#graves talking to soap about honour...when i first played that scene that had me on the edge of my seat because i am not normal about the

[exfil]

thinking about how soap and graves are in total sync before the betrayal in las almas. in agreement on how to proceed both with hassan (you can't be serious / let me finish this, actual) and el sin nombre (we came here to stop a missile, lets stop it / this is our one shot, so we take it) both rejoicing the same aspects of battle (it's a beautiful sight / you know i love that shit). easy comraderie, relying on each other (let's wrap this fucker up, graves / [soap], call me when you need me), complimenting each other (good eye, shadow-1 / need you with us, seargant), working in sync when disarming a missile (we gotta move, brother. alright?) casual touches and smiles on the bridge of the ship. seemingly aligned in motivation and action at every turn.

but then after the betrayal, and las almas, the confrontation in the tank happens. and it sets up graves and soap not only as enemies, but are narrative foils, interestingly enough, the contrast that becomes clear from their verbal spat is not about action, but about motivation. specifically, the meaning about being a soldier- they argue about the uniform (hiding behind that uniform / you wore that uniform), about loyalty to the army (i shed that skin / like a fucking snake) about being perserverance (you had to make your own little army because couldn't hack it in the real one) and about honour (knock that honour shit off, johnny).

and it reframes all their interactions before the betrayal - while they worked in complete agreement before, they arrived at the same conclusions from completely opposites angles. both see themselves as soldiers, as needing destruction for the greater good, even rejoice in it - but while both see violence as means to an end, but they differ but about the means. they don't disagree about the necessity killing, but about every aspect of what being a soldier while doing it entails. i'm up to doing my fucking job you should try it sometime. / my job is to kill the enemy. guess what you are. absolutely fascinating character dynamic, i wish we talked about it more