Belle86

verysharpteeth:

One of the things I love about Raleigh is the fact that he doesn’t really think he’s anything all that special. And I don’t even mean the pilot part. He’s good, we know that. REALLY good (or at least blindingly tough) if we’re to take into consideration his solo piloting. And yet he never brings up his experience. Never really talks about the fact that he’s a vet. He doesn’t demand respect from the “younguns’”. In fact, it’s generally other people demanding that people don’t disrespect HIM (both Herc and Mako step in to basically defend Raleigh’s honor). That doesn’t mean Raleigh is supposed to be read as being weak, just as someone who doesn’t really need the social accolades. He doesn’t care if you respect him or not; HE knows who he is. He walks with a swagger and doesn’t back down when he thinks what he’s talking about is important, so it’s not a case of Raleigh being read as a pushover, but Raleigh feeling no need to rock the boat unless he needs to. He feels no need to have everyone look at him or be in awe of him or even respect him. To himself, he’s just a guy who had a talent, and even then it wasn’t as good as Yancy’s. Raleigh’s comfortable with that. Yet we know that’s probably not entirely true. He’s REALLY good at hand to hand. He speaks several languages. He’s no dummy when it comes to machinery or tactics. He’s got an artistic streak if his pictures are any indication. And there’s always that elephant in the room in that HE PILOTED SOLO. Raleigh’s not just some grunt. Yet the movie makes it very clear that Raleigh feels no need to draw attention to himself aside from when Mako’s involved. And even then, even when it’s fairly obvious he thinks she’s the best thing since sliced bread, his attempts to gain her attention her aren’t so much about drawing attention to himself, but about impressing on her how compatible he thinks they are, how impressed he is by HER skills and knowledge, and simply respecting where she’s coming from and trying to understand her.

And that’s not even addressing the fact that Raleigh is a genuinely nice guy. He holds his temper, he listens to people, he’s legitimately likable. He’s all heart in a lot of ways. I think that’s the thing about him that startles Mako. Here’s this guy who SHOULD be presenting like Chuck does, all confidence and arrogance and bravado. And he doesn’t. Raleigh gets reprimanded and told off and he takes it to heart. He’s comfortable just being someone’s support system. He befriends Mako without asking anything of her other than just wanting to be around her and never gets resentful when she shuts him down or corrects him. And it’s not patronizing on his part, he legit considers her opinions and respects them.  He spends a great deal of time watching her, not in the “oh she’s so hot way”, but because he’s trying to figure out how to read her. It’s so much that way that he doesn’t figure out Stacker’s sick until he reads it by watching Mako’s reactions to her father. Raleigh is fairly still water, but that doesn’t mean he’s just a card board cut out of a character. It also doesn’t mean he’s not shown as being incredibly masculine. Raleigh is a perfecting blending of the fact that being seen as a masculine red blooded male doesn’t mean you’re always right, always aggressive, or always posturing.

(via raleighbecketsswagger)