SPOILER WARNING! This article contains spoilers from This article contains spoilers from Thunderbolts* |
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- Yelena: We stick together from now on.
Bob: That's nice. - —Yelena telling Bob that from now on they'll be together.
Boblena is the het ship between Yelena Belova and Robert Reynolds from the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom.
Canon[]
Yelena and Robert first meet when Yelena is sent by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine to an O.X.E. facility under the pretense of killing Ghost. Once there, Yelena meets Ghost, Taskmaster, and John Walker, all of whom were sent by Valentina with the purpose of killing each other. After Taskmaster is killed by Ghost, everyone soon realizes they were set up by Valentina, and Robert is discovered by the group after he stumbles out of a crate. Despite their initial distrust of each other, everyone comes to a mutual agreement to work together and escape the facility, with Yelena being knocked out after hitting her head during their escape.
While knocked out, Yelena dreams about the time as a child when she was forced to betray her friend Anya and have her killed as a test from the Red Room. Yelena sees Bob in her dream, confusing her. She soon wakes up and sees Bob lying next to her on the ground with their hands touching. The two confirm they're okay before continuing their escape with John and Ghost. John soon grows suspicious of Bob and nearly gets into a physical altercation with him before Yelena comes to Bob's aid, defending him. Yelena talks with Bob and Bob tries to convince her to leave him there so he doesn't drag everyone else down, but Yelena refuses, understanding his feelings of worthlessness. She then tells him to try and push those feelings down into what he calls a "Void".
When they reach the surface, the 4 soon finds Valentina is outside with a strike team assembled ready to move in and incapacitate them. Yelena makes a plan to ambush the strike team and sneak into one of their trucks. Bob offers to help but Yelena refuses, keeping him with her in order to protect him. They make it into one of the trucks disguised and are nearly found out, but Bob leaves the truck and distracts Valentina and the soldiers in order to give Yelena and the others time to escape. When the soldiers open fire on Bob and he falls, Yelena is shocked and saddened by his apparent demise, but still escapes with John and Ghost. Right after the group escapes however, Bob is shown to be unharmed and begins to uncontrollably soar into the sky before passing out and crashing back down, sending the truck Yelena, John, and Ghost are in off a cliff.
Bob is captured by Valentina and sent to the Watchtower, where he awakens and is talked to by Valentina. Bob asks where Yelena is and she brushes his question off, telling him she and the others are just criminals. She then manages to manipulate him into agreeing to become the hero known as Sentry. Meanwhile, Yelena and the others survive and are found by Yelena's adoptive father Alexei, also known as the Red Guardian. While escaping O.X.E. trucks chasing them, they are found by Bucky Barnes. Bucky stops the convoy before capturing the Thunderbolts so they can testify against Valentina. Bucky however soon gets a call from Valentina's assistant Mel who reveals Valentina's plans to use Bob and turn him into her own personal superhero despite his mental instability for her own political gain. Bucky joins forces with Yelena and the other Thunderbolts so they can stop Valentina and rescue Bob.
When the Thunderbolts arrive at the Watchtower and confront Valentina, they attempt to arrest her, but are stopped by Bob, now going by Sentry, after he's gained better control of his powers. Yelena tries to stop the group from fighting Sentry, but her pleas fall on deaf ears as the Thunderbolts attack him. Sentry retaliates and effortlessly defeats them, causing them to retreat. Valentina orders Sentry to go and finish them off, but he refuses, saying they pose no threat to him so he has no reason to do so. Sentry then turns against Valentina after being deluded by her into thinking he's basically a god, but Mel saves her, activating a kill switch put inside Sentry in case something like this happened. Sentry is seemingly killed, but he soon reawakens as his darker half known as Void, with his body turning shadow-like. Outside, the Thunderbolts break up after their failed mission and Yelena is comforted by the Red Guardian. They then notice Void hovering in the sky as he begins turning New York and its citizens into shadows, forcing them to face some of their worst moments from their past. The Thunderbolts then reassemble and protect the bystanders from the ensuing chaos.
Meanwhile Yelana confronts Void, with Void telling her she was right when she said they're alone. Yelena then willingly turns into a shadow so she can try and find Bob. She confronts her traumatic past and soon finds Bob in a recreation of his childhood room. She talks to him and finds out how he and his mom used to be abused by Bob's father. She admits that she was wrong about saying they should push their pain deep inside and that they should rather let it out, confronting it head on. Bob then agrees to try and leave with her before the duo are attacked by Void. They're then aided by the other Thunderbolts who also willingly turned into shadows so they could try and help Yelena and Bob.
The team make their way through Bob's memories until they eventually reach the "worst room" where Void taunts Bob before attacking and incapacitating the others. Bob and Void then get into a fight, with Bob's anger slowly causing him to become consumed by Void. Yelena manages to break free and rushes over to Bob and hugs him, ensuring him that she's there and that he's not alone, with the other Thunderbolts soon following suit. This causes Bob to finally overcome Void and regain control, getting rid of the shadows and returning the city and its citizens to normal. After being returned to New York, Bob reveals he doesn't remember anything that happened, and Yelena insists they stick together from now on, which Bob says is "Nice".
Fanon[]
Despite being new, the Boblena ship is a fairly popular pairing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom. Many fans of this pairing enjoyed the many emotional moments between the two and how Yelena protected Bob multiple times and vowed to stick with him. Other fans think the two would be better if they just remained friends. Regardless of whether or not people ship them romantically, most of the fandom enjoyed the on-screen chemistry between the two.
Due to Yelena canonically being asexual, Boblena has drawn some controversy from fans who believe that she should not be shipped with anyone. These fans may still enjoy the chemistry between the two and want to see them as close friends, one-sided feelings on Bob's part or in a queerplatonic relationship, while others don't want anything to do with the ship, platonic or otherwise.
On AO3, there are currently over 450 fanfics of the pairing.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Bob/Yelena tag on AO3
- Bob & Yelena tag on AO3