As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- Of course Quill would be furious that Mantis essentially committed human trafficking, given that's what Ego requested Yondu to do for years, essentially taking Quill away from his mother just to be used as a battery and gave her cancer. She of all people should know this!
- Mantis grew up under Ego's rule for most of her life. Even if it made her uncomfortable watching him do his 'work', spending such a long time with such a person is much like suffering under Stockholm Syndrome, which would clearly leave a mark on anyone. Even if she's had some time away from Ego and has been learning better, if Mantis has (likely) spent a long time rationalizing Ego's behavior in her mind, rationalizing doing it again for a good cause - Quill's happiness - was likely a slip back into the habit.
- Groot's new burlier design makes him look more like an actor in a suit. Sort of like the Wookiees in the Star Wars Holiday Special.
- Drax and Mantis assume that the cosplayer is Steve Rogers. This is because the only times they were alongside Captain America was in a big battle and at Tony Stark's funeral. Rocket and Nebula, having been members of the Avengers, would have known that the people in costumes weren’t the real Black Widow, Ant-Man, etc.
- Also, given the Guardians left Earth following Tony's funeral and haven't been back since, they would have no way of knowing that Steve had gone back in time and retired as Captain America.
- Drax slips under the radar when the humans assume he's cosplaying as Kratos. They don't point out Mantis, but she does bear a resemblance to the Monster High dolls.
- Why would the Collector sell Knowhere to the Guardians to live in? Well, given that Thanos had likely destroyed most, if not all of the items he had in his collection, chances are that Tivan didn't have anything else to sell to keep his business (and himself) afloat for the past few years, so giving the Guardians all of Knowhere was likely a last-ditch bargaining chip to get himself enough credits to his name and start up a new business.
- Adding to the above, the Collector was almost definitely present when Thanos attacked and laid waste to Knowhere (and that that was the second time in under five years that the Collector's base in particular was wrecked); given the terror he likely experienced (especially if Thanos's illusion was at all accurate) and the state Thanos left the place in, it's no surprise that the Collector would want to wash his hands of Knowhere.
- Kraglin revealing that there's satellite dishes on some spaceships that allow people to get cell reception from Earth from lightyears away makes Bruce's call with Jennifer in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law make a lot more sense.
- Kraglin calls Peter the "greatest hero alive", and while fans might disagree and point to any of the Avengers, it's worth noting that the Avengers are only important to Earth. They might know who Tony Stark is since he sacrificed himself to stop Thanos, but since he's dead the only two Avengers people outside of Earth might know are: Thor, who briefly joined the Guardians but would only really be known by those familiar with Asgardians, and Captain Marvel, but unlike the Guardians she likely didn't focus on publicity and so would not be as well known. So it would make sense for the galaxy in general to consider Peter the greatest hero.
- Mantis mentioning GoBots is actually a very subtle and niche (bordering on Genius Bonus) Mythology Gag. When Marvel got the rights to publish Transformers comic books, it was actually Canon Welded to Marvel's cosmology, with Spider-Man appearing in one issue, and there being not one
, but two designated universes with the Transformers in it. What does this have to do with GoBots? After Hasbro bought the former competing toyline, it became part of the Transformers multiverse. - Bacon watches Santa Claus Conquers the Martians on television. The plot of that movie is also about some rather bumbling aliens kidnapping a famous earthling due to their misunderstanding of the meaning of Christmas, but eventually making friends with him and allowing him to return home. Other similarities include the aliens failing to properly cloak their ship at one point, and being fooled by humans in cosplay.
- Cosmo the Space Dog appearing makes sense after we find out that the Guardians bought Knowhere from The Collector. She was probably part of a package deal and they likely set her free afterwards.
- During the photo ops with assorted street performers, Mantis seems strangely unnerved by the Captain Marvel cosplayer, in contrast to her mood in the rest of the scene and in general. This is probably because unlike the others, the performer's face is perfectly visible and Mantis can tell that she's not the real Carol Danvers, foreshadowing what we later discover about her opinion on actors.
- Why does she not react this way to the Black Widow cosplayer? Because neither she nor Drax ever met Natasha Romanoff.
- Also, it's been established that Captain Marvel is admired or feared by multiple alien factions, as suggested by Rocket's delighted reaction when she arrives to fight Thanos and Talos snapping at Peter for invoking her name in Spider-Man: Far From Home; Mantis' reaction could be distaste at the fact that the cosplayer is impersonating a respected hero.
