Near the end of the film, Drax cheerily calls Gamora "green whore". When they were in the Kyln, the other inmates called Gamora (among other things) "whore". Being excessively literal, Drax has difficulty with insults like that, and likely genuinely thinks Gamora is a prostitute and has no idea that "whore" is a pejorative term. Note that he calls her this while saying he considers her his friend.
It's established in the sequel that Drax's people are quite open about sex, with his father telling the story of Drax's conception during every winter solstice. Peter is squicked out, but Drax recalls the story as "beautiful" and says there should be no embarrassment about this. If his species is that matter of fact when it comes to sex, then prostitution may not have any kind of stigma.
Doubling down on that, if his species is so open about sex, they may not have or need prostitutes (paid, at least), so he may not be familiar with the term at all, and simply be repeating it because he thinks its accurate.
Similar to that, Drax calling Groot "dumb". Most commonly dumb is meant as stupid, but its proper definition is "lacking the ability to speak", which is more or less true with Groot, whose vocabulary consists entirely of "I am Groot".
At the end of the movie, Groot is seen growing faster when he is exposed to music — just as real plants are rumored to do.
Potted dancing baby Groot is also another 80s reference, in keeping with Quill's constant pop-culture name dropping: the battery-powered musical "dancing flower" was a popular bit of kitsch from that era.
During Thor: The Dark World, it was unclear why the Asgardians didn't make any effort to use the Aether AKA the Reality Stone against the Dark Elves, or at least the Tesseract / Space Stone (which they do understand). After watching people be torn apart simply by touching an Infinity Stone barehanded (and the resulting explosion), it becomes very clear why that was never an option.
Rocket finds stealing other people's cybernetic implants like a leg or eye amusing. It's because he's the walking result of cybernetic implants courtesy of the High Evolutionary. That and raccoons are attracted to shiny, metallic objects and sometimes hoard them. This is sometimes used as bait to trap them.
The Collector mentioned earlier that groups have tried to hold an Infinity Gem's power before, but they never survived for long. Every Guardian is something special durability-wise:
Star-Lord's father was Ego the Living Planet (who his mother mistook for an angel);
Gamora is a cybernetic assassin, enhanced by Thanos, who can survive the vacuum of space longer than most (and if anything like Nebula, rocket launchers as well);
Drax with a hardcore focus and sense of duty, and while not at Ronan's level, survived a crashing spaceship landing on him not minutes beforehand;
Rocket survived the High Evolutionary taking him apart and rebuilding him over and over, and is similarly outfitted with cybernetic attachments.
When Yondu opens the orb to find the Troll Doll. Star-Lord, quite literally, trolled him... and did it with a surprisingly sensitive gift, given Yondu's fondness for knickknacks. Given that Peter was raised by Yondu, and Yondu had come to see Peter like a son to him, he probably saw it several times while Peter grew up. Yondu knew that this was a heartfelt gift.
A meta example: all the songs on Peter's "Awesome Mix" cassette are from The '70s, the decade Peter's mom was a teenager. It's also when most of the characters in the movie were created in the comics (Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket, Drax, Thanos, the Nova Corps, and Howard the Duck).
Another meta-example relating to the Awesome Mix. If you buy it off iTunes, Amazon, etc, you'll find that its play length is 45 minutes - exactly long enough to fill one side of a C-90 cassettenote Blank cassette tapes came in a number of sizes, the most common of which were the C-60 (30 minutes per side for 60 total minutes of playback), the C-90 (45 minutes per side, 90 minutes total), and the C-120 (60 minutes per side for 2 hours total). The latter were less popular because in order to get sufficient tape on the spool the tape itself had to be thinner than standard, which led to C-120s being prone to stretching, tangling, breaking, etc. It would be entirely possible to create the Awesome Mix as presented in the film with a commonly available cassette size.
Although it wouldn't be uncommon to fill both sides of the tape with the same tracklist, it's significant that the mix only fills half the tape - symbolic of his mother's life being cut short by Ego murdering her. Though she did create a second volume.
One upbeat 1970s Rock standard that wasn't used in the Awesome Mix—but very easily could have been—is Styx's "Come Sail Away", a song about an emotionally confused young man who is whisked away into outer space by a group of aliens that he initially mistakes for angels. Just reading that description, you can easily see how it applies to Peter Quill's story in this film. But then there's also the fact that Quill's mother describes his absent father as an "angel". And at the end of the movie, we learn that he was actually an alien, and he was the one who ordered Yondu's crew to whisk Peter away to space. Considering the movie's musical subtext, that's almost certainly a deliberate Shout-Out.
Why wasn't Yondu offended by the troll doll inside the ball? Because he's been shown to have a love of collectible figurines, and this Earth-made troll doll is a unique artifact outside of Earth culture, making it extremely valuable. Not to mention that his ship getting shot down meant that the blue frog might be all he could find in the wreckage, making the troll doll a literal consolation prize.
