#top gun maverick meta

[tonaherio]

A headcanon in answer to the question of whether Mav encouraged Bradley to be into planes while growing up, whether Carole was okay with that, and whether Mav really did not think Bradley was "ready" to go to the Naval Academy and become a fighter pilot. Written hastily:

My thoughts: Carole was just fine with Mav raising Bradley on General Planes and also encouraged Bradley learning more about his dad by Mav showing Bradley what his dad did and how they worked together. However she never pictured Bradley actually following in Mav and Goose's footsteps as Bradley was always a bit more sensitive than them and just a different sort of person. He tended to overthink and get anxious and didn't handle big emotional upsets quite as well.

Carole was growing sicker as Bradley grew older, and she started thinking about the big questions for both herself and death and Bradley and his life. Meanwhile, Bradley is unfortunately drifting away from Mav's General Planes influence and further towards Murder Planes, and showing more of an interest in the circumstances of his father's death. He's doing this to start to come to terms with both his father's eternal absence from his life, and his mother leaving it. Mav isn't really sure what to do, but knows Bradley's taking it tough as any teen would, so gently answers Bradley's Murder Planes questions while privately hoping he will go elsewhere and that this is a temporary answer to his emotional pain, as Mav, too, sees Murder Planes as not being Who Bradley Is and instead as an outlet for his grief, anger, and loss.

To Mav and Carole's dismay, Bradley only gets more interested, and in an attempt to ease his mother's pain as she becomes very close to death, he tells her he will be fine in life, as he has applied to the Naval Academy and will be like his father and Mav, and he still has Mav to guide him. This makes Carole panic, and she responds by begging Mav to pull his papers. Mav is uncomfortable with the subterfuge, but he goes along, and he also does not want Bradley to go as Bradley has not sorted out the role of Murder Planes in his comprehension of the deaths of his parents and as a symbol for Mav's adoption of the vacant role as Mav's father figure. Mav truly does not think Bradley is emotionally ready, and doubts at the time that he ever will be, as Bradley does not even have the emotional maturity to understand that Murder Planes are an emotional crutch for him not facing his grief about his parents.

[icemankazansky]

@pscentral event 13: tropes

[compacflt]

do you ever think about/write about how maverick threw goose’s dog tags into the ocean? the letterboxd reviews have me thinking again.

yeah that was literally one of the first little things august 2022 me petulantly retconned . fuck that . he kept one.

in my (and many other ppls) opinion those weren’t mavs to throw away they should’ve stayed with carole

and (i try not to talk about this as much as possible but) it suggests Something about mav & goose’s relationship that the filmmakers thought his dog tags should go to mav instead of to Goose’s wife (though i acknowledge and appreciate the usefulness of the visual metaphor of him saying goodbye to goose at the end of TG) (though that visual metaphor was rendered completely moot by the whole of TGM showing that mav HASNT moved on from goose and only moves on once he has the chance to save roosters life [which is why i retconned it])

ALSO? i am sure I’m not the first person to talk about this? But, to add a second layer of confusion & analysis, uh, the dogtags mav throws into the ocean aren’t goose’s.

I’m reading “metcalf, mike” from the backside. Those are VIPER’s dogtags. for some reason.

now i choose to believe that’s a props issue… someone grabbed the wrong set of tags & they were like ehhh no one will notice… script supervisor not doing their fucking job… so i choose to believe the filmmakers MEANT goose’s dogtags & it doesn’t change the end of the movie for me.

But im interested to hear from you—does that change/add anything to anyone’s analysis to know that mav threw VIPER’s tags into the ocean? there are a lot of really weird implications that come from taking what is probably a props fuck-up at face value!!! (Viper giving mav his tags [weird], viper being mav’s surrogate dad figure, thereby this scene becomes about mav saying goodbye to his FATHER finally,.. etc.)

[stopthatfool]

in top gun meta hell rn. what the fuck am i doing in top gun meta hell. i don't think i'm supposed to be thinking so hard about this movie. it's not designed for this.

