Character Discussion : Marco

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

Now this guy had a lot of complications all the way through...mostly it was the "my mom is Visser One" stuff, but then toward the end there was the whole love triangle thing. I wish they had explored it more in the last book.

I do like how he always coped with humor...even if not all the jokes were funny lol

Comments

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

Marco is my favorite character of the series, for sure. I know it's partially because of the humor - he recognized more than anyone that they needed humor to keep them from going crazy from everything. The humor doesn't stop with what he says aloud, it's also in his storytelling.

I wish I had the exact quote, but Ax once said about humans in general their incredible ability to adapt. He used Marco as the example, saying that he hadn't believed in aliens before, and then went from not believing to believing, coming to terms with his new reality, and being able to see things that even Ax would miss. Now, Marco is totally the strategist and often saw holes where the others would not, but the point still stands.

I love how much he cares for his family, and we see that right off the bat with his dad.

To me, Marco has become *the* example of how a story needs comic relief. He's also a great example of how a comic relief character can be that, and also really smart.

Anything involving his mom completely broke my heart.

[sylverlining.livejournal.com]

It's a small thing, maybe silly to remember, but if I recall, in one of the first Marco books, there's this one line about his dad after Marco's mom disappeared. Something like,

"he comes home and watches TV with the sound off."

I'm such a big fan of SHOWING instead of TELLING, and just that little detail has stayed with me since I was a kid. Just... How clear and devastating a picture is that? God.

</3

[blue_rampion]

Love triangle thing? /blink

Perhaps it's just me, but I always got the impression that Marco only had a crush on Rachel in the beginning of the series. It seemed to me that later on, while they were still friends their antagonism was too great for them to ever have real romantic feelings. They're both full of sharp edges, and they'd end up cutting each other too much. I think early on (as MM4 shows), yeah a relationship was possible. But later on? I think Marco genuinely found that Rachel becoming such a loose canon and so out of control a turn off, and I think that Rachel genuinely didn't need nor want Marco when she had Tobias. If they ever did anything, I imagine it'd have to be some one off angry fling followed by a gigantic argument, if anything.

...okay I have so much more I could ramble on about Marco but I have no time for it right now, sob. WHEN I RETURN, I WILL BE ALL OVER THIS THING

[natural-blue-26.livejournal.com]

I believe love triangle is in reference to Marco's dad Peter marrying Marco's step mother, Nora, (because he thinks Marco's mother, Eva, is dead) and then Nora is mysteriously never mentioned again in series after Eva is freed from being Visser One.

(Or at least that's how I read it.)

Awwwww but Marco/Rachel is totally my crack (verbal) slap slap kiss kiss pairing in the series! ;) ;)

[sylverlining.livejournal.com]

But think about the angry, bitchy makeups. x3 LOVE HATE LOVE HATE SLAP SLAP KISS AAAHHH!

... I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

I will be waiting, oh Marco-mun

You better have some deep insight LOLOL

[lisacharly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get the feeling by the end that there were points where they downright hated each other. They may have had chemistry by the boatload, but his calculated, cautious approach and her bold impulsivity would never have worked together long-run. I completely agree that by the mid-series to the end he found her recklessness a turn-off.

I EAGERLY AWAIT YOUR RAMBLE.

[blue_rampion]

OKAY so apparently people are awaiting my ramblings SO UH. I HOPE THEY ARE GOOD.

One of the things that I find the most fascinating about Marco is that he's got these combinations of personality traits that you just do not expect together. He's the comedian and the jokester and the comic-relief, and you do not expect that kind of character to be the most ruthless. You don't expect them to be one of the most intelligent. And you don't expect them to be as controlled as Marco is (although perhaps 'repressed' is the better word here :P). He's always calculating his own responses.

And this makes lisacharly's comment about how Marco has some of the biggest meltdown's interesting. It certainly gives weight to the idea that Marco is repressing stuff - you have to wonder, what he always like this, or did it come about after Eva's "death?" Peter was the one who had the major breakdown (which actually indicates a history of mental illness when you think about it...), and so in a way, Marco wasn't given that option. He was this 11 year old kid who couldn't fall apart like you normally would in that situation, because suddenly his dad was falling apart and Marco had to keep it together to look after him. He obviously didn't get much in the way of support from Peter, so perhaps at this point Marco learned that the only way to deal was to just keep in control, keep joking, and try to not fall apart. And it works for the most part, but every now and then you get something that tips him over. (And really, who wouldn't have gotten tipped over the edge?)

