(slightly unsettling eye trauma ahead) That awful moment when you realise Yondu’s eyes freeze over, because he doesn’t close them, because he wants to stay looking at Peter.
I NOTICED THAT. D:
And Peter just meeting his gaze the entire time, so Peter is literally staring into Yondu’s eyes at the moment that he dies – because it’s all he can do, it’s the only way he can help.
The last thing they do is try to make it better for each other in some tiny way.
*cries*
There’s definitely something in there about how Peter (poor, poor Peter) couldn’t help his mother either. He’s now seen both of his parents (shh, Ego doesn’t count) die right in front of him while staring at him like he was the light of their life, and both times he couldn’t do a thing. Not even touch them, not properly. :(
*also cries*
I feel like there’s something intentional, though, about the way that Peter reacts to the deaths of each of his parents (and yeah, Ego doesn’t count). I totally get why he did what he did when his mom died, refusing to take her hand and hiding his face against his grandpa, closing his eyes, looking away so he didn’t see the moment when the light went out of her eyes. He was just a kid. It totally makes sense. Even an adult might not have been able to do it.
But I think it’s completely intentional that with Yondu, he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t pull back, doesn’t try to hide from the pain/love and the reality of what is happening in front of him. His mom wanted that little bit of comfort from him at the end and he couldn’t give it to her. But he’s looking right into Yondu’s eyes and touching him (as best he can) the whole time. There is so little he can do, but he’s trying his hardest to do it and give Yondu the thing that he couldn’t give his mom, that little bit of recognition and comfort at the end. He can’t actually help except by being there, so he tries to be as there as he can be.
Do you ever stop and think that Meredith would’ve forgiven Peter a thousand times over for not taking her hand? She would’ve understood completely. Yet the poor bloke’s been haunted by it his entire life. :(
(Yondu would’ve forgiven him too, I think, no matter how Peter reacted to his death.)
