Better look at Yondu for ECCC!
*gasp* itâs HERE
yondu udonta
Iâm screencapping GOTG 1 (if you canât tell from my earlier post) and I noticed – when Yondu shows up after the infinity stone dance-off/near-death experience, he looks completely worried and freaked out and relieved, juuuuust for a second, before the mask goes back up.
From worried-daddy to a-hole-captain in two seconds flat. Yondu got some nice acting skills, I gotta give him that.
(Also, can you imagine? We saw what the vortex looked inside. How terrifying must that have looked from outside, seeing Peter fucking diving for that stone and then getting swallowed up? Most likely screaming – because we hear Peter yell at the beginning before the music and Gamoraâs yelling sets in – in pain? Yondu may have fucked up parenting a whole lot, but he has a heart, and he loves Peter, and just how down right freaking out he must have been in those terribly long seconds, I can only imagine.)
well, first of all HOW DARE YOU. Iâve written this scene a couple of times now from Yonduâs perspective and pretty much followed this model – absolute terror, followed by a hastily slapped-on grin. But to have it actually confirmed by screenshot is destroying me. Dammit, Sarah.
No probs. ;)
âŚIs it weird to say, Yonduâs slumped posture in the second shot really kills me? I feel almost like Iâve seen that on my own parents. A++++ acting choice, there.
Oh man, thatâs a nice catch! And a good âblink and you miss itâ bit of acting â I went back and watched and I see what you mean, but you almost have to slow-mo through there to see it.
I had my gifmaker open so I thought Iâd have a go at that!
Thereâs definitely a second of (blurry, alas) fear and relief before the smile gets slapped back on.
Iâm screencapping GOTG 1 (if you canât tell from my earlier post) and I noticed – when Yondu shows up after the infinity stone dance-off/near-death experience, he looks completely worried and freaked out and relieved, juuuuust for a second, before the mask goes back up.
From worried-daddy to a-hole-captain in two seconds flat. Yondu got some nice acting skills, I gotta give him that.
(Also, can you imagine? We saw what the vortex looked inside. How terrifying must that have looked from outside, seeing Peter fucking diving for that stone and then getting swallowed up? Most likely screaming – because we hear Peter yell at the beginning before the music and Gamoraâs yelling sets in – in pain? Yondu may have fucked up parenting a whole lot, but he has a heart, and he loves Peter, and just how down right freaking out he must have been in those terribly long seconds, I can only imagine.)
OH man I hope he didnât see the part where Peterâs body just⌠looks like itâs coming apart and turning to dust. That freaks *me* out and I know itâs just CGI! I canât imagine a parent seeing that, even when knowing their child is a half-godâŚ
For a while now Iâve harboured A Theory about this scene and itâs this: Yondu wouldnât have killed Peter, no matter what he said next. (We all figure that, right?)
But he would have killed Gamora. Whatâs she to him? That wouldâve neatly solved a lot of Yonduâs problems right there and then: 1) Be seen to severely punish Peter without actually killing him 2) Satisfy the bloodlust of the other Ravagers and 3) Guarantee the crew a huge payday, since Gamora almost certainly has âdead or aliveâ bounties on her, therefore establishing himself as an efficient leader even if a slightly soft one. Yondu mightâve even been smart enough to spin it in such a way that Peter would then on be âpardonedâ for his betrayal since he ended up bringing them such a payout. Win-win.
Except obviously Peter wouldâve hated him forever. But from Yonduâs perspective, at least he would be alive.
Guess I should be glad I was a skinny kid.
Otherwise, youâd have delivered me to this maniac.#actually the thing I love best about this scene#(well besides EVERYTHING)#is that this is when I first realized#that Peterâs not afraid of Yondu AT ALL#which I think is important for what his childhood was like?#Peterâs got a lot of justifiable resentment about it#but he didnât grow up afraid of Yondu#he backtalks him without even really thinking about it#he doesnât have the âflinchâ reaction that abused children have#(e.g. how Mantis is with Ego is a TEXTBOOK example of it)#Yondu mightâve done a lot wrong#but Peter grew up confident and self-assured#and that doesnât happen by accident (via laylainalaska)
Seriously: compare his body language around Yondu with Mantisâ around Ego, or Gamoraâs around Thanos, for that matter. Peter is frequently irritated and resentful with Yondu, but there is none of the wary watchfulness that both of them displayâyou get the sense that neither woman would like to turn their back on their âparentâ, let alone let their guard down.