When Star-Lord begins singing and dancing "O-o-h Child" to distract Ronan, he actually stops and unnervingly demands to know what Star-Lord is doing. Ronan might have been so bothered because Thanos had continually referred to him as "boy".
All of the Guardians could be considered foils to each of the Avengers:
Rocket is a Tech-based Science Hero who snarks every other sentence much like Iron Man, except all of his enhancements were forced on him against his will, making him even more anti-social than Tony ever was.
Groot on the other hand, is the team's nigh-invincible Juggernaut, much like the Hulk, except he's the mostcalm, collected and sensitive of the team. For bonus points, he also happens to be close friends with the above-mentioned Rocket.
Yondu has Hawkeye's Anti-Heroic qualities dialed up to eleven, spends most of the movie opposing the heroes, but joins as a Sixth Ranger for the final battle, plus he uses a Trick Arrow. Hawkeye is a lone wolf who can work with a team if he has to, Yondu leads his own group of Ravagers. Hawkeye's powers are based on seeing things, Yondu's on making sound.
Rocket is an accomplished thief who believes that any item that he wants more than its owner does should be rightfully his. Of course! It's in his nature. Raccoons are the thieves of the animal kingdom. (A lot of his other traits are also very raccoon-ish; he's good with his tiny little hands, he's very clever, and he's got an awful temper when pushed).
Rocket calls Quill his "booty" while in the Kyln. On the one hand, it is in reference to the fact that he and Groot have captured Quill in order to collect a bounty. On the other hand, considering the setting, Rocket could also be seen as claiming Quill as his and Groot's bitch.
English language:
Why is everything in English when this is all taking place outside of Earth? Most of the events are taking place from Peter's point of view, and he has a translator implanted in his neck. Presumably, he still hears and understands everything in English, thanks to said translator.
Adding to that, why does Yondu have a Southern accent? Because that's what his speech pattern sounds like to Peter's translator.
Another character who was known to have a Southern accent was Peter's mother — maybe Peter just subconsciously chooses to hear Yondu use it since he's the father figure Peter has had since the age of nine.
Further brilliance sets in when you realize why he can't fully translate Groot's speech: because Groot is a flora colossus, an exceedingly old and rare species (if Taneleer Tivan has no clue what you are, you're definitely obscure) that speaks a Starfish Language, it's totally reasonable to assume that the microbes have no way to correctly translate his speech because it has no definitive record of the language, so it just does its best and winds up coming up with something that is roughly on the same level as Google Translate. "I am Groot" is nowhere near what he's actually saying, it's just that the language is entirely based around intonation rather than actual sentences, and since there's no record of the language in the translator's database, it just takes it at face value.
Even better, Rocket can understand Groot perfectly because his ears are more sensitive to sounds that normal people can't pick up on, so he's probably hearing a lot more in Groot's intonation than the rest, hence why he can pick up exactly what Groot's saying, rather than just relying on inflection and context.
It's entirely possible that, being a plant-person, Groot's language isn't entirely — or, perhaps, even mostly — based on vocalizations but scents. Which would make Rocket being the only one who understands Groot perfectly entirely logical too: he's the only one whose senses are both sensitive enough to pick up every scent Groot uses and with the experience to know what each one means. (Raccoon noses are much more sensitive than human ones, and Gamora and Drax — if they have noses as sensitive as Rocket's — don't have the knowledge they'd need to translate each scent.)
This also implies that other characters have their own means of translation that may be different, for example Gamora comments on the melody of Peter's music, but shows no signs that she understands the lyrics.
The existence of the translator implant actually happens to sort of solve a minor thing about characters frequently using the term "people" even when not referring to exclusively to humans. For example, when Nova Prime Rael tells Peter Quill that "The fate of 12 billion people is in your hands", it's possible she's actually using a Xandarian word that means sentient beings in general, which gets translated as "people" because that's just a more succinct way of putting it in English.
Yondu's grin at the troll doll. Sure, it's funny and he appreciates that. Sure, it's something he actually likes, so he appreciates that. And certainly you can say that since the Ravager's motto is "Steal from everyone" it's an appropriate bit of irony. But think of it with everything from the sequel factored in: Peter is Yondu's adopted son. Yondu might be a crook and a hardass but he's presented as fair to his crew. Certainly neither one could really show traditional concern for each other. With that in mind, part of Peter's personal journey in the movie is about him coming of age and becoming his own man outside of the sphere of influence of his father — at the start of the movie, he's your typical teenager rebelling against his father. By the end, he has become his own man that his father (and his first lieutenant) respects. He has struck out on his own and formed his own family. So with that in mind, the gift of the troll doll and the manner in which it was given is an acknowledgement from Peter to Yondu — acknowledging the lessons of his father in a respectful way while also saying that he's no longer a little boy to be looked after. In this light, the gesture is actually very heartwarming. In this light, Yondu's smile isn't just one of humour but of pride in his adopted boy.
