The Animorphs Vortex || Character Bios :: Marco

Marco:
The Joker

Marco:

Marco was always known as the joker of the group. From the first segment of the first book, to morphing battles with the Yeerks, to the discovery of his "dead" mother's fate, to the finding even more strange species, to journeys to alien worlds, there is hardly a time when he doesn't have a witty line or comeback ready. He's always there for moral support, to lighten up things when they get too tense or serious, or everyone is feeling down. In fact, he seems to feel obligated to cheer everyone up and make them feel better, and feels a little disappointed when he can't think of something.

Though there's a lot more to Marco than the goof-off joker most of the others portray him as. At first he was very reluctant to fight, though his reasons weren't selfish: actually he was worried about his dad. He worried that if something ever happened to him his father, who had already been torn apart by his wife's "death," might not be able to stand it if the last of his family vanished from the scene. In his narratives, Marco does have an upbeat way of phrasing things, though it is also laced with darker tones. There is a certain tone of sadness which he tries to subdue, but it often comes through, especially in his bitter hatred of the Yeerks because of his mother. I think this is an example of how Marco, who as he says in #5, likes to look at the big picture of things, which usually means seeing the major irony instead of a series of tiny tragedies.

But it can also mean entirely missing the little things, which can be just as, if not more important than the big picture; the opposite of not seeing the forest for the trees. In this case, Marco may occasionally have trouble seeing the trees for the forest. Like whenever Cassie is arguing about the ethics of acquiring a certain DNA and violating someone's rights, or about killing/saving one or more Yeerks because they are people, too, his argument is often something like "Come on, this is war," or "Look, they're Yeerks . . . We didn't start this. We didn't come to their planet and start killing or enslaving everyone . . .[therefore] we're in the right."

This is a major issue in his thinking in #30, where Visser One offers him his mother's freedom in exchange for the free Hork-Bajir colony's location. Here seeing the big picture is a good thing: one person's freedom versus a whole group's freedom, the only small bit of their entire race not under the bonds of slavery. In rational thinking, one would pick the group. But then if the one person is your beloved mother . . . then it becomes a little hard. I'm not giving away any more spoilers, but it's a case of Marco's two ways of thinking pitted against one another.

Another important thing to notice is Marco's struggle with ruthlessness and rage. In #30 Marco, in a very Rachel-like mode, starts redefining "ruthless" for himself in effort to see the "thin bright line." As Rachel aptly said in #17, "Even I know that the words "we have to win" are the first four steps on the road to hell." And methinks Marco has started down that road paved with good intentions. Though there were evidences of it throughout his books, like in #10 when he describes his rage at the Yeerks for, not only taking his mother, but also for targeting his father. These and other seemingly small things manifest themselves in #30, making us seriously worry about Marco's sanity.

Character Quirks:
Marco, underneath his exterior, is actually a lot more sensitive than he looks. He still feels the grief of his mother's "death" as well as vengeance against the Yeerks who took her away, and particularly on the individual Visser One. He deals with this by seeing the funny side of everything, of transforming a tragedy into irony. He's very forceful about how he feels, and he usually sides with Rachel in moral debates. And he may be just this side of loosing it.

"Oh, Marco the funny one! How's Mommy, Marco? Is she alive or is she dead? Does she scream with the Yeerk in her head?"

--the Drode

Enemy Opinions:
All right, we all know which enemy's opinion is most important in this case: Visser One. Marco found out ::dum, dum :: The Horrible Truth in #5, which gave him more resolve to fight. In #15 Marco makes several close calls in passing himself as a Controller or an Andalite renegade. In #30 she fully finds out about him, but was almost killed. She doesn't tell the authorities because then the Animorphs would reveal the various treasonous involving the Animorphs and Visser Three she had committed. Visser One is somewhat awed at Marco having such a huge responsibility, since she last knew him as a sweet, naive little kid, and being so perceptive of the big picture, but this doesn't mean she hates him significantly less.

Relations to the Group:
Marco often comes with strategies, with Tobias once referring to him as the group's Head of Security. On the personal level, Marco always tries to cheer everyone up, which is sometimes really necessary or everyone would be morose and brooding and eventually go crazy. However no one, not Jake or Tobias or Cassie or Rachel or Ax (or anyone else who happens to be around at the time) is immune from some kind of sharp remark. The question is, how do they take it . . .