- Why does the Old 97 song mention the elves rising up and killing Santa? Because one of the people who taught them about Christmas was Cosmo and she's from the Soviet Union. And the Ravagers (being space pirates and criminals) exhibit something of an anti-authoritarian streak, so they'd naturally assume that a being who monitors human misdeeds and is obeyed by legions of workers might be an antagonistic figure.
- Bzermikitokolok mentions that he learned everything he knows about Christmas from Rocket (who himself learned from Cosmo, who learned from Kraglin). Even though he clearly got many details wrong, Rocket is genuinely one of the better choices to ask about things like Christmas. He's one of the only beings on Knowhere who has actually lived on Earth due to his time as an Avenger.
- Why was Mantis able to put Ego to sleep without much difficulty in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 but could barely keep Thanos sedated in Avengers: Infinity War? Well, seeing as though it's revealed that she's Ego's biological daughter, her empathic abilities likely were stronger back then, just like how Peter had Celestial powers at the time. After Ego's death though, she likely lost quite a bit of her power, meaning putting stronger beings to sleep is more of a challenge now.
- With Ego, he was often requesting Mantis put him to sleep so there was no resistance. In the third act, she was able to make him sleep but wasn't sure how long she could hold him, which was the same with Thanos. And in both cases, it was an outside force that allowed them to wake up by breaking Mantis' physical connection. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it was a flying rock hitting her and knocking her down. In Avengers: Infinity War, it was Star-Lord punching Thanos in the face, where you can see Mantis' hands no longer contacting Thanos' head.
- While most of Quill's stories about Earth pop culture are misinterpreted by other characters, he generally still accurately describes the plot of those works. However, Drax and Mantis' understanding of Friday the 13th (1980), which they would have gotten from Quill, is pretty inaccurate, with them believing Kevin Bacon defeated Jason Voorhees, instead of his character being one of the many hapless victims, not to mention that Jason wasn't even the killer in that film. However, given that Peter was only 8 years old when he left Earth and the Friday the 13th films are R-rated slasher films, it's pretty likely that he wasn't allowed to actually watch any of those movies and so what he knew about the films at time, and by extension what he knew years later having no additional exposure and passed onto the other Guardians, was likely what he had pieced together through Pop-Cultural Osmosis. Since Jason was the killer in most of the films, he likely assumed he was also the killer in the one Kevin Bacon was in and thinking that he defeated Jason was likely a bit of wishful thinking due to his hero worship.
- Throughout this special (and later Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Drax is shown wearing stuff that covers his top half, despite him previously saying that his nipples were sensitive in Vol. 2. So what caused this change? Simple, Drax attending Tony Stark's funeral. After all, if he was able to wear a shirt to pay his respects for Tony, then Drax probably realized that his nipples aren't so sensitive after all, and thus would experiment with wearing them more.
Fridge Horror
- Nebula gifting Rocket Bucky's arm (confirmed by Gunn himself) is somewhat touching and hilarious... until you realize that she might've stolen it right off his body, leaving him with only one arm for the foreseeable future. And since he's on bad terms with Wakanda right now, there's a good chance that he might not get another arm to replace it.
- Which leaves Stark Technologies... and maybe the Thunderbolts...
- Mantis reveals that GoBots exist as an actual species in the MCU. After Hasbro bought the IP, they turned it into part of the Transformers' multiverse, meaning the MCU has ties to said multiverse. So now there are three multiversal threats: Kang, Incursions, and Unicron.
- If GoBots and Transformers exist, then what about other licensed species? Xenomorphs? Yautja? (both?) (especially when through acquiring Fox Disney owns them too) Dire Wraiths? All the aliens from Ultraman? And that's ignoring all the stuff Transformers has crossed over with. The Marvel Universe just got much more dangerous.
- Mantis forgot to add air holes to the box she shoved Kevin Bacon in. If Peter didn't notice that he was banging on the box, Mantis would've essentially killed Kevin Bacon in her attempt to cheer Peter up.
Fridge Sadness
- Those scenes of Drax and Mantis hassling and eventually taking selfies with the cosplayers? If one of them had been dressed as Spider-Man, Drax and Mantis would have thought that he or she was Peter Parker. They, along with Quill and Nebula, were the only Guardians to work with Spider-Man, but now that Parker has become an Un-person, they likely won’t recognise him.
