#sarah kazansky

[icemavslastbraincell]

IceMav Wip Wednesday

Did anyone ask for a Fake Dating trope with IceMav attending Sarah's wedding 👀

#icemav #top gun #iceman x maverick #pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #sarah kazansky #ice panics and tells his parents that he's bringing a boyfriend that he definitely has (does not actually have) to his sister's wedding #and enlists mav to be his boyfriend for the weekend #absolutely nothing can go wrong here

[deatheater25]

Little Sarah: Father said we’re not to cry.

Tom: That is because father is incapable of human emotion. You are 10, cry if you feel like it.

#iceman top gun #tom iceman kazansky #top gun #top gun maverick #sarah kazansky

[the-ace-with-spades]

this is part two of this angsty post about Baby Bradley (you might wanna read it first, just to make sense of this part) - Slider POV

It’s late, too late, when he hears the front opening. He is instantly on alert — Shay’s been sleeping for two hours now, conked out by a whole day at work and cooking up a baby inside her — because it’s too late for visitors.

He almost hits Baby Goose with a baseball bat.

Bradley is taking his shoes off, the spare key they have in the flower pot at the front stairs lying near his backpack. His hands are covered in dirt and he’s looking at Ron with his doe eyes wide.

Everyone says he’s Goose’s mirror image but when he stands there, curly hair getting too long again and messy, with those innocent big eyes and head tilted back, all Ron sees is Carole.

It always makes him melt into a puddle, too.

“Do your folks know you’re here?” Ron will take the dead silence as a no. “How did you even get here?”

Bradley is allowed to take the bus on his own, now that they live in one, stable place and Mav had gone on the three major routes with him — the bus to school, to Ron and Sarah’s house, and to the base.

Ice still insists on driving him around everywhere, just because he is such a control freak.

Bradley’s voice is barely hearable and he isn’t meeting Ron’s eyes as he admits, “I walked.”

They don’t leave that far away — less than two miles — but an eleven-year-old should not be walking around alone on the streets past nine.

Ron takes a deep breath. “Look, I’m going to call Ice—”

“He’s at work,” Bradley interrupts, because of course he does — he always has an answer, growing into the mini Maverick that he is.

“Then I’ll call Mav,” Ron counters.

“He’s asleep.”

“Then you shoulda thought about that before you walked here at one in the morning,” Ron points out before he steps back into the kitchen to grab the phone off the wall.

Midway through the kitchen floor, still in the dark since he forgot to turn on the light, Ron feels a weight hanging onto his pajama sleeve. “Do you have to call him?”

“Buddy,” Ron says because he’s so weak against those big brown eyes but can’t just let Bradley get away with everything. What he did was dangerous. He could have gotten hit by a car, kidnapped, or lost, or—Ron doesn’t even want to think about all the things that could’ve happened.

“I promise I’ll go back home before Mav wakes up,” Bradley pleads.

That’s really not the problematic part in the whole situation. “And what about when Ice comes home and goes to check on you and you’re not there?”

Bradley turns his head away and mumbles under his breath, “He won’t.”

“He won’t what?”

“He won’t do that,” he says, eyes on the floor.

And Ron doesn’t know what it is but there’s just something in his voice, in the way it cracks despite being so quiet, and in his posture, the way he raises his shoulders like a guard — and it’s make something under skin crawl.

“Bradley, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he mumbles, turning away from him.

Ron is weak. He is getting bigger and bigger but he is still so tiny it feels like Ron could fit him in the palms of his hands. He looks even smaller, now, coiled up against Ron’s leg like he wants to turn invisible.

“Okay, you can stay the night—”

“Really?”

Ron would scold himself for falling for it, again, but Bradley’s eyes, even with the excitement in his voice, don’t lose the sad tinge completely.

“But only on the condition that I’ll call Mav anyway and tell him where you are,” Ron says, kind of proud of himself for not giving in completely. “And you have to get up bright and early tomorrow—today, so we can take you to school on time.”

He waves his hand, just so those doe eyes go away before he caves in completely. 

“Go get your jammies and make those pearly whites—”

“You’re talking to me like I’m five again,” Bradley says and Ron holds back a smile.

“You gotta deal with it, kid,” he says, shushing him upstairs. “Go, I’ll call Mav.”

Ice’s house (and Mav’s, no that he’d call it that, ever, Maverick will never be his brother-in-law, even if they actually get married someday, he's going to be at best a menace-in-law) is on their speed dial as number one.

He’s expected to wait a few minutes on the line, until Mav wakes up and strides huffing and puffing into the kitchen to pick up the phone, but he barely gets the second tone and hears, “Hello?”

“Mav—”

“Slider, this isn’t a good time, Bradley is—”

“—here,” Ron finishes for him. “He’s here, Mav, showed up about ten minutes ago. Says he walked here.”

“What?” Mav spits out. “I was about to call the goddamn police! Ice, I was about to call Ice!”

Ron’ll never admit it but he agrees that Ice probably would throw a bigger manhunt than the police if he found out Bradley was missing.

“Look, he doesn’t want to go home—”

“Oh, hell no, he’s coming home now, I’m getting my keys—”

“I already promised him he can stay the night,” Ron cuts in, feeling a headache coming.

“You can’t promise him stuff like that!”

Ron might be a dad-to-be only, but he can understand why Mav is pissed off. He certainly would prefer if his kid that he thought was missing came back home so he could at least see that he is safe and in one piece and maybe so he can ground his ass but Bradley—there’s just something off.

“What, do you want me to send him home so he runs off again to some unknown place in the middle of the night?”

“Oh, he can try,” Mav says. “Even if he somehow managed to sneak out again, I’ll now know where he is. I’m going to take my chances.”

“I don’t think he’ll come back here again, not knowing I sold him out to you and let you take him back home,” Ron says. He can hear Mav groan into the phone in frustration and he gets it, he really does, but— “He looks upset, Mav, okay, I don’t know what happened but he wouldn’t have sneaked out on a whim, you know that.”

It takes him fifteen minutes and about a dozen promises to talk Mav into letting Bradley stay the night — he knows Mav probably won’t sleep a blink anyway — but finally, Ron settles on making them some tea so they can have a talk about safety and not giving his parents a heart attack.

And about whatever made Bradley act out like that.

