#i really want to do some in-depth world-building around junkertown at some point

[austerulous]

It feels like a Dez kind of day, so I’m going to let Mad Max: Fury Road play in the background while I work on some more web weavings and maybe do some writing.

[lesbrarians]

That last post I reblogged has me thinking again about how easily people reduce Junkrat and Roadhog to dumb, one-dimensional stereotypes. Like yes, Junkrat is absolutely a dumbass. I am leaning into this 1000% for my Secret Santa. He's an idiot, no one takes him seriously, he doesn't know shit about the real world, and I love playing that for comedy. But. No one takes him seriously. People -- the fandom -- forget that he is a genius in some respects. He designed and built his prosthetics and weapons out of scrap that he scavenged, he's the mastermind behind his and Roadhog's plans, and even though their plans can be dumb as shit sometimes, they've managed to evade capture for a longass time, so he's doing something right.

Like it all goes back to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. I think I've talked about this before lmao, bear with me if I'm repeating myself. He has a very high logical-mathematical intelligence (well, okay, maybe not math, he can't count for shit, he holds up the wrong number of fingers in the Junkertown short and writes down the wrong number of grenades on his blueprint for his grenade launcher, but like, the general principle. He's good at the logical, scientific part of breaking down machinery and building new inventions) and visual-spatial intelligence (he's so good at technical drawings! his stick figure doodles are absolute shit and it's hilarious, but his drawings of his mines and frag launcher are super on point), but he has incredibly poor interpersonal skills. While he's super extroverted and friendly, he's really bad at effectively communicating with people and reading their moods, because he always manages to say the wrong thing to people when interacting with them in the spawn rooms. He does read Roadhog well in the Junkertown short, but I'm more inclined to believe that that's less reading the mood, but more just... Roadhog's silence makes Junkrat take a step back and forces him to actually think and come to the logical conclusion. It's a good tactic, making Junkrat calm down for a split second and reevaluate himself. And it's not like Roadhog has a visible face that can be read, and when he's not saying shit, Junkrat has nothing to interpret. So it's more like, "okay he's not saying anything, let me just. think about this. am i being an idiot right now. oh, haha, yeah, that's it, OKAY SO--"

Anyways. I still think he has incredibly awful interpersonal skills overall, and that's why literally everyone in-universe except for Roadhog hates him. I'm inclined to say he doesn't have the best bodily-kinesthetic intelligence either, because like, he can juggle, but his Unfortunate and Shot Put highlight intros tell a different story (and are probably why everyone always sees him as just a clown lollll). He's dumb bc his ideas usually involve blowing shit up, and he doesn't have a lot of experience outside of the insular, lawless world of Junkertown (which, combined w the radiation, definitely skewed his way of thinking...) but he's not like. A drooling idiot 100% of the time. He has a head for mechanics and explosives. He's intimately familiar with how they work, well enough to design his own impressive devices. And he can dream up these amazing new inventions, picture them in his mind's eye, and bring them to life on the page. I fucking wish I had that kind of visual-spatial intelligence.

And like, it's the same thing with Roadhog? I love that we have this character who's this huge, beefy guy who is unapologetically fond of small, cute, pink things. I love that he doesn't take any of Junkrat's shit when Junkrat's being particularly ridiculous. I love that he knows how to cut loose and have fun -- headbanging, belly laughing, quoting Snoop Dogg, hanging out the back of the stolen car that Junkrat's driving with his fist pumped in the air. And people rarely take all of that into account. You either get two flavors when people depict Roadhog: the stoic fun-killer who constantly shoots Junkrat down and never shows any affection for him, or the soft guy who has done nothing wrong in his life ever asides from stealing pachimaris and eating too much food.

It's just... people either view Junkrat and Roadhog as jokes with no depth whatsoever, or as tragic precious woobies. And it's frustrating for me, bc to my mind, it's always about the balance. I love the comedy that Junkrat and Roadhog bring to the table, and I love their fucked up past, but I don't like turning it into an angst fest. They're just two assholes having a good time together, doing whatever the fuck they want with nary a care in the world, because life's too short to waste it moping around.