In the ending montage, we see Rhomann going home to his family. Note that this parallels the situations of two of the Guardians - he has a wife and daughter, like Drax, and he's a human (or Human Alien) while his wife and child are alien in appearance - the reverse of Peter's family.
The implication from Dey calling Rocket by his experiment names or "it" suggests that either most people don't know or don't care that he actually does have a name. All of the other Guardians call him Rocket even during their first meeting — which might have endeared them to him faster than usual since they basically weren't calling him a monster but an individual. This also makes it more heartwrenching at the climax. Saal, as he's about to die, just calls Rocket by that name. No experiment number, no monster type thing, just "Rocket".
Groot's abilities and fighting style and how they evolve over the course of the movie. At the start of the movie, he's apparently only been partnered with Rocket. So of course he wouldn't know how to brawl: Rocket's no brawler (willing, but not able) so Groot wouldn't have learned either and thus would have simply relied upon his natural abilities as a meat (wood?) shield — hence also his trouble restraining Gamora to begin with. But in each of his fight scenes later, he ends up mimicking one or more of his teammates as well as adding more to his move set, generally the one he's fighting along side. When fighting with Drax, he brawls. When fighting with Quill, he shows more finesse moves.
Have you ever wondered about the purpose of the tendrils coming out of Groot’s cocoon? At first glance, they look like they could just be his arms, but look closely at the lowermost one. He didn’t just form the cocoon; he formed the cocoon and anchored it to several structural points within the Dark Aster’s bridge. That’s how everyone was able to survive the crash.
Each of the Guardians saves the life of at least one of their comrades during the film:
Rocket's very first action in the film (as opposed to just talking) is protecting Peter Quill from Gamora, who at that point in the film couldn’t care less about who he was and had no qualms about killing him to take the orb.
Peter Quill talks Drax and the other prisoners out of killing Gamora in the Kyln, and later successfully defuses the situation at the bar on Knowhere.
Drax takes out the Kyln guards who are about to shoot Rocket. (In particular, notice how he goes straight for the guard who said, “Fire on my command!”. The other guards never got permission to shoot!)
Groot finds Drax and pulls him out of the pool of goop on Knowhere, then resuscitates him.
Gamora is the first one to take Quill’s hand while the Infinity Stone is tearing him apart. Without her taking the chance and risking her own life in addition to Quill’s, he almost certainly would have died, leaving the stone to fall to the ground…
Also the Moment of Awesome just minutes later: the four surviving Guardians plus the Groot twig holding hands is what enables them to survive the Infinity Stone’s power and defeat Ronan.
Depending on how you look at it, Rocket replanting the twig from Groot also counts. If you include this, then each Guardian is saved by another as well, making the team’s status as Fire-Forged Friends even more meaningful.
When told to "put him in the bag", Groot ensnares Gamora rather than Quill, and is scolded by Rocket for not knowing genders. As plants, Groot's species probably don't have genders: we know that Groot can generate both flowers and some kind of glowing spore or pollen, so is probably hermaphroditic for reproductive purposes.
Despite the Soundtrack Dissonance, some of the songs playing over a certain scene have a thematic connection:
Peter listening to 10cc's "I'm Not in Love" while waiting outside his dying mother's hospital room. The song has themes of denial and a fear of commitment, right before Peter refuses to hold his mother's hand out of fear of losing her. At the end of the song, the singer realizes he really is in love; in the film, right when Meredith passes, Peter immediately reaches for the love and warmth that just left him. It also has the refrain 'Big boys don't cry' being repeated in an ethereal voice, reflecting the fact that Peter needed to be strong for his mother but couldn't.
Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love" invites someone to indulge and take what they want and forget about the consequences, which is reveals Peter Quill's character and philosophy towards life.
"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes plays during Peter Quill's escape from the Kyln.
David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" has nonsensical lyrics and implies insanity, which fits Knowhere's insane and awesome appearance.
"Fooled Around and Fell in Love" by Elvin Bishop is about a Ladykiller in Love, and plays during a tender moment between Gamora and Peter. He selects the song himself. He probably pulled that exact same trick more than a few times before. Of course, between the second Guardians film and Avengers: Infinity War, their Relationship Upgrade turns the song turns into Foreshadowing.
"O-o-h Child" by The Five Stairsteps plays during the Guardians' Darkest Hour when it looks like Ronan has won, and the Guardians indeed pull together to defeat him (due in no small part to Peter actually singing it out loud to confuse Ronan!).
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell is not only a message of love from Meredith Quill to Peter, but also plays over the many relationships that had been formed/saved by the Guardians. It signifies the start of the Guardians as True Companions, it shows the family that the Guardians had inadvertently saved on Xandar, and it even reveals Yondu's paternal affection towards Peter as he proudly sees how much Peter took after him. Replace the word "me" in the line "No wind, no rain, no winter's cold...can stop me, baby!" with "us" and it becomes a rather triumphant expression of the Guardians' newfound Team Spirit, and the Nova Corps' success in keeping the orb out of Kree hands (the line plays while Nova Prime locks up the orb in a vault).
