driftwithme

[driftwithme]

At the end of the day, my take is that most of the Jaeger pilots we know from Pacific Rim (2013) could have been in the military, except Raleigh.

He doesn't know how and when to shut the fuck up, he won't shut up if he's being witness to some injustice, he will disobey orders if the orders don't make sense to him or risk someone's life, he won't partake in any form of cruelty or keep it down because it is a superior doing it...

Yeah, maybe the movie is right and he is nothing special when it comes to physical or intellectual attributes. What sets him aside and makes him a fantastic ranger is that Raleigh will never ignore his principles and his guts. He's willing to stand up for what he believes in even if life punches him down again and again.

He might not have been a chosen one by design (since we know Travis Beacham actively tried to make him the contrary of that, actually), but he is a classic hero in what matters most: not giving up and standing for what's right.

[driftwithme]

In terms of worldbuilding, I'm very much aware that Guillermo del Toro didn't want the PPDC to work like the military or to be assumed to work like the military.

Problem is that you have a considerable number of important characters with military background that ends up bleeding to their job in the PPDC. It means that even if at its core the PPDC is not and will not be the military (ever), it still holds aspects of it and that should be recognized as a problem.

Take Pentecost, for example. He effectively pulls up rank on Raleigh when he mentions that Raleigh is a ranger and he himself is Marshall. Of course, pulling rank is not exclusive to the military, but given the context and Pentecost's past, it ends up reading exactly like a high ranking officer would talk to his subordinate.

Mako and Chuck also exhibit typical behavior of children who grew up with military dads. The level of exigence they operate under is not just due to the fact they grew up between Shatterdomes or that they were at war— it is also the result of a parent that expects something of their children and kids want to meet their expectations, make their parents proud. Mako and Chuck can be described as methodical, almost obsessed with their missions. This is not necessarily bad, as it makes them passionate and relentless on the path to achieve their dreams, but it is also a heavy tool on their mental health.

Militars are also more prone to knowing when to shut up and suck up when someone with more power than them makes a decision they don't agree with. That Pentecost and Herc are at the top of the command in the Jaeger Program at the end of it is not a surprise. They are trained to obey what their superiors say and to find a way around their orders, basically making things work out of nothing. I'm not saying that only an officer could do that, just that they had the training to back it up and prepare them more for that situation.

Militar culture is not only about weapons. It was developed through centuries of warfare to face better against crisis. The chain of command is an easy way to organize everyone's function so it is clear in the middle of the chaos what your job is, what orders you must obey, who you should be following, etc. Things like living in quarters, eating rations, maintaining a tight schedule, keeping up with the routine... That's necessary in a place like the Shatterdomes, where everything needs to work like a clock.

I'm really happy that Pacific Rim is not military propaganda and that it doesn't romanticize war. That might be one of my biggest reasons for it to be one of my favorite movies.

It's simply that in order to avoid romanticizing something, you need to look at the complexity of the worldbuilding and recognize the good and the bad within some facts.

And while I'm at it: the Jaeger Program freaking works like the aviation. I'll just leave it there lmao.

[driftwithme]

Here's a li'l Pacific Rim canon 101 document I made to try and briefly sum up the essential elements of Pacific Rim's original worldbuilding. (It's way deeper than most people realize! What you see in the movie is just the tip of the iceberg.) Information is sourced from the film, del Toro, Beacham, Tales From Year Zero, the novelization, and the artbook. Errors from any given source are accounted for as much as possible.

[driftwithme]

Wanna really get to know Pacific Rim's lore?

An incredible amount of worldbuilding was developed for the first film - but only a small amount made it into the actual movie! I've scoured every source of Pacific Lore information I could find to create thorough writeups on its lore. Also, I've put together a chronology of of events over here.

[driftwithme]

@kaijuposting and @monsterblogging are the real MVPs blogs of Pacific Rim meta on Tumblr.

If you haven't yet, go check those blogs' master posts and links about Pacific Rim 🙌🙌🙌

You won't be disappointed, I promise!!

