Sylvia is Wander's best friend (e.g he says that he can't imagine a better friend in "the Void," calls her the greatest in "My Fair Hatey" and his best pal in "The Tourist" + they get along well most of the time), but he doesn't always act like she is
In "The Buddies," Wander eagerly comes up with a 'best buds handshake' on the spot and uses the 'best buds' necklace on Hater and looks sad when they don't click without saying or thinking something like "I feel bad for doing this because Sylvia's my best buddy in the whole entire universe, but I gotta try and finally get through to Hater in any way I can!"
I know they had to play along, but Wander acted like he genuinely WANTED to be best friends w/ Hater (confirmed to be true in "The Fremergency Fronfract" in general, he puts a lot of effort in trying to befriend him) Even though the song in this episode plays in Hater's dream, the title ("Best Friends Forever") is telling
In "The Pet," the song lyrics say Captain Tim is Wander's best bud (this song is literally called "My Best Buddy"). What's sad is that, after the line "All covered in blood," it cuts to Sylvia sobbing because she thinks Wander (her ONLY bff) died. The song even mentions "mountains high and rivers wide," which is supposed to be a Wander & Sylvia thing based on what we see in "The Lonely Planet"
Wander was ready to replace Sylvia, let her go with Ryder (obv he wanted to give her a freedom of choice which is nice, but he wasn't sad for long at the thought of them going their separate ways after everything they've been through) and find another traveling partner. He's so bad at friendship that it literally didn't occur to him that, instead of quickly moving on like he always does, he could try to talk things out with Sylvia if frederick hadn't showed up, wander would have ACTUALLY parted from her :(
and in the deleted scene from "The Hole...Lotta Nuthin'," Wander says:
It feels like anybody can become Wander's best friend even after only one encounter with him (but not REALLY since he's guarded and closed off behind that smile)
When Sylvia says that her biggest fear is losing Wander, he doesn't say it back even more proof wan doesn't get attached As Dave Thomas pointed out, Wander would be sad if Sylvia died, but not scared
Wander cares less about Sylvia's feelings and more about helping everybody else. He puts himself (and Sylvia) in danger all the time while knowing too well that she worries about him. If he really did take her fear seriously he actually used syl's worry for him to tease her in "the heebie jeebies", he'd either 1) tell himself before every reckless stunt "I'll try to be as careful as possible for Syl's sake!" or 2) pull her aside and tell her that he's actually not oblivious to danger and that he'd already survived so much on his own (but that would mean opening up about his past which Wander doesn't wanna do. Wander literally only ever shared how he found his hat and that he's 1000+, but emotionally opening up is a no from him)
The headcanon below actually makes A LOT of sense (even Dave seems to agree) and I feel like it shines a light on the two's dynamic
This means Wander is guiding Sylvia just like he guides others
Wander treats his friends like a therapist treats their patients, or how a teacher treats their students; less like friends and more like acquaintances who he guides/is kind to but doesn't personally get to know (nor does he try to) wander never asked sylvia to tell him anything abt herself or her past, that's why he didnt know that she ran away from home, used to be Ryder's partner in crime (literally), had a family, or that her dad died In "The Waste Of Time," he says how he knew Sylvia was a bad guy BECAUSE HE WAS THERE. That confirms how Wander learns about others by observing them, not by digging deep
Wander literally IS like an ice cream man; he makes others happy, then moves on. He'll run up to you, say "Hello, folks call me Wander (he never ACTUALLY introduces HIMSELF, only the guy other people named), how can I help?", help, and then run off to help someone else. Nobody knows who Wander is deep inside nor do they care to learn and it's SAD bc he deserves to have someone who he could open up to about EVERYTHING, not just his age ("The Waste Of Time") and how he got his hat ("The Mad Hatter")
Wander let Sylvia tag along with him not just bc he's nice, but bc he felt like he could help her by letting her protect him. He spends more time w/ her than with anyone else, but at the end of the day, Wander treats everybody around him either as villains who he tries to reform, or as folks who he can help in some way (or both, in Sylvia's case)
Wander doesn't really need anyone. Sylvia IS his closest companion, but he's still emotionally detached from her, never opens up about what he's hiding behind the helpful persona/what painful stuff happened to him in the past, doesn't try to learn deeper stuff about her (he picked up on her basic likes and dislikes, just like he remembers stuff about everyone else in the Yonder galaxy), and needs her less than she needs him
In "The Epic Quest of Unfathomable Difficulty!!!" Wander wasn't sad that Sylvia was about to be executed along with him. What actually upset him was how his belief in kindness was put into question
In "The Big Day," he wants to have both of them killed just to make Hater happy,
and in "The Birthday Boy," he doesn't react with fear/worry when Sylvia's flung up in the air by Hater (instead he tries to think of a way to tame the beast)
Wander has a very simplistic view on Sylvia aka that she's tough, smart, brave, strong yet secretly sweet ("The Rider") he doesn't feel the need to worry about her bc syl is in the "protector" role What changes in S2 is that Wan becomes more aware of how she isn't invincible. In "The Greater Hater," he worriedly asks Sylvia if she's okay when the Dombots hurt her hand. Compare this to "The Lonely Planet," where he spends the whole day being indifferent about Janet hurting Sylvia or he was simply enjoying himself too much to notice
