#who's actually mad at him who matters? a bunch of online dy-- sorry -- lesbians?

[doghartzy]

any thoughts on will smith hockey potentially having/developing the delicious rpf hockey pretty boy complex? i see him with his curls growing back out and just think he’s prime for it

ohh yeah. well of course. as always i like to imagine multitudes of will smiths inside of my brain, but if i'm thinking specifically about how i'm characterizing him for my current fic, i'd say he's hyperaware of his looks and he fucking hates it. will's put all of this effort in to build up a reputation as kind of a masshole hockey boy, offering to fight q, chatting up foligno, saying he doesn't use conditioner (because presumably that would be gay?), acting a little too cool for school (i.e. for every shark except mack). and you're telling him that he just -- grew up too pretty? doesn't matter how he acts, he's always gonna have to hear it from guys on the ice because he got his mom's cheekbones? seriously?

one of the many reasons i also characterize him as fascinated by macklin's little mouth scar is like. there's physical evidence of what they do. that they're, like. hard. tough. if mack can take a puck to the face and get blood all over the ice and skate back out for the next period, that's a signifier of masculinity that will doesn't have quite yet. he hasn't been through that physical gamut, so he's still got that unblemished pretty boy face, and everyone around him knows it. that same video where he says he doesn't use conditioner (i think about this so frequently), he also gets real blase about facial injuries. gives a token 'wellll you don't want it to happen' before looking over at mack and getting into how you just kind of have to accept it, because it's part of the sport. and i think for him it would be some sort of complicated equation, like -- plays hockey + dickish + unhygienic + can take a puck to the face like a champ = masculine media image = straight media image.

my will is, above anything else, focused on how he's perceived. to the point sometimes of revealing himself because he craves control. like, that hot takes video where everyone else is just walking out onto the ice as they give their takes, but he clearly thought about it, came back, either had them redo the segment or just made them wait until after practice because he wanted to make sure the version of himself that got put out there was the right one. but in the actual video, it looks awkward and out of place -- in his quest to control his image, he reveals that quest for control, and how it sets him apart from his teammates. why does he want to be perceived a certain way so badly? is he just anxious about the spotlight? or maybe he has something to hide, and in trying to hide it he's given the game away.

it's this whole give and take he does with himself and the people around him and the wider world that would extend to his looks for sure. he's growing his hair out, yeah, but how many pictures of him have you seen recently with his curls actually dry and nice looking and NOT stuffed under a hat? i could probably count them on one hand. he does a lot of his interviews (hot takes video!!!) in his base layers -- why? to emphasize the masculinity of his body? to make sure that when people think of him, they think of how athletic he is before they ever think of how pretty he is? too bad, will, i can do both. but i see you.