He comes back downstairs and the ginger tea is already lukewarm enough to drink — they only have ginger tea now because Sarah is still nauseous despite being well out of the first trimester. Bradley sits down with him at the table, his Spiderman pajamas on, takes a sip and promptly grimaces.

“That’s yacky,” Bradley says.

“Believe me, I know, kid. It was two against one,” he says, feeling sleepy out of a sudden. “Your aunt would bite my head off if I said anything, anyway.”

Bradley still drinks more because he’s a good kid that never complains. Or maybe because he doesn’t want to talk to Ron.

“You want to tell me why you left home so late?” he prompts. “Did you have a nightmare?”

Bradley crosses his legs on the chair — Ice would’ve told him to sit properly but he’s not here so Ron lets it slide. Bradley shakes his head, wordlessly.

“Did you argue with Mav?” Ron tries again. Bradley looks away, at their fridge and the family photos and their collection of sonograms, and shakes his head, eyes not present. It scares the shit out of Ron. “Bud? Did someone say something? Do something, to you?”

“No,” he says, finally, barely hearable. “I don’t want to talk about it.” 

Ron weighs his options. Bradley's always been a kid with lots and lots of emotions but usually, he wouldn't mind displaying them raw — he could push but he isn't sure whether that would help or harm the situation more. He doesn't want to pressure him but he also doesn't want him to feel like he's alone with whatever made him act like this.

“You want to sleep in your room? Or do you wanna sleep with us, today?”

"Could I—" he begins and then closes his mouth. Ron lets him think through whatever is going over in his head, waiting, until Bradley asks quietly, "Could I sleep with you?"

"Of course you can," Ron says straight away, still feeling unsettled, like he's missing something. "Just try not to wake up your aunt, she's really grumpy in the morning lately. Don't tell her that I said that, either."

*

Bradley’s been—quiet.

The night visits became frequent. Frequent enough that after the fourth time Ice, like the insomniac he is, woke up and went to check on Bradley to find him missing, Mav and Ice bought him a bike. It was safer if he had lights and a helmet on, and the trip to Ron and Sarah’s house took him less time that way. It still isn’t safe but Bradley hasn’t even tried to wake any of them to take him to Ron in a car, like they promised they would, so any alternative was better.

Ron can’t exactly pinpoint what changed aside from how Bradley’s no longer bubbling a mile a minute and how he seems both clingy and unusually detached from them. He’s been staying vaguely around them but never close enough to touch, like he used to.

Today’s been especially strange. Bradley hasn’t even let Sarah cuddle with him after dinner. He helped her prepare the food, quiet and way too focused on tasks for the bouncy eleven-year-old he is, just asking her what to do next and not even humming along to the radio in the kitchen.

Ron, if this was any other kid, would say he is jittery about the parent-teacher meeting and what his folks would hear while talking to his teacher but in all honesty, Bradley doesn’t have anything to worry about — he has perfect grades, and aside from that fight he’d gotten into a couple weeks ago Ice and Mav already know about, he is a sweet, a bit shy kid who isn't much trouble.

Ice and Mav show up to pick him up at half-past eight. Sarah’s already gone for a nap that will turn into nine hours of sleep and Ron and Bradley are quietly sitting in the living room, each reading their own book. Their faces are turned into a grimace from the minute they step in to greet Ron and Mav is observing the kid like a hawk.

Bradley curls his legs closer and gives Ron a very short look, the big doe eyes telling Ron he is about to ask if he can stay the night. Ron shakes his head before he does it long enough he’ll give in.

“Go say bye to your aunt, buddy,” Ice tells Bradley which is a code for an adults-only conversation.

Ron doesn’t like it.

“She’s asleep,” Bradley points out.

It’s the truth, but Mav still hasn’t said anything, just staring at Bradley, so Ron says, “You can wake her up for a minute, she’ll probably want to know you’re going and will give you a kiss goodbye.”

Bradley hesitates, looking between Ron and Ice like they're tricking him into something. He and Sarah didn't have the greatest of starts — she moved to California not long after Carole got diagnosed and was the least familiar face during that hard time, often completely omitted when Bradley sought out adult comfort. It's been getting better and better the more time they spent together, and Bradley's been especially warming up since they told him about the baby — Sarah would talk to Bradley about the pregnancy often, explaining different things, taking him to shop for baby clothes, letting him think of baby names, letting him touch the baby bump. Ron has thought that maybe Bradley finally felt included enough by her to include her in his little trusted family.

Ron sometimes wonders if it's because Bradley knows he'd almost become his stepdad before he and Carole called it quits — they never told him they were together, tried to test it out before Bradley became attached but maybe they hadn't done a good job of it. Maybe when they broke up when it kept on feeling weird with Goose's memory still in both their heads, they should've explained it to him. Maybe he felt like Sarah took Ron away from him and his mom when he started dating her not long after she moved to San Diego.

"You go, bud, you're probably the only person that won't make her grumpy," Ron encourages.

Bradley jumps off the couch and meticulously puts his bookmark in his book and closes it, careful not to crease the pages or the spine — in a mirror image of Ice, because of course — and walks away to the corridor.

They listen until the bedroom door closes behind him, Ice picks up Bradley’s book and puts it in his jacket’s inside pocket, and Ron turns back to the adults-only conversation with a heavy heart. 

“He’s apparently been asking about adoption,” Maverick finally says, barely audible.

“I thought you already adopted him. The guardianship was switched to custody after a year, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, he, uhm—”

He doesn't continue and it's scaring the shit out of Ron. He looks like a wreck of a person.

“He’s been asking whether we can give him up,” Ice supplies, voice perfectly leveled, his hands tucked into his jean pockets. Just, expressionless, really.

“For adoption?” Ron asks. Ice nods. “Jesus Christ.”

Even with how withdrawn Bradley's been, he'd have never gone into that territory with his theories.

No wonder Bradley didn't want to say a goddamn word about what was bothering him.

Ice takes a deep breath and says, voice urgent, "Look, he comes to you a lot when he's upset, did he say anything? Anything that could explain where all those questions came from?"

“No,” he denies instantly. “Do you think someone at school could, you know, be a bit too nosy again?”

They had that problem before, in Lemoore, straight after Carole's death and before they moved, when some concerned parents had started asking too many questions about who Mav was and how he was managing Bradley's childcare and who was Ice and why was Ice so involved. It was the whole reason CPS has even bothered to look at Mav's custody agreement and put Bradley in foster care for so long.

