Personality: The essence of Marco’s personality could be summarized easily at “grin and bear it”. A teenager who has had too much life and death on his hands, even before the war, Marco has experienced a lot of harrowing events in his life, and those events have created the personality of a guy who forces himself to get through life with a laugh because the alternative gets way too depressing, and honestly, who wants that?
When Marco was young, his mother vanished at sea. Presuming her dead, him and his father attempted to move on with their lives. Or, at least, Marco tried for both of them. The death of his wife, Eva, left Marco’s father nearly catatonic. He completely shut-down. Marco’s father didn’t go to work, resulting in the loss of his job, didn’t run the household or shop for groceries, or any other activity that went beyond standing away from the television. The death of his mother and the involuntary neglect from his father forced Marco to take control of the house, developing a way to keep both him and his father functioning in the real world. The effect the death of his mother had on his father left Marco with a very heavy sense of responsibility. After Eva’s disappearance, Marco took on the role of parent for his family, and as such, he sees protecting his dad and maintaining the family as one of his priorities. Because of this sense of duty, while in the beginning stages of the Animorphs, Marco frequently opted out of the extremely deadly and near-suicidal missions, claiming them to be too dangerous and “totally insane”. While most of the Animorphs took this as cowardice, only Jake, Marco’s best friend since childhood, understood that Marco’s hesitance to the call of galactic heroism stemmed more from a desire to protect his dad from the hurt Marco’s death would cause than a desire to save his own skin.
Jake is one of the few people Marco actively respects. Growing up having to manage himself and his father, combined with a natural, slightly condescending view of the world, there aren’t a lot of people that Marco takes seriously. Overall, Marco tends to make snap judgments of his peers. That isn’t to say that the judgments are permanent, but Marco tends to live by the standby of guilty until proven innocent. He is critical of a lot of people, usually masking the criticism in the form of a joke or dampening the condescending edge to his words with a quick punch line. The majority of his peers are there for amusement, but not for advice. Marco tends to think his view is the right one, and has no problem voicing this opinion. Jake and his parents are the only people Marco will defer to when it comes to arguments, and even then it is usually with no small amount of reservation. Marco has a very limited circle of people who matter, but for that circle he holds a strong sense of loyalty. There is very, very little that Marco wouldn’t do for his close friends and his loved ones, not limiting turning into a fly or cockroach.
When dealing with people, Marco is the easy-going, class clown type. There’s always a wisecrack or one-liner ready to go, and he seems to legitimately enjoy being the one to break the tension or lighten the mood. Whenever an argument breaks out or someone pushes someone else’s buttons, Marco’s there to diffuse the situation with a badly timed knock-knock joke and 90s pop culture reference. No matter what the situation is, Marco knows how to make someone laugh and he can wear a grin just as easily. Marco’s mentality stems from his perception of what’s worth getting upset about, which, in Marco’s books, isn’t much. Canonically, Marco compares the Middle East conflict to fighting over an empty soda can, and the parallel highlights the way his brain works in most situations. Marco doesn’t sweat the small stuff, and usually not even the big stuff. He has the most pragmatic approach to the situations the Animorphs find themselves encountering, and because of his cooler head, he is often the provider of strategy and tactics. Marco knows how to remove himself and his personal feelings away from an environment and see the bigger picture, something that has saved his life and the lives of his friends countless times. However, his pragmatic approach can often come across as heartless or ruthless, since Marco is willing to skew moral ethics to achieve the greater good. This approach is stemmed from his willingness to destroy the yeerks and win the war after discovering his mother was not dead, but enslaved by a yeerk named Visser One, the same yeerk in charge of the clandestine Earth invasion. Even with his desire to end the yeerk invasion and save his mother, Marco still opts for the wait-and-see approach more often than not. Cautious, but not reluctant, Marco knows how to assess all sides before jumping headfirst into the action.
While Marco typically is level-headed, when someone he loves is threatened, he can fly off the handle just as easily as any other of the Animorphs. Whenever his mother is threatened, mentioned, or seen while under the control of a yeerk, Marco has been known to make brash decisions that are typically out of character for him. The same goes with his support of his best friend Jake. Even when Marco knows Jake is clearly going against reason, he has never doubted his leadership or attempted to undermine him. Reason is occasionally placed second to loyalty, but very rarely.
Overall, Marco is a sarcastic, witty young man who knows that cooler heads prevail. He makes a joke of most things as a way to cope with the ridiculousness that his life has become. Outwardly, he is the man making the jokes, the tough calls, and the hesitant remarks that everyone else is thinking. Inwardly, Marco is assessing the dangers that he and his friends are facing and trying to reconcile a victory with them.
