Guardians of the Galaxy's Drax is Complex

Drax is a far more complicated character than initially appears. When the audience is introduced to Drax in prison, Rocket the raccoon/rabbit explains that Drax is a “literal species,” and that metaphors fly over his head. Drax responds by saying that nothing flies over his head, his reflexes are too fast, he would catch it. In this review, I challenge Rocket’s assertion by analyzing just three lines Drax says over the course of the movies he appears in.

First however, let us define literally and apply it to this context. According to Dictionary.com, “In accordance with, involving, or being the primary or strict meaning of the word or words; not figurative or metaphorical.” We can extend this definition, if Rocket is right, into Drax’s consciousness and thoughts; Drax must say what he intends to say and that his words are therefore a truthful rendition of his thoughts. Moving from Drax being literal to Drax being honest given the information he knows allows us to determine whether or not Rocket lied.

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Drax notes that Star Lord’s father exhibits some humility and asserts that:

1. “I too am extraordinarily humble.”

The first line might actually mean that Drax is indeed humble but the word extraordinary means that he is excessively humble. Either that means he is garnishing his words – which is a departure from the literal – or that he is indeed super duper humble. Let us assume it’s the latter for the rest of this argument.

Beaming with joy, Drax exclaims,

2. “I have famously huge turds!”

Famously implies that it’s known to others. That is only possible if he has told others about the size of his turds or that others have found out through another party that he has huge turds, in either case however he enjoys fame for it. Perhaps his turds are indeed huge and perhaps everyone knows about it, but the fact that he is laughing and exhibiting pride suggests he enjoys the fame, which means he is proud of his turds, which is in turn NOT excessively humble of him.

In another scene, Drax wins a betting game and states:

3. “I have won! As I win at all things!” This line goes hand in hand with when he proclaims that he “Single handedly defeated the beast!” at the beginning of Volume 2 of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Assuming of course that he believed he had caused the demise of the beast and wins at everything, one could simply say that he is not exhibiting pride but happiness to have succeeded. Fortunately for me, I’m not arguing about pride with this quote. Drax is in fact lying here, for there are certain events in his life where he has NOT won. For instance, his family was killed by Ronan the Accuser. He also failed to defeat Ronan, Dr. Strange + others (in the Avengers movies), and Thanos when he first attempted to attack head-on. Because Drax does not in fact win at all things, this statement is not truthful, or not entirely truthful, and therefore another tick against the idea that he is purely literal.

If my argument has been persuasive, consider the wonderful implication: Drax is absolutely hilarious. He played along with the idea that he only speaks literally. His lines were basically nonexistent before Rocket described him, and so he chose to manufacture this idea of a Drax as if Rocket was right! He becomes far more complex and one might even describe his wit as extraordinarily/famously brilliant.