[driftwithme]

My favorite thing ever is the Kwon fight between Mako and Raleigh and how it is like some freak went with "what if sexual tension wasn't about sex at all".

Motherfucker how did you pull that off.

[driftwithme]

You need to understand that as the daughter of a military pilot I thrive in exploring the overlapping nature of the PPDC and the military, but more than that the military aviation.

The fact other components watch the air force and go "fuck them, they are almost civilians"??

They want to treat everyone as if they have ranks, which can make them the biggest assholes if they are your boss. Not always, but most of them.

The law is that "if I give an order I don't know and don't care how unreasonable it is or how you are supposed to make it work, you better get it done". The alternative is getting publicly humiliated with no chance of defending yourself.

And if you do defend yourself, you have made an enemy for life. They'll try to ruin your career even 10 or 20 years later.

So many of them are fucking gay and repressed. Don't even get me started on the misogyny. And why is that no matter what, you can always count on them fucking. Married? Not married? Already expecting a baby? What about the gender of the person they are fucking? It doesn't care, aviators fuel is sex. Take that away from them and there will be no planes or helicopters flying.

The chill or sane are constantly having a bad time lmao. So many of the high rank officers are just dudes with no morals able to lick their superiors' boots. Then they just want to abuse their power. Again, I'm not saying all of them because some are pretty fucking heroic, but those cases will make you cry. They rarely get the recognition they deserve and a good number of them meet tragic endings or end their careers being disrespected.

That's why I'm glad so many Jaeger pilots were not militars, because if we had to rely only only on militars to save us from kaijus, we would be dead.

[driftwithme]

I think the same thing, mostly!

I love how Pentecost is not perfect. He's prideful and too strict sometimes. Too much of an officer, you know? And that's something Guillermo del Toro was explicitly trying to convey. The story is set against those military boundaries, making heroes out of the quirky / nerdy / ordinary guys.

Pentecost didn't want Raleigh back. The only reason he went after him is because Raleigh was the last person alive who had experienced piloting a Mark-3. He talks about Raleigh like he's just the leftover of 5 years of war. Do I think he was trying to apologize in his own way? Not necessarily, but I saw that as an olive branch. Pentecost personally flew through different points on the Wall to find Raleigh. He knew nothing else would do it, not after all that had happened.

It was his way of saying "Hey, you and me have our history, but that shouldn't matter now. This is bigger than us and we must work together" and "There was a time I thought you weren't fit to be a ranger. I was wrong. You'll always be a ranger and we need you now".

Raleigh calls Pentecost out after he realizes how much of a hypocrite Pentecost can be. The whole thing with me --although understandable-- is sort of selfish from Pentecost's part. Mako is the best candidate and he doesn't allow her to become a ranger due his personal feelings on the matter.

Same thing with deploying Lady Danger during the Double Event. If he were to follow protocol, Lady Danger should have remained grounded as a punishment for their failure, but everybody could see how that was bullshit. What if they were just a rookie in her first deployment and a veteran who got kicked out of the Jaeger Program given his tendency to insubordination? They were the only hope. Deploy them or die.

I don't think Pentecost ever liked the way Raleigh did things, but in the end he has to respect and accept it.

On their final mission, the movie makes them colleagues instead of a boss and his subordinate. Pentecost is the one who goes "screw the plan" and Raleigh is the one who follows orders. Poetic justice, you might say.

Also?

Newt and Raleigh are the less military members of the PPDC because they're willing to experiment and take risks, change their course and disobey any orders that are simply stupid. Because of the military nature of the PPDC, you can see how that is considered a bad trait. They cannot trust them, they are too unpredictable, crazy even— but if it wasn't for Raleigh and Newt being willing to do the craziest and biggest risks, they wouldn't have been able to close the Breach.

I love how the movie shows that Pentecost is very much stressed about them, but he cannot fire any of them because within their insanity, Raleigh and Newt are both competent and necessary 😂😂

Wouldn't it be fucked up if the PPDC blamed everything that happened with Knifehead on Raleigh and that's why (1) he got kicked from the Jaeger Program and (2) Chuck hates him.