"I Want You Back" plays over the assurance that the Guardians of the Galaxy will return and their adventures aren't over yet.
Nebula and Gamora:
There's a reason why Nebula behaves coldly towards Gamora. It was because she was always Thanos' favorite daughter. Nebula's behavior can be similar to that of a spoiled brat who was never seen as a favorite. In short, we are witnessing a genderbent space version of the relationship between Doctor Doofenshmirtz and his younger brother Roger. Or Thor and Loki maybe.
Similarly, there's a parallel between Nebula and Ronan and the Guardians. Nebula and Ronan have grievances similar to the Guardians. Nebula like Gamora was tortured and forcibly transformed into a soldier for Thanos just like Gamora with terrible experiments done on her, just like the High Evolutionary did to Rocket. We know very little about Ronan beyond his speeches about how he loathes Xandar because his father and grandfather died in the war with Xandar, but we can assume being raised in a fanatical, war-like environment left its mark. You could even say Ronan is a Evil Counterpart to Quill in that regard, as both were not raised under the best of circumstances. What made the Guardians different from the villains was how they chose to cope with their losses: by giving a shit about other people and banding together to do something good.
Yondu's spent years telling Peter that the Ravagers wanted to eat him because Terrans are considered an oddity to the rest of the galaxy. By the end of the film, we see that Yondu genuinely cares for Peter in a gruff, roundabout way and constantly threatening to let Peter be eaten can be seen as Yondu's way of preparing the young boy for the harshness of life on the fringes of galactic society. Ascended Fridge Horror come the sequel; Ego re-absorbed his offspring when they didn't manifest his power. It wasn't the Ravagers that were going to eat Peter, it was his own father.
Some people complained that Drax didn't express confusion when Quill, during his Rousing Speech, says they now have a second chance to "give a shit," since he's exceptionally Literal-Minded. Later during the plan to assault the Dark Aster, however, Drax remarks that he sees the Sakaarans as "paper people." Drax is beginning to understand figurative speech! Though as his Pre-Mortem One-Liner to Korath revealed, he still hasn't quite grasped its nuances.
Peter, unlike Drax and Gamora, never called Rocket "vermin" or "rodent." Having grown up as the only human among the Ravagers, he probably knows how it feels to be different and called derogatory names. To take it a step further, Rocket never called Peter humie to his face, further suggesting it's probably a racial slur, and once he has his breakdown and Peter shows sympathy for him, he never calls him it again, even to the other characters.
Every time a fight breaks out, or looks to break out, Peter is right in the middle doing his best to play mediator. Every time — unless there's no other way out, he's trying to avoid a fight. Now, imagine why this is — what his upbringing with the Ravagers must have been like for that to be his default response to a problem? Also consider his pre-Ravagers personality. He got into a fight with a group of boys trying to defend a frog. He was then partially raised by Yondu, who scolds him for his sentiment and tried to mold him into being more ruthless so as to fit in with the rest of the Ravagers. But still, Peter goes out of his way to avoid killing people and still has shown sympathy for others, particularly Rocket. His basic personality is still that of a kind person which, after bonding with the rest of his team, becomes more obvious as Peter develops over the course of the film.
Yondu complaining about how disloyal Peter is when he didn't allow his crew to eat Peter when he was a kid. The two things we know about Peter's father are he's a jackass, and he might be powerful enough to wield an Infinity Stone. So, either Yondu's complaints are really a way of venting that he risked the ire of a very dangerous alien when he adopted Peter rather than bring him in, or they just became a lot funnier due to Skewed Priorities. Although, callingEgo the Living Planeta "jackass" was understating matters.
Rocket imitating the Collector's “Milking the Giant Cow” hand gesture gets funnier if you realize that given previous events, Rocket is still probably quite drunk at that stage. In fact, the beating up grass scene and the decision that the best way to rescue people is to threaten to blow up the Ravagers' ship they are on unless they are handed over in the next five seconds makes far more sense if you presume Rocket is still half cut. This could also serve as an explanation for why Drax would call Ronan to Knowhere.
What were the Dark Elves doing during their self-imposed exile before Thor: The Dark World? Hibernating. What's the captured Dark Elf doing in The Collector's emporium? Curled up, taking a nap.
Why would Groot lie to Rocket about drinking from the fountain? It's not like Groot has any problems with self-image or what not. He's lying because he's trying to mimic Rocket who in turn is trying to blend in as part of the job of finding fugitives. And what do regular plants do? They drink water. He was probably not shaking his head to say "No, I'm not drinking water" but rather "No, you don't get it. I'm pretending just like you!" Note the weather in that scene — bright and sunny. Might wanna water your plants a bit more.
"Hooked On a Feeling":
The movie's signature song is "Hooked On a Feeling", which was memorably used in Ally McBeal, where it accompanied a hallucination of a dancing baby. In retrospect, Guardians use of the song feels like foreshadowing of dancing baby!Groot.
