The second thing we learn about him (besides his love of music) is that he gets into fights with other boys because they “killed a little frog that didn’t do nothing.”
The filmmakers specifically give us a close up of HIS face when he notices that Rocket has scars on his back.
He goes to check on Gamora when the prisoners are trying to execute her, even though she tried to steal his orb and kill him and got him captured by Nova Corps.
He tries to keep Rocket and Groot and Drax from killing each other even though he has nothing to gain from keeping the peace, and he tries to comfort Rocket and looks distressed when Rocket says “I didn’t ask to be taken apart and put back together over and over and turned into some little monster.”
He has the most scenes of being willing to listen to insensitive Drax when Drax is trying to give advice.
Obviously he saves Gamora at the cost of his own well-being when she’s stranded in space
He thanks Drax when Drax awkwardly proclaims them as friends, meanwhile Gamora snaps at him.
He rallies everybody into saving innocents and becoming heroes.
He notices Rocket, who has been nothing but a jerk to him, vaguely comparing himself to Yondu as a mean guy who miraculously didn’t push his friends away. And then he makes this face,
Which is by far my favorite “Kind Starlord” moment, and says, “well of course not.” Purely to comfort Rocket and reassure him that they’re family, without actually SAYING all that mushy stuff, so Rocket keeps his pride without having to apologize.
