#i never thought i'd care so much about two random fighter pilots but here we are

[cupidssrosses]

i care about this too much

hangman and roosters relationship follows, BEAT. FOR. BEAT. the ‘ex’s getting back together’ plotline i’ve seen in 100 other films about straight relationships. 

the first scene, where hangman swaggers up to rooster, stands like five inches from his face, smirking the whole time while they insult eachother. they’re glancing at eachothers mouths, everyone around them is watching them like this interaction is nothing new. 

rooster telling him he looks good as hangman plays pool veeery slowly and somehow antagonisingly. you can feel how much hes showing off. hangman leaves and pheonix goes up to rooster and says ‘he hasn’t changed’ and rooster is STILL just STARING in his direction and says ‘no he hasn’t (or something like that lol)

then their always making eye contact in the meetings, bantering while their flying then

omg THEN

roosters about to get into the plane and maybe never come home, and this SHOT i swear. it’s like, romantically coded cinematography but a canonically platonic relationship?? and it drives me CRAZY. the camera follows rooster as he walks, and hangman enters the shot and their still for a second. 

they don’t. know what. to say. this could be a goodbye for all they know. the warm lighting, the eye contact, the tension, all of it. 

then finally hangman SAVES HIS LIFE and they say the ‘you look good’ ‘i am good’ lines again. HE LITERALLY IS THE REASON that rooster is still ALIVE. rooster comes home safe, he gets off the plane, hugs EVERYONE ELSE except of the main character and RIGHT here

right here is where after 20 years of watching movies my brain has been trained to expect the love interest to appear and for the romantic subplot to resolve. (idk why how to train your dragon is all i can think of rn but do you remember at the end!?! its the SAME SCENE. hiccup is greeted by a crowd of secondary characters, he talks to them for a second, then the music changes, the crowd parts, and astrid comes up and they have their little ‘thats for everything else’ moment, anyway)

here is structurally where in every other movie the next person to talk to rooster would kiss him. and what do you know hangman arrives, everyone steps back, there’s this importance you can feel. the music changes, so does the tone. this isn't just another character, this interaction means something. god and the way they’re smiling at eachother it gets me everytime. but of course, like he considered going for the kiss but decided against it, hangman offers his hand for a handshake. 

ALL of these scenes. ALL these interactions would have read as romantic if one of them, was a women. its crazy to me. they use the same cinematography, the same type of dialogue, the same direction that you would expect to be used for a romantic subplot, but use it for a platonic subplot. 

a man and a women could interact once with the slightest amount of tension and people would without a second thought assume they’re love interests. these two were out here saving eachothers lives, having the most flirtatious interactions ive seen in ages, but no, they’re just really close friends. 

EDIT/ADDITION: I’ve seen so many people say that rooster and pheonix were ‘clearly fucking’ or ‘clearly had history’ and you know what?? i totally see it!! so valid. plenty of tension. but if you think they had chemistry but rooster and hangman didn’t, the only difference between the two is that they’re the same gender. they had the same amount if. not. more chemistry/tension than either of them did with pheonix

oh also, another example of romantically coded techniques/tropes being used in apparently non-romantic plotlines is the tv show suits. its not every episode but mike and harvey have a bunch of scenes that would read as HEAVILY romantic if either of them was a girl (eg. harvey running in slow motion to stop mike from putting himself in danger was very ‘running through the airport’, but oohhh no they were ‘brothers’ )

[roomanticstuff]

OH MY GOD

i care about this too much

hangman and roosters relationship follows, BEAT. FOR. BEAT. the ‘ex’s getting back together’ plotline i’ve seen in 100 other films about straight relationships. 

the first scene, where hangman swaggers up to rooster, stands like five inches from his face, smirking the whole time while they insult eachother. they’re glancing at eachothers mouths, everyone around them is watching them like this interaction is nothing new. 

rooster telling him he looks good as hangman plays pool veeery slowly and somehow antagonisingly. you can feel how much hes showing off. hangman leaves and pheonix goes up to rooster and says ‘he hasn’t changed’ and rooster is STILL just STARING in his direction and says ‘no he hasn’t (or something like that lol)

then their always making eye contact in the meetings, bantering while their flying then

omg THEN

roosters about to get into the plane and maybe never come home, and this SHOT i swear. it’s like, romantically coded cinematography but a canonically platonic relationship?? and it drives me CRAZY. the camera follows rooster as he walks, and hangman enters the shot and their still for a second. 

they don’t. know what. to say. this could be a goodbye for all they know. the warm lighting, the eye contact, the tension, all of it. 

then finally hangman SAVES HIS LIFE and they say the ‘you look good’ ‘i am good’ lines again. HE LITERALLY IS THE REASON that rooster is still ALIVE. rooster comes home safe, he gets off the plane, hugs EVERYONE ELSE except of the main character and RIGHT here

right here is where after 20 years of watching movies my brain has been trained to expect the love interest to appear and for the romantic subplot to resolve. (idk why how to train your dragon is all i can think of rn but do you remember at the end!?! its the SAME SCENE. hiccup is greeted by a crowd of secondary characters, he talks to them for a second, then the music changes, the crowd parts, and astrid comes up and they have their little ‘thats for everything else’ moment, anyway)

here is structurally where in every other movie the next person to talk to rooster would kiss him. and what do you know hangman arrives, everyone steps back, there’s this importance you can feel. the music changes, so does the tone. this isn’t just another character, this interaction means something. god and the way they’re smiling at eachother it gets me everytime. but of course, like he considered going for the kiss but decided against it, hangman offers his hand for a handshake. 

ALL of these scenes. ALL these interactions would have read as romantic if one of them, was a women. its crazy to me. they use the same cinematography, the same type of dialogue, the same direction that you would expect to be used for a romantic subplot, but use it for a platonic subplot. 

a man and a women could interact once with the slightest amount of tension and people would without a second thought assume they’re love interests. these two were out here saving eachothers lives, having the most flirtatious interactions ive seen in ages, but no, they’re just really close friends. 

EDIT/ADDITION: I’ve seen so many people say that rooster and pheonix were ‘clearly fucking’ or ‘clearly had history’ and you know what?? i totally see it!! so valid. plenty of tension. but if you think they had chemistry but rooster and hangman didn’t, the only difference between the two is that they’re the same gender. they had the same amount if. not. more chemistry/tension than either of them did with pheonix

oh also, another example of romantically coded techniques/tropes being used in apparently non-romantic plotlines is the tv show suits. its not every episode but mike and harvey have a bunch of scenes that would read as HEAVILY romantic if either of them was a girl (eg. harvey running in slow motion to stop mike from putting himself in danger was very ‘running through the airport’, but oohhh no they were ‘brothers’ )