Lightning and Sally have a discussion thread: [url]Lightning and Sally Chat thread.... - Cars - Pixar Planet Forums
So I thought we could have one for Mater and Holley as well? 
Talking to my friends who have seen it, Iām starting to think Iām in the minority, but I found these two to be totally adorable.
Well, I havenāt seen the movie, and Iām already loving Holley, so I think Iāll love them together.
When I first heard Holley was supposed to be Materās girlfriend, Iāll admit, I thought it would be cheesy and stupid, but once I saw the movie, it was actually really sweet. 
Yay!! Now Iām really excited!!
I think itās absolutely perfect, in terms of pairing! With the whole thing about āopposite attractsā, where Mater completely contrasts Holley, itās gotta be one of my more favourite Pixar pairings. Bring on the fanart & fan fiction! xD
Oooooooh, I cant wait even more now Especially since Mater is my favorite and Holley is Virginiaās <3 
At first, I wasnāt sure if I liked the idea of these two as a pairing. But itās already grown on me quite a bit.
The pairing was really cute, and I thought it was sweet that Holly liked Mater even after finding out who he really was, just an ordinary tow truck.
Even though I love the canon pairing, I find the Finn/Holley ship neat too.
If a quick plug is alright, thereās one on my fic thread that I link to in my signature.
lol Finn/Holley is quite popular too. Iām starting to wonder if we need a whole topic just for the debate on that! XD
Already started a Finn/Holley topic.
I mean like, a topic with a poll for which one people prefer, for the lulz. :B
I really like this pairing, mainly because Mater and Holly are so different from each other.
Haha, true! I like Holley a lot before seeing the movie because of her coloration, the fact that she actually has lips unlike Sally, and sheās British. British people always win in the end. In my mind, I mean.
[size=85]Except in the Revolutionary War. :3[/size]
But anyways, I havenāt really mentioned why I like this couple, have I?
Iāll admit, part of the charm for me is Mater: Mater is a sweetie nā deserves a girlfriend. Seriously.
But that canāt be all, of course. Holleyās character and how it collaborates with Materās is important too, and despite how different they are, I felt like there were some key points that really clicked for me, both in those differences and in underlying similarities.
[spoiler]Pixar uses the term āinnocent caught in the intrigueā to describe Mater a few times in the Art Of, but I feel that term could also apply to Holley. Yes, she is a spy, but sheās in the technical department and ends up getting ācaught upā in her first field assignment in the movie. She thus has a naivety and a youthfulness that Finn doesnāt, and I noticed some key points where she suddenly, if briefly, connected to Mater because of that. When Mater comments that his dents are valuable, her reply isnāt to judge him as a spy orā¦ wellā¦ as most people who would find that strange. Rather she simply smiles and says āReally?ā in an amused tone, and when he confirms it she still doesnāt find it weird and offers to work around it even when Finn begins to protest. This also marks one of the few times, if not the only time that, Holley actively says ānoā to Finn about anything. Sheās obviously adamant about Materās love of his friends.
Differences! Well, obviously, Holley is high tech and very intelligent while Mater is a rust bucket and, aside from his knowledge of towing and salvage, not the sharpest blade on the assembly line. So thereās Holley bringing some IQ to the table. Mater, meanwhile, bringsā¦ wellā¦ being Mater.
Specifically, his level of honesty (Holley is a bit on the secretive side becauseā¦ duh, sheās a secret agent.) and more notably, his bravery. Holley at times is timid about field work and doesnāt agree with Finn on the ānever as alive as when you think youāre going to dieā theory. She is quick to attack before critically thinking about a situation, as shown when she attackās Finnās informative even though heās already down. Meanwhile, Mater doesnāt even fully understand what he has gotten himself into and is more willing to drive gungho into it, and even tried to reason with his enemies when he was about to blow up.
She is a sleek and intelligent, but slightly naive about life. He is rusted and not very book, but full of heart and kindness for othersā¦ Do I need to blatantly reference WALL-E or is that apparent? :B
(Not that nostalgia for 2008 only reason I like this new rusted guy/sleek girl couple. Itās just something I happened to notice.)[/spoiler]
So yeah, thatās some of my thoughts on why I like the pairingā¦ and wow that became a short essay rather quick. X_x
While I enjoyed both charactersā performance in the film, I really canāt see why [spoil]Holly declares herself to be Materās girlfriend. There was no real apparent mutual interest or connection between Holly and Mater that was present throughout the film, so the end just kind of felt like an āoh yeah, by the way this happensā moment. All of the times Mater and Holly interacted previous to that, she was put off by his general personality. You could argue that after they were released from Big Bently, Holly was moved by Materās dedication to his friends, but that was not evident on screen.[/spoil]
I really liked them in the movie. Especially Holley!! Sheās awesome.
