Okay but. A Bradley Bradshaw who truly doesn’t know until TGM that Maverick is a little unhinged. He “tried to be the father he lost”, tried to set a good example, didn’t exactly tell an impressionable kid about all the ways he earned his reputation. So for years, Rooster avoided any mention of Maverick and probably dismissed rumors about him pissing off Admirals as so much Navy scuttlebutt - after all, he never got kicked out, he made it to O6, and he’s at least known for being good at what he does. So he figures the stories he heard growing up, and the new ones he’s hearing, are exaggerated.
…until they’re shot down behind enemy lines and Maverick’s happily strolling onto a bombed-out enemy flight line to steal a whole aircraft in an unknown state of repair by taking off from a very short taxiway and is just expecting him to go along with it, like it’s the obvious thing to do.
Smash cut to Bradley running down a LONG list of batshit stories he’s heard about Maverick, trying to confirm what’s actually real, and having to mentally readjust his whole worldview (including realizing that Goose was equally batshit and egging him on from the backseat half the time.)
“This one has to be made up, right, you’d never take an admiral’s daughter on an unauthorized F/A-18 flight — wait what do you MEAN that was Penny from the bar??”
