Rocket Raccoon hates the planet Earth
Rocket Raccoon finds himself at odds with the Guardians of the Galaxy and Marooned on Earth. And he doesn’t like Earth
Rocket Raccoon and Groot are inseparable. Until they are not. Even the best of friends need a little time apart. And apparently when Rocket takes some time off from the Guardians of the Galaxy and Groot, he heads to Earth.
Unfortunately for Rocket, he does not get on well on Earth. He is not impressed by Earth and finds that Earth is not ready for talking raccoons or aliens of any kind.
Rocket starts off in New York’s Time Square. He is not impressed.
Our first reaction is shock. How could not think Times Square is impressive?
Our understanding of the remarkable nature of Times Square is based on two elements. They first is the obvious size and grandeur. The buildings are tall. The lights are bright and the amount of people is over-whelming. The second is, even if you haven’t been to New York, you know Times Square exists.
Rocket Raccoon has been to outer space and seen distant galaxies. He has encountered countless wonderous sights and a huge amount of different species. Sure, he’s been to Earth, but even if Iron man and Rocket do have a conversation about Times Square in New York, it’s unlikely to make a big impact on Rocket.
While in Times Square, Rocket does notice something that he is interested in. It’s a live show and a little confusing. He’s raccoon, but finds a half-naked woman attractive. But hey. Whatever floats your boat? Whatever takes your fancy? The world is an unusual place and people are attracted to all kinds of things.
Unfortunately, Rocket is removed from the establishment. Seems harsh, but what can we say? The bouncer was just doing his job. Did Rocket have ID to prove he was old enough for adult content? Probably not. Does Rocket look like a rodent? Yes he does.
Rocket isn’t happy but he continues on. He sees a pretzel in the trash and picks it up. This one is a little odd. Don’t aliens from other planets have trash? We would expect so, but here we see Rocket’s approach to life which is about accepting all aspects of life and making no distinction between people regardless of their status.
It’s a perfectly good pretzel. Why wouldn’t he eat it? The homeless person who is disapproves is bringing their preconceived ideas to the situation.
What happens next is a little more than cultural, it’s jurisdictional. Rocket quotes the Korbonite-Jovian accords and suggests a restaurant is duty bound to feed a man starving to death. The restaurant doesn’t agree and doesn’t recognize the authority of the accords, but we can see Rocket’s point. A man is starving, why not feed him?
The police are sent after Rocket (it only seems fair, a talking raccoon who is stealing food, sound like someone should check that out). Rocket is not impressed. He does not think he has done anything and the police are justifiable cautious.
As you can imagine, the situation only gets worse for Rocket. He encounters an extremist group who are hunting aliens and government agencies who are doing nothing to protect the aliens. Rocket isn’t pleased about either and is unable to do nothing. So he does a lot with a fair bit of destruction.
Rocket doesn’t understand Earth and Earth doesn’t understand Rocket. A lack of understanding breeds fear and dislike. And fear and dislike quickly turns into hatred. Without even knowing what has happened we are in a vicious cycle of you started it.
Earth knocks over Rocket. Rocket hits back and the process continues.
What can we learn from Rocket and his adventures on Earth?
We might not understand something and we might consider something to look dangerous. We should still be careful (Rocket has sharp claws and usually carries a gun), but we should also not jump to conclusions. Rocket doesn’t attack unprovoked. He’s definitely dangerous when he is provoked, but given the amount of abuse he takes, he is also remarkably calm about the fact Earth is not being kind to Rocket.
For more on Rocket Raccoon and his adventures on Earth without the Guardians of the Galaxy, check out Rocket Raccoon: Grounded (this is a paid affiliate link and as an Amazon Associate I will earn a small income from qualifying purchases, but won’t cost you any more).
Originally published at https://neuromyths.substack.com.
