More Pacific Rim Meta: Mako & Stacker
So have this link.
Normally, I'm a little bored with review posts that defend Pacific Rim for the reasons I've talked about before. This one treads familiar ground (obligatory Evangelion mention which omg whyyy, but I digress), del Toro eschewing military stuff, some on Mako as a character (which has been rehashed as well).
I want to make two points via this review.
1) I never interpreted the movie as portraying that people underestimated Mako because she was a woman. I read they underestimated (if that is indeed the case, which I am not 100% on board with in anyone other than Pentecost) her because she was a rookie (and you can go further and say she's Pentecost's rookie--I think the novelization might go there). Maybe that's a headcanon thing, there's some room for argument since Chuck does use gendered language to put her down later on, but I wouldn't extrapolate from that to "It is never explicitly addressed, but there is only one other female Jaeger pilot, and the candidates for the job as Raleigh’s co-pilot, all male, clearly underestimate Mako’s abilities in a physical fight." This might be an unfair point, but canon has other female pilots, like Tamsin Sevier, and there's also Luna Pentecost (RAF pilot), not to mention Caitlin Lightcap (scientist and Ranger). Even based on the scene, I don't think there's evidence to this "clearly underestimat[ing ]" that the post writer sees.
That Pentecost might not prevent Mako from flying if she was a guy is up for debate as well. To me it seems like a facile, too easy conclusion to jump to. There's so much other stuff in play. So for example, Pentecost's loss of Tamsin and Luna framing Mako as the quintessential survivor. Even without that background, he just saved her from the Kaiju and now he's going to send her back? Next, Pentecost is a smart dude or rather an experienced Ranger, he called Mako on having problems with the Drift due to past trauma. While, yes, it's awfully convenient that he use that to keep her safe and keep himself from the pain of possibly losing her, it's an entirely rational decision. The way he sees it, she has a greater likelihood of dying because of her background, which is another issue from her simply being a woman.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not discounting gender, I certainly think there are some cliches with respect to that (the way the Chuck scene falls into "protecting her honor" tropes that fans rescue it from by either a) saying Mako would get in there or b) saying it's a ghost drift thing)). I might have also mentioned that Mako's silence when piloting (save the sword moment) is uncomfortable to me (insofar as it fall into cliches of secondary characters, no amount of branding her "a different kind of hero," or even worse, a "Japanese hero" (??!!!?!!!) will make that discomfort go away). But these things are from a Doylist, outside of canon POV.
I don't think gender the only thing/most important thing in play when we discuss how characters treat Mako in that universe. It's hard to tease it out of the tangle of other dynamics in play.
This makes it even more interesting to consider how her family dynamics align or not with those of the Hansen family. I haven't paid much attention to that, but I'm willing to bet Herc has an entirely different approach to parenting.
2) This is an observation I agree with, however:
Although the importance of the father figure is one of the oldest tropes in fiction, it should be noted that black men rarely get to be fatherly in movies. The complexity of both Pentecost’s love for his adopted daughter and her love for him is remarkable in itself, partly because the reasons behind it are explored at all. In general, when a character has a conflict with her or his father, it is taken as a given that this person would want to love and respect her or his father. Fathers deserve these things because they are fathers. But Pacific Rim acknowledges the complexity of paternalistic attitudes, rather than suggesting that all fathers inspire love and respect simply by being fathers. Pentecost has earned Mako’s respect, a feeling she pointedly distinguishes from obedience. Furthermore, sometimes Pentecost’s paternalism is harmful, resulting in him preventing her from being the pilot she is qualified to be, because he wants to protect her.