Relationship Spotlight: Rocket & Groot (Guardians of the Galaxy)

The Guardians are great as a unit and in various subsets (including with other characters like Nebula and Yondu,) but for me, it doesn’t get any better than Groot and Rocket.  This duo is unlikely in every way, and I can’t get enough of them (a few spoilers.)

You’d be hard-pressed to find more of an odd couple than Rocket and Groot.  Rocket is a genetically-modified and cybernetically-enhanced raccoon, while Groot is a tree-like alien species, first a towering figure that can grow on command and later an itty-bitty seedling.  Rocket is brilliant, while Groot is… well-intentioned.  Rocket is sharp and surly, while Groot is kind-hearted and lovable.  Rocket runs his mouth off constantly, while Groot’s vocabulary is limited to, “I am Groot.”  These guys are different, is what I’m saying.

And that is a point of contention between them, mostly one-sided.  I wouldn’t call it friction or conflict, but Rocket has a tendency to get annoyed with Groot’s general obliviousness, especially in the first movie.  Rocket frequently chastises Groot for this or that – getting distracted, screwing up Rocket’s plans, etc. – and keeps up a running commentary about Groot’s low intelligence.  It can’t be denied that Rocket puts Groot down, a lot, but their relationship can’t be summed up as just that.

Because really, they are weirdly functional together.  When Groot really comes through in a big way, all but sacrificing himself near the end of the first movie, Rocket is broken up over his past treatment of Groot and is noticeably more patient with him in Vol. 1, despite Baby Groot being even more cheerily-obtuse than the adult version.  But even before that, for all of Rocket’s griping and snarking, there’s never any suggestion that he thinks he’d be better off without Groot.  It’s a bit, “Yeah, he’s a big dumb tree, but he’s my big dumb tree!”  When Groot accidentally throws Rocket’s escape plan into high-gear in the first movie, Rocket groans but gets on with it, and at no point does Rocket imply that Groot deserves anything less than the same cut as anyone else.  And Groot, of course, never turns his back on Rocket.  In his own taciturn way, he takes Rocket to task when he thinks Rocket is being overly callous to someone else, but he clearly has a lot of affection for Rocket and would do anything for the irascible raccoon.

When it comes to getting the job done, their skills are surprisingly complementary.  Rocket can more than hold his own in a fight as long as he’s got a big gun, but Groot brings some serious muscles, and between them, they’re a force to be reckoned with (I should point out that, even though he’s tiny in Vol. 2, Baby Groot can still lay a pretty good smackdown.)  Rocket makes the plans and explains Groot’s part to him, attempting to keep him on task, and in the second film, Rocket finds multiple ways to use Baby Groot’s small size to tactical advantage.

In short?  You wouldn’t think they’d work so well together, but they absolutely do.  However they came together and got into the bounty-hunting business in the first place, I fully understand why they’ve maintained their partnership ever since.

Favorite Characters: Rocket (Guardians of the Galaxy)

All things considered, Tony Stark is probably lucky that he has no idea Rocket exists, because if he knew that there was a genetically-modified and cybernetically-enhanced raccoon somewhere in the Universe brilliant and techie enough to build a moon-destroying bomb out of spare parts, he’d feel so inadequate.  Today is all about Rocket (a few Guardians of the Galaxy spoilers.)

Aside from the general technical and engineering genius, Rocket has a lot of basic personality traits in common with Tony as well, though it’s no surprise that the effect is slightly different when we’re looking at a talking raccoon bounty hunter instead of a playboy billionaire inventor.  Rocket is brash and arrogant, and while he’s good in a crisis, he’ll drive you crazy while he’s there because he’s almost pathologically unable to take things seriously when you need him to.  Because he’s so smart, he naturally assumes that he’s always right and will gleefully let anyone know what he thinks of their inferior intellect.  Fortunately, though, he doesn’t appear to share Tony’s playboy ways – I know that they’re in an area with lots of interplanetary mixing, but I don’t need to see a raccoon hooking up with an even vaguely humanoid alien.

Mostly, the cocky routine works for Rocket because he can back it up.  When he brags about how many prisons he’s broken out of, he promptly adds another escape notch to his belt, even throwing his plans into overdrive when a well-meaning Groot accidentally screws up his timetable.  He’s the polar opposite of physically imposing, but that doesn’t stop him from making colorful threats of bodily harm, which he backs up with serious fire power (including some of his own invention) and Groot, who often serves as his personal muscle.  And even though Groot is usually the one who does the most damage in a fight, Rocket is frequently right there in the thick of it as well.

Like most of the characters in Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket winds up becoming a hero fairly despite himself.  He’s comfortable with collecting bounties, busting himself and Groot out of prison, and generally being an acerbic scoundrel.  He first comes into contact with Peter Quill because of the price on Peter’s head, which is also the reason he sticks around (until he finds out that the orb Peter is carrying is worth way more and upgrades his expectations.)  However, slowly, begrudgingly, he starts to find himself doing the right thing – the huge, complicated, butt-risking thing – with no personal profit at stake.  Given the potential fallout if Ronan’s evil plan succeeds, it’s understandable that he eventually comes into the fold, but it’ll be interesting to see where that hero/rogue line is drawn when the second film rolls around.

Like so many brusque, cocky smartasses before him, Rocket has his more unguarded moments that catch you (and probably him) by surprise.  In his case, these moments often stem from what at first merely seems like a bit of visual absurdity – the fact that he’s legitimately a raccoon.  Yes, the rude raccoon with the big mouth is an amusing sight.  Yes, the badass raccoon with the enormous gun is a lot of fun to watch.  But in a scene of sharp vulnerability, Rocket lashes out at those who think he’s just “some stupid thing,” pointing out, “I didn’t ask to get made!  I didn’t ask to be torn apart and put back together over and over and turned into some little monster!”  It’s a shocking moment for the other characters, who probably never thought of Rocket as having any emotions, and it’s a shocking moment for the audience, too, who probably never expected to feel for a CGI raccoon with a machine gun.