Rocket (Galactik Football)
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| Galactik Football character | |
| Rocket | |
|---|---|
| Home Planet: | Akillian |
| Team: | Snow Kids |
| Position: | Midfield Striker (capitan) |
| Number: | 5 |
| Flux: | Breath |
| Family: | Kira (mother), Norata (father), Aarch (paternal uncle) |
| First appearance: | "The Comeback" |
Rocket is a main protagonist in the animated series, Galactik Football. He captains the Snow Kids and plays as mid-fielder. He is a quiet, shy and serious young man who takes his position as captain extremely seriously. He is the 4th to get the flux.
Contents |
[edit] Season 1
Rocket was born on Akillian just after the start of the Ice Age. He was raised by his father, Norata, who was a footballer himself before he lost his leg during the fateful Akillian-Shadows match. At some point in his youth he was struck down by a mysterious fever that was the first sign of Meta-Flux contamination. Prior to the start of the series he lives with his father on Akillian and helps him run his florist business.
Though Norata forbids him to play Rocket is an avid football fan and an excellent player, excelling in the accuracy of his shots. He idolizes Aarch as Akillian's best plyaer, but it is not until Aarch returns to Akillian that he learns that his hero is also his uncle.
Norata forbids Rocket to try out for Aarch's team. But when he meets Tia she convinces him to come to the tryouts anyway. Before Rocket can try out Norata intercedes and Rocket does not make the original team. Undeterred Rocket sneaks out to try the Holo-trainer at Aarch Academy where he is observed by Clamp and Aarch who are both impressed by his skills. Aarch gets Norata to agree to let Rocket join the team, but only on the condition that they can beat the Red Tigers and earn the right to compete in the Galactik Cup.
Aarch names Rocket team captain during the Red Tigers match though the two keep their personal relationship secret. Despite this, Rocket has difficulty fitting in with the other boys on his team and when it comes out that he is Aarch's nephew he is dismissed and badly treated by his team mates, especially D'Jok and Micro-Ice. He runs away from the academy, but D'Jok and Micro-Ice, after receiving a berating from Tia begin to have a change of heart and all three go in search of them. When the three of them are caught during a snow storm Rocket rescues them and from then on the 3 boys develop a solid friendship.
During the second part of the series Tia discovers that Rocket's mother Kira is alive and living on Genesis Stadium. Kira left Akillian just after Rocket's birth to go to Genesis and attempt to be a movie star. Having failed to make a career for herself she was too ashamed to return to her husband and young son. Norata, furious that his wife had abandoned them, had told Rocket that his mother was dead. Tia attempts to affect a reunion between mother and son on the night of his 16th birthday. Rocket is horrified to discover that his mother abandoned him and his father lied to him and initially furious at Tia for interceding. However he seems to have forgiven her by the end of the Lightnings game when the Snow-Kids discover they have been contaminated by the Meta-Flux. Like the rest of his team Rocket chooses to have the Meta-Flux remove rather than risk its potentially lethal affects.
Rocket's parents reconcile during the Technoid match and decide to make another go of their marriage and Norata finally accepts that his son is an excellent footballer and admits that he is proud of him. Some timely advice from Aarch also helps Rocket admit his feelings for Tia to her and to himself and the two begin a romantic relationship.
Rocket goes on to captain the GF Cup winning team in the final.
Rocket's father Norata played for the Akillian GF team. Howev the midfield Striker for Planet Akillian past times ago, has raised his son alone. With Kira gone, Rocket has only seemingly known Aarch and his own father, choosing to believe that his father's lies about her dying a long time ago true.
Norata now, aged and known as a garderner, is barely recognised as a footballer from the once great Akillian team (at least not on Akillian, on the genesis stadium he is immediately recognized). Like his father, Rocket has also taken an interest in plants and near the end of one episode, he manages to annoy a worker in a florist shop when buying a rose for Tia.
[edit] Season 2
At the start of season 2 Rocket is still captain of the Snow Kids and as the team prepare to defend their title as champions. He has also been invited to play in the All-Star match along with the best players in the league.
While out walking together Tia takes a fall off a high ledge and, in order to save her life, Rocket is forced to use The Breath. This results in his immediate suspension from the League while the circumstances of what happened are investigated. Rocket runs away again, originally intending to return to Akillian. He is intercepted by Sinedd, who introduces him to Netherball, an underground football competition where players engage in no-holds-barred, one-on-one competition inside a sealed sphere.
He enters the competition, unaware that it has been set up by General Bleylock as a device for harvesting flux and challenges the current champion of the Sphere, the Rykers' captain Kernor. He beats Kernor to become champion himself and sets about defending his title, using tactics that become progressively more violent. Ultimately he challenges Sinedd to a match during which he breaks the other boy's leg.
Afterwards he is berated by Warren of the Lightnings for his unworthy playing but declares that he likes Netherball and prefers to stay her than return to normal football.
In episode 12 his suspension is revoked by Adim and the league.
[edit] Personality
Rocket is shy, serious and somewhat oblivious. Upon joining the team, Rocket plays the part of the outsider, especially since the other team members have already aquatinted themselves with one another. Being Aarch's nephew, Rocket chooses to keep this secret believing it would be easier to tell the others when they would know him for more than the Coach's Golden Boy. Unfortunately, a journalist reveals the truth during a press conference too early on leading the others (apart from Tia, who already knew) into believing he earned his place as Captain by family connections alone.
After temporarily leaving the team as a result, and rejoining thanks to Micro-Ice and D'Jok's persuasion, he earns the team’s trust and builds a solid friendship with the other players. However, Rocket is often seen isolating himself from the group still, mostly to take notes of upcoming opponents as a resource for the rest of the team.
Despite his closeness to Tia, he still hides his feelings from her. This behaviour possibly stemming from his father's own experiences with Kira. This also shows whenever Tia says or does something in public which reveals their relationship, and although the rest of the team is fully aware of this, denies it whenever possible.
[edit] Family & Friends
Due to his past experiences, Norata is somewhat protective of his son, choosing to believe that his brother and wife both abandoned him after the Ice Age on Akillian. Because of this, Norata makes it a primary rule not to allow his son to participate in football. When Norata makes the bet with Aarch over whether or not Rocket can join and stay on the team, he loses and as a result, disowns his son believing he has aleady lost him as well like his wife, Kira.
When Norata visits the Snow Kids, he arrives only to find Rocket asleep with Tia nearby, it is then he reveals the truth about his wife to her. After Tia questions Rocket about this, she soon takes it onto herself to search for his mother. When Rocket discovers and meets his mother, he is far from happy when also learning in the process that his father had lied to him about her. He had lived his life believing she was dead when really, she was alive and well at Genesis Stadium.
Norata then travels to the collasal Genesis Stadium, hoping to make amends and talk things through with his son, showing he hadn't completely disowned him. On his way in, he spots Kira in the crowd who is leaving after the tense meeting with her son. After making amends in their broken relationship, both Norata and Kira realise their mistakes and choose to start over.
Eventually, Rocket gets to know the other male team players and noticeably is friends with Micro-Ice and D'Jok. As captain of the team, he has their respect, something he gained after returning to the team after an unsuccessful Ryker's match.
Tia however, is a character Rocket meets before joining the Snow Kids. Tia having dragged him along with her to the try-outs tried to persuade him to try out as well. However, his father, having seem him on TV (due to the media being present at the try-outs) stopped Rocket before he was able to even accept the jersey. After that incident, communication before the two ceases and they obviously expect not to see each other again. However they do when Rocket joins the team and their friendship grows quickly. Tia is the only at first who knows of Rocket's secret, and he has his own suspicions at the identity of her parents. Although he clearly suspects that Tia's permission to join the Snow Kids isn't valid, he chooses to keep it secret too when he confronts her about it and sees how distressed she became as a result. Due to his past views of the subject of love, Rocket's feelings for her remain hidden most of the times. Although his clear protectiveness for her gives it away. Simple actions like sitting near to or talking with her instead of the other players show how close he has grown to her.
Nearing the end of the series, Tia introduces him to his mother which causes their friendship to take a rocky path. Rocket, feels as though Tia deliberately meddled in his own family affairs, directing his lack of trust in his father and anger of never finding this out himself. When Norata and Kira show up once again, this time to together after another Snow Kid's victory Tia and Rocket exchange smiles. Since Tia helped him out with his family, Rocket takes it onto himself to persuade Tia's own family to attend the party for the Snow Kid's before the Finals. Tia was nevertheless happy to see her parents there, and thanked him by giving him what could possibly have been his first kiss. Instead of furthering their relationship, it threatened to end it when Rocket chose to avoid Tia the next day much to her confusion. A serious talk with Aarch about whether or not he loved her made him realise that if he kept hiding his feelings from her, it would end their friendship.
As Uncle and Nephew, Rocket at first keeps his family relationship with Aarch secret, although eventually the rest of the team find out for themselves by accident. Aarch plays the role not only as coach to the Snow Kids, but also as a sort of fatherly-figure to the other team members, especially Rocket since Norata (his older brother) refuses to see his own son after leaving him. After Aarch fails to revive a broken relationship between him and an old friend, he offers Rocket the same advice, telling him he shouldn't hide his feelings otherwise he'll end up like himself and his father.