“Bradley barely talks to the other kids, still, even if someone’s parents—” Mav stops and his gaze gets all wet and it doesn't go away even when Ice grips his hand. "I don't know."

"Come on, you know it's not—You're doing everything the right way, Mav, he's been through a lot but you could see he is dealing with it now and he's been happy, it's not—"

Ron doesn't know what he wants to say.

"Just talk to him," he says in the end. "He's your kid, just make sure he knows that."

When he looks at Ice, he doesn't know how to react — he's never seen him looking so lost.

"Where's he anyway? He should be back by now—" he grumbles. Maybe actually having Bradley within their range of sight, unharmed and present and not at some strangers house god knows where would make them feel better. "I'll go get him."

Ron walks to their bedroom like a robot, trying to school his expression by to calm so his helplessness doesn't show.

"Buddy, what's taking so long, did you fall asleep too—"

He stops talking at the view he gets when he opens the door — Bradley is curled up around Sarah’s baby bump, his hand under her t-shirt, and Sarah is dozing off again with her fingers in his curls, blinking sleepily at Ron.

"The baby is kicking," he says and he's whispering like anything louder would spook the baby into hiding again.

“I’ll come back in five minutes, buddy,” Ron says, keeping his voice low.

*

Ron's been baby-proofing the house for what feels like weeks now and Sarah is still insisting it's not enough, finding new boops and beeps to improve. And Ron loves her, really, but he also still works about fifty hours a week and the kid is not going to even be moving much for at least six or seven months after they pop out.

They're certainly not going to let the kid out alone on the terrace for longer than that, he's sure, but he's also sure if he told that he's nine months pregnant wife, he'd be sleeping on the couch. 

So he's modifying the terrace, so they have baby doors to the steps and the spaces in the little fence around the elevation is baby-proofed with a bouncy mesh net that their baby can smash their face all they want and not fall off.

It's almost eight already and Ron is still going at it, knowing he won't have the time later in the week but also running on about five hours of sleep, when he hears Bradley's bike rattle on the gravel on their driveway.

"Hey, kid," he says, not turning around from the task and trusting that Bradley is not going to run over Sarah's pansies again. Ron really doesn't want to find her planting new ones while nine months pregnant and he knows she would. "You here for anything in particular or just passing by?"

Bradley stops the bike, getting off and carefully avoiding the flower rows, thankfully. He is walking the thing now, to leave it next to their ugly garden shed.

"I was sick the whole week and now I don't understand my science homework," he tells him. "Mr. Kraig said I should come to the extra classes but we have a test before that."

Ron doesn't look from where he's measuring the stupid tiny fence. "Isn't this something you usually do with Mav and Ice?"

“I didn’t want to bother them.”

“So you thought you’d bother me?”

It’s just a joke — if Ron was a little less tired, he’d have remembered that Bradley’s already been feeling fragile around all the adults in his life and not having the greatest of times in general. He’d have been less snarky or maybe he’d have said nothing or maybe he’d prodded a little bit about why Bradley doesn’t want Ice’s or Mav’s help with homework anymore.

It’s just a joke but he doesn’t even manage to turn around and he hears the bike’s chain rattle as the kid starts biking off god knows where, not looking back.

“Bradley—”

He stands up to go over him but the stupid baby doors are in place and he trips when he tries to jump over them, knocking down the roll with the mesh net. It unrolls on the grass and by the time he's untangled from it all, he can't see Bradley on either end of the street.

"Sarah—" he calls out as soon as he's back in the house. "Call Ice and tell them to call us if Bradley turns up back home."

"What? Ronnie, where are you going?"

He's grabbing his car keys because like hell he's just going to sit and wait.

Bradley didn't say a single thing, just ran out. He's not coming back to them, he knows, and he's not sure how long it'll be before he caves in and goes back home.

He doesn't like it. He doesn't like it all.

He keeps on driving around in circles between theirs and Ice's house, looking out for Bradley's bike anywhere on the road, turning up back to check with Sarah that Ice hasn't called every twenty minutes or so.

It's getting dark when he notices Bradley's bike on Ice's porch.

"I'm going to call Sarah, tell her you're here already," Mav says and he dips into the kitchen.

Instantly, Ron's eyes search for Bradley and he's there, in one piece, in their living room, still getting scolded by Ice.

When he notices Ron and their eyes meet, he looks away, stepping to the side enough that he's well hidden behind Ice's legs.

Ice turns around. "Slider—"

Maybe he's too big, too old, for that, but never for Ron — he grabs Bradley under his arms and hugs him, one hand on his back, another under his thighs. It's as easy as it's always been despite what everyone says.

"Jesus Christ, kid," he blurts out. "You scared the living shit out of me."

"I’m sorry,” Bradley says and his voice is hoarse.

“No, I am sorry, kid,” he says, adjusting Bradley in his arms so he can flatten his cheek on Ron’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean it like that, I swear, you’ll never — never, all right? — bother us, I just—It was a bad joke, okay?”

“I know,” Bradley mumbles into his collarbone. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing, kid,” Ron insists.

He maneuvers him in his arms, detaches Bradley’s hands from around his shoulders so he looks at him and his eyes are shiny and red, and god, Ron just wants to take it all back, take it all away.

He doesn’t know what is going on with Bradley lately and he isn’t telling them but he wants them to have a safe place in them, he wants him to keep coming to them until he finally lets them help with whatever is happening.

“Promise me you know that, promise me you know you’ll never ever bother us, no matter what.”

Bradley doesn’t reply anything to that, instead saying, “Can you put me down? I’m not five.”

“Bradley,” Ice reprimands and Ron doesn’t care if he has a tone when he speaks to him, he just cares that—

“Promise me you know,” he repeats.

“I know, I promise,” he says.

He’s still not looking at him or at Ice, and he still seems so small, like he’s trying to take the least space he can, but he’s—he’s promising and Ron has to let go off him at some point, as heartbreaking as it feels.

He sets him back down on the carpet and Bradley curls into himself even more.

Ice opens his mouth, probably to continue the scolding and use Ron’s worry as a leverage, but Ron catches his eyes before he says anything. He shakes his head.

