I read that the idea was the latter, although I didn’t get that at the time.
I assumed it was the first while watching, but I see how the second also makes sense. There was zero reaction from the others when he said it.
So since when is:
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Rocket Quill’s “best friend”? They didn’t even like each other in GOTG2 or Endgame.
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Mantis Quill’s “sister”?
The sister thing was revealed in the Holiday Special on Disney Plus.
As far as them being friends it has been pretty clear that Rocket is the Grumbly Dwarf archetype that complains and sasses but really does love his friends.
So Mantis is one of Ego’s spawn then. Even half-sister seems a bit much but okay.
Fine, but If the feature wasn’t broken on the board, I’d but together a super cut of Quill calling Rocket “Dick” etc. They were family, but not really friends.
You could do the same thing with any two male friends. The closer they are the longer the super cut would be.
I guess to me what I felt was developed from the first movie, through the Avengers and to this final one is what would you end up if you grew up with the Guardians as your family. Yes, Groot does not have an emotional arc, but he behaved as a reflection of the rest of the team. In the first movie it was its own person, but after that it became a reflection of those around. The rest of the team came from their own background, Groot is the only one who is a product of it.
//i\\
Certainly in the first film, Groot was Chewbacca to Rocket’s Han Solo. Muscle, but also the conscience of the pair. After he was “reborn” (“recycled”? “”Had a cutting taken”?) He was more of a comedy character.
On the subject of what happened to the High Evolutionary, this popped up in my timeline.
Also, the newspaper headline read “Alien Abduction! Kevin Bacon reveals all”, a callback to the GotG Holiday movie.
Rocket’s first word - Hurt 
Sad too, the innocence when the High Evolutionary was teaching him while Rocket sat on his lap eating up everything he said. Rocket was happy with his family.
Finally saw this yesterday. My 18 year old daughter was openly crying in the young Rocket scenes, and I got something in my eye as well.
I really liked it, for all the reasons stated above, and I haven’t been this sad at the end of a movie series in a long while. My only complaint was they turned Adam Warlock, who was one of the most intelligent and refined heroes I remember into a comic-relief buffoon. Though being an Adrian Belew fan was completely in character.
Did anyone else think the suits that Nathan Fillion’s team was wearing were based on tardigrades?
I think they were going with the “born yesterday” thing with him.
I don’t know, but he looked quite a bit more fit than last I saw him. I swear he could play Malcolm Reynolds again.
Yeah, he seemed to get smarter as the film progressed. I also appreciated the Adrian Belew reference.
They 100% were, to fit the theme of the “living” place they were in.
And the explanation was lacking.
Drax: Hey, you know that secret about you being Quill’s sister?
Mantis: Let’s move on.
Agreed. Since the movie was about the concept of family, I think it would have made more sense for Quill to talk about how he couldn’t save his mother so he was going to do whatever it takes to save Rocket.
Too late to edit, yeah explained as half-sister.
I’m starting to get pretty exhausted by the ever-widening sprawl of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I’m mostly pulling back from it, but I wanted to go see this movie because I figured it was pretty self-contained. I thought it was good. There were a lot of sweet moments, mixed weirdly with the kind of body horror that would make David Cronenberg perk up and take notice. If I were to nitpick, I would wonder how the High Evolutionary, for all of his impressive accomplishments, somehow never got around to developing decent face-reattaching technology. And the tardigrade suits were distractingly dumb. Otherwise, it was certainly worth a trip to the theater.