#what if they make a third movie and like. they say that mav and bradley didnt rly know each other growing up

[actuallyitsstar]

have u seen the top gun 3 leaks/rumors?? GOD i hope it's true 😭😭😭 i need to see miles teller bradley bradshaw again

aaaaa hi there nonnie!! omg yes i have!! i'm just a bit 50/50 on the whole idea if i'm being honest- on the one hand, i would love so so much to see our favorite old man and the daggers and ofc bradley ;) again, and there are so many things about top gun/tgm that i think can rly be expanded upon and explored!! but on the other hand, i am worried that so close together and with it seeming a bit like a studio rush due to money or contracts or bargaining, idk. it might not turn out how i'm/we're hoping and i'd almost rather keep what we have now than have something we don't like become canon as a result of something like that 😭😭 i guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens! i am excited, but mostly, i am cautious, and very very nervous lol.

everyone has varying interpretations of our current canon material, and in their own way and their own universe everyone is right- but i do fear what would happen if they made a third movie that drew the line. someone will get alienated no matter what, and who knows what they could decide to do! they could rule out or include a relationship we consider basically canon or to be an ick, or they could directly contradict a beloved fandom headcanon that we all hold dear and turn those of us already quite committed to it into au participators all at once.... etc. of course, on the other hand, they could do exactly what we hope for- you never know- we just all hope for such different things. i worry that there's no way to make as well done and well received a movie as tgm due to the loss of the nostalgia factor and the rush and the split fanbase demographics, but at the same time i am excited by the possibility of seeing the things i'd want to see! it's all quite up in the air, but we'll have to be patient i suppose!

(thanks so much for the ask, nonnie! have a lovely day!! <3)

[compacflt]

Okay maybe I totally missed it in the story, but I’ve gotta ask: how did Jake find out about Ice and Mav?? I know there was a line about “figuring out who Bradley’s dads were” in Debriefing, and it seems like Jake definitely knows by the carrier for the mission, given how he reacts when Bradley says he’s gay and that they “hate him for not being able to hide it like them”, but when was the discussion about exactly what Ice and Mav are to each other? At what point did Bradley tell him, and how long did Jake spend staring at a wall and saying “huh” in a dazed sort of way???

i admit i made it confusing on purpose and i admit there isn’t much of jakes reaction but yes

it’s the third “he was my dad.” specifically about ice. whereas the other two are about goose & mav. because, you know, there are three of them. dads, that is. ice just happens to be the third

Jake canonically doesn’t know what’s up with the holy dad trinity because he doesn’t even react to seeing goose btwn ice (fucking cdr of the pacflt) and mav (his fucking CO) in that old top gun photo —only cares about goose. clueless-ass mf. and the homosexual little “what is with these two!” during the first practice dogfight.

but i bet there were clues. a lot of little things that eventually came together.

a.) scrolling through the navy times on his laptop in bed cause he’s bored one night, tilting it over so bradley can see the screen and read the headline, ‘RADM tom Kazansky named pacific fleet commander,’ just randomly asking “whaddaya make of this guy?” and next to him bradley freezes and almost refuses to speak and then snipishly says, “he’s gay.” / “what?” what a wild thing to say! / “i just know it. he’s gay. look at him. hiding it like that.” / “what a weird fucking thing to say about a guy you’ve never met, bradshaw!” / and bradley going all silent and sullen the way he does sometimes and saying “well i don’t think anything of him. whatever.” / and then both of them put it from their minds and never talk about it again.

B.) all the quiet little dad-related breakdowns over the years. Father’s Day is never happy when bradley’s around. jake made the mistake of asking him why, once. he said something to the effect of “well with three of them you’d think id be statistically likely to get a dad who wasn’t unbelievably fucked-up or dead but nope! it’s three times as bad as usual!” and refused to elaborate. bradley is often annoying this way.

c.) the fact that capt mitchell, maverick, who looks like a gracefully-aging movie star, is by all accounts nice and charming and mostly-ish respected, and yet apparently chronically single, a confirmed bachelor for as long as most officers can remember. hondo knows something, clearly, but he’s being very cagey about it, apparently out of loyalty to maverick. even on day ONE of the special training detachment at Top Gun, there are rumors. Some more mean-spirited than others (looking at you, harvard) which Jake tries to shut down, because he remembers being on the receiving end of mean-spirited rumors like that, and rumors about a guy like maverick probably aren’t true. ‘I’ve heard about him. Whispers. Watch him the next time we hit the Hard Deck. He’ll flirt with Penny the bartender, and she’ll flirt back, but he sure as hell won’t take her home. You know what I mean.’ Yeah right. dangerous to make comments about a man like maverick. jake keeps his mouth shut.

d.) but then there’s the way bradley acts around him. They’ve met before and they know each other and there is not only bad blood between them, it’s blood that’s been simmering for a while and just now boiling over. Three dads. the maverick-related rumors. hmm…

e.) that picture of goose and mav and ice. OKAY. Now we’re getting somewhere. Bradley’s dad… LTJG nick bradshaw… FLEW with maverick. Looks up the obituary online and reads the news reports he can find in the archives. Maverick was behind the stick when goose ate it. Okay. Two out of three dads found and accounted for. (Because they’re broken up, and because jakes still heartbroken, this fact will be used as ammunition. “Or that maverick was flying when his—“ “YOU SON OF A BITCH!” et cetera et cetera.)