[j-atticus]

logged back on to ramble about them again. just. it’s so important to me that mav is to bradley what no one was to mav and ik we don’t have exact ages or time stamps or anything but mav lost his parents relatively close together and he’s said repeatedly he has no family so that leaves him in the hands of the foster system and the same goddamn thing happened to bradley but he had someone standing between him and the system. between him and the world. unlike mav and I’m just violently ill over the fact that mav became everything to bradley that he needed

[fanboyswhore9]

So I’m gonna send something and I want you guys to tell me what this reminds you of.

[brendaonao3]

8 for the choose violence game

Hi there, Nonnie!

Hoo boy, you're just trying to get me into trouble, aren't you :D

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

I have two big ones atm, because my villain origin story will be people infantilizing Maverick and treating him like he's some sort of pocket princess who is Italian grandmother size instead of an actual Regular Adult Sized Human Person. 5'7" might be a tad short for a dude, but it's a perfectly fine height and no, Ice's (or Hangman's) clothes wouldn't be swimming on him, because they all have pretty much the same build, and it's SO FUCKING annoying to see people writing him like he can't reach a shelf or isn't tall enough to ride a fucking roller coaster or has to stand on his tiptoes to reach Ice's (or Hangman's) lips. Just...no. Stop it. (Yes, Bradley is slightly taller and broader than Mav, but can we not with Bradley's shirts would hang to Mav's knees - I've dated plenty of guys over 6ft and that's never happened to me and I'm literally Mav's height.)

And while I'm here, my other villain origin story is the treatment of Mav like he's some sort of feral gremlin with zero control over himself who needs Ice to rein him in like he's a dog ready to go off leash. He's a literal *CAPTAIN* in the Navy (one rank below Admiral!!!! Which, even the dude who wants to ground him thinks he should have at least 2 stars!!), he's got a jacket filled with commendations and medals, and he literally figured out the best plan and strategy for the uranium mission in about 10 seconds. Dude is scary smart. His problem is he doesn't like assholes and he's got a bit of an impulse control problem. That doesn't make him stupid or someone who needs a babysitter. (Yes, he was more reckless in TG86 - and then Goose died. Let him have the fucking growth.)

(Besides, if Ice didn't find Mav's methods to be worthy, he wouldn't make the calls he did - because their friendship is goals, but Ice isn't risking other people's lives for the sake of a friendship.)

Thank you all for coming to my Ted Talk.

[maverickcalf]

[inthefallofasparrow]

Why Do Movies Feel So Different Now? | Thomas Flight

[k9effect]

Small little details I want to point out cause I love talking about them! In no particular order:

Bradley's phone is set to Do Not Disturb mode, yet Jake's number still rings through it. He makes sure he's always able to be there for Jake when he needs him.

Brad's change of clothes, how he shows up in a hoodie but takes it off when he's inside. And he's in sweats when he was just in sleep shorts at home.

Javy being at the top of Jake's recents list cause they're besties, your honour.

"Ral" is a reference to my own oc, Raleigh, who is one of Jake's much younger sisters. I need to make a whole post on her cause I absolutely adore her. She's still a young teen, 13/14 at the point of this comic.

Jake is quite restless and they move around a lot on the couch, leading up to Bradley just big spooning him with his leg around Jake's hip. Kind of an act of grounding. It works cause Jake still hasn't really moved four hours later.

The final page with the blank speech bubbles is intended to just be a private conversation between them, the reader isn't allowed to know what theyre saying.

I saw someone ask but the flip flops (thongs cause I'm australian) belong to Bradley. He came in thongs and socks like a dork who didn't waste time putting on shoes he was just gonna take off anyways.

Jake's contact on Bradley's phone is "HINGMON" purely because I find that the funniest possible way to fill in "H_NGM_N".

Jake's hesitation to kiss Bradley was intended to be because it was one of, if not THE, first kiss they shared.

"Can't leave my wingman." Bradley learnt that from his several dads.

Someone also noticed the "give me twenty" and Bradley is there like ten minutes later. Yes, he was hauling ass to get to Jake as quickly as possible.

Jake's nightmare has no actual resolution concerning the F14 exploding, because he never saw that happen, because he saved them. So his nightmare keeps cutting to black and he wakes with this overwhelming feeling of grief and sadness and guilt etc. knowing he failed.

Jake opens the door before Bradley can knock a third time. Bradley's hand is still raised in a fist to knock again.

Takes place well into their leave post mission cause their hair is grown out a lot past regulations.

