Writing about chuck hansen is such a fine line between describing this genuinely upsetting character and woobifying this fuck boy supreme, which I think is exactly the point of him. His character introductions are always a forced contrast between his actions, never mind his intent, because we see him on the news saving the day but also directly, deliberately insulting the hero and the hero’s struggle. We see him again eating with his dad and defending the hero’s improbable goal of saving the world with infectious bravado, but also cruising for a bruising from everyone in earshot. He had all of the exposition-established fame and prestige the world has to offer plus the opportunity that becomes mako’s personal goal and character motivation, but zero agency. The unique thing about pacrim is most of the characters have personal goals or emotional investments (relating to but still) independent of the A Plot We never hear him express any kind of personal goal besides “I want to come back from this mission” because his formative years where everyone has an identity crisis were consumed by fighting kaiju, training to fight kaiju, drifting and reliving the kaiju fights, rinse and repeat. His personhood was dead long before he left with stacker, and raleigh rightfully saw him as a second-to-worst case scenario.
there’s something endlessly hilarious to me about the phrase “hotly debated” in an academic context. like i just picture a bunch of nerds at podiums & one’s like “of course there was a paleolithic bear cult in Northern Eurasia” and another one just looks him in the eye and says “i’ll kill you in real life, kevin”
Avelera 