I think I've seen people point this out. But has anyone really talked about the implications of this?
Like, 1. Miguel has video footage of Miles and Gwen during a private moment, when they're not even masked. Technically Gwen is supposed to be working here, which is only the slightest saving grace to an incredibly creepy moment--you could make the argument that he only monitors his employees as they work, and that's why he has this footage. But even then, this is wildly creepy because it's clear Gwen doesn't know Miguel has this footage. When she talks with Jess, earlier in the movie, she begs Jess to not tell Miguel that she went to Earth 1610 and saw Miles. Even Jess says "If Miguel finds out I let you go--"
That has heavy implications. Gwen, as well as probably every other member of the Spider Society, is being spied on by Miguel, and none of them know it. Not even Jess, his second-in-command, seems to be aware of this. Either the spyware is built into the watch (I mean, we already know Lyla can trace your location through the watch, since she did it to Peter B), which means Miguel can spy on anyone as long as they have the watch on or around them, or (and this feels like the less likely option, but I'm still gonna say it) Miguel sent additional spyware after Gwen into Earth 1610. I mean, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Miguel's just had spyware in 1610 for a long time now, spying on Miles without his knowledge, to make sure Miles isn't doing anything that's gonna break the universe.
(sidenote: a lot of people seem to wonder why Gwen crushed Ben's watch when she tricked him at the end of the movie, instead of keeping it to either use herself or give to Miles. THIS IS PROBABLY WHY. She may not know the extent of the spyware, but she heard, at least, when Lyla announced she'd tracked Peter B's location through the watch. That's the last thing Gwen needs right now, when she's about to actively start fighting against and undermining the Spider Society.)
Second implication: if you look above the footage, it's got a little text-scroller on top labeling the footage "EVENT_01229" (backwards, because we're viewing it backwards). Which implies that this footage is footage of a Canon Event. Given that Miles and Gwen are just standing there and talking, I feel like the only Canon Event this could possibly match is the whole "Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-Man" thing. Which, given how blurred the specifics seem to be able to get with Canon Events, could be referring to Miles falling in love with Gwen or Gwen falling in love with Miles.
A few things about that.
One: I think this is why Miguel sees Gwen as a liability. Miguel worships Canon Events, and he has an "algorithm" that can "predict" them ahead of time--I think the algorithm "predicted" Miles and Gwen's romance, and maybe bad things following (of course, "in every universe it doesn't end well," and under the Canon Events model, a multiversal romance with an anomaly has even more potential to go very very badly). He didn't want to let her in because he knew that if she had access to Miles's universe, if she wasn't sequestered and isolated in her own little area of the multiverse, she would go to Miles and in doing so, doom the multiverse.
I think he only let Gwen into the Spider Society because he really genuinely felt for her, and couldn't shut off his compassion (no duh), but it probably came with a caveat in his mind that if she joins, he has to be harsh and strict with her and allow no room for error, so that the idea of visiting Miles never even crosses her mind. Which would be another layer to why Gwen is so terrified of Miguel sending her home, and seems so afraid of stepping out of line at all--if Miguel's been sort of conditioning her to act that way.
This could also be another reason why Miguel is so mad when Miles and Gwen go to talk to him. He doesn't want to tell them, maybe, but in his mind, if he doesn't take a super hard stance on this right now, the entire multiverse could be at risk due to their ~teenage romance~ starting to kick things in motion.
Two: I think all of the above is bullshit. I mean, I think Miguel is wrong. Why would the scene on the water tower, specifically, be a Canon Event? I don't think that conversation is when either of them particularly "fell in love" with each other. Could it be that it's one example of them falling in love over a longer period of time? Sure, I guess, but if you're gonna give an example, why not show the clocktower scene? It's much more romantically coded.
I feel that the more likely truth is that Miguel's algorithm just sucks, and can't actually calculate two people "falling in love" (because how would you, unless maybe you could get their brain scans or something???). I think it's simply recognized that Miles and Gwen's friendship bears similarities to other things that have happened throughout the multiverse. And so Miguel has decided, actually, that he knows these two teenagers better than they know themselves--that he knows their feelings, their motivations, and how they're going to act based on them. And so he treats them in wildly unfair ways because he's projecting his idea of who they are onto them.
That's not exactly something new about Miguel's character, but this is a fun new angle to examine that from, and all judge how terrible he's being :)
Don't forget Hobie also destroyed his watch after he quit, right after he opened a portal with it.
