Okay, hear me out. A lot of the times when I say “I never could have imagined how much their dynamic would mean too me”, or “I didn’t know how emotional their friendship would make me” I mean that, but i exaggerate a little bit for the dramatics of it.
But when it comes to “The JocksTM” I completely mean that and not only because I could have never imagined that they would take Ragh with them on their adventure in FH:SY and that we would get a whole season of amazing content with him and the other boys. But because we got that, and all three of them mean quite a lot to me, let’s talk about Ragh Barkrock, Gorgug Thistlespring and Fabian Aramais Seacaster.
And what I love most about them, is the fact that all three of them have their own problems with masculinity, what it means to be a man, personality traits that are seen as masculine and just general toxic masculinity. And all three of them had to go through a journey in these two seasons of finding their way through all their misconceptions and helped each other with that quite a lot.
Gorgug, who always saw himself as the opposite of everyone around him, especially his parents, who were kind, small, talented, smart, understanding and never once raised their voice. And Gorgug? Gorgug is tall, big, “stupid”, strong, a loser, angry and full of rage that he himself doesn’t really understand. And because of that he has always seen himself as less than everyone else. Because everyone else who he saw as good, were the complete opposite of him, so there was no way, that he could be good or smart or talented too, right?
Ragh who didn’t have a father figure growing up, and I am not saying that that is inherently bad, but that has lead to him desperately searching for one. And in the end he found it in Coach Daybreak, a homophobic racist who was mean and rude to everyone that was different. And he found a best friend (a crush) that was all these things as well: homophobic, a bully, rude and mean. So of course, if the important men in his life are like that, that means that this is the way to be a man, right?
Fabian, who wanted to be just like his father in any way since he was a little child. Strong and brave and fearsome and Bill Seacaster drove that into Fabian as well. That Fabian had and should be like him, should be strong and brave and fearsome and the leader, because a Seacaster doesn’t follow, he leads. And of course Bill never meant any harm in that, he just wanted to be sure that his boy wouldn’t go under in this big world, but it send a message to Fabian, even from a young age on. There was one way to be a man, to be a hero, to be good. And for that you had to hide your emotions, you had to lead, you had to make people fear you, that was everything that matters, right?
No! No to all of that, because with each other they learned that those things were not true and that there was another way for them, a better and healthier way.
Like Gorgug, who saw that you could be big, strong and angry. That you could be a barbarian and an half-orc and you could rage and none of that made you bad, none of that made you less than anyone else around, none of that meant that that was all you had to be. You could rage but also be kind. You could get angry but still be supportive towards the people around you. You could be strong and made to hurt others and still help them in a different way than physical like through relating to them, like with Ragh on the Bloodrush field. Through getting to know them and knowing what means a lot to them, like with Fabian and the Hangman. Through offering emotional support, like with Ragh and the hug and kiss, or Fabian and the hug or Fabian and Ragh and the countless chestbumps between these three.
Like Ragh, who saw that the men around him were not friends, were not family, were not people worth looking up or towards too. Who learned that you could be kind, nice and sweet, like when Gorgug kissed him at Prom. That you could be strong and witty, like all his conversations and fights were him, Gorgug and Fabian work together. That you could let yourself be supported, like the hugs shared with Gorgug. That you could let yourself be weak and emotionally vulnerable, like in the van when he talked about his mum. And none of that made you less of a man. None of that made you deserving of getting hurt emotionally or physically. He learned that he was a men, but he was also himself and himself first and whatever he needed and wanted was nothing to be ashamed about, even in the name of being manly.
Like Fabian, who saw that there was more to being a man than what his father told him, that his father didn’t know everything and that his father wasn’t ideal either. No, Fabian learned that he could show his love for people and it would be appreciated, like when he promised Gorgug to buy him an orange or when he told Gorgug that he was a really good friend. He learned that he could let himself fall and he would be caught and helped up again, like when Gorgug repaired the Hangman, gave him and orange or planted the sword of the Seacasters in front of him again and again. He learned that he could show emotions and that this didn’t make him weird or weak, like when he cried after biting the glass and Ragh told him to be honest about if he cried. He learned that there was more to masculinity than what he was used to, that one could be kind and sweet like Gorgug or open and supportive like Ragh and still be able to absolutely kill it.
These three boys learned what masculinity really meant and really could mean. They hugged, (platonically) kissed, held onto each other, followed each other, held each other when times were rough. And through everything they never lost trust or faith in each other. And for three boys, teenage boys, that could seem weird to others, it seemed weird to others. But those others didn’t understand how much these boys needed that, how much was actually behind their friendship, how much these boys have grown because of each other.
But these three have known (”We will do great things Ragh Barkrock”), do know (”You are a true friend”) and if it is on them? Will always know (”Springbreak, I believe in you!”)