WandaVision’s last two episodes heavily focused on Wanda’s grief, and it even gave us an insight into Vision’s perspective on grief. He beautifully put it as grief being “love persevering”. These two episodes have now cleared one of the topmost debates of Avengers: Infinity War. That is Star-Lord’s grief. Vision’s line was easily a stand-out moment but it should also work as hard for Star-Lord as it does for Wanda. And it is used to seemingly justify Wanda’s victimization of the Westview residents means the same excuse should be afforded to Peter Quill. Star-Lord has felt utmost grief and pain at the moment.
Quill already had an easily accessible out point for the debate, because his interference was a required part of the one reality where the Avengers won (hence Doctor Strange doing nothing to stop it). But that didn’t quite put an end to the accusations that Star-Lord single-handedly ruined the heroes’ chance of stopping Thanos from snapping his fingers. Star-Lord’s actions were not his own and crucially, Vision’s infinitely quotable musing on the nature of grief adds a much-needed discussion to his narrative arc. Because if Wanda’s actions – bordering on the illogical – can be interpreted as no more than grief amplified by traumatic love, then so can Peter Quill’s. The romances, after all, are not massively different in their hearts and Quill deserves something of the same justification.
Star-Lord’s life was a lot of trauma itself, just like Wanda’s. His father was an absentee megalomaniac who gave his mother cancer and killed her as a loose end, he was bullied at school, stolen by space pirates, and forced to live a life removed from all family. He was then reunited with his father, saw the truth revealed, and realized his true father was the pirate who kidnapped him only to see him die too.
And then the love of his life, who saw him for more than his reputation and forgave his faults was killed. Yet Quill’s inability to stop himself from hitting Thanos in a sorrowful rage on the discovery of Gamora’s death was taken as the avoidable actions of a fool. The double standard, considering Drax, Zemo and T’Challa were all presented as justified in their grief in other MCU arcs was always confusing. His grief has been displayed well in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But aligning Star-Lord’s actions with those of Wanda under the empathetic umbrella of Vision’s assessment of grief changes that perception entirely.
it fixes an injustice that painted Star-Lord in a cruel light considering his love for Gamora had been not only entirely believable but also soothing to him. Both were effectively orphans but united by their experience of abusive fathers, both brought together by the rejection of the families forced on them.
Quill’s actions were impulsive and reckless, but they were no more than an act of love persevering. It just took WandaVision to happen to make sense of them properly.
