leclercenjoyer

[leclercenjoyer]

Hi! You have made me obsessed with Will and Mack 🥰 and I saw your answer about there being no primer (different anon!) but I was wondering if you could say how you see each of their personalities? I am endeared by the two of them together but trying to get sense of what they’re each like of their own…

Thank you for all your gifs, you are an angel ♥️

hey! thank you for inviting me to info dump lmao! <3

I responded to this under the read more:

there is genuinely so much lore with them already that I had to leave a lot of things out, and this still ended up being really long. I think I covered most of the memorable points related to their personalities from this season so far, but there’s definitely still more that I didn’t even have time to touch on. for example, they're both very much influenced by their families, hometowns, and pre-nhl hockey careers, but I've barely scratched the surface of that here.

*disclaimer that this gets into hrpf territory, and it’s only my speculation about their personalities based on what I’ve seen in games, reporting, or social media—plus what I think is the most fun interpretation of those things. I don’t actually know what they’re like as people. think of this as like the commentary of a wildlife documentarian who observes creatures in their natural habitats but has no actual insight into their thoughts/interiority.

*also, just a reminder: please don't repost any of this!! reblogging is fine, but I’m only sharing because I think this will stay on tumblr. if I see any of this screenshotted, reposted, or publicly linked on another website, I’ll just stick to gifs in the future and won’t make another post like this ever again.

anyway:

maybe a good starting point would be to go back to when I asked whether people see their favorite hockey players as more kiki or bouba. I made a post that described why I saw mack as more bouba and will as more kiki.

since the four nations break, things have changed a little bit! it’s getting clearer and clearer that everyone loves will — for example, the sleepover thing and the way will's always described as a puppy. even though they're apparently exhaustingly competitive, mack and will are a "joy to [the] locker room," and I think will in particular seems like he’s super charming if you’re one of the guys in his hockey friend menagerie.

I think part of it is that he’s so used to being loved that it doesn’t even occur to him to be insecure about things — he just likes to do things like hang out with the boys (he likes hanging out with people), watch rom-coms, and listen to pop music! and he dips heated-up chocolate chip cookies into milk on road trips before he falls asleep! so what? he doesn’t care who knows that. there’s an undercurrent of anxiety* (the sleep anxiety thing, the panic or, etc), but fundamentally I think he’s just a confident guy who’s secure in himself. setbacks might frustrate him, but his self-assurance is never actually shaken. and it's fun to me that he calls his shots: for example, saying he would get his first nhl goal right before he did; or saying that all three of them (mack, will, and toff) would get goals to have a sleepover, and then they did…he knows how to manifest things! lol.

*re: the anxiety thing - when the news that mack and will have their own games of pregame sewer initially dropped, it was framed as an example of how they don't really feel pressure. and it goes back to training camp. I think they rely on each other and their friendship to help manage the inherent pressure that comes with being a professional athlete. their dads have even told reporters "how pivotal and huge it's been for the duo to have one another."

will’s sentimentality and thoughtfulness are really interesting character traits for me. he canonically takes notes about/doesn't forget things, researches on tiktok for restaurants to go to/activities to do in different cities, and makes plans to meet up with people if he’s traveling and they’re nearby. he’s probably the type of person to have a calendar app in his phone full of reminders about different people’s birthdays. mack seems more likely to do something impulsively, but if will does something, it’s probably premeditated. this ties into how he’s always making bets. he’ll think of things he wants to do and come up with little schemes to make them happen.

it's interesting that he initially wanted to play hockey because he liked the uniform. he has little fashion moments, like when he wore a suit with bc’s colors during his first game in boston and when he matches his walk-in outfits with his red bull cans. (he also seems to coordinate outfits with mack, because they basically always wear similar patterns/colors when they're photographed together.) everything about how he presents himself seems intentional; he's aware of how he appears to people.

will can have moments of impulsiveness, though — like when he bleached his hair and got a mullet, or early in the season when he cut his hair during the sharks’ initial losing streak because he got "bored" with it.

mack is also interesting, but there aren't as many thoughtful little details to talk about with him. he wears his heart on his sleeve a bit and seems to be more the type to act without really thinking/pre-planning as much. that's not to say that he isn't also capable of being as calculating as will is, because I think mack can be kind of ruthless and more strategic than people give him credit for. he might seem like a sweet little guy if you've only seen the cute social media moments, but he's also a high-level professional athlete, and he didn't get where he is now by being easygoing. remember that this is the guy who felt like he had to clarify that he's not a psychopath! (he's happy with his performance..."when I play well.") he's also willing to get physical on the ice: just look at the utah game in december.

