Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the third and final entry of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, based on the comic book team of the same name, and the 32nd film entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. James Gunn returns as writer and director.

After helping the Avengers fight Thanos, the Guardians face a new and dangerous enemy when Rocket's past comes back to haunt when his creator, a Mad Scientist known as the High Evolutionary, tries to get him back. The Guardians, alongside an alternative version of the late Gamora, must protect their teammate as Rocket's past is unfolded and the team faces its greatest threat yet.

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Tropes used in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 include:

• A God Am I: Is clear that, for all his talks of his experiments being to "create a perfect society" and "improve the universe", all the High Evolutionary wants is to play God. He even states so himself during the climax, claiming "there is no god" which is why he "stepped in".
• Asshole Victim: As far as MCU villains come, the High Evolutionary is easily among the vilest and most cruel. Which is why is so satisfying to see him whenever he suffers the karma he's long overdue for.
• Back for the Finale: The Broker from the first film appears among those living on Knowhere.
• Book Ends: The trilogy begins and ends with "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone.
• Central Theme: Acceptance, of both uncontrollable circumstances and oneself. Quill learns to accept that his timeline's Gamora is dead and the alternate Gamora is her own person, while Rocket accepts that he's a raccoon after denying it for years. The High Evolutionary, meanwhile, refuses to accept his plans of a "perfect society" are unreachable and can't accept how Rocket's attack left him horribly scared, so he covers it instead.
• Darker and Edgier: Not that the previous two films were sunshine and rainbows but a lot more depth is placed on the emotional arcs and there's more graphic violence.
• Deconstruction: Of the Guardians' Ragtag Bunch of Misfits status and their tendency for Indy Ploys. It's shown several times that the Guardians are really bad at communicating things to their fellows, resulting in many conflicting plans and personality clashes.
• Evil Is One Big Happy Family: Averted. The High Evolutionary's minions are so terrified of his wrath that they sabotage their counterparts so they can be the ones who deliver him his prize.
• Hypocrite: Despite the "A God Am I" moment above, the High Evolutionary refers to the Celestial forming Knowhere as a "dead God".
• It's Personal: After the Guardians see how the High Evolutionary experimented on Rocket, they go from simply wanting to take the passkey from him to save Rocket to wanting to kill him in revenge for what he did to their friend. Notably, when the Guardians take down the Evolutionary, none of them ever utter a word, unlike most of their battles. And when Drax suggests Rocket he just kill the Evolutuonary, his wirds are filled not with excitement for the glory of battle as always, but a geniune rage towards the Mad Scientist he only ever displayed towards Ronan and Thanos.
• Never My Fault: The High Evolutionary tends to blame anything that goes wrong on anyone but himself. Adam fails to capture Rocket after the Evolutionary woke him early? Nah, Adam must have problems unrelated to that. Rocket destroys his face after murdering his friends in front of him and mocking his grief for their deaths? He did it For the Evulz! The Humanimals have the same flaws as other species? No! It had nothing to do with how he set up their society! Seriously, its more likely for hell to freeze than for the High Evolutionary to admit he did something wrong.
• Perfect Solution Fallacy: The High Evolutionary may blame anything that goes wrong on his subjects and enemies. But in truth, there's one person to blame for his failures: Himself. He gives his creations impossibly high standards they predictably fail to meet, and when one of them (Rocket) does, his ego can't stand it to the point he obsesses for years with killing Rocket. This is what bites him in the ass the most, as the Guardians would have never engaged in conflict with him had he just let Rocket in peace. And even then, the Guardians can't be truly blamed for the H.E.'s downfall. He had every chance of retreating from the battle he was very clearly losing or avoid further conflict at all had he just let Rocket go.
• Production Throwback: Per Word of God, the bald eagle in the High Evolutionary's ship is Eagly from Peacemaker; James Gunn helmed both projects.
• Shout-Out:
  • During a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Star-Lord calls the High Evolutionary a "stretch-faced RoboCop-looking Skeletor wannabe".
  • The way the High Evolutionary shouts "89P13!" at the climax recalls how Javert shouted Jean-Valijean's prision number in Les Miserables.
• Suddenly Speaking: Subverted. At the end of the film, Groot can be heard saying "I love you guys". However, director James Gunn confirmed this is because audiences have spent enough time with Groot to understand him.
• Truer to the Text: Rocket in the comics was actually a raccoon before he was retconned into a raccoon-like species. This film confirms Rocket is a raccoon in the MCU, much like he originally was.
• Villain Ball: The High Evolutionary apparently likes playing with this ball.
  • Years ago, when Rocket managed to solve a problem he couldn't, the High Evolutioary cruelly tells the young Raccoon he's gping to kill him and his friends and, while Rocket's friends do get killed, he ultimately escapes. The High Evolutionary could have avoided this issue by simply killing Rocket when he was in front of him, but no, he had to take the crueller option.
  • In present day, the H.E. has Adam Warlock being left out of his cocoon before it was time. Predictably, he wasn't fully developed and the Guardians managed to fight him off. And even then, Adam is the H.E.'s strongest asset, yet he basically tells him to fuck off and expects he and the Sovereigns will just wait until he calls them as plan B, not considering their instinct of self-preservation will motivate them to get Rocket themselves to win back his favor, resulting in Adam sabotaging his later attempt to capture Rocket.
  • Finally, during the climax, he orders Mantis, Nebula, and Drax killed by the Abilisks, never mind they would be more useful to him as hostages he can use to bargain with Star-Lord and Rocket (not that they would want to bargain with him, anyway). Furthermore, the Abilisks' damages to the ship cause it to collapse. Yet instead of retreating while he can, the Evolutionary destroys his control center while killing his rebelling recorders and stays purely to kill Rocket. He would have died hadn't the Guardians chosen to take him to Knowhere to be imprisoned instead.
• You Didn't Ask: All but said by Drax when it's revealed he can speak Orbose.