#now i dont care if u are having a mid life crisis stop trying to steal my men | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

extraplanaire-blog · 7 years

Text

BODY SLAMS IN HERE so the group chat was lit, we’re ridiculous and that brings us to THE ESSAY I WROTE A LONG TIME AGO NEVER POSTED AND REWROTE NOW for your edification and also because i will never get over how good and great the jolly duo teamwork is

JOLLY DUO IS A GOOD DUO STRATEGICALLY, A CITED ESSAY

Okay, let’s start this with the topic of ‘the jolly duo is an ideal combination, especially considering alternatives, and per canon is probably the strongest duo that the guild has’.

The last point is pretty easy to prove, actually-- The guild seems to work in duos frequently, with Twain and Fitzgerald teaming up (Twain covering the things Fitz can’t or that Fitz deems security risks re. Atsushi escaping), Fitzgerald and Alcott being the usual combination (power and strategy), Hawthorne and Mitchell (two people with similar abilities, kind of, in a master-apprentice relationship), and John and Lovecraft (A constant duo that, unlike the others, has absolutely no rank imbalance, they’re both fellowcraft).

The reason they’re paired together and not in the Hawmitch situation of a fellowcraft taking an apprentice is because clearly they work really well together. They’re the two that Fitzgerald sends on missions directly into Yokohama, to challenge the agency head-on, and Fitzgerald even says that “with abilities like yours, even if [attacking the secretaries] is a trap, you’ll be able to take care of it”. With that, it’s given that Fitzgerald places a high amount of faith in them, they’re very powerful for what the guild has, and they are expressly designed to be a team. They were never split up for the sake of apprenticeships, and they’re sent to do the most overtly offensive missions that the Guild sets out on (Q’s doll, the secretaries).

Fitzgerald and the Guild treat the jolly duo as a juggernaut, and that’s what they are.

They’re a team that’s designed to cover all of the guild’s bases, as much as possible. They’re not necessarily deadly, but they’re more than ready to become such, while at the same time they’re not limited to only being deadly.

There have been reasonable things pointed out, like they never fight in tandem and their abilities hold the same function of mid-distance offense (hentai team i mean what), but the reason this team functions so well is because those things are not hindrances and relate to how they are expected to deal with adversity.

The way the jolly duo is designed to work and the way it does work is: The Guild faces an adversary that could be dealt with in multiple ways, but the end goal isn’t necessarily death. Lovecraft and Steinbeck are sent to deal with isaid problem. Steinbeck is motivation and intelligence. John’s a smart kid, he knows how to deal with problems and with people. He’s cunning and he’s (superficially) friendly, if there’s a way to get around a conflict by disarming someone into being nice to him or by tricking them, he’ll probably find it. He’s better at acting the way people expect him to act, and he can understand situations quickly. Lovecraft is none of these, so Lovecraft has to rely on John for cues on how to act and what to do, because Lovecraft doesn’t understand strategy. Lovecraft also lacks any motivation of his own outside of a crisis, and without John prompting him to go around and do things, he’d likely become too anxious or lazy to function until the last possible minute. When they go to attack the ADA secretaries, Lovecraft clearly has nothing in mind, he doesn’t know if he’s supposed to attack, and he very pointedly asks John what the hell theyre doing.

Lovecraft goes to John for what should we do before a fight has started, and John provides answers that Lovecraft consistently trusts and can rely on. He follows John’s orders very easily, immediately relaxing into “no one needs me and I don’t have to do anything, it’s fine” when John tells him that they’ll deal with the secretaries using the grapes alone.

pictured: lovecraft not giving a single fuck about being in the middle of a kidnapping op because john says he’ll take care of it

Lovecraft has absolutely no problem following John’s orders (which is something that’s also valuable, considering it’s very likely that Lovecraft’s personality would clash with most of the other Guild members’ and he wouldn’t want to obey them as easily. He trusts John greatly and consistently follows his cues with no complaint or argument), and trusts him inherently as a reliable source of what-to-do. Regardless on what anyone thinks Lovecraft’s ability to form relationships with humans, friendly or otherwise, he clearly trusts John to make decisions.

In converse to that, Lovecraft is who the team relies on when strategy has failed and they need only destruction. Like Fitzgerald and Alcott, it’s a heavily time-reliant brains and brawn dichotomy. Lovecraft waits until John is incapacitated to attack every time he does attack because that’s his only role-- when strategy has failed, when there is no option but to clear the field and murder all those around, Lovecraft steps in. His ability is deadly, when he pulls it out it’s assumed that whoever’s attacking is going to die. John acts first in order to ideally minimize the casualties and provide the non-lethal force necessary in, say, kidnappings. Lovecraft is backup for when John fails, because after negotiations and trying to keep people alive fail, really, the only option for something as ruthless as the Guild (and John) is to kill. You can’t lose a negotiation with someone who’s dead. Lovecraft is the equivalent of an atomic bomb, he is only present in order to destroy and John is the one to decide when he will act, because John’s smart enough to do that. In the Grapes arc, when John’s tactics fail, Lovecraft pretty much immediately neutralizes Kunikida and Juni (ance he gets around to standing up) and also immediately assumes he should kill them (but, again, he checks with John first because he respects John as being in charge). Lovecraft’s backup insurance who acts more or less only when he has to, but when he does act it’s to land a decisive blow that John might not be able to.

Because they rely heavily on communication and taking turns, the jolly duo is a team that’s very heavily reliant on mutual trust and cooperation to work, and the fact that their team does work so well evidences that they’re close friends and they do trust each other (despite john not even knowing what lovecraft is lol).

And I mean, they’re friends, that much is directly stated in the anime (and john’s VA is having a very good time in steincraft city so they’re also [wink wink nudge nude] “friends”, if u put any stock in his opinion that john’s got a doki), and they’re very close friends because of how much John and Lovecraft rely on one another in order to function in the Guild.

And function in general life, if Lovecraft’s constant checking up on what John’s doing in order to pass off as normal and their constant companionship is any indicator. They’re the only two that haven’t functioned independently unless forced, and haven’t functioned independently in a battle whatsoever-- without Mitchell, Hawthorne is still comfortable allying with Dost, and brainwashed or otherwise he attacks on his own. When John’s alone, he won’t even directly challenge or alert Fitzgerald, or use his ability any more than passively. Which is likely related to strategy, but it’s still a point that John could have attacked Fitzgerald when he and Alcott were talking and probably done fine enough, since Fitz had little money and they were in a wooded area, but chose to bide his time. It’s either he wanted to try and see if Fitz was redeemable or he wasn’t used to starting a fight when someone didn’t have his back when things went wrong, or a mix.

They’re a very, very good team, they work well together, in and out of a fighting context. They are

and it’s really unlikely that during the main guild arc, any of the other Guild teams would have approached them in power and efficacy

(IMO thats why they fought SKK, because theyre on par with SKK’s teamwork and why Lovecraft hasn’t come back to the plot yet, because with Lovecraft on John’s team, John would stop hesitating to act.)

like imagine SKK if skk didnt argue constantly and actually liked each other that’s the scale of good powerful teamwork we are talking here. their abilities aren’t necessarily complimentary, but they fill deficiencies that the other has and provide support that’s necessary to getting things done.

like u dont have to agree with me that they should hold hands and probably make out, but i do think u can’t really argue that they’re important to each other, they’re most definitely friends.

#ooc #this is really long and it states a lot that i think is obvious but just saying THE JOLLY DUO IS THE BEST TEAM isnt enough without providing #citations. these are the citations #headcanon #more like actual canon #i mean

9 notes · View notes