Jake:
Jake and Marco have been best friends "ever since they were both in diapers." As Animorphs, they share the bond of their determination to According to Marco, Jake is too responsible and would prematurely turn 40 if it weren't for him. Jake and Marco sometimes disagree on things, but when it's really important Marco is always there to back him up.

Rachel:
Rachel and Marco have an interesting relationship going on. A platonic relationship I might add, though I won't say they don't flirt a little. Actually, I've been thinking of late that Marco really does like-like Rachel. One person compared them to Calvin and Susie from Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin likes Susie, but has no way of showing it, so he picks on her. Susie doesn't like him, but she annoys him back. They like to pick arguments with one another, and Rachel never misses an opportunity to pick on him (and vice-versa) about something they did or said. Rachel thinks Marco is remarkably immature, and he thinks she's way too absorbed with fashion and stuff as well as the whole battle and fighting thing.

Tobias:
For some reason these two don't get along too well. The remarks they trade off, especially on Marco's side, are sometimes especially insensitive and cruel. The best reason for this was suggested by Rbooks: Tobias, being trapped as a nothlit, represents one of the things Marco fears most, especially with all his trouble with morphing and close calls that he's had. So it's not actually Tobias, but what he represents to Marco that makes the two uneasy around each other. But, as she also points out, they do share some great lines.

Cassie:
It would seem that Cassie is the last person Marco would feel the need to get in an argument with, yet he actually argues with her a lot, and unlike it usually is with Rachel, their arguments are both serious and heated, usually involving their different convictions. His reasons for being against her are similar to Rachel's, but they are different in the way that Rachel wants to get out there and fight and sort out morals later, and doesn't want to hurt Cassie's feelings, while Marco simply wants to take out the bad guys by any means necessary -- he usually likes more subtle methods, guerilla tactics (no pun intended) and sometimes doesn't quite take her feelings into consideration.

Ax:
Marco likes Ax all right, he just gets frustrated with him sometimes. He seems to be oblivious most of the time, always one step behind on the conversation. And while Ax does have a sense of humor, he just doesn't get things like various types of sarcasm and pop culture references. But he is catching on, though. And sometimes Marco genuinely seems in awe of him.

Fan Opinions:
Everyone has some kind of opinion on Marco. Whether it's that he's annoying, he's cool, he's funny, or whatnot, I've never talked to anyone who was indifferent about him.

TV Marco:
Gee, give Marco have a Hispanic mother who can speak Spanish, which he picked up on just enough to understand some Portuguese a native spoke in the Amazon, and all of a sudden he's a walking, talking stereotype, with a put-on accent (inconsistent, I might add) and "slipping" Spanish words in there and there. Even worse, he also incorporates "homey-speak" into it, too. (I recently heard from fairly reliable sources that Boris ad-libbed that in himself, it wasn't written . . . ) Plus, his jokes aren't that great (as in the only thing that's funny is the fact that it's supposed to be funny) and his grief about his mother's death/infestation (or should we say, "Yeerked-ness") really doesn't come through as genuine.

Personal Bias:
Marco belongs to the lower main character triad, and I probably like him least of those three. Don't get me wrong, though, I still like him a lot. And at the moment, more than usual. I just like the other main people more, just enough more to put him at the bottom of the list. He has a very intriguing personality, and I like his outlook on life, though I don't care for his moral views. I'm more like a cross between Cassie and Jake in that respect.

Latest Character Development:
Marco has had a lot to deal with in the most recent of the books he features in. In #35, he has to not only foil a possible mass recruiter for The Sharing, but he also had to come to terms with his mother being gone -- even if she isn't really dead -- and let his father get on with his life. Immediatly after this, he was contacted by Visser One, who needed the Animorphs' help in foiling Visser Three's plan. They found out why Visser One was against a Yeerk-human war, and made a deal so that both partie's respective secrets would be safe. Marco was very pained by loosing his mother once again, and he will probably learn later of Visser One being assigned to the Anati system.