I got to watch the new Guardians of the Galaxy this past weekend. It was very good, and fun. I would say that it was a bit sillier than the first one, but also had more feelz than the first one. All told, I thoroughly enjoyed it. But that's not what I'm writing about; I'm here to write a very spoilery and brief listicle about how the whole movie was about parental (especially fatherly) relationships.
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Peter Quill
So, obviously, the movie's core plot was about Peter Quill and his father (David Hasselhoff), and his daddy (Yondu), but each of the Guardians was exploring a father-child relationship in this movie.Gamora and Nebula
These two explored their sibling rivalry through the lens of their abusive "father" Thanos. Their plot-line was my favorite sub-plot of the movie. I really loved how their sisterly relationship was just an amped up comic book version of the way that sisters fight in real life. Nebula was mad at her father, but she was taking it out on Gamora because she had projected her anger.
Drax
Mantis' most important job in this movie was to be a mouthpiece for Drax. She vocalizes his tragic backstory. He was a father. Emphasis on was. And deep down, he is so sad about it that Mantis was completely overpowered by that sadness. That's pretty rough.
Rocket
The trash panda has two fatherly plots going on. The first is the exploration of his fatherlessness, given context by his conversation with Yondu about why they're both jerks because they were abandoned by their "parents". The second is shared with the rest of the crew, but where Rocket was the Smart Guy to Groot's Big Guy in the first movie, Rocket was Groot's primary caregiver in this one.
Baby Groot
I assume that the decision to keep Baby Groot throughout the movie was largely tied into the exploration of fatherhood. Having a killer space baby on the team allowed each of the Guardians to show off their paternal side. While Rocket got most of the parental attention here, Baby Groot gave Drax a few moments of paternal depth as well (especially at Yondu's funeral). And then everybody else just got a lot of "hey, don't eat that" sort of one-liners, but that's what parenting is like sometimes. I also just want to add that they really nailed the realities of talking to a toddler in that movie. Lastly, in the post-credits we got to see a goofy scene where Quill argued with Teen Groot.
Bonus Round: Yondu
So Yondu was one of the two main father-figures in the movie, but for those paying attention, he had a father-figure of his own. Sylvester Stallone was basically Yondu's Yondu (not his father... but his daddy), and a large part of his anger during that movie I think came from being rejected by not only his birth parents, but also his "adoptive" parent.
Bonus Bonus Round: Mantis
Mantis was like the light-hearted version of a serious case of child abuse. She was raised by Ego, but was never treated like she was loved. She was his "pet", as Drax astutely noted. They didn't dig into it too deeply, which is probably for the best. However, it seemed clear from her need for approval and her reactions to Drax's abuse that she was quite accustomed to being treated very poorly, which made her character's backstory very sad indeed.
Bonus Bonus Bonus Round: Adam Warlock
The Guardians pissed Ayesha off so much that she decided to get into some unconventional parenthood herself.
So there you go. Now you know. Everybody in that movie had parenting related issues.
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