#this insight was triggered by stumbling upon a nearly 10yo LJ HSAU comment fic where brad fucks ray over so hard to spend time w nate

[lukeyhughes]

rant from drafts about brad colbert under the cut bc i love him

sometimes I’ll read a fic where Brad is really mean to his friends (usually ray but not exclusively) without the miniseries’ clear undercurrent of affection and i’m always ??? about it for two reasons

first of all why would anybody put effort into being friends w somebody who is so cruel/callous with them; that’s not a healthy relationship and im pretty most if not all of the characters on the show wouldn’t go for that 

second of all i feel like the miniseries goes out of its way to show that despite his iceman reputation brad is a great friend. the only other person that the writers put that much effort into showing as a good friend is arguably ray but that’s because taking care of people is about 1/3 of his character (the other 2/3 are being loudmouth comic relief and being smart as a whip). which is not to say that the other characters aren’t good friends or whatever, but it’s not really shown in the miniseries bc the writers prioritize showing off different characteristics for different people for time and story’s sake

anyway, brad is consistently shown to be able to pick up on how one of his fellow marines is feeling and tries to give them the support/comfort/whatever they need in a way that is palatable to them 

off the top of my head, he notices that poke is upset in the last few episodes and literally busts his ass to make him feel better. he is willing to defy command to bring kocher justice after he is demoted from bravo 3. when he notices that walt is frazzled after the roadblock he lays off immediately. heck he brings he hides chef boyardee for his team and doesnt eat it even when theyre reduced to one meal a day

disregarding shopping for the next two (as im talking writers intention and i don’t believe they intended any relationship to be romantic)

ray and brad’s banter/insults are mean in words but the key is that they’re not mean-spirited, i see it as essentially another way to pass the time. this be an unpopular opinion, but i honestly don’t get the fanon that brad is irritated by ray. how often does brad genuinely get annoyed w ray in the show? once that i can think of off the top of my head (pre-bridge ambush) but there might be one or two other times. their other interactions are either framed with amusement or concern. “shut up ray” isn’t a mean takedown it’s usually just a way to end the conversation and tell everyone that it’s time to focus now. also there’s that famous gif set of brad looking worried when ray is upset as well as when he defends ray when pappy lightly makes fun of him

brad shows himself to be a good friend to nate too despite the difficulties of the officer-enlisted divide. he notices that nate is feeling unsure of himself and his actions a few times and gives him the reassurance he needs. when nate’s command is being challenged for “insubordination” he reassures him that he has confidence in his leadership. i should note that as i recall he says the “far enough sir” line when nate shuts down a mission that the show made a point of showing he was excited about: not only does he reassure nate that he trusts him but he does it despite his probable disappointment of his one night recon being taken away. this happens earlier too when he’s complaining to nate about not being in the assault of baghdad: he cans it immediately when nate earnestly tells him that he’s glad to bring all his men home alive, listening/understanding what he has to say or at least prioritizing nate’s feelings over his own disappointment.

tl;dr i love brad colbert for a lot of reasons but one of the big ones is how much he cares for people despite the front he puts up and it pains me when people write him like a huge dick