Ending Gamora’s Arc With Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 Creates A Thanos Issue

If Gamora’s character arc is to end in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it will create a Thanos problem for the movie to deal with. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will likely be the last outing of this iteration of the Guardians. Gamora, in particular, has been through the wringer since her introduction in 2014, finding the courage to leave her abusive family, becoming a superhero, and being sacrificed in the name of false love in Avengers: Infinity War. Luckily, audiences have seen Gamora again as a result of Avengers: Endgame’s time-traveling hijinks – but that’s exactly what causes a problem for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Gamora’s relationship with her “adoptive” father Thanos has been a cornerstone of her character. All the trauma that Gamora endured both before and after her first appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy was because of Thanos, but her character arc throughout the MCU showed that she became someone kind and good despite her past. Avengers: Endgame, however, reset her development, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will have to ensure that her character arc in this one film is enough to rival what she’s been through throughout the rest of the MCU so that what could possibly be Gamora’s final appearance doesn’t end up feeling hollow and soulless. Given the gravity of her previous journey and development, this will be no easy task.

Gamora's MCU Arc Was Retconned By Endgame

Avengers: Endgame completely retconned Gamora’s entire MCU arc thus far. Though narratively logical, as the Thanos and Gamora the Avengers encounter in Endgame are the ones from before Guardians of the Galaxy took place, it does mean that this Gamora is a completely different version from the one Marvel’s audience has come to know. In this new timeline, Thanos is now dead, so Gamora’s character development will not be instigated because she chose to do the right thing and walk away from him. That choice was taken from her. Any new choices Gamora makes now will determine what kind of developmental arc she gets in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Gamora Needs To Leave The MCU With A New (Complete) Arc

Instead of choosing to leave Thanos behind, Gamora’s development will have to happen because of something else in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Either Star-Lord and the Guardians find her and bring her into the fold as they did previously, or, as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will have Gamora leading the Ravagers, it will happen because of her time with them. This would make sense, as previous Guardians of the Galaxy movies have proven that the Ravagers aren’t as criminal as they might purport themselves to be. The question remains whether either of these options will be enough to offset the character development that was retconned as a result of Avengers: Endgame.

Gamora’s arc in the MCU was one of the more emotionally complex ones. Not only because of her relationship with Thanos but perhaps even more importantly, because of her relationship with Karen Gillan's Nebula, too. That first version of Gamora deserved a proper send-off, but because of the way she died in Avengers: Infinity War, that burden now falls on the Gamora present in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is only one film, however, and an ensemble movie at that – it’s unlikely that there will be enough time for Gamora to contend with her relationship with Thanos and the choices she’s made now that he’s gone.

Any new arc that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 gives Gamora has to somehow rival everything she’s been through before. She needs to become a somewhat recognizable version of the character audiences grew to love, one that could potentially become a true Guardians of the Galaxy team member, just in a different way. At the very least, Gamora deserves some sort of absolution and resolution, a moment in which she realizes that she never deserved Thanos’ abuse nor the genocide of her people. Gamora deserves to become the hero she has always been. That is what would make her arc in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 feel complete.

Next: Gamora Leading The Ravagers In Guardians 3 Answers Huge Endgame Question