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00:00 Welcome back to New Rock Stars.
00:01 I'm Eric Vos, and this is a breakdown
00:02 of Marvel Studios' I Am Groot, season two, all five shorts.
00:06 These are filled with MCU Easter eggs and details you missed.
00:09 I know this might come off as an MCU title
00:11 that you can skip, but trust me,
00:13 while some of it is totally silly goofball nonsense,
00:16 there are some big moves this show makes
00:18 that I believe makes I Am Groot more of a required viewing
00:21 than Secret Invasion was.
00:23 You know, pretty low bar.
00:24 But we all rolled our eyes at what if,
00:26 and that show ended up being hugely important.
00:28 And in this case, watch these shorts
00:30 will only take you like 20 or 25 minutes.
00:31 Come on, watch 'em, have some fun.
00:33 Come back here and watch this breakdown.
00:35 Okay, let's start with season two, episode one,
00:37 Are You My Groot?
00:39 As with season one, this short begins
00:40 with Groot fast-forwarding through
00:41 the Disney+ Marvel Studios fanfare,
00:44 and then looking at the camera and knocking it over.
00:45 And the Marvel Studios title card
00:47 turns into artist brush strokes, as it does in What If?
00:50 And if nothing else, this season of I Am Groot
00:52 does set up season two of What If?,
00:53 which sounds like it's gonna come this Christmas.
00:55 And just so we're clear, these I Am Groot shorts
00:57 are all set between Guardians volume one and volume two,
01:00 in that kind of era when Groot
01:02 was still in his baby Groot stage.
01:04 So, really just a reminder that
01:05 Thanos has not killed Gamora yet.
01:07 Disney+'s timeline playlist puts it after volume two.
01:10 So, you know, maybe at this point, Yondu is dead.
01:12 But in season two, episode four,
01:14 Groot is on the Ravager's ship, the Eclector,
01:16 which blows up in volume two.
01:17 So it's almost like whoever Marvel put in charge
01:20 of their timeline maintenance
01:21 needs to be pruned by the TVA.
01:23 I'm sure that timeline book that's coming out
01:24 will have zero errors whatsoever,
01:27 because Marvel Studios definitely knows what it's doing
01:29 when it comes to its chronology.
01:30 Anyway, Groot is in a jungle area
01:32 on this planet called Terma.
01:34 And we know it's Terma because the birds he finds
01:36 in this episode are Terma birds, according to the credits.
01:38 Terma was one of the planets that showed up
01:40 in Rocket's tablet in volume two.
01:42 In the comics, Terma is a planet where Quasar
01:44 and Moondragon found Adam Warlock in stasis.
01:47 It's kind of a throwaway planet,
01:48 but now Guardians volume three just introduced
01:50 Phyla-Vell, who becomes Quasar,
01:52 so this stuff might come into play.
01:54 Groot wears, like a sling backpack,
01:55 this hip fanny pack with matching colors to the Milano.
01:58 So this is probably Peter Quills.
02:00 I know you watchers in the UK have a different take
02:03 on the word fanny, but you know, that's your weird problem.
02:06 Groot snacks on candy that I think is the same space candy
02:09 that he eats and then pukes up in volume two.
02:11 This Terma bird hatches.
02:13 (bird hatching)
02:14 We hear a sound like it's a magic trick.
02:15 And I love whenever the director,
02:17 Kristen LePore, frames Groot from below,
02:19 because normally baby Groot is tiny in frame.
02:21 But from his point of view,
02:23 sometimes there are just things even smaller than him.
02:25 And by framing it this way,
02:26 it creates this cool sense of scale
02:27 where we can really make out the details of Groot's anatomy.
02:30 And also just kind of freaks us out.
02:32 Now, the title of this episode, "Are You My Groot?"
02:34 is probably a reference to P.D. Eastman's
02:36 "Are You My Mother?"
02:38 which is edited by the Dr. Seuss brand.
02:40 And yeah, the story kind of goes the same way
02:41 as the kids' book does.
02:43 Like Elliot with E.T., Groot befriends this bird,
02:45 really just on the basis of candy.
02:47 But overall, this is a bunch of poop jokes.
02:49 I'm kind of glued to my computer most of the day,
02:51 so I wind up ordering a lot of stuff for delivery.
02:53 And this morning, I got an iced coffee
02:55 from my favorite local place for free
02:57 by using a Visa gift card that I got
02:59 from answering surveys on Ipsos ISAY.
