Poor Star-Lord, the guy just can’t catch a break.
Coming out of Avengers: Infinity War, many fans were completely turned off from the character due to the role he played in Thanos’ victory. Yes, a lot of people blame Peter Quill for the Mad Titan’s devastating actions in the climax of the film, and though directors Joe and Anthony Russo, and even Chris Pratt have tried to defend him, it hasn’t worked.
If you’ll recall, Team Iron Man comes up with a solid plan at one point to get the Infinity Gauntlet off Thanos’ arm. It nearly goes off without a hitch, too – but Star-Lord emotionally lashes out at the Mad Titan after he discovers that the villain murdered his girlfriend Gamora. This ruins the scheme and Thanos keeps his weapon, eventually going on to kill billions upon billions with it.
Whether or not you place the blame on the Guardian is up to you, but there’s one other issue that people have with that scene, and that’s the relationship between Peter and Gamora. Though there’s always been a little spark between the two of them, many viewers felt their feelings for one another weren’t developed enough in prior movies to warrant Quill’s actions.
That’s a fair point, and one that writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely addressed in a recent interview, saying the following while talking to Kevin Smith on his Fat Man on Batman podcast (which has yielded all sorts of interesting nuggets of information lately):
“That’s not on James Gunn. That’s on us wanting that to be the relationship. It was clearly what that relationship was heading towards. It’s also been four years in between movies. Also, even if you were only dating someone for a few weeks, if you found out her father had murdered her, you’d probably hit him in the face. I’ll also say that I think they did more than kiss, and I think Drax was watching.”
Frankly, I’m not sure this is the best explanation. Sure, that may have been where the relationship was going, but it certainly wasn’t there yet. Even if their point about it being four years in between movies is true, audiences didn’t get to see what happened during those four years and while it’s entirely possible Star-Lord and Gamora may have grown very close in that time, the fact that we don’t get to see their relationship build after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 does leave the whole thing feeling a bit forced.
Then again, you could also take Pratt’s reasoning for it, which he justifies by saying that Peter’s actions were just an extension of who he is as a person.
“Look – the guy watched his mother die, he watched as his father-figure died in his arms, he was forced to kill his own biological father. And now has suffered the loss of the love of his life. So I think he reacted in a way that’s very human, and I think the humanity of the Guardians of the Galaxy is what sets them apart from other superheroes. I think if we did it a hundred times I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Again, not the best explanation and no doubt, many people will still take issue with Star-Lord’s actions in Avengers: Infinity War, but at the same time, it’s important to remember that this is just a movie, and not everything has to add up perfectly. Besides, we all know that Thanos’ snap will be reversed in next May’s Avengers 4, at which point, Peter Quill’s selfish act won’t even matter anymore, right?