Did Nebula's forgetfulness inadvertently lead to
the shocking death of a founding Avenger? Or was it due to something even more sinister?
In the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" film, Yondu is viewed as an adversary of Peter, a figure from
his past with a lot of baggage who poses a threat to him in the present. Toward the end
of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," Peter sees the ways that Yondu was something of a surrogate
father and understands how Yondu may have masked his true affection by projecting aggression
instead. Most of all, Peter discovers that Yondu was hired to retrieve Peter from Earth and deliver
him to Ego, Peter's dad — but chose to keep Peter upon learning of Ego's maniacal true nature.
This being said, during his childhood Yondu frequently exploits Peter as a
key player in the Ravagers' heists to crawl through spaces the adults
couldn't fit through to achieve their thievery. That's not great. Still,
when the alternative is handing the boy over to a known killer, does the "bad" choice suddenly
become an act of goodwill? Maybe he just shouldn't have kidnapped Peter to begin with.
Similar to how Peter spends his youth under the tutelage of a villain,
so do Gamora and Nebula — though their father figure is decidedly
more nefarious than Yondu. It's not until they're older that they process
their trauma as the adopted daughters of Thanos and redirect their energy toward defeating him.
Gamora and Nebula are hardly to blame for their actions at such a young age. Still,
Gamora's reputation — and association with Thanos — precedes her when she
winds up in prison at the start of the first "Guardians of the Galaxy."
"Pretty high and mighty coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac. Yeah, I know who you are."
Drax initially views her as partially responsible for the death of his wife and child,
who were killed by Ronan, another accomplice of Thanos. It's this dark past that Gamora strives
to make good upon as she seeks a more heroic life, and so too does Nebula – eventually.
Gamora and Nebula grow up together as daughters of Thanos, and their father makes a deranged
habit of pitting the sisters against one another. Nebula explains in "Guardians of
the Galaxy Vol. 2" that whenever she would lose, Thanos would replace part of her with machinery,
turning her into a cyborg. But despite this horror, Gamora never let up.
When the sisters eventually restore their relationship, Gamora apologizes, telling Nebula,
"I was a child like you. I was concerned with staying alive until the next day every day,
and I never considered what Thanos was doing to you."
Both of their redemption arcs speak to an ongoing theme within the "Guardians of
the Galaxy" films of growing into one's full self as time goes on. Gamora and Nebula both
recognize that who they were raised to be is not the person they still want to be known as,
and take it upon themselves to steer their life in a different direction.
As Peter, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot team up for the first time in an attempt to escape prison,
Rocket lists a few items he needs each of them to retrieve in order for his plan to work:
a guard's security band, a special battery on the wall,
and the prosthetic leg belonging to one of their fellow prisoners.
"You need my what?"
But as the others risk their lives to procure these items,
we discover that Rocket didn't need the leg at all – it was just a cruel prank.
"I thought it would be funny, was it funny? What did he look like hopping around?"
Peter is rightfully ticked off — especially since he says he had
to transfer the prisoner 30,000 units to persuade him to give him the leg.
And besides the fact that a man who is actually in need of a prosthetic
limb now has to do without it, the timing of the prank seems even more terrible given the
serious goal the group is trying to accomplish. Was all of that really worth a laugh to Rocket?
There's a reason he's called Drax the Destroyer. In his vengeance following
the death of his wife and daughter, Drax goes on a killing rampage. His targets:
Ronan and Ronan's boss, Thanos. En route to them,
though, he's not afraid to destroy anyone and everyone remotely connected to his family's loss.
In the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie, Ronan is still at large and in
search of the Power Stone, which happens to be in the Guardians' possession. Knowing this,
Drax stupidly lures Ronan to Knowhere, the planet where the Guardians have plans to trade the Power
Stone to the Collector. Drax's call sets into motion a battle that could have been avoided and
leads to dire consequences. Gamora nearly dies, and she and Peter are abducted by the Ravagers,
plus Ronan gets the Infinity Stone and nearly destroys a planet with it.
Everything turns out alright in the end,
but Drax's call to Ronan is short-sighted and could have led to a very different outcome.
In the opening sequence of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," the Sovereign hires the Guardians
to vanquish a gigantic monster. The Guardians complete the job and seem to be on good terms
with Ayesha until she realizes that Rocket stole a supply of the Sovereign's batteries.
This nullifies the Guardians' professional reputation and
sets into motion the Sovereign's quest to destroy the Guardians.
The batteries eventually have a clever callback when the Guardians use them to implode the core of
Ego's planet, which is the only viable solution to defeating Ego for good. That does nothing, though,
to erase Ayesha's hatred of the Guardians. In a mid-credits scene, Ayesha awakens a new
creation she calls Adam, who is poised to be a key player in 2023's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."
Anything consequential that happens to the Guardians as a result of Adam traces
back to Rocket cheating on their business deal.
Baby Groot doesn't understand directions very well. In "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," the
Ravagers mutiny against Yondu and lock up their former captain, along with Rocket. Groot, free to
roam around the ship but very absent-minded, is the only chance Yondu and Rocket have of
escaping. They need him to retrieve Yondu's fin from his desk, which will allow Yondu to
control his flying arrow. Explaining the task to Groot is easier said than done.
After many attempts to retrieve the fin, Groot brings back several items that have nothing
to do with what he's supposed to find. One such item is a toe — a severed toe
"Tell me you guys have a refrigerator somewhere with a bunch of severed human toes.