03:01 Ipsos ISAY lets you earn extra cash
03:04 through gift cards and rewards
03:05 just by taking part in research
03:07 and answering a few simple questions.
03:08 There's a ton of different gift cards to choose from,
03:10 but my favorite is the Visa.
03:12 I can use it anywhere for anything,
03:13 which gives me the most options
03:15 to pick out free stuff for myself.
03:16 The surveys on Ipsos ISAY are quick, easy,
03:18 and tailored to my interests, so it never gets boring.
03:20 I do them while I'm brushing my teeth or stuck on hold
03:23 or just have a few minutes to kill.
03:24 I upgraded my downtime, and you can too.
03:27 Just click the link in the description
03:29 to start earning rewards with Ipsos ISAY today.
03:32 The bag of candy reads in the Skrull language,
03:34 in lowercase, candy,
03:35 which I'm glad I could clear up for you.
03:37 As Groot tries to sleep, the goofy music slows down.
03:40 (upbeat music)
03:43 And then a whole bunch of other Terma birds
03:45 stampede past Groot.
03:46 They're really headed, though,
03:46 to the giant Mama Terma bird,
03:48 which somehow, defying the laws of physics,
03:50 flaps away with just these tiny wings.
03:53 And now when Groot steps in the poo,
03:54 he can't help but feel a bit nostalgic.
03:56 And the credits of all these episodes
03:57 are these disclaimers.
03:58 In this one, it reads,
03:59 "No tree creatures, Terma birds, or big Mamas
04:01 "were harmed during the making of this short."
04:03 Okay, onto season two, episode two, Groot Noses Around.
04:05 Groot plays a video game
04:07 while stuffing himself silly on junk food.
04:09 This is a fighter game in the style of Street Fighter,
04:11 and it looks like Groot is playing as a Skrull fighter
04:14 fighting against either a blue celestial
04:16 or maybe just a Kree soldier.
04:17 And cheering in the background, more Easter eggs,
04:19 Howard the Duck, and Valkyrie,
04:21 and I think maybe on the far right,
04:22 that might be Topaz from Sakaar.
04:24 I'm not really sure though.
04:25 Now, already in this junk covered room,
04:27 there is a layer of green stench hovering over everything.
04:30 We see it, but we don't notice it
04:31 because we don't smell it yet.
04:32 The game pauses, and a window pops up with Kree letters
04:36 translating to low battery.
04:38 So Groot looks through a bin marked,
04:39 rocket stuff, keep out, and he finds one battery.
04:42 But also in this bin is Borker's eye.
04:44 That's the eye that Rocket wanted in volume one
04:46 and showed back up in volume two.
04:47 There's a yellow robot arm,
04:49 maybe for the sex spots of Contraxia.
04:51 But then in the back, a metal leg with a shoe.
04:54 This is the leg that Rocket wanted Peter Quill to get
04:56 from that prisoner in the kiln in volume one
04:58 that he really didn't need.
04:59 Groot ends up with an orange nose stuck to his face,
05:01 giving him the ability to smell for the first time.
05:03 He smells an air freshener, which is a tree like himself.
05:06 Now I know from the ice cream truck
05:07 that the first and the fifth letter
05:09 that look like an equal sign translates to E,
05:11 and the second to the last one is an O,
05:13 and then none of the other letters are I, C, R, A, M, or F.
05:17 That's the farthest I can get with translating this.
05:19 Groot huffs a highlighter and tries to eat a candle,
05:21 and he sprays himself with deodorant.
05:23 This can has machine builder code text
05:25 that translates to kill at the top of it,
05:27 and then at the bottom, the word clean.
05:29 Groot returns to his room to realize how horrible it smells,
05:32 but rather than using the duster to clean,
05:33 he just uses it to pop off the nose.
05:35 And he resumes his plane,
05:36 and I love how the Skrull fighter
05:37 in this just got a big old smile.
05:39 In the credits of this episode,
05:40 no tree creatures were harmed
05:41 during the making of this short,
05:42 although robotic body parts may have been borrowed for use.
05:45 All right, season two, episode three, Groot's snow day.
05:47 The Milano heads to this ice-covered planet
05:50 with terrain similar to the planet
05:51 where Thor and Korg found Falagar the behemoth
05:53 and Thor love and thunder.
05:54 Groot pours some cocoa in a mug from a packet
05:57 with Skrull writing translating to chalk, C-H-O-C,
06:00 and then pours some cream on it
06:01 from a purple bottle translating to green.
