Warning: The following contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
1. Daddy Issues (Star-Lord, The Child)
“You’ve got issues, Quill.” “Of course I got issues, that’s my freaking father!”
Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) is understandably a mess when it comes to the family department. After being dragged around most of his childhood by a space pirate of an adopted father following his mother’s fall to cancer, he finally meets his biological dad who turns out to be a Celestial who not only was responsible for the creation of the tumor that killed his mother, but he also attempts to use Star-Lord as a battery source to fuel him because he is the size of a planet. Yeah, a living planet. More on that later.
2. Sister Sister (Gamora and Nebula, The Sisters)
“You were all I had. But you were the one who needed to win. Thanos pulled my eye from my head… and my brain from my skull… and my arm from my body… because of you.”
Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) spent the first movie as enemies, something which echoes throughout a majority of
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. This feud blossoms however, and comes to a head with the two of them finally facing one another and realizing that the only thing that truly set them apart is their father. Coming together in the end, this also helps to set up the events of Avengers: Infinity War.
3. Ego The Living Khan (Ego, The Father)
“I need to fulfill life’s one true purpose… to grow and spread, covering all that exists until everything is… me.”
Ego The Living Planet (Kurt Russell) is Star-Lord’s father, and the reason for all of his issues. No kid wants to find their dad with another family, but Star-Lord learns that his dad went to thousands of planets to attempt to spread his seed as far as possible, just like he did with his mother. Called “The Expansion” by Ego, his plan involved setting out over thousands of years to implant extensions of himself on thousands of worlds, and he did exactly that. Luckily, the Guardians kicked his ass and got it all sorted out in a day or two.
4. Clean Genes (Ayesha, The Mother)
“Every citizen is born exactly as designed by the community. Impeccable, both physically and mentally. We control the DNA of our progeny, germinating them in birthing pods.”
Even the secondary villain in this film, Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) is the leader of a genetically engineered race of people. You know those really gross people who pick their children based on the racial traits and successes of sperm donors to try to get the best deal? The Sovereign is that, but on a galactic scale. And don’t worry, they are just as cringe inducing as racists are in real life, and their pride is reflected as such also. You can see the rage Ayesha and her Sovereign share against the Guardians after having their batteries stolen, because she hurries after them in a fury to reclaim the pride she lost to lesser beings.
5. A Favorite Child (Adam, The Son)
“That, my child, is the next step in our evolution. More powerful, more beautiful, more capable of *destroying* the Guardians of the Galaxy. I think I shall call him… Adam.”
Ayesha’s rage led her to massive losses in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Even when the shiny, golden, “perfect” race of beings is nearly decimated, Ayesha merely looks to move to the next step in her family’s evolutionary process. This leads to the creation of her newest son, the one who won’t fail her, the true perfect being, Adam Warlock. Biblically, this also reflects Adam, the first man created by God, or the first son. This further goes to show how highly Ayesha thinks of herself and her race and also hints that though he isn’t her first son, his perfection will lead her to treat him as such.
6. It’s a Hard Knock Life (Mantis, The Orphan)
“Ego found me in my larva state. Orphaned on my home world. He raised me by hand, and kept me as his own.”
Ego was honest about having tried to mate with many different women of many different races on planets all across the galaxy, much to Star-Lord’s chagrin. It was only recently revealed by director James Gunn via Twitter, however, that one of those races and planets belonged to new Guardian addition Mantis (Pom Klementieff). Although there is a silhouette of Ego and a member of her race, Gunn did clarify that Mantis is not related to Star-Lord.
While Ego may have adopted her in her larva state and raise her, he did so out of self-service as she is needed to help him sleep. It’s because of this that Mantis is very simple, with basic concepts and social etiquette eluding her, which is one of the reasons that makes pairing her with Drax (Dave Bautista) so entertaining to watch.
7. Undercover Father (Yondu, The Dad)
“He may have been your father boy, but he wasn’t your daddy.”
Yondu (Michael Rooker) is a blue Centurion that abducted Peter Quill (to one day be Star-Lord) on the evening of his mother’s death. He is also the aforementioned space pirate from the daddy issues segment at the top, and that’s because of the nature of the relationship between these two characters and Yondu’s true intentions. While Star-Lord operated under the assumption that Yondu had kept him on his ship all those years because he was small and adept at getting into tiny places when it came time for plundering, the truth was that Yondu had discovered what Ego was doing, and wanted to protect Peter.
To anyone else, keeping the boy to himself on his ship for all those years was scummy pirate behavior on Yondu’s part, enough even to have him disowned by Stakar (Sylvester Stallone) and his old Ravager buddies. But to Yondu, it was the only way he knew how to raise the boy, it was the only life he knew to pass to his son.
In the end, it took the death of both Ego and Yondu for Star-Lord to understand who his true father was, as Yondu made the ultimate sacrifice so that his son could live. The Ravagers also returned to honor him with a funeral upon learning the truth.
8. Brotherly Love (Rocket, The Misfit)
“He didn’t chase them away…” “No.” “Even though he was always mean, and stole batteries he didn’t need…” “Well, of course not.”
James Gunn has said before that Rocket (Bradley Cooper) is very much a reflection of himself and how he was when he was younger with his brother Sean Gunn even doing the motion capture for the character. Through that lense, it’s easy to see the brotherly relationship develop between him and Star-Lord. The entire film features arguments between them, with them having even having fought over who got to pilot the ship. Star-Lord insults Rocket knowing that it gets under his skin and it heats up even more when Drax tells him that he stole the batteries from the Sovereign. It took the death of Yondu for the two to notice and reconcile, and even then, anyone who has seen Avengers: Infinity War knows their relationship hasn’t put much distance on them and their squabbling days just yet.
9. Learn to Love Again (Drax, The Widower)
“Those pools, they remind me of a time when I took my daughter to the forgotten lakes of my home world. She was like you.” “Disgusting?” “Innocent.”
We learned a lot about Drax and his family in the first film, and while he does reflect on them a bit here, he seems to have found happiness. This is something that started transitioning in his character after he learned he could trust the other Guardians with his life, at the climax of the first film, but advances much more in this film, especially once he meets Mantis. While he joked with the others, mainly Rocket and Quill, you can see Drax get comfortable for the first time once he and Mantis begin to spend time together. He tells her multiple times that her innocence reminds him of his daughter, and due to her inclusion in the group, you can tell he now feels less left out than he used to.
10. Four Guardians and a Baby (Groot, The Baby)
“I am Groot.”
It’s obvious that groot is a baby, but it’s interesting to examine his relationships with each of the different Guardians and who he identifies with and becomes close to. You can tell that he likes Gamora because he gives her a lot of attention and she is kind to him in return, like a mother, while Drax he either avoids or beats up, almost like a brother. And even though Baby Groot and Star-Lord share a close moment in the end when listening to Father and Son by Cat Stevens, it is Rocket who he sees as his dad, a fact that was revealed to fans after Avengers: Infinity War.
So, what do you guys think? Did I miss any or reach for some? Either way, let me know your thoughts below!