Here’s Why Thanos Adopted Gamora in the MCU

Gamora was one of the most popular characters in the MCU partly due to her character arc that saw her rise from a member of the Black Order to Guardian of the Galaxy when she decided to abandon and betray her adoptive father, Thanos. But the story of how Gamora came to Thanos’ care is not a wholesome one as she wasn’t an orphan in the first place. Today, we’re going to see why exactly Thanos chose Gamora out of the sea of other Zehoberei children and decided to adopt her.

Gamora originally wasn’t an orphan until Thanos visited her planet

We all know that Thanos, even before he set his sights on Infinity Stones, was going around the universe visiting planets, conquering them, and wiping out half of their population. He saw it a necessary thing to do so the planet in question could escape the same fate that his home world Titan experienced.

One of the planets he visited and purged was Gamora’s home world. Thanos swiftly took over the planet with his Chitauri army, and despite Gamora’s mother attempting to hide her daughter, the soldiers eventually found them and dragged them to be, well, presumably executed. However, Gamora wouldn’t go down without a fight, despite being incredibly young Gamora made every effort to fight off her captors. And this is when Thanos notices her.

In an iconic scene, he tried balancing a dagger on his finger, explaining to her how balance works and why it’s necessary. Thanos even made an attempt to spare Gamora’s feelings by turning her head and drawing her attention when her family and half of her race were being annihilated.

It seems strange thing that Thanos would get attached to a small child being as cruel as he is, and it seems strange that he would go as far as to adopt her as his daughter. But there is a perfectly good explanation for it.

Thanos always valued strength

The primary reason for Thanos adopting Gamora was her strong spirit and her willingness to resist what seemed like a certain fate. Yes, you can argue that Gamora’s move was stupid, and under any normal circumstances, it would only work to fasten what was already bound to come: her own execution. But luckily, Gamora was seen by Thanos, and Thanos valued strength over everything else.

He despised weakness. When he saw Gamora attacking the soldiers, it left a permanent mark on him, and he was impressed by her fierce nature. If Gamora decided to run or meekly followed the orders, it’s likely That Thanos would never have noticed her, and her story would have ended quite differently.

This is most likely also one of the reasons why Gamora was always Thanos’ favorite and why Nebula hated her. Nebula did everything Thanos asked, and despite being physically strong, and later even improved by Thanos, she lacked a certain strength of spirit that Gamora had from the beginning.

Of course, Nebula eventually did grow her “spine” and became an outstanding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thanos also saw valuable potential in Gamora

Now Gamora, wasn’t only strong in spirit and mind, she also had the potential to be extremely physically strong as Zehoberei are more powerful than your standard human. If you look at the rest of Thanos’ adoptive children, all of them showcased certain qualities both when it comes to physical abilities and superhuman powers that Thanos valued, and he most likely viewed them not as his children but as his assets.

Thanos groomed and trained Gamora into becoming the deadliest woman in the Galaxy which is partially a mix of her torturous training and enhancements and partly due to her biological advantages.

Why is Gamora important to Thanos?

Somewhere down the line, Gamora became extremely important to Thanos, and he came to truly love her; in fact, Thanos loved Gamora more than anything in the world if the Soul Stone trial is to be believed, as it was the only thing that he could sacrifice to gain access to the Infinity Stone. It wasn’t all logic and practical purpose for Thanos, at least not later when Gamora was already a grown woman with her own mind. Ironically, the things that he valued the most in Gamora were the things that, in one way or another, ruined his plan altogether.

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