Did Yondu know what was happening to the children he delivered?
We know that Yondu didn't deliver Quill to Ego to spare him the fate of Ego's other children. But this creates a problematic dichotomy.
If Yondu knew that the children he delivered were being killed, then the fact that he kept Quill does not redeem him because of the staggering number of deaths he allowed — enough to fill that cavern of skeletons.
But if Yondu did not know that the children he delivered were being killed, how did he learn that right before picking up Quill, coincidentally the only child with the celestial power? And surely, after the hundreds he had delivered whom he never saw again, he would have caught on.
Best Answer
According to Yondu in the movie, he did not know what was happening, not at first. He thought he was bringing these children to their father. He almost certainly knew he was doing something a bit "shady", since he was a criminal being paid a ton of money to transport the kids, but likely assumed their father just wanted to raise them himself.
He tells Peter that he "figured out" what was going on sometime before being asked to pick up Peter, so he stopped doing it and kept Peter for himself.
He never explains how he figured it out, but keep in mind that there were tons of dead bodies in the cave under Ego's surface. Yondu must have delivered at least some fraction of those, and kept being asked to go get another. Assuming he delivered them to Ego directly, he may have become suspicious at the fact that he never saw any previous children again. Or the number of children he was being asked to deliver concerned him. Or maybe he just accidentally saw something he shouldn't have during a drop-off.
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Did Yondu Traffic kids?
As revealed by a particularly fun cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, before literally taking Peter Quill off the face of the Earth, Yondu spent decades trafficking children for Ego, Star-Lord's biological father.Why didnt Yondu give Peter to Ego?
Yondu abducted and raised an orphaned Peter Quill after his mother died from brain cancer. After he learned Ego was killing his own children, fearing Peter would be next, Yondu decided to instead keep this child and raise him as his own son.What did Ego do to the children?
Ego later instructs Yondu to abduct his son, Peter, from Earth. However, Yondu learns Ego has been killing the kids Yondu collected for the Celestial. To spare another child of the same fate, Yondu keeps Peter and raises him after his mother, Meredith Quill's, death. Mantis also gets to know several of the kids.Why did Yondu pick up Peter Quill?
Yondu abducted a young Peter Quill shortly after the death of his mother, Meredith Quill. After learning Ego was killing his own children, Yondu took it upon himself to raise Peter and protect him from his father and other Ravagers.Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Yondu Death Scene
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Answer 2
It looks like it was just coincidence that Peter was the next kid when Yondu changed his mind, could've been anyone. Yondu didn't even know Quill was the choosen one.
In a interview to comicbook.com, Michael Rooker (Yondu) explains a little bit about it:
"It was a gig," Rooker said. "I was to pick up the kid and bring him to Ego, right? And I decided not to because I find out things about him that I don't really agree with and I don't like. Hence, my opinion of him as being a jackass! So, I keep the little guy and I like him. He's got spunk."
And as Yondu said in the movie, he saw an opportunity in Peter. Peter was a skinny kid, could fit anywhere and was good for heists.
Answer 3
I came to believe that Yondu slowly realized it over time, with each delivery becoming more and more suspicious, especially when he didn't see the previous kids hanging around when he delivered the newest kid. He'd delivered a bunch of kids, they should be out and about somewhere.
Peter ended up being the last straw, I believe, because Yondu felt a bond form with him the second he picked him up from Earth. Seeing Peter made him realize the mistakes he had made, and he decided to try and make up for them in his own weird way, by raising Peter.
Answer 4
Since Yondu is a compelling character, we want to 'excuse' his actions in our minds. But the more likely scenario is that he grew a conscience over time. It is probably true that he figured out something was up at some point - but did he immediately stop transporting kids? I think that is doubtful. Life is cheap in the Marvel universe, and there are examples of him happily slaughtering many of his crew mates in the blink of an eye in the movie (even though they betrayed him).
Answer 5
Yondu knew it!
In this scene Yondu talks to Stakar, the Ravagers' chief:
Stakar "You betrayed the code! Ravagers don't deal in kids!"
Yondu "I told you before, I didn't know what was going on..."
Stakar "You didn't know 'cause you didn't wanna know, 'cause that made you rich."
Other sources: https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Ravagers
Answer 6
Yondu in the movie speaks to how he didn't know the entire time. It is heavily suggested that he intuited something was wrong about it over time, but more importantly it isn't explicitly said that Yondu was the only one hired to deliver children to Ego, so we can't assume that it took all of those kids for him to figure out what was going on. It can be speculated that with how old Ego is that over a large enough expanse of time (maybe even longer than Yondu was alive for) that he has probably had a variety of for-hire mugs to smuggle his children to him, and it's possible that Yondu is the first one to actually care enough to think about what was happening to the kids and spurn Ego over it.
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