Forum:Marshall-lee/Marceline personality analysis: thoughts?

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Hey everyone. This is my first forum page so please don't crush my ideas too hard, okay?

Stuff and Things
Everyone knows Marceline the Vampire Queen,

and her fictional male alter-ego Marshall-Lee,

whom she herself created in the episode "Bad Little Boy". while being intensely similar on the surface, as a fanfiction dictates, delve a little deeper into their personalities and you'll realise that far from simply being opposite genders, they themselves are complete opposites in quite alot of ways.

first off, I'll make it clear what I'm assuming before I get into the heavy stuff. Marceline Abadeer, is the daughter of Hunson Abadeer, ruler of the Nightosphere. Her mother is rather a mystery. The only definitive fact known about her is that she is a demon. Marceline has a strained-at-best relationship with her father, on account of how he ate her fries when she was younger. Assuming that in the fictional universe Ice King created (and Marceline elaborated on), everybody is the opposite gender as they are in the original land of Ooo, Marshall-lee Abadeer's mother would be the ruler of the nightosphere. However, in the episode "Bad Little Boy", Marshall-Lee can be heard saying to Fionna "... I'm the son of a demon. And the Vampire King..." According to this, Hunson Abadeer must still be the ruler of the Nightosphere. It's possible that Marceline simply overlooked this detail when creating her male counterpart. However, it's also possible that although he is the son of the "Vampire King", as he mentions, he says nothing about this king also being the ruler of the Nightosphere. In the situation that his mom in indeed ruler of the Nightosphere, it would probably look a little something like this:

(credit to jolls.tumblr.com)

I personally like this scenario alot better, and objectively think it's probably more likely. But Marshall-lee having a similarly dysfunctional relationship to his mom (as Marceline does to her dad) completley turns the dynamic of the relationship on it's head. There's a big difference between Mommy's boys and Daddy's girls.

Personalities and Parents: How Not to Raise a Child
Marceline's issues with her father stem from the fact that he ate her fries when she was younger ( This event is first referenced in " It Came From The Nightosphere". In " A Memory Of a Memory" We actually see Abadeer eating her fries, with Finn warning him not to do so. When Marceline appears a few moments later, she appears to be about fourteen-fifteen) Due to the fact that her father was never really much of a father (Simon was a better dad in a few months then Abadeer was in a few centuries) Marceline has very much learnt to get along without him or her mother. Her relationship, or lack there of, with her father has caused her to become a very independant and fiesty young women, and even now when she has a relatively stable relationship with him, she prefers not to see him, considering his vists "emotionally exhausting".

On th flip side, assuming that Marshall-Lee had a similar sort of incident with his mother, ( If you haven't realised how much conjecture there is going to be in this page, you'd best leave before it overwhelms you) the effect would be totally different, although the cause is still the same. A boy's mom is the first taste he ever gets of feminine love, and  guys tend to have a very strong relationship with their moms.( they ain't called Mommy's boys for nothin') If this relationship is somehow damage then the consequences can be pretty bad. it can ruin self-esteem, cause a fear of women in general, and destroy confidence. Most of you are probably going " Whut? that don't sound like Marshall at all!" by now, but trust me, there's a holy grail or understanding in here somwhere, and their names happen to be Finn and Fionna.

Relationships
it's pretty obvious that Marshall-Lee's relationship with Fionna is much more romantic then Marceline's is with Finn. Marceline and Finn have an almost brother/sister type relationship, which has grown stronger over the seasons, while Marshall-Lee is apparently conviced that Fionna has a crush on him. Or is he?

"drop it, you freak!"

Marshall-Lee is very much like Marceline superficially. Confident, with a massive attitude that results in being a little insensitive to "mere mortals", and a trickster who loves to mess with people. But if they are so similar, then why would their relationship to their respective Finn/Fionna vary so greatly? Maybe it's just because Marceline wanted the story to be a little cute, a little cheesy, a little "awwww!". Or maybe it's because the effect that their relationship with their parents had was very different for both of them. Marceline became more independant, and "lost track of her moral code" because she was busy taking care of herself. Now that the problem has been resolved, she finds it easier to care about people without worrying that they might betray her trust the way her dad did, allowing her to have a caring big sister sort of relationship with Finn.

But it's unclear whether Marshall-Lee has resolved his issues with his mom yet. and his seemingly genuine claim to being evil is a cover-up for something much less sinister. because of his fraught relationship with his mother, he is insecure in his ability to relate to people on a deeper emotional level, the way most mothers relate to their sons. His confidence and lack of care is a way of shielding himself from actual harm, because if everybody thinks he didn't give a flying f*ck in the first place, then he sure isn't gonna tell them otherwise. He seems so confident of Fionna's feelings for him because, in a way, he's trying to replace the love lost between him and his mother with hers. if she could relate to him on the level that he wasn't able to with his mom, it would clear up the insecurity he has from an unloving parental relationship. and by telling her and himself that she loves him over and over, it's almost like he's wishing it in to reality.

But, even more confusingly, he doesn't see her as a mother figure, but a girlfriend figure.

Marshall-lee is around 18 years old, biologically. Fionna is around fifteen. The kind of sexual relationship Marshall would want from Fionna is one she is definitely not ready for. ( As evidenced to the way she reacted to Prince Gumball ( the Ice Queen is disguise) removing his shirt in the episode "Fionna and Cake") Marshall still wants and needs affection, both emotionally and physically, but Fionna is quite simply not old enough to provide either at a satisfactory level. Looks like Marshall will need to wait a few years before he can get what he wants.

on a side note, I reckon Cake realises at least part of this. She has a evident disproval of Marshall-lee, but (mostly) goes along with Fionna's decisions regarding him. Cake's relationship to Marshall is probably similar to how Jake and Marceline's was in the episodes "Evicted" and "Henchman", and i can't see her letting him anywhere near her baby-girl anytime soon.

Now discuss or rage at me as you see fit!

-Rabbits