06:04 Outside, Groot throws a snowball
06:05 at one of the rockets on the Milano.
06:06 The Kree text along the top of it reads, "Danger!"
06:10 Groot makes a snowman and then decides
06:12 to gather parts of the Milano to decorate him,
06:14 including one of those rockets
06:15 with the danger on it for the head,
06:17 and then, I love this, at least three Anulax batteries.
06:21 Anulax batteries!
06:22 These are the ones stolen by a rocket
06:24 from the Sovereign in volume two
06:25 and they are highly explosive, highly valuable,
06:27 and I speculated in my deep dive of Guardians volume two,
06:29 these batteries might be based on celestial DNA,
06:32 celestial tissue, the same golden fluid
06:34 harvested from nowhere, which could be why
06:36 when Groot plugs these into the snowman,
06:39 the snowbot comes to life with a kind of sentience,
06:42 which would fuel my theory that Anulax batteries
06:44 have some deeper significance and deeper power
06:46 that have not yet been fully realized in the MCU.
06:48 Groot throws a snowball and it does no damage,
06:50 but it does give the snowbot another idea
06:52 to pack more and more snow onto itself,
06:54 making it so bigger, into an alpha snowbot,
06:56 and then when that snowbot turns into Milano,
06:58 Groot fears not for his friends inside,
07:00 but for the steaming hot cocoa.
07:01 And so Groot throws one last snowball
07:03 at the rocket in its head,
07:04 and I love how Kristen Lepore animates this throw
07:06 with a cheesy '80s action frame rate.
07:08 The snowbot explodes and its red eye stays illuminated,
07:12 like the Terminator coming back to life.
07:13 There's actually a post-credits scene to this episode
07:15 as Groot sips the cocoa, and it's still too hot.
07:17 (screams)
07:18 (glass shatters)
07:19 - Ah, dude!
07:20 - Yeah, a little vocal cameo from Bradley Cooper there
07:22 as Rocket, but offscreen.
07:24 Now, the credits of this episode,
07:25 no true creatures were harmed during the making of this short
07:27 we cannot speak for the killer snowbot.
07:28 Season two, episode four, Groot's sweet treat.
07:31 So Groot plays with a can with a green label
07:33 and a Nova pilot action figure.
07:35 And I know, I'm so sorry,
07:37 because my trailer break down for this,
07:38 I had a major brain fart and said
07:40 that this was a Steve Rogers action figure,
07:42 and everyone yelled at me.
07:44 Anyway, yeah, this is a Nova pilot action figure.
07:46 Are we all happy?
07:47 Can we move on, please?
07:48 Okay, so an ice cream truck floats up to the Eclector,
07:50 and it plays a classic ice cream truck tune.
07:52 Scott Joplin's the entertainer.
07:54 The pink neon sign spells out ice cream,
07:57 and I just kind of did that through letter substitution.
07:59 That's how I was able to start to figure out
08:01 that air freshener.
08:02 There is a sign in Builder Machine Code for Flowcubes.
08:06 Flowcubes!
08:07 There's also an ice cream cone
08:08 that I'm pretty sure is based on Howard the Duck.
08:10 There's a yellow bag with a blue fusaki.
08:12 You remember fusaki, that's the species Blurp is.
08:14 We saw a hairless one that looks like this
08:16 fighting in nowhere in Volume 1.
08:18 The text on this screen is the same as the ice cream sign
08:21 and the air freshener.
08:22 It translates to "for free."
08:23 Groot traces a heart in the window fog,
08:25 and in the center of that heart is a Popsicle
08:28 in the shape of the Celestial,
08:29 Erishem the Judge, his six-eyed head.
08:32 This is the one Groot wants.
08:33 So yes, this tells us that Erishem is famous enough
08:35 around the galaxy that he's being made into ice cream,
08:38 but it makes us wonder why this one, Groot?
08:41 We'll answer that at the end of this breakdown.
08:43 So Groot searches the Eclector
08:44 for any kind of gold coins that he can find,
08:46 and he finds the claw machine game
08:48 with machine builder code on the outside of this machine
08:50 to the word "win," and Groot,
08:51 even though he's small enough to go through the receptacle
08:54 or even to reach his branch arms up through it,
08:56 he just cannonballs through the glass,
08:58 and he finds the coin is just chocolate,
08:59 which I just have to pause here to ask,
09:01 Groot, this is chocolate!
