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| Rocket Raccoon. Image source. |
[content note: spoilers for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"]
In the movie "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," we find out where Rocket came from. Rocket appears to be a raccoon- though he keeps telling everyone "I'm not a raccoon"- and he was modified by the High Evolutionist, a powerful scientist character who creates new societies in space. The High Evolutionist was performing experiments on animals to try to develop perfect beings who could live in the perfect society he wanted to create. We find out about this in flashbacks- this happened way before the events of this movie. In this movie, Rocket gets injured, and Rocket's friends- the Guardians of the Galaxy- need to break in to the High Evolutionist's spaceship to get information to treat Rocket's injuries and save his life.
As we see more and more flashbacks throughout the movie, we realize how traumatic Rocket's backstory was. Nebula even says "this is worse than what Thanos did to me" when she sees the videos of the experiments that the High Evolutionist performed on Rocket. (Thanos had Nebula's body parts removed one by one and replaced with machine parts.)
We see that Rocket was originally called 89P13 because he was from batch 89 of the animal experiments. We see that he became friends with several of the other animals. Together, they looked forward to when they could live in the perfect society. They even chose names for themselves- before this, they only had experiment codes like "89P13."
We see how impressed the High Evolutionist was when Rocket was able to solve a problem that he'd had with the experiments. But, it turns out, that means the High Evolutionist plans to kill Rocket so he can study his brain and use the information to improve his future experiments. The High Evolutionist never intended to let Rocket or his animal friends live in the perfect society- they were just one step in the experimental process. Just a means to an end- to make improvements so the next batch of the experiment could be one step closer to perfection.
This trauma shapes the way Rocket sees his identity. He sees himself as just a failed experiment, created by a supervillain. He can't believe there's anything good in him, because he was created for a bad purpose- and after serving that purpose, he was supposed to just be thrown away.
But, during the events of this movie, Rocket realizes that he is more than what the High Evolutionist did to him. He can still choose who he wants to be. Yes, that trauma will always affect him, it will always be a part of him- but he can choose what to do with his life moving forward.
He chooses to rescue the other animals on the High Evolutionist's spaceship. And when he finds a crate full of baby raccoons and frees them, he sees the word "raccoon" on the crate. I don't know how the movie made this into such a dramatic moment, just reading a word on a sign, but wow. Rocket finds out, for the first time, that he actually was a raccoon, before all of this happened. (It's interesting that, throughout the MCU movies that feature Rocket, there are many alien characters who call Rocket all kinds of things, like "rabbit" or "rat", and only Star-Lord calls him "raccoon", because Star-Lord is originally from North America and knows what a raccoon is. But every time, Rocket snaps at him and says, "I'm not a racoon." Well, it turns out he is a raccoon.)
And when the High Evolutionist discovers him there, freeing the animals, he tries to tell Rocket that he's worthless, and calls him "89P13", and Rocket stands up and faces him and says, "The name's Rocket. Rocket Raccoon." (And then there's a big fight scene.)
Rocket. The name he gave himself, because no matter what anyone else did to him, his life and his identity belong to him.
Raccoon. Where he came from, and who he was before all this happened to him.
The trauma will always be a part of him. It will always affect his identity. I'm not going to say "it doesn't define him" because it probably always will define him, to some extent. He'll never be able to 100% escape from its effects. But he can reclaim it, and make it his own, and he can choose how he wants to move forward with his life.
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And here's a hilarious fun fact: I live in China, and here in China, raccoons are zoo animals. It's just the funniest thing ever, going to a zoo and seeing an exhibit with a bunch of raccoons. Trying to explain to Chinese people why it's so funny to me, like "in America raccoons are trouble because they get into people's trash cans" and then they ask me "Oh it's so cute, do people have raccoons as pets in America?"
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The Super Carlin Brothers' review of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is worth watching:
I also felt like there are some similarities between the God of the bible and the High Evolutionist- they both believe there's nothing wrong with destroying a world full of flawed people, in order to create a perfect world. But I won't blog about that now, because it's similar to these other posts I've already written:
If Thanos Tells You To Build An Ark, You Say No
It Was Beautiful When Star-Lord Rejected the Gospel
Related:
"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is About Being an Immigrant
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