Hey there! Here’s another question about our birthday freckled boy :)
In the timeskip, how does he feel about invading Liberio? It could be about the invasion itself or about Eren himself. I think he’d worked nicely together with Jean, Connie and Sasha.
I genuinely think at first Marco seems to have it all together.
So all-together in fact, that he is playing damage control for the squad.
Marco is the one who finds the best time to ask a question that excites Hange. Marco is also probably the one who wrangles the crew when he can tell Levi is just a little too tired to handle it today.
He’s calming Connie down, helping him when he works himself up, when he spends too much time thinking about how much trouble Eren is causing them and starts turning too far into his anger. Marco is there as the voice of reason, as the one who hears all the worries and soothes them with acknowledgement and strait-laced logic.
He’s the one who notices when Sasha gets a little too serious during practice, talking strategy, he’s the one who wanders off for a few minutes and comes back with a spare plate of food, or a well-timed joke to make her laugh. He’s there to make sure that (while they’ve all had to grow up a little too fast to keep up with the war) Sasha doesn’t lose too much of herself.
Marco is there for Armin when the poor guy panics from the guilt of it all. Marco is the one who can tell from the look on Armin’s face that all he’s thinking is oh god why me? Why didn’t they just save Erwin? Why would anyone trust me over Erwin?! Marco is the one to lay a gentle hand on his shoulder and smile reassuringly, the one who spends the most time with him as they tinker with their gear and talk about Armin’s anxieties without the burden of ‘needing to be strong.’
Marco is the one who can balance the weighty conversations with Mikasa about both her worry for Eren, and her concern for her friends. Marco is the only one Mikasa tells about the small pocket of guilt she feels, knowing her loved-one is the person causing so much concern amongst their squad.
And for Jean? For Jean, Marco is all of the above. The guilt, the anger, the confusion, the anxiety, the bone-deep tiredness that leeches into him after every long meeting discussing tactics and logic. It’s all there, and Marco is the one who’s best at supporting Jean through it.
It’s a lot though. It’s so much that Jean tries to turn the worry back on Marco. Jean is the one digging to find some hiccup, some flaw, some sign that Marco is struggling and not just burying his head in the sand.
It comes to a head, Jean is bad with words, he’s probably a little too snippy and snarky when he demands an answer to the question of ‘how are you so calm right now?’
And Marco is honest. Because it’s Jean, and he can be honest with Jean.
Marco is solely fuelled by uncertainty. He doesn’t know if what they’re doing is right, and it’s terrifying. Everything they’ve done, everything they’ve fought for up until now has been black and white. They are the good guys. Their actions are difficult but it’s all been for the greater good.
He’s worried about Eren, sure, but he doesn’t know if what they’re planning is right. It’s furthering war, it will hurt people, it could be the wrong thing.
What they’re doing now? It’s a grey area. Marco hates not knowing. He’s hiding the angst and the confusion in what he knows best, and that happens to be helping others.
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