I watched Top Gun the other day and I absolutely loved it. It’s a fantastic story. Great action, good character, and they hit all the points that you need to hit in order to draw an audience in and pull them through to the end. I couldn’t help but compare the character of Pete Mitchell, call sign “Maverick,” with Galadriel from the Rings of Power. I do have some sympathy with those who look at a character like Maverick and can’t understand why one character works and the other doesn’t. The answer simply comes down to bad writing. One understands character, balance, audience perspective, and most of all how to make a character likeable. The other fails completely.

For this scene we have a character who starts off with a smirky smile. Chewing gum loudly. ‘Um Actually’s’ the teacher with a story designed to be a humble brag. Mav is dripping with arrogance It would take a lot to make this character likeable, but it can’t be done and the movie does it great. The scene we watched is from about 20 minutes into the movie. There is a lot of set up that takes place to get us to the point where we can watch that scene enjoy it. We like Maverick and understand where he’s coming from.
The movie starts with two fighters flying on a routine patrol when they encounter to enemy planes, or MiGs. They are a in a neutral zone and Maverick and his wingman Cougar have orders not to shoot unless fired upon first. Nonetheless it’s a tense situation. Maverick gets behind one of the MiG’s and locks on with his missile system, indicating he could have shot down the other plane had he wished. He then flies up, upside down on top of the enemy plane and gives him the bird. Goose, who’s flying with Mav, takes a Polaroid photo.

The other enemy MiG gets behind Cougar, who can’t shake him off and locks into him, showing he could have shot down Cougar with ease. The two MiGs fly off and Mav and Cougar head back to the aircraft carrier. Cougar is clearly shaken by the encounter, glancing down at a photo he keeps of his wife and young son. Cougar isn’t responding and is zoned out to the point where he’s going to crash. Mav and Goose are just about to land on the carrier when Maverick pulls up and flies around, despite running low on fuel. He flies up next to Cougar and manages to talk him back. They both land safely on the carrier and Cougar quits being a pilot. He’s lost his edge. His confidence is shaken. He’s scared of dying and worried about his wife and kid. He leaves.

Maverick gets chewed up by his boss for disobeying orders to land immediately and going back to save Cougar, but because Cougar has left this means there is a slot open for the Top Gun school in Miramar. Mav and Goose arrive at the school and set their sights on the top spot for the class. They are introduced to Iceman and Slider. The current top pilots and immediately a rivalry sets in.

Viper the teacher calls out Maverick in glass.
Viper “The best of the class go up on the board. You. Think your name will be on there?”
Mav “Yes.”
Viper “Pretty arrogant.”
Mav “Yes.”
Viper says he’ll need the confidence and that arrogance can help him get to the top. They go to a bar and make bets on weather Mav can get a girl. Goose plays wingman and sings a song to an attractive blond at the bar. She shoots him down and goes over to a table with a man and a stack of books. Mav follows her into the bathroom and tries again, only to be shot down again.

The next day, they are in class and a blond woman walks in, call sign Charlie, who is an astrophysicists and works for the Pentagon. It’s the same woman from the night before, and now we come to the scene before.
Now our understanding has changes. We get to see Maverick’s POV. We see his recklessness in the inverted bird flip off, but we also see it when he saves Cougar. He’s arrogant and reckless, but also goes the distance to save his wingman. He’s there for his team when it counts. We also see that he’s living in the shadow of his father, who was a pilot and died in combat. The whole pilot school relies on confidence. There is an understanding that if you’re not confident in your abilities to act without thinking, purely on instinct, you will wind up like Cougar. Doubting yourself and getting yourself and others killed.

We also know that Charlie hid who she was and allowed Mav to try and hit on her unknowing who she really was. And it comes to this scene where they are testing each other. Neither mentioning the attempted meet up from yesterday, and Maverick enjoying a moment to prove her wrong and needle her back, while also stepping above their rivals in Iceman and Slider.

Top Gun clip:
   • I Was Inverted  Top Gun (3/8) Movie ...  

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