About Sentry, Void and what they're really like
Sentry, Void and Bob are all the same, they have the same traumas, fears, self-doubts and insecurities, because they are one person. The only difference is that Sentry has powers (he is Bob’s mania; mania – feeling that you can do anything; this feeling + serum = Sentry, who bc of the serum actually can do anything. That’s the only thing he’s confident in – his invincibility, his superpowers, that will allow him to do whatever he wants, because that’s what he is, but that’s it (!), because he’s still Bob). And then there is Void, who’s about absolute loneliness and hopelessness.
Some may be confused by the way they talk about each other, as if they’re separate personalities (for example, Bob calling Void "it", Sentry saying to Val "it's not Robert you need to be afraid of" and when John calls him Bobby, corrects him by saying "you can call me Sentry", Bob not remembering anything (at first) after Sentry or Void take over, or how Void was talking to Bob at the end), SO I’m adding what i wrote in other posts here:
THEY separate themselves from each other, of course they do, they are not his normal self, they are his mental disorder.
Bob has mental illnesses inherited from his mother and his own (as a result of a terrible life). The main one is bipolar, almost certainly passed down from his mom.
After he was injected with the serum it was like his bipolar was pumped with the strongest steroids and now his mental illness exists beyond human levels, as Sentry and Void (Mel talked about this, that give a serum to someone like Bob and who knows what will happen. Well now we know).
Moving on to the next one:
the key moment that a lot of people don’t seem to understand: they have never known love or care, never had a single person who was even a little worried about them or genuinely cared for them. They have zero confidence that anyone will ever need them, even more than that, they are sure of the opposite. They are very traumatized, all of them, they suffer exactly the same, because they are one.
I didn't think it was necessary to write about it because it's literally shown in every scene, but I'm shocked at how many people didn't get it at all, so.
With Bob himself, I think it's all clear to everyone, thankfully.
He repeats throughout the movie that they (Bob/Sentry/Void) will always be alone, he says this to both Bob and Yelena (even though she hugs Bob at this moment, and yet)
He also says "you think they care about you? you don’t matter to anyone" and "the most shameful thing of all is thinking you could be anything more than nothing".
For him, there is no hope. He doesn't believe anyone will ever stay with them because all their life no one ever did, everyone always left/betrayed/hurt them. He also doesn’t believe that they’ll ever be worth anything at all, that they’ll be anything at all to anyone. The way he keeps confidently repeating that they will always be alone shows that he has given up hope that someone will ever truly love them. He's not a mystical tough guy as a lot of people love to portray. He's a severe depression, an absolute hopeless loneliness (and it’s obvious, it’s all in his name).
1) Desire to be praised and loved
The first person who says a kind word to him, tells him that he is worth something, he immediately follows that person and does whatever he is told, even though he is not sure that he wants to. He does it to please, to be useful, finally believing in himself because of her and wanting to prove her right.
Him being kind to those who he'd known for a couple days at most, and not even through his “own eyes”.
He listens to Valentina, even when she says she plans to use him so she won't be impeached. He's okay with that. Until she gives him the order to kill the bolts. He doesn't want to do that, even though this is the first time he's interacted with them himself, only having seen them through “Bob's eyes”. He doesn't want to hurt them, and he tells them that. He offers them to surrender and he offers it sincerely, smiling awkwardly and shrugging his shoulders, nodding a little at the thought that it's a good suggestion:
He doesn't even attack them; it's Alexei who jumps on him first, screaming.
And even when they come at him with knives and bullets, he just pushes John, Yelena and Ava away most of the time (he doesn't know Bucky and Alexei, so it's different with them).
All of that screams in everyone’s faces that he's not "I'm going to kill everyone, I'm so badass" (like some people hilariously think) but that he won’t really hurt anyone who isn't a threat to him (even if they kinda tried to hurt him, but he knows their intentions, so he’s not upset with them). He calmly and kindly asked them to surrender, again because he's trying to please Valentina, but also because he didn’t want to fight them (just because Bob knew them for a day and they helped him).
As soon as the guys don't even ridicule him, but just ask him what's wrong with his hair and the way he looks, he can't leave this topic alone, he gets all worked up, saying he doesn't like it, even though Valentina tells him to leave it alone and not to let other people's words affect him.
It shows that his giant ego is only related to his great strength, but he has no self-confidence in anything else.
4) The realization that yet another person is trying to tell him how to live and what to do:
To her "you need to do what i say" he simply asks why.
He thought they were going to act as a team, but it turns out they want to put a leash on him, and he won't let that happen. He's part of Bob, and Bob has lived his whole life under someone else's commands and orders.
Sentry is also honestly tells her that she doesn't know what he's capable of, and he's right, she doesn't.
That’s the only thing he’s so sure of, his strength. (again, ironically, because of her).
5) People betraying and hurting Bob (+Sentry/Void) all his life
This scene breaks my heart every fucking time.
When she reaches for the button to kill him.
Kill him because she doesn't care, like all the others before her.
Look at his face when he realized what she wanted to do.
And his words after, "You were gonna turn on me, just like the rest of them"
And that says EVERYTHING about Sentry (and Bob, and Void). About all of them and their severe trauma.
They want at least one person in their life who won't betray them or try to hurt them.
Sentry started listening to Valentina when she, again, only said a few kind words to him. He obediently did what she told him to do, even though he didn't want to, all so that someone would stand by him and tell him he was worth something.
And it ended just like so many times before in Bob’s life – no one cared about him as a person and about what he wanted.
All of Bob, all sides of him, want someone for the first time in their life to be there for them, support them and see their worth.
And the further it goes, the worse it gets:
Bob is hopeful, even though there’s so much pain and sadness in him.
Sentry is hopeful too, but there's an aggression in him when faced with attempts to trick him, to manipulate him again.
and Void – no hope at all.
when Sentry becomes close to the bolts just as Bob is, he will be ready to kill anyone for them and to die himself (which thankfully is almost impossible).
Everyone’s screaming that Bob is a sweetheart, but so is Sentry (and so is Void)
They all want to be loved and understood and to matter to someone.
again quoting Florence Pugh
Sentry – trying and traumatized
Void – beyond depressed and hopeless
and I love all of them, all of Bob, very very much
