#wei triplets

I had all but forgotten about Cryptozoic's Pacific Rim trading cards, released in 2014 and dramatically scaled back from their original plans for a full set. Instead they released a binder that contained two autograph cards and seven wardrobe cards. (Oh, to be the person paid to cut up clothes and wedge them inside trading cards.) Although this arrangement is billed as a factory set, eBay reveals that there are at least nine wardrobe cards (the others are Raleigh/Chuck and the Kaidonovskys).

...And by "all," I mean I will be writing down character birthdays from all the sources I can find, some of which contradict each other! It definitely sheds some insight into how ideas changed during development, and I think it shows some evidence that not everyone was always up to date - for example, Mako and Raleigh's Drift Space bios seem to be up to date, but Newt's is clearly an older version, as indicated by his age being given as 45 rather than 35.

Update: I found a post on Travis Beacham's blog that lists birthdays! I've added them now.

Mako Mori Bio posted by GdT on Twitter: January 9th, 2006 Drift Space Special Feature: April 23rd, 2003 Man, Machine, & Monsters: April 23rd, 2003 Pacific Rim Novelization: April 23, 2003 Travis Beacham's Blog: April 23, 2005

Raleigh Becket Bio posted by GdT on Twitter: April 11, 1991 Drift Space Special Feature: December 11, 1998 Man, Machine, & Monsters: December 11, 1998 Pacific Rim Novelization: December 11, 1998 Travis Beacham's Blog: December 11, 1998

Yancy Becket Travis Beacham's Blog: November 7th, 1995

Stacker Pentecost Bio posted by GdT on Twitter: September 9, 1983 Man, Machine, & Monsters: December 30, 1985 Pacific Rim Novelization: December 30, 1985 Travis Beacham's Blog: December 30, 1985

Hercules Hansen Man, Machine, & Monsters: November 10, 1980 Pacific Rim Novelization: November 10, 1980 Travis Beacham's Blog: November 10, 1980

Chuck Hansen Man, Machine, & Monsters: August 14, 2003 Travis Beacham's Blog: August 14, 2003

Sasha Kaidonovsky Man, Machine, & Monsters: February 9, 1991 Travis Beacham's Blog: February 9, 1991

Aleksis Kaidonovsky Man, Machine, & Monsters: January 31, 1998 Travis Beacham's Blog: January 31st, 1989

The Wei Triplets Man, Machine, & Monsters: December 24, 1998 Travis Beacham's Blog: December 24th, 1998

Tendo Choi Man, Machine, & Monsters: May 17, 1992 Travis Beacham's Blog: May 17th, 1992

Newt Geiszler Drift Space Special Feature: January 19, 1980 Man, Machine, & Monsters: January 19, 1990 Pacific Rim Novelization: January 19, 1990 Travis Beacham's Blog: January 19, 1991

Hermann Gottlieb Man, Machine, & Monsters: June 9, 1989 Pacific Rim novelization: June 9, 1989 Travis Beacham's Blog: June 9, 1989

Notes:

Beacham stated that Aleksis Kaidonovsky's 1998 birthdate was a typo.

I have arrived with my incredibly niche and self-indulgent content! Transformers and Pacific Rim, my two robot loves.

Context, for whatever it's worth: Crimson Typhoon has digitigrade legs, one "eye," and funky claws. Whirl has digitigrade legs, one optic, and funky claws. Therefore, friends :)

Image descriptions under cut.

To put it shortly, yesss. A mutual reblogged a gifset a few weeks ago and I decided I needed to give it a rewatch. I did so with my best friend (socially distant style) and I think it totally holds up still.

Yes, it’s a monster movie. Yes, it has some cheesy sci-fi tropes. But at the heart of that movie is the concept of drift compatibility, and I will never be over how much I love that.

The success of piloting a Jaeger doesn’t just ride on one person, and it doesn’t need you or your co-pilot to be the best or the brightest. You have to be able to connect with someone - to trust them and let them in to your very mind if you are going to be a solid team. That’s beautiful, and it’s not a concept I’ve seen in other films in the genre.

There’s also some really touching displays of familial love & some nuanced exploration of toxic masculinity that I still think is resonant. Raleigh Beckett loves his brother and tells him. The loss of his brother deeply effects him, makes him scared to try to drift with someone else again - super compelling reason to be reticent to jump back in a Jaeger with just anyone. The Wei triplets who pilot Crimson Typhoon are playful and affectionate with each other. Herc and Chuck Hanson have a stereotypically gruff, arms-distance father/son bond, but find the words to express their deep care about the other before the final showdown. Stacker Pentecost affirms Mako Mori so beautifully when he tells her he’s proud he got to watch her grow - beats the pants off of any overprotective dad story arc I’ve ever seen.

Mako and Raleigh connect profoundly in their first drift - the cinematography and direction of the scenes in Mako’s childhood memory are SO FREAKING GOOD; it’s quite possibly my favorite sequence of the whole movie. We see what she sees, and we see Raleigh in the scene in his Jaeger suit walking through her memory and it’s just... *chef’s kiss.* 

I could write paragraphs about Beckett’s body language with child Mako. And adult Mako. With how their scenes are blocked. They’re often side by side, - right next to each other, or she’s standing a bit above him. I am trash for this kind of detail.

Mako and Raleigh don’t have a traditional romantic arc in this movie, and I found that really refreshing the first time I watched this movie, back in 2013 sometime. I usually get grouchy when our leads have an obvious connection but don’t share a kiss, but I make an exception with this movie (and with Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor from Rogue One, but that’s maybe another post for anohter time). After Mako and Raleigh (and Gipsy Danger) have saved the world, they have this very tender forehead touch at the very end of the movie, and I actually love that, more than I think I would a kiss. This is specifically because it’s Mako and Raleigh’s minds that have saved them - themselves - each other - the world around them. By sharing the rawest, deepest, scared-est parts of their minds, by holding that kind of space for the other person, they succeeded. The literal and figurative putting of their heads together is what saves them and everyone else. They’re so relieved the other makes it out alive, and they put their heads together again - forehead to forehead, eye-to-eye - this time quietly, reverently, seeing the other and holding space for the other, and I am just... wow. Blown away. I will never be over it and I do not want to be.  

(And there’s also Newt and Hermann, who are totally Science Husbands. The “You’d do that for me?” exchange is such an endearing point of character development for both of them. I haven’t seen the second movie - and from what I’ve read, it doesn’t sound like I’m missing out on much, but they’re in it, so I can imagine that part of it is good, even if the rest of the movie is a misfire.)

But mostly Chuck’s.

Slowed down a little.