The song plays over the Kyln scene until Peter gets hit in the head, at which point it abruptly cuts out. This implies Peter was imagining the song playing, and getting hit in the head broke his concentration. Why was he playing the song in his head? Because Peter just had his walkman stolen. He's playing the song in his head to make sure he doesn't forget it, in case he never gets his walkman back.
What is Howard the Duck doing at the Collector's place? He's the only one from a dimension of duck-people to cross over into our universe. Sounds like a pretty rare collector's item.
Given Howard's general displeasure with our universe, and the fact that he doesn't try to escape with the rest of the exhibits after the stone blows up the collection, he may very well have arranged to be placed there willingly as a kind of vacation or retirement.
When Rocket says he needs one of the guards' armbands to enact his plan to escape the Kyln, Gamora immediately volunteers. During the prison riot, she passes over several guards to target the one who'd abetted the vengeful prisoners who wanted to shank her. While she was quite calm and collected as she told him she needed his armband, she also seemed to look forward to figuring out how to extract it. We also never see that guard again...Hell hath no fury indeed!
Apparently the ancient races are far better at surviving Infinity Stones than mere mortals. This makes sense given that their first users were the exceedingly old Celestials. Following that, the Dark Elves are very similar in that they are remnants of a previous universe and they too can safely use the stones for an extended period of time.
Ronan's implementation of the Power Stone into his Ultimate Weapon gives credence to the (now confirmed) theory that Loki's scepter holds the Mind Stone. It allows safe if indirect usage of the stone without being overwhelmed and eventually destroyed. The capacity for stones to disintegrate lifeforms separates and connects it to the Tesseract, as it doesn't need a boost from it to kill, and is why their signatures are so alike.
"Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" compares a relationship to "a worn out recording of a favorite song". Of course, in the context of the movie, the song itself exists on a worn-out, beloved mix-tape.
Peter should have been fried from wearing nothing but his mask not once but twice in the vacuum of space, but with the revelation that he's a Half-Human Hybrid, any inaccuracies regarding human exposure to vacuum can be Hand Waved due to him not being fully human and serve as decent foreshadowing to him being able to withstand the power of the Infinity Stone. After watching the second movie, it all makes sense: Peter's other half is Celestial.
Ronan's clear dislike of serving under Thanos makes more sense when you remember that one of the key beliefs of Kree culture is that they are superior to all other species (assuming the MCU Kree are anything like their comic counterparts).
Drax taking offense at being called a thesaurus. A thesaurus would be an insane concept to a completely literal people; a book full of words that mean the same thing as other words?
Star-Lord names his ship the Milano. As a child and a young teen growing up during the late '80s, Alyssa Milano would have been the dream girl of many young boys that age. It just shows how much he misses Earth.
It's also possible that Peter "remembers" how tasty that particular flavor of Pepperidge Farm cookies is...
For being an apparent interstellar backwater, a lot of people apparently know about Earth. Why? Because they recently fought Thanos' machinations and won. We've also been broadcasting our film, television, and music into space for some time. It helps explain why some characters understand the basic concept behind some of Peter's references, but not most of them.
People asking in confusion "who?" when Star-Lord introduces himself is a reference of how obscure his comic book is. However, by the end of the movie he's starting to make a name out of himself and people is finally starting to recognize him, just like how he (and the rest of the Guardians) will be much more popular and well known after this movie.
Prison uniform:
In the scenes taking place in the Kyln, Groot is the only prisoner not made to wear a uniform. This was probably just from a Doylist standpoint because it would be weird to see a tree wearing clothing, but the Watsonian explanation could be that that this is a result of Groot being such an unusual being: first of all, while all types of species are imprisoned there, it's likely they've never encountered anything like Groot, and just don't have anything that would fit him note This means that there apparently have been other prisoners the size of Rocket, though. Secondly, aside from issues of modesty, the main reason you'd put a prisoner in a brightly colored uniform is so it's harder for them to make an escape without being seen. Being a seven foot tall plant, modesty doesn't really apply to Groot. He doesn't exactly need anything else to stand out. He probably also avoids getting splashed with that orange delousing liquid because it wouldn't work on plants.
Drax wears the bright yellow pants of the uniform, but not the shirt. Since he's always seen wearing pants and no shirt in general, it seems probable that he was given a shirt, but refused to wear it — his chest tattoos are too much a part of his identity for him to conceal them (and/or his culture just isn't accustomed to wearing shirts). Or the reason is a Rule of Funny, given how it's established in the sequel that he is a Walking Shirtless Scene because he has very sensitive nipples and doesn't like anything chafing them.
Peter's flippant remark upon Flipping the Bird to the Nova Corps, "Oh I'm sorry! I didn't know how this machine works!" Since he's from Earth, considered a primitive planet, he's probably used to being condescended towards for being a primitive by more advanced civilizations like Xandar and was playing up the stereotype of being clueless about advanced technology. This seems to be common prejudice among the inhabitants of the galaxy as Ronan contemptuously reports that Gamora lost to "some primitive." It also explains why Peter's go-to strategy is acting like an idiot to catch his enemies off-guard.