[CANON] Marco || Animorphs || Reserve [2/3]
The essence of Marco’s personality could be summarized easily at “grin and bear it”. A teenager who has had too much life and death on his hands, even before the war, Marco has experienced a lot of harrowing events in his life, and those events have created the personality of a guy who forces himself to get through life with a laugh because the alternative gets way too depressing, and honestly, who wants that?
When Marco was young, his mother vanished at sea. Presuming her dead, him and his father attempted to move on with their lives. Or, at least, Marco tried for both of them. The death of his wife, Eva, left Marco’s father nearly catatonic. He completely shut-down. Marco’s father didn’t go to work, resulting in the loss of his job, didn’t run the household or shop for groceries, or any other activity that went beyond standing away from the television. The death of his mother and the involuntary neglect from his father forced Marco to take control of the house, developing a way to keep both him and his father functioning in the real world. The effect the death of his mother had on his father left Marco with a very heavy sense of responsibility. After Eva’s disappearance, Marco took on the role of parent for his family, and as such, he sees protecting his dad and maintaining the family as one of his priorities. Because of this sense of duty, while in the beginning stages of the Animorphs, Marco frequently opted out of the extremely deadly and near-suicidal missions, claiming them to be too dangerous and “totally insane”. While most of the Animorphs took this as cowardice, only Jake, Marco’s best friend since childhood, understood that Marco’s hesitance to the call of galactic heroism stemmed more from a desire to protect his dad from the hurt Marco’s death would cause than a desire to save his own skin.
Jake is one of the few people Marco actively respects. Growing up having to manage himself and his father, combined with a natural, slightly condescending view of the world, there aren’t a lot of people that Marco takes seriously. Overall, Marco tends to make snap judgments of his peers. That isn’t to say that the judgments are permanent, but Marco tends to live by the standby of guilty until proven innocent. He is critical of a lot of people, usually masking the criticism in the form of a joke or dampening the condescending edge to his words with a quick punch line. The majority of his peers are there for amusement, but not for advice. Marco tends to think his view is the right one, and has no problem voicing this opinion. Jake and his parents are the only people Marco will defer to when it comes to arguments, and even then it is usually with no small amount of reservation. Marco has a very limited circle of people who matter, but for that circle he holds a strong sense of loyalty. There is very, very little that Marco wouldn’t do for his close friends and his loved ones, not limiting turning into a fly or cockroach.
When dealing with people, Marco is the easy-going, class clown type. There’s always a wisecrack or one-liner ready to go, and he seems to legitimately enjoy being the one to break the tension or lighten the mood. Whenever an argument breaks out or someone pushes someone else’s buttons, Marco’s there to diffuse the situation with a badly timed knock-knock joke and 90s pop culture reference. No matter what the situation is, Marco knows how to make someone laugh and he can wear a grin just as easily. Marco’s mentality stems from his perception of what’s worth getting upset about, which, in Marco’s books, isn’t much. Canonically, Marco compares the Middle East conflict to fighting over an empty soda can, and the parallel highlights the way his brain works in most situations. Marco doesn’t sweat the small stuff, and usually not even the big stuff. He has the most pragmatic approach to the situations the Animorphs find themselves encountering, and because of his cooler head, he is often the provider of strategy and tactics. Marco knows how to remove himself and his personal feelings away from an environment and see the bigger picture, something that has saved his life and the lives of his friends countless times. However, his pragmatic approach can often come across as heartless or ruthless, since Marco is willing to skew moral ethics to achieve the greater good. This approach is stemmed from his willingness to destroy the yeerks and win the war after discovering his mother was not dead, but enslaved by a yeerk named Visser One, the same yeerk in charge of the clandestine Earth invasion. Even with his desire to end the yeerk invasion and save his mother, Marco still opts for the wait-and-see approach more often than not. Cautious, but not reluctant, Marco knows how to assess all sides before jumping headfirst into the action.
While Marco typically is level-headed, when someone he loves is threatened, he can fly off the handle just as easily as any other of the Animorphs. Whenever his mother is threatened, mentioned, or seen while under the control of a yeerk, Marco has been known to make brash decisions that are typically out of character for him. The same goes with his support of his best friend Jake. Even when Marco knows Jake is clearly going against reason, he has never doubted his leadership or attempted to undermine him. Reason is occasionally placed second to loyalty, but very rarely.
Overall, Marco is a sarcastic, witty young man who knows that cooler heads prevail. He makes a joke of most things as a way to cope with the ridiculousness that his life has become. Outwardly, he is the man making the jokes, the tough calls, and the hesitant remarks that everyone else is thinking. Inwardly, Marco is assessing the dangers that he and his friends are facing and trying to reconcile a victory with them.