like a good fighter here

Wow knocking Bucky out with his own arm is just... mean. Plus carrying him out isn't very dignified

Yelena: "No, you know you're a piece of trash, Walker. So does your family." I like Yelena.

Okay, the first appearance of the Void was quite good. See? I can be nice.

The applause was a bit much though 🙄

We really don't get to know what was in Bucky's room...or Ava's... or well I don't care about Alexei

THAT is why Bucky punches the chicken suit guy?!

I'm not really feeling this 'defeat the mind rooms with the power of friendship' thing

I'm pretty sure Void says "Robert the hero", but the subtitles said "Robert De Niro" 🤣😂

This whole group hug moment might actually have meant something if we saw what the other's personal demons that they just overcame were

When did Valentina get all the press there? I saw her have the spark of the idea, but the whole city was enveloped in the void? Stupid

And the announcement is still ridiculous. I can't believe Bucky just stood there and said nothing. Should've taken a mic and done a Kanye "I'm gonna let you finish, but Sam Wilson ie Captain America, has the greatest Avengers team of ALL TIME"

And even if he didn't, in what world would Bucky not say "No, we're not the Avengers. Valentina is a crook and here's the evidence. She's trying to save her own ass. Arrest her."

Yelena saying "We own you now" How does that help? She's not going to cooperate. You can't ever trust her. She'll always have her own motives and will be trying to get rid of them.

Final thoughts

That's it? There really wasn't that much action and the fight scenes that were there were very...inert. They lacked visual interest, interesting choreography, seemed glazed in CGI despite all the promo saying how gritty and real this film was supposed to be

Overall it just seems like a very pointless movie. With pointless characters.

Yelena and Ava would maybe be nice additions to Sam's team. John and Alexei can gtfo

Bucky's sleeping on the couch until further notice.

If they were going to have Bucky damage, if not outright, destroy his best friendship with Sam over these misfits, then the film really needed to SHOW why Bucky felt invested in helping them redeem their past crimes. Currently he feels like he has no motivation or real connection to them. I literally just finished watching and I can't remember if he even exchanged dialogue with Yelena or Ava outside of group responses.

Anyway. That's it.

P.S. I stand by a prior post of mine, where I said this could've been a Captain America movie. Sam could've helped Bob just fine.

I don't know how you can be a Bucky stan and approve of that pcs in Thunderbolts*.

I love Bucky and that scene gutted me.

How are we supposed to believe that:

The Bucky who spent what seems like his entire career in Congress trying to put together the evidence to bring down Valentina would then turn around and work for her? For 14 months?! After what she tried to do to Wakanda?! After he makes a point of telling Mel early in the film that he never had a choice who he worked for but she does? This is the choice we're supposed to believe he would make?

The Bucky who dropped everything to go to Sam when Joaquín was injured in Brave New World, who told Sam that him being Captain America gave people something to aspire to, who knew that Ross had charged Sam with rebuilding the Avengers, wouldn't be at Sam's side as he built that team?

The Bucky who is canonically best friends with Sam (at minimum), who can comfortably tell him he loves him, would allow him to be spoken of the way they talked about him in that pcs? That he would just stand by and allow them to suggest that Sam's the one at fault, that Sam's the one being unreasonable, that Sam should recognize that the Thunderbolts are the legitimate Avengers because the government (?? is Valentina the government now) said so?

This isn't Bucky. This isn't where he's at in his arc by Brave New World. I'm so upset that this is the direction the writers took him (and if it was the Russos who shot this scene, what this means for how they're going to treat the character in Doomsday).

I am also absolutely gutted about how they treated Sam in that pcs, but I haven't seen any positive takes from Sam fans - the consensus (I think) is that that scene was horrible and it's going to have so many repercussions outside the MCU. I am seeing posts from Bucky fans cheering about Bucky's new 'found family' or suggesting that people upset about the pcs are exaggerating and...that is not how I feel right now.

so Bob agrees to be a human lab rat because he believes his only worth as a person now is to be a glorified test dummy to advance science, he's stuffed in a box then wakes up with a gun to his head and immediately almost dies but still doesn't blame any of that on the people who put him in the box or the people with the guns, meets the first person in what feels like forever who asks if he's okay because they genuinely care about him, and he immediately sacrifices himself for them, oh his hero complex is SO fucked up. I need five more movies

somebody pls let him rest

This right here. Don't infantilize him, please.

I want to talk about Bob.

I want to talk about Bob and how fandom treats characters with mental illnesses, because I’m already seeing this shit.

Spoilers below the cut.

His arc is so good, and yet some people are really just focusing on making him into “UwU babygirl” material. I know, this is tumblr, home of the babygirlified characters.

But there’s heavier context here. We’re talking about someone who survived an abusive childhood and overcame the addiction he used to self-medicate for a wildly unrepresented/stigmatized illness.

His memory loss is not cute. It’s traumatic. He’s traumatized.

Yes, it’s important that he absolutely can be seen as a love interest, as a favorite blorbo, as a comfort character. In fact, I think he will be for many people with mental illnesses. His story resonates.