09:02 You want a sweet treat, right?
09:03 Just eat this!
09:04 So once he finds all the coins,
09:05 Groot pilots a ship out of the Eclector
09:07 to catch up with the ice cream truck
09:08 and obliterates it, apparently,
09:10 because we end the episode with Groot
09:11 licking the airsham popsicle
09:12 as he howled the duck ice cream splatters on the ship,
09:15 and he's surrounded by the wreckage
09:16 of the poor ice cream truck,
09:17 and I hope this was autopiloted
09:19 because, yes, someone would be dead.
09:21 And Groot is approached by two Nova Corps ships,
09:24 so this episode opens and closes with Nova,
09:26 and we end with the music of the platters.
09:28 ♪ Only you ♪
09:30 And the credits!
09:31 No tree creatures or intergalactic ice cream ships
09:33 were harmed in the making of this short.
09:35 All sweet treats were thoroughly sampled
09:37 and tested for safety reasons.
09:38 And finally, season two, episode five,
09:40 Groot and the Great Prophecy.
09:41 Now, this one is a pretty huge deal,
09:43 so listen up, kiddos!
09:44 Jeffrey Wright returns as a Watcher.
09:46 The Milano flies past his head,
09:47 and we hear him saying,
09:48 - I am the Watcher,
09:50 your guide through the vast realities of time.
09:53 And today, we bear witness to a monumental prophecy
09:58 about to be fulfilled.
10:00 - So even though I Am Groot is an animated title,
10:03 all of the locations, creatures, hardware,
10:05 and other things are really things
10:07 in the live-action MCU
10:08 that would be rendered with 3D CGI.
10:10 So we could look at this as a live-action title,
10:14 and that would make the Watcher
10:15 in the story background live-action, in a sense,
10:17 which would be the second live-action Watcher cameo
10:19 after their appearance in the Stan Lee scene
10:22 in Guardians Volume 2.
10:23 So the Watcher explains the legend
10:24 of the last seed of Drezlar.
10:26 Drezlar also showed up on Rocket's tablet in Volume 2.
10:29 In the comics, Drezlar is a colony
10:31 that's part of the Kree Empire.
10:32 It was destroyed in the Annihilation War,
10:34 which I think is going to be partly adapted
10:36 for the upcoming film, The Marvels.
10:38 But in Nova #4 in 2007,
10:40 Nova Prime Richard Rider comes across Korrel,
10:42 who led a group of 102 Kree survivors
10:45 that were the only ones left
10:46 after 19 million colonists on Drezlar.
10:49 They all got caught in enemy fire, 102 left.
10:51 So the Xandarian world mine merges with Korrel,
10:54 making her Nova 0001,
10:56 but Korrel ends up failing and ultimately dying.
10:58 That's the story of Drezlar.
10:59 Here, Drezlar is the home of an ancient people
11:02 who worshiped this great seed
11:03 that the Watcher explains will emerge
11:05 from this hallowed ground according to the prophecy
11:07 and usher the universe into a glorious new age.
11:09 Now, this idea of a seed of such cosmic importance
11:12 reminds us of two things,
11:13 the Emperors of Genesis from "What If?" Episode 2,
11:15 that was the MacGuffin of that episode,
11:16 but also the idea of a celestial seed.
11:19 Remember those?
11:20 That's what Airshim would plant inside of plants like Earth
11:22 to grow and hatch into other celestials like Tiamat.
11:25 This Drezlar seed could be a celestial seed,
11:28 and its golden glow could be connected
11:30 to the celestial brain fluid and the Anilax batteries
11:33 if you buy my crackpot theory.
11:35 The chosen one hero of this story is, of course, Groot.
11:37 He enters the temple bouncing a purple ball,
11:40 recalling Peter Quill dancing like a fool
11:42 into the Morag Temple there to contain a ball
11:45 containing an infinity stone, the purple power stone.
11:48 So in the way that was Peter Quill's origin story,
11:50 this is kind of Groot's origin story, you could say.
11:53 And of course, both of these are based on the opening
11:55 to "Raiders of the Lost Ark,"
11:56 but rather than avoiding all the booby traps,
11:58 Groot recklessly sets off every single one of them,
12:00 including the release of lava.
12:02 We realize this seed was actually in this kind of maze
12:04 so that the lava flow would be timed perfectly
12:06 to give Groot as much time as possible to save the seed.
