animorphslj | Character Discussion : Marco

buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com posting in

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

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From:

blue_rampion

Peter's definitely got something going on early in the series. Grief is normal, yeah, but there is a certain point where you're not just grieving, you're depressed. I believe the normal judge by whether or not someone has a mental problem is whether or not it negatively affects their daily life? The moment Peter started leaving Marco with the responsibilities that he as the adult and parent should be taking care of was the moment when Peter's grief became a problem.

And both Tobias and Marco are interesting in that out of all of the Animorphs, they're the only ones who have any significant backstory - the rest are just average kids, who've lived average lives, and from there the start their character development. But with Marco and Tobias, a lot of their development and what makes them who they are actually happens before the series start, and to a certain extend we never fully learn all the details. (Sure, we can make educated guesses, but not much is made explicit.) And it does make sense that their histories would influence what they think of each other.

And oh Peter, you never get to tell Marco what to do. You gave up that right a while ago. (Eva however, I imagine would still have that right. I mean, come on. She asked Marco to let her remain a slave and essentially be doomed to a short tortured life he said yes. Momma's boy forever)

...I do wonder what Nora would have thought of Peter's parenting techniques though. She's a teacher: she should have seen similar cases a thousand times, but as a stepmother she'd be on shaky ground with trying to deal with Marco herself. I wonder if there were ever any discussions that we never say, about Peter's parenting techniques?

(YOUR FIC IS AWESOME AND YOU CAN NEVER THINK TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS :P)

From:

lisacharly.livejournal.com

That's a great point about Tobias and Marco. I think KA might have wanted to go somewhere in that direction with Rachel (which is why #7 has so much family conflict), but for the most part you're right, the other Anis start developing at the war and Marco and Tobias start growing up years before that.

Eva would totally still have that right, but it's weird to think that by the time he's sixteen, probably both of his parents are treating him like equals. I mean, Eva's already seen him grow up and fight a war, and it's not all that easy to go back to being the in-charge mom-figure when your kid has pretty much established himself as not only self-sufficient, but incredibly capable. I can actually see Marco being a bit over-protective of Eva post-war, especially in a "now that I've got you back and you've been through hell I'm going to make sure nothing bad ever happens to you again" kind of way. He's already got a mad protective streak with Jake and his dad.

I totally wonder about that. Perhaps Nora didn't feel like it was her place to intrude since she was just the stepmother? Or maybe she cussed Peter out all over the place for it? Seeing Nora react to the fact that Peter is a total flake cadet is a missed opportunity in the series, IMO. It could have really examined how much the Animorphs get away with from their parents, how Marco would adapt to having to placate and bullshit to someone new, and kind of emphasize exactly how utterly clueless Peter is. Although I suppose the other possibility is that Peter's being willfully ignorant and just doesn't want to have any hard conversations with his son, which is totally also possible.

Anyway, hopefully once Nora moved in they stopped having ice cream for dinner.

Aww, thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it. :)

From:

blue_rampion

Rachel could have, except you never see much that indicates that her parents divorce had any kind of major effect on her. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing: I mean, it's shows that divorce itself doesn't inherently mess up the kids.

Yeah, I can't really see Eva using that right. I imagine she'd be so incredibly sad at the fact that she'd missed seeing him grow up, though. (and oooh, yes. Marco would be protective as hell over Eva.)

It's possible that Nora tried to talk to Peter about it, and he never did anything. Saying nothing just seems odd to me though, for a teacher. She'd have to be aware of the potential negative effects.

...and you know, clearly this explains why Marco is so short. DAMMIT PETER, YOUR SON NEEDED NUTRITION!

From:

lisacharly.livejournal.com

Right, I'm just saying I think KA may have been angling in that direction and then dropped that plot idea.

Definitely. Of all the many, many things Eva lost during the war, that would probably be one of the most painful. And re-negotiating their relationship now that he's five years older and they've both been through all sorts of awful things must be so tricky. Ikes.

Probably. In a way, I think Peter was possibly already aware how much of a crap parent he was and just didn't know where to start doing anything about it. And then, you know, aliens. Complicating things.

Granted, Marco was already small for his age before Eva died, but Peter probably didn't help none. Marco was totally that kid in high school who drank soda and ate cold pizza for breakfast. I don't even want to imagine what his diet was like when Peter was all DEPRESSED IN MY MANCAVE, it was probably horrifyingly filled with instant dinners and cereal for lunch.

From:

natural-blue-26.livejournal.com

My one brother is 18, 6' 3", and survives mainly on breakfast cereal because he has no culinary skills at ALL- he once burned lasagna in a mircowave. As in, burned it BLACK. in a MICROWAVE = should not even be possible.

...And I now have a rabid plot bunny about Marco learning to "survive" post Eva fake!death...

From:

lisacharly.livejournal.com

My brother is 18, 6'2 and doesn't know how to seal an envelope? Oh, 18 year-old boys.

PLEASE WRITE THIS I BEG OF YOU IT WILL MAKE ME SO HAPPY FOREVER.

From:

natural-blue-26.livejournal.com

How can you not know how to seal an evelope? It never even dawned on me people might not know this... Of course, I was the weird little kid who begged my mom to let me seal her's back in the day people *actually* mailed things to each other because I liked the way the glue tasted....... :blink blink:

My brother (who is fairly bright/took AP/hard math/science classes) can't sucessfully boil water! It lols me.

From:

lisacharly.livejournal.com

Oh, it gets even better. Mom told him he had to get the seal wet, and he didn't think to lick it...so he ran it under the sink. And was upset that the letter inside got wet.

He got an 800 on his math SAT II.

From:

blue_rampion

That is possible - the complete disappearance of Rachel's dad does lend credence to that idea.

Poor Eva ;_; (and those darn aliens, always messing things up!)

His idea of "cooking" does seem to equal "shoving something in the microwave". You have to wonder if Eva tried to get him to actually eat decent food once she came back.

From:

lisacharly.livejournal.com

"Mom, I'm totally healthy! I can fight legions of Hork-Bajir, for God's sake! I'm the pinnacle of health!" "Just sit down and eat your kale, Mr. Hero. Raw Spaghettios are not a meal."