The still have a bright future in the MCU and we’ll likely be seeing them grow and continue to evolve on the big screen for years to come.
Still, in just two movies and a handful of ing roles in larger team-up movies, these characters have matured and opened up a lot. So, here is Every Guardians Of The Galaxy MCU Character Arc, Ranked.
Kraglin
As one of the movies’ more minor characters, Kraglin hasn’t had much of an arc. He was a Ravager who led the mutiny against Yondu, then later regretted it and helped to break him and Rocket out of their jail cell. After that, Kraglin ed them on their quest to save Quill and the gang from Ego and was given Yondu’s magic arrow after his death. But we haven’t seen him really mature.
We’ll likely be seeing more of Kraglin in the future since he’s played by Sean Gunn who appears in most of his brother James Gunn’s movies, but for now, he’s arguably the Guardian with the weakest arc.
Drax
Drax the Destroyer has gone through two basic character changes. In the first driven by revenge for the death of his family. At the end of the movie, he teams up with the other Guardians to kill Ronan and avenge his family’s murders. So, he achieves his vengeance and finds a new family, giving him the perfect ending.
By the second “I have famously huge turds.” It’s not the most dramatic character arc, but we do see a clear progression.
Mantis
Having only been introduced in Ego’s secrets from everyone.
She develops a close relationship with Drax since she can see the tortured emotions that he doesn’t show. She’s really come out of her shell in a couple of years since she ed the Guardians, culminating in her participation in Endgame’s awesome “girl power” moment.
Groot
When the first can only say three words sympathetic.
Groot’s sacrifice at the end of one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the entire MCU. And his replanting has led to a hilarious and lovable arc charting him growing up: we’ve seen adorable baby Groot, moody teenage Groot, and soon enough, we’ll have wise, old, adult Groot again.
Nebula
Nebula’s MCU character arc could’ve been distilled into a very interesting solo movie. It was a joy when she was given a large role in began as a loyal servant of Thanos, desperate to do him proud, and later realized that her rivalry with Gamora was all down to Thanos’ emotional abuse.
So, they made up and finally became loving sisters. Gamora gave her life to protect Nebula and Nebula rewarded her by, five years later, saving past Gamora from Thanos’ wrath – as well as past Nebula.
Star-Lord
Peter Quill has gone through some stuff since the first why he’s characterized as a 35-year-old man-child. His father left his mother with a tumor in her head, so she died when he was eight, leaving him with no one. Then he was abducted and raised by the Ravagers, with Yondu taking Quill under his wing instead of handing him over to be killed by Ego.
Then he met Ego, his Celestial father, and learned about the powers he never knew about, except Ego turns out to be evil and he has to kill him, losing the powers he only just found out about. Then his real father – the one who raised him, at least – sacrificed himself to save him. And then he lost Gamora and lashed out at Thanos, losing the battle for everyone. But he returned at the end after being dusted to redeem himself and he ran into 2014 Gamora. Now, he’ll do anything to find her.
Yondu
“I’m Mary Poppins, y’all!” As proven by his performance as Yondu, Michael Rooker is fantastic at playing morally questionable characters who ultimately redeem themselves. he’s forced to confront his emotions.
He’s cast out from the Ravagers for dealing in kids and then mutinied by his own crew for protecting said kid and raising him as his own son. So, he’s a pretty conflicted guy. But in the end, he shows his true heroism when he sacrifices himself to save Quill and reminds him that Ego may have been his father, but he wasn’t his daddy.
Gamora
While all of the Guardians of the Galaxy struggled to become heroes and open their hearts to each other and pursue the right thing, Gamora arguably had the hardest time. She was raised by Thanos, so she had to come to with the fact that every value she was raised with was wrong.
She’s shown to be the Gamora we’ve ended up with is from back in 2014.
Rocket
Rocket started out as the cynical character who didn’t care about anyone, but as the movies have dug deeper into his character arc, we’ve realized his tough exterior is hiding a huge heart. It took an unlikely friendship with Yondu for Rocket to realize how much he cares about the other Guardians. In Avengers: Endgame, we see him open up to Thor about how deeply he cares about his new family.
In fact, the only reason James Gunn returned to Endgame.