Which brings me to the notion of Marco and family, which is a related note. Even with Peter as a screw-up Dad, it's clear that family is incredibly important to him. And if Eva had not disappeared, I suspect he would have grown up to be a fully blown Mama's boy. She probably did the bulk (if not all) of the parenting, and it's clear that she was a massive influence. And she was probably Marco's 'favourite' parent. But even towards Peter, Marco's got a very strong sense of familial responsibility. He's the only one to consider what effect his involvement in the war could have on his family, and to think that his family is more important.

Marco might be good at seeing the big picture, but he tends to hold the people important to him tight and goes to insane lengths for them. I think this is a more general trait he has, because you see it with people outside his family - Jake being the most prominent example. The only reason Marco goes down to the pool in the first book is because of Jake. He's not doing it for any other sake. And you see through the rest of the series that Marco looks out for Jake. Hell, even at the end he's still keeping an eye on him. And this ends up extending to the other Animorphs too - Tobias is the one he's the least close to, and yet he still fights like hell to try and save him from Taylor.

And I find it interesting that while you think of Jake as the one with the the family issues, with Tom being a controller...it's Marco who's really defined by his family. Jake's family kinda stays in the background, and we don't ever really find out that much about who they are, when they're not being infested. We see a lot of more Marco's family, and almost every one of his books has some kind of plot relating to his family (with Jake? not so much).

Aaaaaaaaaaand I think that's enough rambling from me for now, orz

[natural-blue-26.livejournal.com]

I'll have to get back to this tomorrow, but Marco's always been in my top three characters-nearly all the best lines/scenes from the series involve him, and he manages to take having a hugely tragic story (VISSER ONE and his father falling into an emotional coma/blackhole) and make it (at least publically).

[sylverlining.livejournal.com]

Seriously - man, any other writer would have taken Marco and just gone the EMO EMO EMO route. I mean, aside from Tobias', his backstory is the most RIDICULOUSLY SAD one, and he has so much REASON to be freaking emo. But nah. Too cool for that. Let's kick ass instead.

[sylverlining.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, there is SO MUCH I can say here, but I need to go. D:

So I'll just register that one of my biggest beefs with the ghostwritten books ever is when they turn Marco into a two-dimensional clown. GODDAMNIT, THAT'S NOT ALL HE IS, YOU SHALLOW ASSES. HUMOR AND SARCASM ARE COPING MECHANISMS, NOT AN ENTIRE PERSONALITY. GRAHH.

I'll be baaaack!

[skirtsandtea.livejournal.com]

That's definitely on my list of biggest beefs, too. (The others are Rachel in The Weakness - or "The Damn Cheetah Book," as I like to call it - and Visser Three being portrayed as a bumbling buffoon.)

IT'S LIKE CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY

[lisacharly.livejournal.com]

I thought we were going in narrator order so this wouldn't be until next week! OMG! Huzzah!

So anyway, Marco is my favorite. Duh. I just love how through the whole series, he walks that thin line between humor and deadly seriousness, between confidence and crushing insecurity, between meltdown and full-blown repression, between being straightforward and stuck in fantasy, between being a jackass and being a team player, between just being a kid who wants his mom back and being a ruthless, deadly, hopeless tactician. I don't know how to do this without bullet points because I have like a million thoughts on Marco, so.

-Humor! Personally, I love that his humor isn't always funny. It strikes me as very true to a young, smart teenager: pop culture references, hyperbolic babble and dry sarcasm, and only about 70% of it is actually funny and it's sometimes downright mean. That makes sense to me given his age range. The humor also aids in the emotional repression, which I'll get back to. Basically, Eva taught Marco how to deal with the world by using humor, which works for most things but for the life of a child soldier caught between killing and saving his mother, just makes him really, really repressed and confused about his own emotions.

I think Marco's sense of humor and sense of strategy originate in the same place: he's essentially an opportunist. He sees the silver linings, punchlines and weaknesses in the enemy (and when he puts himself in the enemy's position, weaknesses in their strategies) because he's always working an angle to make the best of any situation. Marco's the type who doesn't ask for much so as not to seem needy, but will happily help himself to whatever opportunities present themselves - ref: dragging all that crap in Ax's scoop by #49.

-Confidence and insecurity! Marco exudes probably the most confidence of any character besides Rachel, and is very good at laughing at himself as well as everyone else. However, I will posit that this is actually because he's deeply insecure. Throughout the series, we see indications that he cares very deeply about what the other Anis think of him, especially Jake, and is very insecure about his position within the group. We see indicators of this throughout the series - in #2, Rachel jokes that he's not her friend and he seems genuinely hurt, and she mentions that he's really bothered by his size. In #4 and #6, it's mentioned that the others think he's really embarrassed by his financial situation. Throughout the early series, he says he doesn't care what the others think, but when he feels he's being called a coward he shoots back with low blows and potshots. In #15, he explains that he can't talk to Jake about his problems because he thinks Jake only likes him as the smart, funny friend. And most tellingly, in #30, when he's justifying his actions to his theoretical people, one of them is to Jake - "don't ever doubt me again". I think the confidence and ego Marco puts on is a front for the fact that he wants to be a valued member of the group; he's confident because of his insecurity, not in spite of it.