When Sylvia thought Wander died ("The Pet") and vice versa ("The End Of The Galaxy") both yelled a devastated "Noooooooo!" except that Sylvia broke down into sobs on the spot, Wander didn't he seriously doesn't ever sob in the show, the closest he got was when he admitted to syl that he lied to her in "the secret planet," but those were crocodile tears that lasted for like 2 seconds
Wander must have cried here not just bc he didn't wanna lose Sylvia, but because he felt guilty for running off without telling anyone to try and befriend Dom just like he thinks it's his fault that his people got killed
In "The Void," Wander tells Sylvia how he can't imagine a better friend than her and wishes for the real exit, but he doesn't directly apologize to her, which could mean that a part of him isn't sorry for what he did (I explain Wander's behavior in this episode here and here)
He's also been a jerk to her in "The Egg" (although it's confirmed this ep takes place early on in their friendship, so it makes sense that they were still getting used to each other)
*This will be kind of a bonus section, but for some reason I forgot to mention all this stuff:
The way Wander reacts here confirms that he's very deeply AND personally affected by his past, he legit just wants to forget/escape it
At first, I thought Child Wander was there to imply how Wander lost his home as a child and Heroic Wander™ represents who he would have become if the tragedy hadn't happened to him at a young age
... but then I noticed that this little guy still has a small beard (unless it's a species thing, kids don't have them). That's how I figured out Child Wander doesn't represent a literal child Wander, but his wounded inner child. So as I said before, Heroic Wander™ is actually who Wander once was
This traces back to "Inside Your Mind"; Wander doesn't wanna be JUST ok, he wants to FEEL perfect and BE perfect, like the "perfect" hero he once was
Also, why does CW wear the same magic hat that Wander saved during the Civil War?
It could just be a stylistic choice, OR the other Star Nomads got killed around the time Wander met the Hat. That explains why he's so attached to it the hat is literally so important to wander that it just kinda blended with his inner child, like a comfort object, even his former 'hero' self was prepared to go defeat Hater while wearing it
I think this is how the timeline goes (I accidentally wrote a mini fic, oops)
Thousands of years ago, there was a bold, gun wiedling, daring, heroic hero who protected the innocent from villains, but only showed kindness to the good guys (let's say Wander's real name is something goofy like "Harold Heroic" he added the 'heroic' part to sound cooler) I like to think the Star Nomads would pick a different planet to live on every couple of years (or however time works in space, but they'd spend some time in the same place before moving again), and on each one, they'd make their own secluded society
Harold Heroic never failed to protect anyone (he was a perfect hero after all), until he did
He looked at the bad guy(s) who took his family away from him and asked 'Why?'
Harold traveled far away from home, angry and heartbroken, until he remembered that 'Why?' back when he saw what the villain had done to his people, and decided to rethink his worldview
That's how Harold let go of anger and embraced hope and optimism. He fully embraced his new, happy-go-lucky self, yet deep down, behind his now friendly smile, Harold hid so many things, but never let anyone in just like he didn't let anyone in in"the big job"
Harold swore to himself that he MUST do his best to help anyone and everyone who needs it, even villains. He's waaay more humble now and comes second to everybody else. He failed his family once, he won't fail anyone again he did, many times throughout the years and the guilt kept piling up every time beneath the smiles, but there were times where Harold would get so obsessed with a particular idea that he would forget his surroundings and not notice who he hurt in the process
And so he learned how to keep the sadness at bay (helping others became an obsession so that he'd never feel worthless and helpless again, he learned to play many instruments and let his mind come up with the weirdest of ideas)
One day, Harold saved a magic hat from two civilians who treated it poorly
The Hat reminded him that he'll never be alone again. Harold knew that he'd travel and help and leave people and places behind, but the Hat would always remain a constant in his life
Do you guys remember how many dramatic, motivational speeches Wander gives in the show? I like to think they come from his past too, when he would reassure the people he was about to rescue that they'll be safe from the bad guys, or whatever trouble they were in
Wander being a former heroic hero also explains how he's sometimes arrogant; he kept a piece of his old self
Another moment that traces back to "Inside Your Mind" is this line right here
Honestly, the expression on his face makes it seem like he obsessively wants for that to happen, just as much as when he wanted to stay inside his mind. Wander's words and face give me toxic positivity vibes
When Hank mentions Hater getting squeezed to death in his story, Wander looks pretty shaken up, even more than Sylvia
The thing is, Wan must have seen death many times by now, so why this reaction? The only explaination i can come up with is that, whenever he did see dark stuff, Wander made light of the situation/pretended not to notice (or he was too focused on something else to care, like when Mc Guffin got fried bc of his plan and when he forgot to save the rabbit people). if Wander did indeed watch his people die right in front of him/come too late and saw the aftermath of the invasion, this way of coping makes even more sense
Tl;dr Wander and Sylvia have a sweet but flawed friendship; every day, I'm more and more sure that Wander was indeed a typical hero once
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