I hope you’re all in the holiday spirit.

It goes without saying that we are eating up these special presentations that Marvel is giving us. Plus, the Guardians is probably the absolute best group to do a holiday special with, bringing in their already more light-hearted tone and aggressive comic relief while still tackling some strong emotions. So what did we think about this holiday special? To hear our full thoughts, listen to our episode by clicking the button below or play live by hitting play on the link provided.

I have to get it off my chest because you all know it is eating me alive, but Rocket finally got Bucky’s arm and I can tell you I don’t think I’ve reacted the way I did to that scene to something in a long time. I gasped and physically removed myself from the room out of shock and enjoyment because you have to know I found it hilarious. And at the time of recording, I had very little time to think about the arm’s origin and had to make the assumption my man Bucky was just walking around without an arm somewhere. But as more and more fans watched the special, people have been saying his arm from Infinity War and TFAWS are different, so the one Rocket has now is, I guess for lack of better words, is a spare. Now I cannot confirm nor deny that as I don’t recall Bucky getting a different arm nor do I think either of those arms looks different from one another, but if it’s possible our favorite assassin isn’t down an appendage I’ll take it. But it really was such a funny thing that pulled that moment from Infinity War full circle and even back to when Rocket wanted the guy’s bionic leg in the very first Guardians. Solid writing if you ask me.

I want to get into one of the more serious parts of this special, just to get it out of the way. We got confirmation that the Guardians bought Nowhere, which is where the Collector used to be and also happens to be in the head of a dead Celestrial. We obviously have gotten confirmation that Guardians 3 is going to be quite dark compared to everything we’ve gotten from them before. But I also wonder if this little tidbit of knowledge might tie this group in with the Eternals. I’m pretty sure I spoke about this when we were covering Eternals, but weirdly enough Eternals and the Guardians would combine pretty seamlessly. Think about it, Peter is literally half-celestrial and the Eternals have just broken the cycle of serving them. Now the Guardians have seemingly set up camp in the head of a dead Celestrial, a place I wouldn’t be too surprised the Eternals, who have never lived past the birth of a Celestrial, will go. Not to mention, think of the tone of the Eternals and the fact they’re all split up and with Guardians 3 being a massive ending point for many of those characters, interaction seems inevitable.

Yet we don’t want to bog this down with the technicalities or the stress of what the future may bring because at the end of the day, we got an entire MCU special about two hilarious characters kidnapping Kevin Bacon. I mean, Mantis and Drax may have been quite literally the best two characters for this job. We obviously know the two of them for their interactions and comic relief, so seeing them take on Earth and essentially human traffic Kevin Bacon was honestly having Taylor and I laughing our butts off.

The last thing I want to bring up is the big reveal we got, ironically, prior to the actual premiere of the holiday special. Of course, that is that Mantis is Peter’s half-sister. I mean, when you really take a look back at Guardians 2, it does make a huge amount of sense considering the, uh habits, of Ego. And Mantis with her powers was easily one of Ego’s favorites and why he kept her present in his life. But speaking of powers, we really saw how Mantis has come into her own regarding those and the strength she has. I hope she makes it through Guardians 3 so we can see her continue to grow, along with Peter, although he tends to lose the things he cares most about so who knows. At least now, he has more of a reason to stick around (I’m talking self-sacrifice).

Once again, I have to say we love these little specials we have gotten and I hope Marvel continues to make them moving forward. We also hope that it put you in the holiday spirit and got you ready to put plenty of Marvel-themed gifts on your wish list. We have officially wrapped up the MCU content of this year and with that, we will be returning back to our bi-weekly episodes. Keep an eye out for our next episode that covers the entirety of Phase 4 and what Phase 5 may look like. In the meantime, catch up with the MCU content and our content that came out this year (cause there’s literally a ton), as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special”, Jon Winkler, USA Today