What if the official report is that Raleigh wanted to break the protocol and Yancy of course would follow him. It was Yancy who gave Raleigh the idea to change to his other arm to kill the Kaiju and stop it from things getting more fucked up, so Yancy is the official martyr of the PPDC while Raleigh is the pariah.

That's the reason why Chuck still believes that Raleigh is not good to pilot, because they had been taught that those who break the chain of command like Raleigh did are dangerous to the whole program. Jaeger pilots do not abandon their copilots, right? So Raleigh surviving made him a sort of devil. Herc understands him 'cause he went through something with Scott, but to someone like Chuck it'd be unexcusable.

That's also why Mako criticizes him when she's talking about his battle record. She's repeating the words that had been taught to her (and Chuck to some extent).

If they kicked him out, it'd explain why Raleigh went to risk his life on the Wall. He still wanted to fight against the kaijus. That's the closest thing he had to being part of the effort.

And it'd explain the tense relationship between Pentecost and Raleigh. The sarcasm too. Raleigh lost everything, his entire family, then his job and purpose. He knows he was in the wrong, but the only thing that would make him go back to the Jaeger Program was his desire to help and to not die with nothing. Go down swinging, you know?

[driftwithme]

Wouldn't it be fucked up if the PPDC blamed everything that happened with Knifehead on Raleigh and that's why (1) he got kicked from the Jaeger Program and (2) Chuck hates him.

What if the official report is that Raleigh wanted to break the protocol and Yancy of course would follow him. It was Yancy who gave Raleigh the idea to change to his other arm to kill the Kaiju and stop it from things getting more fucked up, so Yancy is the official martyr of the PPDC while Raleigh is the pariah.

That's the reason why Chuck still believes that Raleigh is not good to pilot, because they had been taught that those who break the chain of command like Raleigh did are dangerous to the whole program. Jaeger pilots do not abandon their copilots, right? So Raleigh surviving made him a sort of devil. Herc understands him 'cause he went through something with Scott, but to someone like Chuck it'd be unexcusable.

That's also why Mako criticizes him when she's talking about his battle record. She's repeating the words that had been taught to her (and Chuck to some extent).

If they kicked him out, it'd explain why Raleigh went to risk his life on the Wall. He still wanted to fight against the kaijus. That's the closest thing he had to being part of the effort.

And it'd explain the tense relationship between Pentecost and Raleigh. The sarcasm too. Raleigh lost everything, his entire family, then his job and purpose. He knows he was in the wrong, but the only thing that would make him go back to the Jaeger Program was his desire to help and to not die with nothing. Go down swinging, you know?

[driftwithme]

People ask why Raleigh and Chuck as if Chuck didn't spend almost all his minutes in the money annoying Raleigh to get his attention.

(Happy Chaleigh Saturday)

[driftwithme]

LOVE LINE (CHAPTER TWO): ANGELA'S LETTERS

[ BETA READ BY @dumdumdugs !!! <3]

Relationships: Hercules Hansen/Angela Hansen

Tags list: post-canon - canon divergence, angst, POV Hercules Hansen, Chuck Hansen Lives, Hansen Family Feels, Angela Hansen is a ghost..., Hercules Hansen is Bad at feelings, Hercules Hansen Needs a Hug, Hercules Hansen tries to be a good parent, Hercules Hansen is tired, mental health issues (implied), dead wife motif, haunted house motif, The Hansen deserve a break.

Herc swings blindly to catch his phone on the floor, grumbling as he massages his jaw with the palm of his hand. “G’day, Mako.” The girl's sweet voice floods the speaker: “Good morning, Mr. Hansen. Is it a good time to call?” There's a pause. He can feel that she doesn't want to bother him, but they both know it's important. He's knackered. Too fucking old to fall asleep on the couch. Bloody hell. “Yeah, I'm alright. Is the meeting scheduled?” “Yes, sir. It'll be announced on the anniversary,” the signal flickers, creating static. “Are you sure?” It's the polite thing to ask. Nevertheless, it's unnecessary. Herc has never felt so sure about something in his life. He lets out a nasal laugh. “Too old to play Marshall, Mako.” And with more force, sitting up to stare at the rising sunrise cast sparkles on the dusty windows: “Yes. Yes, I'm sure.” Finally. Herc Hansen wanted to come home

CROSSPOSTED ON AO3

Angela used to say that she wished she could look at the beach from her room on the second floor of the house. Maybe that's why Herc decides it is worth it to struggle against the wooden frame, pushing carefully to not break the hinges as he tries to open the bloody window. There's a dull sound when it gives, the midday sun breaking through like a reward while Herc sneezes once, twice, then swats at the air in front of him.

