(Credit @kisswithatear) 

Honestly, the reason I think this could be Newt is because it struck me as so sarcastic XD

I tend to headcanon Newt as having a dim view of Jaeger pilots. Of course many authors have given him many different attitudes which are all equally valid, but my reference points are 1) the deleted scene with Raleigh in PR1 and 2) the Precursor!Newt showboating in PR2 where he’s like, “Oh look, giant robots, real original guys.” Because no matter what word-of-god says that that’s the Precursors, to me that is 100% Newt. 

I’ll go into more detail plus add my thoughts on Hermann below.

1) The reason I cite the deleted Raleigh scene with Newt is because there’s just no flippin’ way Newt doesn’t know who Raleigh Beckett is. He’s a hotshot Jaeger pilot who took down Yamarashi, among other Kaiju. To my mind, Newt is clearly fucking with Raleigh with the whole, “Oh, look at you, you’ve got a good eye for THE KAIJU YOU LITERALLY FACED IN BATTLE.” 

He must have known that Pentecost was looking for Mark 3 pilots, he must have known who Raleigh is. Jaeger pilots were celebrities! Knowing who killed the Kaiju Newt dissects is probably an aspect of his job since he’d probably watch the videos of their defeat for data? Which is what makes me think he’s got a sour view of Jaeger pilots.

“Kaiju samples are extremely rare, so look but don’t touch please.” Ok so we see these Jaeger pilots pummeling Kaiju to bits, that can’t make Newt’s job any easier. He says as much with, “I’d like to see one alive, and up close one day.” The thing that offends him enough to chase after Raleigh and start bitching him out is when Raleigh says, “Trust me, you don’t.”

This tells me that Newt has spent a lot of time speculating on what he could learn and accomplish if he had better access to Kaiju, ie Kaiju that haven’t been pummeled into bloody scraps by people like Raleigh. It makes me think he spent a lot of time bitching out said Jaeger pilots in his head while dissecting the few samples he could get his hands on (his wonderment at the “heaven” of Hannibal Chau’s shop tells me there’s pieces out there he literally only knows about in theory and reinforces that he dreams of getting his hands on those pieces). 

IMO, Newt’s ideal approach to the Kaiju War would have been more scientific and even peaceful (to cite myself in ch. 6 of The Only Way Out is Down) – he probably wanted to try a diplomatic approach if possible, maybe reason with the Kaiju somehow if they can be reasoned with (as of the film though it looks like the predominant theory is that they’re dumb beasts, however while Newt is shocked to find the Precursors exist as masters, he rolls with the punches pretty quickly and is already developing a theory on how they operate). 

So Jaeger pilots to him represent (in my mind) the worst kind of “shoot first, ask questions later” when it comes to the Kaiju, and as an inquisitive person that is always asking questions, this is the greatest insult. Not to mention the purely personal grudge he probably has from having to sift through pulverized samples. Who knows if Earth could have been saved sooner with an approach that wasn’t “punch them to bloody scraps”? Both to find a more peaceful solution, but also to give scientists like him better data, and it’s all the fault of people like Raleigh, hence he does not like Jaeger pilots as a group that Raleigh represents. He has no other obvious reason to dislike Raleigh on sight like that.

(Aside: As of PR1, Newt clearly seems to think there might have been another way. Interestingly though, the internal morality of Pacific Rim is that Newt is wrong and needed to learn a lesson on this fact because Raleigh Beckett is proven right that Newt shouldn’t want to see one up close. It’s actually a rather odd moral lesson coming from Guillermo Del Toro that looking for an intellectual solution and wanting to get closer to monsters sees one of our characters get punished, especially given the events of PR2 where Newt’s curiosity in PR1 literally destroys his life and almost destroys the world again. The only justification I can think of for this internal morality that isn’t “being intellectual and looking for a peaceful solution is bad, punching things is always the answer” is that Newt learned these guys are conquerors, basically fascists, so GDT is less saying, “Hey kids, violence is always the answer!” and more saying “Punch a Nazi”.)

2) I mean, the scene in Uprising to me just backs up everything I said in point 1. Newt is all, “Oh yeah, REAL ORIGINAL, guys.” To me that’s 100% Newt unless the Precursor Hive Mind has that level of awareness and context about human actions enough to make sarcastic jokes about it. Which is, btw, a hysterically funny thought like, “Hey, we tossed out a whole different looking Kaiju every time, bitches. We adapted. And you’re still just doing rock ‘em, sock ‘em robots I mean, come on, where’s the pizzazz? Where’s the presentation?!” But even if we go with it being them, I think their context of the world is filtered through Newt’s thoughts and perceptions, so I really do think Newt is exasperated with the giant robot schtick. Like, hey, it was cool at first, but after 10+ years humanity didn’t look for any alternative besides jocks like Raleigh Beckett punching them to death?

Oh, I also think Newt hates jocks. I mean for real, buys wholly into the jocks vs. nerds stereotypes, hook line and sinker. Newt is clearly and canonically very aware of nerd stereotypes and tries to undermine them by being “cool” with tattoos and dressing like a member of Good Charlotte circa 2005 (which would have been his impressionable teen years). But to care that much about how nerds are perceived tells me he cares so much about those stupid stereotypes and sees it as his personal duty to show up the jocks and pick fights with whoever he perceives to be a jock at every opportunity. See again: Raleigh Beckett. 

As for Hermann – I can sum him up a bit more quickly I think. 

– We know he worked on the Mark 1 Jaegers, so he probably has a positive view of Jaegers in general (*coughJaegerFuckercough*) BUT, in all seriousness, given that we see Hermann go from Jaeger programmer, to Breach theorist, to Kaiju-blood rocket K-Sci savant in Uprising, he strikes me as someone who defined his life by the Kaiju War probably from the beginning of it. He strikes me as someone who saw the threat immediately (just like Newt) and dove headlong into fighting this threat. It gave his life purpose. So, his career is less total Hollywood “all science is the same, right?” and more that Hermann goes wherever he feels his intellect is most needed. Once Jaegers were being more widely programmed, he moved on to studying the Breach, because there weren’t enough people working there and he knew he was smart enough to understand it. After that, once the Breach was closed, he recognized that no one was thinking about rapid Jaeger deployment in case they came back, so he began optimizing that.

– But we know from semi-canon that at one point Hermann wanted to be a Jaeger pilot and even attended the academy. As a kid with a Space Champion helmet, I headcanon he wanted to be an astronaut. I think that too plays into the idea of Hermann always wanting to be at the bleeding edge of where humanity needed a mind like his most. In peaceful times, it was exploring space, in the Kaiju War, especially at the beginning, they needed Jaeger pilots and programmers.

– I think if Newt is a Kaiju groupie, Hermann’s dangerous obsession is that he’s a military groupie, and was only held back by his illness/injury in his leg (whichever it is). He salutes all the time even when he doesn’t have to. He clearly idolizes people like Marshal Pentecost, and treats them with enormous respect. If we use the Left Brain/Right Brain dichotomy with Newt, he is lawful, orthodox, and axiomatic to Newt’s chaos and anti-authoritarian tendencies. He sees them as a critical part of the war effort, and himself by extension. He stuck with the PPDC when, apparently, no one else besides Mako did. He’s basically a lifelong military scientist by Uprising. 

So overall I’d say that Hermann has a positive view of Jaegers and Jaeger pilots, and may even idolize or be envious of them while recognizing his own expertise lie elsewhere. He goes where he is most useful. But he may be argued to have an even romantic view of them, in extreme contrast to Newt’s disdain. I could see this as a point they argue over.