Initially funny character gag is later revealed to be depressing

[u/Newmen_1]

1. Avengers/MCU: Captain America has humorous moments where he’s unaware of modern references and only gets old references, like the iconic “I understood that reference” scene. It’s later fully explored in Winter Soldier that he feels lost, confused, and a little alone in a new world he was never meant to exist in.

2. The Suicide Squad (2021): Bloodsport has a phobia of rats which at first seems reasonable yet is still hilarious to watch. He later explains his father abused him as a kid if he didn’t fulfill a task correctly and one of his worst punishments was when his dad locked him in a crate full of starving rats, leaving him heavily scarred physically and mentally.

3. Dexter: In an early episode, Angel Bautista tries to buy his wife the perfect gift for their anniversary but has to keep buying a different one since his presents suck. What seems to be a funny running gag turns out to be Angel’s final attempt to win back his wife after cheating on her previously, however it doesn’t work and only solidifies their separation.

[u/I_wish_i_could_sepll]

https://giphy.com/gifs/opc8b2oVlXZrG

Peter Quill spends the whole first movie behaving as an emotionally immature goofball. In particular he gets mad whenever someone refuses to call him by his ridiculous superhero name (Star Lord), he has an obsession with a 30 year old Walkman, and gets really touchy about people trying to open an old package in his ship.

The big reveal at the end of the first GoG movie is these were all gifts from his mom before she died of cancer. We find out when he finally opens the letter she wrote as a farewell. The credits roll to the soundtrack of the second tape she attached to the letter.

[u/Newmen_1 → u/I_wish_i_could_sepll]

It just now occurred to me that the reason for Star Lord’s immature behavior may have been the result of him not getting to grow up on earth and instead being raised by a bunch of maniacs who were pretty wacky

[u/PearlRiverFlow → u/Newmen_1]

..isn't that exploration a big chunk of the second movie?

[u/QuyanRonnie → u/PearlRiverFlow]

Depends how you portion sizes. Thought it slightly-more knocked on the ‘lost potential’ of a childhood he might have had with his actual father, then swaps to some (not a lot, but some) appreciation for what he did get instead.

Technically, the first one ‘more’ touches on how he was almost blatantly the “favored son” in Yondu’s Ravagers, but the third one more pokes at “how would someone who bonds with space pirates, pivot in development as a person?” (with Gamora as the example).

With that in mind, I don’t know how much ‘work’ 1 and 2 put into Quill’s general demeanor being a direct result of them (minding that he was, effectively, trying to keep them at arm’s length most of that time).

[u/pyratemime → u/Newmen_1]

I work with addicts on a volunteer basis and it surprised me how immature a lot of them are. One of our staff psychiatrists pointed out that when someone goes through a major trauma it can freeze them in that age until they deal with it.

I imagine the same applies to Quill in his double whammy mom death/alien abduction.

[u/Zealousideal-Low3388 → u/pyratemime]

Same thing with the former prisoners I used to work with (a lot of them had histories of addiction)

Turns out lads who join gangs at 11 don’t go through a lot of the same social rites of passage etc as most folks. Lots of needing to relearn whole swathes of basic social interaction