Feel free to send me asks about any of this, or how you interpreted something differently, I love talking about little details :D

The Hangster Nightmare Comic!

[Click for better quality, reblogs and tags are HIGHLY appreciated as this took a very long time <3]

Full comic below the cut!

[lauferisms]

Why Do Movies Feel So Different Now?

[compacflt]

Watching battleship right now and it got me thinking about ur post wondering how maverick and ice would react to current recruitment methods like e-girls and I just have to wonder what their thoughts would have been about this movie. It's more focused on the ships and not so much the fighter jets, obviously, but still...just a giant ad for the Navy. Also Rihanna which is perhaps the most important part of it all.

im no whitemanologist but if ice & mav are anything like my dad theyd probably think it’s some pretty sick shit

full disclosure: had not seen battleship until just now, when i watched it so i could answer this ask. thoughts: man, what a waste of jesse plemons! actually the whole cast is kinda stacked: liam neeson COMPACFLT (fuck yeah), Rihanna, alexander skarsgard….. woof. and yeah, it’s a gigantic fuck-you ad for the navy, but even i got a freedom boner when they hopped on *that ship* at the very end (70-year-old ordnance notwithstanding). like, i get it. that kinda whipped ass actually.

as recruitment material it’s very interesting. *guy who has only ever seen top gun watching any other movie* WOW JUST LIKE TOP GUN!!! no, but seriously, all these pro-Navy pro-mil movies are pushing a characterization of the military & the people in it that is laughably absurd. Our main character is always some guy who’s quietly very talented but outwardly a huge asshole who never plays by the rules & stays in the institution that gives him power only by the skin of his teeth. These movies are about *belonging* and push a message that even the most screwy of screw-ups can find their place in the military with a little patriotism and perseverance (maverick voice: “just wanna serve my country and be the best fighter pilot in the Navy, SIR”)—when that’s clearly not true. so, yes, in Battleship hopper is our asshole persevering main character who does everything (EVERYTHING) wrong until he just happens to do one thing right (read sun tzu I guess?) & gets a command of his own. The message is, join the navy, doesn’t matter how much of a fuck-up you are in real life, you too can excel & be recognized & get the outrageously hot chick & lead other men & have immense power….

…when we get invaded by aliens. cause that’s always the other part of these movies that kinda confuses me: unless it’s a historical movie (black Hawk down, american sniper, SPR, hacksaw ridge etc) in the modern age of pro-mil movies we have to make up an enemy to propagandize. TGM’s “fifth-gen fighter” advanced nation, for instance. Not Russia and not Iran and not DPRK, some other shitholistan that isn’t made of real people so we can drop fictional bombs on them without feeling bad. And these fictional enemies are always more advanced than us, because we are perpetual underdogs (& have been since the AmRev war, it’s part of our historical DNA). But… that discrepancy doesn’t reflect reality, obvi. If Tom Cruise hadn’t wanted to film inside real planes, TGM could’ve been a 5-minute short film of an F-35 dropping a precision guided bunker buster from 40,000 feet. like, we have the logistical/materiel capability to execute pretty much any mission we want with little to no actual struggle. But that makes for poor propaganda storytelling. So… aliens it is

It is also worth engaging with Top Gun: Maverick as a recruitment text in and of itself, and I don’t mean like “oh planes cool = people want to join the navy” I mean, this is a movie where the CORE EMOTIONAL TENET is that a kid who wanted to be in the navy got shut out & is still pissed about it. The central emotional tenet of TGM is Rooster trying to finally prove to Maverick that he IS ready to join the Navy. The whole movie is built upon the assumption that the Navy is someplace You Want To Be. It’s not just a recruitment text, it’s a recruitment story. And again, it’s asshole-rule-breaker Maverick who juuuuust manages to stay in because he’s actually super talented all along and not actually a fuck-up, and the Navy legitimizes him as a person (in my reading, as a man) at the end… warlock voice: “You’re where you belong.” Is he, though? All the evidence seems to suggest otherwise!

[snonkerdoodlefizzy221b]

their relationship is so complicated.

