First off, my apologies for resurrecting a 9-month-old zombie but this seemed the best place to add these questions since there were some responses here that tangentially touched upon my ideas.
I only got around to watching GOtG and GOtG2 in the last couple weeks while binging in preparation for Infinity War. I have yet to see Civil War or Ragnarok, so it’s fortunate that I tend to avoid opening weekend at the theaters anyway; I’ll watch those before going into IW.
On to the question/comments – and since the movie and thread are almost a year old (and it was an open spoilers thread anyway), I’m not going to worry about spoilers below:
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Did anyone else think that beast in the opening credits was more than just a squid-thing? I got the impression it was a nod to the Cthulu mythos – something astonishingly huge with tentacles and a multi-rowed set of teeth inside a huge maw. Maybe a Cthulu Servitor?
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Quill and Gamora were saying, “Skin is skin! It’s the same on the inside or the outside. Everybody knows that!” So Drax was an idiot for trying to kill the thing from inside. From the conversation (rather rushed, under the circumstances) it didn’t seem like they were talking specifically about that creature’s skin. Hey docs? I thought basic biology made “inner skin-tissues” weaker than the epidermis. I thought that was kind of necessary because inner tissues (particularly the digestive tract) have to absorb or excrete stuff (e.g. to facilitate digestion) while the epidermis is designed to be a protective layer. Did I learn that wrong back in high school?
Well, perhaps analyzing Sci-Fi (Cthulu) anatomy is a fool’s errand.
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Did anybody else think the resolution to the Nebula/Gamora conflict was a bit too simple? After chasing her sister all over the galaxy – preceded by a promise to Thanos to hunt down and kill Gamora for her betrayal – Nebula concludes the vendetta by declaring “I won.” I really expected more of a fight and really expected Nebula to be more of a fighter. At the end, I really expected Nebula to insist (at blade-point) that Gamora verbally admit that Nebula won, or at least vocally concede the loss – it was basically two sisters acting out the “Say UNCLE!” portion of sibling abuse/rivalry – And I thought such a scene would have done well to include Gamora resisting the duress as much as possible.*
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Maybe this deserves its own thread (in which case, feel free to migrate this somehow) but, having read the other posts in this thread first, I didn’t see anyone else mention this, so I will: Did anyone else see the conclusion of the climactic battle as something of an anti-religious jab? It was rather subtle, and perhaps I may be sensitive to it because of my stance about religion (which is well-known around these parts).
Ego: Listen to me! You’re a god! If you kill me you’ll be just like everyone else!
Quill: What’s so wrong with that?
I mean let’s face it: Part of the appeal of cults and religions, part of what keeps people in and helps to satisfy the vanity of its members is that they say, “Hey, we’ve got the answers you’re looking for. We’ve got The Truth. Join us and be better than those other guys.”
Except that there’s a lot of other guys and a lot of clusters of other guys are saying the same thing – “those guys are just posers; we’re the special ones.”
So here’s the character Ego. He reveals a back-story that’s astoundingly similar to the Hindu genesis (Brahma split himself into ten thousand things to ease his boredom; all things have Brahma-essence and are worthy of respect) and he can literally make planets (Monotheistic pattern) and also visit and impregnate mortals (Norse, Greek, and other mythologies). He’s basically a deity in this galaxy. And then there’s Quill. He’s the son of the primary (only) deity of this particular planet so that kind of makes him rather divinely special$. Several distractions in the movie show us he’s definitely the offspring of the god-like guy.
Stranger on a Train has already shown us the parallels between GOtG2 and Empire Strikes Back; here’s another “Join Me and we can rule the Galaxy together!” cliche and, within the milieu we’re basically seeing not just “Join our cult because we know the True/Proper way to interpret the mythology” but “I’m really the deity of this tale and you’re really the offspring qualified to join me and really be in charge of the Grand Plan; you can really be better than all those posers.”
And Quill, whose childhood and upbringing have, by his accounts and the tales from others around him who would know, really been quite shitty, is the stereotypical candidate for recruitment by Campus Crusade for Cthulu or any (many) of the groups who prey upon the isolated and lonely souls that are pining for companionship, meaning, and a place to fit in. He says, "No. I’m okay with being the average entity. I’m okay with being just okay. I have no qualms about NOT being superior to everyone else, particularly if being superior means causing – or allowing-- their demise as part of a greater self-aggrandizing scheme. I reject the opportunity to be a deity’s Chosen One (even if, in fact, I was created and destined to be that Chosen One).
That, to me, is a pretty clear rejection of religion-in-general, by the writer(s) if not by the character as well. Did anyone else catch that or did it just go by too quickly? Was it an intentional jab (do the writers of this series do that often?) or something thrown in to emphasize the “It’s the family you make, not the family that made you” theme stick out more?
—G!
- Or was this another nod to Warner Brothers? Remember the episode where Bugs Bunny accidentally unlocks the giant fuzzy red-haired beast and it chases him all over the castle and finally corners him – only to poke him and say, “Tag! You’re it!” ?
$ ¿Ver? ¿Qué dije, Jesús?
