Do you ever wish that you could write essays about the things you want to analyze? Me too. That’s why this new column is here; so that I can info-dump about the random topics I want to talk about. While I intend to mostly focus on written media, I would like to delve into movies, music and art as well.

For this first article, I’ll share my analysis of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”. Also, this article contains spoilers.

Guardians of the Galaxy’s variety of representation has been one of the best for film series. Many autistic fans have found reflections of themselves in Drax and Mantis. All of the main characters in their own ways represent marginalized characters. In prior Guardians movies it may have been joked a bit too much about, in Drax’s case. But, at the end of the day, they act as a found family and protect, accept and love the members of their group.

Not so with the new movie.

Throughout the movie, Drax is made fun of, dismissed and ignored by everyone. Usually his compatriot, Mantis even calls him stupid to his face before immediately wiping his memory of what happened. She faces no repercussions for her actions.

Their little family falls apart and is over in the course of two hours.

(Contributed/Marvel Studios)



People from broken families may also connect with the series at large. If they came from abusive homes, they may connect more with Nebula and Rocket.

Personally, I wasn’t a fan of how Rocket’s family was introduced, though I did love the in-depth presentation. It might work better as a short-series prequel similar to “WandaVision”.

However, the relationship between Rocket and his creator hit me deeply. It reminded me of the idea behind eugenics and the idea of creating a perfect race.

Whenever Rocket’s creator fails to do so, he wipes out everything and starts all over again. He is deeply upset by Rocket’s intelligence and tries to essentially claim copyright on him (which on a non-connected to ableism note makes me think about the conversation around the hypothetical creation of true AI). 

In summary, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” balances a fine line with its excessive jokes at Drax’s expense and its appeal to those from marginalized or difficult backgrounds. 

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