theoldguarduniverse

[theoldguarduniverse]

Tried to find the origin of this gorgeous picture on tumblr and google but I couldn’t find the original anywhere! I had to dig deep into my phone to get this high quality image because all i could find were low quality ones.

Anyone remember which comic artist did this? The only thing I remember was that it was released via Netflix in conjunction with the first film.

[theoldguarduniverse]

[theoldguarduniverse]

I made this almost shortly after the first movie came out... it's one of the few things that remained in my archive from that time.. there are a couple more things that I will be uploading here....

[theoldguarduniverse]

♥️⚔️🗡️♥️

[theoldguarduniverse]

[theoldguarduniverse]

Hello everyone, I know I left this place on stand by for a long time and it has gone through many changes... but... taking advantage that tog2 has been released (and it was here where I found all kinds of material from the first movie as soon as it came out.... What has helped me feed the hype in those years, I think it's time to start publishing here again)... I want to resume my fandom, love, and devotion for this movie and all its universe... I think I will start posting here... and then maybe at some point create an IG account dedicated to Tog (both the movie and the comics)

[theoldguarduniverse]

Joe and Nicky in THE OLD GUARD 2

[theoldguarduniverse]

Ajajakakak LoL Nicky y Nile en ese momento eran como Batman y Robin aajajajakak

Nicky in this film is literally: I love you Joe: *doesn’t say it back* Nicky: SOMETHING’S WRONG. MY INCURABLE ROMANTIC MAN WOULD NEVER DO THAT. FOLLOW HIM!

[theoldguarduniverse]

joe, most expressive man alive and the worst liar: i think i want to spend some time alone 🙂

nicky, already practicing a cunty line to say when he figures it out:

[theoldguarduniverse]

Where The Old Guard 2 went wrong (Pt2): Too little Kaysanova

Everyone knows that Yusuf & Nicky are THE HEART & THE HIGHLIGHT of TOG1. Joe's epic He's All And He's More speech about Nicky lives rent free in my head to this day; I've never seen a more wholesome and unproblematic canon gay pairing, ever. And IMO, the problem with Kaysanova in TOG2 is that we were missing the domesticity that was sprinkled all over TOG1. No codependent snuggles/spooning, no cooking, no winking, and most importantly: no time or space for them to really TALK about the Booker/Quynh situations.

It bothered me that we didn't see Yusuf's struggle to reconcile his rage at Booker's betrayal, and his worry about his brother. We don't see Yusuf losing sleep, holding Nicky in his arms pretending everything's ok, with a shot of Nicky pretending to sleep but silently knowing Joe's up at night pacing/crying/praying to God for guidance on how to Do The Right Thing.

There was NOTHING to establish WHY Joe lied to Nicky's face--it's not that he doesn't trust Nicky or thinks he knows better than Nicky and that he doesn't feel Nicky would understand his choices. It's more about that big softie bleeding HEART of Yusuf's that Nicki talked about: the impossible situation Yusuf was put in, about being forced to choose between Rules over Principles.

We don't see Joe torn between respecting the agreement the squad made together to exile Booker; but also respecting his principles and his Muslim creed about brotherly love.

Obvs, there's no one Joe loves more than Nicky, duh. But Booker's Joe's brother. And there should've been more of acknowledgment about that from everyone in the team, that if anyone was gonna be the weakest link and break the no-contact rule, it was obvs gonna be Joe; and that expecting him to hold onto his hurt & rage by keeping Booker away was unrealistic from the very beginning; cuz that's actually NOT who Joe actually is at all.

The power of forgiveness is at Joe's CORE. Which would've been MOST obvious if we'd gotten flashbacks of Kaysanova meeting during the freaking Crusades.

There's nothing that demonstrates the power of love & forgiveness more than Yusuf being from The Holy Land, seeing his home blown the hell up by white devil invaders calling him a devil worshiping infidel, busting up his temples, churches & mosques to steal all his peoples' stuff & kill & rape; and to square off vs one of the Crusaders in bloody combat, realize he and Nicky are both immortal, and walk away from the most devastating series of attacks in world history to still reach across the table and realize that this white colonizer is a person, too, a human with a soul too, who can be shown and feel understanding & forgiveness and even DEEP love, too.

We don't ever see Yusuf recalling vignettes from the past--no flashback of when they actually met Booker, or first started dreaming of him, or when Joe & Book first started bonding. How Joe was able to learn from his history with Nicky to show Booker that same grace & understanding & forgiveness, even when Booker was at his absolute worst; even when Joe himself was genuinely mad & hurt; but still knew that Booker was someone who could be given the patience required to finally reach him & touch his heart, too.

