Everyone who dies in Guardians of the Galaxy 3

The long-awaited Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is out and the suspense about the turn of events in the movie is over. Given the film's recent release and the fact that it is James Gunn's final under the franchise, most Marvel fans have been wondering who dies in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 to make it a fitting finale.

Since the announcement of the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy 3, fans have been speculating about the characters who may meet their end with this movie. The usual guesses switched from Drax and Rocket Raccoon to Groot and Gamora.

As such, director James Gunn is known to add emotional depth to the plot and characters and make his audience cry. While there are enough weep-worthy deaths in the movie to cause distress, Gunn spares the Guardians and grants them a happy ending.

Disclaimer: Spoilers ahead.

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Every relevant character who dies in Guardians of the Galaxy 3

The movie has extreme moments of grief (Image via Marvel)

Director James Gunn used his knowledge of human psychology, which gets distressed by the death of a cute animal, to his advantage. The Guardians of the Galaxy 3 shows the High Evolutionary, a villainous scientist, using a group of animals for experimentation, which includes Rocket as well. These creatures, referred to as Batch 89, go through immense pain due to surgical procedures performed on them.

Gunn displays a beautiful friendship between Rocket, the otter Lylla, walrus Teefs and rabbit Floor. Knowing High Evolutionary’s intentions, Rocket plans to break out of the prison. Unfortunately, Rocket's plan of escaping with his friends is thwarted when the villain shoots Lylla in front of him. When the miserable raccoon shoots at the prison guards, his other two friends – Teefs and Floor – die in the crossfire.

Rocket’s pain of losing loving friends is palpable, eliciting emotional responses from the audience. This tear-inducing sequence brings relief when the audience realizes that the core Guardians team is going to survive and have new members too.

Apart from Rocket Racoon's friends, other relevant characters such as the high priestess Ayesha (Adam Warlock's mother) and High Evolutionary meet their ends as well.

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Why deaths matter in Guardians of the Galaxy 3?

Knowing this could be the last movie of the franchise, a whole lot of deaths were expected. Although many other MCU movies depicted mass genocide say, the consequence of Thanos’ snap in Avengers: Infinity War. However, the knowledge that Avengers: Endgame would reverse the snap made this massacre tolerable.

Another example of mass killing occurred in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness when Strange eliminated an entire alternate universe after triggering an incursion. At the same time, Infinity Ultron from the What If..? series was responsible for the death of a large number of people in the Multiverse along with the destruction of a complete universe.

However, MCU justifies death by giving it an emotional edge for the viewers to relate to. The above-mentioned mass destructions of universes would not impact the audience as much as Black Widow’s sacrifice in Endgame did since many followed the superhero's trajectory closely. This is why the deaths in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 make a debatable point.

James Gunn holds the incredible quality of raising simple people to the emotional level of importance. In Guardians of the Galaxy 3, the common people who helped the Guardians are decimated or killed off in a matter of minutes. While lots of living beings are killed with no possible return, the tragic villain, High Priestess Ayesha is also executed by High Evolutionary played by Chukwudi Iwuji.

The end of the Guardians of the Galaxy 3, where the High Evolutionary’s ship blows up as he damages its control room, is a reassuring death, although assumed. The Guardians rescue most of the subjects of his experiment and evacuate the ship leading to a happy ending.