i think gwen stacy has very complicated feelings on her mother, and a deeply complex understanding of the grief her mother’s death had on her life. i was originally going to make a post on my tumblr ask blog in character of gwen in the form of a deleted post of hers created in a tired stupor, which I think is interesting…. but i have zero reason to really do that when all it would serve narratively would be mere angst bait. so, i am coming to my main account to talk about it.
first of all, in my characterization of gwen, she is transgender. particularly, a transgender woman. i hold the belief that she started transition in later childhood. particularly, in her preteens. i think gwen’s relationship with gender in relation to said grief is so particularly interesting when you read it under this context. forgive me for not really analyzing anything real and grasping at straws, but the mere concept of gwen being so uncomfortable in her own body and in the perception of others and holding off merely for not killing the son her mother created is such a sickening thought to me. in my mind she’s a little lankier and taller. awkwardly taller, should I say. i think ballet was one of the ways she tried to dive into femininity head-first, however she latched onto it and really liked it due to her natural love for music. her thoughts boil down to, “well, if i can’t be a good son, i’ll be the perfect daughter.”
then, comes her rebellion in the form of her expressing herself more freely. in the form of piercings, dying her hair, etcetera. i think miles being so free in the perception of himself pushes her to experiment a little more and try new things. this whole post is very headcanon heavy, but i feel as if I should soft launch the idea that hobie also would have helped her feel more comfortable expressing herself in the way that she wants to. in turn, i think she starts dressing very punk and adopts a lot of the beliefs and ideologies. while being a punk is exactly where she feels a vigilante as herself was supposed to land, gwen’s father wouldn’t approve. which is fine by her, at least she can hear it out of his mouth. what stings, and what scares her, is that her mother may not approve. gwen mythologizes her mother in a way she adamantly chooses not to mythologize the other dead people in her life. (see- peter parker from e-65.) i think there’s this sort of haunting of the narrative that helen holds in her life due to the uncertainty that surrounds her.
gwen, despite mythologizing her, is so deeply angry at her for being dead. furthermore, she feels disgustingly guilty for that anger. it’s misplaced, and she knows it. gwen simply has no idea where to put it, though, so it rests with an evil she can blame. gwen cannot handle it when there’s not something to blame, which is why i think she latched so hard onto the concept of the spider society. if you can’t project anger onto anything you see, look beyond what’s before you and shout at the narrative you believe your very being is linked with. there is nothing else to do but be angry at but her mother. her mother is the one who died, after all. gwen was just a child, but now gwen is a taller child.
his mother would not recognize him.
