hear me out chat: trans ethan
this man leaves behind wisconsin for the CIA, and then the IMF: wanting to completely start over, a new name and a new face, where nobody knows him as anything but ethan hunt. the IMF is practically a dream for him, really, suits and glamour and all of his medications no-questions-asked because nobody cares if ethan hunt is juicing as long as he gets the job done.
after mi2, he goes to get bottom surgery, and the secretary tells him it’ll be a business expense as long as he comes back to the IMF afterwards, and he grins at him because he will, he always will, because it’s 2003 and it feels like the only place that’ll have him. because it feels like the only place he can be himself. so he stays, and he always stays, until he meets julia— because she sees the scars on his chest and looks up at him in awe, not pity, not disgust, and that’s where he thinks for the first time that maybe he really can have another life, another place to belong besides just work.
i have more thoughts about this but they aren’t coherent at all so expect more trans ethan posting sometime in the future
i also love and respect trans benji but there’s something appealing to me about trans ethan. this man has gone through so much, and yet he keeps coming back to the IMF, both because it’s his duty and because he feels indebted to it— because the IMF gave him a new life, a new chance, a new name. *his* name.
