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vampiremeerkat:

Are you expecting their relationship to be dysfunctional based on the way the show portrays them – and asking me why I’d ship them because of this assumption, or are you talking about my portrayal?
The reason for why I’m bothering with the Eds and Kankers at all is because the Kankers are the only people in the show who’re consistently drawn to/in love with the Eds, and as they’re extremely persistent and dominant, I see their marriage as inevitable. Nobody else will have a chance with these boys.

As for my questionable romance between Edd and Marie, it’s done so on purpose. I know there’s no reason to have Marie grow up to become mentally unstable, she does nothing in the series that indicates a future as a gang leader is waiting for her. Those few scenes where she’s foaming from the mouth out of jealousy did not end in deadly destruction, yet I chose Marie to be society’s failure, because I wanted to show off a few simplified predictions on what girls like the Kankers could end up to become and didn’t think Lee and May fit the mould of the far extreme.
I talked more about it here: https://vampiremeerkat.tumblr.com/post/154115452433/what-made-you-make-marie-the-most-evil-kanker

Anyway, despite giving Marie such heavy baggage, I never discarded the idea of her and the righteous Edd sharing a romance, because I think this setting is hilarious. It also helps that he’s pretty much the only character in the show with a level of intelligence that’s useful for storywriting; you can put him in a serious, less cartoony setting and not make it look forced. Edd and Marie’s differing personalities give more interesting conflicts when things go wrong, and at the same time, their romance becomes more charming when things go right. To me, they’re the ideal characters for fanfiction.

So, this is my reason for going through with the ship, but of course that leaves us with Edd’s reason for why he’d accept someone like her.
..Determined by me, of course.

His growing interest in her started the same way as most people’s interest for someone starts: He thought she looked pretty. This was his view in his teenage years, but it always stayed undiscussed, as the way she acted towards him was inappropriate and Edd is of the opinion that love based on objectification is wrong. Which is odd of me to take that route, since the canon Edd gladly googly-eyed Nazz.
Anyway, he loves her face, but Edd and Marie also meet often in their adult years and learn more about each other every time, even though she doesn’t show up at his office with this intention. Inbetween the silliness, a proper conversation is always snuck in. Not until Edd went out on a date with her to shut her up, did he realize she is the only familiar face from the past who visits him for him, and qualifies as a friend. An odd one, but still a person he unknowingly trusted his dreams and concerns to, and who listened.
What makes her appealing to him is not her forcefulness or ability to embarrass him, but her developed sense of humor and the fact she never forgot him in all those years. Even when she’s being a bother, her visits give him energy in his busy adult life. Lee has the same effect on Eddy. They make each other nostalgic.

I’d say Edd accepting Marie as his girlfriend is as plausible as Ed and Eddy being his friends. Edd seems to be attracted to shit-stirrers and doesn’t want proper company. Even when he voices his disapproval for their actions, he doesn’t have the heart (or the nerves?) to abandon them.
Having that said, when Edd learns that the person he grew fond of has a double life as a criminal, he deals with that in a way I’d consider typical; by breaking the law trying to be a good guy, and sheltering “clueless Marie, who is a victim of her upbringing and has been through enough already”.
Protecting problem children feels like a flaw Edd would have. He never really stopped Eddy’s scamming habits or wished for his friends to not be their hopeless selves.

I think he’d call the police on any person that isn’t a friend or a lover, but prefers that the people close to him change their ways before he has to be the one to jail them for life. Maybe. It could go both ways, I guess, but it’s more fun if a honestly good guy has serious imperfections and dates a crazy ex-mob boss who absolutely adores him. I think this is a more interesting story than if he called the police on Marie and went about his day.
It also has to be said that Edd only knows a few details of Marie’s life, mainly his own experience with her gang that one night. He doesn’t know how many casualties she’s made, how great her influence was, or how soulless and fierce she can become, simply because she acts differently in his presence and he doesn’t want her to tell him. Ignorance is bliss.

Somewhere in this text I must’ve answered your questions.