#and saying he was the most complex & emotionally interesting of the ef4 Tumblr posts

[markantonys]

you know what we need around here? less praising of donal's mat *at the expense of* barney's mat (and vice versa, though i haven't seen too much of that) and more acknowledgement that they BOTH did/are doing a great job and we're lucky to have/to have had BOTH of them!

i keep seeing stuff like "donal's mat feels so much more like book!mat, he's so much more lighthearted and likable, he feels like an inherently good person who just makes stupid decisions whereas barney's mat felt like an inherently selfish person" which is so unfair to say because 85% of barney's screentime was dagger-influenced mat. he never had the chance to play a more lighthearted version of mat! and judging by the snippets of Lighthearted, Selfless, Hero-Who-Doesn't-Think-He's-A-Hero Mat we got in the first two episodes (think of him charging weaponless into battle to save his sisters!!!!), i'm sure he would've done a great job, just as i'm sure donal would've done a great job with a darker dagger-influenced mat.

i totally get it's a natural instinct to compare and contrast the two portrayals, but personally i find them both equally great and feel an emotional cohesion between the two! at their core, barney's mat and donal's mat absolutely feel like the same person to me. in my opinion the difference in s1 vs. s2 mat is less because of the actor and more because of the fact that the character spent most of one season influenced by magical evil and most of the other being himself.