#bob and coyote had basically the same screentime

[boasamishipper]

EMILY YOUR TAGS IN THE LATEST POSTSS I'M DYING!! SPILL THE TEA - Sanji aka allkinds-oftrash

Okay.

So I was in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy fandom for five whole years. From 2015 to 2020. Finn was my favorite character and Finnrey was my preferred ship, and if you know anything about the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy and what an enormous flaming shitshow it became (thanks a lot Rian Johnson and Kathleen Kennedy; I refuse to blame JJ Abrams because he did his best cleaning up their messes), you Know that I - and my fellow Finnreys and Finn stan mutuals - deserve So Much Financial Compensation.

How does this relate to my tags on that tg2 post the other day, you ask? Well......

So being an active Finn stan and Finnrey shipper in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy fandom for so long (hereafter referred to as the SWST fandom) means that I saw the best of fandom (incredible fic and art and meta and graphics) and the worst of fandom (racism, sexism, misogynoir, I cannot emphasize enough how mindbogglingly, infuriatingly racist some of these fans were) all in one place. What I learned from those five years is something that I've seen in every fandom I've been in since (and in retrospect): characters of color (particularly Black characters) are consistently ignored and overlooked in favor of white characters. Whether this is purposeful or accidental bias is another question entirely that I honestly do not have the spoons to look into. All I'm gonna do is lay out the facts as I see them.

Back to the SWST. We have Rey, our female lead (played by Daisy Ridley, a white woman), introduced to us in The Force Awakens (2015). In TFA, TLJ, and TROS, we are shown that she is closest with Finn (played by John Boyega, a Black man), a former Stormtrooper turned Resistance hero who saved her life, and Kylo Ren, once known as Ben Solo, (played by Adam Driver, a white man) has been trying to manipulate her to the Dark Side (and when that fails, tries to kill her - and also mindraped / tortured her / killed her father figure in TFA).

Who does fandom ship Rey with the most?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Which brings me to Top Gun: Maverick (2022), which came out a little under two months ago as I write this. Our characters with the most screentime (and who they are shown ON SCREEN to be closest to) are as follows:

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise), shown to be closest to Iceman Kazansky (Val Kilmer), his wingman from the first movie; Hondo Coleman (Bashir Salahuddin), a close friend of his who worked with him on the Darkstar project; Warlock Bates (Charles Parnell), NAWDC commander, who Mav is stated to already be acquainted with pre-movie; Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly), his old flame and on-again / off-again love interest; and Rooster Bradshaw (Miles Teller), who he views like a son ("I was trying to be the father he lost."). Mav has an antagonistic relationship with Cyclone (Jon Hamm), who does not hide his dislike of him for the majority of the movie. Mav was also very close with his RIO Goose Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), who died in an accident when they were at TOPGUN in the first movie.

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller), shown to be closest to Phoenix Trace (Monica Barbaro), who knows him best, and Maverick Mitchell, who was a father figure to him after his father Goose's tragic death. He has a longstanding antagonistic relationship with Hangman Seresin (Glen Powell), who insults the way he flies (and vice versa) and insinuates that Rooster's father figure was responsible for the death of his father; he and Hangman do come to respect each other at the end of the film, after Hangman saves his and Mav's lives.

Jake "Hangman" Seresin (Glen Powell), shown to be actively disliked by many of the pilots, including Rooster, Phoenix, her WSO Bob Floyd (Lewis Pullman), and Payback's WSO Fanboy (Danny Ramirez). He is shown to be most comfortable around Coyote Machado (Greg Tarzan Davis), whom he holds in as high of a regard as he holds himself ("And here I thought we were special, Coyote."). See above for his relationship with Rooster.

Other close relationships shown to us onscreen include Bob and Phoenix's relationship and Payback (Jay Ellis) and Fanboy's relationship. Payback, Fanboy, Coyote, Warlock, and Hondo are the main characters of color. Halo (Kara Wang), Fritz (Manny Jacinto), and Yale (Raymond Lee) are pilots of color, but have few (if any) speaking lines.

There have been 1005 fics posted under Top Gun: Maverick (2020) - the fact that the tags were combined is a rant for another day - since May 24, 2022, which is the date of the early access premiere. Let's see our most popular ships. (This list excludes x reader fics and does not distinguish whether the ship listed is the Main Ship of a fic.)

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw/Jake "Hangman" Seresin (397)

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw & Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (148)

Robert "Bob" Floyd/Jake "Hangman" Seresin (116)

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (105)

Tom "Iceman" Kazansky/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (76)

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw & Natasha "Phoenix" Trace (62)

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw/Natasha "Phoenix" Trace (52)

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell/Jake "Hangman" Seresin (28)

Penny Benjamin/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (27)

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell/Beau "Cyclone" Simpson (26)

Now let's take a look at the relationships laid out above that are missing from this list and see how many fics they have.

Bernie "Hondo" Coleman & Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (2)

Bernie "Hondo" Coleman/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (0)

Solomon "Warlock" Bates & Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (0)

Solomon "Warlock" Bates/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (0)

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell & Beau "Cyclone" Simpson (1)

Reuben "Payback" Fitch/Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia (12)

Reuben "Payback" Fitch & Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia (4)

Javy "Coyote" Machado & Jake "Hangman" Seresin (24)

Javy "Coyote" Machado/Jake "Hangman" Seresin (8)

Robert "Bob" Floyd & Natasha "Phoenix" Trace (21)

Robert "Bob" Floyd/Natasha "Phoenix" Trace (17)

And who is being written about the most?

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (743)

Jake "Hangman" Seresin (666)

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (533)

Natasha "Phoenix" Trace (402)

Robert "Bob" Floyd (346)

Javy "Coyote" Machado (197)

Reuben "Payback" Fitch (142)

Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia (138)

Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (119)

Beau "Cyclone" Simpson (80)

Penny Benjamin (79)

Solomon "Warlock" Bates (33)

Bernie "Hondo" Coleman (26)

Notice a pattern here?

This post is not meant to make anybody feel guilty for choosing to write about one ship or another, nor is it arguing that anybody who does focus on one ship (ex. Hangster) over another (ex. Macheresin) is inherently racist. You can't choose what you're into. What I am saying is a fact: the characters of color in Top Gun: Maverick (no matter who their relationships are with) are not being written about as often as the white characters. And though I haven't personally delved into all 1005 fics in this tag, I can guarantee you that the vast majority of the fics in which these characters of color are being tagged in do not feature these characters in a leading role.

Just something to think about.

#thanks for asking! #top gun: maverick #fandom analysis #my stuff #as a mutual of mine once said #bob and coyote had basically the same screentime #bob is shown to dislike hangman and hangman disrespects bob (and phoenix) in return #and hangman is shown to be the closest with coyote whom he holds in as high of a regard as he holds himself #bob is played by lewis pullman. coyote is played by greg tarzan davis. #who is hangman shipped with more? the answer may surprise you!