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In Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, we learn that Ego's hostage traveling companion Mantis is used to help Ego sleep.

But why does he need help sleeping in the first place? And who or what did he use for living NyQuil for millions of years before he acquired Mantis?

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  • insomnia
    – Edlothiad
    Jun 7, 2017 at 14:48
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    Just speculation, but maybe Ego can't sleep naturally as a part of being a Celestial. He creates a body for himself so he can see what it's like, maybe he wanted to sleep too just for the experience of it, but it was beyond his power to shut off his own mind.
    – DaaaahWhoosh
    Jun 7, 2017 at 15:02
  • @DaaaahWhoosh that's a pretty good theory. I'd upvote (again) should you post it as an answer
    – Voronwé
    Jun 8, 2017 at 11:03

1 Answer 1

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Presumably it's supposed to be the case that he has some level of conscience regarding

all the terrible things he's done (e.g. spawning offspring on a multitude of worlds, only then to murder them, and possibly his later essential slavery of Mantis)

leading to serious insomnia.

How that timeline is supposed to interact with Mantis's lifetime is another matter. But it could be that she could be very long lived, or that there have been others in the past. Or it's supposed to be that his insomnia is relatively recent.

Edit:

I originally wrote "presumably". Actually, there's direct evidence.

Actual line:

MANTIS: He lies awake at night - thinking about his progeny.

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  • It seems more likely it had to do with Peter's mother; didn't he say she was the only one he had actually loved?
    – Harry Johnston
    Jun 8, 2017 at 0:46
  • @HarryJohnston I doubt much of what he said.
    – 1252748
    Jun 8, 2017 at 4:40
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    @Pop this seems quite speculative, no?
    – 1252748
    Jun 8, 2017 at 4:42
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    @1252748: That is what the adverb "presumably" means, yes. But that how story-telling works. Often there is no explicit explanation for what the writers think the audience can reasonably infer for themselves from, you know, being people. The story is not interesting if you can't empathize or understand the behaviors and motivations of the characters at all. It can't just be random and you can't expound on everything.
    – ThePopMachine
    Jun 8, 2017 at 14:34
  • Personally, I always thought it had to do with his excitably keeping him up, that he couldn't sleep knowing that he was as close to The Expansion as he was, therefore needing Mantis to put him to sleep.
    – Gothamite24
    Nov 17, 2019 at 4:30

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