I'd say Mav did the first wrong thing by pulling Bradley's papers without asking him about it first. He also didn't tell Bradley the truth--that Carole asked him to do it, instead throwing out lies like "You weren't ready", which must've absolutely broken Bradley's heart (he was young and more importantly in a really bad headspace, he couldn't really reason that out). He did it, however, because he loved Bradley like a son, and parents will go to any lengths for their children.

But what Bradley said during their argument that they (presumably) had was also unforgivable. Bradley was angry and said a lot of things he didn't mean. However, the fact that he didn't mean them doesn't mean that they still didn't cut Mav to the core. It doesn't mean that Mav took them to heart in his darkest moments where he was ALONE because Bradley cut him off. A central figure to his life, possibly his only father figure. He CUT HIM OFF.

Maybe Mav said some things he didn't mean as well during the argument because he got mad (because that's in character for him). Possibly solidifying in Bradley's mind that he wouldn't be welcome back.

Bradley must've missed him during the time that he was gone. But he always got too angry to ever go back.

Mav must've missed Bradley while he was gone. He mustve made every effort he could to reach out. (Or maybe Bradley told him to never contact him again and Mav complied.)

Both of them festered under the horrible things said that night.

Then there's what he said to Mav during TGM which is so horrible in so many ways. I don't think I need to re-explain how those words affected Mav.

And yet, Mav, because he is an angel, forgave Bradley. Even though Bradley said all of those things to him. Why? Because Bradley is his son. No matter how justified it was I don't think that Mav could ever bring himself to hate Bradley. For a few seconds? Sure. But his parental love overwhelms that. Parents will go to any lengths for their children.

So what now? Honestly I think Bradley should have enough awareness to try and work on everything. To earn Mav's trust back (because you know that the leaving cut him like nothing else, his fear of losing people and specifically Bradshaws). To earn the trust of the Flyboys back (because they don't love him parentally or to the degree that Mav does [aka allowing himself to be a doormat for Bradley], and therefore will make him work for their forgiveness). I hope, at least, that he tries his utmost to make it up to Mav, starts checking what he says when he's angry, and gets therapy. They both need therapy. Maybe they change for the better--keeping their sparks but also knowing firsthand how destructive anger can be. (It's okay to be angry but not to burn bridges in ur life because of it.) Maybe Rooster refuses to accept Mav's forgiveness until the Flyboys and everyone close to Mav deem him forgiven.

Do I think Mav could've said something like that to Rooster? Maybe if they met unfortunately during those 15-some years. Maybe in the argument. Maybe if Mav truly got his hackles raised enough to be angry at Rooster. But canonically, at least, and in my head? No, not then. Because he loves Rooster too much.

Mav deserves to say something like this to him

[lunaetis]

get to know me meme.

---- NINE PEOPLE I'D LIKE TO KNOW BETTER !

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑(𝐒): cerulean / sky blue ! but really, any shades of blue !

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑(𝐒): sweet & salty ! that's why i love salted caramel very much. it's the best of both worlds. also anything cinnamon, especially apple cinnamon. what a good flavor combination.

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂: YOASOBI & ONE OK ROCK are my all-time fav. but as for genre, i'd say J-ROCK or J-POP. sometimes K-POP as well. i like blasting some anime openings while i'm driving & singing along without a care in the world.

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄(𝐒): okay ... off the top of my head & in no particular order, the lion king, the holiday, spirited away, ready player one, now you see me, the a-team, the parent trap, in time, the list goes on ...

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: friends, brooklyn 99, the big bang theory, midnight diner, sherlock, loki, the queen's gambit, cells at work!, again the list goes on ...

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆: 飛天 ( hiten ) - ayase × r-shitei

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: doctor who 60th anniversary specials & i've been going thru tenth doctor's episodes as of late. tennant brainrot is real.

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄: recently rewatched top gun: maverick. such a good movie !

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆: trying to catch up on fate/prototype: fragments of sky silver. trying being the word jhklhjl bc i had been so busy. i also have ready player two that i bought a few months back. still haven't started on it yet. i want to soon tho !

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐍: work. work. work. report. presentation slides. data analysis. facebook meta ads. pls free me.

TAGGED BY : @maquiscursed & @vonerde & @orchideae [ thank you sm guys ilu ! ]

TAGGING : i don't know who haven't done this & many ppl had been tagged so if you haven't done it & are reading this, consider yourself tagged !

