#he doesn't necessarily fall in love easily he just gets attached to people quickly

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wind-down doodles of my dear dear beloved oc james, who can be a Lovestruck Fool from time to time

(and lukas is there too) (he can be a fool in his own right)

[maya-matlin]

Random, but could Zaya have any parallels to Crash? Cheating aside, Maya and Ashley call Zig and Craig out on in their shit, Zig and Craig became besties with BOTH Maya and Ashley’s besties (Grace & Ellie), and Zaya and Crash both have a shared interest in music (ignoring NC’s retcon on Zig).

Some? It's difficult because Zig and Craig are wildly different characters. Even with the cheating, both times we see Zig cheat, he struggles a lot with feeling guilt and can't just go back to normal no matter how hard he tries. First, he checks out of his relationship with Tori almost completely after kissing Maya. Then, he basically tries way too hard to overcompensate for slipping up with Zoe by being the perfect boyfriend. With Craig, it didn't take him long to kind of start enjoying the idea of being a "player" and having his cake and eating it too. Craig had a whole side girlfriend that he was calling "the one" and making promises to openly date her. It actually takes Craig a frustratingly long time to realize he should probably apologize to Ashley. And that's AFTER she found out he was almost having a baby with Manny. Even though the writers did a decent job rebuilding Craig/Ashley, I feel like with Zaya there was.. less to make up for? Not to excuse Zig's actions or the pain it caused Maya. Zig just seemed to be a bit more in tune with other people's feelings and had more of a conscience.

But beyond the obvious cheating parallel which the writers and editors clearly wanted us to remember

There's the fact that overall, Zig and Craig never seemed as serious about any other girl as they were Maya and Ashley. Craig and Ashley always had the deep thinking, "we connect on a musical level" thing going for them. With Ashley, the relationship during season 3 always seemed to be too real to Craig. It's the relationship he needed and the one that would be the most fulfilling, but he wasn't necessarily ready for it. Craig had a lot of personal problems that he wasn't dealing with, especially when it came to expressing love. Manny was kind of an easy fallback and distraction. Manny grew into a very emotionally perceptive and complex person, but in the beginning she was someone who would basically accept the bare minimum from Craig and treat him like a god. Ashley constantly called Craig on his shit, as you said. Ashley had both relationship experience and basic respect for herself, so she was going to fight for what she needed out of the relationship rather than doing what was easy. But once Craig properly comes to terms with how badly he'd hurt Ashley and realized how much he'd taken her for granted, he did his best to be what she needed even as just a friend. It's very obvious during season 4 that Craig is all in during Crash 2.0. I’d say that as far as Craig’s character goes, this was easily his best era. Once their second relationship falls apart, Craig seems to give up and mostly go back to getting into easy, primarily shallow relationships. The exception to that might be his LA girlfriend, but we know so little about Yvette. All that's relevant is that he ends up cheating on her with Ellie like it's nothing, showing how far he's regressed in the years since his last breakup with Ashley.

Again, I don't believe Zig is ever anywhere as much of a mess as Craig is. He has his own issues. He's a deeply insecure person. Zig doesn't believe he's worth much, believing he's going nowhere in life and has nothing to offer Maya. That combined with the fact he's already lost his family, the people who were supposed to love and support him unconditionally, results in Zig losing faith in Maya and their relationship very quickly. Unlike Craig, Zig is mostly ready and willing to be in such a serious relationship with Maya. If anything, Zig is the one more attached and the one wanting to be even closer. But again, he doesn't love himself. So because Zig doesn't love himself, he also doesn't believe that Maya can love him and decide to stay loyal to him every day when obviously, there's so much better out there and he can't possibly compete (sarcasm). I don't know. The Crash/Zaya cheating situations are different, but the way Craig and Zig view their primary love interests are similar. After losing Maya, Zig also kind of defaults to something more physical that doesn't mean nearly as much to him emotionally. On paper, Esme's perfect because she has all this time for him and gives him as much sex as he wants, but he's just not emotionally connected with her in the same way he was with Maya. At the least, Zig showed more basic respect for his relationship with Esme than Craig ever did with Manny, but the bar is in hell. And unlike Craig, Zig actually shows signs that he won't continue to cheat when he pulls away from Maya of all people out of loyalty to Esme. After season 8, it's really hard to imagine Craig doing the same under any circumstances. But beyond all that, much like Craig with Ashley I think Zig was at his best and happiest with Maya. I feel like Maya helped center Zig and loved him in such a way that overall, she inspired something in him that no one else could bring out. It’s like Tiny said.

As for Crellie and Zig/Grace.. ew. It's exactly the same story line in all the wrong ways. Ellie and Grace of all people look ridiculous for falling so hard for Craig and Zig, knowing they broke their female best friend's heart. It's very apparent that these guys don't actually want to date them and prefer girls they aren't nearly as emotionally as invested in, Manny and Esme, over them because there doesn't seem to be much of an attraction. I don't mean to keep building up Zig just to tear Craig down, but he at least kindly rejected Grace unlike Craig who played with Ellie's head for YEARS. It was just a super awkward, unlikable era for both Ellie and Grace. I don't even like Grace with Jonah, but that was a billion times better than her cringy crush on Zig.

So mostly, I don't think Crash and Zaya have much in common despite the fact I just wrote a novel in response to this question. It's mostly one similar story line and the fact that Zaya were briefly musicians at the same time much like Crash.