mack and will both set ambitious goals for themselves and then work hard to achieve them, and I think that's one reason why they hit it off so quickly. mack's competitiveness is just way closer to the surface. the sharks broadcasters have said recently that he's getting better at "having a discussion" with refs instead of complaining. earlier in the season, "because of how hard he competes, how much he wants to win - sometimes the emotions would take over."

in the same segment, they also spoke about how will's "more likely to shrug [challenges] off [...] and out-think you in the next shift." the broadcasters really seem to love both of them! they just can't escape the inevitable pull of will smith hockey, lol. even when they're talking about how mack is a "nice and respectful [...] young man," they pivot to a discussion about how they're not surprised that will's the sharks' +/- leader. drew especially really seems to love will.

anyway, I wanted to bring this up to point out that although they're both planners, will usually takes the more thoughtful/indirect approach to problems that mack would solve more directly and maybe less tactfully.

they seem to have pretty similar goals, but will does a better job of hiding his intensity/competitiveness and can actually pull off looking nonchalant, while mack’s not as good at hiding anything. everything he feels is right there on his face. and let's not forget the time he slammed the door to the bench at the end of his shift and fans all the way in the nosebleed sections reportedly heard him yell, "FUCK!"

I think being a locker room darling comes less naturally to him than it does to will, because mack's not as good at hiding his emotions when he's frustrated. mack seems like the kid in the group project who’s a little too perfectionistic and wants to make sure that everyone is doing their assigned parts. he means well, but it might come across the wrong way sometimes.

I guess while I’m on the topic of mack’s personality, I have to mention the competitive yogurt eating (and the competitive everything else), the moment where he said “it’s nice to be wanted,” and the recent interview where he implied that good playmaking is actually defense against getting “kind of murdered.” (personally I think mack might be hyperaware of the safety/injury risks that come with playing hockey because of his dad's influence and his experiences with a shoulder injury and the injury that sidelined him at the beginning of the season.) there was also that time early in the season where he responded to a reporter’s question by saying, “I don’t know, the hockey gods?” and another time when, after being told he was the nhl's first star of the month, he said, "holy fuck. I didn't know that."

he’s just so funny! he doesn’t really have a filter yet. I love his earnestness, and how he's so willing to be silly when he doesn't feel like he's under a spotlight. I think there was a post somewhere that mentioned mack and will are very giggly by themselves but act serious when they know the camera's on them, and there are so many examples of that.

there's also the vancouver of it all: see the links here, here, and here. (I couldn't mention the boston of it all in will's section, because it would probably take an entire college course to explain all of the overlapping lore there, lmao.)

I also want to point out how mack helps kids with their homework (see this, this, and this); plays rock, paper, scissors with kids before games; and plays basketball with will, jumbo's son, and jumbo's son's twelve-year-old friends. and there's this. mack seems to be a little awkward around adults, but he’s a big hit with children.

it’s also endearing to me how he seems to be a goalie appreciator! that pretty much automatically makes me respect someone, because I feel like it's a sign of a team player. he’s always mentioning that a goalie did well in his postgame interviews, fist bumping or saying encouraging things to his goalies during the game, and going up to goalies immediately after the game ends to get in the hug line. it’s one of my favorite things about him.

and, going back to mack and will as a duo - I feel obligated to include this toff quote that basically sums them up:

I think the emergency contact video is also a fun look into what they're like together. it really just seems like the situation is that will's always saying things or suggesting fun things to do, and mack's his go-to guy for "yes, and"-ing. meanwhile, during games, mack is the yapper, and will is next to him listening intently and thinking about what he's going to do on his next shift:

and they're both protective of each other in their own ways. mack's more of a vocal defender of will - he'll be in the trenches fighting anyone who implies that will's not an elite hockey player (possibly the best college hockey player, actually. don't fact check him). and will's more quiet about it, but he also seems to always be there to check on mack when he's going through it. there was even a moment recently where he and mack got into it a little bit with a goalie, and for a few seconds will seemed to be kind of reaching out to defend mack from the bruins players, lol (because of course it was the bruins. who else?)

they're so similar to each other in a lot of ways, but they just have different/complementary approaches for getting to the same end goal. they really are a great yin and yang.

I also really liked a quote from will's recent sharks spotlight episode where he says his relationship with mack "helps me every day. I think he wants to get so much better every day, and so do I. so there’s a lot of competitiveness between us, and it just makes the other guy better.” and a few days later, we got a quote from mack about how the sharks are having fun because "we just try to enjoy it every day." they make each other better, and they want to be better for each other. it's really sweet to me.