"Like lovers do?"

An alternate theory to mull over:

Over at Green Lantern Butts Forever, Calvinpitt mentioned something in a comment about the way Guy said cohabitate, and it got me thinking about something. The "cohabitate" phrasing surprised me, too. But Guy was flustered, and I think he was trying very hard to make it sound nicer than "let's shack up"... he just failed miserably at it.

But you know what would be interesting? If Tora was actually a little bit offended by being asked to, uh, cohabitate like lovers do. Isn't that a strange thing for her to say? "Like lovers do?" Why would she even need to ask that, and in that particular way? It struck me as a little odd the first time I read it, but I had to really think about it to make heads or tails of it.

She's a princess, and her society seems to have been rather conservative. And we don't know for sure that they've been sleeping together at any point during their relationship. I've just always assumed they have because it's hard to imagine a couple that doesn't these days, but who knows for sure, right?

Too often, I think comics portray most characters as being fairly liberal, and a scant handful as being ridiculously, offensively conservative. (And I'm not talking politically -- just general mindset.) The reality is that most people probably fall somewhere in between. Tora is obviously not the type of person to judge people harshly, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't have certain standards and points of view when it comes to herself and her own body. Perhaps to her way of thinking, if you love a woman, you don't ask her to shack up with you, you ask her to marry you.

I just think that would be an interesting thing to explore. If you look at it that way, there's a whole new perspective on it: what Guy's really asking is "sleep with me?" and Tora's response is "...that's it? That's all you want?" It would be particularly hurtful given the fact that he's obviously not really thinking of her needs in other respects, too -- like the fact that he's asking her to move to a military-like planet on the other side of the galaxy from her home and her few remaining friends. What would she do all day while he's gone? Who would she socialize with? What could she do to make herself useful, and to feel fulfilled with her life? There's all that, and then on top of that he's also basically asking her to move in and give him the sex. Yeah, I can see how that might be enough to make her feel misunderstood and unappreciated-- perhaps not any one of those things alone, but all of it taken together. Guy, of course, is thinking of this as taking their relationship to the next, very natural, level, and he doesn't mean it to be offensive or belittling at all. Don't scenes like this play out in real life between couples (usually younger couples, granted) every day?

And it would put an interesting spin on their entire relationship thus far. Can you imagine brain-damaged JLI-era Guy sticking with a girl who doesn't put out? No wonder she was crazy about him -- he waited for her. And in a weird sort of way, it makes sense. Remember their first date? He deliberately took her to a skin flick just to see if she was easy! And she understandably got very angry and stormed out, so obviously she didn't fail (pass?) the "easy test".

And yet he asked her out again. (And she said yes.)

I doubt this is what Tomasi was going for, but I actually rather like this idea. Tora was 19 when she joined the Global Guardians, and, given her background was most likely a virgin then. She's never dated anyone but Guy. It's not really that much of a stretch to imagine her holding out through their JLI years, especially considering the tumultuous nature of their relationship and the way Guy tended to be preoccupied by his own personal issues all the time.

So... like lovers do, Tora. Yes.