#also stella. you know my thoughts on snaf. they inform a lot of this that i realise i haven't totally elaborated on but haven't got the

[hellofanidea]

oh yes pls talk about the sidney/sledge/shelton dynamic i'd love to hear your take on it!

Okay okay okay so disclaimer that it's been a while since I last watched The Pacific, and I don't spend as much time in the fanworks for it as I do other stuff, so mea culpa if I'm fucking up or just repeating any widely accepted fanon

BUT

Maybe it's just because I really love all three of them and want them to be happy, but I feel like they'd really get on together, both as Sledgfu and Best Friend Sid, or as an ot3 dynamic.

And Stella this is partly your fault bc you reminded me about Sid/Sledge and. I have lots of thoughts and feelings about the potential for that. Mostly because it's friends to lovers and that really is absolute catnip for me, but also the potential of it always being there but never being fully realised? Their positions as two wealthy young white men in the American South during this era preventing them from venturing into romantic territory but them keeping that strong, loyal, friendship nevertheless? They're always going to love each other, the know that, no matter how that's expressed. That's not going away for either of them.

Now, you might then expect there to be an issue with jealousy once Snafu is introduced, and you'd probably be right, at least at first. From both of them! Sid grew up with Eugene, has had all those experiences, knows him inside and out, and Snafu would probably be wary of that, of that closeness. But Snafu knows the ins and outs of the new Sledge, the one who's come home from the war different than how he left. Sid isn't as in the dark as the other people around them on that front, but he still wasn't there for the traumatic, formative, experiences that have shaped this returning Eugene like Snafu was.

There's also the more obvious cultural hangups. Snafu would probably be pretty disdainful and distrusting at first of this rich white boy. Yes, that also describes Sledge, but he's always going to be Snaf's exception to stuff like that. They've seen too much, been through too much together for it to bother him the way it does with other people.

There are two things that I think would break down these potential issues for the Sid/Snafu friendship. The first is that they both love Eugene. Eugene also loves them both, in whatever way that may be. And once they can recognise that in each other, and the importance of each other in Sledge's life, that's... kind of like half of whatever battle might have happened. At the very least they're now willing to tolerate each other. Or bond over shared trauma (both were on Guadalcanal when Sledge wasn't) and their concern for Sledge.

The second is that Sid and Snafu, once they really got to know each other, would probably just get on? On top of that shared military experience, Sid being Sledge's friend means they probably have that same sharp sense of humour under that Southern charm, which Snafu would appreciate and find easy to bounce off of. There's also the fact that Snafu doesn't tend to be needlessly cruel. Most of his anger or mockery is reactionary, almost defensive. It's unlikely he'd spite Sid or get nasty with him for no good reason, and any additional abrasiveness Sid can probably roll with. Basically it tracks that if Sledge and Sid are friends, and Sledge and Snafu are friends, then Snafu and Sid are probably going to find enough parts of each other to get on with.

Tldr; Sid and Snafu should be buddies post-war because, like Sledge, Sid's personality and sense of humour would likely endear him to Snaf, and Snafu's nowhere near enough of an asshole to dissuade someone who grew up with and remains friends with Eugene Sledge.