We don't see Yusuf struggle with the hard reality that his brother is ALONE and needs help/intervention, not abandonment; and that that's what drove him to find Book's deets (I assume Joe asked Copley). All we get is some sassy little banter as Joe keeps texting someone, but no follow-up that night as Nicky tries to suss out what's going on with his husband.

They skipped RIGHT OVER the most important part of the banter:

Joe said Nicky snores, and Nicky said Joe talks in his sleep. But we didn't get a scene showing that; of Kaysanova in bed that night, with Nicky pretending to snore as Joe texts Booker all night; or Joe sleep-talking about Booker while Nicky listens all night. NOTHING. They skipped right over it; depriving us not only of the domestic Kaysanova we bloody deserve, but also of the angst that makes the plot-twists/reveals & emotional lows & highs effective.

We're just immediately told instead of shown, cuz this movie was rushed AF and spent zero time establishing the stuff that MATTERED--I don't care about an elaborate 12 minute heist mission at the start of the film, and some forced shoehorned story about a hedge maze--SHOW US the hedge maze event, ffs!

TOG2 made the plot alllll about Booker, cuz they knew they were gonna off him for Andy's immortality. Meanwhile Kaysanova was treated like an afterthought; not as the heart/core that they are.

First & foremost we were we robbed of the heavily-anticipated scene of Kaysanova reuniting with their sister Quynh, even if it was just her yelling at them for feeling they didn't do enough to find her.

And I feel like Nicky really got the short end of the narrative stick, cuz if Joe's arc focused on Booker, Nicky's arc should've focused on Quynh; esp. since Nicky was the first one we saw ever say her name.

It would've been so nice to get the sibling bond between Joe/Booker as brothers, Nicky/Quynh as siblings, and her as their big sister. Esp. since Quynh said she was the leader way before Andy took the helm.

And esp. esp. since we see Andy & Yusuf being bros and Andy & Booker being close; more than we see Andy & Nicky--even in TOG1 I got the feeling/headcanon that Quynh & Nicky might've been closer?

I'd've loved to see Nickly stress-cooking, making a meal for Quynh and asking Andy to give it to her from him when they met in Rome.

Then ofc we were robbed of the emotional impact of Booker dying, which hit like a wet towel on a dingy locker room floor, cuz TOG2 didn't establish what the team was gonna lose by having Booker die--esp. since Kaysanova wasn't there to see it; and they don't even know he's gone, since they're frozen and Andy's stranded and can only tell them once she finds & rescues them. They're gonna be a WRECK when they find out.

But TOG3's gonna feel weird, cuz if we DO get the flashback scenes I'd been hoping for, they're gonna feel anticlimactic and that the show knows it's scrambling to make up for what they didn't do in TOG2. And for me, it all comes back around to them not having given Kaysanova enough screentime; not together, and not on their own, to get all that across in a truly satisfying way.

[theoldguarduniverse]

This should've been their costumes in that scene 😭

[theoldguarduniverse]

awww so nice we got to see Joe in his comics' slutty shorts in the end... 😏

[theoldguarduniverse]

Joe and Nicky in Rome- through the time

Please, we NEED to talk about how Rome was used to show the immortals through different centuries and how we got Joe and Nicky during the Italian Risorgimento (oh my god I wrote a fanfiction about them set in that era //oh my GOD it’s canon now without even meaning to!), and Booker in the '70s with the “Totocalcio” sign behind him, and it felt so real.

I'm from Rome and I swear, everything was just perfect. For a split second I thought, “Oh no, why this filter? Why these '70s cars? The Old Guard is the one film that never falls into cheap stereotypes about other countries.” And of course...it wasn’t. I knew I could trust them.

And oh my god! now it’s CANON that Nicky and Joe were together in Rome during one of the most fascinating historical periods of the Italian peninsula!

[theoldguarduniverse]

Wait, since many of you speak English, maybe you didn’t catch that when they get off the boat, Nicky says to Joe “TI AMO.”

In Italian, “ti amo” means I love you—but it’s only said to a spouse or romantic partner. Whereas “ti voglio bene” also means I love you, but it’s used with friends and family.

Nicky knew Joe wasn’t telling him the truth by pulling away, but he still wanted to leave him with an “I love you.” Oh my god, they’re so beautiful.

(And I’m sorry it wasn’t translated. So much is lost that way, because it’s another genuine moment that shows they’re a couple.)

[theoldguarduniverse]

Joe and Nicky, a love spanning a millennium:

"It's like destiny."

"He's the moon when I'm lost in darkness and warmth when I shiver in cold."

"I know your heart, and that is immortal."

Instagram sticker/prints

[theoldguarduniverse]

THE OLD GUARD (2020) THE OLD GUARD 2 (2025)

[theoldguarduniverse]

THE OLD GUARD 2 2025, dir. Victoria Mahoney