I think
seeing Vol. 2 helped me get enough
context to understand Peter and Gamora a little better, especially from her
point of view – while I wouldn’t call them John and Aeryn, there is a bit of a
similar idea at play there. Before, it
felt a little too been-there-done-that, but I’m starting to see it now.
On first
glance, I wasn’t overly impressed by Gamora and Peter. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, the
quippy minor rogue/burgeoning hero and the stone cold warrior women. He’s jokey, she’s all business, he makes
small flirting overtures, she threatens to snap his neck, but all the while
they grow ever closer – that sort of thing.
By the end of the first movie, he hasn’t romanced her, but he has earned
her respect and (relative) trust.
Looking
back on it, it’s actually noteworthy how few overtly-romantic beats there are
between them in the film. Peter saves Gamora,
a couple times (a complaint I have with the first film is that I wish Gamora
had more solid victories of her own,) they have a kinda-moment with Peter’s
cassette player (although, at its heart, that scene is about introducing Gamora
to Peter’s world through his music,) and Peter’s initial reaction to meeting
her – before she robs him, mind you – is to come on to her. But really, through much of the movie, their
teamwork/arguing/getting to know each other isn’t all that different
specifically from what Peter does with any of the other Guardians. Instead, it’s mostly by virtue of the fact
that Peter’s the clear lead and Gamora is the only female Guardian that we know
this storyline is inevitable for them.
It’s in
the second film that they get a bit more John-and-Aeryn with the
proceedings. By this time, the team has
been traveling and working together for a while, and they’ve all started to
figure each other out a little more. And
that’s where we start to see what’s going on – or, more accurately, not quite
going on – with Gamora and Peter. It’s
here that the “quippy hero”-“warrior woman” dynamic gets fleshed out more
distinctly. We see that their
relationship has progressed but stopped short of what they both likely want it
to be. Although they support one another
through hard personal stuff, whenever Peter tries to broach the subject of
where they’re headed, Gamora throws up road blocks. It’s deep understandable, since she was
raised by a genocidal war lord who destroyed her planet and then brought her up
to be his living weapon. She has trust
issues, to put it lightly, and she’s learned to bury her emotions as a survival
tactic. As a result, even though on some
level she wants to let Peter in, she can’t bring herself to do it.
On
Peter’s side, he keeps trying to get her to take down her walls, but he gets
tired of always being the one to put himself out there. Sometimes that makes him angry with her, and
sometimes it makes him pull back just as she’s ready to move forward. And so, they’ve been on this staggered path
where they never quite get ahead. Both
need to make concessions – Gamora to trust more, Peter to be patient with her –
and both are trying in their own way (that the other doesn’t always see,) but
it’s not until the chips are really down that they’re able to make much
headway, to get past their own hindrances and start moving towards each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment