You Could Make a Case for That

There's a deleted scene in Endgame where Rocket is watching footage of the Avengers fighting the Chitauri. During the discussion, BEFORE Rocket even laughs at how the humans didn't know to blow up the mothership, Tony stands up, walks up behind Rocket, and shaves a bald stripe onto Rocket's head. The sound track has laughter, but it's not funny at all. Tony blindsided an ally who's lost his friends but still tries to help. Tony was a bully for humiliating Rocket that way.

The comments on the youtube page for the clip are typical prop-Tony bullcrap. "Tony's lashing out because he blew up the mothership and Rocket laughing about it triggered his PTSD" - Tony stands up BEFORE Rocket laughs. "Tony's testing Rocket like he tested Bruce in Avengers" - Rocket has been helping keep the universe safe for 5 YEARS while Tony left the world to burn to spend his time hiding and building personal WMDs. It's TONY who's untrustworthy. "He's just having fun" - it is NOT funny, any more than it was funny for Tony to make fun of Thor's weight.

It's disgusting, but not out of character. Whether Tony is angry, vindictive, or bored, he takes things out on other people. So this behavior is completely in character. There's laughter on the soundtrack, but I don't think Steve, Thor, Bruce, or Nebula would really find Tony's assault on Rocket funny. I also think Rocket would NOT be okay with it. (I don't think Natasha would either, but Scarlett Johansson is smiling in the scene.)

Note: I only saw the first Guardians of the Galaxy, so Rocket may be out of character.

Tony turned off the clippers to utter silence. He looked around as everyone stared. Steve asked, "What the HELL are you doing, Tony?"

Steve looked at Rocket and said, "I'm so sorry that happened. Are you all right?"

Thor stood up and said very grimly, "Stark, I have ignored your 'jokes' about me, but you do NOT get to attack my friends without consequences."

Nebula looked at Tony from where she was leaning. She said, "That goes for me as well."

Rocket straightened and slowly turned to face Tony. Despite how ridiculous the raccoon looked with the shaved stripe, the expression on Rocket's face was frightening. But all Rocket said was, "I'll get you."

Stark was conspicuously absent when Bruce and Rocket worked together in the days following the Incident. Rocket took the time to talk about how devastated the universe was by the Snap. How so many people died in terrible circumstances. Crashes, or kids starving to death because no one was there to take care of them. Rocket always ended with how he wished some things had never happened.

Even Rocket didn't realize how he made the difference. Because both Thor and Nebula had also spent time with Bruce talking about loss. Thor mentioned how many Asgardians and others were lost to despair and suicide. Nebula talked about finding a true connection with the Guardians only to have most of her family torn away again.

Everyone (except Tony) mentioned to Bruce how much they wished they had a do-over. Then they went on their missions.

As Bruce put on the gauntlet, he realized he had a few doubts of his own about the plan. He definitely wanted to see Natasha again. So when Tony insisted that Bruce only bring back the Snapped, not change the last 5 years, Bruce thought about the conversations he'd had. And knew what he had to do.

The blood had stopped gushing from Thanos's body, which was minus an arm and the head. Thanos's head stared at his own corpse from a few feet away, expression forever frozen in stunned horror. When all seemed lost, Bruce had been able to call on the Hulk and rip apart the armor that he'd been in. Then the Hulk ripped off Thanos's arm AND his head.

Hulk lifted Thanos's arm - with the Gauntlet frozen at the start of a Snap - and shook it while he roared, "Hulk SMAAAAAASH!"

Rocket patted Hulk's leg and said, "Good job! Now give us the goods."

As Hulk handed Thanos's arm to Natasha, Steve wrapped an arm around Wanda's shoulders. Steve said, "I'm sure Princess Shuri and Bruce will do everything they can to help Vision."

Wanda nodded. She said, "At least we have a chance to try."

Shuri and Bruce repaired Vision's brain and restored the Mind Stone. Wanda cried when she touched Vision's face and said, "I can feel you."

The Benatar showed up a few weeks later. The Guardians had patched up their ship and limped to a repair station, then headed back to Earth. They spent the journey wanting to dump Tony Stark out an airlock as he poked at consoles and complained about the accommodations.

Quill locked Stark up after Quill caught Stark trying to steal some of the Guardians' tech. The Spider kid kept apologizing (even when Stark didn't), while the guy in the cape called Stark a douchebag for trying to steal from the people giving them a ride.

Nebula gave a sad smile as she, Groot, and Rocket welcomed the return of their friends. While they would all mourn Gamora, at least her family was together again.

The Guardians kept in touch with the Avengers. Rocket called Quill out on his crush on the Captain when Quill gushed about how "Team Cap" had gotten the Sokovia Accords abolished. They used the attacks on Earth to expose how useless and wrong the Sokovia Accords were.

They also heard that Tony Stark got arrested for stalking and kidnapping some kid and secretly building a drone weapon system. Plus Stark's ex made their "break" permanent by dating someone else.

Rocket didn't know why, but that news made him run his hand along the fur on his head and feel a little smug.