Thor & Rocket became the best of friends when they met each other in Avengers: Infinity War. The two of them delivered the most heartfelt & funniest of scenes in the last two Avengers films. They were a perfect fit together as Rocket became the buddy Thor never really had. And that’s why, Thor naturally continued with the Guardians after Avengers: Endgame.
Now, Rocket will probably continue to run around with Thor in Love and Thunder as well. But there’s one thing that intrigues us, which is the fact that Thor refers to Rocket as Rabbit, and not a raccoon. And it is crazy that no one has ever corrected him till now. We’ve seen that Thor tends to get a few names wrong sometimes. In Avengers: Infinity War, he kept calling “Nidavellir” as “Nivadellir.” Every time he said Nivadellir, it kept getting funnier.
In Avengers: Endgame, when Hulk & Rocket came to see Thor, he introduced them to Korg & Miek. But what’s funny is that he was very drunk at this time. So, he didn’t realize that he actually pointed at Korg when he said Miek, and Miek when he said Korg. Anyway, this naming problem arose because of his drinking. But Thor calling Rocket as Rabbit isn’t associated with his drinking.
We’ve got evidence that he actually believes that Rocket is indeed a rabbit. He doesn’t actually know what a Raccoon is. There are two major evidences for this notion. The first was shown in Endgame
& the second is factual evidence of the real world. In Endgame, when Rocket & Thor traveled to Asgard in order to extract the Aether from Jane, the Asgardian guards chasing Rocket also called him “Rabbit.”
Rocket was genetically enhanced on a planet called Halfworld. He was turned from a Raccoon to genetically engineered sapient. There’s a chance that there would be other Raccoons on Halfworld as well. But Raccoons are only called Raccoons on Earth. Even Rocket himself didn’t know that he is a Raccoon. He kept denying it whenever Peter Quill called him a Raccoon. So, we cannot blame Thor or the Asgardians for calling Rocket a Rabbit. It is certain that because Raccoons look sort of similar to Rabbits, the Asgardians think of them as Rabbits only.
Also, Reddit user u/__themaninblack__ has posted a fact that will explain why none of the Asgardians know of Raccoons. We’re aware that Raccoons are animals that are commonly found in North America. The Redditor states that they were only imported in Europe in the 1930s. So in the Nordic travels of the Asgardians, they would have never encountered a Raccoon in Norway and all of Scandinavia. Hence when they see one, they just believe that Raccoons are funny looking rabbits.
Even if Thor encountered a Raccoon during his time on Earth in the last decade or so, he would have thought it to be a Rabbit & no one really corrected him. Funny little details these are. We cannot wait to see more of Thor, Rocket & Groot in Love And Thunder. It arrives on February 11, 2022.