But there’s a systemic, historic pattern of treating mentally ill folks as children, or incapable.

The situation with Valentina is a metaphor for conservatorship. She handles him, makes decisions for him, all while talking down to him.

Don’t let fandom do that to him, too.

no because it’s really really important to me that in a world where we’re so used to the heroes punching and shooting their way to victory, thunderbolts* went out of its way to show us that the void is still very much a part of bob, and bob is their friend, so they’re going to accept every facet of who he is and give him a soft place to land, even if that means they’ll have to be the ones to pull him back from the darkness every single time. because that’s what friends family will do for each other, no questions asked.

THIS THIS THIS.

ah yes i remembered the other thing i was thinking about after my second thunderbolts watch (spoilers)

this was more just me piecing things together, but

that whole final scene in the lab was spectacular. i like how the movie makes you believe that bob is fighting his depression and he is putting an effort into recovery by standing up to the void, but as he starts beating up the void, you see that he is losing control. he is beating himself, he is punching himself.

the void will always be a part of him, his mental illness with always be a part of him. so when he fights it, he’s fighting himself, he is hurting himself. all those hints of him thinking he makes everything worse, he’s letting it all out, he’s exploding (which is what happens when you ‘push it all down’ like yelena suggested), and i really relate to this. when he lost control, he started hurting himself. a lot of representation of mental illness shows people externalizing and hurting other people, but internalizing is very real too, when the person loses control and hurts themself. that’s what bob was doing

turns out, as he is ruthlessly punching the void, it’s only hurting him more. the darkness is spreading through him and overtaking him, showing that the whole action of shoving your pain down is dangerous, because it always bubbles up and comes out worse than it would have before. it ends up hurting more, it’s more dangerous and terrifying than it would have been. the more you feed into the darkness, the more it hurts you. that’s why bucky said “this isn’t right”, because bob is hurting himself, he isn’t healing. that’s also why yelena said “you’re giving him what he wants” because when you hurt yourself, you’re giving the depression what it wants, you’re feeding it. that’s why the void just kept smiling and laughing as bob hit him.

one of the main themes of this movie is basically it’s fucking hard, but you have to keep fighting, you have to keep fucking trying. so i like that the movie has you realize that bob fighting that dark and dangerous side of him only hurts him more. his mental illness is part of who he is, the goal is just to find a way where he isn’t defined by his illness, where he can find a way to live with it and still thrive. that’s an incredibly important message, that mental illness and disabilities are not necessarily something to be fought off, they are something you need to learn to accept and live with, because it’s a part of you.

I LOVE THIS SM YOUR ARTSTYLE IS SO CUTE OP

say hi to bob

Mel: (over the phone) “Someone named Bob”

Bucky: (looking at the others) “Bob?”

Yelena, Alexei, Walker & Ava: (in unison) “Bob!”

you will never understand unless you watch Thunderbolts* how fucking hilarious this scene was.

— Thunderbolts*

The scene where Bob is beating the shit out of the dark version of himself and Yelena risks it all to run across the room to hold him, the others following suit shortly after, is easily one of the most powerful scenes in a marvel movie literally ever like it’s so important

No but to be serious guys i didnt expect that movie to be that kind of good. I expected great fights. I expected complicated morals. I did not expect that movie to say i know everything seems hopeless but you dont get a choice, you have to try. I did not expect that movie to say when we are up against an impossible, unjust threat the only way through is freely given kindness and forgiveness. I did not expext that movie to say the real way villans win is by preying on those we’ve already decided are hopeless. I did not expect that movie to say we all have to believe we can get better. Please believe me we can all get better. Oh my god.

(SPOILERS FOR Thunderbolts*)

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I.. am so sorry but an offscreen Sambucky divorce? HELL NAH these two better make up quick cause I am not dealing with Marvel trying to force a divorce arc, I hope they communicate (despite how unlikely that is) because I can't really at either are really in the wrong? Like Sam hearing that there's a new Avengers(z) team is probably feeling very off put because he doesn't really want to remember the death/disbanding of the old team, PLUS he is now Captain America and is probably expected to join the Avengers(z) , and Bucky didn't even agree to being the new Avengers(z)! Though idk if the pathetic wet cat of a man he is has communicated that to Sam, please just let these men stay married and COMMUNICATE, it'd be so stupid if after all they went through they divorced over a goddamn name (though like I said Sam does have his reasons and he isn't really in the wrong) anyways thank you for listening to my rambling :3

the fact that there's some hydra guy out there in a supermarket buying some cereal and seeing the winter soldier on a cereal box

“Mr. Soldier”

“Mr. Soldier was my brainwashed and tortured alter ego. Call me Bucky.”

THUNDERBOLTS* minor SPOILERS —

Alexei: “so what’s the secret plan?”

Bucky: “the plan?”

Also Bucky 2 seconds later: *proceeds to slam the van right into the glass corridor*

Also Alexei 2 seconds later: “i love this plan!!”

— Thunderbolts*

yeliza is in thunderbolts but leaves when they are made publicly "the new avengers" bc she operates in the shadows she ain't gonna be on the cover of vogue