*

Juliette Nicole Kazansky Kerner was born on Friday, just a few minutes after three in the morning, after about twelve hours in labor and delivery.

They've decided early on that it was just going to be the three of them in the delivery suite and then for another twenty-four hours. Ron's mama was coming from Minnesota in about a week and that left just Ice and his little family.

They know the plan so they come in on Saturday, after breakfast, after Sarah slept off the exhaustion and is finally ready for visitors.

There are congratulations and hugs and then Julie crying and asking for food. There is the moment Maverick gets to hold her when she doesn't want to burp and gets her to do just so like it's the most natural thing and the moment after when Ice is looking at him with that smitten expression that Ron used to make fun of, before it became almost constant on him whenever Maverick is around.

There's a moment when finally, Bradley gets a very close look at Julie and stares at her with his mouth open and eyes wide and Sarah asks him, "Do you want to hold her?"

And then he's listening like his life depends on it when Sarah and Mav explain to him how to hold a baby and how he needs to be very careful with her head and not make too many movements not to drop her.

“She’s so tiny,” Bradley says and Ron is pretty sure he's repeated it at least three times now.

“That’s why you have to be really careful with her, buddy,” Ice says, adjusting Bradley's arm so it's holding their little Julie closer to Bradley's chest.

They're safely sitting in a big armchair with a pillow underneath just in case, but Bradley seems to have taken the cautions to heart and is holding Julie's limp head up and coconing her with his arms like it's a mission.

“She looked bigger in Aunt Sarah’s belly,” he says, still sounding awed.

Sarah laughs because truly, Bradley was the only one who could indirectly call her big and not unleash a hormonal wrath.

Maybe he said it too soon because Sarah starts crying instead, her lips are trembling when she looks at the two of them from where she's lying in bed still and next thing Ron knows, there's a waterfall.

She's smiling so he isn't too worried. He gets a whiplash because in less thirty seconds, Ice is crying to, still hovering over Bradley like the control freak he is, and if Ice is crying, that means Mav is not far behind.

Bradley lifts his head from where he was gazing at Julie and okay, Ron is a bit teary-eyed, too, by the time Bradley asks innocently, “Why is everyone crying?”

Those big doe eyes just make him weak. He's just praying he'll have more restraint with his own kids.

The nurse comes in to check on both Sarah and Julie, telling them she's probably going to be discharged tomorrow morning if their obs keep on being so good.

"We probably should grab something to eat," Ron supplies. "There's a buffet nearby."

Sarah had refused hospital food. And he's not going to be refusing her some good food when she's just popped a whole human into the world.

Bradley, realizing that standing up would mean letting go of Julie, asks, “Do I have to go with you?”

“No, but remember Mav is going to be picking your food if you stay and you know how he feels about vegetables,” Ice says.

“It’s fine,” Bradley decides and wow, the kid is really smitten, too. “Can I stay?”

They switch Bradley from the armchair to sitting next to Sarah in bed, just in case, and he's pouting the whole two minutes he doesn't have Julie in his arms.

"That was adorable," Ron says as soon as they leave the room. "I didn't think he'd take so well to her."

“I kinda wish we could have another kid just so he could be a big brother,” Mav says and he sounds like he's still melting inside.

“Yeah,” Ice agrees absently and he sounds so dreamy Ron snorts. “What?”

“Tom ‘I Don’t Like Kids’ Kazansky wanting more kids is never not going to be amusing,”

“It’s different when it’s your kids,” he protests, not ashamed at all.

And Slider supposes it is, at least for Ice because Ice is so good with Bradley, loves him so much, that he sometimes wonders if Ice's aversion to kids was just some way to protect him from heartbreak when having kids seemed impossible, given who Ice tended to love.

*

"Our three-month check up is on Friday, do you think you will be able to go with us? It's at six."

He's unpacking groceries in the kitchen, late after getting back from work, and Sarah is sitting in her rocking chair, nursing Julie for the last time before they put her to sleep for the night — she's going to wake up at least twice, but she seemed to have faded into tiredness as soon as Ron got to hold her for five minutes.

He's pretty sure he's only got paperwork to do on Friday so he should be fine, but—

“Thought it was going to be on Saturday?”

“Tom mentioned Bradley’s match is on Saturday, I thought you’d probably like to be there, too, so I made the switch,” Sarah says.

“He didn’t say anything about a match,” Ron notes. “Baby Goose, I mean.”

“We missed his last two so I thought we should probably start going to them again,” Sarah explains gently, her voice going quieter as Julie starts to fall asleep mid-feeding again. “He’s apparently banned Ice and Mav from coming because he’s embarrassed when they come, you know Tom is a bit of a soccer mom and—Ronnie?”

He—He feels it again, the feeling that something is wrong, but he can't really explain what is wrong with Bradley's behavior — kids do grow, get embarrassed by parents and uncles and want more independence. It just doesn't sit right with him.

“He didn’t tell me about his matches,” he realizes. It’s baseball season, it’s been for weeks. “He hasn’t slept over in four months, Shay.”

“He’s almost a teenager, he’s bound to start thinking you’re uncool,” Sarah says and it doesn't—

She isn't saying anything that doesn't ring true, Ron himself had those thoughts when he was much younger than Bradley. But it doesn't sit well with him. Bradley's been so off before Julie was born, for months, and now suddenly he seems to be not only fine, but fine without any of their support.

Sarah bumps Julie's nose, putting her shirt back over her arm and grabs the towel to put over her shoulder—

“At least you’ll have this one thinking you can save the world for a few more years," she says. "Can’t imagine how Mav and Ice are feeling right now.”

some people requested tagging so here you go hons: @callsign-hummingbird, @happypopcornprincess, @nearlynadin, @strangelove97, @pollyna, @heartthyshark

i know it's been a long time so let me know if you don't want me to tag you for the next part

#two more parts coming - IceMav pov and adult bradley pov #icemav #bradley rooster bradshaw #ron slider kerner #sarah kazansky #as Ice's sister and Slider's wife #mavdad #icepops #baby goose #top gun #my fics #tw pregnancy & breastfeeding - background #op #charlie writes

[sprinklersart]

Kazansky siblings ft. Mav (+ some cringe thoughts on family dynamics under the cut)