[boasamishipper]

@catsaysmlem it’s true and you should say it

How half of fandom writes Maverick Mitchell:

"Without constant reassurance, it will die. It's sexually attracted to fire."

[compacflt]

Would you ever consider writing about a different path Ice and Mav could take, one where they choose to leave the Navy and pursue a more open relationship and civilian life? Thinking it would be easier but maybe the sacrifice to their careers brings its own challenges?

(hi, jan 2024 me here, this was an ask that I answered when it was sent in in May 2023 & didn't post because I felt I actually answered it fictionally in the "icedad" one-shot the week after [and you can obviously see how these thoughts affected the writing of other pieces like "tremors & aftershocks"], but I still mostly agree with this take [though it's a little overgeneralizing] & I think it sums up a lot of my final "meta" modern-military-theory thoughts on ice & mav & their relationship, so im posting it now before I post the compacflt masterpoast)

see,… the thing is, i just… can’t see that happening!! i have no idea how to write that!!! Maybe i really do have a lack of imagination. But i can’t see that happening for a number of reasons. So short answer, no.

Long answer (and it’s long):

1. lame reason to start out, but it, uh, it’s canon that ice ends up at O-10 and mav ends up at O-6. not saying that im beholden to canon obviously (my mav ends up at O-7 and my ice ends up alive) but I do base my characterizations of them on the implications of the political struggles of both their careers so… taking away ice’s fourth star is basically starting from square one wrt my characterization of him. which is a lot of work. i could start from the beginning with a top gun 1986 ice who knows he’s gay—that would be a fun AU (i think other people than me have definitely done that better, though—I’m a one-trick pony). So if that’s what you mean then disregard the rest of this post. but if what you mean is a divergence from my existing work (i.e. homophobic/rank-climbing ice&mav) then… yeah, can’t see that happening, for further reasons below.

2. wrt my characterization of him: it’s based on a broad historical overview of armed service officers and the expectations of their careers. in my view, high-ranking officers aren’t after power—or maybe they started their careers wanting power, but somewhere down the line, it just becomes an expectation. if you do everything right and follow all the rules, you are expected by the institution to lead, whether you want to or not. That’s just the pipeline. at some point you start losing agency. which is what I mean when I keep saying ice doesn’t have a choice in advancing his career (besides the meta fact that this is fanfiction and canon demands that he have 4 stars lol)—high ranking military officers are continually and continually groomed for bigger and better positions; and the longer they spend in the military, the harder it is to leave that lifestyle for something else. And with ice’s canonical (and characteristically INTEGRAL, as I mentioned a week or so ago) refusal to rebel against the wishes of the navy as an institution, plus this historical expectation to lead placed upon the shoulders of excelling officers, I really do think ice is destined for four stars & nothing less, even if it gives him chronic depression. It’s his highest priority not because he wants it to be, but because…it just is. that’s how the institutionalized system of advancement in the military works. it just is. it has to be.

3. I mentioned in this post that I can’t ever see a foot in the door with them talking about their relationship unless maverick dies and is resurrected, and I feel the exact same way about them & their retirement plans. There’s a lot that ice and mav don’t talk about: the biggest one is obviously Goose’s death, the foundation of their relationship; but also their love for each other obv, what they did to rooster, AND their careers, which have to end at some point. Them talking about everything is totally inevitable, it was gonna have to happen eventually before they died, and I think one foot in the door MIGHT have been them eventually talking about retirement (someone sent in a prompt asking for this exactly & i am brainstorming it furiously) but before the Navy FORCES them to retire… i think they would studiously avoid talking about it. For a couple reasons: a) what does retiring with each other mean? living in the same house until they die together? hard to do if you’re just good friends. talking about retirement is tantamount to talking about Them. and b) what are they gonna do outside the navy? Ice has a lot of options, as I mentioned in the slider one-shot—general/flag officers are SUPER sought after in leadership/intelligentsia/management positions post service, so maybe if he were offered a crazy cool civilian position somewhere in San Diego in like the 2000s he would quit the navy for it… but what about maverick? I have no idea what a non-navy mav would do. Civilian airline pilot? Hoo boy. I think he’d hate that. I could maybe see emergency helicopter pilot, lol, or race car driver (i just watched days of thunder can you tell?) but none of the above offers the institutionalized honor the navy does (that, as a reminder, he *killed people* to obtain in the first place). I suggested his test piloting expertise would make him an attractive technical advising candidate to A&D companies like Boeing, LockMart, GD, etc. so that might be one option. But it might have been kind of a touchy subject for him before he racked up the expertise he’d need for those high-level civilian positions… the navy was kinda his only option. So they wouldn’t talk about it because it might hurt his feelings.

