my eddsworld headcannons

TomEdd

*excited autistic noises* so I love this I did such a good job with them and it's gonna be amazing and I'm so excited to talk about it

Let's start with how it works for both of them before I really get into the dynamic, and please don't mistake this as "x loves y more" because that's not what I mean. Different people have different reactions to things and different reasons for things and some are just bigger than others, that doesn't mean one person cares less

Tom really does admire Edd a lot, he just makes people smile. He finds almost everything Edd does so endearing and cute. He could, and sometimes does, just sit silently and watch Edd draw or listen to him talk about something he's excited about, ussualy with a big stupid smile. He knew he was at least a little attracted to Edd from the very beginning of their friendship, he just tried to ignore it and get as close to Edd as he could without letting on that he had other feelings but as they got older and had more and more memories together it got more difficult.

With Edd it's less of what he thinks of Tom and more how he feels when he's around Tom. Even when they first met he was never awkward or uncomfortable around him because he was very respectful of Edd's boundaries and never tried to push him even a little. Tom was really relaxed compared to Tord and Matt so Edd was able to just sort of decompress around him and it was really nice. Tom shared a lot of music with him and they sort of bonded over that (I have an entire thing about their relationship with that song "teenage wasteland")

That leads us right into our next topic actually, their dynamic, their flow if you will. Tom and Edd are both introverts but very different kinds of introverts. Tom doesn't like socializing because he hates almost everyone and Edd doesn't like socializing because he's worried everyone hates him. But Tom doesn't hate Edd, he never did. And since it was such a contrast to how he treated everyone else Edd could really tell and he was never worried Tom wouldn't like him, so he felt comfortable enough to just be his usual self.

I've talked a lot about Tom's half of this part in a different chapter so we'll focus on Edd for now, but like I said Tom has a "needing to be needed" complex that has a lot to do with his self worth issues, but Edd really feeds into this problem because he needs people ALSO because of self worth issues but a different kind. He has a lot of lingering issues from his dad even though he blocked out a lot of that the thought of not being enough and people always expecting more of you is something that he struggles with so he sort of NEEDS people around him to make sure he's ok and let him know that he's doing enough, and Tom subconsciously really relies on being needed so the fact he's one of the few people Edd has and can completely trust and rely on if he needs to helps him a lot. It's not a very healthy coping mechanism and it's very codependent. They should definitely try to find a way to separately work through these issues then have a much healthier relationship overall, but I wouldn't hold your breath. They're happy, that's what matters (sorry this one was a little long, I'd be surprised if you made it this far lol, I had so much fun writting this one and getting to talk about them though)