Do you think that, under different circumstances and expectations of each other (and a lot more compromising), Preobrazhensky and Sharikov could've gotten along?
It sounds like an option for a separate AU or fanfiction. But it seems to me that this is not possible in principle. Personally, I like how tense and comedic their relationship is in the book. And here their main confrontation lies not only in the fact that this is a struggle between the Creator and his Creation, not a struggle between the middle and lower classes, but a struggle between two identical and domineering characters. None of them compromise. So Sharikov teases Preobrazhensky for a reason, calling him humiliatingly "daddy-о" (this is a more correct translation of the word "папаша" into English, I heard this translation in an audiobook). Both of these characters are very stubborn. So I think their ideal relationship is to live separately and preferably as far away as possible.
AND ALSO, WHAT THE HELL IN THE FILM ADAPTATION, THEY SOMETIMES SIT ON THE COUCH IN THE SAME PRETENTIOUS WAY.