Tom is Alicia Florrick eldest sister coded. He must be perfect he must not be a burden if he causes any issues at all it will rock the boat and he does not want yo rock the boat. If he excels he will stand out and be appreciated. He must be good. He cannot be perfect (gay) so he must be ya know? His parents have been on the precipice of divorce for a decade by the time he’s 17 (he’s been rooting for them to get it over and done with since he was 11). They don’t need any of his shit to deal with too. Sarah on the other hand is younger sister coded. She has her own shit going on. Unlike ice she didn’t realize divorce was on the horizon until it was right in front of her and an already rebellious streak was exacerbated. She’s an emotions first consequences second kind of person and can be a little selfish although can you really blame her? Amy is the true youngest sister but she’s got that bonus baby ten years younger than her siblings thing happening. Ice and Sarah are super different but have a forged in fire closeness. Amy is just kinda vibing outside of them. She grew up with her parents divorce being a done deal by her 6th birthday and thus in a much chiller environment. Ice left huge expectations and Sarah left none so whatever Amy did was good enough. She feels a little left out and left behind sometimes but only when reminded that she’s not like actually an only child. At 34 Ice is a USNA grad like his father with an exceedingly impressive career and huge things to come but with no wife or girlfriend to show for it. At 31 Sarah is finding her footing after a bit of a wild 20s with a nursing degree and job. At 22 Amy is going to grad school for writing thinking how lucky she is Sarah turned her back on the navy and rotc back then. It’s made her parents much more accepting of a theater degree.

#top gun #tom kazansky #pete mitchell #icemav #tom iceman kazansky #pete maverick mitchell #Sarah kazansky #julianna margulies is sarah kazansky TO ME #rachel mcadams was a bonus addition for youngest kazansky sibling but I think it works #all three have: moles/freckles #naturally brownish hair #big teeth with similar wide smiles #noticeable eyebrows #triangle noses #so I’m pretty happy with the casting for a first thought best thought thing #also I like that ice is quite a bit taller. gangly bitch would’ve been so uncoordinated in high school #and despite that 17 year old ice is still completely unknowable to his sisters #like that’s our gangly bitch of a brother he likes to play lacrosse and swim and drive us to school #beyond that? idk ask me again when I’m 30 and we have fully developed brains #that John mulaney but when he’s like ‘none of us really know our fathers anyways’ but its for eldest siblings #gotta post all my silly topgun stuff before I get justified pilled in a few months what an existence I live huh

[pollyna]

What makes Sarah cry harder than she would have thought she would during Tom's funeral is the absence of the Annapolis ring. She knew she lost Tom way before the cancer and way before the divorce, but still, that piece of jewellery was with him since the day she met him and he never took it out of his hand.

It's a lost ring until she doesn't start seeing a glimpses of it one day, when Maverick starts coming around to fix this and that - from the door of the garden house to that stupid window Tom sweared he called the handyman to repair it. Sometimes Bradley is there with him, but most of the time, he's around alone, and she is flattered, how could she not be when Pete Mitchell looks like that on the verge of his sixties?

But then, she sees the shape of it when Pete is moving a particularly heavy pot, and then it's the particular colour of the gem that stands against his white t-shirt but all she can think is that it's all a big enough coincidence.

Until she doesn't find him, sitting behind Tom's desk and playing with his ring and she wants to be furious with him because that's her late husband's ring and what right has he to wear it? What right he has to be in her life and flirt with her while he's wearing something like that?!

She feels like she is going to scream and kick him out and demand the ring back because what the actual- Pete's voice is soft and even if Sarah can only see his hands and the ring she knows he's crying.

"It- it's good to be around here. Not the same, never the same, but you're less far away. It doesn't make sense, but most of the times even your face didn't make sense, and yet, here we are. You said it would have helped but you know what I see, everytime I remember I'm wearing it? The day on the beach, with Bradley running around and Carole's yellow dress and how you used a paper to cover our faces while we kissed. If I close my eyes I can still feel your hands around my face and how your ring was cold even when everything was hot and sweaty."

She takes a step back, and then another. When he comes out of Tom's study, eyes still a little red she offers him a cup of tea and smiles. The ring resting on Pete's chest.

#tom iceman kazansky #pete maverick mitchell #sarah kazansky #no cheating #-> never cheating #past relationships #the navy ring #tom and sarah were divorced #still grief is a strange thing #it kinda suck as thihg? don't really like it lol

[wearerandomlyyours]

Maybe it's just me but the biggest indication of how close Icemav is in TG:M is the fact that he walks in to Ice's house unannounced without knocking and Sarah just walks up and hugs him.

#icemav #top gun #top gun maverick #tom iceman kazansky #pete maverick mitchell #sarah kazansky

[ohmygodtheywereparabatai]

i wanted to invite a conversation about this because it’s genuinely been bothering me for a long time. and i in fact wasn’t immune to it either and am just now realizing this is the power of cinematic brainwashing.

but like, tgm is so many bad things. sexist, racist, ageist, to scratch the tip of the iceberg. token characters that meet the bare minimum for diversity, and sidelined women - i’d even say exploited women. a narrative that is so egocentric that it’s miraculous that some characters manage to hold their own instead of being swept under the charismatic magnetism of the reckless bad boy character who can get away with murder because deep down, he’s regretful, and he has a good heart.

what a shallow representation of the military, and what a disservice to those who were inspired to join because they thought the real life experience would mirror even a fraction of what is presented on screen. the reality is that there was never a competition to win a top gun trophy, and in fact today you have to pay 5$ at the top gun school if you even mention the film. that speaks for itself.

tom cruise being a huge part of the production process has made it impossible for me not to hold him responsible for the choices that have been made. to even subtitle the sequel movie with “Maverick”, the same protagonist as in the first one, comes across as insanely egotistical - and honestly a testament to how mav’s story manages to drown out the autonomy and validity of other characters. i’ll explain this terms of ice, penny, carole, and charlie. you’ll notice how i’m gonna be bringing up three women.

ice-

i don’t care that val kilmer gave the okay on using his cancer as a plot point. i care that cancer was not only used as a plot point, but treated like this ^

“i’m dying. you have bigger problems.”

