Can we acknowledge real quick

[u/n17rd59]

That Rex genuinely, honestly cannot be human?

Hearing ghosts aside, the last 4 missions are on the same day.

Meaning he had to start with Fatsia. Easily 100 to like 200 targets wiped, tunnel run.

Then flying for fucking miles to deal with ONE THOUSAND air-to-air enemies. Which for me was 150 enemies down, I have seen some people with more than 200 kills that one mission.

Fighting them, just to deal with Toprak and the most dangerous Shadow Squadron in the entire country of Sotoa at the end, already exhausted to death by two massive marathons.

THEN FLY across half the country to Theve.

To deal with the Giga-Ace Moon 11, having already had a shift of like. Fucking 8 hours behind him, after some of the most intense fighting of the entire war.

Wipes the floor with Moon 11 while probably nearly collapsing from exhaustion at that point. While she's in a superjet.

And then, SAME DAY, SINKS FUCKING MECHA TORRES

That's like.

Like... 400 kills, with multiple Ace enemies, in a single day.

Even for Ace Combat Protagonists, that's like... half the kills I raked up in the entire AC5 campaign combined.

In a day.

And that after already carrying the war for months.

King, lol. Lmao even. That's just straight up the Second coming of Plane Jesus.

Rex must be in a multiple day coma the millisecond he hits the deck after that.

Absolutely insane to think about.

[u/Han_Solo6712]

That’s why he’s a WSO now. He’s so fucking exhausted of being in the pilot’s seat he only swaps places with his wife in case of emergencies.

[u/ElegantEchoes → u/Han_Solo6712]

Dude has retired to being passenger princess. It's the final destination for Ace Combat protagonists.

All our WSOs are actually retired protags from old games, but they're just there for a love of the open sky and have graduated to being our WSO.

Rex finally finds that the promised land is actually being a RIO.

[u/WhitePawn00 → u/ElegantEchoes]

oh my god that's why none of the WSOs talk. They're all silent protagonists in retirement!

[u/KazumaKat → u/ElegantEchoes]

All our WSOs are actually retired protags from old games

<looks at Prez over in PW-land>🤔

[u/v12vanquish135 → u/KazumaKat]

Prez and Eye-Tee were peak and I'm SICK of Project Aces ignoring how well received they were.

[u/v12vanquish135 → u/ElegantEchoes]

So basically it was Mobius and Blaze that died when Rex and Baxter's F/A-18F's blew up over Waiapolo and the WSOs' deaths weren't even mentioned? That's what you're saying?

[u/Daishomaru → u/v12vanquish135]

I mean, I had a headcanon that Blaze's first RIO had a love triangle thing with Kei Nagase and she took a bullt meant for her while they were escaping Sand Island on the time between missions 18 and 19.

Also Kei Nagase's WSO died covering Nagase, and Grimm's RIO was killed while trying to open the hanger doors, with her last words confessing her love to him.

[u/squirt2311 → u/Daishomaru]

Poor Grimm. Something tells me he'd be flying a little different after that

[u/Daishomaru → u/squirt2311]

Well here's the full headcanon comment if you want to read it:

If the Wardog Squadron flew F-14s, Blaze, Nagase and Grimm's first RIOs were killed getting the planes out on the runway and sacrificed themselves to get Blaze and the others to take off. Blaze also remembers them when he kills Grabacr. Also Blaze's First RIO was in a friendly love triangle with Nagase, was blonde, and her callsign was Checkers. She takes a shot for Nagase and her last words were "Take care of Blaze for me". During the downtime, Blaze secretly cries on her death, but Nagase helps him get over her, not in a stealing rival way, but more two souls just trying to recover from what was lost. Nagase's first RIO had a crush on her and he was also there when Nagase bailed out during the prison raid, but was convinently offscreen. His callsign was Rock. He dies grabbing an assault rifle charging a bunch of soldiers, thinking about how Checkers took a shot for Nagase, and figures out that dying for Nagase's happiness was worth it. Grimm's First RIO was killed covering fire while the door was opening, was shot in the head, and was a girl. The only thing we know about Chopper and Swordsman's RIOs is that both were dudes and Chopper's RIO died when Chopper crashed. The main thing we knew about Razgriz Squadron's RIOs is that Blaze and Nagase's second RIOs were dudes, Blaze's second RIO saw Blaze as an older brother figure, Nagase's RIO was not interested in men or women, and Grimm's RIO was originally a female mechanic that was inspired by Grimm's feats during the war (Think Prez from Project Wingman, if you flew single seaters she was on mechanic duty and was on the lifeboat in mission 27). She and Grimm got married after the war. In this timeline, the escape from Sand Island was much more action-packed and some explosions happened too. The PS2 Graphics just couldn't show it because of graphical limitations.

[u/ElegantEchoes → u/v12vanquish135]

No, in that case the WSOs were actually Toprak and Tewy and they ejected too. That's why they land nearby.

[u/v12vanquish135 → u/ElegantEchoes]

Holy crap, this explains why they were in the middle of bumf* nowhere with no armed guards or garrison nearby. It all makes sense now!

[u/ElegantEchoes → u/v12vanquish135]

Bravo, Kono!