hey there tragic one

this is just my memory and i'm for sure generalizing but it's honestly not dissimilar to some of what i see today. auston would often get characterized as like.....idk alpha male? unemotional, kind of stuck up? i think amongst like leaf fan leaf fans this wasn't really the case esp as we learned more abt him. i think in those circles he was seen as pretty dorky, really driven, etc. but on wider hockeyblr he was weirdly overly masculinized which is a) strange to think abt now bc he was soooooo babyfaced back then and b) almost certainly partially informed by race like if he was white i don't think that would have happened.

i think he also was viewed like that bc it was in contrast to mitch who was seen as this hyperactive, always smiling, positive kid who was very beloved as a guy playing in his hometown. definitely VERY infantilized and presumed to be innocent i think literally just cause he's white and skinny and doesn't really grow facial hair. and that image has always stuck around in some parts of fandom despite the way he and his career developed which is why he gets characterized as a passive, infantilized victim with zero agency now.