the original script seems to peel back the layers of tgm’s intended messaging, so i’m using several examples. this is what is being communicated. i honestly don’t know what else to add. in or out of context, this is incredibly disturbing - and that it’s played as a self-aware quip from ice, even more so. the bond of wingmen goes both ways, and i just didn’t see that… if anything, that aspect leaned so heavily on the first film (the photo of them smiling at each other) that it just proves my point. it took ice’s death for mav to get up off his ass and do something to keep his career afloat besides get a cop-out from the compacflt. ice in the first movie was a compelling antagonist and voice of reason - now he’s mostly relegated to the role of babysitter, denying mav’s character the growth of accountability by simply erasing his poor choices with a phone call.

it’s why the darkstar scene pisses me off. to stop at mach 10 would have been fine, but to push it just for the sake of it is ridiculous. the fact that earlier mav states “i know what happens to everyone else if i don’t” in regards to his decision only makes this screw-up more laughable, because to me it’s the very contradiction of maverick: his intentions do not balance with his actions. costing the military millions of dollars in a few seconds somehow balances with his heartfelt desire to protect the interests of its workforce.

penny-

shortly before, during, and after this screenshot, i counted a total of 6 times that penny made it clear she would not appreciate mav’s advances. regardless, mav goes on to say “you look good”. this flirtation happens before mav is even aware of her marital status, as he asks amelia “where’s your dad?” in a later scene… which… dear god.

penny also says “it always ends the same with us, so let’s not start this time”, indicating this is a repeated pattern in which her boundaries weren’t respected and moreover, the relationship ended up failing. yet this is framed as the main romance of tgm, a wonderful and nostalgic callback to the original that ends as stereotypically as possible.

i love penny. she’s witty, caring, independent, and of course stunning. so i find her treatment in tgm a disservice to what started out as a rich and compelling character. she later ends up mav’s shoulder to cry on, more or less, comforting him after losing his wingman and his position as instructor. the song “hold my hand” is thematically suited for penny, playing in the background at the bar and in the notes of the score during her scenes - even musically, she is turned into a source of consolation first, and her own woman second. she’s his prize at the end of the film, falling for the promise “i’m never gonna leave you again”, which i don’t buy for a second. they fly into the sunset, presumably signifying a new horizon for their relationship - but i feel so dissatisfied with this arc for her and think she deserved much better.

that mav gets away with this behavior is something i’d like to see more people reflect on. it seems to be a pattern with male protagonists, in which case the function of male and protagonist in hollywood cinema needs an examination.

carole-

top gun (1986):

this is an especially crude exploitation to me. not only is carole the one consoling a young maverick (if a full-fledged 24 year old can be called young, in light of the tendency people have to dismiss his choices in ‘86) after his mistake costs her own husband his life… but her stance, even following a tragedy of that magnitude, didn’t change. goose would have flown anyway, and she knows that well enough - on top of that, it’s easy to see she would have supported him.

it came as a surprise to me that she wouldn’t in turn support her own son, who is clearly committed to a career as a pilot. in the end, i see a cheap narrative device that contradicts carole’s character, undermines her strength as a wife and mother, both in order to serve the interests of the plot. maverick in tgm needs a viable reason to hide a secret, to be tortured by his own consequences, to put further strain on his tension with bradley. there were plenty of other ways to do it, but the fact that it was this leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

charlie-

it’s my understanding that tom cruise’s personal reason (his excuse) for not bringing back charlie was that he didn’t like how their relationship ended. if there’s any source confirming or denying this, i’d appreciate a link.

anyways. yeah. this is… a huge problem with hollywood at large, which kelly mcgillis understands, but i’ll break it down. there’s a simpler reason this pisses me off more than anything. tgm’s entire subject matter is about repairing relationships. penny benjamin was dredged out of obscurity to do it. maverick and rooster’s grudge of 30+ years was used to do it. iceman’s character, as warped as he feels, is another way the film made this its theme. but charlie is out of the question?

that val kilmer could be asked to return, and make an insane amount of money for each second he’s on screen, but such an opportunity is never given to kelly mcgillis, who herself centers on the 1986 poster, speaks volumes to me. tom cruise even planted his foot when it came to reprising iceman, saying he wouldn’t do this movie without val in it.

it’s worth mentioning that viper and slider were also present at ice’s funeral, but this scene was cut out. for a film that’s quite heavy-handed with its nostalgic callbacks, this was an odd decision. until realizing, as my friend put it, that even ice’s death couldn’t be about him, whether it had brought in his own teacher or his rio - his goose. it had to revolve around mav, to catalyze a turning point for him in the plot.

also… a shoutout to the erasure of sarah kazansky, pretty much everywhere. that also tells me a lot.

…

this was just a dissection of the various character portrayals (or absences) in tgm that have bothered me since forever. this isn’t even going into how tgm accomplishes everything that propaganda sets out to do. combinations of stunning visuals, soaring music composed by masters like hans zimmer, the charismatic power of a cast packed with stars… all play a role in the blinding awesomeness of tgm, which has taken me this long to break away from.

consider the white/poc duos in the film: maverick and hondo, hangman and coyote, cyclone and warlock. who has more lines? who plays a greater role? why is that?

i don’t see this as real diversity. it masquerades as inclusion, which i find worse. and to cast an actor of asian descent, and give him the callsign yale? … wow.

framing is powerful. its influence in cinematography is unmatched. a story is being constructed and told not only through dialogue, but sound, visuals, editing… really, nothing can be dismissed as insignificant. i’m not asking for a scholarly interrogation of all media you consume, though, that would be so excellent, and so healthy… but i am trying to raise these questions in the community, of what gets lost when a main character is so overwhelmingly main. when someone like tc has so much control over the decision-making process, since it’s sort of a running joke that maverick is a tc self-insert. my focus isn’t the inclusions, but the exclusions.

and finally, since i’ve unfortunately spent a lot of life writing this post… it’s interesting to me that many viewers in hindsight seem to see top gun 1986 so differently. as kids, they sided with mav over the antagonist. an older audience returning to the first film now seem to side with iceman, seeing him as the rational one attempting to raise important points. i wonder if this will be the case with top gun: maverick in the future. in which case, i’m excited to see more cyclone fans. he’s my favorite character… unsurprisingly.

oh. one last thing.

“the man, the myth, the legend” … the word myth has two meanings:

…

happy reading.

