#im closer to 10 years old than i am to 31 😞 ten years ago today i was at my little baseball summer camp :) in third grade

[compacflt]

what are bradley’s earliest memories of ice and mav? the bits of his perspective on them that you’ve written are so fascinating

fairly unsurprising answer but: ice: when he came to see Carole to apologize for killing goose in ch 2 of wwgattai (sets the tone of their relationship)

mav: something very benign like mav doing magic tricks for him as a little little kid. you know how your earliest memories are always a little fuzzy and always afternoon sunshine? imagine a desaturated maverick sitting crosslegged in the grass in pale afternoon southern california sunshine showing Bradley how he can detach his thumb from his hand and then put it back again. no blood, no bone, no pain, and he’s got this daredevil grin like he’s enjoying separating his thumb from his hand. can’t see his eyes behind his aviators. the best magicians are the ones who can make even their pain disappear. or, playing “got your nose,” holding Bradley’s nose up so he can see it right in front of his very eyes, NO PAIN!, and then making it disappear. “where’d your nose go, Gosling? oh, my gosh, I lost your nose!! how’re you gonna smell? i bet you’re gonna smell bad. get it? get it? —here it is, i found it, don’t worry, it’s all good!” and putting his nose back so everything’s ok. that’s Bradley’s earliest memory of mav.

#Bradley’s nose (mavs thumb) is a foreshadowing metaphor for the academy here obviously #this is just my conjecture as a californian kid who was many times duped by the thumb trick myself. #You know where they screw it off and it really looks convincing #im closer to 10 years old than i am to 31 😞 ten years ago today i was at my little baseball summer camp :) in third grade #pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #bradley rooster bradshaw #top gun #asks #also ive had this little scene where he drives to their house in his moms car after some late high school event #only to find ice & mav passed out on the couch together at 9:30 at night with the tv still playing #because mav had made a home between ices arms and (tired fighter pilot after long day of drills) fell asleep there and what #was ice supposed to do; wake up an exhausted American hero & push him away? no. this isn’t so bad. —and then accidentally fell asleep too. #and bradleys just standing there in his homecoming tux going ‘oh this is real. oh they really are. oh. ok i will let them sleep.’ #and sneaking back into his moms car to go to his own house for once. #i can’t find anywhere to put that scene so you’re getting it in the tags of this post