I genuinely don't understand the insistence that Peter and Jean are “sibling-coded.”
I'm not even arguing that they have to be romantic. If you see them as friends, that's completely reasonable. Two characters can have a deep emotional connection without being either siblings or love interests.
But siblings? That's where I seriously don't get it.
And the kiss is the biggest reason why.
Yes, I understand the explanation. Jean was using MJ to psychologically torture Peter. It wasn't romantic. She wasn't genuinely trying to start something with him. The entire point was to exploit Peter's feelings for MJ and hurt him.
Fine. I agree.
But that doesn't mean the kiss can simply be written off when we're talking about the nature of Peter and Jean's relationship.
Jean still chose to kiss him.
And what's important is that Jean was already manipulating Peter in all kinds of ways. She impersonated MJ, exploited his attachment to her, played on his emotions, and used his own memories and vulnerabilities against him. She clearly had plenty of ways to hurt Peter without straight up kissing him.
And yet she did so.
That's what makes the sibling interpretation so strange to me.
The fact that the kiss was another form of psychological torture explains why she did it, but it doesn't make the choice itself irrelevant. The writers could have had Jean torment Peter in all the other ways she already was. They still chose to have her kiss him.
And “it wasn't romantic” doesn't really address the objection.
Once again I'm not saying, “Jean kissed Peter, therefore they're romantically interested in each other.”
No, what I'm saying is: if you're going to tell me these two are deliberately supposed to have a brother/sister dynamic, why would the story choose THAT as the way Jean psychologically attacks him?
Because siblings don't kiss.
And I don't mean “siblings generally don't kiss because it's socially unusual.” What I mean is the idea is fundamentally repulsive within an actual brother/sister relationship.
Even if siblings hated each other. Even if one sibling wanted to psychologically torment the other. You still wouldn't choose kissing as the method.
Speaking personally, as a brother, the idea of kissing my sister grosses me out beyond words. If someone told me that was the most effective way to prank her, I'd sooner cut off my own tongue.
That's how fundamentally incompatible that act is with the sibling dynamic people are trying to impose on these characters.
And that's why I don't buy “the kiss meant nothing, so it doesn't count.”
Of course it didn't mean anything romantically to Jean in that moment. That's not the point.
The point is that the movie deliberately put that interaction between these characters. You can't tell me that Peter and Jean are supposed to have an unmistakable brother/sister dynamic and then act like the fact that Jean literally kissed Peter is completely irrelevant because of her motivation.
The motivation explains why Jean kissed him.
It doesn't erase the fact that she kissed him.
Peter and Jean can have a powerful emotional connection without attributing it to siblings.
They can be friends who could maybe become something more one day. Or not. But they're not sibling coded for god's sake. It's fucking absurd to say such a thing.
