Oh sure, Anon! For reference, they’re referring to this scene with Newt pushing Hermann into the elevator after clashing with Raleigh. 

Gif Credit to @jeffreycombs because Tumblr wouldn’t let me link it directly 😦 

First of all, it’s been observed elsewhere that the level of touchy-feeliness between Hermann and Newt is familiar liek woah, I dunno about you but I wouldn’t tolerate a despised colleague manhandling me like that. It speaks to a fairly intimate relationship (more like bickering exes or an “old married couple” than acquaintances). Newt just blithely begins touching Hermann and Hermann’s reaction is barely annoyed by it, and he reacts as if expecting it SO, first there’s that. (A good argument could be made that it was cut because the science boys were being too familiar for their arc of “learning to like each other” at this point.)

But what’s more fascinating to me is that moment in juxtaposition with this one:

“Please excuse him, he’s a Kaiju groupie.”

These scenes back to back show a certain level of very fascinating protectiveness of one another against outsiders. Yes they’re insulting one another, but the tone of the insult is taking note of their qualities and protecting each other from themselves. Hermann is calling him a Kaiju groupie, but he’s also asking the outsider to forgive Newt, points out that it’s a harmless foible, and not to take it personally (and, for example, punch Newt in the face which if someone in that elevator had lost family to Yamarashi he would KINDA DESERVE). 

(Aside: the calling one another “harmless” implication is also interestingly echoed by Newt in Uprising telling Shao that Hermann is harmless, which could be seen as dismissive but could also be read as extremely protective. “Don’t look at him, he’s not dangerous,” he’s saying, distracting the attention of someone who could conceivably be very dangerous to Hermann if she so chose.)

But to go back to what we learn about Newt from that exchange about not saluting:

This moment, combined with Newt’s later command of “Move, you fascist!” to Herc Hansen is the root of a lot of on-screen evidence of Newt’s anti-authoritarian tendencies. That, and the shots of him at the protest in the Drift, along with his general demeanor and appearance with the tattoos.

But Newt does work with a military organization and he is a genius. He’s definitely not stupid. There’s another level of “don’t salute” that instantly pinged me as protective of Hermann, and perhaps subtly warning him against being a military groupie in the same way that Hermann cautions Newt about being a Kaiju groupie. 

Being in the military chain of command can get you hurt. If Hermann is a military officer, it means he’s subject to commands. Commands that in time of war he could, in the most extreme examples, be legally shot on the spot for ignoring. Yes there’s such thing as conscientious objector, or refusing to take an illegal order, but proving those is an upward slog and militaries have been known to do everything in their power and stall the process for years of anyone who tries to prove they were justified in stepping out of line. Yes, being an officer has a certain glamor, but it loses you a lot of freedom and privileges of being a civilian. You can be muzzled, your work can be classified, you can be passed around to bad commanding officers, your life can be made a living hell, and you have very little recourse because of the nature of war and your orders. 

To my eyes, Newt here isn’t just telling Hermann to stop being ridiculous by playing at being a soldier when he isn’t one. Yes it’s implied Hermann is starry-eyed about military organizations ever since “Space Champion”, and that he wanted to be a Jaeger pilot himself before external factors prevented that, so he makes up for it by being the next best thing and by saluting even when he doesn’t have to. But Newt is telling Hermann, “I promise, you don’t actually want to be an officer because it isn’t cool and it isn’t safe.” Saluting may seem innocent, but it is showing Hermann as having a desire to enter to the chain of command, and the chain of command is not innocent. 

So maybe it’s a reach, maybe it’s too much of a nuance, but these two scenes back to back tell me that both Newt and Hermann do their best to protect one another, in their own backhand-compliment way, against outsiders and from the dangerous things that fascinate them.