Ok so, I know you're not the biggest fan of Ethan, and from what I can tell it's mainly stemmed from Rogue Nation and Fallout (mainly fallout, but if I'm wrong forgive me, I'd love to read more about your opinions they're really interesting).

What was first thing that made you dislike him, and do you have any thoughts on what Tom and McQ could (but won't) do to redeem Ethan in your eyes? What they could do to redeem anything that they've messed up in the movies they made?

(No problem f you don't care just thought it would be a good discussion)

wow that's a real question here 😳

and before I'll tell more about my dislike to ethan i must notice, what when i just came in this fandom two years and one month ago i loved ethan. i was a benthan stan, i made content with them (fics and art), and it was fun!

i was a 18 years old liberal girl with no idea how world is really working, i was much healthier mentally than now and my life was much easier. i had no need in everything — and i had no need to change my mind in such questions as "why countries can't be just friends so people like me would never die in different conflicts and wars". i can't say is that ignorance a bad or normal thing, it's up to you to decide, but I'm thinking all the people don't mind such things before it's touching them. we have too much other problems to think that globally while everything else is okay, but when it's bad you want to know why.

but I'm going too fast. even if my life was okay in 2020 i always had this... unifying theme in my art and other mind activities. it's inner potential. i always thought and still think what i'm nothing. i don't bring anything new or good in this world, so every character who became my blorbo got from me this inner conflict about this "changing the world" stuff — and yet me myself is not in my villain arc, all my blorbos are intended in good deeds as well (i like to think what i'm a good person, you know,,,). benji, whom i kinn A LOT, had this potential. he really is a guy who just wants everyone to be okay, he cares and tries his best, but he's not perfect as ethan and has some common sense. when i came in m:i fandom i knew what most of franchise audience sees benji as a comic relief while he's not worse than ethan, even more interesting sometimes — and much closer to a viewer because he makes mistakes. actually, benji is a viewer in some way, he helps to make movies more real and touching

i was... offended by it. i wanted benji to be in focus as he deserved, so i started to think: what did go wrong? my first thought was his conflict with solomon, what could be the best part of fallout and a great boost for this boring monotonous garbage, but in fact we had one dialog line between them and one unrealistic (but still stressful, not gonna lie) fight in the end. i wanted more. more tense between them, more of benji's trauma. i didn't ship them yet but i felt what this bond between them is more real and catching than between lane and ethan. why? because now i see what mc and cruise had no idea how to write a real fighter with a system. they make solomon a casual terrorist, what is a disappointment, because all his conflict with ethan now sucks as well. mccruises tried to make one type of an antagonist, but if you understand at least something in world-system theory (as real system fighter SHOULD understand) you would see what lane's deeds in rn do literally nothing to bring any changes. you could see more my thoughts about it in my recent fic "on the sleeve".

so, i started to think about benji and solomon and their conflict more, putting ethan on a background. i still liked him, but started to see that lanedunn dynamic what turned into other my fic i never finished (insp by the inheritance with simon)

and then, at summer of 2021 me and my bestie grisha came up with idea what trembled me a lot: after solomon the best antagonist for ethan would be benji. it started from benji's love to ethan, what benji was tired of government and how they treated everyone — and especially ethan. but, thinking about this consent we realized why this works and doesn't work in the same time

this was the moment when i saw the most huge ethan's problem. he never changes.

me and grisha understood what benji's side is logically right. what agencies like cia make things much worse than people they fight with, and while ethan is on their side he's wrong (i met grisha thanks to the show "person of interest what has that m:i vibes but much much cooler and it talks on such themes as government crimes, check this out!). so we had a problem: or on our story benji looses what is a bad end, or ethan dies or something — but never changes his side because he can't to this. i talked about how he never changes and i'm too tired to write it again on english, а на русском вы читать не будете.

that was solomon's time. we started our syndicate au, but with shipping benji and lane we needed to work on syndicate as an entity. we took the idea what mccruises wanted to put in it and made it real, so a bunch of terrorists became a solid organization what has a goal to bring a real revolution in this world

i started my way as a communist. my life was getting worse as well and i saw how capitalism is dangerous for the most of the people. i was thinking about it, but after 24 of february it became clear as a day for me

how is this connected to ethan? well, it's harder to say how it's not

tom cruise is a billionaire producer, and every single idea in mission impossible comes through his point of view: point of view of a white rich american man. he's connect with usa government just like his character ethan, but while hunt runs over the globe and fights with bad guys tom cruise uses his money and influence to make such movies like m:i and top gun which whole idea is simple: usa always wins. usa are good guys. usa sending their agents into other countries without any permission because usa knows what's right and what's wrong, like it was in iran, vientam, syria and other countries. usa has the best airborne, the best army and technology. i can tell this for a long time, but it's not necessary — all of you saw this in hundreds of movies. all i said is not a secret

and ethan is an embodiment of this capitalistic system. perfect american man who never lose. ethan always knows best, whatever his friends say, he can find a way in every situation, can beat a guy who's smarter than him with no reason and explanation, can return to life even after deadly experience

and since i realized this i hate ethan. he's not even a character — he's a system itself. the system i'm against of. i have no respect for him, because he has no value as just a character. he is a mary (marty?) sue made for one reason: make you believe what usa is good and cool one. for 6 films cruise didn't gave ethan nothing more than some epic scenes. no personality, no growth. and if tom cruise doesn't see ethan as a character — why should i?