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Alright, so I had to instantly make a continuation of my mildly angsty sword fighter au post on what would happen to Marco after being reverted back to his young self. First of all, this kid is LITERALLY 30 YEARS OLD MENTALLY!! He remembers every single moment he spent away from earth's dimension, so it's canon that Marco is mentally and probably emotionally a hell of a lot older than all of his current friends. Talking to people just a few years younger than you is hard enough as you both struggle to relate, so imagine the struggle Marco is going to go through as he tries to interact with people who he hazily remembers were his friends. 16 years have passed since he last saw Janna, Jackie and even Star; his relationships with them are going to be vastly different to what they were before. Would Marco even be interested in Jackie anymore after spending 16 years away from her??? He's mentally 30, liking someone that you will be so weird to him, and he's probably long since grown out of his school kid crush. That lack of romantic affection will be jarring to Jackie, as to her she's just started developing a tentative romantic relationship with Marco, whose now just not interested. Furthermorw, this Marco is going to lose his A+ streak at school as he cant even remember covering any of the topics at school. He's going to forget people's birthdays, their interests and even his own old ones. This Marco will be a stranger; a mature and serious kid that lacks any of Marco's old dorky charm as he's long since outgrown his social awkwardness. Don't even get me started on how Star will suffer as she watches her best friend run himself into the ground in order to build himself back up into the amazing sword master and hero he once was. Or the sense of awkwardness between them as Marco forgets simple facts about Star, or gets lost in his head over things that happened while he was away. Star will be constantly worried over whether Marco wants to go back to the other dimensions, back to being impressive and important once more. On the bright side, soon Marco would begin to grow used to his body and train it up to a decent level of strength so he can do all of the amazing stunts he used to do, including wielding the sword he kept from his travels. Cue most of the kids at his school getting ridiculous crushes on Marco with his intense and mature personality, his vast knowledge about cool tricks like Motorbike stunts and crazy sword wielding skills, and his rocking bod. Additionally, think about his amazing friendship with HP, who often pops into his dimension to simply chat, give moral support or help him train. (Maybe even a jealous Star in the background because did no one else pick up that flirtatious tone Marco and HP between one another? Those two have so much history)
I know we're all hella excited over aged up Marco's hot bod in 'Running With Scissors' (I know I was), but honestly when you step back and look at Marco's situation at the end, the episode takes an almost disturbing tone. Don't get me wrong, I'd love some dorky scenes of Marco attempting to get used to his now tiny body, tripping over his feet and whatnot. But I'd also like to see the angsty stuff hashed out on screen. Give me Marco trying to go through some of his sword katas and getting increasingly frustrated as his form slips constantly and his sword wavers because he doesn't have the muscle memory or strength anymore. He used to basically be a sword master, and now he can barely pick a sword up at swing it. Suddenly all the crazy stunts he got used to doing are out of his reach, and the people around him are cobstantly having to stop him from pushing himself too hard, or patching him up after he goes too hard in a fight. If the show does go down this route instead of ignoring it altogether, I wanna see Marco getting angry as he struggles to fight monsters he once would've taken out in a second. His self-esteem takes a MAJOR hit as he realises all the stuff he can't do anymore; he's just some kid with a few mediocre karate skills, he's not a hero anymore. Then we can see Marco training his body to the limit everyday instead of going to a few karate sessions and just getting by. Since he knows what to do to strengthen his body as he went through it before, everyone can see the difference pretty quickly. Just give me a frustrated Marco who's serious about getting stronger and we get to see the results. Even if we don't get this done in the show, it'd make a hella fine AU; tentatively dubbed sword fighter! Marco au?? I'll probably also make an extra post about the mental/emotional repercussions because this episode has given me way too much to talk about in terms of Marco's character development!