Whereas Peter rolls his eyes at Yondu, pushes back at him, visibly blows him off. Doesnât even seem to blink when Yondu is literally threatening to kill him until he comes up with a good reason not to.
Literally the only thing I think Iâve ever seen phase Peter around Yondu is the moment where he pawns the troll doll off on Yondu instead of the Stone, and thatâs the moment when he explictly says he believes that Yondu will hate him forever now.
No, seriously: I genuinely believe that Peter and Yondu never communicated between vol 1 and vol 2, and that Peter truly believed heâd severed their relationship forever over that trick and was quietly grieving at the same time as he was trying to process his (justified, again) resentments. You can actually see him grieving at Gamora in the end of vol 1, and she just totally fails to get it; to her, Yondu is clearly taking the role of Thanos in her head.
YES, THIS.
I agree that Yondu and Peter probably didnât have contact between the two movies. Which makes it all the more tragilarious that Yondu had a tracker on Peterâs ship and could have found him anytime he wanted, but he didnât because he was trying to let Peter make his own choices and waiting for Peter to come to him ⌠while Peter was (almost certainly) pining for a call from Yondu to let him know that Yondu did not, in fact, hate his guts and plan to kill him on sight. (JUST COMMUNICATE, YOU FREAKINâ LUNKHEADS.)
Anyway, I love your point about Gamora thinking of Peterâs relationship with Yondu through the lens of her own experiences with Thanos. Iâve occasionally seen meta and fic taking for granted that Gamoraâs comment to Peter after Yondu takes the orb is objectively accurate, that sheâs an unbiased observer of their relationship, but sheâs really, really not. Sheâs trying to comfort and reassure Peter like she wishes someone had reassured her about Thanos (it doesnât matter, heâs no kin of yours, you donât owe him anything) but she misreads the situation completely. Not that her reasons arenât valid â not only is she drawing on her own experience with Thanos, but the one time she saw Peter and Yondu interact, Yondu was threatening to kill him! But she doesnât have the whole picture.
Is it the common reading that Gamora was trying to say that Yondu wasnât Peterâs real family at the end of 1, then? I always took it as her saying that he wasnât Peterâs only family; that he had the Guardians now even if heâd lost Yondu for good. But all the meta Iâve ever seen on it takes the former approach, so maybe Iâve completely missed the point for years ^^;
Itâs really interesting to me that part of the communication gap between Peter and Yondu seems to be that Yondu expects Peter to be able to read between the lines more than he actually does? And itâs not without basis – there are lots of things Peter seems to know instinctively that he doesnât know consciously. Heâs not actually surprised to learn that the âeat youâ thing was a joke, heâs just angry about how inappropriate it was. Heâs not even surprised to learn that Yondu didnât keep him for the reasons he said he did; heâs just indignant about being lied to about it in a way which hurt him. He is surprised – awed, even – when Yondu admits to being his dad, but even that isnât shock – itâs not something which had never occurred to him; itâs something he hadnât dared to allow himself to hope for. Thatâs the pattern with them – Peter isnât afraid of Yondu but he is badly hurt by the way Yondu treats him, whereas Yondu expects him to understand why. It kind of reflects how situational the abuse in that relationship is – I donât think Yondu would be dad of the year under any circumstances, but if he hadnât been surrounded by a volatile crew who jumped all over indicators of softness he would have done better, and so I suspect he was inconsistent with bb Peter in a way which was deeply confusing. I donât think adult Peter ever got far enough away to contextualise that confusion, so it still defined their relationship.
I always took it as her saying that he wasnât Peterâs only family; that he had the Guardians now even if heâd lost Yondu for good.
Iâm on the fence about that!
I originally understood that line like you did: that she was saying he had a new family in addition to the old one. But after running across the alternate interpretation, I went back and rewatched that scene from that perspective, and it does sound more like the other meaning. (Actually to some extent I think it sounds more like sheâs talking about Peterâs mom than the Guardians, tbh, because sheâs speaking in past tense; youâd think that if she meant his current team sheâd have used present tense.) So yeah, I really donât know. I think there are multiple plausible interpretations of that line, and âyou have a new family: usâ is not necessarily wrong.
