i like when wsh is a little evil. no, he doesn’t care for mack the way mack cares for him. no, he didn’t care for ryan as much as ryan caresd for him. yes, he’s selfish and he takes things and he doesn’t quite give back the way he should.
mackleno being similar feels right to me already but I’d love the essay
Oh well of course!
Sorry if this took a bit to answer, I really wanted to gather my thought’s about them because they genuinely fascinate me so much. What I’ve done is divided their similarities into surface level (ie. how they grew up, family, routines, etc.), emotional level (ie. regulation, responses to emotional events, how they display emotion), and, obviously, their relationship with one wsh.
I made a whole notes page for this btw. Also it will be at least semi-biased towards Ryan because I care about him more. Okay! Let’s go.
On an objective level, removing rpf glasses and just studying Ryan and Mack’s childhoods and hockey timeline, they’re almost startlingly similar. Their father’s both had/have (Rick still does, where John Sr is retired) careers in basketball. Ryan’s dad was drafted to the Knicks in 1982, though he was a late-round draft pick and never played in the NBA. He went on to be an assistant basketball coach at UMass from 2001-2005. I feel like most people know about Rick and his career, but if not, he works as the VP of Player Health and Performance for the Golden State Warriors. He also had an outstanding career in Soccer before Macklin was born.
So, both of our boys were born into sports families. Not that interesting, almost every NHL player has family history in one sport or another, right? Well, beyond that, Ryan and Mack also both have three siblings, specifically an older brother they trained with as kids, who they outshine now on a career level. They were both driven hours, to games and practices, by a parent, whilst the other worked to pay for their interest in hockey.
Emotionally speaking, I feel like Ryan and Mack are more similar than people care to admit. Narratively, Ryan is painted as an aggressor in a lot of Willmack fics, and I feel it’s inaccurate to his character. Ryan can be scrappy, yes, he can be chippy and bitchy and pesty, but it’s important to note that he sits on things. He’s an internalizer, in the same way that Mack is. If they’re ever defensive, or quick to jump up and yell, it’s because they’re not thinking about what it might say about them. They don’t realize that, in reacting in this way, they’re laying themselves bare. When give the chance, they will think on something and ultimately decide whether or not it’s worth showing weakness.
When something goes right for them, they’re both extremely loud and expressive, even in situations that don’t call for such extremities. They’re bright, and big, their presence is made when they want it to be. When something goes wrong, when they lose, they’re eerily quiet, dejected. They blame themselves for the failure in every way they can, pack on the weight so that they can push themselves to never feel it again by feeling it in full.
Their relationships are also extremely important to them, especially those with older teammates/male figures. In both of them, this stems from the people they grew up around. Mack was always pushed to make his dad proud, and having older teammates there who he is playing for and with is huge for him. Ryan is the same way, only it was often his older brother he was trying to impress. To Mack and Ryan every elder male figure is familial, as well as someone to impress, somewhere to turn when they aren’t sure what they’re working towards anymore. They produce and they push and they play for these men, for these untouchable figures that they have somehow managed to bring within reach.
And now for everyone’s favorite elephant in the room; Will.
Will, when theirs, is extremely requisite to the functionality of Ryan and Mack. Ryan and Will lived together during very formative years of their lives, they played together for years, they played their first World Juniors Championship side by side, with matching numbers. They won their first WJC side by side. They went to the same college, they took all the same classes, they essentially built their lives around each other.
And now, with Mack. They carpool to the rink together, they share hotel rooms so that Will can sleep better, they live with one another, they played their first NHL season, side by side. They won their first NHL game side by side. They share the same schedule, they have matching rituals, they have built their lives around one another.
Mack is a repeat of Ryan. They’re still different, in ways i’m sure I could point out, but they’re similar in just as many. And in my head, Will knows this. He knows it, and he loves it. He’s drawn to them both, to these awkward, loud, 6’1 brunette social outcasts. He can’t help it.