As mentioned on Sigil Spam, even the Xandar capital city follow the starburst pattern used everywhere by the Nova Corps, but that's not so surprising if the city came first, and the Nova founders decided this shape would make a cool symbol.
Peter Quill makes a quick entrance into the cockpit of his ship by jumping onto the hull and sliding into the cockpit. Rocket does this too when entering a Ravager ship before the final battle. It makes sense for a ship designed to be super maneuverable to be nearly frictionless on the outside.
Another possible explanation for Ronan's reaction to Star-Lord's dance-off: Remember, this is the MCU, where there are a lot of Physical Gods and other ridiculously overpowered beings running around, some effectively indistinguishable from normal mortals. So Ronan has to consider the possibility that Star-Lord is clowning around instead of cowering in terror because he is actually so powerful that he could crush Ronan like a bug. Especially if Ronan somehow could sense that Peter was half-Celestial and therefore way out of Ronan's weight class.
A bit of Fridge Humor or maybe even Fridge Narm. Ronan's 'Universal Weapon' is a giant warhammer-type thing. When All You Have Is a Hammer…... It also contrasts Loki's spear (well, Odin's) and Scepter, which were both weapons of finesse, much like their wielders. Ronan, being a genocidal religious fanatic who is about as un-subtle as you can get, gets the big, blunt object with an infinity stone inside. It's even purple to the Mind Stone's yellow; complementary colors. Contrast Ronan's cowl to Loki's helmet, Ronan's dark outfit to Loki's flashy green and gold, their issues with their fathers, they're both played by tall, talented pretty boys, but Loki's face is normal, while Ronan's has that black warpaint all over it.
When Ronan does the Title Drop at the end, he might not have been referring to Star Lord, et al. Think about it from Ronan's point of view: he was going to Xandar to destroy the Nova Corps, who are a major force for good in the galaxy. The Power Stone was stolen by Gamora, who tried to sell it, but he got it back and killed her, so whatever. He flies off to Xandar to complete his revenge against the Nova Corps, for their meddling in Kree sovereignty. While the Nova Corps is ineffectually trying to blockade him, Gamora shows up again, with her sidekick from before (Drax), but he defeats them. Then Ronan gloats to the people of Xandar: behold what your "guardians of the galaxy" - the Nova Corps - have wrought. And then Star Lord, who was barely a blip on Ronan's radar, assumes he's talking to him.
Wonder why it looks like Peter Quill is still wearing part of his flight harness when the team disembarks from the Milano in the third act of the film? Later scenes reveal that it's actually the chest harness for Rocket's Hadron Enforcer, which Quill was wearing on his back in its collapsed mode. note (Did you even realize that it has a collapsed mode?) But why does the chest harness look so similar to the ship's seatbelts? Herein lies the brilliance. Recall that the weapon was constructed out of spare parts the very first time Rocket set foot (paw?) aboard the Milano. The reason the chest harness looks like a seatbelt is because it is a repurposed seatbelt from the Milano. Yeah, Rocket was definitely taking Quill's ship apart without permission.
After Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, several confusing elements about Ronan's stint as Thanos's lackey and Drax's backstory make much more sense:
Ronan attacked Drax's homeworld on Thanos's orders and murdered his wife and daughter, but Drax himself survived despite having directly witnessed this. This was because Ronan was fulfilling Thanos's orders to eliminate only half of the population of Drax's homeworld. Drax was one of the "lucky" half of the population who were spared. Thanos also agreed to Ronan's request to eventually destroy Xandar since it was probably already on his radar for systematic halving of the population, but in all likelihood would have gone back on the agreement and spared half of the population as per his M.O. (and perhaps would've executed Ronanfor being a genocidal S.O.B.). Ronan was probably aware of this, which was why he eventually betrayed Thanos since he wanted all of Xandar wiped out.
Endgame all but confirms that Thanos saw Ronan's betrayal coming, which is why he's unfazed when Ronan announces his double-cross. This exchange happens when Thanos is introduced during the Time Heist.
Thanos: Ronan's located the Power Stone. I'm dispatching you to his ship. Gamora: He won't like that. Thanos: His alternative is death. Ronan's obsession clouds his judgement.
Related to the above, the reveal that Thanos is against genocide and seeks to save entire races begs the question if Thanos actually was going to honor the agreement with Ronan to destroy Xandar. Yes, Thanos could renege on his word out of principle, but there is a way he would've technically fulfilled the letter of their agreement and still save Xandar's people: Keep in mind, the exact wording of the agreement (stated twice) was that Thanos will destroy Xandar if Ronan delivers the Orb. The agreement never said anything about Xandar's people, so Thanos could just abduct half the population off of Xandar, then kill the remaining half by blowing up the planet.