It's been over 4 months since he last visited the summer house they used to live in during their family vacations when Angela was still alive. The dust clouds are mild, overcasting the walls as the sun rays tries to dissipate them. The air is fresh outside, a rest from the humidity of Sidney and an appreciated pause before the rains can truly start bothering the neighborhood.

As Herc steps back, he notes that the landscape has changed while he was busy these four last months. He doesn't make poetry of it. Instead, Herc simply registers the growth of the bush and trees, the rustling of leaves that remind him he should pay someone to clean the perimeter soon. They were lucky that no one broke in while they were away risking their lives as rangers. He doesn't want to ruin that luck by allowing the house to sit alone there, drowned in the foliage.

After a moment of consideration, Herc opens the second window, finally satisfied with the breeze that's soothing the stale room. He was careful to check the stance for bugs or animals before moving Angela's boxes from the corner to the previously cleaned desk against the wall between the windows, making room by piling books over the bed. There's not much of Angela there, except those. All of Angela's belongings got destroyed with their home, making survivors out of the books and boxes left behind during their last summer trip together.

Somewhere deep inside, the echo of a laughter distracts him from his musing-- the teasing tone of a woman that doesn't understand why her husband insists on keeping even his thoughts hushed when he is alone in that room.

Herc closes his eyes.

Then why are you whispering, love?

There's that laugh again, taunting him. Silly, it calls him. He supposes it's true. There's no need for her to raise her voice above a murmur; Herc would feel her loud and clear anyway. The pain doesn't come as sharp anymore, when they virtually talk. The dread has settled in at the bottom of his mind, leaving room for Angela's ghost to swim in his thoughts and if she wants to, if she feels like it, splash his days with endless commentary.

Some days, he thinks he is going insane.

Haunt me then,

she reads.

Haunt him indeed.

The box closest to him is rusting. Some glorified sturdy, heavy, beaten metal cube that he brought with him from his time in the RAAF. Where his name was printed on the side, Angela scrapped it (if he knew his wife, it was with a pocket knife) and wrote her own. His nails catch on the edge of the lid, setting it aside on the desk. Herc takes his time, pulling the chair and slowly sitting down, undoing the knot of the plastic bag and fishes the handkerchief on the top of the mass. It's her handwriting in it, next to the faded lipstick mark of a kiss.

It wasn't a joke, in the end. It started at one, when Scott had dragged him and their squadrons to a bar on a weekend night and they had ended up on a table full of strangers. Angela was the friend of a friend, tall, stunning, infuriating like only a fine woman can be. Herc spent half their dinner arguing with her, with a very amused Scott fueling the fire by changing sides when it was needed. He had never felt so enraged as he felt that night, when they had stood to say their goodbyes and she had taken his bloody handkerchief and written her name, phone and direction, kissing the corner and tossing it to him.

Here you have, mate. Call me when you pull your head out of your arse to admit I'm right.

The heel of her boot put the period to their conversation, leaving Herc standing there red from head to toe with shame and anger, but desire too. Oh, how he stared at her as she disappeared in the night, the image of it in his eyelids as he later found himself in his quarters, lighting a cigarette and cursing her over and over again as her voice rang in his ears. He cursed his whole squadron the next morning and Scott for months. He kept the handkerchief hidden, sometimes even under his uniform. You don't have what it takes to become a pilot, she has told him. If he hadn't been determined to graduate before, her words had done it for him. Within a year, he had turned up to her address without calling, fully dressed in uniform, almost as nervous as he would be the day he asked her to marry him. She had blinked a few times when saw him, some furious blushing taking over her when he mock saluted her with a shaking stance— she closed the door on him, the disbelief in his face making it priceless. Herc told Scott to rack off as his brother snickered hidden behind the corner of the house, just before he had slipped under her door the invitation to his graduation party.

