mental stability ❌ messed up buttons on tumblr ✅

when i first saw them i was goin wild with how simmilar they look, red with sunglasses and black/gray asshole also their first interactions fit so perfectly with the driving eachother up the wall

but then i look a little closer and noticed that the similarities are mostly aesthetic

first, redd is generally pretty charismatic, friendly and overall a loyal dog vibes while dave just pretends to be cool but often ends up awkward or annoying and while he loves his friends has a hard time showing it

second, karkat is a shouty, mean asshole but he just cares so much about everyone even those who have hurt him, while ash definitely can get under peoples skin he has no problems back stabbing people im not saying he dosent care about anyone or anything but he is def much more egocentric and power hungry

after listing the differences between the individual characters i started wandering if maybe i was going about it the wrong way, whould it fit better with ash as dave and redd as karkat (probably controversial cos the looks dont much anymore)

as i said redd and karkat have similar loyalty and general likability but i also think the enjoyment of romance fits both of them so well (usually cos redd as a multiverse focused character (for me) is kinda hard to define)

now for ash and dave they appear cold and maybe even a bit antisocial, have a hard time getting close to people and even harder expressing genuine feelings and appreciation for others (once again its just my general interpretation of ash) i think this is a bit of a stretch for those two cos dave doesnt really have ambitions to be the main character and ash can often be defined by his god complex

either way the vibes of the relationship, role it plays for each character and the story also feels off for me(this part will sound really handwavy but bear with me)

a big part of swagdoons for me is the narrative idea that they are broken people in a fucked up world but they find eachorter and and it makes it more bearable but it doesnt solve anything besides their lonelyless, the love was there but id didnt change the outcome because they are too used to their old ways of being mean and misserable (most of the time they need to feel at least a little bit tragic/doomed) swagdoons fit well with the more realistic outlook of love being work and not something that solves all your problems

davekat on the other hand has a much more hopeful feel, how they kinda abandon their destinies, the idea of being the big hero who saves everone and kinda just play around and chill out, they basically live a happily ever after even befoure the end of the story (and that continues in hs2 and meat epilogue if i understad) for them love kinda did solve all/most issues

also i think that both pairs are really good at understanding eachother better then anyone else, even without talking its that swagdoons can see through eachother walls to understand without talking, very similar mentality, its obvious, it feels like breathing but davekat feels more like they worked hard to put down their walls and communicate clearly, yes after a few years the can read eachother but its mostly learned

and one last thing that i kinda said already is that swagdoons are multiversal, its a big part for me that they will meet in every single universe, they have to, they cant stay apart, and it doest matter if theyre lovers, friend, enemies or whatever else they just cant be indifferent to eachother whether it be by the will of the universe or against it ash and redd will alway, and i mean always, find eachother that is just the way they work

Individual close ups!