 So interesting seeing Gwen's development. Her evolution from Into the Spider-Verse, a film where she was so, well, cool. It seemed like she had everything under control. She had been an established spider-woman for a few years, and Miles was the awkward newcomer. Though edgy, Gwen was confident in who she was, and it felt like she had it all figured out. She didn't do friends, but she seemed to be at peace with it all. However, in this sequel, which is almost just as much her film as it is Miles's, she is the complete opposite. Underneath all that edge, we are presented with a broken teenager. The loss of Peter Parker truly shook Gwen's world. In her world, the spider-woman isn't met with the kindness or praise that other Spider-men are met with. She's not friends with her Captain, or the police force, like the other Spider-people. To Captain Stacey, to them, she is a murderer, a menace, the reports call her. And Gwen herself feels very much responsible for the death of her best friend. That has left her guarded. Gwen pushes everyone close to her away. She doesn't allow herself to be close to others because she fears losing someone she cares about again. She refuses to lose another friend. Guilt rules Gwen Stacey's world. Her lack of friends, her response to her former bandmates, she has decided that she is not allowed to have friends anymore. So when she loses her father, when he aims a gun at his only daughter, who he has been calling a criminal for over a year now, Gwen Stacey hits rock bottom. There's nothing left for her in her world at 16 years old. When Miguel and Jess take her in, things begin to make sense. Her suffering being part of the canon makes complete sense. Like every other Spider-person, Gwen starts to rationalize her situation. All Spider-people are lonely. All Spider-people suffer. It is their fate. Hundreds of Spider-people gathered in the Spider-society, all with similar stories and feelings to her. Suddenly, she's not that lonely anymore. There's this idea in Across the Spiderverse that because they all share canon events, the most important one being loss, since they all share that grief and pain, that loss is synonymous with being Spider-man, that that is what makes Spider-man. Furthermore, Miguel plans this idea in them all that canon events bring meaning to their suffering. These Spider-people, they might be afraid to face the possibility that maybe they were too weak. Perhaps they simply failed that day, and they couldn't save those closest to them. They all blame themselves. It's human nature, so instead they cope by saying that no matter what, these people that they couldn't save would have died anyways. It was for a greater purpose, to save their universe. If guilt rules Gwen Stacy's world, then the canon answers this problem. It's the answer to her grief. With everything that has happened to her, the canon makes sense. She resigns herself to the fact that the canon can't be changed, and so she accepts it. Miguel, Jess, Lila, all these older, wiser figures, even Peter B, all tell her that to save their universes, to save billions, to be the good guys that Spider-man is meant to be and meant to represent, they have to accept their shared destiny. She has to accept that her father will die, and she has to accept that Miles Morales is an anomaly. In addition to her belief in the canon, there is more at stake for Gwen than the others. Gwen has to lie to Miles and she has to avoid him, because underneath everything, she doesn't want to go home. If she messes up, if she breaks the rules, if she steps out of line, Miguel will send her back to her dimension. She can't go back home. Her father pointed a gun at her, she isn't ready to face him. At home, she is a murderer, and at home, she will eventually have to face the fact and face the reality of things. Her father will die. Gwen here is forced to juggle and to consider so many things. She's even had to contemplate her own mortality. In the dimensions she's visited, Gwen Stacy doesn't live long. She hints at Miles that she is holding out on her own feelings towards him because of fate. Destiny has rendered her powerless in her own life. In the spider society, she sees all these spider women, but there aren't any Gwen Stacy's. Why is that? And so there's potential survivors guilty. Why is she alive and Peter Parker isn't? Like he's supposed to be. Speaking of Peter, she's reminded of her failure quite often over there. In the spider society, she's bombarded with the idea of Peter Parker. Some young, many a bit older, and yet all a reminder of how she couldn't save her own. How her own didn't get to grow up, or even graduate high school or get married. And it's all her fault. When Miles comes along, they form a rather unique bond. One that over time and time apart blossoms into something more. She resigned herself to never having friends again. But Miles' radiance and kindness were too strong for Gwen to resist, and that friendship turned into admiration. Gwen cares so much for Miles. When seeing Miguel for the first time, she asks him about his watch that could take her to any dimension. She keeps a Polaroid of the two of them in her drum kit. Gwen risks being sent back home just to spend one more day with Miles, not to mention her confession on the Williamsburg Bank building. But for someone like Gwen, all of this only means that Miles is a person that she must push away. She has been given a chance to ensure that he is safe. To, in a sense, atone for letting Peter Parker die. Miles Morales is a friend that she feels she does not deserve. So isolating herself from one more person, missing out on love, if it means saving him, Gwen is willing to do it. Gwen has already lost a best friend, and her father would instead raise his weapon at her, then accept her for who she truly is. Spider-Woman has lost her sense of self parading these universes, questioning her very morality. And on a whim, she finally reunited with the last person who means as much to her as Peter, or her father does. It's imperative to hammer home this point that Gwen's mental state is in a terrible, terrible place. Because it has her even considering the possibility that it is okay to let people die. It has her contemplating the chance that maybe it's okay for Inspector Singh and that little girl to die, if it means not losing her best friend. She tries to stop Miles, yes, to save the canon, but she also tries to stop him because she does not want to lose another friend to fall in rubble. The panic in her voice when Miles is under the ruins tells it all. Loss has made Gwen feel powerless, and her fear has given her tunnel vision. It has made her selfish and confused and she has ignored her emotions because of it. She ran away from her dimension, she ran away from her emotions, and she's latched onto this community, onto Miguel and Jess and the canon, because they are a way out. They are an escape. Gwen messed up. She was wrong. She's done nothing but lie to Miles. But everything she did, she did out of love. Given all these factors, given her deteriorating mental state, her guilt, she's just a kid. A kid who thought she was doing the right thing, who thought she was part of the good guys. A kid who needed to run away from home. Gwen Stacy doesn't do friends and she certainly doesn't do love. And yet, love has ultimately saved her and her father in this movie. Her love for Miles allowed her to witness Spider-Man fight against the canon and survive. And in that moment, she remembers why she admires him. She remembers that he is amazing. Why he is amazing? Miles reminds Gwen what it means to be a spider person. What that responsibility entails. Look at how proud she looks when Miles takes his destiny into his own hands. Look at how inspired she is. Miles doesn't know a world where the canon or where fate can constrain him. He says that to her on the Williamsburg bank building. There is a first time for everything. Her world was dark. A world that was never solid, never consistent in the colors and in the emotions. Very fluid. But when she is influenced by the young Spider-Man, he inspires her to force her hand on the world. And she forces her world to become brighter. Gwen Stacy at the end of this film decides to take a leap of faith. And she fully falls for Miles Morales, even if she might perish because of it. She is now willing to defy destiny for Miles. Because she knows that at the end of it all, even if she dies, at least Gwen Stacy can say that she tried. She tried to save someone she loves. She tried to save someone who might need her help. Because that is what the mask represents.