All any of you do is yell at each other. You are not friends.

You’re right. We’re family. We leave no one behind.

Found families are one of my favorite recurring tropes in storytelling. There’s a magic and a deep emotional resonance that happens when a group of misfits, lost souls or loners form bonds of acceptance with each other and grow together. Found families are more than a team – they’re chosen, which strengthens the power of their relationships.

Characters who form found families typically have lost, rejected, broken away from, or have been disowned by their real family. Those voids can leave them broken, bitter, angry, and in desperate need of connection.

Even if you’ve never heard of the term ‘found family’ before, I can guarantee you’re familiar with some. If you look close enough, found families are everywhere in storytelling. Just a small sample includes Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars Rebels, The Fast and the Furious series, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lilo & Stitch, Ice Age, the X-men franchise, Community, Doctor Who, Friends, Firefly, Rent… even across the MCU, the Avengers and my beloved Agents of SHIELD function as found families.

But for me, the Guardians of the Galaxy are the ultimate example of a found family.

The first Guardians movie introduces us to our five core characters – Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot – each a misfit or outcast in their own way. Peter has lost his mother and is unhappy under Yondu and the Ravagers’ control. Gamora is rebelling against her abusive father Thanos. Drax lost his family when his wife and daughter were killed by Ronan. And Rocket and Groot are an odd couple only out for themselves (although we now have a deeper understanding of Rocket’s trauma from losing his first family from the devastating flashbacks of Guardians Vol. 3).

Throughout Guardians Vol. 1, we see these characters grow from adversaries, to partners out of convenience and necessity, to a team. They learn to work together, but it’s chaotic and filled with constant bickering.

The finale of the movie transforms the team into a family. First with Peter’s “losers” speech where they’re reminded of what they’ve lost and what’s missing in their lives. Then, Groot sacrifices himself to save the group. Earlier in the movie, we see Groot protecting only Rocket, but now, he’s come to care about the rest of the team and believes they’re worthy of protection.

A final yet crucial moment of family bonding occurs in the aftermath of Groot’s sacrifice and amid the wreckage on Xandar, when Rocket mourns the loss of his friend and Drax silently reaches out to comfort him – something he certainly wouldn’t have done when they first met.

These moments, along with sharing a physical connection to defeat Ronan with the power of an Infinity Stone, raise the Guardians’ status from team to family. Complicated and imperfect but moving forward together.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 deepens and challenges the relationships among this new family and reminds us that families – even found families – can fight all the time.

The bonds of this family are tested when Ego – Peter’s “real” family – shows up and threatens to break the Guardians apart. The idea of losing Peter, and potentially the rest of his new family, hits Rocket especially hard, who has lost one family already. It’s easy to see how comfortable Rocket already was with his new family, feeling protected enough to boldly steal batteries from The Sovereign and jockey and fight with Peter over who’s the better pilot. Rocket needs this family, but has so much fear and sadness inside that he can’t accept that they care about him. Later in Vol. 2, Yondu calls Rocket out on this exact point:

I know everything about you. I know you play like you’re the meanest and the hardest but actually you’re the most scared of all…I know you steal batteries you don’t need and you push away anyone who’s willing to put up with you ’cause just a little bit of love reminds you of how big and empty that hole inside you actually is.

Meanwhile, Peter learns that even though someone is related to you by blood, they don’t always have your best interests at heart. Ego acts kind and gentle at first, but the Guardians soon learn he just needs Peter to help him take over the entire universe. A true family supports and protects each other and doesn’t use anyone for someone’s personal gain. Peter realizes the Guardians are his true family and that Yondu has been more of a father to him than Ego could ever be.

Vol. 2 shows us another beautiful aspect of found families – that they can continue to grow and welcome in new members. By the end of the movie, Mantis has been accepted into the family after helping them defeat Ego, and Nebula, Gamora’s complicated sister, slowly begins to realize the Guardians could be her family too.

The Guardians family is tested even more in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Peter and Gamora, now fully in love, are ripped apart by Thanos, who kills Gamora for the Soul Stone. Then, all the Guardians except Rocket and Nebula fall victim to The Snap, disappearing for five years. With a common enemy and mourning the loss of their family, Rocket and Nebula bond and comfort each other, joining with the Avengers to save the universe, and Nebula officially joins the Guardians family.

[spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ahead]

Reunited after Endgame – albeit without the past version of Gamora – the Guardians hang out with Thor for a bit before establishing a permanent headquarters in the remains of Knowhere. Peter is still mourning the loss of his Gamora, which leaves Rocket and Nebula to lead this new colony. And the family has continued to grow. Nebula is not only a member of the family, but one of its core leaders, with others like Kraglin and Cosmo joining as well.

But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 kicks off with Adam Warlock attacking the family on behalf of the High Evolutionary, critically injuring Rocket. The Guardians immediately jump into action, flying across the universe to find the information they need to save him. While Vol. 2 reminds us of how families fight with each other, Vol. 3 shows us that when push comes to shove, families will drop everything to fight for one of their own.

On their mission to save Rocket, Gamora returns, not as a Guardian, but a Ravager, and reluctantly gets dragged into the fray. While she doesn’t ultimately rejoin the family, she understands their bond as more than just a team, and she finds her own kind of peace and happiness with the Ravagers.

After saving Rocket, the Guardians of the Galaxy as we’ve known them come to an end. Each of them has grown stronger, matured, and maybe even become a bit more well-adjusted through the relationships they’ve built with this family.

Having found a family among the stars, Peter is now ready to reconnect with his earthly family, going home to his grandfather. Mantis, so focused on the emotions of others and all alone on Ego’s planet, found connection and a home with the Guardians, and now can strike out on her own and focus on her own feelings. Nebula and Drax, who both start out with so much rage, anger and trauma, stay on Knowhere to serve and protect the refugees that call it home. And Rocket, who began as a loner (with Groot), has found healing from his past, been able to say goodbye to Lylla, Floor and Teefs, and come to value his connections and relationships, becomes the leader of the new Guardians.

Because the thing about families, found or not, is that they grow, they change, and family members can move on to become the best versions of themselves. But that doesn’t stop them from being a family. Those bonds connect them across cities, states, planets or the galaxy.

So thank you to James Gunn and everyone involved with telling the Guardians’ stories, for taking a relatively obscure and odd group of misfits and turning them into superstars and welcoming us into this found family.