In the first movie released in 2014, the Guardians of the Galaxy group is just a group of rogue elements, reluctantly banding together to save the world. Through the movies, each person’s past is gradually revealed. But not until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Vietnamese title: Guardians of the Galaxy 3), fans realized that Rocket is the character who suffers the most tragedy in the entire MCU.

The one who always denies the past and doesn’t know his true origin

In their first appearance, Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) are a famous pair of bounty hunters. He has not revealed anything about his past. Everyone only knows that Rocket is the product of an inhuman experiment. No matter how brave he was in battle, he was weak and did not dare to face the pain of the past.

If Nebula (Karen Gillan) did not hide that he was tortured by Thanos (Josh Brolin) by replacing body parts into machines, Drax (Dave Bautista) always remembers the death of his wife and children or Star-Lord/ Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is haunted by his mother’s death, but Rocket seems to just want to deny the past.

Through the films, the audience repeatedly heard him deny that he was a raccoon. Thought this was just a funny detail, but it turned out to be full of James Gunn’s intentions. In fact, Rocket didn’t even know he was a raccoon. No matter how talented he is, he can’t see that he and his friends are just “pawns” for the High Evolutionary’s (Chukwudi Iwuji) plan or knowing where he comes from.

Fortunately, by the end of the movie, Rocket has learned of his origins and accepts himself as a raccoon. Not only that, but the Guardian also decided to rescue his fellow humans or other lower beings, going against the group’s criteria of only saving animals with knowledge. The details show that he is finally able to get over the pain of the past and move on with his life without regrets or hiding.

Twice losing loved ones

Remember in Avengers: Endgame (2019), Rocket and Nebula are the two survivors after the Guardians “flipped” because of Thanos’ snap. The idea that Rocket is “better” when it comes to comforting female teammates. But after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, we only know how strong he must have been.

If only the physical pain alone, what Rocket has to endure is probably beyond the level of many people. When witnessing the actions of the High Evolutionary, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) burst into tears, Peter Quill dared not look and Nebula had to say that they were worse than what Thanos did to her many times.

Not only that, Rocket also experienced the loss of loved ones many times. In the past, he used to have a group of close friends, Lylla (Linda Cardellini), Teefs (Asim Chaudhry) and Floor (Mikaela Hoover). They were like a family when they went through such painful experiments that their bodies became deformed and were locked in an iron cage. We all dream of going to the “new world” one day and looking at the blue sky together. For a long time, that trio was all Rocket had.

However, things did not last long when he learned that the group would be destroyed overnight and tried to escape. In the end, Lylla, Teefs and Floor all died. The image of the magnetic key that Rocket always carries with him shows that the raccoon is still tormented about what happened that day.

After two Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket has a new family, the Guardians of the Galaxy. They were born and died together, experienced countless battles until Avengers: Infinity War (2018), he once again witnessed Groot and other teammates “flying color”. For the next 5 years, the entire Guardians group only had Rocket and Nebula to rely on each other.

So far, fans have only seen Rocket as a “cool” character, not afraid of heaven or earth in the Guardians of the Galaxy. Yet after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, we just learned what happened to this guy, more tragic than the other members. The decision to choose Rocket to become the new leader of the group is absolutely right when it can open up many new development directions.