In the first film, there are two songs on the official soundtrack that aren't officially on Peter's Mixtape Vol. 1 ("Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell and "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5). However, when asked by Rocket if Yondu had "any old clones of Quill's music", there are two songs that are played that weren't heard in the first film ("Come A Little Bit Closer" by Jay & The Americans and "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang" by Silver). So, Vol 1. had two songs from Mixtape Volume 2, while Vol. 2 has two songs from Mixtape Volume 1. And technically, with Yondu's Zune, we already have two songs from what is essentially "Mixtape 3" in the film ("Father and Son" by Cat Stevens and "Surrender" by Cheap Trick, assuming they're not clones from the Mixtape Vol. 1).
In the Kyln, Quill says the Orb has an "Ark of the Covenant, glowing briefcase, Maltese Falcon-esque vibe." It's appropriate that Quill put the Indiana Jones reference first, since his discovery of the Orb is like the entire first act of Raiders of the Lost Ark, involving searching an abandoned temple for an artifact. And he could liken his encounter with Korath to Indy's encounter with Belloq after escaping the booby-trapped temple. Likewise, the Infinity Stone inside the Orb is like the Ark of the Covenant in that it can kill you, much like opening the Ark does.
While calling Groot The Giving Tree might just seem like a quick gag, it's actually an appropriate comparison. Like the tree in the story, Groot is willing to give himself in order to make others happy, whether it be simply giving a little girl one of his flowers or giving his life to save the Guardians. The latter example is even more appropriate as in both cases, there is nothing left of Groot/the tree except for a branch or a stump, respectively.
The film opens with young Peter Quill witnessing the death of his mother in a hospital. As soon as she flatlines, his clearly distraught grandfather hurries him out of the room and quickly asks him to please wait right there. Peter runs outside, and is then abducted by Yondu. Earth is never revisited in the movie, which means that we never find out how Peter's grandparents react to suddenly discovering that their six year-old grandson has gone missing (and of course he's not going to be found) just after the already traumatic death of their daughter. Consider also how Peter's grandfather might feel incredible guilt for being the one who shooed Peter out of the room, never to see him again. And consider that, as his grandfather was likely in his 50s or 60s during the prologue, he's likely dead by the time of the movie's present setting and took that guilt all the way to the grave.
Actually Peter’s grandfather is confirmed as alive in the sequel. He's shown in his car when the Expansion was shown on Earth.
It turns out Yondu and his men were specifically hired to fetch young Peter for his father. Imagine if Peter had stayed at the hospital with his family, only to have a bunch of ill-tempered space pirates burst in and kidnap him. It's unlikely his family would have let Peter go without a fight, and it's even more unlikely that Yondu and his men would have had the patience to explain why they wanted Peter and would have just murdered them if they resisted. Chances are Peter inadvertently saved his family and dodged a very traumatic bulletnote Or floating arrow by leaving the hospital.
The Collector:
Just take a minute to think of The Collector for a moment. He seems like an Affably Evil old kook, but he essentially IMPRISONS and ENSLAVES living beings for his "collection", no one is really safe from his clutches and it's likely that he has impressive powers to make him above the law or even worse, no one really can or wants to stop him.
Speaking of the Collector, how many innocent people he enslaved died during the explosion on Knowhere? How many of the slaves that died considered it a release?
Another scary thing about the Collector... let's not forget that he already possesses the Reality Stone. Just how close did Ronan come to having two Infinity Stones in his possession?
It's a small miracle the Aether's container didn't get destroyed in the explosion.
Rocket:
The fact that those metal bits on his back are likely exposed bits of his skeletal structure. Though, while we're on the subject, those metal implants on his chest aren't as pronounced as the ones on his back, but they're a bit oddly placed to have any real function, so it's anyone's guess what they are or what they're for. They might be external ports to keep artificial organs charged and running, but... who knows?
Rocket agrees to stop Ronan because he "doesn't have that long a lifespan". Assuming that he's not joking and he still ages at the same rate as an average raccoon, that means Rocket has another twenty years left in him at best. Probably about half that, if we're being honest — he's probably already at least ten years old. This assumes a lot, like that he's comparing his lifespan to that of humans. Since all of the Guardians are different species, one or two outliving the others by centuries is very possible. Come Avengers: Infinity War, this becomes Ascended Fridge Horror and Harsher in Hindsight as Rocket is the only one of the Guardians not to be wiped out by Thanos.
The "rap sheet" scene indicates that Rocket is from Keystone, like in the comic books, and lists some of his old associates, but given the origin for Rocket suggested in the film, this raises the question of what exactly is happening on Keystone, and how many other "test subjects" there might be. Given his designation, at least 89. It makes his impassioned speech to Drax a little more horrific, because just how many dead people does Rocket have to be in a position where he considers himself to be the "only thing like him." It bears mentioning that Halfworld, Rocket's in-comic planet of origin, is actually a planet-sized mental institution. Combine that with his being one of the therapy animals reshaped into nursemaids when the robots decided they had better things to do, and, well...
