Yondu Udonta
Yondu Udonta
He was hired by Ego to retrieve Ego's children from around the universe and return them to Ego's planet, for which he was banished from the Ravagers. However, when he realised that the children were being killed, he chose to adopt Peter Quill rather than return him to Ego.
When Ego finally located Quill, Udonta travelled to the planet and sacrified his life in order to save Quill. In honour of this sacrifice, he was posthumously reinstated as a Ravager, and was given a full Ravager funeral.
Physical Description
Specialized Equipment
Due to having had his tahlei removed, he used a cybernetic replacement 'fin' to control his Yaka Arrow.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Early Life
Yondu Udonta was born a member of the Zatoa Clan in the city of Zatao, the second child of a family of yaka miners.
Like many Akuun, his family were extremely poor. When he was a child, his parents made the choice to sell him as a slave to the a Kree trader. After several years working for his master's business, he was sold as an indentured worker to the Kree Navy.
As was standard practise for Centaurian battle-slaves, his tahlei was removed in a brutal act intended to ensure battle-slave's loyalty by cutting off their connect to The Way. Removing a Centaurian's tahlei is a crime under the Pan-Worlds Treaties, but this is unfortunately rarely enforced.
Joining the Ravagers
His unit of Battle-Slaves were sent to stop smuggling opperations on the edge of the Kree Empire. The smugglers, led by Stakar Ogord, won the battle that followed, and offered the Battle-Slaves the chance at freedom in exchange for joining the Ravager fleet, an offer which Udonta accepted.He proved to be a good fit for the Ravager life. He formed close bonds with group of fellow Ravagers, including Ogord and his wife Aleta, Martinex, Charlie-27, Krugarr, and Mainframe, and they became known for performing some of the most daring heists in recent galactic history. Over time, their skills and reknown lead almost all of them to become Captains, leading their own Ravager clans, although they retained their close bonds with one another.
Working for Ego
Like many Centaurian former slaves, he sought to find ways to replace or replicate what he had lost when he was cut off from the Way. He was able to find a bio-engineer pioneering cybernetic replacements for tahlei, but the technology was prohibitavely expensive.Desperate for money, when he was approached by Ego for help with kidnapping Ego's offspring, he agreed, despite knowing that it would break the Ravager Code.
He delivered a number of Ego's children to him, resulting in his being exiled from the Ravagers by Ogord, by then leader of the fleet. However, he was able to make enough credits to get the cybernetic implants, which did not reconnect him with the Way, but allowed him to control a Yaka Arrow.
Despite this, he stopped only when he became aware that Ego was murdering the children Udonta delivered to him. The final child he kidnapped was Peter Quiill. Although he had not yet saved enough for the cybernetics he sought, he could not bring himself to deliver the child to Ego, instead choosing to adopt him.
Although he came to love Peter as though he had birthed him himself, his life had not prepared him for raising a child, especially a human child. His treatment of Peter was often physically and emotionally abusive, sometimes due to his own trauma and lack of emotional maturity, and sometimes due to a believe that fear and pain would 'toughen up' the boy.
The Hunt for the Orb
Udonta made a deal with the Broker to retrieve the Orb from the temple on Morag when the waters receeded for the first time in 300 planetary years.
Quill was sent to retrieve the orb, but instead chose to steal it, attempting to sell it directly to broker and pocket the profits. Furious, Udonta put out a bounty of 40,000 units for the capture and return of Quill.
He threatened the Broker into revealing that his client was the Collector, and therefore persued the Guardians of the Galaxy to Knowhere, home of the Collection. As they arrived, the Guardians were being attacked by Ronan the Accuser, and Udonta was able to capture them as they fled.
Although Udonta initially threatened to execute Quill for the betrayal, Quill was able to persuade him that they could use Gamora's inside knowledge to steal the orb back from Ronan, and Udonta agreed to work with the Guardians.
Battle of Xandar
In order to provide a distraction for the Guardians, Yondu's fleet attacked the Dark Aster as it entered Xandarian airspace, but quickly found themselves overwhealmed. However, those Ravagers who managed to avoid being shot down were joined by Nova Corps Starblasters.
Udonta's ship was shot down, but he survived the crash, and was able to kill a group of Ronan's troups who attacked him using his yaka arrow.
After the Guardians had used the Power Stone to defeat Ronan, Quill returned the orb to Udonta as agreed. However, when he opened it, Udonta found the Power Stone was not inside, Quill havng replaced it with one of Udonta's own knickknacks.
Mutiny
A few weeks after the battle, the High Priestess of the Sovereign approached Udonta, hiring him to retrieve Annilux Batteries which had been stolen by Rocket and kill the Guardians.Udonta accepted the bounty, but when the arrived on Berhert to find only Rocket, Groot, and Nebula, he revealed that he had never intended to kill the Guardians, and was instead going to sell the batteries on the black market, even though the value was considerably less than the bounty.
Frustrated with his percieved favouratism towards Quill, a group of his crew, lead by Taserface, staged a mutiny, making a deal with Nebula to turn in Rocket to the Sovereign and Yondu to the Kree Imperium.
Rocket and Udonta were imprisoned on the ship, but where able to escape with the help of Groot and Kraglin Obfonteri, who regretted his part in the mutiny and remained loyal to Udonta. Together, they killed the mutineers and destroyed most of the ship, leaving in an escape pod to search for Quill, who had been taken to Ego.
Killing Ego
Udonta and his allies arrived on Ego's planet and picked up the rest of the Guardians, however their Ego had begun his attempt to destroy the universe by wiping out all other life.
Udonta joined the Guardians in battling Ego, and chose to stay behind to protect Quill when the rest of the team retreated to escape the explosives Rocket and Groot had placed in the core of the planet.
Having only one jet pack and one space suit, Udonta chose to save his adopted son, placing Quill in the suit and flying him out into space as Ego perished and the planet crumbled. Without a suit to protect him from the vacuum, Udonta froze to death within moments of leaving atmosphere, although he was able to tell Quill how proud he was of him before he died.
The Guardians held a funeral for him. Rocket, who had become close to Udonta durng their time imprisoned by the Ravagers, put out the call to the other Ravager Clans, telling them the Udonta had sacrificed his life to help save the galaxy. Recognising that he had redeamed himself of his earlier crimes, they gathered and held a traditional Ravager funeral, honouring him as one of their own.
Gender Identity
Centauran conceptions of masculinity are considerably different than those of most other sexually dimorphic sapient species. Due to being raised among Kree, and finding a home among the Ravagers, Yondu's perception of his own gender would not have been considered cismale by either Centaurian or Kree standards, being a mixture of the two, though he would have identified himself as male if asked.
Sexuality
Like all Centaurians, especially those with a tahlei, he was largely asexual.
Education
No formal education. He was partially literate, able to read and write Kree in a limited capacity, write his own name and some useful phrases in Centaurian, and read Galactic Standard reasonably well, though he could not write it.
Mental Trauma
He suffered a great deal of trauma, including gowing up in extreme poverty, being sold into slavery by his parents, having his tahlei removed and being cut off from the Way, abuse suffered during his enslavement, spending 20 years at war, discovering that he had unwittingly sent dozens of children to their deaths, and losing his found family when he was exiled from the Ravagers. As a result, he suffered from several serious mental health problems.
Species
Ethnicity
Year of Death
2014 CE
Circumstances of Death
Sacrificed his life to save Peter Quill
Birthplace
Zatoa, Akuun, Centauri-IV
Place of Death
Children
Pronouns
He/Him
Gender
Male
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Zatoan