12:09 But instead, Groot gets distracted by the mural,
12:11 and the Watcher's eyes we see are glowing
12:12 from the upper right,
12:13 the vines perfectly in the shape of his silhouette.
12:16 But Groot is uninterested in the seed
12:17 because he just uses chalk to draw a face on the tree,
12:20 because he considers trees to be sentient,
12:22 and he's not wrong.
12:22 The Watcher frets.
12:24 - He must be ready to resume his mission.
12:25 The galaxy's greatest hope has only minutes
12:27 until it literally goes up in flames,
12:29 and can he see me?
12:32 No, I'm a fifth dimensional being.
12:34 - So Groot can perceive the Watcher.
12:37 It's a huge deal.
12:38 Normally, the Watcher can only be seen
12:39 when he wants lower life forms to be able to see him,
12:42 with the exception of Ultron Infinity
12:44 in the final two episodes of "What If."
12:46 Ultron Infinity had all six Infinity Stones
12:48 and was able to elevate to this god-level power,
12:51 akin to something like Galactus,
12:53 because we saw him take a bite out of a galaxy.
12:55 Now, Groot as a species is a floricolossus,
12:58 but I have long speculated that this Groot,
13:00 after his former form's destruction, Volume 1,
13:02 came back as a being benefiting
13:03 from photogenesis via celestial light.
13:06 That could explain his affinity for the Aries and Popsicle.
13:08 Groot could be a god and not know it.
13:11 By the way, fifth dimensional being,
13:12 what would those five dimensions be?
13:14 Well, three dimensions of our reality,
13:15 the X, the Y, and the Z axis
13:17 for normal three-dimensional space.
13:19 The fourth dimension would be time.
13:20 The fifth dimension would be beyond that.
13:23 According to the Watcher,
13:24 that next dimension would be reality,
13:25 making him a being that can transcend the multiverse.
13:28 So you got space, time, and reality,
13:30 which the Watcher mentions
13:31 in the intro to every episode of "What If."
13:32 So Groot gets his fall back and he just lets the seed burn,
13:35 supposedly dooming this universe.
13:37 As the Watcher says,
13:38 - I'm the Watcher, but I can't watch this.
13:42 - Yeah, we see his eye closing on this seed,
13:44 but it opens on the rubble and he makes a realization.
13:46 - Prophecy was so clear.
13:48 It said the seed, this small vessel of great potential,
13:51 would sprout from this very place,
13:53 spreading peace and joy throughout.
13:55 And the seed is a metaphor, isn't it?
14:00 - Yes, Groot is a seed.
14:01 And yes, it's probably just a sweet tale
14:03 to paint Groot as a big thing in a small package,
14:06 inspiring people like us with joy and happiness.
14:08 But I think it also endows this character
14:10 with greater significance to future MCU events.
14:13 He's one of the Guardians of the Galaxy
14:14 who still seems to be part of the Guardians lineup.
14:17 He is now Alpha Groot,
14:18 and who knows what Bormy's going to take next.
14:20 He could be someone who actually makes a case
14:22 for life in general against celestials and galactus.
14:26 He could bridge the divisions
14:27 between universes during secret wars.
14:29 Groot really could be the key to everything,
14:32 because as the Watcher in the clouds
14:33 watches the Milano depart,
14:34 he recognizes the goodness in Groot,
14:36 and Groot recognizes him.
14:38 - Go forth, you little seedling.
14:40 I know you'll make us proud.
14:41 - Why does he keep doing that?
14:45 - Yes, Groot's godly status,
14:47 his ability to see through these dimensions,
14:48 confounds even other god figures like the Watcher,
14:52 who remember in "Thor 11 Thunder"
14:53 was on the same tier of power as figures like Eon,
14:56 Death, the Celestial One Above All, and Eternity.
14:59 And to the Watcher, Groot is a mystery to him.
15:02 So if you're comparing two mysteries,
15:04 when one mystery is more mysterious to the other mystery,
15:06 which of the mysteries is more powerful?
15:08 And in the credits of this episode,
15:09 we see no tree creatures, Dreslar seeds,
15:12 or ancient temples were damaged or lost
15:13 during the making of the short.
15:14 The same cannot be said
15:15 for a certain fifth dimensional being's patience.
15:18 Thank you for watching this breakdown of "I Am Groot"
15:19 season two.
15:20 Please subscribe to all three channels
15:21 in the New Rock Stars Network.
15:22 You can follow me on all social platforms @eavoss.
15:24 Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time, bye.
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