#kaysonova

1. It doesn’t further the likely story of the sequel.

The Old Guard is Nile and Andy’s story, remember?

The teaser scene at the end of the first film suggests that the major conflict of the sequel will be Andy and Quynh’s relationship and further complicating the narratives of betrayal, forgiveness, and redemption that the first film initiates. What is Joe and Nicky’s role in all of that? Though not a comic reader myself, many fans have pointed out that pretty much everything Joe and Nicky do in the second comic was used in the first movie. So we don’t know what new objectives Joe and Nicky will be given in 2 Old 2 Guard, but, frankly, they are secondary characters in the first film and are going to remain so in the sequel.

Joe and Nicky’s function in the narrative is to be a foil to all of the other immortals: they found love and happiness and contentment, despite the odds, with each other. They are supposed to be static and boring so that the narrative can have all the other characters wrestle with “how do I get what Joe and Nicky have when the universe seems to have fucked me over?” We already know they “killed each other – many times” and then figured their shit out and fell in love. Showing information that we already know about their backstory doesn’t add anything. It doesn’t further the primary story of 2 Old 2 Guard, which, again, is about Nile and Andy and Quynh.

It would be, at best, a distraction and, at worse, actively harmful.

2. It doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know, or give the necessary opportunity to unpack nuance and character growth

Joe and Nicky discuss their meeting in the first film in an incredibly light-hearted way, which is fitting for people who have had 900 years to come to terms with the horrors in their past.

The crusades were publicly justified as a religious endeavor by pious Christians to “take back” the holy land. Of course, history is more complicated than that. Of course, not every person who took up arms with the European forces believed in the religiosity of the purported mission. But the fact remains that the public mission and justification of the crusades was based upon the notion that white, European Christians were inherently better and more worthy of the Levant than the people who actually lived there.

Nicky participated in this racist, genocidal campaign. To depict Nicky in the crusades is to depict him, not as the thoughtful and good and caring, but also righteous and deadly character he is in the 21st century, but as someone who is complicit in a racist, misogynist system.

Joe, too, does not escape the 1100’s unscathed. Joe, as a defender of Jerusalem, might be on the “right side of history,” but that does not mean he or his fellow men-at-arms did not feel just as hatefully towards the invaders as the invaders felt towards them. Joe in the first film is depicted as a skilled and scrappy fighter with big emotions and a sense of humor. But no one is their best self when their very existence is under attack.

The real problem here is not that the crusades, and Joe and Nicky’s role in them, is complicated, but rather that a simple flashback, doesn’t allow room for the narrative to unpack HOW Joe and Nicky went from being hate-filled victims of religious and geo-political institutions attempting to annihilate one another, to the characters we know in the first film. A flashback doesn’t allow for the space and time for Joe and Nicky to question and reckon with their actions, to get over their hate for each other, to grapple with the continued hate present in the world today. The crusades themselves are not actually important to what makes Joe and Nicky, Joe and Nicky. What’s important is all the unsexy work that they did, together and separately, to realize that they loved each other and to determine how they were going to live their immortal lives together.

A crusades flashback doesn’t give us any new information. A crusades flashback doesn’t allow for nuance and complication. A crusades flashback doesn’t give us the character development from Joe and Nicky that might actually be relevant to the overall narrative to 2 Old 2 Guard.

3. Holy batman white supremacist dog whistles

We live in a moment in which fascism and white supremacy is on the rise globally. The symbols of Medieval Europe and the crusades are often used (and misinterpreted) by white supremacist groups.

There’s a huge difference between talking about Nicky being part of the crusades and actually having the actors embody it. Even if the film later indicates that Nicky repudiates what he did as part of the crusades, the images themselves can’t portray that. Even if Nicky does not don any of the religious insignia of the era, there would still be images of a medieval white man slaughtering a medieval Brown man and those images can and would spread across the internet stripped of their context by people whose worldview is actively opposed to the values of the story of The Old Guard.

A Crusades flashback in 2 Old 2 Guard would be bad, actually.

Cooking as a love language is absolutely beautiful and we should discuss more about how Nicky shows love by cooking and caring for his loved ones this way? (had few discussions about how my roommate counts her love language as cooking? and thought yeah it’s definitely a love language!) I also like to HC Nicky spending years to replicate and perfect Joe’s favorite childhood dishes? Nicky keeping in mind everyone’s favorite food to cook for them when they seem down? Just very soft thoughts.... 

joe

nicky

Booker: No, Joe, it's not what it looks like, I swear.

Joe: Oh really? So no reason for me to be jealous?

Booker: No! You’re the only one for me.

Joe: Is that so?

Booker: I promise! James and I are just dating, okay? He's my boyfriend.

Joe: So there are no best-friends-feelings involved?

Booker: You are still my one and only best friend! He's just the love of my life, nothing more!

Joe: But I’m still the platonic love of your life, right?

Booker: Of course bro!

Joe: Bro...

Copley: What the-

When the man turns, chin to shoulder, and gifts Joe his profile, the sight of a prominent nose is enough.

“Nicolò!”

It’s been years, but Joe would never forget his childhood friend. As neighbors who went to different schools, they were inseparable in the evenings. For summers, they were practically attached at the hip.

Nicky has grown since then, filling out his lean frame. Lanky limbs are now solid mass. And those shoulders. Shoulders that tense up as Joe watches, until Nicky looks like a rubber band pulled too tightly, ready to snap.

Sighing, he half-turns toward Joe, though his gaze remains elsewhere. “Did you want a selfie together? Or an autograph?”

Joe frowns. He’s heard from his mother that Nicky is doing well for himself - she’s seen him on television. But Joe doesn’t watch television. Maybe he’s been afraid to. Maybe he wants the past ten years back, to stand once more under that tree in Nicky’s backyard where they said goodbye, and actually kiss him this time.

Joe said Nicky’s name on reflex. Perhaps he should have let the past live in the past.

“No,” Joe says. “Sorry.”

Joe ducks his head, but he still feels the moment Nicky sets his eyes on him. He hears the soft intake of breath. He watches Nicky’s shoes as those feet twist further until Nicky is entirely facing him.

“Yusuf?”