#happy x garbage

For this I'm gonna start with mentioning how sweet past Garbage and Happy's interactions have been in the flashbacks before the friendship starts to crumble. The animators made it so clear how close they are with Happy always reaching to touch Garbage whether just to be close to him or to reassure him and him calling Garbage 'Garb', whether that is to shorten it or to avoid pushing negative connotations on his friend is up to interpretation. Happy even opens up to the corgi about his owner and the bell training he will always have to live with. Garbage is so sweet in return, reaching for Happy just as much as the poodle does for him, helping him up after a bell rings, and asking Happy to teach him to tango as a way to put a positive spin on the bell training (which is the sweetest thing but also the gayest thing.)

In the PRATS break room after Happy accidentally embarrassed Garbage by telling the other future captains about the corgi's low scores, Garbage and Happy almost look longingly at each other. This is the scene that really first stood out to me as romantic or romantic adjacent (I’m not sure what to call pining.) It could really just be just both dogs feeling bad about their past interaction but… meeting each other's gaze across a room while soft, sad music plays in the background? Sounds hella gay to me -‘that moment when you accidentally hurt your crush and best friend’ kind of vibes.

Later Happy finds Garbage sitting on the floor in the hallway and they have this sad moment with Garbage refusing to look at him until Garbage stands up. What I really like about this scene is not the way the shadows on the two are done or how Garbage moving to one side of the hallway could represent the distance growing between them, it's not even Happy's animation though all three are so amazing to me. It's when Garbage asks Happy to train him, Happy is reluctant to agree but gives in any way due to love for his friend and a little, hopefully unintentional, manipulation from Garbage. To me that feels like someone helping out their crush even if it could backfire on them. Garbage is so happy by his agreement that he actually presses close to Happy and it's the cutest thing. I think it's the closest the two get to each other in this episode.

After we get to see how Happy and Garbage’s friendship ended, we’re back in the present where the group now has to fight the ice aliens. Here we get to see Happy and Garbage fighting together. I really enjoyed seeing Garbage step in to cover Happy’s ears so the poodle could fight. It was such a cool scene, getting to see the two work as a team made me really happy. The smile Garbage has and the small nod Happy gives to him really makes the scene complete and helps transition to the next.

As they're getting ready to leave the planet, Happy and Garbage finally reconcile. They shake paws and do a little flirting. One could say it’s banter but it felt like flirting to me -it had a bit of a "Did you jump into fire for me?" kind of tone if you will. Stella literally had to shout at them to get them to stop or they would've probably kept going. Now, I'm gonna just say… if the animators didn't want this to come off romantic (assuming I'm just getting gay vibes from nothing), why did they make Happy and Garbage do the 'look at the other and then look away when the other looks back' trope? Garbage catches Happy towards the end of his look and smiles one of his softer smiles. It just feels too on the nose for it not to be romantic or possibly hint towards past (or future) romantic feelings. The looks feel too longing and sad like they're only now realizing what they've missed out on.