As far as unorthodox superheroes go, Peter Quill or better known as Star-Lord is probably the most informal. He wasn’t even initially a superhero, but more like a member of a space raider group who has a loose set of morals and questionable allegiances. All of that changed when he met a ragtag group of loners and stragglers who straightened him up into a hero… of sorts.
So now we have the Guardians of the Galaxy with Peter Quill at the helm. Even if he has changed or matured a little bit since meeting his new family, he’s still the same clueless cool rogue who doesn’t take most things seriously. With that in mind, he has done plenty of stuff that he’s probably not ashamed of, here’s a list of all of those. Stuff that usually prevents Quill from earning Gamora’s love.
BROUGHT A HOOKUP TO A MISSION
It’s well established in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie that Peter Quill is an irresponsible sleazeball with possible mommy issues. He usually goes around from planet to planet bedding kinds of females from different alien species. Heck, he’s even casually discussed his sexual conquests with a stranger in an intergalactic prison.
That’s why it wasn’t surprising anymore to know that Quill even brought one of his hookup dates on a dangerous mission. This would’ve been acceptable if his date knew beforehand but Quill apparently failed to mention it. Additionally, Quill even forgot her name. Needless to say, he most likely won’t be getting a callback from that girl.
SLACKING ON THE JOB
In addition to bringing a liability on an important task, Quill’s blatant and playful lack of professionalism often takes center stage as comedic opportunities. Instead of just walking directly to the Power Stone’s repository, Quill made had a bit of a jam with his cassette tape walkman and some funky 1970s music.
Never mind all the dangerous creatures and the possibilities of traps in the area, of course. Still, you have to admit that it was one of the most memorable superhero entrances in all of the MCU. To prove the point that Quill was rather unprofessional during that time, War Machine easily bonked him out cold on the head while he was doing that dance again in Avengers: Endgame.
ADVANCES ON GAMORA
Quill apparently has a thing for colorful-skinned alien women, as was seen in his hookup during the Power Stone mission. That’s why Gamora was an automatic “swipe right” for Quill as soon as he saw her. It was also probably one of the reasons why Quill started changing himself to become a little bit more noble and benevolent.
Still, that didn’t prevent Quill from trying one of his “games” on Gamora during the first Guardians of the Galaxy. He even employed one of Elvin Bishop’s songs to his advantage but unfortunately (or thankfully), and as Drax put it, Gamora is simply the kind of person who doesn’t dance.
CONSIDERED SELLING THE POWER STONE
Even though Gamora was present to straighten out Quill and his questionable morals, the ex-raider simply had old habits that died hard. When they suddenly discover that the artifact they had all along was the Power Stone, Gamora immediately thought to keep it out of evil hands.
Quill, on the other hand, was more business-minded with his decision; he wanted to sell the Power Stone to the highest bidder. That was despite knowing that the whole thing was capable of obliterating planets with ease. This was probably Gamora’s first turn-off moment with Quill, something he did rectify but never felt shameful about.
FLIRTING WITH SOVEREIGN HIGH PRIESTESS
Speaking of turn-offs, the Power Stone shenanigan wasn’t the last time Gamora gave Quill the dagger gaze. During the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, they did a mission for the Sovereign regarding batteries. It went successfully and the High Priestess of the Sovereign rewarded them handsomely with Quill getting a little extra from the High Priestess.
Well, not really, but it was a rather spicy sexual exchange between the two which definitely counts as flirting no matter what species you are. The High Priestess could have easily distracted Quill from getting the reward they agreed upon; Gamora was there to thankfully put a stop to Quill’s lack of professionalism.
INSECURITY WITH THOR
Thor would likely make any male insecure but apparently that goes double for Quill. As soon as Gamora and everyone else started admiring Thor’s physique, Quill felt threatened that his position as the most romance-able guy on the ship would be taken by the God of Thunder.
As a result, Quill went full-on passive-aggressive with Thor and gets triggered every time someone mentions the Asgardian’s name. In Quill’s defense, Thor is a tall guy but not that good-looking and also needed saving.
INTELLECTUAL DEBATE WITH TONY STARK
When a smart-looking man from Earth with gadgets more advanced than yours talks to you about a plan to stop Thanos, you usually sit, listen, or at least cooperate. That’s not Quill. Quill prefers his own plan because Tony Stark’s plan is stupid, but let’s face it, he was the only guy who could have planned it out since the only mistake he made is creating Ultron.
Anyway, Quill just wouldn’t let up because he’s convinced that his plan is better and that he’s a lot less “stupid” than the smartest man on Earth in the MCU. Although his dialog with Tony Stark was hilariously epic during that moment in Avengers: Infinity War, you have to wonder what might have happened if only Quill, Drax, and Mantis cooperated better.
“STAR-LORD”
There’s no debate here. If you really can’t think of a better name than Star-Lord, then you’re either the bluntest superhero ever or have yet to shake off your 12-year-old mentality. In Quill’s defense, he never had much of a childhood after getting kidnapped by Yondu but all those years of having the alien as his father figure could’ve at least given him an idea of what’s cool or not.
The fact that he also tried to make it a thing with little to no success at the start proves that Star-Lord just doesn’t sound cool or menacing. In fact, the only person who acknowledged the Star-Lord moniker of Quill is Korath the Pursuer who’s equally dense.
DANCE-OFF
Picture this, you’re standing on miles and miles of debris and rubble from fallen buildings surrounded by countless corpses from a recent planetary invasion from Ronan the Accuser who’s standing right in front of you. The last thing that you would think of doing would be dancing… but you’re not Peter Quill, so we appreciate you for that.
Even Ronan was appalled at the sight of his opponent choosing to embrace the overwhelming odds and the bleakness of the moment by pulling off some semi-decent dance moves. Okay, it was really effective at distracting Ronan long enough for Rocket to destroy his hammer, but surely there could have been other more dignified ways to distract your opponent?
PUNCHED THANOS
Alright so, many people have punched Thanos and this is something to be proud of. Doing that while the fate of the whole universe is at risk is just the worst thing you can contribute to defeating the Mad Titan. In case you’ve forgotten, the combined forces of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy came extremely close to defeating Thanos, until Peter Quill happened.
He punched Thanos, knocking him out of Mantis’ hypnosis and letting him keep the Infinity Gauntlet and the Stones. Was Quill ashamed of it? Well, he had the audacity to ask whether they just lost or not after ensuring that their plan failed; he probably thought it wasn’t his fault or something.