It was all awfully nostalgic now. The lights, the party, the night, her dress, her scowl. Such a pretty thing when she was furious, never the one to be outdone. Herc would give anything to live that night again, dance with her again.

Those had been the first letters between encounters, the start of their relationship.

Returning the handkerchief to the box, Herc took the letters out of the plastic bag one by one. They were wrinkled, some stained, some had envelopes, some were just a piece of paper with Angela's kisses on them. His letters were on a separate box that Angela had kept in their room, but he has kept her letter there. He had felt it appropriate for them to have a space in an usually sunny room. He had wanted the letter to keep her perfume and to feel the rush of sneaking to Angela's room to read one of the letters just to annoy her, then kiss her and kiss her until they were both lost on each other and the rush of their words floating around their bed.

One of the letters has some strange water shaped drops on the envelope. It's covered in plastic of its own, cared for more than the others. When Herc picks it up, it is as if he is looking at it for the first time, with Scott over his shoulder trying to read it at the same time.

Angela's voice is impossibly soft in his ear, tendrils of past fondness combing his hair as his hand trembles.

That's when I told you I was pregnant with Chuck.

Yes, yes it is. He choked a bit on the knot on his chest, deciding to go out to the hall, down the stairs and to the kitchen. Herc served himself water, drank it and waited out for the itching in his eyes to stop. When he moves again, he forces himself to pick it up where he left it. Herc pictures Angela in the hospital's room, tired and done and holding Chuck in her arms. Even after childbirth, she had the energy to tell the doctor:

That can't be! He is the smallest bloke I've ever seen!

And Scott had erupted in laughter, doubling over as she kissed Chuck's forehead and Herc kissed her hair. His brother was more often than not too busy being amused by her, jumping to her side whenever they wanted to bully Herc. It had been heaven, the Decembers drinking beer and watching crappy TV from the couch, surfing golden waves through the day while Chuck floated on the shore next to his mom. He remembers smooching Angela's cheek as he passed her by in the kitchen, a hand on her waist to let her know she needed to make room for him to pass her and reach the fridge. His girl.

There were so many letters after that, letters that kept him alive while he was away from home. There were moments he missed and read from her; Chuck learned to walk, Chuck learned to talk, Chuck missed him. He was there as often as he could, which was not enough for any of them.

He always misses you, Herc.

Dad, are you coming home?

When will you be back?

You're his hero.

We'll wait for you.

Herc closes both windows, takes the box with him to the living room and turns on the lights.

Chuck's been living alone for quite a while now. He took Max, so there's no one there but Herc. There are no voices in his head either. The bottom of the box, he won't touch. He doesn't want to reread her last letters, he doesn't want to see the arguments on paper over Chuck feeling lonely. There are so many good moments in there, drawings Chuck did, pics Herc took in his travels, jokes only Scott and Angela would get, lists of Christmas gifts, school scores, secrets, so many kisses. The last year, he doesn't revisit it if he can avoid it. If he was supertitious, he might believe it was the curse of his name that almost killed Angela and Chuck from his decisions. If he thought that, Herc might have had changed his name to some other, highlighted a story where he gets to come home to his wife and his son in the end, even if he is old and broken and not the man they knew. What he would give for the chance—

No, Herc doesn't believe in such things. He leaves that for the Kaiju cultists, the ones who think some superior beings orchestrated a world full of suffering and pain, before they decided to punish humanity for living in it. He believes in the choices they made in the worst of circumstances. There's no there to save them, only each other. He never saw a god in his time with the RAAF or PPDC. Heroes? That he knows, but not gods.

It's been 5 years since they closed the breach. Herc looks at the ceiling, inhales in 4 seconds, holds his breath as he grounds himself with the sound of nature outside and exhales through his teeth. He's quite sure the summer house would have become his grave if 5 years ago his son hadn't returned from Pitfall. If he had been left with no body to bury, if his baby boy had been lost at the bottom of the ocean. His promise to Angela would have killed him, if nothing else. He swore, in so many letters he swore he'd be there when it mattered the most.

