(Spoilers for gotg vol. 2 ahead! Tread carefully!)
I want to talk about something I noticed the second time I watched the movie. Let’s talk about this moment right here.
The breaking of Peter’s mask.
We learned in the first movie when he saves Gamora that Peter’s mask allows him to survive in the vacuum of space. He’d be just fine flying around out there as long as he had a way to propel himself around, such as his jet boot attachments or one of Rocket’s Aero-Rigs.
The first time I saw vol. 2, this moment held no serious significance to me other than Peter losing a piece of what makes him Star-Lord. His mask is iconic, it’s safe to assume that he’s had it for most if not all of his adult life, and I imagine it’s one of a kind as well, or at least hard to find.
The second time around watching vol. 2, everyone watching knows that by the end of the movie, Yondu is dead. Here’s why I want to point out this 3 second moment. If Peter’s mask hadn’t been broken, he could have used it to exit Ego’s atmosphere safely and Yondu could have used the space suit Rocket gave him. Even when the Aero-Rig stopped working, they would have been perfectly safe floating there until Kraglin and the rest of the Guardians could get close enough to pick them up. They both would have made it off the exploding planet alive, if not for this moment right here.
There was literally been no other way for both of them to make it. Rocket only had the one space suit left, and we saw they only had 6 at the start of the movie to begin with. Drax used one when he went out on the cable and blasted the last Sovereign ship before the Milano crashed on Berhert, and once Nebula and the Ravagers captured Rocket and Groot, the Milano is left on Berhert still in pieces. Taking into account the damage to the Milano after it crashed, those last 5 space suits probably were destroyed.
During the fight with Ego, it’s shown that both Rocket and Peter already had an Aero-Rig on. They probably haven’t taken them off since the fight with the Abilisk. Rocket was never relieved of his utility belt during his capture on the Eclector, and we never see him put anything into the pockets, so my guess is that he always kept spare Aero-Rigs and space suits in that pocket in case of emergencies. Better safe than sorry right? He probably always had one or two sets, if not enough for the original 4 guardians and himself. The set that he gave Yondu would have been Peter’s if Yondu hadn’t been there.
On a related note, do you think Rocket stays up at night, lamenting the fact that he hadn’t made more suits and rigs? Cursing himself for the fact that he only grabbed one set of spares. If only he had had 2 sets, instead of just 1. He could have saved both of his friends, instead of handing the last set to Yondu and knowing someone wasn’t going to make it back, and seeing the look on Yondu’s face, and knowing that it wouldn’t be him.
I’d like to think that at some point, Rocket tells Peter about what Yondu said to him before he went after Peter.
“Nah I ain’t done nothin’ right my whole damn life, Rat… Ya need t’gimme this…”
And Peter just nods, because he’ll never forget what Yondu told him either.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t do none of it right. I’m damn lucky you’re my boy.”
Rocket didn’t know Yondu like Peter did, but that didn’t stop him from missing him and wishing that somehow, Yondu could have saved Peter and himself.