Re: Peter and Yondu – I had to go hunt through my meta tag to find this, because I have THOUGHTS on this, and I remembered writing them down somewhere, and I found it! I think the big issue isnât exactly Yondu is unfairly expecting Peter to read between the lines, itâs that he doesnât quite realize that Peter canât, because Peter is a touchy-feely talker who wants to talk about Feelings, and Yondu really, really isnât. Theyâre working from two entirely different models of communication, where Yonduâs way of relating to people is very âshow it, donât talk about itâ, and Peter, meanwhile, wants to talk about things, and doesnât quite realize that if Yondu doesnât say he cares, it doesnât mean that he doesnât. Rocket, on the other hand, gets Yondu in a way that Peter never quite did. Look how fast, in the prison cell, Rocket picks up on how Yondu feels about Peter in one conversation (âSmall and good for thievinâ.â âUh-huh.â) while Peter couldnât do it in 25 years.
⌠I mean, thatâs obviously not the only thing going on; Yondu DOES fail his responsibility to a small child who depended on him (and he knows it!) and, as you mentioned above, he canât admit to how he feels about Peter even if he wanted to, because heâs leading a pack of hardened killers who will jump on any hint of weakness. But I also think he doesnât quite realize the extent to which Peter (socialized by equally touchy-feely Meredith Quill up to the age of eight) fails to notice what Yondu might have thought were fairly obvious tells that he cares about him.
I mean, Peter worked for years as a grifter; not only is Yondu used to people who donât come out and say what they mean, heâs not unreasonable to expect Peter to be able to read other people and their motives and their lies, since subterfuge was literally Peterâs job for a considerable period. And Yonduâs too! I think Yondu would actually be able to read Peter better if he were less open. But probably Peter got stuck in that childhood mode with Yondu – and also Peterâs just not as good at being a slick manipulative scoundrel as he thinks he is, alas.
Iâm not 100% on whether I think Yondu understood that Peter took the âeat youâ joke seriously, but if he didnât, Peterâs whole rant to him about it in volume one must have been completely, hilariously baffling. Like, theyâre right at the edge of everything falling apart, Yondu makes his stupid dad joke to let Peter know theyâre still playing the game, and thatâs the thing Peter chooses to rant about for five minutes???
AUGH this all so good you guys! Love this depth.
:clutches heart harder:
He may have been your father, boy, but he wasnât your daddy.
Okay, okay,
just let me explain to you what I just realized that fucks me up even more in
this scene â itâs Yonduâs expression and what the tale it tells.Because
guess what?Yondu doesnât want to die.
Well, duh,
someone might say, because usually nobody really wants to die, especially not a cruel death like suffocating or
freezing as Yondu does. But itâs not that what I mean.I mean that Yondu, who
has lost everything â his ship, his crew and friends, his âfamilyâ whom he
disappointed â he would have all the reason to say âIâm gonna die now, I have nothing left to live for anywayâ and just
accept his death, probably even feel
somewhat relieved.There is no
guilt in death, no longing for what he has lost. It could be seen as a relief.But look at
Yondu. He is close to crying and thatâs
not something we have ever seen from him. He doesnât want to die, he hasnât
given up on life â and honestly, that makes sense, because Yondu has been
through quite a lot of shit and heâs always moved on â he doesnât have a death
wish.He wants to
live and continue on, perhaps because thatâs all he has ever done, perhaps
because he actually knows that he has people left who are worth living for
(Peter, Kraglin, Rocket) or perhaps because he realizes that he doesnât have
enough time left now to say what he wanted to say but never did.For
whatever reason, Yondu wants to live.And despite that, he sacrifices his own life so he can save Peter.
That makes
his sacrifice so much more powerful, and the relief and pride and love on his
expression when he looks at Peter even more prominent and important. One second, Yondu is breaking and wavering, close to tears, because he is gonna
die and he knows it.But when he looks at Peter, realizes He
will live, I will die so that my boy can live and that is okay in his
eyes.Because
Peter is worth it to him.Yondu doesnât
throw away his life that he doesnât want anymore â he sacrifices his life
despite wanting to live so he can save someone he loves.Â
This scene
fucks me up even more now.;-;
But this ties into probably one of my favourite Yondu conversations on this site, which is the idea that exile from the Ravagers = exile from the Ravager afterlife as well. (âYouâll never hear the horns of freedom when you dieâŚâ) So he doesnât want to die because he knows thatâs it, he screwed up too much to get into the version of heaven he believes in, so thereâs not an awful lot of options for after his death, which is frightening and unpleasant enough on its own-
– but, like you said, Peterâs still worth it to him.