f.) on the flight deck shaking hands with the commanding officer of every commanding officer jake has ever dad—admiral tom kazansky, come to wish the aviators good luck, and to sanction their attack. this is, like, a big deal. like a really big deal. like, makes you wanna stop and ask him for a selfie to post on your LinkedIn to advance your career kind of big deal. but out of the corner of his eye… jake’s noticing Bradley on the verge of a dad-related breakdown. bradley doesn’t seem to care how much of a big deal it is to have the privilege to shake the hand of the commander of the pacific fleet. isn’t even looking. something big and hateful between them. something like bad blood. oh oh oh. wait. It’s coming together.

g.) poking fun at him. psyching him out. what’s a little pre-suicide-mission hazing between exes? what is with you, bradshaw? you’re, like, freaking out over here..! —and Bradley, looking for someone—anyone!—to trust, tugging him into his cabin on the aircraft carrier and bursting into tears and crashing down onto the linoleum into jake’s arms and saying “he was my dad…!”

h.) bingo.

[pilvimarja]

now what made you ship roosmav (not the same anon but i'm curious)

Put simply, it's 100% the kind of ship I've always been drawn to. I love it when characters have a lot of history and a deep bond with some emotional conflict. I wouldn't say Roosmav is straight up enemies-to-lovers, but it has many elements that I love about that trope. Rooster is so angry and hurt for two thirds of the movie, but you can tell he loves Mav and is desperate to forgive him and have him back in his life.

I also think Mav and Rooster's relationship was the emotional core of the movie. It was so heavily tied to who Maverick is as a character in TGM and it's the relationship with the most depth and development, even more so than Maverick's heterosexual romance sub plot (the same was true in TG86 with IceMa* and GooseMa*).

I'm very aware that the age gap and Mav knowing Bradley since his childhood is an issue for a lot of people, but I've always liked May/December relationship and the age gap between Mav and Rooster isn't actually that significant when Rooster himself is pushing forty (fics that take place pre-canon are obviously their own thing and I'll get to that in a bit). I enjoy exploring relationships where one person is on the wrong side of middle-age and their body is full of aches and pains and they can't always keep up with their younger partner, but they make up for it with their skill and experience and patience the younger character can't match. I just really love that kind of contrast 😗🤌

And you know, I'm shallow enough to admit that they also look really hot together!

I'm gonna put the rest under a cut for talk about pre-canon fics where Bradley is usually under eighteen.

The dynamic in these scenarios is very different and the appeal to me personally is Bradley's intense, often unrequited love for Maverick and how deeply and almost obsessively he wants and desires Mav who rarely returns his feelings. And even when the fics are explicit and there is sex, there's a heavy focus on Mav's guilt, how devoted he is to Bradley, the unhealthy lack of boundaries and the taboo nature of the relationship, which appeals to the dark fic fan in me. I know some people can't stomach darker content like this, but I personally don't have any issues with using fictional characters to explore things that make me uncomfortable in real life. If something fictional does make me uncomfortable, I hit the back button and read something else. I also like non-Roosmav AU fics about various characters from Miles and Tom's movies (Stacee Jaxx and Andrew from Whiplash being one of my favorites!), and I think some of these characters are actually more suitable for darker scenarios than Maverick.

[samaraannhan20]

Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw Imagine: Anxiety

“Hey honey,” I hear as Bradley walks through our front door. “Hi Roo,” I say my eyes barely straying from the movie that is playing on the tv in front of me, while my hands search for the remote that I know has to be around here somewhere. I finally find the remote, and, after pausing the tv, stand up from the couch and turn to face him. “Really? In The Heights again? That is like the third time this week babe,” he says as I round the couch to kiss him in greeting. “Why did you even need to pause it, you know it by heart?” he says, with a teasing smile on his face. I give him a quick kiss as I wrap my arms around his waist , before responding. “It’s about to be the ‘Vaneeeesssssa’ part and you know I want to be able to sing along with that,” is my response, and he chuckles as he buries his face in my hair. “I’m going to go change, and then, if it's okay with you, I thought we would go to The Hard Deck and see Penny, Mav,  and the guys? If you’re anxiety is still acting up like it was when you called me earlier, then we don’t have to go, but I know how seeing your parents sometimes helps you,” he says, looking down at my 5’3” stature from his 6 foot height, our arms still wrapped around each other. “I’m a bit better now. That’s part of the reason I have the movie turned on. It helps calm me down, especially after I have to close my store early because of my anxiety. But it is okay. I mean, it’s my store, I can do what I want,” I say with a shrug of my shoulders, before stretching up on my toes to kiss him again. “Anyway, I am good to go to The Hard Deck tonight. I’ve been wanting to see my parents. And I’m ready whenever you are,” I say, before finally pulling myself out of his arms. He walks away to go to the bedroom and change out of his uniform, but as he goes he hollers at me. “Oh yeah, I bought you something. It’s on the counter.” I turn to the kitchen to see what he could be talking about, and see a book bag. I do a little jog over to the bag, and open it excitedly. As I open it I see the book series that I have been wanting, even though I have run out of room for books in my office. “Bradley Nicholas Bradshaw! You didn’t!” I yell, and about two seconds later he comes out of our room changed and ready to go. “Oh, but I did. After you called me I finished the training session I was in, and stopped at the book store on my way home. You had mentioned the other day that you wanted to get these books, so I went in and asked the employee to take me to where they were, and then I grabbed all three,” he says, a small blush forming on his cheeks, as he sheepishly rubs his neck. “Have I ever told you that I love you?” “Only about everyday.” “Oh well, I do. Thank you so much. I couldn’t make it through life without you.”