Re: IT'S LIKE CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY

[lisacharly.livejournal.com]

-Meltdowns! Marco has some key meltdowns throughout the series. I believe they're the rage monologue in #10, the swimming pool and the shark attack scenes in #15 and the entireties of #30 and #35. The rest of the time, he's pretty totally repressed laid-back. And as the series goes on, these meltdowns transform from dangerous, stupid berserker moments to cold and calculating slow-burns, probably the eminent example being #30.

The entirety of #30 is one slow-motion meltdown for Marco, because he can't handle the uncertainty of not knowing if he'll ever free his mother anymore. While the official goal is to protect the Hork-Bajir valley, Marco's personal goal is to reach some kind of finality with his mother. I don't think he realizes that that was his intention until he's facing her on top of the mountain, either. He's convinced himself he's totally in control and acting rationally when he's absolutely not. The mission was mostly unnecessary and over-ambitious and really only existed so he could attempt to finally get some closure. And that's the thing - Marco wants closure more than he wants his mother back. It's such an inconceivable thing that he can't admit it to himself until he's about to knock her off a fucking cliff. I mean, wow. Heavy shit.

#30 and #15 are my favorite books within the series, because any other author might've gone with a "save mommy!" storyline. Instead, those books posit the idea that it's easier to live without hope and move on than it is to cling onto something nearly impossible. It's way more complicated and thoughtful, and way more sad, than a more straightforward take on the series would have managed.

And it makes the scene in Visser all the more heartbreaking. I mean, Marco already gets a Crowning Moment of Badass in Visser ("I know my mother loves me, Yeerk"), but he also gets some really beautifully-executed angst. Because he gives his mother up when the hope that she would be back, that the nightmare would be over, that he wouldn't have to be scared of himself and of his emotions about her anymore, that he wouldn't have to lie about her to his dad, that he would have closure, all gets dashed in about two chapters. HE WAS SO CLOSE. It breaks my heart and makes me cry every. Single. Time.

-Dream imagery! One of the things I love the most about Marco's books is that they employ a hefty amount of dream imagery, more than any other character in the series because he's so repressed he can only express his emotion to fantasy figures. In #5, 15 and 30 we get actual dream sequences. In at the very least #10, #15, #25 and #30, we get moderately-involved fantasies (rage monologue/future family/warm place/insomnia sections of each book respectively). I personally find it fascinating that Marco tends to work out his problems by having imaginary conversations and scenarios. It's one of my favorite parts of his narrations.

-Jackass or team player? Both. He can be and often is a total pain in the ass for the others, especially when it's him and Rachel. I feel like a lot of his lack of cooperation in #37 was mostly just "I don't want to listen to Rachel". And he tends to dogpile people when they're already down (Jake in #16, Ax in #8 and 18, Rachel in #37, Cassie in #28 and #19). Oh, and he's just generally a dick to Tobias and later, to David.

At the same time, as early as #9 he tells Cassie to leave him and run when they're in danger and he's trapped, and in #33 he goes to megaextremesuperduper lengths to save Tobias from Taylor (I fist-pump every time). He also tends to take any piece of strategy at face value, valuing the validity of the suggestion rather than rejecting it because it isn't his. And he's willing to admit when he's wrong, usually. So there's a bit of a cooperative element there, too.

- Kid or ruthless tactician? Both, obviously. Though it's interesting that many of his most ruthless decisions stem from very kid-like desires - #30's "I'ma kill mom so I don't have to deal with this shit" and #45's "I want mom and dad back together so I'ma sentence Nora to slavery".

OMG I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

Re: IT'S LIKE CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

I never even thought about narrator order. Mostly I wanted to save Cassie for the last of the core six due to the EPIC LEGNTH that post will be LOL

[redsilverchains.livejournal.com]

Woe, I am late to the Marco party! D:

I LOVE THIS BOY LIKE CANDY. I'm grinning because this thread has exploded with Marco-love and meta. He'd be so proud.

Will read this whole post and possibly share thoughts later, but for now:


“Sorry, Mom,” he said to me. “But we have to make it look realistic.”

The tiger’s paw moved, withdrew, and left behind four deep, bleeding gashes in my good arm. Another too-fast-to-see movement and the Andalite slashed a shallow groove down my cheek.

“Has to look like you fought,” Marco, cold, calculating Marco said as his throat choked off the words and his eyes went blind with tears.

-from "Visser"

THIS DOES THINGS TO MY HEART. EVERY. TIME.