Rocket's initial reaction to The Collector's... collection is the first time he is shown to be honestly uncomfortable with something (though he quickly brushes it aside in favor of his usual brusque demeanor) — given the later revelations in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 about Rocket's origins, it's because he's seeing sentient beings being held in cages and treated like objects when he, himself, was once in a similar position.
The possibility that he suspects the Collector might want to toss him into a box is probably a factor also. Rocket is evidently unique in the MCU, after all.
Groot: Dey describes him as "89P13's personal houseplant/muscle." Houseplant?!? Okay. Well let's just agree to never discuss this.
After James Gunn's revelation that the old Groot is dead and the new one is his son, it explains why Rocket is so sad about the death of his friend: he's aware that he'll never get the old Groot back and so has to move on and raise a new one.
The fact that Xandar and the Nova Corps would apparently not only run a prison as horrible as the Kyln, but would send people there with no apparent legal process. Granted, Quill, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot are all wanted for multiple awful crimes, and may have already been tried but absconded (Rocket) or might have been tried in absentia (Gamora), but the fact that the Big Good civilisation in the galaxy has a penal system that seems to be worse than most developed nations on Earth does not bode well. Though It's possible the Novas don't know how corrupt the prison actually is.
Possibly some Fridge Brilliance in here. Xandar (what we see) is based on Singapore, which is a fairly clean and orderly place which maintains a high standard of living for all, but is also a pretty austere country (although probably not to the same level we see Xandar go to).
Further Fridge Brilliance: the Kyln is an isolated prison in the middle of nowhere, and even the guards don't seem to get a lot of amenities. In other words, it's the perfect place for the Nova Corps to use as a punishment assignment, so naturally the dregs of the Corps are all concentrated there.
Quill finds the orb in one of the very first scenes of the film, and since then drops it on the ground and throws it up and catches it again — several times — before finding out that it contains a goddamn Infinity Stone.
Morag, the planet Quill finds the Orb on: A dead world where pretty much all life appears to have been wiped out in some unknown cataclysmic event. So, somebody managed to stick it in the Orb and shove it in containment. But, not before...
We now have confirmation that Thanos' methodology in gaining followers essentially boils down to "torture them until they develop Stockholm Syndrome and send them out to do my bidding". With this in mind, Loki's sudden shift in characterization between the first Thor movie and The Avengers is starting to make a lot more sense.
Confirmation that the blue stone in Loki's scepter was indeed the Mind Stone. Since he got the scepter from Thanos, this suggests that Thanos probably had more methods at his disposal than just torture. Perhaps it's best we don't know exactly what was done to Nebula, Gamora, and Loki.
There's a Marvel film down the road dealing with The Infinity Gauntlet, which allows the user to wield the powers of all six Infinity Stones. As we see in this film, the purple Infinity Stone of Power is powerful enough to make Earth Shattering Kabooms as simple as stepping on insects... ...so how much power do all six of them together have?
The fact that the aliens from Slither are canon in the Marvel universe. Doubly so since the Collector's zoo has been blown up, so they are on the loose.
Gamora's backstory of being taken by Thanos after he killed her family and destroyed her home. In his care, she was tortured and experimented on until she was a near perfect killing machine. Add to this, he bestows the honor of her being his daughter, which then makes everyone in the galaxy her enemy. It's implied he does this to a lot of children, including Nebula.
Nebula says to Gamora at one point, "Out of all our siblings, I hated you least." After the sequel, and hearing more of Nebula's and Gamora's backstory, you have to wonder just how much worse their siblings treated Nebula if she held such a high grudge against Gamora for her indifference to her abuse from Thanos.
If the Black Order (Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, and Corvus Glaive) from Avengers: Infinity War are who Nebula was talking about, this gets worse; Vol. 2 clarifies that Nebula and Gamora would spar, with Thanos replacing the loser's organic body parts with cybernetics to put them on par with the victor. Of the many Children of Thanos, Nebula is the only one with obvious cyborg parts. Nebula likely fought all of the Black Order on different occasions, and lost to them all. And we know that Gamora knows very little mercy in combat, but is relatively tame, compared to someone like Ebony Maw, who takes great pleasure in using surgical needles to torture people. If he (and the other 3) where anything like that in their youth, Nebula probably had the roughest damn childhood of the Black Order members.
The Collector offers to buy Groot's body at the time of his death; not that creepy until we see that Groot regrows from the twigs left after the crash. So the Collector would have had a baby Groot trapped in one of his tanks grown from the "body" of the previous Groot.
The Aether was presumably in the Collector's place when Carina destroyed it with the Power Stone. Now the Aether is even more unprotected than it was before! Good thing it was within that canister; anything less sturdy, and the explosion might have freed the Aether too...
As of Captain Marvel, which shows the war between the Kree and the Skrulls, it can be assumed that the Kree likely only humoured the peace treaty with Xandar in order to gain the Nova Corps' manpower (or at least their allegiance) in some continuation of the Kree-Skrull War..
