i was re-reading the ask about what video games the platoon guys would play and saw your tag about catholic!rhah and im so interested to hear more about that
So this will be a bit of a rambling piece from me, I haven’t had any real asks in a long time and I was excited about this one. I want to preface this by saying I have absolutely zero connection to catholicism and catholic teachings and know very little about it, but I have some analysis of Rhah through his interactions with others in the film that leads me to headcanon it.
Sooo this idea actually came from a fun conversation I had in the discord server with @senka-mesecine and I don’t even remember what the details were or how it came about, but I had fun just tossing ideas back and forth.
I was just enthusiastic about the idea of Rhah potentially growing up in a strict catholic household. I like to think of him as an Italian American man (the last name he has literally being Italian) whose family are very in touch with their roots, hence his passionate and poetic personality being adopted from that. Italy’s most prominent religion is catholicism, so it would make sense for him. He ALSO in fact wears a cross around his neck in several scenes in the film, which alludes to it directly.
Finding his religion again as a source of comfort during the war was what I thought of, since in that case as a soldier you really couldn’t have anything else. He smokes, drinks, indulges himself and overall lives a lifestyle FAR from his religion, he is the antithesis to traditional teachings, but some part of him naturally searches for his religion when he needs comfort.
The people around you will die, the landscape changes, the world keeps spinning, but you can always hold out for hope that there is a heaven in his case. He says to Chris after Elias dies and just before the Barnes “I am reality” spiel that he hopes there is a heaven so that Elias up there. Something about it is comforting to him, thinking that Elias is probably enjoying being free of life’s burdens and drifting about, doing what he loves and generally feeling good. Rhah craves that kind of thing badly, his whole balance of love and hate and saving his soul (which is revealed in a deleted scene rip) is VERY in tune with biblical ideals. In Leviticus 19:18 it literally states that “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” And Rhah’s entire speech about love and hate is very reminiscent of it.
He’s really earthy and gritty, and desperately needs some kind of reassurance to him that his efforts and his life isn’t a waste, and his religious roots sort of provide that.
It’s also implied he deals with some kind of substance problem when he steals substances from the pocket of a dead Vietnamese soldier, as was the case with many American soldiers in the war, which also might be a foundation of him generally just needing some kind of comfort or relief.
Again, this is just the work of analysis and headcanons lol
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