4. The biggest reason: again… open rebellion like rocking the boat by quitting the navy to be in an open long-term gay relationship, in upper mil brass ranks, and even retired upper mil brass ranks, just… isn’t done. And REALLY wasn’t done in the 2000s, when i think the scenario in this ask is positioned. And it’s not like “oh but whatever who cares about the navy, ice and mav are in love, they deserve to be happy no matter what, they should do what they want, fuck the navy…” no. Ice and Mav care about the navy. Clearly. Canonically. By necessity. The military requires cohesion and on some level repression of individuality & personal expression to FUNCTION, even when you’re retired. Yes, maverick certainly strains against that repression (which is why you Could spin top gun as an anti-military franchise if you were desperate enough), but he rebels through his ACTIONS (stupid plane maneuvers) not through his personal IDENTITY. his personal identity (headstrong overtly masculine white male pilot, whether gay or straight who cares) is NEVER challenged throughout the franchise (i.e. no one really challenges his masculinity specifically) & his personal identity does not POSE a challenge to the navy. Both he and ice in their outward-facing personal identities really fit in quite neatly to the navy’s overarching identity & contribute to the navy’s cohesion in a way that is favorable to both their careers and the establishment. Lack of imagination or not… i can’t see a universe in which Ice and mav would actively WANT to rock the boat and wreck the navy’s cohesion and their reputations for an open relationship and definitively rebellious personal identities, with the obvious caveat being Maverick’s death recontextualizing both their priorities (yes we’re in love AND we’ve finally proven ourselves to be ultra-capable officers regardless of our sexuality so no one has a license to judge us anymore etc.).

And also, they’re not enlisted seamen. Nor are they mediocre officers who have the luxury of fading into obscurity. Things are different when you’re that high in the ranks, and when your job publicly matters more. sorry, but even post DADT (probably until about biden’s election), an open relationship would end their careers. They might not be fired, but they’d never be promoted again. Too much of a liability getting subordinates to still respect them, from the higher-ups’ perspective, especially if there are other qualified candidates who fit the navy’s core identity better. Like—sorry. This is such a jaded oversimplification. But if you rock the boat like that (i.e. break the service’s united front to be individualistic in a way that does not match the service’s overarching identity), from the perspective of your officer peers, you simply are a bad officer. Being an open individual in a job where you are required to fit in and represent your service is not your job. You are not doing your job well. Straight-up. Even if you’re retired. I met US Army 4-star gen. David Petraeus (retired obv) in February—he led the successful-ish surge in iraq and Afghanistan in the mid-2000s—and he’s STILL a laughingstock for his disastrous affair with his biographer a decade ago, even after he retired from AD service. That’s what people remember him for, not the fact that he was one of our only successful commanders in any of our Middle East campaigns.

Something like that might be one of ice and mav’s worst fears—being known for their affair/scandal instead of the institutionalized honor they’ve fought and killed for. That kind of thing just Isn’t Done. It's bad taste. You have to keep it quiet. If you’re an officer representing the service, you have to represent it well & according to the service’s preconceived identity, even in retirement. (see, for another shitty example of "not fitting in" even in retirement, Lt. gen. Mike Flynn [his whole scandal is actually kinda geopolitically relevant to my fic if you squint lol] whom everyone fucking hates)

To summarize: i hope I’m not mischaracterizing your ask when i reframe it like this—would you ever write ice and mav without the institutionalized pressure to advance in rank and conform to institutional norms?

and yes, I would (and will if you ask—it looks like this: ice & mav meet & fall in love & it’s boring and fine. end of story), but I guarantee you someone else already has. I’m all about interrogation of institutional norms here. And i think until maverick dies & comes back from the dead, there is absolutely no *REALISTIC* incentive for ice & mav to leave the navy and/or have an open relationship. Like it’s just not possible. Idk how else to say it.