If anything had been a bit to the left…

He could had died on his plane, a metal scrap crashing against Scissure. They had called it a shooting star ending; the one Luna Pentecost got.

Scott almost crashed their car. Speed limit by damned, there had been only one vehicle and he didn't know. Herc hadn't known that Angela wasn't there until the last minute, when his entire life bifurcated. He thought he was racing to them both, but with every step towards one, he got further away from the other.

The sensation of hearing the bombs go down, the report of the Kaiju advance on the radio of the jeep…

Someone's weeping in his memories, a distant crackle of thunder that rolls under his skin, beside his eyes. He is getting tired, he hasn't eaten since he had breakfast.

Chuck, where's your mum?

How could he describe what he felt when Chuck came running towards him, when he cradled his son in his arms and realized that Angela was dead? Or when he stood on LOCCENT behind a microphone, in front of everyone, unable to properly weep as he heard what he thought were his son's last words?

How, he wonders, do they expect him to move on endlessly?

He didn't stop for a single day in his life, rushing towards a future that just got worse with each passing day. When Angela died, he went and enlisted on the Jaeger Program. He piloted every Jaeger mark to the date until Scott finally broke and lost himself.

How —and his grip on the couch is white-knuckled, the lights bothering more than they sooth— could he tell no to Chuck when he demanded to do the same? How could he say no to his son piloting when that was the only thing that kept Herc himself sane? He was under no illusion that Chuck was oblivious to the fact that the better the compatibility, the more chances the rangers had to survive. That was his dad on the Jaeger, wasn't it? He could have died piloting Lucky 7. Chuck was left alone on those Shatterdomes, watching his dad being deployed.

So how could he say no to Chuck?

He saw it the first time they drifted: Chuck would not become an orphan, the kid had swore. If he had to get on that conn-pod himself, he would. If he had to fistfight all and every kaiju, he would. If his dad was to die, Chuck would die with him.

And where was he when Chuck had exploded on—

Sir–

Sir, this is– we're getting a signal !

Back and forth, that was his routine. The first thing he thinks of in the morning, the last thing before he goes to sleep at night. Angela's voice and flashbacks of all versions of Chuck chase him down whenever Herc takes a break from work, reminding him that he has mistakes to atone for, mountains or repressed feelings that he can't ignore. A wife and a son he wants to make proud.

He is alive!

It was a situation Herc wasn't willing to repeat. For all he was and all he did and all he cared for, he would never risk losing Chuck again.

That's my son.

His voice comes out cracked with emotion.

“Angela, I'm sorry for the delay.”

An owl coos somewhere outside. He likes to imagine it taking flight.

[driftwithme]

LOVE LINE CHAPTER TWO JUST DROPPED !!!!

( featuring all my feelings about the Hansens )

[driftwithme]

The Raleigh and Mako song 🔊🔊🔊😈😈

[driftwithme]

Thank you for reading and for sending the ask!!

I got so excited 🥹🥹

Love Line? Is it on AO3? I went looking really quickly and couldn’t find it, but it was quick.

Sorry, I was on a job interview!!

Here's the link to the series

Here's the link to the story

I also post the chapters as Tumblr text posts, so let me update the links and I'll add them to this ask 💖💖💖

Here's the link to the first chapter on Tumblr <3

[driftwithme]

The draft is 2600 words long. It's not my best writing but I'm pretty happy with it

Okay, the chapter is finally done.

I'll wait for my beta reader to give me the thumbs up and post it on AO3 as soon as possible 💖💖

[driftwithme]

Okay, the chapter is finally done.

I'll wait for my beta reader to give me the thumbs up and post it on AO3 as soon as possible 💖💖

[driftwithme]

Okay, so most of the chapter is done. I just need to write around 200 words more and it'll be ready for approval.

I have one beta reader already, but I appreciate any previous insight, so if anyone wants to read it before it gets published... Let me know 💖💖💖