Ok, then let's just agree to never discuss this."
Kraglin ultimately comes to their rescue, turning on the crew and choosing to remain loyal to Yondu
as his captain — but not before the audience sees one of the darkest things Baby Groot ever does.
Following the mutiny against Yondu as the Ravagers' captain, Yondu escapes from the
crew's imprisonment with Rocket, Groot, and Kraglin. Everyone who betrayed Yondu is in
for it. Using his special arrow commanded by a combination of his fin and whistling,
Yondu kills every crew member on the entire ship who participated
in his mutiny — meaning, every person who isn't himself, Rocket, Groot, or Kraglin.
The arrow zips and zooms throughout the ship, its speed fast enough to pierce
each of its victim's flesh and keep going, coming out of their back and continuing on
to another crew member. Even Baby Groot gets in on the action, extending his tiny
arms into full branches and fatally throwing someone over the side of a rail. Ultimately,
the death count has to be among the highest we actually see any of the Guardians commit onscreen.
Despite their flaws, the Guardians are almost always likable. There's one moment, though,
that pushes the audience's limits of how much they're willing to forgive. In "Avengers:
Infinity War," members of the Guardians of the Galaxy team up with a handful of Avengers
for the very first time, working together to remove the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos' hand.
They almost succeed before things take a turn. Upon realizing Thanos killed Gamora,
Star-Lord loses his cool. Attacking Thanos before Iron Man and Spider-Man have finished removing
the Infinity Gauntlet, Star-Lord unravels the whole plan. Thanos regains his strength
and takes back the Gauntlet, ultimately succeeding in retrieving the Time Stone
from Doctor Strange and eliminating half of all life in the universe.
It's a heartbreaking moment on multiple levels. It's difficult to put all the blame on Star-Lord,
as he's just learned that someone he loved is no longer alive. At the same time,
if Star-Lord could have maintained his composure for just a few more moments,
he might've been able to kill Thanos himself and save the universe in the process.
Of course, we see in "Avengers: Endgame" that Star-Lord's mistake was part of the
"one way" Doctor Strange insists is the only path to Thanos losing — suggesting
that perhaps there is no reality where Star-Lord doesn't screw things up.
In "Avengers: Infinity War," Thanos kills Gamora on Vormir as a sacrifice
to retrieve the Soul Stone. Nebula learns this information later on in the film,
along with other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The characters are certainly aware that
Thanos killed Gamora on Vormir, but do they know the circumstances under which her death happened?
"He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone. She didn't."
The answer to this question is important when you consider what follows in "Avengers:
Endgame. As Nebula, Iron Man, and the other remaining Avengers put together their time
heist to go back in time and retrieve the Infinity Stones for themselves,
part of the plan involves Hawkeye and Black Widow heading to Vormir to get
the Soul Stone. Nebula tells the rest of the Avengers that Vormir is where Gamora
died. Do they put two and two together? Do they realize the toll the Stone demands?
For as smart as Tony Stark and the other genius Avengers are, and as intricate as
the master plan is for the time heist, it seems unlikely that nobody would have figured it out.
It's just as unlikely, though, that the Avengers would know this information and not tell Hawkeye
and Black Widow, who seems surprised to discover the sacrifice requirement upon arriving on Vormir.
Given that Nebula also forgets to tell anyone that Thanos and her past self are looking for
the stone on Morag, though, it seems like this could be a pretty major oversight on her part.
During the time heist in "Avengers: Endgame," a version of Nebula from 2014 replaces the Nebula
that the Avengers know in 2023. This brings 2014 Thanos forward in time to finish what he started,
as 2014 Nebula is still very much a villain, having not yet evolved toward the good guys'
side. By disguising herself as her future self, she fools the Avengers
and nearly ruins everything. Just after the team succeeds in reversing the Snap,
bringing back everyone who vanished five years prior, 2014 Thanos arrives. Uh-oh.
With the aid of the resurrected heroes, the Avengers are able to defeat Thanos. Along the way,
2023 Nebula returns to her time and kills 2014 Nebula. Her former self jeopardized the fate
of the entire universe by giving Thanos a second chance to succeed. Big yikes.
As a Christmas present for Peter in "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," Mantis and Drax
abduct Kevin Bacon from Earth. Peter's always talking about how Kevin Bacon is an amazing hero,
and they know he'll be thrilled with receiving the actor as a gift. Only Mantis and Drax don't know
Kevin Bacon is an actor. They believe him to be nothing short of the ruler of the entire planet.
No matter what profession or position Mr. Bacon holds, though, Peter is not happy
to receive his gift and is quick to point out that Mantis and Drax have effectively engaged
in human trafficking. He's not even aware of the property damage Mantis and Drax caused at Bacon's
home or the police officers they attacked in attempting their kidnap. What's more,
they've entranced Bacon to be amicable with his abduction.
Mantis breaks the trance at Peter's insistence, and Bacon is understandably distraught. Kraglin
begins to take him home, but upon learning that "Footloose" inspired Peter to save the galaxy,
Bacon decides to stay and help the Guardians throw a Christmas party. It's quite the
turn-around for someone who was violently abducted from their home against their will.
"Love you, guys."
"We love you, Kevin Bacon!" "Bye, Kevin Bacon!"
"Bye, Kevin Bacon!" "Bye, Kevin Bacon!"