Aah Iâm glad this post is going round again cos it makes me internally sob EVERY TIME. And also I have one more thought!
The music in this scene is something else – listen to it! itâs called âDadâ! – and Iâm obsessed with it. Itâs so beautiful. And I noticed, during Yonduâs death scene, as he freezes over and dies you can hear horns in the music in the background.
So I guess he got those horns of freedom after all! Now if youâll excuse me I need to go cry some more.
Iâve had this little snippet of a GOTG fic in my head for ages now, but I donât know what to do with it. Originally it was gonna be the opening for a missing-moment type fic provisionally almost titled âWait, What Happened To Yondu Inbetween Him Waving Goodbye To Rocket And Picking Up Peter, Oh God I Bet Ego Was Physically And Mentally Beating The Shit Out Of Him Wasnât He.â But I donât know if that will see the light of day for a while. I really hope it does though:
The snow was falling so thick and heavily that it had cast the whole world in a sort of white resin. Contraxia was like that: it was bleak, and it was dangerous.
Two figures, a man and a boy, were making their way upwards through the blizzard. One of them was struggling, but the other one didnât stop to help him. In fact, he walked faster.
Eventually, they reached their destination. It was a tree, once green and lush and now withered and dying and covered in snow.
âSâthe last living tree on Contraxia,â said Yondu, âfer now.â
âSo?â said Peter. The long walk in the cold had frozen his body, but it hadnât killed his spirit.
âHey! Donât give me sass, boy. You wanna be a Ravager, you learn our traditions! Yâhear? Thisâs the only bitta real life left on this planet from before the Kree invaded and enslaved its people and killed the rest. You pay it yer damn respects!â
Peter had no idea how to pay respects to a tree, or what Yondu would even qualify as ârespectâ. He eventually settled for a slight nod and a slumped position.
âSome of âem were my people,â Yondu said. He wasnât actually paying all that much attention to Peterâs posture. âThe ones who said hell no, you ainât getting our kids, and died or got taken anyway. Thass where parenty affection gets ya, kid. A slave collar.â
Something uncomfortable was making its way into Peterâs brain, and he didnât want to say it. But ultimately he figured he had nothing to lose. For all he knew he could die of the cold halfway down the mountain.
âThatâs me then, right? You gonna slap a collar on me?â
Yonduâs face changed completely. It was like his whole being temporarily just collapsed in on itself.
âYou think you a slave, boy?â
When Peter had been a child he had had nightmares about monsters with red eyes watching him from the shadows. It was those fearful things he thought of as Yondu grabbed his shoulders and glared at him.
âThass what you think?â the man yelled.
What Peter wanted to say was, well youâre clearly not my parent, and thereâs precious few other damn options for this relationship. But he didnât say that. He was nine years old and his mother was dead. âNo,â he whispered. âI just – I just wondered.â
âYou wonder some fucking stupid things, boy!â
Yondu let go of him and turned his back on the tree. He started walking away.
âAll that work you do on the ship? You get paid at the end of the month sameâas everyone else,â he said, his voice a snarl. âHell, I told you that when you came aboard, but I guess you were too busy cryinâ like a whelp to realise.â A pause. âAnd you free to leave anytime you like. You remember that. Ainât you lucky?â
A few seconds later he was just a shadow in the snow. A few seconds after that, Peter followed him.
The last living tree on Contraxia lasted a few more years, and then it died and sank into the mountain.
if 2 different yondus appear in the same place, are they a yonduo
That, and a complete disaster.
(Bringing this back up again to wonder if they would fight over custody rights regarding their various spontaneously-adopted children. @sarah531, you started this, what are your thoughts on this.)
Personally I wonder what would happen if âourâ Yondu met Original 1960s Not A Pirate Generally A Decent Person Yondu. It would beâŚ
âŚ.it would be WEIRD. And hilarious.