I can’t believe I didn’t fully realize how much sadder the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie’s opening gets after watching its sequel until now. The Guardians of the Galaxy movies are an MCU series most often discussed in terms of their comedy, with moments like Star-Lord challenging Ronan the Accuser to a dance battle or Yondu happily declaring “I‘m Mary Poppins y’all!” being highlights of the film trilogy. However, this comedic tilt is balanced out by the fact the Guardians trilogy also contains some of the MCU’s most harrowing and most tragic movie sequences, too.

One such scene actually starts off the entire MCU trilogy, providing a more serious note for the chaotic adventures of the franchise’s focal sparefarers to unfold from. While it’s already a pretty dark part of the MCU timeline to begin with, this is also one part of the trilogy that looks at least a little different after each installment in the series – including Guardians of the Galaxy‘s direct sequel making this segment of the first film infinitely sadder.

Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Opening Scene Starts The Movie Off On A Very Serious Note

The opening of the 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy movie showcases the emotional and serious heart that lies beneath the often more comedy-leaning series, with the film starting off by showing Star-Lord’s origin story of sorts. Set before he’s kidnapped by the Ravagers and eventually recruited into their numbers, the opening depicts a child Peter seeing his dying mother for the last time, and struggling to come to terms with her death, which happens essentially right before Quill is taken from Earth.

Though far more serious than much of the rest of the movie, this makes perfect sense as the film’s opening scene on several levels. First and foremost, it sets up the tragedies that lead Quill to being the somewhat emotionally immature adult we see him as soon after in Guardians of the Galaxy, and provides some sympathetic reasoning for a characterization that could otherwise risk being more divisive, since Meredith’s death is so clearly traumatizing for him, especially given it happens shortly before he is taken from his home planet.

Secondly – but on an equally important level – this is the first tease of the fact that the Guardians of the Galaxy crew all have their own genuinely tragic backstories, and provides an early look at what ultimately bonds them together, as every member of the team has lost their family on some level or another. That said, the way Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 delves further into why and how exactly Peter loses his own birth family makes this initial Guardians of the Galaxy scene so, so much sadder on a revisit.

Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Opening Scene Is So Much Sadder To Rewatch With Its Sequel’s Story Fully In Mind

In the final few lines Peter and his mother get to say to each other before Meredith’s death and Peter’s abduction from Earth, the pair discuss Peter getting in a fight at school. Peter reluctantly explains that he only fought the kids he did because they squished an innocent frog, leading Meredith to tell him “you’re so like your daddy” before delving into further praise about Peter’s at-the-time missing father – featuring the later much more telling line of “he was an angel, composed outta pure light…“, which works to tease that Peter’s father was in fact Ego the Living Planet in disguise well before the MCU reveal itself.

Not only is this profoundly ironic – since Ego very much doesn’t seem the type to be truly worried about protecting frogs, as it’s revealed in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that his plans are to destroy life on Earth – it’s also strikingly sad. The sequel reveal that Ego planted the tumor in Meredith that leads to her death in this scene makes hearing her praise Ego with her dying words genuinely devastating, as it’s clear she has no idea of what he’s truly like or the awful things he’s done, including to her.

To add an extra cherry of tragedy on top of the Ego side of things, Peter’s mother also makes sure to let her son know that the plan is for his grandfather to take care of him for now, until his father can return and take care of Peter instead. The idea that Meredith died wanting Ego to take care of Peter – being totally unaware of how monstrous her former paramour really was – is also a miserable thought, and one that’s worsened by the fact that Ego does try to have Peter brought to him right after her death, given that’s when the Ravagers who were initially tasked with bringing Peter to Ego show up.

Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 Also Makes The Original Movie’s Opening Sadder Before Its Ending Changes Things Around

While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ends things on a somewhat lighter note for Star-Lord, its initial storyline adds another layer of sadness to the 2014 MCU movie’s opening scene. Much of the third movie in the trilogy focuses around Quill struggling to deal with the loss of Gamora, and this being tied into his complicated feelings about his childhood on Earth that eventually lead him to return to his birth planet and seek out his grandfather.

Quill’s ᴀssertion that his grandfather Jason was angry with him when Meredith died – and that this is a big part of why he hasn’t properly returned to Earth since then – does also alter how you see the first ever Guardians of the Galaxy scene as well, as it shows just how long it takes for Star-Lord to feel ready to try and see his sole remaining family member after his mother’s death, his own kidnapping, and realizing that his father was responsible for both. However, the end of the trilogy does at least provide a less tragic final note for this Guardians of the Galaxy plot line.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 closing with Peter reuniting with Jason – and finding that his grandfather not only clearly still cares for him, but is moved by finally seeing his missing grandchild after losing him the same night as his daughter’s pᴀssing – allows some of the tragedies of Star-Lord’s childhood to be more healthily addressed, by letting him reconnect with someone who will love and miss Meredith to the same degree her son does. As such, while the initial Guardians of the Galaxy opening scene is still legitimately heartwrenching, it at least culminates in Meredith’s son and father reconnecting in part to honor her memory.