In ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE, players take on the role of silent protagonist Rex, an ace pilot who racks up impressive achievements in aerial combat. However, a popular headcanon has recently been making the rounds among Japanese Ace Combat players, proposing (affectionately) that outside of the cockpit, Rex is actually a complete airhead. The idea was fueled by how the game’s interactive scenes work as well as certain moments in the story, with Rex gradually becoming the fandom’s beloved single-brain-cell-baby.
Note that this article discusses some details of Ace Combat 8’s main story.
Ace Combat 8 is set in the franchise’s shared fictional world of Strangereal. In the year 2029, the Federation of Central Usea (FCU) suffers a surprise invasion by the Republic of Sotoa, losing much of its territory and military strength. Rex is rescued from the sea by the aging aircraft carrier Endurance and entrusted with the name of the legendary ace known as the “Wings of Theme,” a symbol of hope for the FCU. But the legend isn’t quite what it seems, and Rex must fight alongside his new comrades to reclaim their occupied homeland.
Throughout the story, Rex racks up victory after victory in the skies, gradually turning himself from a bearer of “fake wings” into a genuine ace. But while he’s a dependable hero in the air, players couldn’t help but notice the amusing contrast created by Rex’s seemingly klutzy behavior on the ground.
AC8’s cinematic scenes play out from a first-person perspective, with players able to move the camera, zoom in on things, and occasionally press buttons to perform actions in a QTE-like fashion. During these scenes, there’s sometimes a brief pause before the game registers the player’s input, or the player may take a beat longer to react, which results in Rex looking like he’s struggling to remember what you’re supposed to do when someone offers you a handshake, or doesn’t know he’s supposed to stand up with the rest of his crew when the executive officer (XO) walks in.
When it comes to the story, there are numerous scenes players have cited as further proof. For example, when Rex is picked up by the FCU Endurance while adrift at sea in a lifeboat, the person with him is neither a co-pilot nor a member of his squadron, but Major Jenkins, a maintenance officer. The two weren’t rescued from a downed fighter jet, but from a helicopter. This has led some players to speculate that Rex was late to the fighter jet scramble, and ended up escaping aboard a helicopter with Jenkins instead.
Later in the game, Rex crash-lands in the mountains with Baxter for reasons beyond their control. One scene appears to show Rex getting caught in a tree and having Baxter help him down. Afterward, he gets knocked over by charging sheep. When the pair take shelter and encounter a Sotoa military officer, Baxter tries to hide out of sight, while Rex appears to just stand there in plain view. In another scene, the XO fires a shot behind Rex and tells him to take one step to the left, but he fails to react in time and has to be pulled aside by Baxter at the last moment.
With so many moments of apparent clumsiness scattered throughout the story, it’s not surprising Rex has earned the reputation of an airhead outside of the cockpit. The fact that he’s largely a silent protagonist, with relatively little explicit characterization within the game, has also likely contributed, as it leaves players with plenty of room to fill in the gaps about his personality.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is out now for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X❘S.