[lisacharly.livejournal.com]

...Dude I just like, teared up in class reading that.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

ugh I can't believe I missed this

[blue_rampion]

A lot of us ares till arguing/watching, so it's not too late to jump in anyway! :P

[lisacharly.livejournal.com]

"Over? This isn't over! This is STILL HAPPENING." /Community

Seriously, though, would love to see your thoughts on this nudge nudge hint hint.

[tobiahawk.livejournal.com]

Late to the party, but...

I didn't like Macro, and for more reasons than my Rachel/Tobias shipping. To me, he never seemed to grow over the series in the way the others did. Yes, his conflict with his mother being Visser 1 and the issues with his father in the beginning were promising, but they didn't really turn into much. Macro remained, I think, sort of immature, even in his tactical nature. As much as people criticism Tobias and Rachel, to me, Macro was always *so* "me, me" about everything (in some cases, his mother was an exception, I admit--but even that wasn't consistently affecting). Macro primarily aim always was saving himself, getting what he wanted, and he never grew out of that--never really bonded with the other Animorphs, sans Jake, never moved beyond that shallow approach to relationships, never acknowledged the war on a grander scale. To me, all the other Animorphs grew up, but Macro seemed more static than dynamic to me, and it bored and annoyed me.

That being said, however, there are a few Macro moments I love:
-Macro saving Tobias in 33 (I wish we had seen more of this)
-Macro in Visser
-Macro reflecting on his dad and mom, particularly in #5
-Macro/Jake moments surrounding Tom (basically, I did like Macro when he was showing some dimension... but those moments were WAY too rare, IMO)

-On a purely entertainment level I also did really enjoy book 25, if just for the tension brought on by the aspect of the inescapable, deathly cold.

*ducks tomatoes*

[blue_rampion]

/GETS OUT THOSE TOMATOS---okay just kidding, not really XD

Hey, nothing wrong with not liking a character! In the end, it's all down to personal taste, right?

(And those of us that love him...probably couldn't argue against the "immature" allegations anyway XD)

[lisacharly.livejournal.com]

I'd have to disagree a thousand times about the V1 storyline not turning into much just because #15/30/Visser is my holy trinity of OMGAWESOME, but YMMV. I do think it's interesting how the war pretty much beats the hopefulness out of him regarding Eva.

But, #45 is like the ultimate in anti-climactic, half-assed conclusion to that story, so there's that. As far as him always being out for himself, I do think there's a missed moment of introspection in the series - why does he keep fighting the war after he gets his parents back? Is it because he's loyal to Jake? Feels indebted to the other Anis? Cares enough about the world to keep risking his life? Feels duty-bound? I mean, his original goal is accomplished, do we get absolutely re-evaluation of why he's still around? GAH, #45 and #51 piss me off so fucking much.

I would argue that Marco's character development pretty much hits a standstill at #35 and then just stops. #35 is the last time we see him actually do any soul-searching or major changes and really, it's just a reification of who he is in the beginning of the series, so I can see the not-developing argument there.

[almighty-patsy.livejournal.com]

HOLY SWEARWORDS PEOPLE! WHAT HAPPENED HERE?

Be back in a year, just going to go read comments.

[tissalynn.livejournal.com]

Hello. I'm new. Very, very new. For a couple of weeks now, I've been visiting this one...page I guess you can call it, and have been reading some animorphs fanfiction. And then I stumbled upon something very miraculous: other people who love Marco as well. Because, you see, I've kind of had a character crush on Marco since I was like, ten. And I thought this wasn't normal and I kind of..."disliked" myself, to put it nicely. And then I came upon this particular website and found other Marco freaks like me (meant in the best way possible). And now there is purpose to life! *dramatic cartwheel* (I love the astrik action thingies because you get to do anything you want)
Okay, sorry. I'm not that great of a writer, so it might read kind of frazzled. So, to cut to the chase, I'm just putting myself out there to let my fellow Marco-lovers know about me. Like I said, I'm new and have no idea what I'm doing, which accounts for about 99% of the time, so tips and general information are welcome.
Okay, sorry, sorry. One more thing. Must. Leave. Comment. Pertaining. To. Marco.
If Marco were a real person, we'd totally be friends. I mean, come on. Funny, hispanic, superhero, who wouldn't want to be his friend? I hate the fact that K.A. gave him bullies (no hate towards ya, Applegate-you my homie). I guess it's kind of cute for him to have bullies in a tortured-comedian-thrown-in-a-war-to-save-humanity-while-simitaneously-keeping-his-dad-from-committing-suicide way. I think it would have been better if he stomped their asses, though. But I guess that would be OOC (see, I'm catching on).
Anyway, I'd have more to say, but I'm still really nervous about being a newbie.