Reading Mordecai Heller as a repressed gay man
The tragic attraction
This is a full post based on my response to a great analysis by @sedgewick-gayble
Let me start by saying that if you read Mordecai as being totally asexual/aromantic and any affection he has for other characters to be entirely platonic that is entirely valid and I respect that
However as this response by Tracy makes clear on the topic of fans reading Mordecai as gay there is an intentional ambiguity about it. Being 28 at the time of the main story his "lifestyle is certainly asexual" up to this point, yet "being ace and being gay are not mutually exclusive things" and people sometimes "don't know themselves or understand their own motivations all that well"
This leaves the possibility open that Mordecai is actively repressing his natural desires and feelings
Hey, just started getting into your comic and I know a lot of people read Mordecai as gay. I was getting more of an ace vibe from him and I
Mordecai's early life didn't exactly provide much time or opportunity for "self discovery", even by the usual standards of the less than tolerant and understanding world of the early 20th century
Being born into an impoverished family and having his father die very early in his life leaving him and his Mother and two younger sisters in dire straits, Mordecai had to get to work and assume adult responsibilities pretty damn early.
As Tracy says "selling newspapers wasn't going to cut it" and so using his natural talent with numbers Mordecai starts bookkeeping for the mob. Is it any wonder someone with that background would develop such a serious and rigidly buttoned up demeanour?
Since being forced to abandon his mother and two sisters at the start of the 1920s and flee New York, being picked up by Atlas's due to his habit of collecting useful strays, Mordecai had very few people he was close to in St Louis. With his generally anti-social personality and not only lack of interest but discomfort with any sort of flirting or romantic entanglements, that would be unlikely to change
Side note: Probaby coincidence but
There are only two people who seem to make it onto that exclusive list of people that "count" for Mordecai, who he cares about and are able to bring things to the surface he would normally keep hidden
Atlas to Mordecai is not just an employer, he is the man who saved his life, the man who moulded a desperate fearful shabby young stray into the sharp professional he is today, who took him under his wing and made him his protege. Filling the empty space his father left in his life. His grief and desperate hunt for those responsible for his death are his big motivation (the strain of which is slowly tearing him apart)
That connection is undertsandable
Much more surprising on the surface is the bond with the partner Atlas teamed him up with soon after his arrival, Viktor Vasko.
The assumption at the start would have been that while their skill sets might compliment each other in the field there would have been no warmth in their dynamic.
Certainly not on Mordecai's part as Viktor appears to be a sum total of many things Mordecai hates. Viktor is unshaven, relatively casual in his attire, speaks a broken English, has an asymmetrical face due to his missing eye, and hates people chattering or “noise, noise, noise” as he calls it. Clashing hard with his obsession with good grooming, symmetry, high quality tailoring, correct grammar etc. Indeed Mordecai doesn't hesitate to nag/criticize Viktor for many of these things
Yet at the same time Mordecai has far better chemistry with Viktor than with anyone else, able to banter and bicker with him in a way you rarely if ever see with others
Its why when he gets tailored clothes for the first time Viktor is the first person he wants to show off too. Its why the one time he is intoxicated Viktor (and his large physique) are his chosen topic of converation. Its why at Christmas/Hanuhhah he gives him the gift of a tie while claiming its just because of the big guys poor fashion sense and that its "embarassing to be seen with him" (even that justification makes him sound like a nagging girlfriend)
A smaller detail is that during their iconic chess playing in the side content, set during their days staking out the remote town of Defiance, Viktor is shown very casually winning the game much to Mordecai's visible distress
This is hilarious but could also be taken as a metaphor for Viktor (possibly without even realizing it) breaking through his defensive emotional barriers
Something Mordecai doesn't know how to handle or respond to
The animated short only adds fuel to the fire
During their dispute over strategy Mordecai moves his face so close to Viktors that he almost knocks his cap off his head. His eyes at one point even dart down towards his mouth
Sharp eyed Vikdecai fans have also noted that Mordecai seems on some level to want the two of them to match
The tie being the same colour could simpy be Mordecai giving Viktor one of his own ties because its a joke gift and he just grabbed it on a whim to tease Viktor about his poor fashion choices
But think about the matching suits at the New Years party for 1926
I mean, seriously, not only is it the exact same style of suit in the same blue-grey colour distinct from everyone else, but they are standing in the perfect spots to be symmetrical to each other. Something that we all know means a lot to this compulsive man
Mordecai must have known there was going to be a big group photo ahead of time and then carefully planned this
Got matching suits made to his and Viktors measurements
Made sure they were both what Mordecai believed to be Viktors favourite colour based on what he usually wears
Then most impressively convinced/nagged Viktor into cooperating (he may have taken off the tie and rolled up the sleeves but hey him playing along at all is quite a compromise from Viktor "I hate dressing up" Vasko)
Mordecai is intent on making Viktor retire and get out of danger, and avoid a situation where he gets sent to kill him by Marigold because he knows he could NOT do it, and his cover and investigation into Atlas's death would be over
He is horrified that Viktor is still working at Lackadaisy (though he again has to hide how much he cares) and that he has gotten not only hurt again but hurt by Mordecai again (albeit this time indirectly by stealing the guns)
Can this be read as simply platonic comradere? Absolutely
But there is something so *intense* in the fact he was willing to resort to kneecapping him. Its an extreme and desperate act that could only result from intense emotions, seemingly out of character for someone who tries very hard to appear logical and controlled.
While Vikdecai is a very fun ship when imagining them as an actual bickering married couple, I have often said that a tragic one-sided on Mordecai's part version of Vikdecai is the one that fits closest and surprisingly well into the canon.
His nagging and complaining about Viktor in that context take on a Tsundere aspect, both to protect himself from being found out and maybe even try and convince himself the uncomfortable alien feelings aren't there. He not only doesn't want others looking too hard at his feeling he doesn't want to examine them himself all that much
There is a heartbreaking but appealing angst to the idea of this extremely repressed man having such feelings for the first time in his life for his straight best friend and NOT knowing how to handle that. Having to perform the balancing act of being around him so much as his partner but being painfully aware that he can't let anyone catch on, especially not Viktor himself, as it would likely destroy his bond with the only person in town other than Atlas he is close to.
Though tragically he did that anyway later via the kneecapping, which while about trying to keep Viktor safe, he may now looking back try and tell himself its actually somehow "better" for Viktor to hate him for that
Because the big guy now wrongly thinks the feeling is mutual and that Mordecai never really cared about him, which may be better than (what Mordecai assumes would be) disgust at his partners doomed more than platonic feelings
Because he sees those feelings, and his situation, as a sad perfectly structured joke life has played on him
Yet those feelings are still strong enough that ,when encountering a thug named Gracie Grombach, another very large imposing man, during his hunt for answers, this cold, calculating hatchet man has the most emotionally open moment we have seen in the main story so far. Almost breaking down
Almost like there is another empty space in his life beside Atlas's where Viktor used to be, and with the strain of his investigation and the lack of progress getting to him, a part of him wishes that they could just sit down and talk things over together, like the good old days
And Gracie, in terms of bulk and his big suspeners at least, is just similar enough to make Mordecai, consciously or unconsciously, let his guard down for a moment
Despite it being with a poor substitute
The projection of his feelings for Viktor onto Gracie may not stop there
@xvince-heliotropex pointed out to me that Mordecai voluntarilty taking off his glasses so that dollar store Viktor substitute Gracie could punch him may on some level be him feeling like he deserves to be punished after what happened with Viktor
He may have put himself in this situation with his poor choices, but its hard not to feel bad for this emotionally messed up cat trying so hard to pretend he isn't
