I was looking so forward to this and, thank god, it didn’t disappoint. I was worried it would go all schmaltzy, as holiday specials tend to (I’m not really a big Christmas person so all the Cheer(tm) just bounces off me.) But it was lovely overall and it was so nice to see Mantis finally get her moment in the sun. Er, snow.
I liked that the Peter Quill rehabilitation tour is continuing! (not the Chris Pratt rehabilitation tour. Screw that guy.) When Kraglin called him the greatest hero in the galaxy my heart went all wibbly. Man, it’s so so hard loving Quill and hating Pratt, but what ya gonna do.
I did NOT like that Rocket’s fixation with Bucky’s arm was brought up again, even assuming Bucky gave it away willingly cos he got a new one or whatever, it’s a joke that has its roots in ableism and it really needs to die already.
About a month before this aired I learned Yondu was gonna be in it and I was like “???!?!?!” They managed to work him in there in a very pleasing and appropriate way, but I do wish they’d managed to do the same for Gamora somehow.
The big spoiler! Mantis has been Quill’s sister all along and that’s what a lot of the plot revolves around. It does fall a little flat if you’ve seen the behind-the-scenes stuff from GOTG Vol 2 and know that was supposed to be the idea right from the beginning, though. Here’s a little photoshop manipulation of Ego and Mantis’ mother that I did years ago, based on the deleted scene of them.
GOTG Vol 3 inches ever nearer. :) Hey maybe Mantis can learn more about her mother in that one.
In celebration of today’s occasion here’s five of my favourite dads who are not real, in no particular order:
Harry Osborn
If you’ve only ever seen the Spider-Man movies you may not know that Harry Osborn is a Dad, but he very much is. He has two sons, Normie and Stanley. Normie is named after Norman (Harry doesn’t seem to have ever gotten a chance to rethink that, oh well) and Stanley is… possibly named after Stan Lee? Who knows. Stanley is also never drawn as mixed race even though his mother is black, sigh.
Yeah you can probably tell I don’t really do comics anymore but I love Harry in almost all his forms and he deserves more recognition of the fact that he managed to be a pretty good dad when his own childhood was abusive as hell.
Rory Williams
Rory is more on this list for what was, sigh, his eventually almost completely untapped Dad Potential. We knew he’d be a good dad. Amy knew he’d be a good dad. Then he BECOMES a dad and nothing. He gets one scene with a baby and barely gets more than a couple scenes with his magic time-travel now-adult daughter. It’s so terribly unfair, why? God season six of Doctor Who was a MESS.
Thankfully the showrunners did at least release one canon story of Rory being a dad, this from the Doctor Who Lockdown project. Arthur Darvill came back and everything. That’s something. But gah.
Jean Valjean
I shall ignore the BBC’s Les Mis adaptation, as you should, and focus instead on the JVJ/Cosette relationship as portrayed in the book and musical. It is probably not exactly HEALTHY but it is good. It is also of course very, very Miserable.
“And remember, the truth that once was spoken, to love another person is to see the face of God…”
Simon Petrikov
EVERY DAY I FEEL SORRY FOR SIMON PETRIKOV! He had SO MUCH bad stuff happen to him, not least the actual apocalypse, and yet he was still a good adoptive father to Marceline for as long as he was able. Please watch Adventure Time if you want to see one of the most tragic character arcs to ever exist in cartoon form.
(There are many people who think that Simon’s condition is a metaphor for Alzhemier’s or dementia and I’m among them. Sadly the real thing can’t be taken away the way it was in the show. :( )
Yondu Udonta
Ah, Yondu. Forever my problematic fave. He is not remotely deserving of a World’s Best Dad mug but hey, he knew that, and he did his best to apologize to Peter before the end, and basically just oh my god his death scene I can’t even now I just dissolve into a puddle of tears.
(There is so much meta about Yondu and his arc all over this blog, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.)
Bonus round! All the Star Wars dads. I can’t really choose between them because since Star Wars is basically a story about fatherhood they all have their roles to play. So a little shout-out to Anakin (the other problematic fave), Han Solo, Bail Organa, Qui-Gon Jinn (read Jedi Apprentice ok?), Jango Fett, Galen Erso, Lando Calrissian, Owen Lars, and so many more I forgot.
Homecon 2.0 was off to a great start with an Orphan Black panel followed by an Anime Voice actors panel! Another exciting panel of the day was the Michael Rooker (Yondu, Guardians of the Galaxy) Panel! We were so excited to hear what he had to say! So keep reading for the panel highlights! Michael’s Favorite Roles […]