Naturally, I disagree. [spoil]While Mater and Holleyās relationship doesnāt get nearly the screentime that, say, Lightning and Sally did, thereās a clear relationship arc all the same.
I actually talked to a friend who didnāt see an arc either, so I have a sort of mini-essay about the arc already on my computer! [/spoil]
[spoiler]Anyways, this is only from 3 viewings worth of memory, but Holley DOES end up slowly warming up to him. From what I saw, sheās first impressed by his unexpected knowledge of all things lemon, but later on she starts to warm up to what actually makes Mater Mater.
She starts out pretty much ashamed of being associated with him, cringing when he introduces her to Finn as his date and covering his face with the hologram when heās basically hitting on her.
After Mater shows some technical know-how, Mater mentions that he always wanted to be a spy. Holley smiles and says she does too. Itās the first time she connects with him without bossing him around or hiding from him, and itās not even something she needed to respond to.
Between then and France, Mater shows that heās not a complete idiot, especially when it comes to car-related knowledge, and en route from there to Italy, she is checking the red traffic light cameras she bugged, and Mater once again compliments her on her looks and adds her smarts. He says it much more comfortably, and he seems to feel heās become friends with Holley at the least. Holley responds with the very telling reply of āThank youā¦ I think.ā Shortly after, she gets the idea to disguise Mater, which shows that she is now accepting him as part of the spy team. Already weāre a far cry from cringing every time he talks and bossing him around.
And then thereās the dent thing.
Mater points out the value of his dents when Holley tries to remove them. Holley replies with āā¦Really?ā but instead of looking like T_T sheās smiling and actually seems interested in what he has to say. When Finn starts to rant at him for it, she quickly offers to work around the dents; this is, notably, the first time she has objected to an order from Finn and stuck with her objection, and it was for Materās sake. I feel that this point was when their relationship hit its main turning point.
In Italy, Mater starts talking about what he can see in his spy-eyes while disguised as the other tow truck. Finn is impressed by how great Mater is at playing the āidiot tow truckā but Holleyā¦ not so much. It seems like here sheās starting to catch onto that Mater really is just a tow truck faster than Finn. Why? Because sheās taken more time to get to know him and try to understand where heās coming from with friends and dents and conversations over the intercom. Itās also worth noting that, while sheās a bit nicer about it now, sheās still alright with bossing Mater around to keep him out of trouble.
And then they all end up inside Big Bentley in England, and Mater escapes. Holley tells him to go get himself more dents and that part was really cute. <3333 Finn and Holley escape and figure out about the bomb. After Professor Z runs for it, Finn instructs Holley to swap jobs with him: He goes after Zundapp, she tries to help Mater. After Z is captured and toys with them about the bomb, Holley gets annoyed enough that she shocks the professor despite being chastised for it earlier. Iād be annoyed too if somebody I was just starting to like had a bomb planted on them.
And we get to the point where Mater is trying to explain why he thinks Axelrod was behind everything. Finn is telling him to stand down. The royal security is in a frenzy. Even Lightning seems more than a little concerned as to whether his friend is right or not. But when Mater asks Holley to bring up the engine image (which is supposed to be secret and, if they had been wrong, could have jeopardized the mission to bring out into the open) she does so immediately. Itās nice to know that, like Holley is able to keep tabs on Mater, Mater isnāt so smitten like he was at the start of the movie that he canāt work with Holley as a team. And of course, thereās her screaming when Mater is seconds from blowing up.
And we go from that to the ending, which all has been said for.
Itās subtle, but these kinda things are how I saw a relationship arc in the film.[/spoiler]
Personally, I didnāt read into it at all on my first viewing, and I still thought it was pretty obvious Mater and Holley are together.
To the credit of everybody who missed it, it was EXTREMELY subtle in comparison to the romantic arc of the first Cars and other recent Pixar films, soooooo yeah. I mean, the last 3 years were TS3, Up, and WALL-E. TS3 was the LEAST apparent and itās still clear 5 minutes into the film that Buzz is the most romantically inept character in Pixar history. :B
[size=50]11 years? Really Buzz?![/size]
IDK, I am constantly wearing my het goggles so I can tell a pairing is going to be apparent from glances in a promotional image. I canāt tell if itās a gift or the dorkiest thing on the planet. Or both. 
Sorry to DP, but I just noticed a cute little detail.
Holleyās design is extremely reminiscent of a certain models of luxury Jaguar cars, right?
Well, Mater mentioned in the first movie that part of the reason he had a crush on Dorene was because she ālooked just like a Jaguar!ā
Mater has a thing for Jaguars. 
And aside from that, it hints at Pixar taking Holleyās role into consideration when designing her in more ways than just being a sleek spy car.