#reblog appreciated #tgm #tg #top gun maverick #top gun #top gun 1986 #tg86 #pete maverick mitchell #maverick mitchell #pete mitchell #tom cruise #film critique #penny benjamin #kelly mcgillis #charlie blackwood #carole bradshaw #val kilmer #tom iceman kazansky #iceman kazansky #sarah kazansky #filmmaking #issues with hollywood #and its stars #long post

[emo-machine42]

The English version was translated by the lovely @badgerhuan

;)

#top gun maverick #emo draws #tom iceman kazansky #pete maverick mitchell #sarah kazansky #beau cyclone simpson #ron slider kerner #top gun

[torchflies]

Two Purim Nights (5755 and 5777) or How Iceman met Hangman

| Little Purim drabble I had kicking around in my drafts, dropping it in here a day late. 😂 🕍|

Jericho meets Tom for the first time on Purim, 5755. 

It's not the first time Tom meets Jericho, but now that the boy is seven he has the ability to remember this interaction, one that tastes like raspberry hamantaschen and sounds uproarious and loud. 

He sits beside Tom for the reading of the Megillah, in English first and then in Hebrew. He distinctly remembers sitting by Tom because a nasty flu had taken out most of their usual Torah readers, so it was Jericho’s father who read the Megillah in Hebrew for the congregation. His Mama was scared of his baby sister getting sick so she and Leah stayed home while Jericho and his father went to Beth El that night.

Jericho remembers Tom because they had matching outfits. 

He had begged his Abba day and night for weeks, until the Captain had returned from Pearl Harbor-Hickam with a little green flight suit for Jake — the smallest they had in stock, but one that still hung off him like an oversized onesie. He had to fold and stuff the legs into a pair of boots two sizes too big and roll up the arms until it looked like he had a pair of cloth water-wings, but he didn't care. It was a real flight suit! 

He has a pair of his Abba’s aviators perched on his head in front of his green kippah and he practically throws himself down beside Tom, two groggers in hand. 

The blond looks at him with a surprised little smile and reaches out to fix Jericho’s collar with long, nimble fingers. He has a piano player’s hands, like Jericho’s Mama. He even looks like her too, with his very blond hair, round lips and sharp nose. They even have the same pretty blue eyes, like cake frosting. 

“I'm a pilot!” The seven-year-old chirps, swinging his big heavy boots. “Are you a pilot too?”

Tom nods obligingly, opening his copy of the Megillah and holding a finger to his lips, “Shush, we’re about to start, tattele.”

Jericho nods back, very seriously, and finds his place with his finger. Tom reaches over to nudge it into the right spot. He does that periodically throughout the two readings, making horse noises and quietly acting out the sillier scenes to make Jericho laugh into his folded hands. Tom is the funniest pilot he's ever met. They whip their groggers together when they hear Haman’s name and Jericho dissolves into frantic giggles at the bigger blond’s faces, like he's just taken a whiff of the stinkiest cheese. 

After the readings and blessings, he drags Tom into the social hall with both hands, so that they can grab some hamantaschen and punch. 

He keeps up a running commentary on everything he knows about airplanes and jets and the Navy. He tells Tom all about his Abba the Captain and about how much he wants to fly one day. 

They're in the middle of discussing which is better, poppy seed or fruit hamantaschen, with chocolate sliding in as a left field contentor, when his Abba comes up to them with a grin. 

“Tomek!” He exclaims, reaching out to shake Tom’s hand with both of his, “When did you get back stateside?”

“Last week.” Tom smiles, “He's gotten big.” He juts his chin towards Jericho, who is trying to fit an entire cookie into his mouth in one go. 

His Abba laughs, “He's just like Sarah that one, he’ll be taller than me by spring.”

“He's six?”

“Seven!” Jericho pipes up with a giggle. 

“Ah!” Tom reaches over to ruffle his hair, “Your Mama was taller than me by the time we were seven.”

Jericho tilts his head, “You know my Mama?”

Tom looks at him like he's trying to hold the whole world in one go. “I do, she's my twin sister.” 

—

On Purim, 5777 — Jake Seresin dresses as a pilot again for the umpteenth time and sits beside Tom Kazansky at Beth El, with two groggers in hand and a smile on his face. A smile, that he now realizes, is identical to Tom’s.

#top gun maverick #top gun #tom iceman kazansky #jake hangman seresin #jewish iceman kazansky #Jewish Jake hangman seresin #purim #kit writes stuff #sarah kazansky

[broketraveler87]

Oopsies writing Sarah and Iceman as a sugar couple…

#sarah kazansky #tom iceman kazansky #top gun #top gun maverick #love language #gift giving

[nanny-sc]

"Pete, you know all about yours little birds, true?" Sarah say entering in her brother house.

"Yup, as their captain and mentor I must do"

"So you know what happen to your l.t... You know the blonde one... awsome, ever present smirk... "

"Oh my God, what did Hangman do?" Ice answer feeling an terrible headache come.

"50 dollars he started a fight" Payback puts money on the table and Javy adds his.

"More, he pissed some captain who wants his head now" Pheonix nods to Rooster's reply.

While Bob and Fanboy are chuckling about their farces.

"My nurse friend, Vanessa, said he could be one of her new patient... in the oncolgy ward." Sarah watch the horror appear on their faces.

#Jake doesnt have cancer #docs want to be sure about it #for that they send him to oncology ward #top gun maverick #top gun #icemav #jake hangman seresin #bradley rooster bradshaw #natasha pheonix trace #reuben payback fitch #javy machado #robert bob floyd #mickey fanboy garcia #sarah kazansky #angst because misunderstood

[animezinglife]

I love that TGM didn’t dumb the men down with the assumption that would make Phoenix or the other women stand out more. They’re equals: confident, capable, and having shown that they can compete with the best of the best. 

I love too that the women aren’t shoved into the usual box of what Hollywood often thinks a “strong woman” should be. There was no grandiosity, no loud or over-the-top assertions of self-importance, no desperate condescension towards the men they work with, and no ridiculous stripping away of their humanity and compassion. There’s no forcing Phoenix into more “masculine” characteristics just because she’s competing with men and is in a [very realistically] male-dominated role. She’s there because she’s one of the best and it shows in how she conducts herself. There’s no stripping away of Penny’s warmth and gracefulness just to give her more agency in her romance with Maverick--she doesn’t need it, because the writers understood that warmth and gentleness don’t at all mean weakness.

Personally, I have nothing but love for all the women of Top Gun: Charlie, Carole, Penny, Phoenix, Sarah, Amelia, etc. They’re women I feel like could all be part of my circle in real life.

There’s never been a “trick” to writing female characters. Writing normal women fixes problems on its own. 

#top gun: maverick #funny what a little thing like confidence and going outside will do to your writing #top gun maverick #top gun #lt. natasha ''phoenix'' trace #lt. natasha phoenix trace #phoenix trace #penny benjamin #charlie blackwood #carole bradshaw #sarah kazansky #amelia #halo

[bradshawsbaby]

She almost looks like she could be a young Sarah Kazansky?

I remember reading an interview with Jean Louisa Kelly where she said that she imagined Tom and Sarah met when they were pretty young, and it’s cute to have a visual of what that might have been like!

#sarah kazansky #jean louisa kelly #tom iceman kazansky #tom & sarah kazansky #top gun #top gun: maverick

[neverleaveyourwingman]

Ok, because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how people don’t appreciate Sarah as much as they should be, here are some headcanons I came up with.

1. So I hc that Iceman and Maverick got married in ‘92 (so 2 years before DADT became a thing). Since DADT wasn’t repealed until 2011, Ice and Maverick got friends to pretend to date them (and marry in Ice’s case because I doubt a lot of people in the Navy would believe Maverick was married 🤷🏻‍♀️ Also, DADT aside, I’ve seen talk that it’s very unlikely Ice would have continued rising through the ranks the way he did if he was openly gay, maybe even after DADT was repealed).

2. Sarah’s maiden name is Moore, she’s aro/ace, and was friends with Ice and Maverick for several years before they got married.

3. After Ice’s diagnosis, Sarah moved in with Ice and Maverick, and would take care of Ice when Maverick had to be gone (Slider also helped out a lot, because bold of anyone to assume Slider wouldn’t want to help out when he found out).

4. Sarah is a retired nurse, and Maverick and Ice were absolutely thankful to have her around after the diagnosis.

Anyway, in this house we respect Sarah Kazansky, who has never done anything wrong in her life ever, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

#icemav #tom iceman kazansky #pete maverick mitchell #sarah kazansky #in this house we do NOT disrespect Sarah Kazansky #top gun maverick #ron slider kerner

[pollyna]

After he dies, someone in the Navy starts to play with the idea of making a biography of Iceman's life. Annapolis, Pensacola, Top Gun, the Gulf, all the missions, all the secret missions he took part in, and his stellar career in the Admiralty, all crowned by the four starts on his shoulders. And how to pass the possibility of finally having answers to all the voices about his private life? About a wife who wasn't really a wife, kids who aren't his own and used to call him uncle, the kid of another dead naval aviator who still calls him dad and all the torrid affair, supposedly, with captain Mitchell?

What they give Daniel to start somewhere is the address of a place lost in the desert and a house two hours from the nearest Naval base. The woman who lives in the second place takes one look at him and says "You can tell the Navy they can all fuck themselves and if someone tries to publish a single word on Tom I'm going to sue everyone for so much money they're going to start to have to pay everyone in candies and I'll be able to solve the food problem of the world and still fuckin' rich" before closing the door on his face. The man of the first address, now RDML Mitchell, offers him a glass of water in a hangar full of planes, bikes and spare parts with enough grief written all over his face that Daniel doesn't have the strength for asking a single damn question.

"It's not your story, or theirs, to tell." Mitchell says, smiling softly, touching the wedding ring around his finger. By the time Daniel finds himself leaving, the man is already moving around, moving this and that part, searching for something. He notices it, just before leaving the hangar: a panel of pictures with a young, tall, and blond guy hugging a kid, kissing a shorter brunet aviator, in another his arm around a guy taller than him and then the same guy growing in his adult features, still kissing a now older brunet aviator, a wedding pics, graduations and Christmas, the woman who threats to sue the Navy dancing with another woman, and so many more pictures Daniel doesn't know if a day will be enough to see them all.

"It's not your story to tell," he repeats to the Admirals two days later "his ex-wife threatens to sue the Navy for enough damage to make you close the whole hovel around here."

"Someone else will write it if you won't." One of them says.

"Let them try. I don't think they're going to receive the same hospitality, next time."

#tom iceman kazansky (mentioned) #sarah kazansky #pete maverick mitchell #OC #third person pov #the admirality #(a bunch of fucking assholes) #RDML stands for rear admiral lower half #implied: #icemav #they raised baby goose #aroace sarah #lavander marriage #sarah & nadia qrp #sarah is a lawyer (badass baby) #top gun: maverick #canon compliant #otp: i heard from the heavens that clouds have been grey

[bearsinpotatosacks]

Only icemav idea I've really had and it's angsty.

Mav and Ice fall out over Carole making Mav promise not to let Bradley fly. They both keep the promise, they're both just as worried for Bradley.

Mav doesn't want to tell Bradley about Carole's input, wants to put all the blame on himself. Ice wants to include Bradley in the decision. If they're going to try and make him not fly then he at least needs to know why, right?

They argue over this. Ice tries to get it across that he's just as worried about Mav and how this will affect him, as he is about Bradley. Mav’s already lost Goose, now Carole, losing Bradley may be too much.

But to Mav, Ice doesn't seem to understand what it's like losing both of your parents too young. He knows what it's like to hold onto an image of your parents, and doesn't want Bradley to lose what's left of his parents.

They come to heads over it. Iceman, who is an Admiral of some degree at this point, uses his rank to pull Bradley's papers but he and Mav have fallen out enough, they break up and don't talk for years.

Then, after 5 painful years, Iceman reaches out and admits that it was a bit silly how big their falling out was. They arrange dinner. Mav’s hoping they can put their disagreement behind them and get back together.

Ice walks in with someone Mav doesn't recognise on his arm. He welcomes him with a hug as Mav is still bewildered.

Then Ice introduces him to Sarah, his fiance.

#icemav #icesarah #iceman x sarah #sarah x iceman #tom kazansky #sarah kazansky #pete mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #iceman kazansky #iceman top gun #pete maverick mitchell #maverick top gun #maverick mitchell #top gun #top gun 1986 #top gun maverick #top gun: maverick #break up #icemav break up #bear writes #icemav headcanon #top gun headcanons #angst #bradley bradshaw #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #rooster top gun #carole bradshaw